Legion of the Damned

[lovelessmerc]

So I just got this book today and I have to say it blew me away. I love Rob Sanders and havn't read any of his BL books that I didn't like. The way he portrays his space marines is great they are hard core murders, and the way he tackled the whole Space Marines and the Emperor as a god is great. I would be more than happy to answer any questions about this great novel, and i strongly reccomend this to any one who enjoys original gothic scifi with out the generic spin most BL authors use. Hands down my favorite author, ADB and Dan best watch themselves

[shadowhawk2008]

Its pretty spectacular isn't it? Definitely right up there with Chris Wraight's own SMB novel, although personally I'd say I enjoyed this much more. Probably because I didn't really care for the Legion of the Damned before this novel and the Excoriators are pretty much the new kids on the block.

You can read my review of the novel here: http://thefoundingfields.com/2012/02...ed-shadowhawk/

[lovelessmerc]

Read your reiew and it was great, did you or anyone for that matter get a little thrown off by his writing style? There is nothing wrong with it, it's just so different then the drab chapters in most books, I'm looking at you Sons of Dorn. And the Scourges promotion?? one would think in the ultra conservative world of a Sm chapter any kind of loss or failure would warrant demotion and possible physical and mental punishment, though the sons of dorn have a "unique" mentality concernig physhical pain and its purifinying effects the withholding of such pain would be a punishment. SPOILER........................ Infact the scourge uses such a punishment on his chief whip. Thanks for the review and the quick response venerable warseer eldar. SPOILER........................................... ......................... and that fire lord has to be the coolest thing ever,, his fire breathing!!!!!!!! give me fire lords!!!!



Scourge= Chapter Champion= main charecter= corpus-captain=captain
Whip= squad commander

[superdupermatt]

As a fan of the Legion of Damned I was hoping for a book purely about them, so I felt slightly disappointed that they only showed up in the final chapter(s). In retrospect the book as a whole is very good, but should be named Space Marine Battles: The Excoriators (with added Legion of Damned!)

[Xisor]

I loved it. Contrast to Superdupermatt (though I too am a big fan of the LotD), I felt it was a pretty close to perfect look at the Legion and that we got a lot more of a steady look at them than we've had before. (Though they have cropped up in at least one other novel, to my recollection.) If I had to rename it, I'd rename it "Space Marine Battles & Between Battles: Exact Description of Content", just like how all other good book titles are done.

In hindsight, I kinda wish the story of Kersh's assistants could have been given more detail. Or rather, their characters given more screentime and opportunity to flourish. But that's hardly a criticism, LotD's one of the top books I've read in a long, long while.

[shadowhawk2008]

The writing style is exactly what pulled me in. More 40k fiction like that would be most welcome.

As for the Legion only showing at the end, remember that there is a constant Legion presence throughout the novel as Kersh's phantom everywhere. Plus, as Rob has said before, the Legion never speaks. They just kill and kill and never utter a single word. Kinda hard to fit in more than what we got without it just being a simple "and lo the Excoriators stood by and watched the Legion kill their enemies. Corpus-Captain Kersh waded into the battle alongside his leading squads and slaughtered the enemy with great swings of his sword while the Legion around him killed like silent shadows".

I mean, I can see why it would put people off, as the case is in the novel, but I think the approach Rob used is still valid.

[All Cing Eye]

I must say I am really enjoying it, haven't finished it yet, but so far it is pretty good. I especially liked getting detailed information on the Feast of Blades.

My only gripe so far is creating yet another 2nd founding Imperial Fists chapter, it's not neccessary to shoehorn it in. Just make them a 3rd founding and it would've still worked while not messing with established background.

[shadowhawk2008]

The issue was taken up with the GW Design Studio and they okayed it, so in a way, Rob is not the only one at fault :-)

[Lupe]

My only gripe so far is creating yet another 2nd founding Imperial Fists chapter, it's not neccessary to shoehorn it in. Just make them a 3rd founding and it would've still worked while not messing with established background.

