[JPK]

Made some progress into Traitor General.

Spoiler

Brostin finally got his smoke and it was magnificent. I would never say he's one of my favorite Ghosts, but he does know how to steal a scene.

I really like the insight into Chaos and the conversion storyline. I feel like I should know who the general is, especially with the hint about losing his hand.

At this point, I'm just waiting for things to go sideways with the locals and wondering who it is that we're going to lose in the process. All of the mission team are named and established characters and there is no way in hell that they're all gonna survive this.

How did you think this one was boring BK?

[Macros]

I guess it's very much YMMV, I can't see how any of gaunts stuff is boring!

[amphibian]

It would help us to help BK assess whether the series is worth continuing if he is specific about what he's not connecting with. We can then tell him if there's more or less of it going forward.

There's a mix of stealth and huge D-Day style invasion happening in The Armour of Contempt. It's a quite striking book and well told, but that's my reaction to it.

[Bapop]

Finished The Emperor's Legion and The Reagent's shadow. After mostly reading Horus Heresy it was really refreshing to see how the "contemporary" Imperium remembers that era and reacts to the return of a primarch.

Going to give Eisenhorn a go as well now. It seems less of a mountain compared to Gaunt's Ghosts.

[QuickTidal]

Bapop, on 13 May 2021 - 09:14 PM, said:

Going to give Eisenhorn a go as well now. It seems less of a mountain compared to Gaunt's Ghosts.

The Eisenhorn books are excellent, and I hear nothing but praise of the RAVENOR trilogy that follows it, and the two (soon to be three) BEQUIN books that follow that.

[Macros]

Please relay the scene, this has eluded me since you first mentioned it

[Macros]

Ah, think we covered that before.

He's basically hopped up on pain meds and reciting a mindless litany, it's mind and painkillers over matter. No magic as far as I know

[Garak]

For that to be magical would make him an unsactioned psyker and .... I believe the series has already demonstrated what happens in that case.

[JPK]

I just finished Traitor General.

Spoiler

Brostin made this book for me. He seriously stole every scene he was in. From the scene with the tanker, to him lighting up the well in the swamp, to him tinkering with the chaos flamer... This book took me from liking him to actively loving him and looking forward to his next scene. It was also nice seeing Ven expanded on a bit more. Actually, with a bit more reflection on the book, this one really did some solid character work all around and should be setting up some interesting conflict between the members of the strike team. I'm really looking forward to more between Mkoll and Rawne. That was a VERY interesting outburst from Mkoll about Rawne.

There were two other really strong scenes for me in this one. Curth vs the Wirewolves, and the team against the Chaos Marines. So much awesome packed into those two scenes.

I really ended up enjoying this one, and will be getting into His Last Command very soon.

[JPK]

Starting His Last Command.

[JPK]

I've been making decent time on His Last Command. I'm about to start chapter 14.

Spoiler

Ok, I'm not in love with the setup in this book, but I understand why things have fallen the way they have. With the strike team gone for 2 years, it makes sense that the Ghosts were folded into another unit. It also makes some sense as to why the strike team was met with such fear of taint. What I don't understand is why no-one has seemed to even bat at eye at the moth-creme that appears to have chaos-resistant properties. That seems like something that they would want to be able to be able to take advantage of.

[JPK]

Alright, I'm making good time! Just finished up His Last Command. I've noticed that Abnett has started taking a cue from Cook and having the titles of his books coming up in character dialogue repeatedly now.

I'm immediately starting The Armour of Contempt. What chapter was that last spoiler for BK? I'm on ebook and I don't want to click it before I should.

[JPK]

Finished up pt 1 - Walking Glory Road. I think I can guess your issue here from context clues BK. I'm going to avoid clicking your spoiler tags until I've gotten through Face-to-Face.

Spoiler

It's that we're going back to Gareon, isn't it? You had to be expecting it though. They left Curth and Ven behind. There's no way that wasn't gonna end up being resolved.

I'm also gonna go on record here and say that something about the whole thing with Gol continuing to refuse to see either of his kids is actively starting to raise some flags for me. It started out as something that just seemed in character for Gol (self sacrifice for the greater good), but this is way past that now, and is actively striking me as wrong. Something more is going on here, but I just don't know what it is yet.

Also, was Brostin always this awesome and I just didn't notice? I think he may have surpassed Larkin as my favorite. I just find myself smiling every time he shows up. Even when he's not the active pov like this bit from Walking Glory Road:

Quote

Kolea watched the game from one of the upper landings, his arms leant on the railing. Varl was with him, smoking a hand-rolled Iho-stick. Every now and then, they exchanged a few philosophical remarks about the relative skills on display, especially Brostin's reluctance to pass the ball to anyone useful.
'It's like he has a disability.'
'More than the ones we know about.'
'Right.'

