Adeptus Ridiculous - BLOODLINES | Warhammer 40k Book Review & Discussion

Episode Date: December 9, 2022

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Welcome everybody to... Oh, I almost said the type of Ridiculous. That's not what we're at. Oh, no. Welcome everybody to the book club. It's a book club. It's where we talk about 40K books, and you can either listen to them, or if you don't care, listen to the spoilers, or if you do care, go read it for yourself. And today, we are discussing bloodlines written by Chris Wright.

Before we start, head on over to patreon.com slash The Best Ridiculous to check out all the wonderful benefits you get. Discord access. Awesome bloopers, if they happen, as well as digital posters, including our most recent one that Shy uses to torment me. Astralupine. Excellent, excellent, excellent. Not the poster, but everything else. Also, don't forget, we have a Black Friday sale at Orchidate.com in description by two things in your cart. 20% off your whole order lasts until the end of the year.

Woot! Okay. D.K. Okay, yes. Bloodlines. Bloodlines. Bloodlines. I am curious your opinion more than anyone.

Oh, boy. So, I wasn't a huge fan of bloodlines. I felt like the pacing was just, at times it was unbearable. Like, I get it. You know, you need to build the world. You need to introduce the characters. But I don't know. I don't know if it's just because, like, I have a pea brain or the attention span of a pet rock.

But sometimes, like, they would spend so long describing the area around them that I would just completely lose focus and be like, what are we doing again? We were in an office and then he started rambling off about how the rail system looked outside. head the window and how this city still looks dystopian and I don't know man I I found it that pacing was kind of monotonous at times. No, no.

There's a common reviewer thing to try to call yourself stupid in order to lessen the blow of any backlash to your particular review. Just, it's okay to say that you just didn't like the way it presented itself. You don't gotta be like, oh, I had big pea

brain and I is stupid head. Eh, well, I mean, you know, both both are accurate though. Hey, man, no one beats me for P-Brain. The brain is small, but the forehead is big. Forehead big, inside small. I was interested to hear your opinion because we also have Shai's review slash opinion here, too. Do you want to read Shies or should I read Shies and then I'll give mine? I don't know.

What do you want? I'm gonna start. All right, just do it. Shai says, and I quote, I like the book. Yes, it's a bit slow for the first nine or so chapters, but it's because it's busy establishing to the characters, which there are really only two.

Protagonist Probator, aka Detective Augusto Zidharov, and the horrible hive Ziddy of Varen Genshua. Zidharov is a cool protagonist mainly due to his normalcy. He's kind of an asshole who isn't afraid to abuse his power. He's out of shape. He cheats on his wife. He fucks up at his job. Deep at a heart, however, he is a real detective

wants to make a difference and tries to do all the right things when he can. So he's a classic slob with a heart of gold. Varengensua, she kind of does like a nice little like discussion of what the book is about. So I think it's pretty good. Yeah, yeah. Verengencia is described in detail and is a horrible dystopian nightmare torn by gang wars with trashy identical hablacks for the unwashed masses and giant palaces for rich aristocrats. However, hilariously compared to many other imperial worlds, it's almost decent.

I think a lot of readers will compare this to Mega City 1 in Judge Dredd. Did you ever watch Judge Dred? That's fair, yeah. I haven't seen yet. I saw the Stallone one, and I saw the remake. Would you say this is an app comparison to Mega City one?

Yeah. Really? Yeah, just a lot of very similar halblocks, and there's one Judge Dredd who wants to go strictly by the rules, by the book, do the right thing. Yeah, I'd say, That's a fair comparison.

All right. Although if you want accurate Judge Dredd, don't want the Stallone one. Because Judge Dredd is supposed, like, I guess his whole thing, or a judge's whole thing, is they're never supposed to take off their helmet. But back in the day, they wanted to show off, like, oh, we got Stallone, so he's always taking off his helmet. And half the movie he doesn't have his helmet on, so. Oh, I like the helmet with, like, his weird lip curl that Stallone always has,

where he's, like, ugh. You know, he's dead. The story is textbook for a, crime novel, detective simply looking for a missing rich boy, but gets into more than he bargained for and stumbles ass first into a grander conspiracy. It's not mind-blowing, but I enjoy the development of the narrative. Big strength slash weaknesses of the book is its tenuous connection to Warhammer. You can read this book knowing nothing about Warhammer and be completely fine because it's contained the sci-fi detective story. This is good for newbies, but also