The issue was taken up with the GW Design Studio and they okayed it, so in a way, Rob is not the only one at fault :-)

I think they more than okayed it, to be honest. The existing successor chapters come from a time when background said most Astartes legions were maybe ten thousand strong at their peak. Since the newer Heresy works (from Raven's Flight onwards, if memory serves), all numbers were multiplied by ten. Now, the fact that the Imperial Fists would only have 3 Second Founding successors sounds a bit out of place. I mean, even with the Siege of Terra and the Iron Cage, they were still in far better shape than any of the legions that got front row tickets to Istvaan V. The Raven Guard come out of that hell hole with roughly three chapters' worth of marines...

My point is that, just because there are only three second founding IF successors listed in the SM Codex doesn't mean that they're the only ones. I'm pretty sure that the SM Codex doesn't list all 22 of the Ultramarines' second founding successors, either (in fact, I'm not even sure if they've ever all been given names in the first place)

[shadowhawk2008]

And that's all hand in hand with the GK codex stating outright that there were 400 chapters created during the Second Founding, the largest ever.

[DDM]

When I first read the book, I was disappointed. Perhaps all the hype had given me overblown expectations, but it seemed to lack the 'wow' factor I was expecting.

Then I thought on it a bit, and realized it is actually a solid book. I did not connect with Kersh as much as some of the protagonists in other novels, but he was still enjoyable. The Excoriators are nicely introduced and fleshed out, and the Legion of the Damned were executed well. A constant presence, but they only become a real element at the end.

As others have said, the depictions of the random Warp gribblies were very unique, evocative, and suitably bile-inducing.

Not my favorite in the series, but I recommend it to my BL-loving friends.

Well played, Mr. Sanders. Well played.

[vorag1]

I must say, after reading the reviews I was expecting more... The book should really have been called 'the Excoriators' rather than 'legion of the damned', there is very little LOTD involvement other than a deus ex machina ending. I think that is why I was disappointed with it, although parts of it were good (the descriptions of the various parts of the invasion force was GREAT!).

[Scribe of Khorne]

I really really enjoyed this book. Read it on my IPod. :]

From the over the top 'grim-dark' of the people sanctifying the water, to the wearing of dorn's mantle, to the portrayal of the the Cholercaust, the Comet, the whole thing! A great story, and I wont lie, I was moved by the scene with the husband, wife and child.

Really great book, top flight stuff, does he have anything else in the works?

[Wyrmwood]

One of the things that often bothers me about Rob Sanders' portrayal of dialogue between the servants of Chaos, is the use of 'My master'. In Legion of the Damned, I wasn't sure whether to cringe or laugh when the bridge captain said: "What is thy bidding, my master?"

[shadowhawk2008]

I have to admit, I laughed out really loud when I read it

[Wyrmwood]

Aye, I was sat on the bus at the time and I made a very strange sound. Not quite laughter, not quite a groan. Some fell conjoining of the two.

That aside, I do really rate Atlas Infernal and Legion of the Damned very highly indeed.

[Styles]

I am reading this book at the moment and flying through it as enjoying it so much, it is up there with one of the better Black Library books. So far no Legion of the Damned, but if they were to be the main part of the book it would be hard to write anything about them as you could not really write from a first person perspective. I look forward to more books from the author.

[shadowhawk2008]

Actually it'd be difficult to write from either their perspective or have them interact directly with the Excoriators since the Legion are all mute :-) They are ghosts and they never speak. Silent killers!

[Scribe of Khorne]

Actually it'd be difficult to write from either their perspective or have them interact directly with the Excoriators since the Legion are all mute :-) They are ghosts and they never speak. Silent killers!

Yeah I thought they where really well done. Are the characters going insane? Visions? They dont know, even in the end Kersh didnt appear to be sure of anything involving them. So much to like about the book, my one nitpick is the usage of 'bawled'. At the end of the Feast of Blades I thought it was a perfect usage of the term, as I could imagine the emotional state of Kersh at that time inflecting his call for the apothecaries, but it seemed to be every time he wanted to yell at someone he was bawling by the end of it all.

A very minor nitpick though really hardly worth mention.

[melgorth]

Like everyone else I found this book to be very good. I was especially pleased to find that the picture of the comet taken by Euphrati Keeler mentioned a few times at the beginning of the book was actually shown to us in the picture section at the middle of the book, as well as a fact we get a hint of her fate during the Horus heresy going by the fact she is now considered a saint!