Adeptus Ridiculous - TWICE DEAD KING: REIGN | Warhammer 40k Book club & discussion

Episode Date: February 23, 2022

Bricky suddenly fell ill with flu and we couldn't record an episode this week, so we are releasing book club episode that we recorded earlier instead of the main episode today, sorry! Hopefully Bricky will feel better asap and we will be back to our regular schedule next week.https://www.patreon.com/AdeptusRidiculoushttps://www.adeptusridiculous.com/https://twitter.com/AdRidiculoushttps://orchideight.com/https://www.collectiblesquids.com/ code: ADRICSupport the show

Welcome everybody to the episode of Adeptus Ridiculous. My name is Bricky. My co-host is D.K., and today we are doing a special book club episode that is entirely dedicated to the reading, reviewing, and discussing of books in the Warhammer universe. But before we start, if you are a patron or would like to become a patron, one, thank you, or two, check out the description and go to patreon.com slash Adeptis Ridiculous, where you can get fantastic new stuff, including HD posters every month, generally with boobs, well as access to our Discord, great emotes, and of course, most importantly, our love and

support, because we are just that cool. Ooh. Hey, look at you. That was good. That was a solid 10 out of 10 intro. I stumbled a little bit. No, that was good. That was solid.

I stumbled a little bit. There was a little falling in there. There was a little, but that was like a professional intro. Well done. Everybody give D. Yeah, give me a round of applause. I will take the round of applause for you because I have set the template for a good intro, obviously.

DK, where can I get some merch? Oh, yeah, Orcanay.com and get yourself some legally distinct adeptist ridiculous merch. There are dice there. Hey, Bricky, is there any kind of discount going on right now, or is that over? Oh, that was over. That ended in January. Okay, fuck it. Just go get yourself some sick merch.

Work at 8.com. Yeah, there's some, I mean, there's the, there's the hoodie. I'm literally wearing the black hoodie right now. It's great. Best material. Wonderful. Ooh, new stickers too. Don't forget the new stickers.

And new stickers based on the emotes that you can use in Discord or if you are a high lord on the YouTube's when we stream there on Thursdays and the weekend, air quotes. We don't even do it every third. Damn it, D.K. Well, we do it sometimes. Just when we stream. Sure.

But usually we try to stream the day after an episode. Usually we try. But shy ruined it last time. Well, I mean, stuff happens. You know, there are lives that need to be lived. That's true. But you can get stickers on those e-moes. Anyway, yeah, go ahead.

Speaking of lives and living and dead, twice dead, we're a book club. today, twice dead king rain, the sequel to the absolutely outstanding twice dead king ruin. Probably my favorite Necron book, beating out Infinite Divine just barely.

And also we have a book club, or no, we don't even have a book club episode on that one. We did an episode on Oltics himself. Yep, full-flict episode. And would recommend checking that out if you have not read Rain yet, ready to get a little bit of context. We also had the wonderful Richard Reed on for an interview a bit ago.

He was able to talk a little bit as he is the voice actor for the audible versions of both of the books and Infantivine as well. So pretty cool. Lots of stuff to check out. Oh, yeah. So Twice in King Rain came out just a little bit ago, less than a month old, I think, give or take. and we both finished it and

DK, what are your thoughts on this one? I'm very conflicted about rain. Same. I am mixed. Like there are some really, really cool moments that happen in the book, but it also feels really, really repetitive at the same time.

Like they are just constantly running away from the Imperium, And it's like, oh my God, if we don't find some way to get ahead of the Imperium, we're all going to die. The dynasty is going to die. And it's like, oh, hey, we found a way to get ahead of them. Uh-oh. The Imperium's still on our tails.

We're about to do some big revelation. Oh, but the Imperium, we got to find a new way to get ahead of them. Oh, we found another way ahead of them. Hooray. And it's just like you lather rinse and repeat that for like almost the entire book. And I don't know. It got a little tired after a while of just. just, you know, oh, let's run away from the blood angels.

Oh, there's the Listergonian again. Oh, blip, bu, bu, and it's, I don't know. I'm less, I'm not as annoyed with the repetitiveness. I can use the idea of the repativeness to, like, you keep putting in these situations over and over again, and its repetition is meant to test Oltick's kingship. And that's why it slowly degrades over time. He's a bad king, too, by the way.