if you're a hardcore warmer fan, you might be disappointed by the lack of Space Marines. Zinos Guard and Giant Wars. Book does reference those things subtly, also reminding us that the most of the population never left the world, and many don't even believe that Xenos exist. Plot is also in a way connected to the deteriorating state of the Imperium and more difficult off-world travel due to the fall of Cadia. Overall, I quite enjoyed the book, but the slow pace of the first half before stuff starts going down, the lack of interesting characters aside from Zidharov, and the city itself do bring it down for me a bit, so I give it a light 7 out of 10.

Oh wow, that's pretty high praise from Shive to give it a 7 out of 10 actually She was the one who recommended this book That's true she did didn't she she demanded that we do bloodlines There was um she has a spoiler section that we'll talk about later Um But uh I I fucking loved this book Oh really loved it I loved it I loved it I was in I literally forgot about the book club until Sunday

We're filming All right, so you were cutting it a little close on the eight-hour book. We're filming this on Wednesday. So I had three days, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday to listen to it all. And I did about three hours each day, give or take. And I thought I was so engrossed. I was so engrossed. Now, I think I'm a little biased.

Okay. Blade Runner 2049 is tied for my favorite movie of all time. and this is literally Blade Runner Warhammer. Yes, yes it is. It's Blade Hammer 40K. Bladehammer 2049. 2040K. It's, it is literally Blade Runner in terms of Dysopian City Detective and stuff.

I think Probator Probator Zidharov is one of, if not my favorite main character in all the books we've read. Wow, in all of them? I'm true, main character Specifically, I mean, maybe I guess Talos is pretty tied With him a little bit as well But I was gonna say, how does he beat Talos? Like, no way

A little hard to beat Talos, yeah Trazen? Ooh, I forgot about Trazen Right? Or even Kai Kai Kai Viz Kane Hero of the Imperium? I liked him more than Kane. I liked him because I love loved every time he's talking to someone.

He's kind of a dick. Oh, he is absolutely a dick. He is, like, like Shai said, he's the classic noir slob with the heart of gold, wants to do the right thing. He doesn't care who he pisses off. He's just, I'm going to follow the lead till its end, even if it kills me.

I love just like some parts, though, when he's like going to visit the priestess lady, and he has to go up a bunch of stairs, and he's like, he's just like, for um in all two respect uh priest this gets a fucking elevator true true yeah i i really really liked his uh his sergeant buddy um was it dros or no no yeah yeah oh oh draj was a yeah yeah yeah not the not the irish one not the other not that guy the yeah dros the guy who doesn't like him yeah yeah yeah the one that he uh

he has him bring the what is it a platoon or something to try and storm that one hablock and nothing's there and everybody's pissed off at him and calls him a useless failure yeah like his life is not particularly wonderful he's out of shape his his wife is religious with his wife is tenuous um his daughter is off to a okay so so this book starts off with a uh genuinely uh harrowing opening Yeah, the person that's on Topaz and sort of being let around very creepily. Yeah, that was actually a bit hard to listen to. Yeah, that was rough. That was really rough, mainly because it was a little too real. Mm-hmm. So Topaz in this universe is a psychedelic drug.

I think it's, I think it probably closely relates to, like, ecstasy. Yeah, I was thinking ecstasy or LSD or something. They never really quite explain it in the book, do they? You just know that it's some sort of nasty drug that all the kids are using. Yeah, and I guess it would probably be some mixture of that, but they were also drinking heavily. Yeah. And they were trying to get away from, I guess, some military guys

trying to shmooze up on her. And she got led down an alley by a gal to get away from them, and then keeps on getting led down alleys. And it's like, I want some water. It's like, oh, we'll go get some water. Yeah, that's what we're doing. We're going to go get some water. Trust me, trust me, trust me.

More and more and more and more. And then, yeah, it's really gross and creepy. Yep. She ends up in the chair. The chair. She ends up in the no-no chair. Yeah, the no-no chair. So our basic plot is probator.

