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Ive been reading bits and bobs about the series set around the Beast post Heresy and seems to be pretty solid.

Anyone worked their way through it or recommend picking them up? I see several authors have written different books ala the HH series - does the overall quality hold up?

I did read them (I did not want to start judging before I know what happens) and they are horrible. CS Goto tier to be sure, maybe worse. The ones who wrote the series seemed so intent on making the Orks seem awesome they completely forgot they need to fit their books into a coherent setting. This isn't like bolter porn X where a squad of marines kills a regiment of guardsmen on some faraway planet nobody really cares about either way, this is Orks lolololololing their way onto Terra, roflstomping everything they come across, sending Ork diplomats and the few times when the Orks and their Imperial Knight-sized warbosses are somehow defeated they always take their weight in Chapter Masters down with them.

The Orks somehow lose because they forget they can destroy Terra and the Imperium by pressing any of their plethora of IWIN buttons and instead just sit around and do nothing (seems the authors realised near the end that the Orks are actually supposed to lose the War of the Beast...)

If you want Ork porn, read it. Otherwise, avoid like the plague. It's not even decent as 'so bad it's good' fiction because there is so much politics and other filler in between 'Orks pull ridiculous superweapon X out of their asses' scenes.

Oh and yeah, there is a bit of really horribly written Harlequin porn in there too if you want that.

You know, on a second thought I would not even recommend this book to Ork fans because it makes every other Ork (like Ghazghkull) seem like an absolute non-threatening joke.

Oh no :(
Thanks for the heads up!

 Ashiraya wrote:
I did read them (I did not want to start judging before I know what happens) and they are horrible. CS Goto tier to be sure, maybe worse. The ones who wrote the series seemed so intent on making the Orks seem awesome they completely forgot they need to fit their books into a coherent setting. This isn't like bolter porn X where a squad of marines kills a regiment of guardsmen on some faraway planet nobody really cares about either way, this is Orks lolololololing their way onto Terra, roflstomping everything they come across, sending Ork diplomats and the few times when the Orks and their Imperial Knight-sized warbosses are somehow defeated they always take their weight in Chapter Masters down with them.

The Orks somehow lose because they forget they can destroy Terra and the Imperium by pressing any of their plethora of IWIN buttons and instead just sit around and do nothing (seems the authors realised near the end that the Orks are actually supposed to lose the War of the Beast...)

If you want Ork porn, read it. Otherwise, avoid like the plague. It's not even decent as 'so bad it's good' fiction because there is so much politics and other filler in between 'Orks pull ridiculous superweapon X out of their asses' scenes.

Oh and yeah, there is a bit of really horribly written Harlequin porn in there too if you want that.

You know, on a second thought I would not even recommend this book to Ork fans because it makes every other Ork (like Ghazghkull) seem like an absolute non-threatening joke.

Woof, thats pretty freaking bad.

 Ratius wrote:
Oh no :(
Thanks for the heads up!

Yeah...don't listen to Ashiraya at all. None of that is even remotely accurate.

The first two books aren't amazing, but they are not bad either. The series picked up from there with only "The Emperor Protects" being one of the worst of them IMO.

And honestly, equating it to CS Goto? That flatout removes any credibility.

 Kanluwen wrote:

 Ratius wrote:
Oh no :(
Thanks for the heads up!

Yeah...don't listen to Ashiraya at all. None of that is even remotely accurate.

Have a read for yourself. This is essentially the synopsis. Warning, spoilers. Bigger warning, lots and lots of cringe.

http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/War_of_the_Beast


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Kanluwen wrote:


And honestly, equating it to CS Goto? That flatout removes any credibility.

It's probably a bit unfair to equate them to CS Goto. At least the embarassing mistakes in Goto's books are largely self-contained; the Beast books are terrible on a much grander scale.

It's easy to mistake the Beast books as being decent because you do not have incidents like Terminators backflipping, but the badness being on a galactic rather than tactical scale does not mean it is any less bad.

