Impressions: Dark King and The Lignthing Tower

Hi all, feeding my addiction to the 40k audiobooks further. I have now heard the two-part audiobook of "The Dark King" by Graham McNeill and "The Lightning Tower" by Dan Abnett. The combined running time of the audiobook is 75 minutes and it is read by Danny Webb (remember him?). People may speculate that the books would be good due to the two authors involved and, in my opinion, they would be correct!

Part1 is The Dark King revolves around the Primarch of the Night Lords, Konrad Curze. The story focuses on the events that lead to the Primarch's transformation from a son of The Emperor to the Night Haunter. It would seem that every Primarch has a special enmity with another and in the case of Curze this happens to be Rogal Dorn, the Primarch of The Imperial Fists. Webb does a good job of portraying the strength and unquestionable loyalty of Dorn's character as well as the dark, brooding and somewhat sadistic nature of Curze. I felt that the two accents/voices were not different initially and become more individualistic as the audiobook progresses but that is a minor criticism of Webb's work. The story follows the two legions as they claim another planet in the name of the Emperor but there is not much detail on the battles that lead to the Imperial victory, which is fairly disappointing. Having said that, I think the main focus of both books is not on the warfare on the battlefield but on the mental war that each of the two Primarchs is fighting inside their heads. There is a section in the The Dark King where we hear about the escape of The Night Haunter from his "prison" and this is the closest that we get to hear about any real fighting. The reader gets to hear more about the visions of the Night Haunter, the reasons for his betrayal of his Father and the crimes that seal his Legion's fate forever. Overall, a very enjoyable book to listen but I suspect that the printed version of this part would be even better.

Part 2 is the Lightning Tower and we are thrown into the future from The Dark King and the Horus Heresy has become common knowledge. Dorn has been given the task of preparing the defenses for the Imperial Palace at Terra and he is not very happy about it. Here is where I am still unsure of the message that Abnett has tried to deliver to the listener/reader - he mentions that Dorn thinks that the defenses make the palace look ugly but I am still not sure what this refers to. It might come to me some time in the future but for now it remains an annoying question in my mind, which diminishes the enjoyment that I got from listening to this part. On the other hand, I did enjoy learning that Dorn is scared! Dorn ponders the question "What are you really afraid of?" a lot here and the final revelation of the reason made me smile. I have thought of Abnett as a master of the emotional/mental plot in a story and this is just another example of it. This tends make his stories longer (some say he "waffles") and I can see myself reading more audiobooks based on Abnett's stories compared to any other author. Unlike The Dark King, we get to hear from a few more Imperial personnae which includes The Emperor (!!!) and Malcador The Sigilite. Again Danny Webb's version of Malcador becomes better as the audiobook progresses and he does a good job of making him sound similar to the other audiobooks of the Horus Heresy that have been read by Toby Longworth. All in all, this was a very interesting look into Dorn's character but the lack of action, my unanswered question about the destruction of the palace's beauty and the general "slowness" of the story have made this my least favourite of all the audiobooks that I have heard so far. I wonder if the printed version would be any better....

As mentioned already, the combined running time of these books is nearly the same as the audiobooks based on a single story. I can't help but feel that the printed version would provide better enjoyment and value for money, although given Abnett's tendency to overdo certain things could be a concern too. This audiobbok is good but not great. Danny Webb's voice is very different to Toby Longowrth's but this is a good thing in terms of variety. Webb provides more of a futuristic voice compared to Longworth's classical voice but he is equally engaging. I definitely look forward to hear more readings by Danny Webb.

Impressions: Raven's Flight

Hello all, I have now listened to my second audiobook from the Horus Heresy and am impressed again. Raven's Flight is written by Gav Thorpe and read by Toby Longworth, who was the narrator for Garro:Oath of the moment. The track length is around 69 minutes but it felt longer probably because it contained a lot of new information that I was not aware of before. The narration is of top-quality and the sound effects are clear and appropriate. The recording is in mp3 format and costs around $3AUS less than the printed version (depending on where it is bought).