Probator. Okay, so, shall I type this out? And it's really nice to see the typed out versions of these names. instead of the audiobook version. Oh, yes, it's so much better. I, uh, that was one of my big, okay, that's actually one of my biggest complaints of it, is I think the audiobook editing was poor. Yeah, probably.

Yeah. Did you ever like when the, I mean, the, the actual reader was fine. He was pretty good. Um, but did you ever notice that sometimes he would have full takes and you would hear him swallowing? Yeah. I've noticed that on like the last couple of books. I could hear like the swallowing or like the...

Yeah. It was a little bizarre because normally they cut that out. And like, that means that every time he wasn't doing the swallowing, it probably was when he didn't have to have multiple takes in that one go. Yeah. And I noticed that a few times or like sometimes there be abrupt cuts between dialogue. And I was like, oh, this is not edited particularly well. That's weird.

And a lot of the fucking names are. really big and long. Yep. And it was... Good Mill Tarashova. Oh my God. Gantua. Yeah, there were a lot of really long names

that are just a little, little tough to remember, but yeah. It's a little hard because without actually seeing the words, I end up forgetting names really fast until they're brought up again. Like, I already forget his daughter's name. Oh, oh, uh, Naxia?

Thank you. Yeah, Naxia. Like, once you say it, I know it, but without you saying it, I don't remember. The Tereshova was the one that I remember the most, and then like, his superior, which I also don't remember her name, is something

with a B. Oh, wasn't it Vongola or something? Vongela. Vongela. There it is, yeah. It's just really hard to remember with audiobooks, unless at least with these ones, because these are

long, different names. Long, different names that sounds strange. But the overall plot is that Zidharov is constantly eating horrible. He's eating coffee and carb bars

which we assume to be like protein snacks with sugar probably. Is there any other food in this city other than carb bars? Like every other chapter is like I'm grabbing a carb bar and a cup of cafe and that's all he eats is carb bars. I'm assuming that's why

he's overweight. He's overweight. It could be, yeah. All he eats his sugary carb bars, sure. Someone had like a pita, his buddy, the source of the bee. Oh, oh, Brecht? Yeah, Brecht had like some kind of like Peter wrap or something like that. You like ketchup into like a hot dog ketchup thing. Yeah, and he offered it to him and he's like, and he turned it down or something, didn't he?

Yeah, yeah, exactly. But the overall story is that the Udmil Terashova, the one of the largest family names an aristocracy on the entire city or planet or whatever has their son oh shit what's her son's name Adier Tarasovia you're so much better remembering this than I am

I am shocked because yeah I had a rough time getting through this book it took me the whole month damn I am shocked then Adier Tarasova has gone missing And it's bizarre because the Tereshava family has ungodly money and therefore ungodly ability to hire mercenaries among other kinds of private forces, which means why in the goddamn hell are they going to the cops?

Yep. Why would they go to the cops and they could just hire mercenaries to do it themselves? And it begins to spiral down a concept of conspiracies and questions and confusions and the police being in bed with some gangsters and the tenuous relationship between gangs and other gangs and so on and so forth in this absolute shithole of a city which as far as hive cities go is pretty good wow that this is a good hive city

I mean I'm thinking about this versus like Nostromo or oh shit Sure. Compared to like Nostromo, yeah. It's livable, yeah. Or like what life on Kadia must have been like? Or like Kattachin or Krieg or a forge world? True, I guess some of those planets that have like the radioactive surfaces that you can't even inhabit and you have to live in underground bunkers and stuff. It sure beats that. Or like, or even just like like, hey, what about Dark Tides Tertium? Yeah, Tertium kind of sucks.

sucks too, doesn't it? A little bit. Anywho. Covered with Nergel. Anywho. A pretty all right hive city, but it goes down and down and gets to creepier things. And the main intrigue here is the idea of cell draining. Yucks, yeah.

Nobody likes cell draining. Everybody's like, oh, yeah, we should get rid of cell draining. And he's like, yeah, everybody keeps telling me that, but somehow it's still here. It's an interesting thing because, like, obviously, these are the lower dregs of humanity overall. They're completely isolated from the outside world. All they know is that shipping is getting really, really hard because of problems in the warp, which is actually because Cadia died and the rift in the galaxy has spread. Yep, the cicatrix maladictum.

