Path of the Renegade discussion.

[Laxo]

So this book was surprisingly good.

Andy Chambers is a champ, but I wasn't sure how he would go in a novel.

Path of the renegade follows three old money (noble house) Archons as they try to arrange circumstances towards their own benefit. That's pretty unspoiler worthy.

Archon Ythilian a descendant of the Ythilian from the codex would be the closest thing to the protagonist. But the book itself gives a large number of viewpoints which in turn gives you a great deal of insight into Comorragh. And the Feth you; got mine Dark Eldar mentality.

The story plays with a lot of the toys in the sense of A loveable harlequin named Motley (cameo don't get your hopes up), an Exodite world A handful of major Kabals and their Archons.

Since I love the Incubi I was happy they also had some representation. Interestingly they appear to be more old school honourable rather than the kill kill kill ones we have now. Which IMO bodes well for the next novel in the Series Path of the Incubi/us..

Also Unlike Path of the Warrior the book felt like a standalone item, rather then the cliffhanger irratating ending gav did.

So 8/10 (I am sorta harsh Sons of Dorn gets a 2/10, to give you a baseline.) But I am a big fan of DE.

[Vidzero]

Are you kidding me? This book had a much bigger cliffhanger then POTW, is Ylithilin alive or dead?! Inquiring minds want to know!

[Xisor]

You'll be pleased to know that the two follow-up novels are, for now, Path of the Incubi (already written & in with editors) and Path of the Archon. There's also a rather tantalising other story which I've heard tale of, but except from it having me dancing with joy I ought not say too much else on. For now. Don't get your hopes up, Laxo.

Myself, I utterly adored the book. I read the first half pre-Black Library Live, the second half yesterday/today. Quite exquisite.

The prose is simple and pretty reasonable without being mystifying. It captures the alien style of the Dark Eldar without making them inaccessible in the slightest. Very powerful writing and very highly stylised too. Lots of really cool (and really chilling) scenes. Very inventive and creative SF, all told.

Whilst it's plainly a Games Workshop book, it's so thoroughly rooted in Dark Eldar society, and so thorough in 'touching all the things' mentioned in the new Codex that it really feels like '40k on crack and on fire' - it's exceedingly grim, extremely dark, excruciatingly strange and eerily new too. All the major Eldar factions get a look in now or then (Craftworlders, Harlequins, Exodites, Dark Eldar [Kabals, Covens, Shrines, Cults]). There's a terrific amount of rather creative bits in it too - the Exodite scenes, the various looks at the cabals, the exploration of the Haemonculus Coven and the Iron Thorn...to name a few.

There's a very pleasant inclusion of basically fantastic and outrageous technology, but it's dealt with in such an ordinary, almost casual manner. It was, for me, a proper delight to read. Path of the Incubus strikes me as something which cannot come soon enough.

It's perhaps a little difficult to sing praises highly - it could be a pretty unique book and, because of that, could be quite divisive (some might really not enjoy the writing style). That said, compared to Gav's Path of novels, I think the allure of the Dark City is much more engaging, much more perversely interesting than Gav's more ascetic and austere Craftworlds. That's a somewhat obvious point too, but the different tones of the books makes Path of the Renegade an altogether different (but encouraging) beast. I could very easily imagine some people really disliking Gav's Eldar books, but adoring Andy Chambers'. I find it difficult to imagine the reverse, however, though I suppose it's still possible.

In any case, one chapette on another forum said the book ended on something of an anti-climax - I think I could probably agree with that. The finale, though as Vidzero notes, is a fair chunk of a cliffhanger, it's not exactly a massive crescendo. It does benefit, in my esteem, from almost every part of the book being really interesting in and of itself. Very few (strictly, I can't think of any) parts of it were boring or tedious or quickly skipped over. It held itself together well, a nice big cast and lots of highly memorable (mis)adventures. I eagerly look forward to pouring over it to re-read now and then.

I'm not sure a rating is properly correct for this book - I can't really begin to compare it to other novels (even Gav's Path ofs are fairly different beasts). I think it's sufficient to say "it really dazzled me throughout, both in vivid imagery, page-turning enthusiasm & intriguingly dastardly characters, but also as thoughtful SF commentary and exploration of ideas - a fine book".

[Laxo]

@Vidzero Ythillian's fate? I assume he died. Happy to be wrong. The Glass Plague is not something I expect him to be able to walk away from.

@Xisor About this mysterious story you speak of, my hopes are dashed .

I'm surprised the ending is not well liked. I enjoyed it.

Thanks for your thoughts.

[Xisor]

Over on The Bolthole, Andy Chambers answered this in regards to Yllithian's Fate:

"If you haven't seen a body they're halfway to Acapulco by now."

Which I take to be good news. The entire thread there's rather interesting for our purposes here, with nice commentary & hints about what we can expect to make appearances in books 2 & 3.

[eldargal]

So

Mexico is part of Commoragh now

Damn you Vect, damn you!

I'm only part way through the book but I'm really enjoying it, a great companion to the Craftworld Path series. Wonder if we will get an Exodite series to complete the trinity?

[Dragannia]

I...did not like the book. Its beginning was very good but it was far too rushed toward the end. Morr is a complete and utter badass though.

[Vidzero]

I...did not like the book. Its beginning was very good but it was far too rushed toward the end. Morr is a complete and utter badass though.

