Know No Fear extract up on the BL site.

[Apologist]

Exciting stuff!

Even a short extract like this has me convinced that Mr Abnett has captured the Ultramarines just as I love 'em!

Counting the days until I can get this – and bringing the Praetors of Calth out of retirement, ready for some reinforcements.

[Nazguire]

I quite enjoyed the extract. It's gonna be a great novel I'm sure. I always look forward to Dan Abnett's Horus Heresy novels. Needs to amp up his writing rate though; his 3 novels compared to McNeill's 5 just ain't cutting it.

[shadowhawk2008]

Dan has also been busy writing his own novels like triumff and embedded, a dr. Who novel if i am not mistaken and also pushing out salvation's reach. He is quite busy. And it could be that he has more stuff coming up that we don't know about.

[Wazzahamma]

I'm slow, but I can't find the extract on that page...

Edit: googled and found

Edit again: Abnett is a clever cookie. He's already given an interesting insight into Roboute's thought process without even featuring the primarch.

[Son of Sanguinius]

The extract is on the blog, link here.

It's...okay. I don't find it particularly enticing, but then I feel that way about most BL extracts. If the purpose of an extract is to get a reader excited, then one would think the extract would entail some particularly thrilling or encapsulating chunk of text that really gives you a feel for the work. These tend to only happen in a novel during climactic points or periods of revealing exposition, neither of which an author or publisher really wants to give away and spoil. Don't you hate seeing a movie trailer where the whole damn story is explained in thirty seconds? Not even necessarily because spoilers are given, but that a movie you hoped would be good can actually have its sum total boiled down to that. My point is that I find extracts boring at best and harmful at worst, especially when they remind me that I don't have said book yet.

[Soul Hunter]

Its a good extract though it does not put my fears of Know No Fear, ironic I know, being a mortal pov novel rather than an Ultramarine one. Still waiting to see whether i'm right to be afraid or wrong.


SH

[Son of Sanguinius]

The mortal perspectives, in my opinion, have a lot more potential. What I would LOVE to see is a book that really delves into the human perspective of the Heresy, and in particular that moment just before the Heresy where humans begin to try and take control of the galaxy that the Astartes (and Army) have won. Imagining what it would be like to walk and fight in the company of demi-gods that suddenly turn on you and claim what was supposed to be yours sends chills down my spine. The Liar's Due by James Swallow and The First Heretic by Aaron Dembski-Bowden get closest to this, as they explore the feelings of confusion and powerlessness that many humans feel in the face of something as terrifyingly destructive as a Legion turned against them.

I hope Know No Fear does this, as the attack on Calth and the battle for the Ultramar system as a whole will depend largely on a populace who thinks of Astartes as paragons of the Emperor's justice and heroes of the highest order.

[Soul Hunter]

The mortal perspectives, in my opinion, have a lot more potential. What I would LOVE to see is a book that really delves into the human perspective of the Heresy, and in particular that moment just before the Heresy where humans begin to try and take control of the galaxy that the Astartes (and Army) have won. Imagining what it would be like to walk and fight in the company of demi-gods that suddenly turn on you and claim what was supposed to be yours sends chills down my spine. The Liar's Due by James Swallow and The First Heretic by Aaron Dembski-Bowden get closest to this, as they explore the feelings of confusion and powerlessness that many humans feel in the face of something as terrifyingly destructive as a Legion turned against them.

I hope Know No Fear does this, as the attack on Calth and the battle for the Ultramar system as a whole will depend largely on a populace who thinks of Astartes as paragons of the Emperor's justice and heroes of the highest order.

Oh I'm not saying i'm against them. I just don't want the whole novel to be from a mortal perspective. Legion did that well, Prospero Burns overplayed it. But turning the Battle of Calth over from the Ultramarines to mortals would ruin one of the main Heresy battles. Its got to be mainly Astartes, have some mortal perspectives in there sure but the whole novel cannot be about them and their being caught in the middle of this event.

This is the formula for Abnett's last two HH novels.

Ordinary mortal guy meets the Astartes.
Gets caught up in events beyond his understanding.
Eventually becomes friends with the Astartes.
Undergoes a transformation until he is staunchly with the Astartes, abandoning whatever he was before for them.
Aids the Astartes in a battle.
Novel ends.


LotN

[Wazzahamma]

This is the formula for Abnett's last two HH novels.