He was a terrible. He was a bad, he was a terrible king, and then it's kind of the point. He's a young, he's a young asshole who doesn't know what to do. But I, so we, after we did our twice did king ruin review, we actually got a really nice message from Nate Crowley, the author. He was very pleased. He actually sent me a copy of the Severed book, which is about Demasor Zandrek and Oberyn, which I want to read soon. It's not an audible, but it's, at least I don't think it is. Okay.

But he sent that over super nice. I want to mention that because he seemed like a really kind guy, and I feel terrible that I'm going to be a little harsh on this book because I have a decent couple of problems with this. Well, even to our friends, we're going to be honest. We're not going to sugarcoat. We're just going to give you our honest, you know? We are assholes to each other, are we not?

Oh, God, yeah. Oh, it's like that's even a question? I feel like, ruin was a really compact, well-written book. It had a very clear opening, a very clear ending. It had great set up, great payoffs. There was a lot of good back and forth. The entire time I was reading Rain, my mind was going,

I missed Gassarres. Ah, yeah. DeSeras would have really added a lot to it, I think. His character, that dynamic. And so the idea of the tragedy, this big tragedy, this fall really sold well in the whole Necron world. And then we got to rain. And I kind of felt like we didn't know where to go. Like, what do we do now?

Yeah. And it was almost a comedy of errors. And to the point of like, there are parts in this book that I really like. There are parts of this book that I don't like. but there's nothing that I can point to that I overall find really like bad there's nothing I can specifically point to and say this is just a terrible scene

I hated this part there was it was like the pacing like things would happen and then be concluded really fast or you'd think this would be happening but then it didn't and then you think there'd be more emphasis on this or that and that's where it kind of lost me there's some great parts the last hour and a half

half in particular is very good. Oh, yeah, definitely. They've been hinting, they were hinting at that big reveal at the end for, I mean, that was set up like, even in, even in ruin, you could kind of be like, oh, you know, they kind of laid the groundwork for that big reveal at the end. It's been in the works. So it wasn't a huge surprise when it happened to me. Like it was, you could, you could kind of see it coming.

though yeah I guess because the beginning was solid like the first two to three hours was was a little slow in meandering but so was ruin yeah yeah and so I kind of expected it to be set up but then that the the second act the middle part really I felt really was totally off a bit tonally inconsistent and just kind of here there anyway we'll get we'll get into it I guess because so altics is now new He's been, he's new king, he's on the acrobs, an enormous fucking necrone vessel. And they are running away, very like running away in space last Jedi style.

Oh, definitely. From the Imperium. Oh, that's the perfect example of what it's like. It's like the last Jedi in their feudal attempts to run away from the big, bad, scary empire. Yeah. Yeah, but comparing this to the last Jedi as a disservice and it's all right. Oh, absolutely. They're not the same, God, no.

They're not the same quality level at all. It's just sort of the same backdrop, right? It's a very similar premise than running away space things to figure on what to do. But Oltix is there. He is struggling with leadership as the king.

Mentep, the cryptic is being secretive and weird. Yenik is... He's a little sussie paca, yeah. He's a little sussie. But Yannick is falling to the curse, but he's the admiral. He's trying to keep it all under wraps.

Meanwhile, he's being stalked by a golden figure with one eye, constantly staring at him the whole time, which is like the disfrect. Basically, yeah, given human, or given necrone form. Yeah, and they're trying to do, they're trying to figure out what to do with it, how to handle it. And that's, that's the overall premise. And it's, it starts off with like, like the repetition part you mentioned. I think it's definitely more of like a each scenario adds to.

the difficulties slash ineptitude of Ultix as a king yeah he's a bad king he's a bad king

and it wasn't until the end where he became a better king yeah and that's kind of the idea and it slowly

shows his his difficulty like in the beginning they're running away from the Imperium and he has a petty squabble

with like an old childhood rival. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's like, Lady Lord, I forget her name. It started with a D. It was like, duh. But yeah, yeah, yeah, it doesn't matter

where her name is. Yeah, and then they like duel and he kills her because he thinks that they were, she was broadcasting their locations of the Imperium, but she wasn't. No, she was not. Then that, that reveal is an interesting one.