 Ashiraya wrote:

 Kanluwen wrote:

 Ratius wrote:
Oh no :(
Thanks for the heads up!

Yeah...don't listen to Ashiraya at all. None of that is even remotely accurate.

Have a read for yourself. This is essentially the synopsis. Warning, spoilers. Bigger warning, lots and lots of cringe.

http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/War_of_the_Beast

Having actually read all of the books aside from "The Last Son of Dorn", I'm still disagreeing with your entire statement and sentiment.

Admittedly Im only on the first book, but its not been anything really great so far.

Im not liking the Imperial Fists at all which is strange cause normally I do enjoy the Fists. Their nicknames are horrible, how they act is dumb. The fact that they all get wiped out is dumb, but I'm ok with that if it means they go back to being Imperial Fists and not Captain Slaughter and Brother Sunrise.

So far the only bits I've actually liked were the parts showing how politics in the Imperium work and I'm pretty sure at somepoint I will end up hating that too. One thing that I found dumb about the politics so far is that the head of the Imperium goes by the title of Lord Guileman.

 Ashiraya wrote:
I did read them (I did not want to start judging before I know what happens) and they are horrible.

So did I, and I stand by all my statements.

 Ashiraya wrote:

 Ashiraya wrote:
I did read them (I did not want to start judging before I know what happens) and they are horrible.

So did I, and I stand by all my statements.

And I'm still standing by my statement and sentiment that you and I seriously did not read the same books. It's one thing to say they're bolter porn(some of them; notably "I Am Slaughter" for my opinion) but it's another to be equating them to C.S. Goto's crap.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 VictorVonTzeentch wrote:
Admittedly Im only on the first book, but its not been anything really great so far.

Im not liking the Imperial Fists at all which is strange cause normally I do enjoy the Fists. Their nicknames are horrible, how they act is dumb. The fact that they all get wiped out is dumb, but I'm ok with that if it means they go back to being Imperial Fists and not Captain Slaughter and Brother Sunrise.

So far the only bits I've actually liked were the parts showing how politics in the Imperium work and I'm pretty sure at somepoint I will end up hating that too. One thing that I found dumb about the politics so far is that the head of the Imperium goes by the title of Lord Guileman.

So...have you not gotten to the point of the "Wall Names" yet? Cause that's why they have names like "Sunrise" or "Slaughter".

 Kanluwen wrote:

 Ashiraya wrote:

 Ashiraya wrote:
I did read them (I did not want to start judging before I know what happens) and they are horrible.

So did I, and I stand by all my statements.

And I'm still standing by my statement and sentiment that you and I seriously did not read the same books. It's one thing to say they're bolter porn(some of them; notably "I Am Slaughter" for my opinion) but it's another to be equating them to C.S. Goto's crap.

Im actually gonna have to side with Ashiraya and say that I Am Slaughter, at least, reads alot like CS Goto.

And I got to the part about wall names, that doesnt make it any less dumb.

 Kanluwen wrote:
but it's another to be equating them to C.S. Goto's crap.

No, I just think it is equally bad to write illogical things on a small scale and illogical things on a galactic scale, even if the latter is not as overtly WTF.

I haven't read any of the books, but the timeline it's set in is kinda cool, well other than really not being able to have Tau or Tyranids (or maybe Necrons).

On the topic of Wall Names, why do they all have Wall Names anyway? Only that one group guards the Walls, and they mention that they have wall names after the Wall they guard.

So how would Slaughter be Slaughter if he doesnt guard a wall? How do any of the men he Commands have wall names if they aren't on a Wall?

Or should I just chalk that up to Abnett once again forgetting what he's writing about?

I remember a time when I was actually excited to read something he wrote, now I see his name and usually put the book back on the shelf.

