Finished Forever War, and I loved it. I was glad it was able to end on somewhat of a high note.
Also finished Xenos, my first 40K novel, and I think I’m in now. I’ve started the next novel in the series, Malleus, and the first book in the Cain series.
The 40K universe is insanely interesting to me. I’m curious what works out of the Black Library really mash on these themes that the Imperium of Man is unsustainable, that this civilization is doomed for failure. It seems like a lot of it is focused on the perpetual war, which I know is the point, but the direction of the endless conflict feels like get it gets lost as the war becomes more and more bogged down.
I’m reading a book called “Lower Ed” by Tracie McMillan Cottom which is about for profit universities. It’s a great insight into how insidious they are. I knew they were bad, but I didn’t realize that some of these schools have people go door to door looking for disadvantaged people to enroll them into college explicitly to collect the financial aid money.
Wrapping up the final pages of this book and it’s pretty good! A good look at how our relationships to leisure time vs. working time and sleep have changed over the past ~100 years as a result of globalization and the progression of capitalism. Pretty depressing and shitty, but good at helping me think about me relationship with technology!
I by no means consider myself a Dune super fan, or even that much of a fan really, but I encourage you to stick with it. The book has a real clunky start but when everything starts clicking together it turns into a real fun read.
Once the adventure, or what you would call it, gets going a little it is much more fun. I do have trouble finding enjoyment in the endless parade of weird words. But I guess that’s sort of what the genre is about, this is the only sci-fi book I’ve read I think.
Gotta echo @Blacksentai, while there is definitely a sub section of sci-fi that is like that, it is not across the genre. I hope you enjoy Dune and maybe down the line find some sci-fi that resonates with you!
(My copy of Dune)
Because of the new movie being made there’s been an upsurge of interest, just last week I dug out my copy for a friend (and repaired the spine with tape, was falling apart).
Honestly I havent read it since the 90’s, but I recently re watched the David Lynch movie and it has held up very well.
Thinking about it, its fair to say the book is a bit of a concept dump, but those ideas were so cool they still resonate in the imaginations today, like a desert planet full of gigantic worms that poop out mind enhancing spice.
Definitely check out The First Heretic by Aaron Dembski-Bowden. ADB in general is one of the more “critical” writers on the Black Library roster, and the First Heretic is one of his best works when it comes to addressing the inherently flawed nature of the Emperium of Man as a manifestation of The Emperial Truth and the Emperor himself.
Several of the Horus Heresy books allude to the same ideas dilemmas endemic to the Imperium, especially with regards to the Space Marines, and what their hypothetical place would be in a Galaxy without conflict, but Bowden generally is much more keen to directly address them in his writing. It is also very apparent that to ADB, the notion of the Imperium having some sort of moral high ground relative to literal manifestation of mindless evil in all its myriad facets is laughable and shouldn’t be considered as a stamp of approval in any way what so ever.
I Finished Lower Ed and it’s the best non fiction book I’ve read in years. It’s not just about how awful For Profit Colleges are, it is about american inequalities in jobs and education. It’s about the root causes that allow for for profit colleges to prey on people who are discriminated against by the rest of society.
This is a book that could really only be written by a black woman. That’s obvious, because no one else has written this book. I’m not sure anyone else could get the type of data and first hand experience she was able to receive. For profit colleges are explicitly looking for ‘women like her.’ The assumptions they made about her are amazing. She spent the time applying to for profit colleges and black woman was a 1:1 correlation with single mother with multiple children and probably in a bad relationship according to the recruiters. And it’s kind of terrifying.
It also talks about republican policies that make these institutions viable. It talks about the recent rise of coding boot camps and how expensive they are. It talks about how all the money is fake in these places. It talks about the elitism of prestige universities. It talks about the myth of education as a public good and how that is being perverted for profit.
Most importantly it ends with talking about Black Lives Matter and how activism is a better method of making lives better than going into debt for a certificate. It acknowledges social changes are needed and radical ones. No pussyfooting around the idea that this shareholder capitalist society we live in is designed to broaden socioeconomic gaps.
I would say that generally the first 3 books are good to read first, as they do a decent job of setting the table, but in terms of the chronological order of the books “The First Heretic” takes place before any of the other books in the series, I believe. You won’t necessarily run into trouble with characters who you should know the names of or anything like that and it does a good job of providing a back story for the conflict.
The timeline of the Heresy Series is… messy, and impossible to follow. Outside of the first 3 it is very much a question of looking for stories and characters that might interest you. In terms of reading order the way it usually shakes out is select authors continuing the stories of “their” characters further down the line. For example, Graham McNeill wrote the Fulgrim story, number 5 in the series, and that story is picked up in his novel Angel Exterminatus, which is then chronologically followed by Vengeful Spirit, even though it largely follows new characters by that point… But then Vengeful Spirit also brings back characters from the first 3 books and even audio dramas.
TL,DR: Would you have a better understanding of what’s going on in the Heresy series if you read them in order? yes.
Should you do that? NO. Absolutely not. Even disregarding the potential holes in the backstory, which can be alleviated somewhat by using the lexicanum wiki, the level of quality varies so greatly from book to book, author to author, character to character… It’s just not worth it.
Edit: Here is the most sensible Heresy reading order/chronology I have seen, and it is still… just, like, a god damn nightmare
On the one hand, I’ms super into the idea of getting into a Universe that has THIS much depth and detail behind it. After Game of Thrones, I’m looking forward to settling myself into a piece of media that has such a rich, even crazy, history.
But on the other hand, holy fuck that shit.
Maybe I’ll just stick to the Eisenhorn series and my lore youtube videos.