Yeah, so they like use her ship as like fuel and then she's like stranded and then she's going to get like overrun by the Imperium. But no, but she was going to like legitimately help sacrifice herself for... Yeah, she was going to fly right in and destroy them, like destroy herself and the ships. And he was like, no, you're a fucking traitor. You're trying to take the glory from me. And blah.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, it was a little bizarre in that whole situation. But like, okay, you know, old six is an inept king. He's kind of angry and very, uh, he's kind of jealous. He doesn't really know how to. to lead properly. Yeah. But there's a new cast of characters that arrive.

Oh, not necessarily new, but some more. We get a lot more like Sychor in this one. And I'd argue he's the standout character of this damn entire book. Well, for a lot of it. He doesn't have a ton of screen time. Yeah. In the second act, he kind of just fades off and does his own thing. Yeah.

But it's just fun every time he's on screen. he's every time he's there actually in the book I'm having a good time every time he's there his his antics this there's like hey I can like assassinate you and people if you want

like I kind of want to do that he's like no life cycle he's like aw and then he's like his growing like conoptic army he has this this enormous army of race and scerobes and he's just going around like

hey you're gonna I'll just deal with them don't worry about and then he's just moving through like the what was the Trebushé and he's just murdering Mechanicus guy's like pop pop pop pop pop pop he's like oh you know you know the Trebusha is going to be like

covered in trips he's like yeah it's fine I can handle it don't worry I got it I have friends and then Oh go ahead I was just going to say Oltix is so fucking worried about him he's like a scarab could you keep an eye on him because I I'm not

I'm not 100% sure that he's not gonna try and like betray us but I kind of need him to go on a killing spree so uh please keep an eye on him make sure he doesn't do anything evil too evil too evil yeah the um that actually is another thing i want to mention the the scare no longer having his sub minds i think was a real blow to the to the real blow to the book i really liked the subminds and then they added a ton to his character in the first book a ton a ton and having them basically be all pushed into a tiny scarab and then relegated to background. The scarab is barely in the book.

Yeah, it only pops up a couple times for discussions with Oltix. But yeah, you know, now that I think about it, like, as I was reading Rain, a lot of the time, I was like, man, something's missing. Like, I really liked ruin. And Rain is, it's still good. It's still a good book. But I was like, man, something's missing. And I think it's the sub-mines. I think it's not having that dispute with all of his sub-mines,

especially when he's in such a conflicted state of not knowing what to do and not knowing how to lead. Having, like, arguments with his sub-mines would have really added a lot to this book, I think. So I would agree about the sub-mines being gone being a huge blow to the overall vibe of the book. They kind of kept them in check too sometimes, when he was getting out of hand. There's a couple other characters added, though.

We have Packett, who is his lichgard, who doesn't have a whole lot to do with the book. But then you have my favorite character, which is Zoltinek. I love Zoltznik. Zoltzeneck is great. I think he adds a lot because he's a prince. He's not a king of the Ogdebeck dynasty,

which is the copper-clad. necrons which is a super cool concept of having a bunch of lichgard with warhammers oh yeah giant warhammers instead of goddamn um sides and stuff like he's just this this big ass necron with a big fucking hammer he's voiced really well too i i love his voice and just his mannerisms of talking in the third person all the time in the third person and into the hypotheticals He's like, ha, does Zoltanek king believe Oltick's a fool? No. But he believes Oltick is misguided.

Is Oltick's king a bitch? Zoltanek's think so. But we can fix it. He's always got that thing. It's like, is Zoltanek minorly suss? No. T'was green who sabotaged the ship. T'was green.

Emergency meeting Zoltanek thinks. he's really he's really good he's a great addition and because I know he has a nice little moment where he mentions his his prior um their fairon

was a was a matriarch and then I remember Otex made some statement and it's like oh I thought it was a patriarch and Zoltanek's like no that changed I'm like oh huh neat cool interesting yeah you get to get you a little little

little bit of that going on there People probably appreciate that. Sure. And they don't, it's not egregious or annoying. Nice and perfect. It was cool seeing, cool seeing Zoltanek. Just really great,

really great addition. I loved the techno mancer. The techno manse. Oh, oh, oh, oh, right. Nagesh, Nageshkin? Nogeskin, I think. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The really monotone never really explains everything.

