The Primarchs [spoilers in tags]

[static grass]

One of the themes from the book is to underline the sacrifices the primarchs expect of their men. Lion and Fulgrim execute their own commanders. Whilst Alpharius sends his own on a certain death mission and Ferrus knowingly leads his into a trap. I think that the stories relate well to each other. Especially when you see how unable Lion is unable to trust his own men whilst Fulgrim knows he can (to do the right thing as the prinachs perceive it). It's not clear if Lion thinks that the emperor will die and merely wants to prevent anyone else taking over or what his actual agenda actually his....

[Helikaon]

I think he's basically saying

[spoiler]"Let the Emperor see Alpharius, the fallen Primarch, side openly with Horus. And let me be the hidden danger to his works: hidden and waiting to strike"

That would put both twins on the traitor side...but with an important difference.

I disagree. I took it as

Alpharius sides openly with Horus and the traitors. Meanwhile the 'snake' Omegon is hiding in the shadows, clandestinely aiding the loyalists. I think the Alpha Legion and the twin primarchs are looking for a 3rd option to the Acuity seen in Legion.

[All Cing Eye]

I took it as

Alpharius sides openly with Horus and the traitors. Meanwhile the 'snake' Omegon is hiding in the shadows, clandestinely aiding the loyalists. I think the Alpha Legion and the twin primarchs are looking for a 3rd option to the Acuity seen in Legion.

They do mention a 3rd Paradox.

Anyone else think that a lot of named characters were killed off in this book?

[Poncho160]

What could the third paradox be? One is the Emp winning, two is Horus winning, Three? Mutual destruction? A way for the Emp to win that destroys chaos as well? I dont know.

[All Cing Eye]

What could the third paradox be? One is the Emp winning, two is Horus winning, Three? Mutual destruction? A way for the Emp to win that destroys chaos as well? I dont know.

I think the 3rd Paradox is a stalemate with neither side winning. Which is what plays out the Emperor ascends the Golden Throne and Horus is annihilated. An endless draw with neither side gaining the ultimate victory. For the Alpha Legion this means working in the shadows (even into present 40K) aiding whichever side it has to in order to keep the balance.

[Ithaka]

Okey Dokey, I've now finished three of the four stories and have some opinions to venture.
Feat of Iron: I thought did a good job of showing the Iron Hands suddenly leaderless; confused, indecisive and even scared at the prospect of losing their Primarch. It ends up being more awesome foreshadowing than the Manus thread. I learned alot more about him while he was leading his men than during the eldar bit.
Something of a criticism about Nick Kyme in general is that he introduces a group of near identical characters, then uses their first and last names almost interchangably in the story, and the ending should have alot darker. Not only was the power of friendship saves the day idea out of character for the Iron Hands, the No, there is another... bit was pretty meh. I'd like to find out to whom the Eldar are refering, though.
The Lion, the Dark Angel scenes were good but the Iron Hand and Death Guard bits were bland and portrayed Typhon as a moustache twirling bad guy. Interesting to hear about the Mastodon transports, and the refernce to the cult of the Dragon, and I liked the way Guilliman is absorbing leaderless elements into his own forces. However, I'm concerned as to the potential for the daemon to ruin the dissapearance of the Lion storyline.
The reflection crack'd; clears up the 'Fulgrim is possessed' thing people have hated for ages, but had an overlong wannabe philosophical rant and anal rape.
I've just started on The Serpent Beneath, Rob Sanders is one of my favourite BL authors so I'm hoping for a goody to finish of with.

Edit: Also, yes I realise I'm late to the party but I had Dune to finish first. In it's favour, The Primarchs was a decent read, even coming straight after Dune. Obviously it's still like comparing a candle to the sun.

[shadowhawk2008]

Very few things in fiction can compare to the awesomeness of Dune, and as much as I love everything from BL (almost everything!), very, very few BL novels can even begin to be considered on the same level :-) That's not a statement against BL books mind you. Its just that Dune is really that awesome for me.

