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Hey Dakkanaughts,

Having really got into the lately on the gaming front, I have been looking around for more Tau fluff to read, but beyond the Tau & Far sight Codices I seem to be drawing a blank - does anyone have any novel recommendations or websites links that go into a bit more depth?

Cheers

Read Aldous Huxley's Brave New World.

I mean, it's not about Tau, but the Tau are heavily based on it, and it's a classic of English-language literature.

As far as official fluff, I've found the Black Library's stuff to be more miss than hit, sadly.

Thanks for the recommendation. Been reading it since I saw this and it's quite good so far.

It's public domain now too

 Veteran Sergeant wrote:
Read Aldous Huxley's Brave New World.

I mean, it's not about Tau, but the Tau are heavily based on it, and it's a classic of English-language literature.

As far as official fluff, I've found the Black Library's stuff to be more miss than hit, sadly.

Love it, one of my favourite books - also pretty hard to make it through the British education system without reading it, along with everything Orwellian. Not sure I would say Tau are heavily based on it, but is certainly does resonate quite strongly in parts.

As for the official Fluff, I agree - it seems to either not exist or be incidental to space marines crunching through the universe. Is there no black library stuff written from the Tau perspective? The Forgeworld stuff is the same - Taros is almost entirely written from the usual imperial grimdark point of view

Really? When I was at school we only looked at Animal Farm. Everything else we studied was at a considerably lower reading level.

Anyway, for actual Tau stuff, you could try the novelisation of Fire Warrior, and Kill Team by Gav Thorpe.

 Furyou Miko wrote:
Really? When I was at school we only looked at Animal Farm. Everything else we studied was at a considerably lower reading level.

In one year I think we read - amongst others - Brave New World, 1984, Of Mice and Men and - absurdly - Much Ado About Nothing. Potent mix for a young and fertile mind...

Anyway, thanks fore the recommendations - I will look them up

I'd also recommed you pick up or aquire the old tau codexs and the damocles crusade, plenty of interesting stuff in there.


Sadly, as a whole, tau fluff it rather lacking. They have 2 full length books that just focus on them, and they are hardly mentioned at all.

Fire Warrior is a good read

Shadowsun is not bad - its only a short stroy but interesting

For the Greater Good has some interesting elements - including encounters with humans who have joined the Tau Empire.and the extreme reactions that they provoke in even the most pragmatic members of the Imperium.

I know the Tau are so hugely based off Brave New World, which is a shame because I really hate that book. I'm more of an 1984 fan myself

Here's some actual Tau short novels that I've bought of iTunes to read on my phone.

"Aun'Shi" I rate this book 5/5 excellent read. A MUST READ if you ask me. It tells of Aun'shi and his current where abouts. Spoiler: Its not The Farsight Enclaves as he planned

"A sanctuary of worms" 3.5/5 I would read this short, its fun, and has nice interactions between Tau and marines. It's about a Tau expeditionary squad and a water caste going to a temple to check it out on a new planet.

"Shadowsun" -4/5 its a novel all about shadow sun! She's quite the deep troubled person. Very Angsty I would say.

"The Patient Hunter" - 10/5 THIS BOOK, its not overly exciting, but it's intense, its about the Riptides, and some of their first engagements. It jumps back and forth between a Riptide pilot hunting a IG armoured battalion, and said armoured battalion. This book reveals the fear OP Triptide Tau lists, are fluffy.

Then there is the Damocles Gulf Apocalypse Anthology. This has a bunch of short stories, mostly about White Scars fighting Tau, and Tau fighting the Imperium. this a must for current Tau events and a very good read. It's good for both sets of readers, and not one sided. Also supports multiple riptide fluffiness and a few other cool things!

Great, thanks for all the recommendations - I will start trawling the black library for them and check them out.

I also found a bit of fan fiction call 'Counterpoint' - anyone read it?

As it happens I recently read the Damocles Gulf anthology. My opinions of the individual stories:

Blood Oath: Overall positive, though I feel it did a poor job selling Shadowsun as a military genius. This is the story that has the most text written from a Tau point of view.

Broken Sword: Best written story in the anthology. Half of it is from the perspective of a human auxiliary serving the Tau. Actually gives some idea what it's like to live as part of the empire.

Black Leviathan: Really stupid. Also tells you next to nothing about the Tau.

Hunter's Snare: Well done, like Blood Oath but without the parts that bugged me about it. Entirely told from the perspective of Space Marines but you do at least get a feel of what it's like to fight the Tau.

it did a poor job selling Shadowsun as a military genius

lemme guess "everyone else is stupid"?

BrianDavion wrote:

it did a poor job selling Shadowsun as a military genius

lemme guess "everyone else is stupid"?

More like: Shadowsun was on her own (no chance to show military genius in an FPS) until she ambushed some under-equipped PDF who were in a stalemate with three Fire Warriors, and that was all the fighting done.

That was probably a mis-type, but a shadowsun FPS would be pretty awesome.

Edit: not even just shadowsun, but a stealth based FPS from the perspective of a stealth suited tau in general.

Actually, it was an analogy, but yes, it would.

BrianDavion wrote:

it did a poor job selling Shadowsun as a military genius

lemme guess "everyone else is stupid"?

More like she actually looks pretty stupid herself. Poor grasp of the fundamentals of the Tau way of war. She apparently believed that she'd never carried out a mont'ka up to that point in her career and the ending revolves around her attempting a mont'ka incompetently. Her enemies make their own share of mistakes and the Imperial fortifications are oddly poorly designed but they aren't as prominent as Shadowsun in the story.

Ok, great - think I have got a good list form these recommendations, am gonna go with:

1. Counterpoint (as I am already half way through)

2. Fire Warrior (as I have been borrowed a copy)

3. Aun'Shi (if I can find it)

4. Damocles Crusade Anthology (If by this point I am into the fluff enough to buy it)

5. The Patient Hunter (because I don't really like the 'bolter porn' aspect of most black library stuff, so a lack of action sounds quite appealing)

Am also going to keep an eye out for the old codices on EBay - anything crucial missing?

If you can find Aun'shi, that is my favorite of the Tau books. It's not too high on action. And really portrays Aun'shi in the same ass kicking light as the codex entry for him does. It also has an interesting point on interaction between ethereals and the other castes.



Minor spoiler for those who will never read it, or just want to read the spoiler

Ethereals possess pheromone mind-control powers, he could easily have made himself 'smell' like an Earth Tau. From their lack of dilating pupils, we know that Tau are not a primarily visual species - it could be that the pheromone trail is strong enough to make the secondary information coming from their eyes 'irrelevant' enough that the Earth Tau saw what their facial crevasses told them to expect.

 Furyou Miko wrote:
Ethereals possess pheromone mind-control powers

See, this is exactly the kind of detail I want that you don't get in the codex - I presume you got this from one of the novels, or is there some other source of fluff I am overlooking?

It might be in Xenology. If my ailing mind remember's correctly.

It's from Xenology, which from what I hear isn't a very good source of fluff. It's only speculation that Ethereals rule through pheromones. It's completely possible that it's some sort of latent psychic powers. But from the Aun'shi novel I get more of a brain washing feel, the race is taught Ethereals are good, and it's drilled into everyone's heads and anything else is bad.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
The pheromone thing is simply just not fact. Aun'shi definitely plays them off more as stupid than anything for not knowing what he is.

Unfortunately, the only Tau books I have read was Firewarrior and The Greater Good, a Ciaphas Cain Novel (which I picked up more for the Cain storyline than the Tau, TBH).

I am more a fan of armored suit combat. If that is your thing, you may want to check out John Ringo's Legacy of the Aldenata series.