He's just like, can you, can you, can you, can you, can you, fix the engines? No. No. Why not? Broken. Can you fix it? Yes. How long we'll take three days? We don't have three days.

Then I cannot fix it. Zoltan, I gotta you put up with her! Jesus! She's super fun. Every time, you know, it kind of gets like a little sass to Altics. And I appreciate that. I think you need that kind of character.

It kind of gives a little pokey. There's a lot of great side characters in this. Yeah, there are. in this book. In fact, I argue that the best side characters, actually, our main trio of Oltix, Yenek, and Mentep are kind of my least favorite of the three. Of the characters, all the side characters outside of them.

Well, Yenek is pretty great at the end, but all the side characters, I love their inclusion. I mean, Oltics is a fine character. he's fine but you know you're annoyed with him because he's being oltics bad king he makes a lot of bad decisions for the course of the book so it's it's hard to kind of really like oldix because it's just like oh altics come on man you're being a real idiot right now you oof oof oof and then zoltanick comes in and is an absolute chad and it's like oh god i love zoltanick so much more than oltics oh my god what a what a what a beast let's go

Oltix feels like what I think he is which is a guy who got biotransference at 18 years old and never really grew up and he has no idea how to rule yeah he really doesn't which is the point of the book obviously it's to show that he's a bad king that's the whole point and boy is he

and how he does he do that and how he kind of moves his way through but there are some good moments oh Baraka I liked Baraka a lot But as it moves on They kind of go through their little They're a little running away from the Imperium

They're like jettisoning all their cargo They're sucking away ships energy They finally find a Mephyritte Trebouchet Which yeats them damn far away Away from the Imperium It's just like a catapult that just Yeats them into space At a really high rate of speed

Which also has them raiding a whole bunch of Mechanicus ships, which actually has our part where Neff dies. Yeah, Neth goes out like a champ. Yeah, but he just kind of went out. There was really no buildup or like he didn't do anything super heroic prior. There was no like emotional anything. He just kind of walks out and within like two pages he's gone. Yeah.

It felt it felt really unearned if I'm being totally honest. Yeah, a little bit almost like, oh, we don't know what to do with Neth. anymore, so let's just have him go out heroically, uh, sort of being the reason that, uh, the king is saved. Yeah, he felt like he just kind of died. Like they, like, almost like they needed to kill him for a quota or something. It was really, I was really unsatisfied with his death. Yeah.

I was just satisfied that Neth had something important to do, because I, I, I, I like Neth. I like Neth's a weird, uh, vhr-v-v-voice. That's actually what I think made me sad is I like Nep too, and I, wished he had more to do and something more heroic. Yeah. Because he's really... They just kind of ran out of things for him to do. Yeah, he's kind of the only real sacrifice I can think of. Because other people die, but...

Yeah, unwillingly. Yeah, but then not, yeah, not of their own accord, but... Yeah. But then, like, what was it? They get yeated all the way to... What's the name of that place? The... The Carnotite, which is...

Mentep's old world that he did some fucked up experiments on things Yeah And they met with the warlock of carnitite Yeah, that warlock though, holy shit

Another amazing side character That I fucking loved Another side character That's way more interesting than old takes, yeah Dude, dude, the fucking Warlock was a baller I thought he was so cool

Oh yeah, he was nightmare fuel, too He was a force of nature That seriously With all like the the wires going everywhere And like just He's like manipulating the planet to his will And it's like, oh, okay Okay buddy

He was uh He was literally He turned the prior pharaoh Into a crypto thrall And then it's just controlling him And then he like stops controlling him And the crypto thrall just starts screaming violently and he recontrolls him and he's like hey see no more screaming it's fine he's fine hooray

that that part was fan was really good i like the warlock stuff a lot it's a shame it's a shame they didn't do more with the warlock and they just kind of were like yeah cool and the warlock was like hey mentep uh here remember some stuff why don't you and it's like oh okay and you're just gonna leave the warlock now he was really cool maybe maybe we want to do more on the warlock no okay Okay, bye-bye. Yeah, no, I guess we're leaving now. I guess we're leaving now. I find that a lot of time.

