The Emperors Gift - World Exclusive Review???

On Claws and Fists we've had some good Exclusives (one of the benefits of living near Warhammer World), Battle for the Fang was our first and new new new new new Dave hit us with the last one with Know No Fear. Well here's another added to the record with The Emperor's Gift.

I'm going to start with a statement, Aaron Dembski-Bowden is Claws and Fists favourite Black Library author. I've never heard Darren say a bad word about him and if he meet The Barons seal of approval then its official.

His Night Lords series was excellent and his Horus Heresy book 'First Heretic' is still my favourite in the series. This time he ventures back into the Emperors good graces with a Grey Knights book with a healthy sprinkling of the blogs favourite chapter.

I've never made a secret that I was a reader before a gamer, the first 2 Black Library books I read were Wolfblade By William King and Dark Adeptus By Ben Counter which of course featured Space Wolves and Grey Knights respectively. The two chapters have remained my favourite and are the only armies I have that are of playable size.

As I was a reader before a gamer the way I have come to judge books is do they make me want to play 40k? Recently I have been in a lull in 40k having been busy with wedding preparations, work and developing a love of bloodbowl so the acid test is does this book make me want to pick up a wolf or knight?

The answer unreservedly is Yes.

ADB begins this book as he did the final Night Lords book with an explanation. During the Night Lords novel he makes it clear that fluff has changed the series he had written.In this book he explains that the release of Codex Grey Knights changed the book he was writing.

The book is written from the perspective of one young Grey Knight, Hyperion and through the course of the book we see glimpses of his indoctrination in the most secret of Chapters, through the first War of Armageddon and beyond. As ADB explains, its not a book of the War because the War doesn't belong to the Grey Knights it belongs to the Defenders of Armageddon, it is the book on the build up and the aftermath of the war.

So what did I love about this book?

Firstly, its grim-dark. No one does it better than ADB in my opinion. Abnett took the Wolves forward in this Universe from the foundation that William King laid and ADB has continued that with them and done it wholly with the Grey Knights. They aren't and in my opinion shouldn't be what others including McNeill, Counter and everyone's favourite Codex writer Mat Ward has made them out to be. They aren't as different from Astartes as Astartes are from Guardsman. They are specialists, they are called in to deal with a specific threat, perhaps the greatest one but still a specific threat. ADB reminds us of this.

It features flawed characters. I don't want perfection from a soldier, even a Astartes, I like the reminder of humanity that failure shows. While Justicar Alaric (Ben Counter's main Grey Knight character) was flawed it was a flaw in the same vein as Uriel Ventris, he didn't agree with standard tactics but in doing so he wins the battle. Not so with Hyperion he makes mistakes, they have repercussions.

He shows the relationships between The Inquisition and the Grey Knights in vivid detail and also goes into details of the hypocrisy of the Inquisition which I love. Inquisitors using heretics and Xenos weaponry shouldn't be allowed and yet it is. The inquisition was designed to save the Imperium and yet it slaughters more Humans than anyone. It always seems to be pushed to one side but not in here.

And finally (in this review although don't think that that's all the book is) the scale of the warfare is excellent, it moves from squad fighting to all out war against an enemy (who we all know) that shouldn't be defeated. It doesn't over do the battles, it does them perfectly.

Of course this wasn't a perfect book there were some things I wasn't particularly taken with.

One of them being the name checking of in game items or Units, it seems to be a common occurrence in Black Library books, in Know no fear we had a Contemptor chucked in for nothing, in this book it was the main character carrying a Nemesis Warding Stave. It didn't take up a lot of the book but I think I would have liked him a little more if he was carrying a Daemon Hammer or a Halberd.

My other gripe was the Inquisitor. I just wasn't taken with her. A native of Fenris she didn't characterise the idea of a Inquisitor in my mind. She broke too many rules (Radical I know) big ones as you come to see. She let her personal feelings dictate policy too much and she makes some serious errors. Now I know, hypocritical of me to say I loved the main character because he had flaws but dislike this one because of it however a young Grey Knight should be expected to be imperfect would a Inquisitor get to leading Grey Knights if it was the same for her?