Ordinary mortal guy meets the Astartes.
Gets caught up in events beyond his understanding.
Eventually becomes friends with the Astartes.
Undergoes a transformation until he is staunchly with the Astartes, abandoning whatever he was before for them.
Aids the Astartes in a battle.
Novel ends.


LotN

Broadly true, but then, you could do that with many stories and it wouldn't be fair.

Loyal legion goes from planet to planet, conquering for the Imperium.
Remembrancers do some remembrancing, they totally heart the legion.
Loyal primarch is duped by Chaos.
Noble captain sees the moral decay setting into his legion and fails to act.
Remembrancers do some more remembrancing, but no longer heart the legion.
A human close to the astartes is killed horribly.
Legion embraces Chaos.
Big fight on a planet called Isstvaan.
Novel Ends.

I've just described the opening trilogy of Horus Rising, False Gods and Galaxy in Flames , Fulgrim and The First Heretic. Thousand Sons ticks off on almost all those boxes too. That's four different authors all using the same "formula".

Only describing the broad structure of a story is unfair (Braveheart and Gladiator have practically the same structure but feel entirely different). It's the tone, the themes and the details that separate one from another.

[shadowhawk2008]

Could be the formatting or something but I actually have zero idea what happened in that extract. Is this being told by Guilliman or some random Astartes or some plain-joe? Looks like there is a lot of background context to that extract and without that, its falling flat.

Thankfully, I don't need this extract to keep me excited about KNF.

[Wazzahamma]

Not Guilliman (he is clearly referenced by the narration and I don't think even his ego is big enough to warrant third person speak) and most likely not an astartes.

To my eyes, it's in the style of an historical account with some authorial voice (as opposed to dry representation of facts). In any case, it's written in hindsight with no clear bias, so I don't think it's meant to be from any character's point of view.

I really, really like it. Makes it seem like report on something...well...real.

[Wyrmwood]

Indeed, it reminds me of Hawser's account of the sack of Prospero by the Wolves - it's told in hindsight (perhaps by a historian, or remembrancer of sorts {indeed, whoever it is seems to have possession of the ship log, or black box, and is referring to it in their account}), giving you details of the event but, due to it being an extract, isn't putting it into an emotional context. That's what the rest of the book will be for.

[Wazzahamma]

Indeed, it reminds me of Hawser's account of the sack of Prospero by the Wolves - it's told in hindsight (perhaps by a historian, or remembrancer of sorts {indeed, whoever it is seems to have possession of the ship log, or black box, and is referring to it in their account}), giving you details of the event but, due to it being an extract, isn't putting it into an emotional context. That's what the rest of the book will be for.

Yeah, the narrator seems to have great insight into the workings of Guilliman and the Ultramarines without seeming to be one of them.

Actually reminds me of some of the narration in Helsreach, talking about the events of the war from a distant viewpoint (before we're shown the up close and personal stuff).

[Deepsix81]

Certainly a different way of presenting the initial phases of conflct. I'm sure the entire novel won't be this procedural, but this feels a bit over the top. This is maybe an interpretation of the pragmatic and logical nature of Guilliman, distilled into a remembrancer/equerry?

Not impressed (or even particularly impacted) by this extract, but it is a novel way of introducing the Ultramarines.

[Dogface]

Reads like a post-action report you'd get in the military

[Lord_Crull]

I do hope Abnett fixes the damage McNeill has done to the Ultramarines. If he can produce a winner with this one I can finally have a good Ultramarines novel to read.

[Cryptic]

Hate to be boring. But having read the last 2 HH titles by Abnett i am refraining from reading the extract because i would hate it to put me off buying it (I'd still buy it eventually or have someone else buy it for me to have
the complete collection).

[Scribe of Khorne]

An additional extract.

http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/wn...pid=900028-gws

Anything with Primarch interaction gets a thumbs up, well most of the time.

The descriptions of the Word Bearers is good.

[Wyrmwood]

An additional extract.

http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/wn...pid=900028-gws

Anything with Primarch interaction gets a thumbs up, well most of the time.

The descriptions of the Word Bearers is good.

That extract actually made me feel quite sad, for a moment. I hope they dispatch the pre-orders soon!

[Wazzahamma]

http://www.blacklibrary.com/Download...ow-no-fear.pdf