And they're just like, shit, man, where are all the imports? Yeah, it's getting really expensive to get stuff off world now. I wonder why that is. They have no clue. They don't even know if Xenos exist. Yep. That's true. They've probably never seen a Zenos.

They have no idea. No, it's just a classic civilian life. But in the worlds of 40K, people often ask, like, how come people can live so long? Because these events in 40K last hundreds of years. Yeah. Well, rejuvenant treatment is a thing where you can't. revive your body through a very painful and invasive, but extremely effective surgery to keep you alive for a long period of time,

keep you young and looking healthy. And often it is created with a synthesized synthetic rejuvenant serum. But the warp rift has made those imports very, very, very rare and expensive. And if there's something that's expensive to do legally, there's a way to do it cheap, immorally. Yep, illegally and immorally. So you want to tell them how they sell drain, D.K.? Oh, boy.

What is it? They kidnap the youth and they stick them on these chairs and they put a bunch of like needles and stuff in their arms and they basically suck the youth out of them. They basically, I think they have a tube in their mouth too to feed them nutrients. They have a nutrient feeding tube to keep them alive as long as they can. So they can suck all of the blood, literally drain them of blood, and then filter out the blood and plasma and stuff

and sell it to the higher up aristocrats. Yep. cell draining. Oh boy. Literally killing the youth to make the elderly last longer. Yeah, it's a little bit of some... There are definitely some social commentaries going on there, but...

Yeah, a little bit, you know? But, like, there was definitely... One of the things that stuck out the most to me is the idea of... He was talking to, like, that other rich probatoro, that police guy. And he was like, the rich people here that live up here

don't look at the poor with disgust. They don't know they're... exist. They walk by them as if they're just not even an entity. Yeah. A little social commentary is a little bit, a little bit. I mean, in any dystopian world, that's kind of the high and low class is like part of it. But yeah, so that's what happened to our poor character in the beginning of the book.

Yeah. And so what it is is just this horrible warehouse filled with couches with people being kept alive, being drained. of their blood in a very, very slow and painful process. Yeah. Okay, so for a long time, did you ever wonder if that was going to, if his daughter was the character in the beginning? You know, for a long time, yeah, I was actually, once Naxia went missing and they couldn't find her, I was like, okay, the cell drainers got her.

And all, all of their worst fears about, oh, you know, this, this, this. city is filled with awful people and disgusty. I was like, oh man, Naxia got God. And at the last minute, at the last minute, Zidharov's going to find the cell drainers like layer, and he's going to see Naxia hooked up to one. He's going to rip all the cords out and be like, baby, I saved you. And that didn't quite happen. That's not, uh, didn't. No, it wouldn't be a new R if there wasn't twist and turns, yeah? Yeah, I, I guess so. I mean, Ziderov got more than he bargained for, but not at the cost of his daughter.

The main, I mean, the main, the girl in the beginning said her name, and her name was not Naxia, but I kind of assumed that maybe she was lying just in case or something. And so I always had this little part in the back of my head. Because within the first couple of chapters, they ask

him, like, do you have any kids? And he says a daughter, and instantly I went, we woo, we woo, red flag, red flag, uh-oh, uh-oh, uh-oh, uh-oh, yeah. And it was a bit of just a clever Red Herring. We can't, this is a noir novel.

This will require many of spoilers. I fucking love this book. I would give it like an a half or a nine. I think it's incredible. I, but I also think

you know me, often in our streams that we do on AdRick and just here and there, people ask us, what would you do for a Warhammer movie? And I'm always the one

who's like, shut up, shut up. You just shut up. Stop talking about Horace and Space Marines. Take a normal concept and just slap 40K paint on it and just do it that way.

And this is literally what this is. So it might be part of the reason why I absolutely love it. And I think Blade Runner 2049 is the greatest thing ever made. So I love it. And I think Zitterov is one of the best main characters I've read about in a while.

But that is me. I know that you and Shai are in two different lines about it. Yeah. If I had to give it a rating, I'd probably have it sitting around a five. Probably around a five. Because, like, also, like, it... Perfectly average. When I go into a Warhammer book, right?

