Techpriests are So Cool, You Guys · 4:24am Dec 2nd, 2016
I recently finished the Graham McNeill Mechanicus trilogy Priests/Lords/Gods of Mars. It was really good.
Also, this:
'You destroyed our vessel,' said the eldar warrior-woman. 'Now we destroy yours.'
'Illogical,' said Saiixek. 'You will die too.'
'To prevent your master from acquiring such power, we would die a thousand deaths.'
'Outrageous hyperbole,' said Saiixek, slumping against a control panel as the life flooded out of him.
Using your dying breath to criticize your murderer for being overdramatic is the most Mechanicus thing ever.
In case there was really any question, Graham McNeill is also the author of Storm of Iron, which is the single best W40K story ever in which Chaos actually WINS, and is a spiritual precursor to much of Iron Hearts.
They are pretty cool. I always like it when they show up and get to pray and work in your stories. Are there any other books that you could recommend that feature them heavily?
I'm just about half way through this series myself. I initially read it because I wanted to know what happened to Guardsman Hawke, but I kept reading it because, as you say, techpriests are mad cool... And they fight the Eldar and no one likes the Eldar. Seriously, screw those pointy-eared bastards.
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The Eldar actually go through a pretty intense narrative arc through the course of the trilogy. Only McNeil can get me to feel grudging respect for the wretched space elves.
Although seeing Archmagos Telok argue with them about who's more suicidally arrogant was pretty funny.
McNeil is one of those rare authors who seem to have realised that perfection, whether it's in the form of perfect space elves, perfectly martial space marines, perfectly evil chaos, or perfectly mechanical Mechanicus is, on the whole, perfectly boring. What on the one hand makes 40k so interesting, and what I've personally found makes it so difficult to write about, is the overwhelming temptation to try and do justice to the scale of it by communicating everything in the superlative. I won't say that McNeil is without flaw as an author, some of his longer descriptions are repetitive and come dangerously close to falling within the realm of purple prose (And, again, this is something I've personally never really been able to overcome whenever I try and write anything to do with 40k, so I'm aware I'm calling the kettle black) but in terms of the general focus of his stories, I find his willingness to focus on what could broadly be described as the dysfunction of his characters is what makes his writing so engaging to me. If you don't mind my saying so, it's also what I find so fantastic about the characters you've created in your own stories, and I can see clearly why you regard McNeil's work as a sort of 'spiritual precursor' to your own.
P.S. Anyone who makes a comparison to the words "Spiritual Liege" will be purged with absolute abhorrence.
I have read the first one but I believe it is lost. I will have to read the rest if its this good
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The book Mechanicum was pretty good. It's part of the Horus Heresy series, and also shows the rise of the Dark Mechanicus. You learn a lot about the fundamentals of the Cult and some of the technologies and social structures they work with.
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Eeyup.
His characterization of Perturabo as a deeply tormented intellectual and simmering father-figure rather than a slightly more thoughtful Angron was the best. I felt more empathy for Perturabo than I did any of the Loyalist primes.
Could you do me a favor? I can not find anywhere the order of books in this trilogy. If you could tell me the order from start to finish so I can buy these books off amazon I would appreciate it greatly. Unless I'm dumb and priests lords and gods is the proper order.
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The first book in the trilogy is Priests of Mars, the second is Lords of Mars, and the third and final book is Gods of Mars.
The ones for sale in those links are all E-book versions. I have hardbacks, but I just found them in a book store (lucky!).
4327081 Thanks a ton! I'm going to get the hardbacks so I can read them on the fly without hassle.
Well, I guess I've got some new stuff to add to my reading list at some point.
It seems Graham McNeill's name is not among the books I've already read but I haven't heard anything bad about him yet.
4327081 I'll give his trilogy of books a read sometime. I'm wary of Graham McNeil's books, as I didn't particularly enjoy the Ultramarines Omnibus, i.e, the first one. It took Dawn of War: Winter Assault's Imperial Guard campaign and Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine, to get me excited about the Ultramarines again. (Dammit GW, why couldn't you have made Titus canon. He's like the only Ultramarine I like XD.) My dislike of that omnibus aside, I feel I can trust your opinion of these stories. Particularly since you've shown so much love n passion for WH40K, across all your wh40k stories.
4327557 I'd recommend skipping the Ultramarines stories personally, as I found them to be a bit of a bore. Nothing against the Ultramarines myself, just the story didn't really invest me in the characters. Unlike Dan Abnett's Gaunt's Ghosts series, where I was exceptionally eager to see what happened to Colonel-Commissar Ibram Gaunt and his regiment of Guardsmen, as they travelled to different theatres of war, across the Sabbat Worlds. Or the career of Inquisitor Gregor Eisenhorn, in the Eisenhorn series. As he goes up against various chaos-aligned and imperial factions, to try and protect the Imperium from rotting under the influence of Chaos.
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I can't speak to his work on the Ultramarines, but his work with the traitor Legions and the Mechanicus is top-notch.
Of course, I'm horribly biased because of Storm of Iron. But still.
Gotta give you an honest shout out here man. I had no idea this author existed and I have enjoyed your stories so much that it just came to me on a whim " Huh, if he vouched for this guy he must be pretty good." Well I bought the first book and finished it within 2 days and tomorrow I plan on buying Storm of iron and the rest of the Mars trilogy. This author is honestly the god damn bomb and I'm really glad you gave his work a shout out because it is honestly one of the best books I have read to date.
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Glad to hear it! McNeil has long been far and away my favorite Warhammer author!
So this isn't related to Techpriests, and you've probably already seen this image, But I thought it was a pretty cool design for an Iron Warrior, Terminator. I get a very distinct, Chaos Undivided/general Chaos feel from the design. Not sure what kinda Daemon that little blue one would be, maybe Tzeetch?
pre10.deviantart.net/1529/th/pre/i/2010/159/9/a/axinous_by_klausmasterflex.jpg
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Very impressive. I hadn't seen that picture before. Also much more colorful than our boys usually are.
Not sure about the daemon either. Might be a non-aligned daemon or maybe a person's soul.
4354857 Really? He's more colourful than regular Iron Warriors? Neat. I've actually only read about Iron Warriors in the Ultramarines novels, and while I wasn't too impressed, I will say the Iron Warriors in that story were resourceful, especially Honsou, who had set up defences that mesded with space marines minds, causing a few to commit suicide. Tricked a greater daemon of khorne, he'd been imprisoning and using it's energies to fuel a daemonic shield. He then got that confused daemon to assault the OTHER iron Warriors attacking his fortress, and then convinced a bunch of Space Marines, left behind by the 'heroic Ultramarine' to join his cause. And also managed to copy some of that heroic ultramarine to create a clone of him, which he apparently goes on to use, in commencing a devastating sneak attack on the Ultramarines. I mean I know all that sounds awesome, but Honsou mainly managed to do a lot of that by being in the right place, at the right time.
Sorry I went off on a completely unrelated tangent ^^;. Maybe you could use this design for a Iron Warrior in your story?
Got Storm of Iron after your recommendation! I'm halfway through it, really great so far. Definitely the best scenes are where the Mechanicus show up and do tech worship fantasy awesomeness.
I keep reading Magos Naicin's name as niacin, as in the organic nutrient, tho. Ironic.
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ikr?
His Horus Heresy novel Angel Exterminatus was amazing too