Overall I loved this book, I shall certainly be reading it again and again.

Let me know what you think.

Lone Wolves: Graphic Novel Review

At the Throne of Skulls in January I picked up a copy of the graphic novel, Lone Wolves by Dan Abnett, drawn by Karl Richardson. The main story is 68 pages long featuring a relatively consistent panel lay out of between 3 and 5 art panels per page.

The art is black and white throughout predominantly in close up and for the most part it's is beautiful. There are a couple of panels showing wide shots of a scene which stand out as being comparatively rough and lacking in detail, but they are few and far between and do not detract from the overall quality of the art in this book. The close ups and splash pages are fantastic, really capturing the emotion and action of a scene. There are a few pages at the front and back of the book showing development sketches and giving some background to the Space Wolves but they could have done more here to fill in readers on the IG and the Tyranids both of whom feature more heavily than the Space Wolves.

While the art is detailed and rich, the graphic design is beautifully simple which makes reading easy and there are some neat tricks used to keep you involved in the story while there is narration going on. The typography is not over the top which compliments the relatively simple dialogue, again this helps the flow of the art and makes it easy to read.

The story itself is necessarily basic (given the format) and focusses on an Imperial Guard unit that has been on the sharp end of a Tyranid swarm. They are low on supplies, low on ammo and low on morale as they pick their way through the snowy wastes on foot. The titular “Lone Wolves” do not join the story proper until the last third of the book, a hunting party from Fenris just passing through to hunt some big game. The book also contains a follow on short story but to talk about that would give away the end of the main story.

With regards to characterisation I found the Imperial Guard to be well realised and “believable”, I was not as convinced by the Space Wolves, dare I say they were too bawdy? I'm sure Space Wolf fans would disagree, particularly if the Space Viking thing is what floats your boat. For my taste I felt it was laid on a bit too thick and in the short story at the end it felt like the Wolves were taking orders from the Guard which I'm sure would rankle anyone's sensibilities.

At £15 it's on the expensive side for a trade paperback but I wouldn't say it's bad value, I enjoyed the story and the art is fantastic. If you're a Space Wolf fan it's a must read and if you're a fan of the art of 40K you won't be disappointed either, I think more could have been done to make this appeal to all sci-fi fans with some more background info but perhaps that's just not the intended market.

Has anyone else out there read this, and if so what did you think?

Black Library do it again - a rant

Just finished reading The Outcast Dead and found it to be an enjoyable book although it doesn't really drive the Heresy forward at all but there are moments in it that absolutely drive me crazy.

Why is it that Black Library authors seem to have an inability to keep a consistent level of fluff. Is it so hard to expect that the authors who write the Heresy books to read the rest of them or the authors who write Space Marine books to read around the topic.

I'll give a few examples, the first from The Outcast Dead, no spoilers about the plot I promise.
A World Eater fights a Custodes and wins seems unrealistic from the outset once you've read First Heretic and seen the Custodes going undefeated against regular marines and in a couple of movements dispatching a chapter master and a number of other marines.
It becomes even more 'unrealistic' when you take into account that the World eater was unarmed, he breaks the Custodes Guardian Spear in half because apparently they are just wood, he is also unarmoured, he punches through the Custodes armour and rips out his spine. Seriously, yeah its a unrealistic world of Psykers and Daemons but still keep some sort of consistency.

The second example comes from the Salamanders series of books. Its very clearly set out in the fluff, Power Armour is rare, so what do the Salamanders do? They burn their dead in power armour. Have the Salamanders got so much Power Armour that they can just put it on the bbq?

The third is from the last book of the Word Bearer series, the warp has been shut off through the use of the Nexus Arrangement and yet they still all manage to teleport into the middle of it, how does this happen?? Is Teleportation not involving warp travel because I always thought it was.

I asked Chris Wriaght last year how much guidance authors get from the editorial team and he said not much, well I am saying now that this is the wrong way to go, there should be a set of rules produced that writers have to stick to.