I've read the first 9, and really enjoyed them so far. The first book was kind of a disappointing for a Dan Abnett book, but the naval battles and political stuff in the others is really cool IMHO.

I really like them. They make for a very enjoyable read, and the Beast's Orks do an excellent job of making you understand why the Orks being allowed to run rampant is such a bad thing.

Of course, some people disagree with this - I think the fact that Space Marines aren't all-conquering gods and regularly get beaten in this series gets on the nerves of a good part of the fanbase - but if you're not really concerned about that, I'd definitely recommend them.

 Robin5t wrote:
I really like them. They make for a very enjoyable read, and the Beast's Orks do an excellent job of making you understand why the Orks being allowed to run rampant is such a bad thing.

Of course, some people disagree with this - I think the fact that Space Marines aren't all-conquering gods and regularly get beaten in this series gets on the nerves of a good part of the fanbase - but if you're not really concerned about that, I'd definitely recommend them.

I'd consider that a plus!

 Robin5t wrote:
I really like them. They make for a very enjoyable read, and the Beast's Orks do an excellent job of making you understand why the Orks being allowed to run rampant is such a bad thing.

Of course, some people disagree with this - I think the fact that Space Marines aren't all-conquering gods and regularly get beaten in this series gets on the nerves of a good part of the fanbase - but if you're not really concerned about that, I'd definitely recommend them.

It's taking it too far in the other direction. The Orks winning is not a problem, the problem is that they can't keep winning when in orbit of Terra because you eventually wonder why they don't gravitic whip the planet into oblivion and win 40k (which also ignores the problem of how the Orks got better-than-Necron tech out of nowhere to begin with).

The Beast does not solve problems people have with SM being portrayed as too powerful and Orks as too weak. It just flips the problem and exaggerates it on the other direction. +1 is not even, no, but neither is -2.

Consider that the Orks had been 'allowed to run rampant' for a long time before the Imperium was even formed, and the worst that produced was Ullanor - no Knight-sized orks.

 Ashiraya wrote:

 Robin5t wrote:
I really like them. They make for a very enjoyable read, and the Beast's Orks do an excellent job of making you understand why the Orks being allowed to run rampant is such a bad thing.

Of course, some people disagree with this - I think the fact that Space Marines aren't all-conquering gods and regularly get beaten in this series gets on the nerves of a good part of the fanbase - but if you're not really concerned about that, I'd definitely recommend them.

It's taking it too far in the other direction. The Orks winning is not a problem, the problem is that they can't keep winning when in orbit of Terra because you eventually wonder why they don't gravitic whip the planet into oblivion and win 40k (which also ignores the problem of how the Orks got better-than-Necron tech out of nowhere to begin with).

The Beast does not solve problems people have with SM being portrayed as too powerful and Orks as too weak. It just flips the problem and exaggerates it on the other direction. +1 is not even, no, but neither is -2.

Consider that the Orks had been 'allowed to run rampant' for a long time before the Imperium was even formed, and the worst that produced was Ullanor - no Knight-sized orks.

Had they, though?

Before the Fall, the Eldar kept them in check, and the Orks would have been affected by how much Slaanesh's birth wrecked the galaxy as much as anyone else, which would have affected their ability to group up and form a coherent force like the Beast.

As for why they have better-than-Necron tech - they've always had ridiculous teleportation technology and engineering ability, the only really 'new' thing is the gravity weapons, which I'll note are ship-scale equivalents of technology the Imperium actually has. And given that their tech base ultimately comes from the same place as the Eldar, why is it surprising that they're so advanced when given a chance to get their act together? I feel like people forget that the Orks have been a spacefaring race since before apes even evolved on Earth, never mind Humans.

Personally, I like the fact that the only reason the Imperium survived the Beast was because it wanted to conquer them rather than destroy them. It's a refreshing change to the usual 'Chaos is the only thing that's allowed to be a massive threat' that only the Nids can ever seem to avoid.

