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3.11 AVERAGE
3.11 AVERAGE
dark
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
N/A
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Guilliman is one of the "good" guys in Warhammer 40k. Completely coincidentally, he's an extreme Ayran caricature. He has to be handled with care, otherwise you've written a pretty explicit white supremacist piece.
I Want My Fantasies to be Accurate
Guilliman is sold to the reader as a brilliant strategist/tactician/logician/management type. He and his soldiers operate on some "theoretical/practical" call and response style that loses its edge after the first five times and doesn't get it back over the next fifty.
Anyway, Guilliman is actually not very good... ...at all. Even in the confusing Warhammer 40k universe, where close quarters combat intertwines with ranged, it's kind of obvious. Here, concepts of mass and envelopment are as fantastical as lasers. Guilliman deliberately surrenders the opportunity to use his most effective weapons because he has less patience than my two year old demanding Thomas the Tank Engine. When we read this exchange:
'You're not going to guess by how much, are you?'
'The attempt would be irresponsible'
...it doesn't come off as humble professionalism, instead it's an admission that after multiple battles the Ultramarines still haven't worked out how to count. If you've got seven bullets left, it's kind of important to know if you still have seven men to kill or seventy.
This isn't me Monday morning quarterbacking about tactics in a fantasy universe. Rather it's about the basic concept of showing rather than telling. Magnus controlling a gigantic starship with his psychic energy is "accurate" to me, because it shows his psychic powers, and the strain it inflicts. Guilliman blundering round like he stepped on Lego in the dark while quoting from a codex about how brilliant he is shows me nothing.
Triumph of the Will
It was the difference between destructive instinct and purpose-led order. The difference between the monstrosity of the past and the infinite hope of the future.
So there's a lot of awkward Deus Vult imagery in this book, shabbily covered with that go-to cultural concept of "Reason":
'The orks are unreason. They cannot hope to win. They have no defence against our most powerful weapon. Reason.'
The space ork antagonists and their desire for battle can be portrayed in interesting ways. That is not the case here. They are a horde, brutish, animalistic, and unreason. It doesn't matter who the orks particularly represent, just that they stand in opposition to this very white man and his very vanilla-heroic troops.
Warhammer 40k isn't exactly politically correct, where diversity amongst the Primarchs devolves into a guy coloured black, a guy coloured red (as in red red), and a walking Asian stereotype, but I still shouldn't be reading spank bank material for the Fourth Reich. We are being lead to celebrate the aggressors in a war of extermination. If there's some deeper subversive meaning hidden in this, congrats on finding it, because I'm still scratching my head.
There's some fluff at the end about Guilliman destroying traces of a civilisation devoted to war, because that's bad but in the context of him being on a Great Crusade, it's really a weak shrug of the shoulders, a mumble about how peace is good, then pressing the button to commence orbital bombardment.
I feel like this book is an unambiguous miss. The writing is fine but I am unhappy with the direction it took.
I Want My Fantasies to be Accurate
Guilliman is sold to the reader as a brilliant strategist/tactician/logician/management type. He and his soldiers operate on some "theoretical/practical" call and response style that loses its edge after the first five times and doesn't get it back over the next fifty.
Anyway, Guilliman is actually not very good... ...at all. Even in the confusing Warhammer 40k universe, where close quarters combat intertwines with ranged, it's kind of obvious. Here, concepts of mass and envelopment are as fantastical as lasers. Guilliman deliberately surrenders the opportunity to use his most effective weapons because he has less patience than my two year old demanding Thomas the Tank Engine. When we read this exchange:
'You're not going to guess by how much, are you?'
'The attempt would be irresponsible'
...it doesn't come off as humble professionalism, instead it's an admission that after multiple battles the Ultramarines still haven't worked out how to count. If you've got seven bullets left, it's kind of important to know if you still have seven men to kill or seventy.
This isn't me Monday morning quarterbacking about tactics in a fantasy universe. Rather it's about the basic concept of showing rather than telling. Magnus controlling a gigantic starship with his psychic energy is "accurate" to me, because it shows his psychic powers, and the strain it inflicts. Guilliman blundering round like he stepped on Lego in the dark while quoting from a codex about how brilliant he is shows me nothing.
Triumph of the Will
It was the difference between destructive instinct and purpose-led order. The difference between the monstrosity of the past and the infinite hope of the future.
So there's a lot of awkward Deus Vult imagery in this book, shabbily covered with that go-to cultural concept of "Reason":
'The orks are unreason. They cannot hope to win. They have no defence against our most powerful weapon. Reason.'
The space ork antagonists and their desire for battle can be portrayed in interesting ways. That is not the case here. They are a horde, brutish, animalistic, and unreason. It doesn't matter who the orks particularly represent, just that they stand in opposition to this very white man and his very vanilla-heroic troops.
Warhammer 40k isn't exactly politically correct, where diversity amongst the Primarchs devolves into a guy coloured black, a guy coloured red (as in red red), and a walking Asian stereotype, but I still shouldn't be reading spank bank material for the Fourth Reich. We are being lead to celebrate the aggressors in a war of extermination. If there's some deeper subversive meaning hidden in this, congrats on finding it, because I'm still scratching my head.
There's some fluff at the end about Guilliman destroying traces of a civilisation devoted to war, because that's bad but in the context of him being on a Great Crusade, it's really a weak shrug of the shoulders, a mumble about how peace is good, then pressing the button to commence orbital bombardment.
I feel like this book is an unambiguous miss. The writing is fine but I am unhappy with the direction it took.
It's.....meh. And I'm an Ultramarine fanboy. I was hoping for some insight into the mind of Guilliman, but what I got was a battle against the orks.
It's a fine story, but I don't think it deserves the title of importance it got, and it doesn't develop Guilliman as a character in any way.
You do get a lot of "theoretical" and "practical" snippets though......
It's a fine story, but I don't think it deserves the title of importance it got, and it doesn't develop Guilliman as a character in any way.
You do get a lot of "theoretical" and "practical" snippets though......
Three stars is typically what I give Black Library titles but the detailed rating is 3 Theoretical Stars™ / 5 Practical Stars™
Not a hugely nuanced plot to this one. Astartes see Orkz, Astartes shoot Orkz. Roboute Guilliman gets some of his philosophy in there and does manage to bring some level of thoughtfulness to an otherwise action-centric book. People who complained about characters saying theoretical and practical a million times weren't exaggerating quite as much as I expected
It's a quick read so if you love Ultramarines or are just a red-blooded Imperial, check this one out
Not a hugely nuanced plot to this one. Astartes see Orkz, Astartes shoot Orkz. Roboute Guilliman gets some of his philosophy in there and does manage to bring some level of thoughtfulness to an otherwise action-centric book. People who complained about characters saying theoretical and practical a million times weren't exaggerating quite as much as I expected
It's a quick read so if you love Ultramarines or are just a red-blooded Imperial, check this one out
adventurous
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
adventurous
reflective
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
challenging
dark
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
dark
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No