Rant over and I look forward to seeing your ideas or other examples where you have thought 'that that just doesn't make sense'.

My favourite moment in black library

A topic on Warseer from a while ago got me thinking about the scale of some of the great moments from the Black Library so I thought I would share with the readers my favourite moment and ask for yours as well.

It was a really simple decision for me, it has to be the Emperor of Mankind making one hundred thousand Astartes of the Word Bearer's legion kneel before him while the Ultramarines looked on. Its one of those small moments that really establishes that the heresy was one of the Emperors own making as much as it was anything to do with the designs of the gods of Chaos.

So just a short post but what is your favourite moment in 40k?

Blood Reaver - The review

I will try and keep it spoiler free!

Before I start I know that on writing this I am starting to drift into Aaron Dembski-Bowden (ABD) fan boy territory but his recent writings have been that good I'm willing to accept it. Soul Hunter was good, First Heretic was better and Blood Reaver doesn't fail to deliver.

ADB again picks up the tale of Talos Prophet of the Night Lords legion or what is left of it as they continue to pursue a victory in a war that many have now given up on. The book sees them take the fight to the Imperium looking for that oh so important commodity gene seed however hard times have befallen the once proud eighth legion and they seek assistance from the Blood Reaver himself, the Tyrant of Badab. This leads them getting caught up in one of his schemes and plots against the Imperium. There is also an interesting side plaot involving Talos' slaves and general life aboard the ship which shows another side to the seedy under belly of the 40k universe. Other than that I don't want to go into the story any more, you can read it instead I'll tell you what I loved about it.

What ADB does better than anyone I think is he gives you an inner turmoil as a reader as to who you are meant to be rooting for. Regular readers will know that I am a pure Imperium player, good guys for the win but what ADB shows you and this is a key feature of Grim Dark, is that there are no good guys. Talos as I see it is as 'good' a character as you get in 40K, he fights for his Primarch, he believes that (some) evil should be punished and he protects the people who serve him and his chapter but he has the harsh reality of a setting that is imperfect. Talos constantly harks back to a simpler time when all of his brothers served as he did under their perfect father while his brothers treat this memory with scorn because they know that this never existed.

ADB manages to give a sense of realism to his characters and this brings me back to what he said to me last year when he questioned my review of Prospero Burns. He certainly creates a less characturesque (is that even a real word?) view of the 40K universe. What drives the characters is far more real rather than just 'DEATH TO THE EMPEROR' or 'DEATH TO THE ENEMIES OF THE EMPEROR'. His characters love and desire and this does add in a grown up factor to the story.

As with all his books there wasn't a lot that I didn't like bar the last battle scene which was perhaps a little quick. I also would have liked a bit more Huron but again you can't have everything in life. My other major gripe is the hints at what the next book will be about, is it too much of a give away to point to Eldar seeing as they are mentioned so often? Come on, I hate spoilers when you know that the next one is so far away.

Over the last year ADB has firmly become my favourite Black Library author even if Battle for the Fang has overtaken First Heretic as my favourite book. Hope you enjoy reading this one as much as I did when it finally comes out in shops.

Nikea

Honestly what went on there? Nearly a year has passed since A Thousand Sons came out and I still don't understand what happened.

Was it purely a case of the author taking liberties with the fluff and ending up with something that didn't really make sense or was it something more deep and meaningful?

Lets look at what happened
The Emperor ordered the legions together to discuss the psyker problem. Now in the original fluff I read this was purely a ban on the sorcery performed by the Thousand Sons legion. Now its apparent that its a ban on all psykers. We see this in the first of the Garro audio books, an Ultramarine librarian is shunned by his brothers for using the powers of the warp. So why so Space Wolf Rune Priests still funnel their psyker powers at the end of A Thousand Sons?

Its a sticky part of the fluff that I hope is eventually cleared up by the writers.

Fall of Damnos - the review

So another review of a Space Marines battles novel and the question on every ones lips (or just mine) is was this going to be as good a read as Battle for the Fang? Well of course it wasn't.