Several different opinions. Guess the best bet is to pick up the first and see if I like it

 Ratius wrote:
Several different opinions. Guess the best bet is to pick up the first and see if I like it

That's the best way - the only person who knows what you like is you, after all

 Robin5t wrote:

 Ashiraya wrote:

 Robin5t wrote:
I really like them. They make for a very enjoyable read, and the Beast's Orks do an excellent job of making you understand why the Orks being allowed to run rampant is such a bad thing.

Of course, some people disagree with this - I think the fact that Space Marines aren't all-conquering gods and regularly get beaten in this series gets on the nerves of a good part of the fanbase - but if you're not really concerned about that, I'd definitely recommend them.

It's taking it too far in the other direction. The Orks winning is not a problem, the problem is that they can't keep winning when in orbit of Terra because you eventually wonder why they don't gravitic whip the planet into oblivion and win 40k (which also ignores the problem of how the Orks got better-than-Necron tech out of nowhere to begin with).

The Beast does not solve problems people have with SM being portrayed as too powerful and Orks as too weak. It just flips the problem and exaggerates it on the other direction. +1 is not even, no, but neither is -2.

Consider that the Orks had been 'allowed to run rampant' for a long time before the Imperium was even formed, and the worst that produced was Ullanor - no Knight-sized orks.

Had they, though?

Before the Fall, the Eldar kept them in check, and the Orks would have been affected by how much Slaanesh's birth wrecked the galaxy as much as anyone else, which would have affected their ability to group up and form a coherent force like the Beast.

As for why they have better-than-Necron tech - they've always had ridiculous teleportation technology and engineering ability, the only really 'new' thing is the gravity weapons, which I'll note are ship-scale equivalents of technology the Imperium actually has. And given that their tech base ultimately comes from the same place as the Eldar, why is it surprising that they're so advanced when given a chance to get their act together? I feel like people forget that the Orks have been a spacefaring race since before apes even evolved on Earth, never mind Humans.

Personally, I like the fact that the only reason the Imperium survived the Beast was because it wanted to conquer them rather than destroy them. It's a refreshing change to the usual 'Chaos is the only thing that's allowed to be a massive threat' that only the Nids can ever seem to avoid.

The Gravity Weapons aren't even new really, you've got localized force field variants with the Bubblechukka and the shunta, and they've always had Trakta Beams which could basically lift and drag things around along with the Smasha gun which explicitly puts things in a bubble and lifts them up (Before of course, smashing them back into the ground)

But yeah the Orks have had their own technical specialty when they start getting into bigger groups, we've just honestly never seen a truly massive Ork grouping that would be bigger then Ghazz's and he was still surprising the Imperium with some of his uses of Tellyporta technology.

I will say the series got a very turn to the worse with last son of dorn (and it's not really good because most of the "attempts" done in the middle books are doomed to failure because we know beforehand that there are still more books to go) since it makes the problem MUCH worse, drives the Imperium into a deeper pit and SOMEHOW we have to expect that in 1 volume we will easily solve what they couldn't have solved in 10 and with better resources. It IS bad from a pacing standpoint since it's effectively rushed and done so just for the sake of bloating the plotline with an unnecessary twist .

I've listened to the first 5 or 6 on Audio Book so far. At first I was disappointed. These books are less to do about the Orks than the High Lords sorting this problem out.
But I have enjoyed reading more about how the High Lords deal with each other through politics and plots.
I had hoped this would be more about the Orks and from an Ork point of view some of the time.
There are some good bitz in some of the books. The Eldar are less impressed by the Orks current activities than the humans are.
Which is interesting. In a way it says a lot about how the Orks had dropped down in power by Ullanor, The Emperor had a fight on his hands but it wasn't as bad as it could have been.

I thought they were of varying quality. Some read like filler, but others are quite decent by the standard of GW novels. If you like most GW novels, then you will probably be content with the series. Just my 2 cents.