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Hi guys,
I read books and books about the Imperium, but what about the xenos ones ? Are they any good ? Especially this one as I have an opportunity to get it for about $14.
Two more questions: I recall there is one written from an Ork point of view: what's the title ?
And the beast arises, is it at least as good as HH ?

They and the novel Valedor are virtually the sole chance you will have to get a look at the civilian side of Eldar life.

Iracundus wrote:
They and the novel Valedor are virtually the sole chance you will have to get a look at the civilian side of Eldar life.

Interesting, but is it correctly shown or is it closer to bolter porn (or should I say shiruken porn ?) ?

If anything I'd argue it's the opposite. If you like constant action, the Path of the Eldar Omnibus might actually disappoint you. They go quite heavy into Eldar life, relationships, etc. I think the three books mainly end with action set-pieces, but there's a lot of non-combat stuff to dig through. I enjoyed them, but I'm an Eldar player. I wouldn't say they were magnificent but as with most books, a few key moments stood out and made them worth reading.

They're quite a bit better than Asurmen or Jain-Zar (both are pretty weak sauce).

 Elbows wrote:
If anything I'd argue it's the opposite. If you like constant action, the Path of the Eldar Omnibus might actually disappoint you. They go quite heavy into Eldar life, relationships, etc. I think the three books mainly end with action set-pieces, but there's a lot of non-combat stuff to dig through. I enjoyed them, but I'm an Eldar player. I wouldn't say they were magnificent but as with most books, a few key moments stood out and made them worth reading.

They're quite a bit better than Asurmen or Jain-Zar (both are pretty weak sauce).

Perfect then
Thank you

I read and enjoyed them. Decent mix of combat and social stuff. I liked the POV structure. They are not high literature, but fun for a summer read.

 godardc wrote:
Hi guys,
I read books and books about the Imperium, but what about the xenos ones ? Are they any good ? Especially this one as I have an opportunity to get it for about $14.
Two more questions: I recall there is one written from an Ork point of view: what's the title ?
And the beast arises, is it at least as good as HH ?

Guy Haley has a novella and a shorter story from the Ork POV, Evil Sun Rising and Engine of Mork. I really liked both of them.

The Beast Arises is a mixed bag (unsurprisingly, given the fact that each book has a different author). There's some with really good writing. Some have really great, memorable characters, like Slaughter and Vangorich. Some have some really cool developments or background info, and some have some awesome plot twists. Not all of them have all of these. Some have none of that.

The series really weakens toward the end, as they wipe out memorable characters and replace them with much less memorable ones. They also have a great, and incredibly desperate battle, that goes horribly, horribly wrong, which would be all right (and terribly appropriate for 40K) if the next book didn't basically have the exact same battle fought a second time to the same conclusion.

The high points are worth the low points for me, especially since you can now buy them in paperback (and in less than 12 volumes), but I guarantee you will feel like there was some severely wasted potential from the best parts.

I’d also recommend the path of the eldar books. They are the definite source on how Eldar psychology works.

If Thorpe lived in world of Avatar he'd be a Water bender. I'd ignore sentimental Alaitoc divas and just read old codices and other bits and pieces.

I finished reading the Dark Eldar books recently and I found them pretty entertaining. It's a nice change from the usual heroics of the Emperor's servants to read about these scheming, self-centered bastards who treat murder and torture so casually it makes you forget just how horrible they are.

These are by Chambers who I think considered by people as person who can write something decent sometimes.

Tiennos wrote:
I finished reading the Dark Eldar books recently and I found them pretty entertaining. It's a nice change from the usual heroics of the Emperor's servants to read about these scheming, self-centered bastards who treat murder and torture so casually it makes you forget just how horrible they are.

To be fair a Dark Eldar being traumatised by their torture would be like getting traumatised every time you eat food. Imagine the time wasted.

As a look at the life of your typical Craftworlders I found Path of the Eldar excellent, but I hated the final battle (the three books are effectively telling the same story from 3 different view points), it seems to go out of it's way to break logic and have Space Marines just be unbeatable whilst underselling the strength of a fully mobilised Craftworld.

Path of the Dark Eldar is a spectacular look at life in Commoragh though, with some nice insights into the Harlequins for good measure.

Tiennos wrote:
I finished reading the Dark Eldar books recently and I found them pretty entertaining. It's a nice change from the usual heroics of the Emperor's servants to read about these scheming, self-centered bastards who treat murder and torture so casually it makes you forget just how horrible they are.

I enjoyed them too. A lot what made the horrificness of The Dark Eldar much more palatable was the really great dark, dark humour running all through the novel which made me laugh out loud quite a few times lol. I especially liked Motley.

I recommend the Eldar trilogy as well, glad I'm not the only one who does!

 Imateria wrote:
As a look at the life of your typical Craftworlders I found Path of the Eldar excellent, but I hated the final battle (the three books are effectively telling the same story from 3 different view points), it seems to go out of it's way to break logic and have Space Marines just be unbeatable whilst underselling the strength of a fully mobilised Craftworld.

Path of the Dark Eldar is a spectacular look at life in Commoragh though, with some nice insights into the Harlequins for good measure.

I've never had so many questions about how a battle goes so badly. Path of the Dark Eldar is worth reading just for Motley though.