That book was about my favourite chapter and contained one of my favourite characters. That doesn't mean however that Fall of Damnos wasn't good.

So what was Fall of Damnos about? Well it focuses on the Ultramarines going to war against the Necron Horde. I have mixed feelings about the Ultramarines. There is a part of me that just doesn't like them. When looking for a reason why I compare them to Man Utd, yeah they are the most supported team in the land, but they are also the most despised and its the same with the Ultramarines. 'They are the greatest of all Space Marines Chapters' but honestly are they? Saying that I have really enjoyed Graham McNeill's Ultramarines Novels featuring Uriel Ventris. Why? Because he didn't just stick to the Codex Astartes, he did what he needed to in order to win.

So what did I like about this book?
Well like Battle of the Fang it considered the fall of Damnos from a number of different view points but like BOTF this at times made it hard to read because of remembering all the different characters. One of the things I like about the Horus Heresy books is the list of characters at the start and who they are. I wish all BL books would do this.

The book also had a fair bit from the perspective of the Necrons which I really liked. It gave me an idea of why they did what they did.

What didn't I like.

The character of Sicarius but that was kind of the point. He wasn't a good leader, he cared more about personal glory than seemingly the good of his men.

I also didn't like the fact that the story really isn't finished by the end but again its a Space Marines Battles book not a Space Marines War book.

Overall it was a good read, as I can generally judge how good a book is by how quickly I read it I'm going to judge them all like this.

6 Days for Fall of Damnos, a decent book.

Battle of the Fang - the review

So today was Black Library live but unfortunately it fell on a day that Derby was at home so Big Gaz had to leave early. Because of that there was never going to be time to attend any seminars so it was purely a case to grab the books that we wanted and leave (as well as have a decent full English in Bugmans, best meal I've had in their for months remembering that I eat in there at least once a week).

This did however give me a chance to spend the day reading Battle of the Fang, you may remember that my review of Prospero Burns wasn't a happy one. I felt that too long was spent on none Astartes characters and their wasn't enough of the legendary characters that I wanted to be brought to life. I left that review with hopes that this book turned out to be better than that one. Well the grin on my face (even though you can't see it) and the speed that I read this book confirms that it was. It was excellent.

Forgive me if I put in any spoilers I will try my hardest not to.

Battle of the Fang is the next in the Space Marines Battles novels written by Chris Wraight
and I believe this is his first step into the world of 40K having previously written about The Empire in fantasy. (He was kind enough to do a Q&A on this book last year to the posters on Bolter and Chainsword which can be found here)

The book follows the story of the Wolves of Fenris in the 32nd millennium. Their Great Companies are scouring the galaxy for the arch-enemy headed by Magnus the Red. Unfortunately the need to remind the enemy of the burning of Propspero leaves the Fang tragically undermanned and the Sky Warriors are in for the fight of their lives to protect their home planet

So what did I like about this book?
Firstly unlike the previous Space Marines Battles books this looks at things from both the perspective of the enemy and the heroes. One of the things I most liked about A Thousand Sons and actually the best of the Horus Heresy books is that it leaves you unsure if the villains are evil? I will have to pass this book over to my dad and then get it back and read it a couple more times to understand the motives of Magnus thoroughly and that has to be a successful book. There are a number of different plots going on which also increases my likely hood to pick it up again and again, characters leaning towards a perceived heresy, those dealing with their own guilt and insecurities while others still trying to come to terms with living with demi gods and living legends. Unlike in Prospero Burns and the Ragnar series where we only got to see a number of Astartes in both this book had a more holistic approach to looking at my favourite legion.

Another reason why this book was so good was the speed that it moved at, within 88 pages the enemy was on Fenris leaving over 400 to tell the story. I read Black Library books for the action, this certainly delivered. We saw the action of a Rune Priest in full flow, the viciousness of a blood claw attack, the stoic fire support of the long fangs and the devastation that a few Venerable Dreadnoughts (including the eldest in the Galaxy) can bring about.

