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usmcmidn wrote:
Is this book series any good?

Generally speaking it starts off pretty good, as it establishes what state the Imperium was in after the Scouring and the politicking of the High Lords. It starts getting bogged down when they start going after the Beast since they wanted to really stretch the series into having more books.

Book by book, I would say Predator Prey, Throneworld, and The Beheading were my top ones. The worst was probably Shadow of Ullanor given how it doesn't tie up any loose ends with the Orks very well and is rushed IMO.

Mellow wrote:
No Vulkan failed spectacularly.

Plus there's a huge spoiler about Ullanor as well which explains why a certain Planet is so interesting to Orks in 40k.

Was the implication that ullanor became Armageddon?

@SideSwipe: Yes, that is correct.

hmm, maybe the reverse-waagh thing is the reason why ork weirdboys are more ostracized by orks than during the beast wars. That, or maybe Good ol' gork and mork saw this happening and made sure it can't happen again by evolving the orks little by little?

I agree though, it was pretty lazy. What would have been a better way to kill off the orks, though?

 Tiger9gamer wrote:
hmm, maybe the reverse-waagh thing is the reason why ork weirdboys are more ostracized by orks than during the beast wars. That, or maybe Good ol' gork and mork saw this happening and made sure it can't happen again by evolving the orks little by little?

I agree though, it was pretty lazy. What would have been a better way to kill off the orks, though?

A reviewer of Shadow of Ullanor (name can't come to me at the moment) pointed out that it would have been great to see the difference in tactics and stance between Koorland and Maximus Thane, the guy who became the next Imperial Fists chapter master and led the last assault on Ullanor and the Beast. Unlike Koorland, who was an idealist, Thane was a pragmatist. In Koorland's eyes, someone like him or Vulkan had to be the one who delivered the killing blow to the Beast, a matter of showing mankind's dominance in the most visceral and honorable way. Hence why they went so far out of their way to confront the Beast personally. Instead of repeating the same plotline, they could have had Thane's invasion be a lot less personal, instead focussing on destroying whatever orbital defenses the Orks had and massacring them through virus bombing or other exterminatus level weaponry before cleaning up the survivors. It would have shown the change in direction and not have to go through the cop-out of using the same tactics as the first two times. I mean they could even have some of the beasts survive but be extremely wounded, levelling the playing field and have their final fall more realistic rather than having to use a deus ex machina of the weirdboy warp backlash ritual.

 Grimskul wrote:

 Tiger9gamer wrote:
hmm, maybe the reverse-waagh thing is the reason why ork weirdboys are more ostracized by orks than during the beast wars. That, or maybe Good ol' gork and mork saw this happening and made sure it can't happen again by evolving the orks little by little?

I agree though, it was pretty lazy. What would have been a better way to kill off the orks, though?

A reviewer of Shadow of Ullanor (name can't come to me at the moment) pointed out that it would have been great to see the difference in tactics and stance between Koorland and Maximus Thane, the guy who became the next Imperial Fists chapter master and led the last assault on Ullanor and the Beast. Unlike Koorland, who was an idealist, Thane was a pragmatist. In Koorland's eyes, someone like him or Vulkan had to be the one who delivered the killing blow to the Beast, a matter of showing mankind's dominance in the most visceral and honorable way. Hence why they went so far out of their way to confront the Beast personally. Instead of repeating the same plotline, they could have had Thane's invasion be a lot less personal, instead focussing on destroying whatever orbital defenses the Orks had and massacring them through virus bombing or other exterminatus level weaponry before cleaning up the survivors. It would have shown the change in direction and not have to go through the cop-out of using the same tactics as the first two times. I mean they could even have some of the beasts survive but be extremely wounded, levelling the playing field and have their final fall more realistic rather than having to use a deus ex machina of the weirdboy warp backlash ritual.

good post!

I whole heartedly agree with that point, and on Bolter and chainsword there was a discussion about how it could have been different in of itself, but I didn't see the kind of character talk you described. Hell, one of the agreed points is that the imperium should have just kept launching meteors at Ullanor to shatter it to pieces and exterminate everything, making the beast come to them on the Phalanx or something.

 Tiger9gamer wrote:

 Grimskul wrote:

 Tiger9gamer wrote:
hmm, maybe the reverse-waagh thing is the reason why ork weirdboys are more ostracized by orks than during the beast wars. That, or maybe Good ol' gork and mork saw this happening and made sure it can't happen again by evolving the orks little by little?

I agree though, it was pretty lazy. What would have been a better way to kill off the orks, though?

A reviewer of Shadow of Ullanor (name can't come to me at the moment) pointed out that it would have been great to see the difference in tactics and stance between Koorland and Maximus Thane, the guy who became the next Imperial Fists chapter master and led the last assault on Ullanor and the Beast. Unlike Koorland, who was an idealist, Thane was a pragmatist. In Koorland's eyes, someone like him or Vulkan had to be the one who delivered the killing blow to the Beast, a matter of showing mankind's dominance in the most visceral and honorable way. Hence why they went so far out of their way to confront the Beast personally. Instead of repeating the same plotline, they could have had Thane's invasion be a lot less personal, instead focussing on destroying whatever orbital defenses the Orks had and massacring them through virus bombing or other exterminatus level weaponry before cleaning up the survivors. It would have shown the change in direction and not have to go through the cop-out of using the same tactics as the first two times. I mean they could even have some of the beasts survive but be extremely wounded, levelling the playing field and have their final fall more realistic rather than having to use a deus ex machina of the weirdboy warp backlash ritual.

good post!

I whole heartedly agree with that point, and on Bolter and chainsword there was a discussion about how it could have been different in of itself, but I didn't see the kind of character talk you described. Hell, one of the agreed points is that the imperium should have just kept launching meteors at Ullanor to shatter it to pieces and exterminate everything, making the beast come to them on the Phalanx or something.

Thanks! I think the reviewer I mentioned was from a blog rather than a forum. Or at least one of the blog's commenters.

In any case, you're 100% correct that they should have done something that didn't involve landing troops on Ullanor, it would have shown that the Imperials had actually learned (one of the consistent themes of The Beast Arises was human incompetence) and thematically it would have made a lot of sense for them to engage the Orks on their own terms for once and just nuked them from orbit rather than the pitfall of trying to go "mano-a-mano" multiple times in a row. The Beheading was one of the few things that saved the series for me, though definitely not when it came to fleshing out the Orks. It's a classic example of great ideas but poor execution.

Quick little question about I am Savage...

I just started it and am on chapter 10.... The Chromes... are they nids? I can't help but to wonder in my mind they are some lost splinter on a planet that formed somewhat of a localized hive. The picture in my mind is of a nid, the claws, bug like apearence, hive mind, talons, and the Vanguard Veteran units (the big bugs) the Imperial Fists call Warriors.

Or are they a different species? Like giant ants mixed with praying mantis?

usmcmidn wrote:
Quick little question about I am Savage...

I just started it and am on chapter 10.... The Chromes... are they nids? I can't help but to wonder in my mind they are some lost splinter on a planet that formed somewhat of a localized hive. The picture in my mind is of a nid, the claws, bug like apearence, hive mind, talons, and the Vanguard Veteran units (the big bugs) the Imperial Fists call Warriors.

Or are they a different species? Like giant ants mixed with praying mantis?

Chromes are just one of the myriad xenos in the galaxy, they're not related to the Hive Fleets who have yet to reach the galaxy yet at this time. There's plenty of other bug-like xenos the Imperium has encountered like the megarachnids.