The Twice-Dead King: Ruin (Warhammer 40,000) [Paperback] Crowley, Nate

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I was genuinely surprised with how good it was. don't get me wrong, it is not that I expected it to be bad, but Nate Crowley elevated the setting, characters to that illustrious four star level of quality. As I have mentioned before when commenting on the necrons as characters, it is easy to write them badly. As either malfunctioning AI or as individuals who just happened to inhabit metallic bodies controlled The hero of the story is Oltyx, “a Necron royal who was once heir to the throne of the mighty Ithakas Dynasty, before being cast into disgrace by his former kin and exiled to the empire’s edge”.

That’s a recipe for abject madness if ever there was one, and I don’t think it’s something which, as a species, they have any idea how to cope with. It’s something every individual has to either find their own solution to or else lose their minds.” Peer into the into the bizarre culture and motivations of the Necrons in this great novel from Nate Crowley. neither matter, nor energy, but information: they cast hekatic decrees, written in the basal language of reality itself, which command the molecules of their targets not only to dissolve their bonds, but to tear each other apart. Putting aside the quandary over whether humans can truly write about the mind of an alien or robot, the Crowley (similar to Rath) writes the Necrons as particularly human. Their range of feelings are the same, their interactions contain recognisable social cues, and they suffer versions of dementia and (extreme) dysphoria.It so many of those good good space opera tropes I love: dynasty and honor causing family conflicts to span millennia and across planets, disgraced second sons in exile, decaying empires, the works. Anyway, before I knew any of this, when I was first aware of the necrons a very long time ago, I had little interest in them. They didn’t seem much better than generic robots. A few things changed my opinion of them, mostly over the last two years. The Twice-Dead King' was originally conceived as a single novel, but grew in the telling and was eventually split into a duology of two books, 'Ruin' and the follow-up 'Reign'. Both books do feel distinct and have satisfying endings all by themselves, but are one story split in half, so don't worry if a number of interesting secondary characters are seemingly abandoned halfway through Ruin - they'll all get their due in the sequel. I also noticed the fascinatingly obtuse communication technobabble was reduced in this book, but not to its benefit. The conversations seemed a lot more ordinary and human. Likewise, I missed Oltyx's subminds, a uniquely strange and entertaining aspect to the first book's POV. After biotransference there was this whole thing called the War in Heaven, fought by the necrons and C’tan against their archnemeses, the Old Ones (powerful beings responsible for seeding new life in the galaxy, including eldar, orks and yes humans too). The Old Ones were defeated, the necrons overthrew their string-pullers the C’tan as well, and then – because the loss of life from this unimaginably cosmic war was incalculable, the necrons decided to . . . well, go to sleep for a while in their tomb worlds, to recover and let other conflicts of the galaxy go on without them. And by a while I mean sixty million years.

Djoseras had remembered their deeds for them. Oltyx knew he would never understand why. But if he had to guess, he would have said this was his elder’s way of paying silent penance for those legionaries who had died, in that training yard all those years ago, to teach his younger brother that life held no value. En comparación con la anterior entrega, este se siente un poco repetitivo a veces y en ocasiones parece que se extiende mucho en ciertas situaciones. Algunas cosas no las terminé de entender y no hay mucha información por ahora en línea. Pero en general, esos detallitos no arruinan la experiencia. I had the time of my life creating the characters who populate this story, and they’re an eclectic bunch. Oltyx must contend with the mad Phaeron Unnas, who disowned and disgraced him, as well as Djoseras, the heir who replaced Oltyx,” Nate tells us. The flayer curse, which can turn any Necron into a wretch consumed with an irrational obsession with flesh and blood, features very heavily in the story – and it led to some of the most harrowing scenes I’ve ever written,” he explains.For my first review this is perhaps a bit short but I feel like delving to deep into it would be a waste of the story. I found particular enjoyment out of the side characters and among these the deathmark Lysikor was an absolute joy, I do hope to see more of him/it in any future installments. While the plot of Ruin is really a vehicle for adding to the Necron's lore in a more readable way than tabletop-friendly Codex, I enjoyed it alot for the diversions and the relationships. Freed a little from the drudgery of service that a human character tends to be subject to in Warhammer 40K, Oltyx (the single POV for the story) has a wry humour and reflectiveness that is memorable. It's believable that he can play the bad hands he gets dealt well. Theres both a sense of reolstuon and harbinger for a story where he doesn't even win! With Richard Reed returning to the Necrons as a narrator I had high expectations, which he met. His work on ," The infinite and the divine," Being what got me into 40k in general. He shows great range in characters and their corrupt voices. His performance alone makes this a must have.

lo que me gusta de Warhammer es lo impredecible de la trama, y en ese particular esta entrega no decepciona. La historia tiene unos giros impresionantes. Pero me sorprendió también encontrar ciertos mensajes ocultos en la lectura relativos al resentimiento, el ostracismo, y la soledad. Así que será una buena lectura para el que sólo quiere acción o para el que le gusta encontrar un poco de reflexión en lo que lee.

In this book Crowley does an amazing job at conveying the fact the necron (nobility) are individuals that just happen to exist in robotic bodies. The way the different characters are seen struggling with the accumulated weight of anxiety, pettiness and/or vindictiveness that has piled during their immortal wake makes for a very interesting read as they struggle to hold on to their selves, keep themselves sane and all the while deal with an ever more hostile universe. Intriguing new author Nate Crowley presents one of the most complex and fascinating Warhammer 40,000 novels I had the pleasure of reading, The Twice-Dead King: Ruin, an epic and thrilling novel that explores one of the most intriguing races in the canon, the Necrons. The fate of Oltyx and his necron dynasty is revealed in Reign, the epic and impressive second entry in The Twice-Dead King series of Warhammer 40,000 novels by Nate Crowley. But "The Twice-Dead King: Ruin" is neither a comedy nor a parody. It's a very serious story with real emotion and convincing character development. The Necrons, one of the two most exotic races in the 40k universe, have always been hard to grasp as a species so obsessed with death, even before their ascendance into immortal machines. (At least in my opinion, they and the Tyranids are the only factions that truly deserve to be called alien.) Oltyx knows he’s fighting a losing battle,” Nate says. “Even if he holds the line, his dynasty is crumbling behind him. It’s a bad situation.”