Tag Archives: Warhammer

book report: Know No Fear, Dan Abnett

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Another Warhammer 30K book in the Horus Heresy series, following the Word Bearers’ attempts to destroy the Ultramarines in a surprise attack. It’s quite good fun, though not very coherently plotted, with some subplots and minor characters seeming to be of great importance and then just disappearing without trace. It has a lot of battles and gore and demons, and some good moments with Lorgar and Guilliman.

I wouldn’t recommend if it you’re dying and only have a few months left on the clock, but if you just want to kill time it’s okay.

book report: Deliverance Lost

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Deliverance Lost, by Gav Thorpe, another Horus Heresy book. It follows Corvus, Primarch of the Raven Guard as he attempts to rebuild his almost wholly-destroyed legion after Isstvan V.

I found it an enjoyable read, more so than other Horus Heresy books, as it deviated from the usual format; whereas most HH books begin in medias res with a hitherto unknown protagonist, who will die at the end, Deliverance Lost follows a known and to-survive Primarch and so there isn’t the usual “learning curve”, nor the slight frustration as characters in whom one has invested so much die in the last few pages.

There are also interesting interactions between the surviving Raven Guard and the Alpha Legion; the twenty legions each have their own special character; one can play “what if” games as with Shakespeare, e.g. what would happen if Richard II and Corialanus swapped roles, or (Harold Bloom) Othello and Hamlet.

 

book report: The Outcast Dead by Graham McNeill

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I seem to only read Fantasy and military Sci-Fi novels these days. So why not another in the Horus Heresy saga…

It’s an enjoyable read focussing on an astropath who for some reason has, embedded deep in his subconscious, a future-vision of how the Heresy will end, and is accordingly pursued by Imperial agents. There is an interesting if brief exploration of knowledge & fate; of the effects of knowledge on our will & purpose – so if you knew your cause was doomed, would you have the strength to fight to that eventual doom, or would you simply give up? If so, have you thwarted your doom, by changing the details of its actuation? – by hurrying it on, as it were? Would it be a victory to simply lie down and accept the blade rather than fight through to an inevitable & previsioned doom? – because you prevent (literally so, etymologically-speaking) the doom you foresaw, for another?

I would have liked more of this but it was in any case enough to pique my interest. The rest of the book is standard bolter-porn HH material. There is a ridiculous prison break relying entirely on the Legio Custodes not understanding how to imprison one of the Thousand Sons; a World Eater kills an enemy by literally ripping his spine out of his chest, etc. etc. – lots of jollity & merriment & slaughter, good fun.

the mutant

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Controlling for age, race, sex, education, family income, religion, current and past marital status and number of children, more intelligent people are more likely to prefer instrumental music than less-intelligent people. A 2019 Croatian study confirmed these findings, showing that people with lower intelligence preferred music with lyrics, rather than complex orchestrations. 467 teenagers performed a non-verbal intelligence test and were then asked to rank musical genres in order or preference. Those who recorded the highest IQ scores displayed a clear preference for instrumental music. On the other extreme, preference for rap music is significantly negatively correlated with intelligence.

Triggered by Bach

I had a teacher at school many years ago a slightly barmy but amusing and pleasant teacher to whose name we all attached the prefix SAS (there were persistent rumours of his military service and he once beat up and dragged two would-be robbers to the constabulary). In my class he casually remarked that blacks and whites produce different pheromones and exhibit different reactions thereto, so each group dislikes the other group’s aroma. Although, it would seem blacks are generally attracted to whites given the high incidence of black on white rape, and black outrage when whites move away from the ghetto.

In Warhammer 30k, there are planets of human beings who have developed substantial genetic mutations, some to the point of being deemed “mutants” and worthy of extermination. If humanity did indeed emerge from Africa, those who mutated white skin, light eyes & hair, intelligence, swimming, low time preference, higher IQ, whether through environmental pressures, divine action, or neanderthal admixture, are regarded as “mutants” from the gold standard of, well, this:

Diane Abbott, the Shadow Home Secretary.

At present, there is considerable pressure for the mutant to die out, and for humanity to return to its allegedly original form. It seems that the white mutant has a deleterious and dysgenic mutation, namely an almost total lack of in-group preference, and an intellectual sense of shame at having evolved beyond the ape; a sense of shame which has been amply exploited by race hustlers and of course a certain tribe who are genetically predisposed to schizophrenia and an instinctive hatred of the white mutant.