You also got some hints on things that have so far only ever been rumoured. We have known for a long time that the IX legion only ever had 1 offshoot chapter. Why? Well let me tell you that by the end of this you know and yet there are still more questions to be asked. And they also in a very tiny section that made the hairs stick up on the back of my neck hint to knowing something of the fate of Russ.

And finally the real reason that I loved this book was that it linked Abnett's view of Space Wolves with Kings depiction of action. The more time that has passed since reading Prospero Burns the more I feel that Abnett's moving forward with the ideas of the intrinsic views of the Space Wolves legion were needed its just that the story wasn't for me. Wraight combines Abnett's ideas that the Wolves aren't just killers for the sake of it with outstanding action from the word go and for me it made it much more palatable. The new terminology for the Wolves and their home is reinforced not just by the Space Wolf characters but by those of their mortal servants and troops and also the enemy. Following my poor review of Prospero Burns Aaron Dembski-Bowden was kind enough to address some of my points on it (here) and suggested that I might just prefer a less mature vision of the Space Wolves which I think was dead on, I don't look for great literature in a Black Library book just a fun read that I can pick up as I want. As I said, this book did both for me, it moved on from the drinking, farting and fighting view of William King (which I still love) into a showing that none Fenrisians don't understand the IX legion and can't without living and maybe more importantly fighting among them.

What didn't I like?
Well in honesty not a lot.
My main gripe and it is me being really really picky is that there were at least 5 different stories going on and it sometimes jumped a little too much.
There wasn't really a primary protagnoist.
We see a Rune Priest, a Wolf Priest, the Wolf Lord or Jarl in charge of the lone company in the Fang, a couple of blood claws, a Wolf Guard squad leader, a scout, the wolf lord and the list goes on, all in equal measure. Most excitedly we get a good amount of Bjorn but honestly this was me looking for a fault.

All in all I give this book a solid 9 out of 10. Its one I will certainly be picking up again and again in the future and I look to seeing more from Chris Wriaght. Certainly for me the definitive Space Wolf book and well worth the Black Library live ticket to read it early. I'm now going to move onto Victories of the Space Marines which contains another Space Wolf story.

The Purging of Kadillus - the review

The third of the Space Marines Battles book I have read is the Purging of Kadillus by Gav Thorpe. Helsreach was great, I thought that Rynns World was OK and no matter how many times I try and read the White Scars book I end up failing so it was with mixed emotions that I delved into the Dark Angels in detail.

Of course being a good Son of Russ I distrust the boys in green, I've heard rumours from the Long Fangs that all of them didn't make it out of the Great Heresy with clean souls unlike us who never faltered in our support of the All Father.

A very brief (don't want to give anything away) synopsis of the book is that the Dark Angels Third Company led by Belial fend off an Ork invasion ordered by the Maggie Thatcher of 40K Ghazghkull. Of course being a Space Marines battles book the odds are stacked against the Dark Angels.

So what did I like about it? The fact that its a Dark Angels book that has nothing to do with the fallen. You see the Dark Angels as you would any other chapter, defenders of the Imperium, the Emperor's finest and that's it. I also really like that its a book about Space Marines, Guard and Orks and it would be easy to see it recreated on the table top.

What I didn't like it and its something creeping into Black Library books is a lack of imagination when it comes to names. There are millions of worlds in the Imperium and the worlds are spread across light years, do we really need another character called Uriel? Surprisingly from me after my thoughts on Prospero Burns I thought it was a little simple which I suppose its going to be, there can't really be much character development in a single battle.

My final point and its just for Graham if he is reading, the start of the book contains an attack on a 'cough' Squats 'cough' world. (Just pretend Demiurge are Squats mate).

6/10 not a masterpiece but enjoyable.

The best and worst of black library - 2010

As I am a bit flu'd up having spent most of the night talking to god on the porcelain telephone and I am so depressed about where Roy is leading Liverpool they I am trying to avoid the tele I thought I would have a look through this years Black Library collection and see what my top 3 and bottom 3 books of the year were.

I should start off by reminding you that I always route for the good guys so its quite funny that all three of the books I have chosen come with Chaos being the main protagonists. ADB makes the top 3 twice as do the Word Bearers.

