Book review: Luther: First of the Fallen
Book: Luther: First of the Fallen
Luther has been one of those mysterious secondary Dark Angel characters, mentioned frequently but without much real background. This book comes to fill that gap, although with a narrative style and content that I'm not so sure it's the best...
Luther has being held captive in some secret jail deep inside the Rock, the Dark Angels flagship, for thousands of years. With the help of the Watchers in the Dark, they keep the prisoner in stasis, only letting him out to be interrogated over and over, by different grand masters and key characters from the chapter.
I don't want to dwell into details, as that's the main point of the novel, but it is really more of a collection of small stories about Luther's past, combined with the main interrogations arc. Remembering old times and certain key points and events sounds good, but when some of them are pretty generic sci-fi small tales... not so well executed. I am happy to learn something about the character's early days, but I'm not interested in too many great beast hunts with cheap morals/lessons. I can only imagine the interrogators falling asleep while their prisoner goes on an on giving precise details of useless information, instead of answering the simple asked question of "do you repent?".
It was not boring, but it felt a bit of lure into a generic sci-fi book. It does however contain some sparks of really interesting content, which I won't detail. So, a recommended reading only if you are a Dark Angels fan.
Starfield Recommended Mods
Introduction
The first time that I play a videogame, I prefer the vanilla experience. However, at times some design decisions might not sit well with the players, or there might be some subtle bugs, or half-baked features. Starfield leans towards the first category: When you are play from a PC, certain aspects feel quite annoying. So, here is my small list of mods and tweaks that I am, at the time of writing this post, using on my first playthrought of the game.
Installation Instructions
Read carefully the instructions for each mod. Also, the ones I use do not disable achievements, but others might do!
There are two main directories files usually go:
Documents\My Games\Starfield- Your Steam game install directory: In Steam, e.g. in your Library, right click on the game ⇾ "Manage" ⇾ "Browse Local Files"
Mod Recommendations
- BetterHUD: A more minimalistic main in-game HUD.
- Cleanfield: De-clutter the main menu.
- EXE - Effect Textures Enhanced: Vastly improved effects, from particles to blood and explosions.
- NaturaLUTs: I use the enhanced preset. This is a must have.
- StarUI Inventory: Another must have, because the default inventory UI was clearly designed for consoles, not PC.
Book review: The Lion: Son of the Forest
Book: The Lion: Son of the Forest
As my Space Marines favourite chapter (and most miniatures) are Dark Angels, I picked The Lion: Son of the Forest out of curiosity to learn about the return of their primarch. I also have the miniature pending assembly and painting, but that's another story, let's focus on the novel.
One remark that I want to do is that I haven't read Arks of Omen: The Lion, but as far as I understood, the Son of the Forest novel happens before. The Lion awakes at The Rock, it is transported to the place where Son of the Forest begins, and I'm guessing that where the novel ends is more or less where the Lion "officially" reappears.
I also did not know about the Imperium Nihilus/Dark Imperium, caused by the Great Rift. It is a good trick by Games Workshop to make things advance at a different pace, by having half of the galaxy now blind to the Astronomican light.
With that out of the way, let's go with a small, spoiler-light review.
The Lion is back! I'm happy to see my beloved Dark Angels have their lore finally advance, both regarding having the primarch again, and his attitude towards The Fallen.
The novel is a decent read, with good amounts of action, and entertaining enough that I read it quickly. It didn't felt boring at any point, opens the right amount of plot threads and gracefully closes them (except a main question, as I'll mention), and it mostly feels appropriate of what you would expect from a super-human being that it's still disoriented after so much time "out".
Two points felt unsatisfactory to me. First, we are given zero reasoning as for why the Lion awakes, when it does and where it does - it simply happens, and it is what it is. And the second one is that I feel that the author went too far in giving so distinctive personalities to some of the fallen characters. I'm sorry but I don't buy the image of a Space Marine becoming a peaceful hermit, chasen by Dark Angels or not.
All in all, not a bad return, although neither a grandiose one. And the multiple open questions, like how he'll reintegrate in the Imperium, or what will happen regarding Luther or the mysterious Cypher, leave the door open for multiple future novels, which is always good.
Book review: Silo - The Wool Trilogy
Book: Silo - The Wool Trilogy
I did not know about this trilogy until I saw the first season of Apple TV's show, Silo, more than a year ago. After watching it, I got interested and picked up the book. I don't want to undervalue the show, as the first season is really good, but as it very often happens, the book is richer, slightly different, and I'd recommend starting with it instead of the series. I also stopped watching it midway through the second season, so I don't know if the divergences from the book become more accused, or stays mostly faithful to the source material.
With that out of the way, here comes the review itself. I really enjoyed this book. The apocalyptic, maybe sci-fi but not unsure if really so, setting; unsettling and cruel at times but not in excess (as could have very easily been the case). With well defined characters, who, for the most part, fit nicely in the story, and at times surprisingly leave it. With a narrative that dares to be different in the second book (I won't say why to avoid spoilers) to then come back with a vengeance in the final book. With sub-stories and variety, but not too much that you get lost on the main one.
If I had to mention something to improve, I have two tiny points: - A few characters feel like they are going to have more weight, and then they fade out into a very secondary role. This is one point that the TV show seemed to want to address differently (again, no spoiling). - The ending felt a bit abrupt: So much happens before, and then it ends a bit suddenly... too quickly without much detail.
In summary, a ~1300 pages great science-fiction tale, apt even for non sci-fi fans.
Tags: Books Science-Fiction
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