While I won't give a detailed review of the story, I think a quick preview into the content of the audiobook will be good. As one may guess from the title the story is based around the remnants of the Raven Guard after they are backstabbed by the traitor legions on Istaavan V (this book follows the events from Fulgrim). The book presents the situation from the viewpoint of their Primarch, Corax. I had very little interest or knowledge about the Raven Guard before this book, apart from my admiration for  the  current model for Kayvaan Shrike and the brief cameo that Corax makes in The First Heretic. This has changed because I was completely engrossed in the potrayal of Corax and his personality. Most of the book is based upon the way the Primarch deals with the desperate situation that surrounds his meagre forces and the rest covers the desperate struggles of an Imperial commander who has had visions about burning ravens. Corax comes across as an astute commander who is able to use his anger at the atrocities committed against his sons to hold out against impossible odds for a long time and he does so in style :p .

I would recommend this book as a starting point for anyone who is interested in listening to the Horus Heresy through audiobooks.

Impressions: Garro Oath Of The Moment

Hello all, yesterday I downloaded James Swallow's "Garro:Oath of the moment" in audiobook format from Black Library's website. The price of the audiobooks are roughly $3AUS more than the printed books but this title has not been released yet and so I went with the audiobook this time.

I was a little skeptical of the audiobook since the level of enjoyment for me depended entirely on the quality of narration. Thankfully the website offers a rather long extract from the audiobook and after hearing it I must say that I was thoroughly impressed. The narrator's name is Toby Longworth and he has a very polished voice that suits the archaic nature of the 30k universe. He also manages to speak in multiple accents that help the listener to distinguish between the different characters. I think my favourite accent was that of Malcador the Sigillite, who sounded like a more cunning version of Yoda. The speed of narration is well-paced - it picks up during the battles and slows down when characters are, for example, in contemplation.

I felt that the story could have been a little longer but this partly due to the fact that the audiobooks are abridged and provide a shorter (not necessarily less entertaining) version of the printed material. It is also due to the fact that I enjoyed this format of the book immensely and wanted it continue further than 72 minutes.

As far as the content of the book is concerned, this book provides a base for the development of Garro's character. The storyline seems to be running in parallel to the main events of the Horus Heresy and is similar to Nemesis (also by James Swallow) in that way. The author has given a number of hints as to what Garro's future may lead to with the words "grey" and "ghost" used extensively. Since this is the first book in the "Garro series" there are very few hints as to what the other missions could be and it creates a lot of questions in the listener's mind. This is a good thing because it makes me want to read/listen to the next installment about Nathaniel Garro even more!

The audiobook is in mp3 format and around 163MB in size. Since it is an audiobook I don't care that it is not a lossless format like FLAC. It is a clean recording and the listener can hear the subtle sound effects of battles and weapon discharges quiet clearly. I would recommend that you listen to the extract before purchasing the audiobook as you may decide against the narrator's voice. The other thing to consider is that the printed version of this book is rumoured to be released in April. If you can wait that long and like to collect the printed books instead then I would suggest that you do that instead.

Citadel's washes are great!

The citadel washes are an excellent way to save time without compromising quality of you minis. They are more diluted compared to inks and leave a matt-like finish on your models. Multiple coats give successively darker shades and they can be wiped off (do it as soon as you apply them) if you are unhappy with the result. Here is the video for the walkthrough.

These pics show how I have used "Devlan Mud", which is a brown wash on my kroot warrior and an ork fro AoBR.

Possible 40k Fan?

I was driving back from work the other day and out of the blue, I came across a car sporting a numberplate that said "horus-1". Now I know it is perfectly plausible that the driver is not a 40k fan but chances are that he is (and has sold his soul to the chaos gods).

Warhammer 40k Basing Kit Video

A short look at the contents of the 40k basing kit, including the contents and an example at the end. The video can be found here.


Here are some pictures of an AoBR model with the 40mm base. I have also added some of the medium-slate pieces and used ballast to blend them together.

It is alive!!

Watch this space