The first of the top 3 is Dark Creed. The Word Bearers trilogy has been one of the most enjoyable for me. It gives an insight into the chaos legions rather than just the war bands that GW seem to concentrate on now. Dark Creed finds the Word Bearers attacking one of the most important and heavily defended areas of the Galaxy with the help of the Necron device the Nexus arrangement which has the ability to shut down the warp. This book was written in a very grand scale. The battle scenes raged over the whole sector and we get to see multiple armies and it leads very nicely into another series featuring the Despoiler. 9/10 from me.

The second book to make my top 3 was Soul Hunter by ABD. A really enjoyable read very much like Dark creed it gives you a clear view of what is happening in the now defunct traitor legions and an insight into the so far little seen Night Lords legion. The story follows Talos, a Night Lord with his Fathers gift of foresight which may or may not be slowly sending him insane. I loved this book because again it featured the Despoiler, this time we got to hear him speak and it again let you know what continues to drive the Traitor Legions to their acts of cruelty and violence.

The third book in my top three (these are in no particular order) was of course First heretic. I have wrote an in depth review of the book on this blog so I don't really need to go into it in detail bar to say that I loved it.

So the worst?

The start of the year as already mentioned on this blog found me in hospital and reading Rynn's world a book I found very hard to get into. I didn't like the style nor did I enjoy the story line all that. I like to think of the space marines as super humans that can do what no man can do I do not like to think of them as super humans who can do the completely impossible (for example bitch slapping an Avatar, Calgar Style) and that's what this book seemed to be. I enjoy Black Library books in which there is still a semblance of realism tucked away in there. Not a fan of this one at all.

The second has to be Prospero Burns. Again like First Heretic I have talked about it at length on here. Not a Space Wolf book for me at all. Had I not been a Space Wolf player I may have enjoyed it more and I can understand those who do love it but I found it incredibly tedious and a chore to get through. Keep your Skalds and give me more blood.

Finally the worst of the year was the final book of the Blood Angels series Black Tide. One of the few Black library books I have picked up and not finished. It could have been really good. I love the back story to Bile, but this was just awful. It follows Rafen now wracked with guilt over his brothers death trying to destroy the rogue apothecary and stop his evil schemes. I don't often use Internet terms but this one had epic fail written all over it. A non gaming science fiction fan told me that he had been put off all the BL books after reading this one and I can understand why. Its a real shame because I like James Swallow, Flight of the Eisenstein was a really good book and I enjoyed the Garro audio book but this just didn't get out the starting blocks.

I will continue to look forward to Black Library delivering some great stories and this year I will be attending Black Library live in March come hell or high water.

An impromptu chat with Aaron Dembski Bowden and a Q&A with Chris Wraight

So as you can see if you look a little further down the page I was deeply disappointed with Prospero Burns. One poster on B&C shared a lot of my thoughts such as a major lack of Wolfage and so it was being discussed. Aaron Dembski Bowden was kind enough to share his thoughts on my observations.

His main observation on the book was this

I mean, for a lot of people, the Space Wolves needed a book like Prospero Burns. It gives the Legion credence. It makes them look, well, a bit more grown up. They needed something that wasn't about a Wolf Lord teenager and his ale-drinking Viking buddies who like the ladies and sure do love a good wild boar feast. I respect that people will have different opinions, but comparing the language quality and storytelling of Prospero Burns and the old Space Wolf novels actually sort of alarms me. Give 100 sci-fi fans a copy of both Prospero Burns and, say, Ragnar's Claw or Space Wolf, and I suspect you'll find a significant percentage consider PB as an excellent novel, and the old Ragnar stuff to be a little, uh... well... simple, perhaps, and almost definitely targeted at a younger age bracket. That's not to say that one is right and one is wrong, but they were written with different audiences in mind, when the publisher itself was in a very different situation.

