40K Dark Apostle/Dark Disciple-SPOILERS!

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Aaron
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40K Dark Apostle/Dark Disciple-SPOILERS!

Post by Aaron »

I recently picked up Dark Apostle and Dark Disciple by Anthony Reynolds which follows the psychotic adventures of a First Acolyte of the Word Bearers Legion. In the first novel we see the Word Bearers assault an Imperial planet and construct a massive tower using the bodies of its inhabitants in order to access a powerful xeno artefact. We also get a good look at how they treat their cultists and the Imperial population. It's quite clear that the cultists are only there to serve the whims of their Chaos masters. In the first scene with the cultists meeting the Legion commander, one is executed for not lowering his eyes when meeting the Dark Apostle and many more are sacrificed in order to summon daemons and the like from the Warp. One gets the sense that they really didn't know what they were in for when they turned to Chaos.

We also get a good look at the now Imperial slave force. After being taken the slaves have a Chaos star stapled under the flesh of the forehead and will spending their time building the tower they get subjected to a constant stream of "noise" (which is apparently a Chaos language), even during their sleep period. When the air around the tower site gets too polluted to breath they shove a living gas mask down their throats Alien style.

This is without a doubt one of the most f***ed up WH40K books I have ever read and while it is an interesting look at Chaos, it's a good reminder of why they are the bad guys.

Dark Disciple is a more conventional novel in the style of a CSM commando raid and while less f***ed up, it has its moments. For example at the end, a human who aided the First Acolyte in his escape from an Eldar ship gets handed over to the slave gangs just for being a human and having outlived his "usefulness". And of course there is the obligatory look at the Dark Eldars torture practices.

Edit: Fixed my shitastic grammer and spelling.
Last edited by Aaron on Fri Jan 02, 2009 9:22 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Sionnach Glic
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Re: 40K Dark Apostle/Dark Disciple-SPOILERS!

Post by Sionnach Glic »

They worth picking up?
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Re: 40K Dark Apostle/Dark Disciple-SPOILERS!

Post by Aaron »

Rochey wrote:They worth picking up?
Very much so.
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Re: 40K Dark Apostle/Dark Disciple-SPOILERS!

Post by Mikey »

It sounds pretty interesting to see an exploration of Chaos more in-depth than "it's disgusting, and they killed people."
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Aaron
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Re: 40K Dark Apostle/Dark Disciple-SPOILERS!

Post by Aaron »

Mikey wrote:It sounds pretty interesting to see an exploration of Chaos more in-depth than "it's disgusting, and they killed people."
The second one has some pretty funny moments surrounding the now-possessed Magos they are carting around too but yeah, it's not the bog-standard "Chaos kill, Chaos smash" we usually see. I should really do the DoW omnibus review but I'm afraid I may vomit from the universe breaking stupidity that is Goto.
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Re: 40K Dark Apostle/Dark Disciple-SPOILERS!

Post by Sionnach Glic »

Cool, I'll keep an eye out for them. I've some gift vouchers for some book stores near me, so I'll probably take a trip in next week.

As for Goto, yeah, just avoid him like the plague.
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Re: 40K Dark Apostle/Dark Disciple-SPOILERS!

Post by Mikey »

I'll look out for them too, plus I'm considering checking out Swallow's Blood Angels series. Any opinions on those?
I can't stand nothing dull
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Re: 40K Dark Apostle/Dark Disciple-SPOILERS!

Post by Aaron »

Mikey wrote:I'll look out for them too, plus I'm considering checking out Swallow's Blood Angels series. Any opinions on those?
I passed on those simply because the description on the jacket sounded dumb.
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