I want more of certain characters, but they're not like, I don't get enough of them. Is that pacing again? It just feels like you don't get enough time with him. And it's just like, but he was so cool. Where are we going? Yeah, things are, are, feel like they're being set up and then dropped. Like things happen too quickly. Yeah, agreed.

Because it's like, oh, we need to go to carnitite because I did all these things because I'm Mentepp and mysterious and I've got problems And then they meet the warlock And it's like, we need to go here now And like there's not much time to process everything. Yeah, definitely. And that's kind of the big like It's not the second act low point.

I think it's maybe the click in the act two Where they learn how to go on something called the ghost wind. Yeah. That part, this part is a little bugged me a little. But so the ghost wind is a method of transportation utilized by the flayed ones, which if you actually in game, that was an old thing for a while, as the lore was that flayed ones had their own pocket dimension, their own special realm.

And that's why in game you can like teleport them because they come out of that realm and they're ready to cause problems, you know? Right, right. So that concept, that whole idea is still on board. We're still right on that. And so they go in the ghost wind in order, sending them to Drazak. Yes.

And Drazek is the home of the flayed ones, so to speak. There is even a strategy of in the game called Shadows of Drazac, which is like a minus to hit on Flade Ones or something. And they're like worried about meeting the, the Bone King. Bone King.

What was his name? He had a name. It was like Varla something, the Bone King. And they were, where they were like, oh, God, we don't want to deal with him. Oh, no, who knows what? The Bone King is going to, oh, God, the Bone King, Flayed ones, right?

So I saw, yeah, they didn't want to go to Drazac at all because they're scared of the illness. Tresden really, really didn't want to go to Trags. He was very upset when he found out that they were on their way to Tragac. Wait, did you say, did you say Trazen? Trazac. Drazac. Tragac. I do think I was getting it a little mixed up with Trazac.

because I kept hearing... I kept hearing Trazac in the book, but... Oh, no, yeah, no, it's Drazac. Okay. I kept hearing Trazac, and I was like, that sounds like a good place for Trazen to be. Yeah. Anyway.

Anyway. Though there's a couple parts in the ghosts when they get, that annoy me. Like, well, for one, Oltix opens up the area beneath Mentep's workstation and he finds a bunch of fucking meat and a bunch of flayed ones I think and he's like he does And he's like oh we want to cure them or something at some point

So we're not gonna kill them all you know Despite you wanting that And this is like his big spiral down Oh yeah this is the big big like Sort of I don't want to call it a reveal But yeah once he breaks that sarcophagus and it's like like, what's all this? That's kind of big.

Like, he really starts to go south. Well, he kills Menteb. He sure does. Which, I, I don't know if he's, they kept saying like, oh my God, you killed Mentep. You killed Mentep. I can't believe you killed Mentep. And they kept saying it so much that I'm like, oh, there's no way he's dead. This is so obviously a Baden Switch.

Yeah, it definitely did seem like they, we're going to do something where it's like, oh, actually, Mentep was already inflicted by the curse and cutting him in half did nothing, and he just blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And I mean, I guess there is kind of a reveal later that he is. It doesn't really count, though. That'd be like killing Oltics and saying the scarabs are him. Yeah, I know, but that's kind of like the big reveal.

It's like, oh, there's still a piece of Mentep here. But it felt like so obvious. like, oh, he's so alive. Like, they kept saying, oh, don't worry, he's dead. I thought they said so much that I thought they were trying to, they were trying to impress the fact that he wasn't. Yeah, like they were going to be like, oh, no, he's fine. Look at this.

This is how we cure it. We found the cure. Hooray, hooray. Yeah, I was so shocked that he was dead despite it all. Despite being such an important character and basically, you know, being the one person that could talk some sense into Oltix and give him some sagely wisdom, Dumbage is like, nope.

