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Ahhh. I did not realize that BL had adopted it as well.

 cincydooley wrote:
Ahhh. I did not realize that BL had adopted it as well.

Yeah, it's been in this thread before, though it has been overlooked thanks to the release of hardbacks, TPB, and MMPB cycle.

I've just understood the meaning behind this thread title.. and it only took me 23 pages!

My FLGS got a paperback copy of Angel Exterminatus today, yay?

Is there someplace I can go to see the HH series in order, including the audio and novellas?

I keep feeling like I am missing something, but the BL site is not much help because there is no good way to sort that I have found. The sort by release date got all screwed up with the re-releases.

 BrookM wrote:
My FLGS got a paperback copy of Angel Exterminatus today, yay?

I got mine from Amazon the week before last,

As an aside, and not really intended to be on either side of the argument, I was in a Waterstones for the first time in quite a while the other day, and it struck me that 95%ish of the books were in the trade paperback size BL now uses. Again, not saying this is right or wrong, or proves anything either way.

It kind of does though!

yeah, not that it really matters, but the original run of GW novels were trade paperback size, too...
the Dark Future novels were great, and the Fantasy stuff wasn't bad, either...

in the news, iBooks has Vulkan Lives up for pre-order, with a release date of Aug. 2nd...
$15.99 enhanced ebook edition, so about half the price of the hardback...
i'm looking forward to it!!!

cheers
jah

 vitki wrote:
Is there someplace I can go to see the HH series in order, including the audio and novellas?

I keep feeling like I am missing something, but the BL site is not much help because there is no good way to sort that I have found. The sort by release date got all screwed up with the re-releases.

Maybe this will help?: http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Horus_Heresy_Series
The thing is the series isn't published in chronological order either.

 Alpharius wrote:
It kind of does though!

In a way, but it doesn't make BL doing the same as everyone else right or wrong! I was just surprised at the extent of it.. I pick up most things off Amazon, so I guess I hadn't been exposed to the scale of it.

That limited edition novella looks annoyingly important to the storyline: something the others thankfully haven't been.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't the cover art for that shown long, long ago?

Mission: Purge - An audiodrama by Gav Thorpe.

Mission: Purge is The Black Library's first real foray into the Deathwatch for quite a few years. To be honest, I had a sneaking suspicion that GW had nearly forgotten about them.
Deathwatch features a typical mission for a squad of alien hunters lead by Inquisitors own Brother-Captain Artemis.

The Plot
A squad of Deathwatch are sent to inspect a Rogue Traders starship that recently visited a world which was overrun by Genestealers.

The Good
The last 3-8 minutes are pretty darn good fun. Completely cliche (I'll get to that later) but still very fun indeed.
Genestealer Cults are back! They're actually portrayed rather well, with more than a 'lulz, psychic powers.'
There's actually a pretty good joke from the Space Wolf character in the story, that acts as a great 'oldbie' appeal factor.



The Bad - and there's a lot of it.
By virtue of that single line description of the plot, you have probably worked out the entire course of the 70 minute story. The whole thing is a completely stock story, done to death in everything from Alien Resurrection to Stargate SG1 to Starship Troopers.

The 4 main Space Marine characters act as a bunch of squabbling 5 year olds. I know this was an attempt to portray the difficulty of several chapters working together. It doesn't work. If one started calling the others a bunch of 'meanie poopy heads' I genuinely would not have blinked.

Artemis showed absolutely no traits of a 'captain' whatsoever. He was as bad as the rest when it came to squabbling 5 year olds, the only real 'authority' moments ended up coming from other characters.

The Astartes in the story were a bunch of WIMPS, they seemed to constantly say, "well, that's this mission failed (again), lets pack up and go home."

They didn't act like marines at all. They were bantering like untrained guardsmen or space cowboys. I'm fine with a Space Wolf making jokes and other marines acting like a straight man (like in the case of the 'good' joke), but marines just would go into a discussion like. "I could kiss you for that!" "Well, fine, but not on the lips!" The rest of the dialogue (with that 1 exception) is just as terrible.


I can't decide whether it is a case of plot holes or simply a massive Idiot ball large enough to blot out the sun. I think I'll settle for calling it an Idiot Plot. And yes, those are TVtropes links, so be warned.


The sound effects, something which has been particularly good in recent Black Library audiodramas like The Sigillite and Bloodquest were quite meh. There was an attempt to integrate them into the story which didn't work too great. Instead saying "and they left the cargo hold" there was a sound of a door opening and it just doesn't seem to be timed well....

All in all, the story is 100 percent, completely by the numbers without even the barest effort of originality and overall, a very lazy effort from The Black Library. The enjoyable last few minutes of the story (which still had no real effort) don't make up for the rest of it.

Give this one a miss, folks and do yourselves a favour.

Not sure if it's been mentioned already, but all the old out of print Collector edition books (The novellas and other old fluff books) have been removed from the site.

Now i know that since they are out of print and cannot be ordered that they should be removed, I've noticed that the drop down menu for collector edtions has gone as well. Bit of a pity that the old school fluff books may not return but instead the only 'collector' edtions that they release may only be these very expensive novellas :(

All the old original editions can be bought second-hand on Amazon - that's how I've been filling in the gaps in my collection. They happen to be the right size as well...