And its certainly a valid one, The Horus Heresy is a New York Times topping series selling over a million copies. The Black Library has moved on from a time when it was written specifically to entertain gamers however his comment still doesn't absolve of what I think the real problem is with this book, the pace.
As time goes on and more people finish the book I have realised that if you liked Legion you will love this book. If like me Legion was only remembered for the revelations and the spoilers rather than the plot line then you probably won't enjoy Prospero Burns.

I was also lucky enough for Aaron to answer another question I had asked along with Chris Wraight author of the up and coming Space Marines Battles book Battle of the Fang.


As regular readers of the blog know I am an avid Science Fiction reader and author that 40k books and the books of David Webber (if you haven't read it read Mutineers Moon best Sci Fi book ever IMHO) there is a massive collection of Star Wars EU books.

I knew from reading interviews with some of the Star Wars authors that there are times when specific things have to happen and they have no say on it. I am sure I read that when it came time to kill off Anakin Solo in the Vong war that the author vehemently argued against it but was still ordered to by the publishing company and I have always assumed that Black Library were the same. At the beginning of the book they lay down a plot and key things that have to happen so my question was thus 'There is a slight spoiler to First Heretic in here'

Q - I've always wanted to know with all Black Library authors how much the stories main details are already decide? Because there is no way that an author can just include such a massive spoiler such as The Ultramarines absorbing the missing legions without Black Library's say so.

A- ADB - Practically no details are already decided, unless it's a famous battle, or something. (In regards to the First Heretic revelation) Well, you probably shouldn't believe that, dude. The characters in the novels are just making guesses, or hinting at an unknowable truth. It's possibly true, sure, but as it stands right now, GW won't reveal the truth about those Legions; all hints in the Horus Heresy series are just possibilities. Black Library never tell us to do anything. That's not really how they work. They check facts, and where the Horus Heresy is concerned, we have regular (long) meetings to discuss the series with Games Workshop's Head of Intellectual Property.

A - CW Hi Simo. Not much to add to ADB's post further up, really. As he says, there's a lot of freedom there. BotF had a couple of restrictions which gave me a few headaches, mostly involving numbers and timing (like the siege lasting 40 days, etc.), but in terms of characters and the unfolding of the action, we get a fairly free hand.

The complete interview can be found here

I certainly didn't expect authors to have that sort of free reign which can certainly be construed as a double edged sword. Yes they have the freedom to tell the story as they wish but they also have the freedom to balls up significant events the biggest one in my mind is Nikea. It seems to me that we have gone from a ban on Sorcery to a ban on Psykers. How is the Imperium of Man surviving without Psykers and when did the decision get revoked? Hopefully questions that will be answered later.

In all I would like to thank these two authors for addressing these points and I look forward to seeing the next Night Haunters book from Aaron and Battle of the Fang from Chris.

There are no Wolves on Fenris

I'll start off by saying that while I will attempt to not make this full of Spoilers to A Thousand Sons I cannot promise that there will be none so if you are that bothered you might not want to read this.
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OK then, 'There are no wolves on Fenris 'a phrase uttered by that despicable Sorcerer Magnus but what does it mean? It has certainly caused some debate on the internet community and Mr McNeill if you happen to read this and want to put and end to the debate that would be great but until then I thought I'd share my feelings as a proud Wolf Player.

I have certainly seen some creative interpretations of the phrase the main one being that the wolves are in fact the first human settlers who evolved to survive Long Night into the creatures that our kinsman on Fenris now accept to be wolves however I really don't like this explanation. ITs believed that the canis helix is a part of that but surely that can't be true. The Canis Helix is part of the geneseed of the glorius Primarch Russ so how can they have used something that had been around before the Emperor ever came to power?

Another theory (and a shocking one at that) is that Fenrisian Wolves are actually creatures of the Warp. I personally think this is an attempt by our enemies (probably the Dark Angels) to ruin our good name especially in the light of their heresy.

So whats my take on this? Personally I think that the Fenrisian wolves are a native species to Fenris. When the first colonists arrived on Fenris they saw lupine like animals and named them Wolves. I think that that Evil Scorcerer found a certain irony that such a stoic group as we would use Xenos like this.

Certainly interested in hearing your thoughts on the matter.