Asurmen

[Xisor]

I've been reading through this. It's... immense. And lean. Has a great feel to it.

Moreover, in spoilery goodness, it goes into some detail about the world before the Fall. More than that, it also features a few tremendous cameos.

For instance: Jain Zar. I almost screamed. Like properly, a terrible urge to just shriek in delight and sympathetic despair/purpose. But, as I'm in a coffee shop, probably best not to. Difficult to explain that.

Anyway, one of the bits I've especially enjoyed is the very concept of the war between Craft worlds. I know it's been said and implied before, but the little mentions and implication if the plot, this time, really conjured up a big, plausible vista of interconnected strife and antagonism that, previously, I'd never quite *got* within/between the Craft world factions.

Still a good chunk to read, but really enjoying it so far.

[Fenris]

I've had to postpone buying it.Again

Most likely i'll finally manage to grab a copy by next week,if everything clears up and after reading Last son of Dorn,so i'll be back here then

[Neverborn]

I've been reading through this. It's... immense. And lean. Has a great feel to it.

Totally agree - it's like the constraints of a shorter word count forced Gav to really focus and think about every word. I absolutely loved this book!

[Xisor]

Bingo. The only bloat I found was in a couple of fight scenes. Not at all bad, just the only bits that didn't feel especially poignant or portentous.

Moreover:

Spoiler: Asurmen's sword is powered by the spirit of his brother - his first kill! Bloody handed and tragic!

Also, Chapter 19, in the storage locker, I might have to go on record and say that was one of the most grim bits of fiction done by BL. Bloody heck, Gav.

That being:

Spoiler: When they're trapped with the human cultist, she's about to kill her own daughter rather than surrender to Khaine and fight (not realising that even that isn't escaping the doom of the asur...), and instead the Manyia... well. It's grim as... well, it's grim as fuck.

Very well told though. There's only been a couple of times in BL fiction that I've been on the cusp of putting the book down and not looking back (Guy's Skarsnik's opening is one), but this was remarkably different.

It was... bleak. It got the feeling, the horror, the disgust and unwinnable awfulness of 40k just right. Enough to get right to the core, but not enough to stop me reading.

I'm glad it doesn't happen too often, as I could see total emotional fatigue setting in.

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More, and it's a thing only Gav & Chris Wraight's work has managed (that I recall offhand, [Malekith/Caledor and now Path of Heaven]), it's one of the things that truly moves me. Those three to tears, this one to something much less articulatable.

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Hell of a book this. Really enjoyed it, I'd be super keen for more. Especially after Andy Chambers' work in the Path of the Dark Eldar series.

Get Gav & Andy collaborating on some of these stories. And get Phil Kelly (and whoever else helped on thar DE Codex) to really flesh out the days of the ancient Eldar.

(Not that I wouldn't trust Gav to do it alone - that'd be terrific. But I wouldn't want to burn him out, and also I'd be happy to throw money at lots of it - so more hands...)

[Neverborn]

Hell of a book this. Really enjoyed it, I'd be super keen for more. Especially after Andy Chambers' work in the Path of the Dark Eldar series.

Get Gav & Andy collaborating on some of these stories. And get Phil Kelly (and whoever else helped on thar DE Codex) to really flesh out the days of the ancient Eldar.

(Not that I wouldn't trust Gav to do it alone - that'd be terrific. But I wouldn't want to burn him out, and also I'd be happy to throw money at lots of it - so more hands...)

Me too! Gav's writing book 2 now I think, focusing on Jain Zar I believe it's back to more of the traditional BL novel length of 80-100k, which is interesting. I'm keen to see if Gav manages to keep things as streamlined given the longer word count.

Agreed on getting some of the other authors involved. I know Guy Haley's Valedor isn't to everyone's tastes, but I though he had a good handle on the eldar and I reckon he'd be a good choice for one of the books in this series.

As for the locker room bit...yeah. Bleak. Powerful stuff, and (while I agree that I wouldn't want too much of it) it's the sort of thing that eldar stories should include - they're not exactly full of the joys of spring, as a race!

[Fenris]

Finally done.it's a good read all around,on both "sidesx" of the timeline

I liked how it manages to explain a lot of things about Asurmen without completly spoiling the secrets around him as a phoenix lord.Also,great scenes all around both in the past and present timelines ("when the Rhana dandra comes we'll need craftworld Ulthwè more" )