Peacekeeper_b said:

If we all agreed - what would the point of forums be?

Phule's Compay - Robert Asprin. Phule is a multi-billionaire who joins the army in the future, buys his way and is very devous and cunning. Fairly lighthearted along the lines of his Myth books - Myth Inc. Link, Mythnomers and Impervections for example. In other words fairly comic and light hearted. By comparing them are writted from a first person perspective, each 'hero' isn't very heroic but they have good qualities and come out on the right side in the end.

I am liking much of the backstory in Cain, it is just the style and character's perspective and constant repetition that I don't. Then again it really wouldn't make very good stories if instead it were written in the third person. So in the end it is what it is.

I actually like Scourge the Heretic. In some ways more than the Eisenhorn trilogy. Yeah, the Inquisitor is rather bland and relegated to the background but he is supposed to be. This is meant to be written the way the game should be played. Anyway, one thing that StH has over Eisenhorn is that Dan Abnett, as good at storytelling and pacing as he is, can't write relationships to save his life. Sandy Mitchel's stories are less creative than Abnett's but his characters are more human and I identify with them more. Overall, I recommend both the Eisenhorn Trilogy and Scourge the Heretic.

Torque2100 said:

I really wonder what you mean by "the way the game should be played"? I would be rather upset if someone were to tell me that I played the game wrong!

I`m all Abnett btw. Started there, liked it ever since. I also think he manages relationships very well, perhaps not the way you are used to, but who knows what 40 000 years will bring. It`s a fictional setting. Life is bound to be different.

Well Commissar Cain is usually compared to the Flashman novels by George MacDonald Frazer who does actually make a bully, a coward and a lech a sympathetic character as he gets involved in the greatest events of the 19th century. (and historically speaking these novels are fantastic). I think Mitchell doesnt quite have the courage to give Cain any negative qualities beyond some laziness and love of good food and drink. That said, his manipulations of how a person who believes themself to be a coward but keeps getting into trouble is always amusing.

As memory serves, both the Sorceress and Necron stories are in the Cain omnibus you have.

SJE

kennetten said:

Welcome to 40k hobbyism!

Kage

Reading the Cain omnibus at the moment and just finished Caves of Ice. The second was much better than the first. Cain isn't nearly as much of a whiner as he did in the first, a la "But I have to go into Tachi and pick up some power converters!".

I have been liking the general story lines giving an idea for life as a grunt whereas the Horus Heresy books deal only with the Big Hats.

I`ve just read the first story of "Brothers of the Snake" by Dan Abnett. Found that part very entertaining and good. First half of the story was grim, dark and nasty IMO, while second part more SM and tech.

Thinking about making a session or two out of that plot-line. Why not use a good story written by an expert?

I'm not a fan of the Horus Heresy novels due to reading several of them that are just re-telling the same scenario from the perspective of a different chapter.