I collect a DE army and in general just love any DE/Drow fiction (excluding anything by R.A. Salvatore) so I enjoyed reading it, one of the fastest books I ever read as I usually like to take my time with them. The adventures of the motley crew on the maiden world reminded me of the War of the Spider Queen series which I loved. Having said all this I also found the ending slightly rushed and goofy. It seems to me that 40k books frequently have very wired Shakespeare-esque type endings. But I can't complain too much it wasn't as bad as some endings *cough* Bloodforged *cough* but I suppose a lot of that has to do with personal preference. I am definitely looking forward to the next two books.

[Styles]

I just finished this book, I allways thought Andy Chambers was a man with great ideas, but did not think he would be such a great writer, I was glad to be proven wrong. I really enjoyed it and it had me not wanting to put it down to discover what would happen next. He really gave some depth to the dark eldar who have far to little written about them. I recommend this book to everyone and look forward to more books done by the great Andy Chambers

[Soul Hunter]

A lot of people think the ending was very abrupt and I agree that it was, but I say that is how its meant to be. Commorragh is a fast-paced place and even the best laid plans can fall apart in seconds, that is why I think a quick ending is fitting for a Dark Eldar book.


SH

[revenant J J]

I have only Just reached the end of chapter three in the this book but I must say I'm very disappointed. I really feel as If I'm reading about human characters in Eldar skin. I haven't read Gav's path series yet but there is just so very very little in dialogue, mannerisms, emotions, mindsets and outlooks of the dark kin in this book that remotely makes them feel alien and 'different'.

I did however like Chambers depictions of the different districts and tiers of Commorragh and how the arena functioned, that was all very well executed.

SPOLIER!

The appearance of Vect was a huge disappointment! The way he appeared on the gigantic screen was cliche and unimaginative (not to mention comical) that it just elicited a painful moan from me. O and Vect's dialogue in that scene was cringy, uninspired mustache twirling villain anyone?

Either way I will finish it and hopefully my views will change.


Edit: Just to note I'm a big fan of the Dark Eldar, there the only army I collect for 40k!

Another thing to note is that Chambers treats some of the iconic units of the tabletop game differently in his full length novel and short story. For the most part it's very jarring but I really enjoyed reading about how the pain engine functioned in Midnight on the Street of Knives, very twisted! Maybe this was a nod to the old codex?

[stormblade]

Haven't read the book, but wasn't Vect always a moustache twirling villain?

[Max_Killfactor]

The adventures of the motley crew on the maiden world reminded me of the War of the Spider Queen series which I loved. Having said all this I also found the ending slightly rushed and goofy...... I am definitely looking forward to the next two books.

I agree with all this. Morr reminded me a lot of Ryld, two of the most badass evil elves to ever exist.

Morr's fight with daemon/archon had me very nervous, I'm glad he survived. Hopefully we see MORR (get it?!!) of him in the next book

This book totally exceeded my expectations, despite the quick finish. I cannot wait to read Path of the Incubus. I am a huge Arhra/Incubi/Drazhar fan, so I hope the next book delivers.

[Soul Hunter]

I agree with all this. Morr reminded me a lot of Ryld, two of the most badass evil elves to ever exist.

Morr's fight with daemon/archon had me very nervous, I'm glad he survived. Hopefully we see MORR (get it?!!) of him in the next book

This book totally exceeded my expectations, despite the quick finish. I cannot wait to read Path of the Incubus. I am a huge Arhra/Incubi/Drazhar fan, so I hope the next book delivers.

Andy Chambers confirmed that Morr is the protagonist of Path of the Incubus a little bit ago, from what the summary says it seems the book will be about Morr trying to regain his honour. And I too am a huge fan of the Incubi, they are my favourite group in the Dark Eldar and as the Dark Eldar are my favourite race that puts the Incubi up there, along with the Night Lords, as my favourite thing in 40k. So this novel is pretty much what i've been waiting for since I first got into Black Library.


SH

[Sephillion]

I think the book was good overall, but there were a few things that nagged me.

I did not like Andy Chambers’ portrayal of Vect, I thought he could have used a more imaginative treatment. I felt the book was very “quest like”, I had hoped it would focus more on intrigues and schemes rather than have a “raise this guy to overthrow the bad(der) guy”.

It seemed like the author poured through the Codex and tried to fit the more things he possibly could, and did not really expand on it that much. I think the Pure Heart thing felt a bit out of the WH40K verse. Especially her fate, but there are two books left, so that could still change.
Finally, I thought the book was a bit tame for a Dark Eldar book. Maybe that’s what 20+ years of violent video games and books do for you?

Now that the bad is out of the way…

I loved the characters: Yllithian especially, but also Kraillach. For some reason, Kraillach’s chapter were among the most entertaining, even if he didn’t appear, at first, as an interesting character. Bellathonis, despite his name reminding me constantly of “Bel Adonis” (French for Beautiful Adonis), was also great, as was the Archon whose name I don’t remember at the moment (Malixian?) who loves flying.

Still, the best is Morr the Incubus!

There were some very good parts (when Bellathonis speaks with the captive world-singer… “I do those things because I can, and I like it!”), but I think what the book does best is making us care about this band of evil-doers. Something that is not an easy feat, I feel. Just for this, I think the book is a success.