I am expecting... Like, there's certain expectations when I go into a Warhammer book, right? You're kind of expecting, like, the Space Marines, the Zenos, the military, the craziness, the, the massive scale. And I, I, I, I, I, I felt like the Warhammer coat of pain on this was maybe a little too thin, right? I mean, it is nice to see what your average Joe citizens are dealing with in, uh, in, in, in 40K. Because not everything is this gigantic, uh, all-impressive war, but it's just like, that's what I want from 40K. Like I want crazy, space battles and space marines and like this, like we said,

this feels like it could be said in just about any universe. Like aside from a couple of little things they mention about the emperor and space travel and the guard, it's like you wouldn't really know that this was a Warhammer book. So. Interesting. So I wanted that. Interesting. So I loved it a lot because it wasn't that.

You wanted it to be more of. of that. Mm-hmm. Yeah, I wanted more of that. I wanted the craziness of 40K. And Shy is somewhere in between. Because Shy gave it about a 7. Actually, we're almost perfectly aligned.

I give it like a 9, shy, a 7, U.05, 222. Yeah, look at that. We're all over the scale. We've got the whole thing covered. I think I really like when the underlings and the dredges of 40K, the regular people, kind of blossom up to be seen. I think it adds a ton to the overall idea of 40K. And so I was so engrossed by this book, dude.

I was so just so interested. Every twist and term and curiosity had me hooked. And I think I maybe liked it because there were no space marines. The only space marines that were ever mentioned was when they took some ganger guy and started interrogating him and he's like, what's your name? And he's like, Rogel Dorn, fucker.

I'm like, I forgot about him calling himself Rogel Dorn, yeah. I really, I thought Zitterov might be just one of my favorite characters. I fucking loved him, dude. Every time he was such a,

he was such a sarcastic asshole. He's like, I never apologized for the botched raid last time. And I'm not going to. I have my ideas, so let's just keep driving, yeah. Like, fucking dude. I mean, I was technically right, so fuck it. I'm not going to apologize.

But it's like, he's not an asshole because he wants to be. He's, I mean, no, he is an asshole because he wants to be. He says that with a joking manner, not because he genuinely, you know, thinks about. He thinks of it. Yeah, yeah. He's just kind of ribbing him, yeah. But in that case, I guess this is, I'm going to make this the spoiler point. Okay.

I love it. DK, it is not hot on it. Shy is in between. Up to you, viewers, to give it a shot of yourself. I guess it depends on how much 40K you want in your novel. Or if you just really like

noir detective stories. Because if you're just looking for a noir detective story, it's a pretty good one. Yeah, it was just a coat of 40K paint on it. Yeah, yeah, thin coat of 40K paint. You don't really need an understanding of 40K, like Shai said. So if you're just looking for a solid noir detective story, this will probably do it. Apparently, I'm not a big fan of noir, so it is what it is.

Hey, I love my noir, so it completely makes a lot of sense. I'm, this, this is nice. I actually kind of like that we have differing opinions on this, because normally we're generally in pretty good agreement. Yeah, normally, yeah. Normally, yeah, so I'm pretty all right with that. Anywho, spoiler territory. Um, the, okay, so there's a lot of back and forth figuring out stuff.

You know, if you can say anything, this guy's a fucking detective. He does detective work. He does detective work at the cost seemingly of, well, I guess it doesn't completely cost him his marriage, but it puts a big strain on his marriage with Melasia. And Meloisia, uh, with, you know, I can say he was not fucking other women. That's true. He wasn't. That's a bit of a twist.

Yeah, Melijah thought he was. He's like, I'm not stupid. Out late at night. You weren't even on duty. I checked. So, yeah, she thinks it is, but he's, uh, he's, he's often some weird cult religion thing. Like the serpent emperor or something? Yeah, so that may have been one of the,

So that may have been one of the only things I was not huge about. I believe, so Shai has this inner thing as well. I'm 100% positive they have a gene stealer cult problem. You know, when they said like the serpent thing and the way they were talking about, oh, you know, there's nothing wrong with what we're doing. We're just seeing the emperor as he was in his serpent form. I was like, is this? I mean, that kind of sounds like a gene stealer thing.

Like that could be a gene. But the jeans deals usually call him like the many-handed emperor or something. But so I wasn't quite sure. I was like, it kind of sounds like it, but I don't know. So there's a couple of things to note. First things first, um, Zidharov has a enormous scar on his stomach that is sometimes called to, but not often. And when, when probed about where that came from, he says he doesn't remember. Which is, remember where it came from.