[Ragnarfan_12]

soo wtf is up with fulgrim killing edilon ( i know its not spelled right sorry) i dont get why him like he was built up in other novels and then to kill him in a novella seems pretty stupid plus in the old info on him he was present for the siege of terror? why not just kill a new charcter off or something :S and if they make anothe book about 4 new primarchs who would you guys like to see ? id love to see one on Russ for sure and i guess magnus vulkan and i wouldnt mind the last to be about horus just to see the changes in him from the first novel

[shadowhawk2008]

Siege of Terror? :-)

The authors have already changed a fair few bits of lore in the series. What's one more? TBH, I like that he is dead. He is one of the ones I've hated since the first time we see him in Horus Rising. And he still got off lightly, too lightly. It was a quick death. He should have been made to suffer.

[Sqallum]

Siege of Terror? :-)

The authors have already changed a fair few bits of lore in the series. What's one more? TBH, I like that he is dead. He is one of the ones I've hated since the first time we see him in Horus Rising. And he still got off lightly, too lightly. It was a quick death. He should have been made to suffer.

Agreed. I do, however, think the novella shoud have been on the Khan instead of Fulgrim or Ferrus Manus. The Khan is not fleshed out at all, whereas Fulgrim/Ferrus are. A missed oppurtunity, imho

[Lord Lorne Walkier]

What if a daemon posses the decapitated body of Eidolon, like it dose Torgaddon? There is Still time for them to get back in line with the old fluff. I think people are too quick to call foul when it comes to fluff. For the longest time i would hear folks saying that BL got their info wrong when they showed a picture of Tarik Torgaddon in the Collected Visions. No in KnF we see what the picture was all about. Maybe it is just a imposter we have heard about.

[Ragnarfan_12]

yea thats true there really is plenty to go till we reach the seige of TERRA lol my bad but even with tarik i remeber reading somewhere (in one of the garro audio books) that loken was guarding the body so how did they get it ? :S

[shadowhawk2008]

I agree. I have small hopes of Primarchs 2 at some point next year to make up for it!

@ragnarfan: That's rather easily explained. Loken DID have an entire ceiling/wall collapse on him and was buried under the rubble. When the Word Bearers arrive to take Tarik's gene-seed they don't see him under all that crap and/or just ignore him. A rather thin explanation but that's the only one that makes sense.

Unless Horus is in the habit of giving out the gene-seed of his legion to the Word Bearers to do as they wish.

[Nineswords]

Very few things in fiction can compare to the awesomeness of Dune, and as much as I love everything from BL (almost everything!), very, very few BL novels can even begin to be considered on the same level :-) That's not a statement against BL books mind you. Its just that Dune is really that awesome for me.

Nothing BL puts out comes close to DUNE.

[shadowhawk2008]

This'd be OT but I think that Legion of the Damned is the one that comes closest to Dune. It has that sheer attention to detail, the tone, the mood, the atmosphere. Superb stuff.

[Ragnarfan_12]

that makes sense in a way i guess lol and after reading ghr lion does anyone else think that Luther is kinda justifyed in his hate agaisnst the lion and what do you think his guilt that the machine thing ( stupid term but i dont really know how to describe it) mentions?

[Ragnarfan_12]

anyone else disapointed

that nemiel and zhariel wont have to have a face off when they return to caliban?

[shadowhawk2008]

Not really no.

[Nazguire]

anyone else disapointed

that nemiel and zhariel wont have to have a face off when they return to caliban?

I am, would have made a good contrast to Luthor and Lion. But we can't have that now. :-/ I'm not sure the reasoning behind killing off Nemiel so carelessly, because it certainly didn't show Lion's paranoia and control problems as well as would have been hoped.

[Ragnarfan_12]

i thought it was really dumb to kill the charcters that they did in this book like both edilon and nemiel were built up in more then one previous novel like i get the whole it shows howthings a re seriously changeing by killing a known charcter angle but like come on... and i thought they were a good contrast to shows many sides one being with luther the whole time the other with the lion