 Just Dave wrote:
That limited edition novella looks annoyingly important to the storyline: something the others thankfully haven't been.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't the cover art for that shown long, long ago?

I feel that same way. And yes that art has been out for months and months.

The e-mail does say "read it one year before anybody else" which seems to say it will be available in one year's time as well.

xowainx wrote:

 BrookM wrote:
My FLGS got a paperback copy of Angel Exterminatus today, yay?

I got mine from Amazon the week before last,

As an aside, and not really intended to be on either side of the argument, I was in a Waterstones for the first time in quite a while the other day, and it struck me that 95%ish of the books were in the trade paperback size BL now uses. Again, not saying this is right or wrong, or proves anything either way.

It really depends on which part of the bookstore you are in. Mystery/Thriller, Science Fiction, True Crime and Romance are still 90% mmpbs, at least in my local Barnes and Nobles, airport stores, grocery stores and magazine racks. "Literary" Fiction is now almost entirely TPBs, as is Young Adult fiction (all genres) and Independent Reader fiction (all genres), but the YR and IR books are usually priced like mmpgs despite their size.


Also, I understand that TPBs are much more common outside the US. Here, genre books for mass consumption still need to be portable and cheaper than a movie ticket. Their target markets tend to skew older, too, so ebooks haven't quite made the paper books irrelevant yet.

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:

.


Also, I understand that TPBs are much more common outside the US. Here, genre books for mass consumption still need to be portable and cheaper than a movie ticket. Their target markets tend to skew older, too, so ebooks haven't quite made the paper books irrelevant yet.

Getting pretty close though.

MMRP sales are down something like 24% in the past year or so.

Yes, but is that because of ebooks or partly because the supply of MMPBs is down? I doubt that it is entirely due to the rise of ebooks. I think a lot of it has to do with precision selling (Amazon needs to buy fewer MMPBs because they don't need to stock a hundred stores' shelves, Barnes and Noble is narrowing its selection, etc.) and the formats that appear in Costco/Target/Walmart taking sales away from traditional MMPBs. Besides, the publishing industry has been moving towards more expensive TPBs for years and years, and not because they are "the only way to save publishing." They do it for the same reason movies come out in IMAX or 3D, or for the same reason GW raises their prices: because they can get away with it.

I guess I'm saying that MMPBs aren't dying out so much as being murdered slowly.

i just downloaded Vulkan Lives from iBooks...
looks like it will be ab interesting story...
Dramatis Personae include Vulkan, Corax, Curze, Erebus, Grammatica, and Ferrus...
Sallies, Iron Hands, Raven Guard, Night Lords, and Word Bearers...
a little something for everyone...

there are five drawings in the book from Karl Richardson...
i have been a fan of his style since the Warhammer Monhly comics first turned me on to his work, back in '97...
his piece with the MKIV armour in this book is the standout...

seems we will also be getting a look at the Recon Squad in action...
the Forge World squad looks pretty cool...
if they are as cool in the novel, i'm sure i'll end up painting that set green...

cheers
jah

Just bit the bullet and bought scorched earth.

I feel like a recovering heroin addict that just took his first hit in a month... so good, but oh so stupid...

I didn't bother. I never got Promethean sun in that hardback, so why would I bother with its pseudo sequel.

Vulkan Lives was definitely an interesting read. It's solidified Curze as my favourite character in the Warhammer universe, he's awesomely broken...Although I don't really know how I feel about yet another one of these novels dropping vague hints about the missing legions.

All in all, I'd advise anyone who has some interest in reading the book to go ahead and do so. My only real complaint was that I love Curze, so therefore would've loved to see more of him, as opposed to the shifting perspectives we did get - but that's more of a personal preference than anything, really.

Wow, Verses, you have really made me want to read that book ...

I think that little spoilered bit about Vulkan makes me want to pick up the book.

I will probably look to pick that up. For those interested, Mark of Calth has hit Trade Paperback status as of a few weeks ago, so what 6 more months before it's out in MMPB?

Also I saw a book at my FLGS that had Seven in the title? I don't remember the whole thing, perhaps someone can fill in the blanks of my memory

http://www.blacklibrary.com/warhammer-40000/seventh-retribution-ebook.html


Reading this at the moment.

Sound enough so far.

Noted the Fists are also using/fielding an Emperor's Champion .. wonder if this is, perhaps, a hint from the forthcoming codex.

 reds8n wrote:
http://www.blacklibrary.com/warhammer-40000/seventh-retribution-ebook.html

Noted the Fists are also using/fielding an Emperor's Champion .. wonder if this is, perhaps, a hint from the forthcoming codex.

Emperors Champion was available to all sons of Dorn since the Heresy...
...until those who had to use C: SM couldn't add anything per index astartes / chapter approved to spice their army.
So it was limited to the BT. ( codex )

Successors of the Imperial Fists space marine Legion always could have an EC.

That is indeed the book.

I've got a quick jaunt with a Terry Pratchett novel before settling down with Blood of Asaheim.

This Wednesday, we open a new chapter in The Horus Heresy. 'Scars' is coming...

.. hmm.. serialised eh ? !

Guessing there'll be a collected edition at some point or other.

 reds8n wrote:

This Wednesday, we open a new chapter in The Horus Heresy. 'Scars' is coming...

.. hmm.. serialised eh ? !

Guessing there'll be a collected edition at some point or other.

"Stop laughing at me and my carny hands!"