So Dan Abnett's Titanicus now that it has come out in soft back.
So believe it or not, this book deals with a Titan war. A forge world in the Sabbott Worlds area (The same region of the Imperium that Gaunt's Ghosts takes place) has been attack by a chaos Titan legion. The Titians of Legio Invictus are rerouted against orders to defend the forge world.
I am an admitted Abnett fan boy (I think he is the best Black Library author bar none!), but I was not very happy with this book. I think that Abnett was reaching to far when he wrote this book. There are literally twelve plot lines going on in the book. And there are a few of those plot lines that have absolutely nothing to do with the overall story line.
There are so many characters, and so many jumps within each chapter it is hard to remember, was this the tank commander guy, or the commander of the Warlord titan? I am used to authors having multiple plot lines going on and just as you get into one, it jumps to the next one, but this book takes this idea to the extreme. I found it difficult to follow.
I think Abnett was, quite admirably trying to "mainstream" 40k with this book. Unfortunately, he waters down the 40k in this book so much, it doesn't feel like a 40k book.
One of my largest pet-pieves at the moment with a lot of the 40k novels rears its ugly head in this novel as well. There is the "super evil" dude that is supposed to be on the "good guys" side that just F's everything up.
I just don't understand why, when your protagonists are fighting the forces of evil, you need to have the clichéd super evil villain in your own camp shtick.
That being said, no body does action like Abnett. The hawt Titian on Titian action is fan-friggin-tastic. There are a few non-Titian battles, and a lot of battles with the Skitarii (The Mechanicus' infantry) that are pretty awesome, but the Titian battles will blow your socks off! The book is well worth reading just for them!
I know I have bashed the book a bit, but I think that the battles do make up for it a bit. I hate to admit it, but I'd have to say that I think this is my least favorite book that Abnett is written. But I still would give this book 3 starts out of 5. Because Abnett's worst book is still better than a lot of the other authors in the Black Library. He’s just that good.
P.S. the other thing that I dislikes about the book is that there are clearly Space Marines on the cover, but none in the book itself.
ReplyDeleteOoh no Space Marines, that's a plus right there.
ReplyDeleteI think the super evil villain in your own camp is one of Abnett's hallmarks and really is his way of illustrating the "evil within" element of the 40k Universe.
And I agree that Abnett is "the man". But I'll read anything as long as it wasn't written by C.S. Goto.
It was a totally fine book without Space Marines, or even Imperial Guard (pretty much). This was 99.9% Mechanicus, which was nice.
ReplyDeleteYou, know, I'm fine with the whole "evil within" element of the 40k Universe, I mean its not supposed to be a happy, fluffy bunny of a universe. Its supposed to be a shitty place to live. I'm just tired when EVERY book as that element in it, Abnett book or anyone else.
And as for C.S. Goto, blech. He really screwed the pooch for more xeno's books. Those Eldar books were terrible, and the Blood Angles books weren't much better.
I think the only non-Imperium book that I've read that was any good was Storm of Iron. That does a good job of getting you to root for the bad guy!