Which if you remember, is identical to what happens if, if, you remember, is identical to what happens. a gene stealer gets you with the gene stealer kiss and impregnates you and then it bursts out of your stomach hence the gigantic scar and if you remember due to the psychic nature of the gene stealer you always forget what happens

so he could have gotten the gene stealer kiss and just the gene stealers also don't always refer to the emperor as the many armed emperor they always just have a different kind of deity Zitterov also hates the church and he hates authority and he hates the

rich and powerful. Very... There was also his buddy who was like, they said they found a jeans they're by the docks and there's a bunch of bullshit and all that stuff.

And if you... That's right. They did say that, didn't they? I forgot all about that. And if you also remember he talks about sometimes when he's down to the dredges of the city,

there were people with crimson-hued skin. Right, right. As in kind of pink. pinkish. Oh, okay. Maybe turning purpleish soon.

There was also a, they talked at the end that when his daughter was eventually found, there was a terrifying man there. It looked like an ordo. One of most likely Ordo Xenos there to deal

with the problem. Oh, okay. So hinting, hinting that there's a gene Steeler problem here. Okay, okay. So, yeah, pretty positive Gene Steeler Colts got a thing going on.

Um, but besides that, uh, there isn't a whole lot of other calls to chaos or anything. I think his cult is a gene stealer worshiping cult. Yeah, it seems that way. But, um, besides that, it's really just the sick of jerks maledictum, which I think is a great idea. Like, this entire story happened because the imports of rejuvenation therapy got extremely expensive and rare due to the fall of Cadia. Yeah.

Really neat. idea. Yeah. It is nice to see how the fall of Kadia is kind of affecting normal planets that don't have anything to do with the war,

I've never seen chaos. So it is nice to see that sort of like, this is how the warp tear is fucking around with the normal everyday lives of normies in 40K. Mm-hmm.

It is rather interesting. Also, that is makes a point that you know, his daughter would most likely be infected as well. Oh, yeah, his daughter would be.

But if that's the case, then there, it might, I don't know, he doesn't seem to want to go, shy mentions on that his libido and stuff is insane. He doesn't try to go around

and bang everyone. Which is normally what happens when you get Gene Steeler kiss. So I don't know. A little here and there and everywhere, but not the point. So the big twist,

the big explanation, at the end that they find out is that the person who originally hired him Udnil Udnil Terashova the mother of the Kim

the air quotes yes is not actually the biological mother of the kid what happened is that something in her life happened that had her go into insane fucking debt and she married this other asshole Tereshova

guy became I think, right? Yeah, Mordak. And in order to settle and fix up the debt and combine their family's power. And she took Mordak's name without a fight. She was just like, oh, yeah, sure, give me your name. Yep, mm-hmm. Because to settle and fix all of her debt and her ruined life.

Yep. The thing is that good old, the whole point is the reason she didn't hire the enforcers is that at the end of the day we found out, Well, what did we find out, D.K.? Well, we found out that she was actually quite literally in bed with the Jash Corporation head. I forget what their name was. No, she did not like the Jash Corporation. No, but she was trying to join them, right? I thought, like she was trying to join their powers.

Oh, yes. Yes, yes. Yeah, yeah. and the reason she hired the police is so that she could like falsely lead them into taking out the what was it the Vodar or their competition one of the ganger competitions in the area and then they would be the new ruling faction gang and they'd get all the money and they'd deal and all the stuff and I guess the big twist is she wanted to completely get rid of cell draining because her biological daughter was killed by cell drainers. And so she wanted to

make sure that cell draining was just completely kaputsk. Right. Her biological daughter was the character in the beginning of the book. I am. Yes. That was actually her. And so that's what sent her life into ruin. was her daughter killed by cell drainers. Yep. And that's why she married in the family and everything to fix it.

A bit of a combination here about overbearing parents. Zidharov's kid wants to go out to the Imperial Guard, and he's like, oh, my God, please don't. No, no, no. The, yeah, Zidharov and Melijah are like, no, no, no, you could stay here. Be a probator like your dad. Be an enforcer. Be anything other than the guard. Good Lord.

