Sword of Justice

[Tregar]

I real this book a few weeks ago, and hope that a few others have by now as well so we can get a discussion going

I quite enjoyed the book, but the think that I liked the best was that it finally started to fill a hole in the Empire that has been there since the storm of Chaos- namely, a major Imperial province not having an Elector Count. Finally they seek to redress this, which is nice, even if not fully resolved by the end.

I can't quite work out the timeline of the book though, the Empire seems a fairly cheerful place, but there's talk of war in the north (I suppose there always is...), while the famous Empire heroes are active in the forests in the Empire, instead of leading great charges against the northlanders (But the Wizards are all up there?). Going by the blurb for the sequel Volkmar will star too, so it's either actually quite a while ago, or well after the Storm of Chaos.

Or, another possibility... Storm of Chaos officially ignored by Black Library as never having happened

As for the characters, a little one-dimensional, but that's the usual. Ludwig was equally far too proud and far too weak a man to be the title character, but I guess half the fun is seeing his fall from grace and the poor decisions he makes. And as usual there's major Chaos cults everywhere, I swear half the Empire must already be Chaos worshippers...

[nagash66]

I quite enjoyed the book, but the think that I liked the best was that it finally started to fill a hole in the Empire that has been there since the storm of Chaos- namely, a major Imperial province not having an Elector Count. Finally they seek to redress this, which is nice, even if not fully resolved by the end.

Ohh if this is about the Mad count then i might just buy this book, Marius has to be one of the coolest Fantasy Empire char.... so of course GW killed him.

[Tregar]

Yeah... it's nothing about him. One of his sons is the main star, but he is little more than a pawn.

[nagash66]

Yeah... it's nothing about him. One of his sons is the main star, but he is little more than a pawn.

Bummer might have gotten it otherwise

[Tregar]

...yeah no-one's gonna discuss this are they? So how 'bout that latest HH book.

[Dead.Blue.Clown]

...yeah no-one's gonna discuss this are they? So how 'bout that latest HH book.

Hey, don't joke. I wrote that latest HH novel. I'm dead proud of it, too.

My policy on Chris Wraight is simple: I read everything he does, and I dig it a lot. I've not got to Sword of Justice yet, but when it wings it way to me via the monthly BL care package, I'll attack it with glee. Chris can do no wrong, as far as I'm concerned.

[Ar-Gimilzor]

Chris can do no wrong, as far as I'm concerned.

Masters of Magic.

That being said, his understanding of the setting seems to have improved so I will be taking a look at SoJ at some point.

[boogle]

Sword of Justice is a good book, it give a stone face character a bit more flesh to his otherwise bland character, there is a lot of internal monologing and overall the characters are very 'human'

[thewickedworm]

When this book first came out, I didn't give it much thought. However, after several web reviews raved about it, I decided to give it a try. I'm glad I did because I loved the book. I was never into fantasy, but I found that I could not put this book down. The opening with the beastmen and subsequent fight with a doombull was crazy awesome. Funny thing, I was actually interested more in the supporting characters, especially Verstohlen. I thought he was just as if not more interesting than Schwarzhelm, although Schwarzhelm is pretty bad-a$$. And Helborg had a much greater role in this novel than I thought he would. I ate up the information we got with Karl Franz. I thought of him as very similar to the way the Emperor has been depicted recently in 40k, just on a smaller scale. By that I mean that Karl Franz is utterly ruthless in his goal of keeping humanity united in survival, because he has to. I also liked the way Franz played Helborg off of Schwarhelm. Very devious but smart.

Looking foward to reading Sword of Vengence!

[nagash66]

You want good info on Karl Franz? Read the Genivive (sp?) book, they got him doing everything from taking a leak in the woods, to moaning about his wife and kids.

[thewickedworm]

You want good info on Karl Franz? Read the Genivive (sp?) book, they got him doing everything from taking a leak in the woods, to moaning about his wife and kids.

Can't imagine a 40k Horus Heresy book describing the Emporer in such a way, lol.

"That Horus is such a bad boy. Now he's got a bunch of his brothers on his side too. Jeez, my kids are killing me. . . really!"

[ExquisiteMonkey]

This is good to know, I would like to read more WF books, but Empire ones really don't interest me that much, and I was edging on giving this a pass.

I believe I will pick this up now.

[Tregar]

Although getting a discussion on just this book seemed to be a hard enough task, I've just read Reiskguard as well and was wondering if anyone else had too? It's just really noticeable how starkly different the background presented in both books is, even though they were only released a year or two apart (Which means they were in production at the same time, but surely Black Library would have seen the sheer madness in writing TWO books featuring the Reiskguard and Averland side by side but not having them match up). I think my biggest WHAAAA moment was when Leitdorf introduced himself to Helborg as if it were their first meeting (and I'm sure it was, as far as Chris Wraight is concerned), even though in Reiksguard the two of them campaigned together in the Black Mountains. In Reiskguard Helborg is horrified at the slaughter of the Averland militias- but in Sword of Justice he enthusiastically butchers them himself.

I've always liked to think Black Library fiction worked together to provide a richer universe, fair enough each author brings his own vision, but to have such boundless contradictions between such recently released books is total bum...

[Torpedo Vegas]

You want good info on Karl Franz? Read the Genivive (sp?) book, they got him doing everything from taking a leak in the woods, to moaning about his wife and kids.

Karl Franz had a wife and kids? Neat.
I thought Sword of Justice was solid, though I think it jumps around to much in the first half of the book, between characters. it made it hard to get attacked to them. I also tend to have this problem with most Empire books in that the State Troops are always either super skilled or completely incompetent, none tend to be just normal people.

I will say that the beginning battle really gives a sense of the scale of some of the battles State Troops get into, it was a really well done scene.

[Private_SeeD]

I have read Sword of Justice and have just finished Sword of Vengeance, I have to say both books were really good and I couldn't put my iPhone down ( I had downloaded the digital versions) I have to say they were both well written and made the reader feel for the supporting characters, out of the supporting character I really did like Bloch. My opinion did change of Ludwig since he started to open up and show a bit of emotion in the second book.
In the future if I see a novel by C. Wraight I will give it a read just on the merits of these two books
I would like to say more but don't want to spoil it for the people who haven't read the second novel. Also these two books are the reason why I've gone back to doing an Empire army

[Tregar]

I did not realise the second was released yet! I shall pick that up asap. Unfortunately I live in a town without a bookshop

[reds8n]

It's been out for a few weeks now.

I'm right near the end and have it enjoyed it immensely, more so than the first novel -- which I'm a big fan of.

Volkmar is great.

[Tregar]

Well, officially February 2011, but some places put it on the shelves early, indeed.

[reds8n]

..really ? Good grief, I must start paying more attention to offical release dates.

*returns to stroking shiny copies of Savage Scars and Legion of One*

[Private_SeeD]

I get my copies digitally from the BL site the only thing I wasn't a fan of the 2nd book was Volkmar, I found his character annoying... Can't give you a proper reason why jst did, wish they had kept it too Helborg and Ludwig