Also, 'Hello Mister Yellow.' is just fucking fantastic.

I'm hoping to catch up to you today BK.

[Garak]

Regarding the tank and the end of Sabbat Martyr.

Spoiler

The tank is demonically possessed, that's why it behaves like a creature more than a tank.

As for the end of Sabbat Martyr, that bit with Corbec looking at the woodcarver and his work? That scene is metaphorical, his soul finding it's rest (the souls of the dead go into the Warp were they generally get eating by daemons, though there are cases were it's hinted they are collected by the Emperor so it's possible the presence of Saint Sabbat made Herodor holy enough to protect the souls of the loyal who died there - there are no hard answers when the Warp is concerned, the place laughs at the idea of logic), the last words in the book are Gaunt asking for a nalwood coffin for a friend and a Ghost.

[Garak]

Because our POV person for that storyline is a total noob, who knows nothing. It's his first combat experience and it's overwhelming for him.

[Macros]

Briar King, on 21 May 2021 - 01:04 AM, said:

Gaunt 10 pg 641 (same) heading The Lost phy ed omni

Spoiler

*bangs head with the omni

So I guess they killed The Beast by cutting open the hatch and dropping a nade in. Of course they NEVER saw what was inside which just pisses me off after all these damn pages of cat and mouse hunting. Fuck the Beast and fuck Abnett for making me devote so much time to this minor issue.

30 odd pages left. I want to be done with this one!

Spoiler

the was nothing inside, the entire tank was chaos possessed, it was basically alive, the metal containing the demon

[Macros]

Briar King, on 21 May 2021 - 06:53 PM, said:

Garak, on 19 May 2021 - 06:32 AM, said:

Regarding the tank and the end of Sabbat Martyr.

Spoiler

The tank is demonically possessed, that's why it behaves like a creature more than a tank.

As for the end of Sabbat Martyr, that bit with Corbec looking at the woodcarver and his work? That scene is metaphorical, his soul finding it's rest (the souls of the dead go into the Warp were they generally get eating by daemons, though there are cases were it's hinted they are collected by the Emperor so it's possible the presence of Saint Sabbat made Herodor holy enough to protect the souls of the loyal who died there - there are no hard answers when the Warp is concerned, the place laughs at the idea of logic), the last words in the book are Gaunt asking for a nalwood coffin for a friend and a Ghost.

You know more about the

Spoiler

warp then me. I’m still lost on it other then they travel in it and psyker’s tap it. To me it played out they agreed officially “he died” and let him retire in peace as he was injured in every single book and was physically on his last legs.

Spoiler

nah man, he's definitely dead, I read that part as Abnett's 'now he is at peace' scene. IE the only peace you will find in that universe is in death

[Tsundoku]

Macros, on 21 May 2021 - 11:05 PM, said:

Briar King, on 21 May 2021 - 06:53 PM, said:

Garak, on 19 May 2021 - 06:32 AM, said:

Regarding the tank and the end of Sabbat Martyr.

Spoiler

The tank is demonically possessed, that's why it behaves like a creature more than a tank.

As for the end of Sabbat Martyr, that bit with Corbec looking at the woodcarver and his work? That scene is metaphorical, his soul finding it's rest (the souls of the dead go into the Warp were they generally get eating by daemons, though there are cases were it's hinted they are collected by the Emperor so it's possible the presence of Saint Sabbat made Herodor holy enough to protect the souls of the loyal who died there - there are no hard answers when the Warp is concerned, the place laughs at the idea of logic), the last words in the book are Gaunt asking for a nalwood coffin for a friend and a Ghost.

You know more about the

Spoiler

warp then me. I’m still lost on it other then they travel in it and psyker’s tap it. To me it played out they agreed officially “he died” and let him retire in peace as he was injured in every single book and was physically on his last legs.

Spoiler

nah man, he's definitely dead, I read that part as Abnett's 'now he is at peace' scene. IE the only peace you will find in that universe is in death

Spoiler

"Only In Death" eh. What a coincidence ...

[Macros]

Jago is a brutal planet

[JPK]

JPK, on 17 May 2021 - 09:55 PM, said:

I've been making decent time on His Last Command. I'm about to start chapter 14.

Spoiler

Ok, I'm not in love with the setup in this book, but I understand why things have fallen the way they have. With the strike team gone for 2 years, it makes sense that the Ghosts were folded into another unit. It also makes some sense as to why the strike team was met with such fear of taint. What I don't understand is why no-one has seemed to even bat at eye at the moth-creme that appears to have chaos-resistant properties. That seems like something that they would want to be able to be able to take advantage of.

Three chapters from the end of The Armour of Contempt.

Spoiler

There it is! It seemed odd that the Inquisition wasn't more interested in the moths.