Have you heard the stories about what I? happens in the guard, please don't. And so a little bit of like, the more you try to keep them here, the more they push away kind of thing. Yep. But the big twist kind of combination is that the, her husband as well as, so her husband and son, but also the Jash Corporation or whatever, actually continued the cell draining process.

Behind her back. Behind her back. She, her son started doing selgering again. And so her son was never missing. She fucking killed him. Yep. She was like, oh, you really think he's still alive? Yeah, she absolutely murdered the shit out of him and used, and used the police as a way to help get rid of it.

Problem is that it was all still happening behind her back. and that is the big ending confrontation is Zidharov telling her this and her being like, oh. Yeah, big oh, I see. And then she shoots him. Twice, but in not fatal areas. Yes, very not fatal areas. So he wakes up in the hospital and he gets the news that, oh, hey, guess what?

the leader of the Jash Corporation is dead. He's fucking dead. And what's her face? Udmil Tereshola has taken over, and she has put an end of the cell draining after giving him a little slug that is like, oh, thanks, you were right, but if I ever see you again, I'll fucking kill you.

And I'm very good at my aim, contrary to what you think. Trust me, when I want to, I hit my target. I liked that combination where it's like It's like well we seem to be in a bit of an impasse here It's like I am wearing flack armor or something and she's like And I have a force field He's like well shit

I guess that makes you uh I guess that puts you head doesn't it Bang bang bang yep um I actually think the ending was one of the more satisfying things to me The idea that I all came back around to her daughter being the one who got cell drained I love the fact that she just fucking killed her her non-biological kid I thought that was

kind of a fuck up to be fair he was but I thought that was so metal she's like yeah he made he's not my biological sum but but she he's now doing the things that kill my actual biological daughter I'm gonna kill him cut off his finger and send it to his

dad oh that's right that's right she did say oh I thought sending proof that he was still alive would be a good way to you know that's yeah what a savage What a savage. It is, it is, I actually think she's kind of a baller. A little bit, yeah, yeah.

She, uh, I was surprised. I had a feeling that would come back to her because they often introduced the villain in the first couple acts and they bring it back. Yeah, classic noir, the criminal was the one who hired the detective in the end, and that's like the big twist, so. Yeah, not incredibly like, Shakespeare or anything.

It wasn't a groundbreaking story, but it was, you know, It all came together in the end. I liked the combination there. I liked being unsure about the daughter and, you know, where the first part would finally kind of play into the whole thing. Yeah. I liked the sergeant a lot, drosge or whatever.

Just this kind of an asshole, always stinking of alcohol. But, you know, he's got a good, he's got a good heart in his. They're all problematic people, but they're all like, yeah, I'm not going to sit here while people are getting drained of their blood. And Dros truly believes in the emperor. Truly. He believes that when he's done, he will bask in the Lord of the throne next to the emperor. And good old Zidharov will burn.

Yeah. If Zidharov is worshipping with the Eugen Steelers, he is well and truly fucked. Yep. That is 100% fair. I still find myself a little disappointed that Naxia wasn't a bigger, like something more didn't happen with her. Because it seemed like they were trying to set something up, you know, other than just like, oh, she went missing. And it's like, and then Breck was like, oh, yeah, I found her. Hooray!

And it's like, oh. Yeah. Yeah. That's the issue with the red herring plot line is that it's really fascinating when you're listening to it. but then on rewatch or relisten or conclusion, it becomes a little bit disappointing. Yeah, because like the parents were so worried about naxia. Where's naxia?

We talked to all our friends. None of them know where she is. What could have happened? Oh, my God. We shouldn't have yelled at her. Oh, no. Where's Naxia? And Brick's just, like, oh, yeah,

she was just hanging out with some friends you didn't know about. And it was a little seedy, but it was like, oh. Yeah. That was one of those, It's just one of those classic red herring things where I'm like, eh, not my favorite. And then she shows back up, and despite being in a fight, she's just, Daddy, I love you.

Oh, my God, you've been shot. Dad, I love you. And it's like, oh, no, there's not even any more family drama. Well, there was a little bit. She was like, yeah, I'm still going to the guard. That's true. And he's like, I guess we'll talk about it. It's just, I've been shot.