He got his ass beat. He got his ass whooped. And then Yennek gets put on like a derelict vessel with all the flayed ones and just jettisoned. Exiled, yeah. Yeah, literally exiled out into space, which is not great. Nope, that's not great. And that's when the ship really kind of starts to turn on him because Yenick was like the foundation of the A-Crops. Everybody was kind of looking to Yenik because like, oh, look at, look at Yenik.

he's fighting this thing off so well. Oh, we always have a little faith as long as Yannick is here. And then once Yannick is gone, Ultik is like, uh-oh. I'm getting a lot of funny looks now. What the fuck? Yeah.

My Cycour is like, hey, everyone kind of wants to kill you. Yeah. Just saying. Nobody trusts you, buddy. But then there's the big reveal that, okay, well, a couple things happen. One, and this,

like, this Warhammer, nothing makes sense. But this bugged the shit out of me. The Imperium finds them in the ghost winds. I am so glad that you brought that up. Because I have no idea how the Imperium and the Blood Angels even got into the ghost wind. Like, how do they, the Necrons don't understand this tech. And they're the fucking Necrons.

Yeah. How in God's name did they get in? I don't understand. Like, I get the idea that they were, uh, they were tracking the Acrops' movement because uh, uh, uh, Oltix got his gold, uh, he got his gold coat by stealing some gold from the Imperium that had some like bone fragments in it from like the bones of the saints. Yeah, bones of the saint in it.

And there was, there was even a part where like, uh, some Imperium psych or slave is looking at him and all he can sense is like the, I guess he's blind or something or he can't see well, but he's a psycher so he can sense the bones of the state. He's like, oh, holy saint. And he's like, what the fuck is. wrong with this guy. Yeah, like, Psychor has like a, has like a can of, of human. Yeah.

And he's just like, hey, I got a present for you. And it's like, it's a psycher. And Pack, it's like, what the fuck? Yeah. What's how fuck is this? Get it away now. And it had been going insane in its little coffin box. But yeah, it's like, even, even if you can trace the, trace the acrops, it's like,

okay, they literally went to a parallel dimension. Okay. If they don't even know how they got into the ghost wind because Mentep got them in because Mentep got the knowledge of it from the warlock How the fuck did the Imperium get in there? Did they just siker themselves in? Did they just use a shitload of psychers

and just warp their way in? It's never explained. And even though they know nothing about the ghost wind, the Imperium doesn't, and yet somehow their technology works better in the ghost wind than the Necron's technology. what? They're chilling.

They are surprisingly doing well during this entire period of time. Yes, they're really well. They're catching up to the necrons. The necrons are in complete disarray and depression because, like, oh shit, they're catching up. Like, we got a, we got to shred parts of the ship. We got a, you know, we got a jettison. Like, they get, they just dunk a bunch of their warriors. They just let a bunch of warriors go because they're too heavy.

And they're like, oh, at some point we'll reanimate them. It'll be fine. it's it was really bizarre it's really weird that it worked yeah it's super bizarre that like somehow the Imperium followed them into the ghost wind of all the of all the things

you would think they would be safe in that of all of all things but I guess they they still needed the conflict though I think conflict aboard the ship would have been equally fine oh yeah definitely like without Mentep

they're essentially stranded in the ghost wind because he was the only one that knew how it worked that's the only person the warlock gave any information to. So without Mentep, you're just sailing on a wind that you don't know where it goes or how it operates. Like, that's enough conflict. Yeah, it's really, I thought it was a very bizarre decision to have them somehow follow them to go swing.

Because as far as I'm aware, the Imperium travels via the warp the entire time, and this is not the warp. Or it is the warp, and it's to be explained in the third book. But at the moment, I am thoroughly confused. Agreed. Despite this all. This is when Oltix is like really kind of seething and coping. Oh, yeah. But then they actually do get to a pretty great part,

which is when they get boarded by the Blood Angels. And the Blood Angels are Gigacads in this book. Yes, they are. It's just the Blood Angels fan book. If you're fan of the Blood Angels, you want to read this one, yeah. If you like Blood Angels, and especially if you like Death Company, because it was kind of funny reading it and watching it, and watching them fight off all these

blood angels and they're, you know, saying their immortals up, but then the blood angels have like jet packs and they're dropping plasma bombs on them and all this stuff. But then Oltix is fighting their chaplain. And he stabs the chaplain in like the stomach or something.