Get out of here. Yeah, it's like, ow. Yeah, the fact that he wasn't shooting on his wife and instead was in a little secret gene stealer worshiping thing was, I don't know, I'm a little bit iffy about that. I wasn't huge on that whole plot line, just because it felt like, ironically, it felt like they were trying to, like,

meet a 40K quota. Yeah. Like, we need more 40K in there. Throw in a chaos cult or something. I don't know. Throw in the jean-stere cult. It almost feels like they wanted this book to be longer. You know, maybe.

Because, like, nothing happens with Naxia. Nothing happens with his scar. the Gene Steeler Kiss, or the cult. The ending, I don't know, the whole car chase thing seemed a little on the anticlimactic side. Like the reveal was nice, but it all just seemed like it just very quickly boop happened. I don't know if they're like setting up a series of books for this, but it just seems like they didn't get to a lot of the, like, topics that they left out in the air. It seemed like there's a lot of

unanswered questions still. Hmm. I guess that's a fair statement. I did think that the actual ending ending felt a little bit flat. Yeah. I thought the car chase was fine. I think the issue was that it's an audiobook form. I think the car chase

would be a lot more interesting if it was a... Yeah. If it was like a movie or a miniseries or something and you could see all of the stuff happening. Yeah, yeah. I think it would be a little bit stronger. I think this would make a great five-part minis series. Oh, yeah.

I think that would be the best way to adapt it. In fact, if you had the proper budget, would be the best way to do so. But yeah, yeah, I can understand that the ending did feel. I was surprised the ending was so happy. Yeah, it was. It was surprisingly happy with just, you know, him and his wife going to bed.

Oh, I love you. I love you too. Go to sleep. I wonder if that was maybe the idea, is that it was going ahead and stating, Like, there's genes to their stuff. Like, the wider Imperium got problems. Like, there is a story after this, but the story after this is not what's important for us.

Yeah. Maybe. It's a... I do wonder if they plan on having more of, more Zitterov books. Bloodlines Chris Wright originally published August 18th, 2020. It just came out. It's not too bad. I have also heard that there is another crime anthology.

book that he made called No Good Men. That is also very, very, very good. Okay. That was made in September of 2022, it would seem. I believe Chris Wright also did a... Yeah, it's right. He did the book on the Khan. Ooh.

He did the Jagatai Khan Warhawk book, and then he did Warhawk, the book itself, coming out in 2021. Apparently, he writes the Khan, like a goddamn king. apparently he's just like amazing I'll give this book a 5.5 then just because White scars Praise it to the con yeah

I don't know like I was absolutely massively engrossed but the problem that comes with most noir books or films is that their rewatchability is a little bit iffy because you know the massive twist turns and discoveries yeah I think it does better than most but it still does suffer from that issue a little bit, yeah. Yeah. But I don't know. Well, well written, it's just, I think Noir, maybe just isn't my thing.

I, I like Zidharov so much that every time he was there on screen, I was just like, yes. The man. It's him. He's doing things. And luckily, this entire book is by him doing things. So I am, I was more than okay with it. Oh, there you go. There it is.

Our opinions on bloodlines. There it is. I, uh, yep. About a, eight and a half, nine, seven, and five. Yeah, we are all over the scale. That's a good part. A good thing to note. Yeah.

Uh, in that case, I guess it's time to pick our next book. Ooh. Do you have something in mind? No. Oh. So. I. I actually, I honestly, I, I honestly, I don't know. I, I don't know. I had, I was thinking about this for, oh, wait, now I remember. Now I remember. Now I remember. Um, Bellasarius call the great work. Oh, are we going to be reading about Belisarius call? Belisarius call the great work. Uh, yo, let's go. It is done by, by excellent, excellent guy Haley. Um, Belisarius Call the Great Work is a book that people have been telling us to read.

for a long-ass time, and it is indeed an admec book, which we do not read much of. So, Bada Bing. Hell yeah, I wanted 40K, we're getting 40K. Let's go. So good old, good old Bell-Saurius call, The Great Work. There it is, that's the next one. And yeah, we hope you enjoyed Bloodlines. If you didn't, well, that's okay.

We all have our opinions. And... And... Strokes for different folks. And I'm stroked.