I forget. And then all the death company are like, Horace! You motherfucker! Yeah, that's right. He gets the same wound that sanguineus got from Horace, right? And they all just sort of start seething.

And I'm assuming that's the black rage that they're falling to. Yeah, they all start just going maniacal. They start ripping Lichgard apart. And they're like, oh, no. Like, why are they fighting so hard now? They're fighting way harder. What the fuck is this? And then, but then after that, you get Baraka to come save the day.

Oh, boy. Yeah, Baraka makes a bitch out of the, blood angels. Even with the black rage, Baraka comes in and just annihilates. He slams his face into like a fucking pillar 19 times. Yep. He goes Hulk smash on him. He's

oof. The, uh, I must admit though, I I don't know what the stipulations are of writing a 40K book, but I had this weird feeling of like requiring them. I don't know if this is true or not,

but um, the decoron got their recent range update, right? New models and ship. All of Baraka's destroyers are new models. Also, the little pharon that was a crypto thrall that the warlock was controlling.

Crypto thralls are also new models. And so Baraka had four destroyers. He had a Skorpeg Lord. He had the slithery affidians. destroyer, the six-pistled hex mark, and the locust heavy with the giant gun. And it was, I don't know if it's a requirement, but the fact that each and every one of them was in there and their new models, my tinfoil hat is on a little bit. I mean, it is a new book, and I mean, you might as well use the new minis.

I mean, if you can get a little bit of double advertising in there, why not? Yeah. Yeah, I could see them at least strongly recommending that maybe consider using some of these characters that are now for sale minis on the shop, eh? A, yeah. So I'm a little tinfoil haty on that. But besides that whole whole stick, the fighting the Blood Angels was cool. I wish there was more Zoltanek and Oltix

like duo fight the Terminators and I wish there was more of that a back to back like young Oltix and just enormous Zoltanek who's like 50% bigger than Oltex just wailing on people with his hammer

I'm sad we didn't get more of that I wouldn't mind just a solo Zoltanek book like a book that's just like oh yeah well done Oltex you did your thing and now we just follow Zoltanek on his wacky zany adventures I would love that I'd like a short story

I don't think Zoltanak could be a major character because I think his little gimmick in his voice would get old if he's the main character but he is fun short story then short story sure sure sure but what is it after they deal with all the blood

angels and shit um Zoltanik Rams their fuck oh right it ends with them fighting a dreadnought. Yeah. It was weird, like,

uh, because, you know, I, every time I've heard about dreadnots, they seem like absolute monsters. Like, holy shit,

the dreadnought will turn the tide of battle. There, you, if you're, if you're fighting a dreadnought, you better have another dreadnought. And, uh,

it seemed like, old ticks just kind of was like, ah, dreadnought, ah, it's bitch meat. And then just deals with it very quickly. Yeah.

Yeah, I'm... I had that feeling a little bit just in this book in general where I kind of was going back to thinking about my nice little night lord books. And I kind of appreciate that despite the fact that the night lords are demigods, they felt way more mortal than Oltex ever does.

Oltex feels like laughably overpoweredly strong, which, I mean, Necron, don't get me wrong. But it was kind of, it was kind of supporting that he never felt in danger. Yeah. He always felt like he could body whatever he deals with. Like, everything he feels like he can body. Yeah.

And even if he can't body it, he, like, relocates and gets his body rebuilt. Yeah. Yeah, I was so shocked that, like, the Dreadnought put up zero fight. The Dreadnought was taken to Pound Town very quickly. Very quickly. Oltex just kind of walks up to it. It was like,

It's just a bitch fuel. And then just kind of wrecks it. Yeah. Though the big reveal at the end of that is he thinks nobody is watching him. And he's sort of at the sarcophagus and he's looking at the little almost dead inside. And in a fit of rage, the dreadnought pilot tries to like bite him. And Altix tries to bite back. Altix doesn't try to bite back.

He does bite back. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And that part I thought was great. That scene right there when I heard like, and he decided to take a bite. I'm like, oh my God. Yep, that was like, holy shit. Oh, I was shocked. That's where we're going.

Oh, my God. Oh, my God. That was a great scene. That was a fantastically written scene. It caught me super off garb, but in the good way that didn't feel unearned. Yeah, definitely. It felt very much erred. It felt very much like, holy shit.

Yep. Because like I said, they had been sort of planting seeds. for this to happen. And then when it finally does, it's like, oh, God, it actually, oh, boy, oh boy, oh boy, oh boy. Also, Shai said, so you can say rain did for Dreadnought fans what Bruttle Cunnen did for night fans. Yeah, not quite that bad. He didn't kill like three dreadnots. It's true.

Where they annihilated seven nights or something. Yeah, that Dreadnought had no offense, though. It didn't do anything. It just got wrecked. So, yeah. Yeah. Poor, yeah. Not a good book for Dreadnought fans, definitely.

No, it was a bit wreck. But that part is really solid. And right after biting that, dude, Oltex is like, well, guess I'll die then? Pretty much. He takes his fancy little ship and he's just like, yeah, I'm just going to fly into the Lysergonian and fuck this. Yep.

And even like Zoltadek breaks the Lyshterganian in two by like ramming it or something. He rammed like right through it with his ship, yeah Which was really random because I was like Wow, it was that easy? He just cut it in half by just ramming Zoltanek's ship He could have done this at any point. Why didn't he? Why wait until now?

Why not do that before? It's like I was shocked how fast the damn ship died And then he sent like Baraka And they sent Brocka and his destroyers To go deal with all the space marines on that ship And they're never seen or heard from again. Yeah. Assumed dead, which is weird.

Wait, I thought, he sent Baraka and his cult just out on a ship and just was like okay see ya and they just drift in the ghost wind forever I thought he sent them to go deal

with the remaining space marines from the Lysregonian trying to put the ship together I thought I thought Am I wrong? So here's what I thought happened and chat can correct us and tell us which one of us is right or wrong

it's been a little bit since I read it so I could be mistaken too. But I thought he sent Baraka and his cult into like their own little pod and just sort of jettisoned them into the dead wind or the ghost wind. And it's like they would just wait until someone found them and then just have a feast and then just go crazy once they were found. and then um old tics would try and go deal with whatever was happening on like the lystragonian and everything and give the rest of his dynasty time to like get away because he's like oh god i fucked up i'm such a bad leader so i'm going to die to sort of give them time to escape i i think

i didn't really get his motivation too well of why he wanted to kill himself besides he's him falling to the flare curse and him killing all the other guys. Yeah. Him realizing that he had fallen to the flare curse and everybody knew he had fallen to the flare curse. So. And even that, yeah.

And then he basically just flies out with Packett. Yeah. The Lichgard, who's remained a really awesome character. She said, she's said nothing, but she's like his personal assistant Lichgard. She's always been there helping him every time. She has a very, she's a very Boba Fett style vibe to her. where she's she doesn't really say or much but she does enough to make her interesting at least in empire strikes back that is hadn't she also was she the one that also fell to the flayer curse except she wanted oltex to be her executioner and then at the very last second they no that was the agorinomas the grain guy oh okay got you that was the grain boy and which which he took over as yennax thing and he actually grain boy actually did did okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

He was all right. Yeah, I got those mixed up. Okay. But he died. I don't remember if Graham Boy died. I don't know if he did or not. But no, Oltics died, and then they got taken aboard the... Is it the Lysregonian? Which ship was that? I think it was the Lysergonian, but his death was really... Like, Oltics' death was weird.

It was... I... that whole scene, I didn't understand what the fuck was happening. Yeah, like he... like his ship gets shot and then he gets shot and then like he it's like oh yeah he like hallucinates oltex dies but then he's like oh I didn't die because like all of my memories and all of my being and all of Jazeera's and all of Eunice's uh was it Eunice I don't know anyway everybody's memories were like implanted in his flux that was like floating around in space so he could like decide

who he wanted to be or something so he could decide if he wanted to be Jazeera the king or if he wanted to be flawed Ultics and he was like oh I guess I'd better be Ultics because that's what I've always been and then he kind of just wakes up in the heart of the Listergonian

it was very weird it was very weird I didn't understand Jack all with that entire part it was very confusing I read it a couple times and I'm like, I still have no fucking idea what happened. He, yeah, he died, but he, I guess, was allowed to choose what Necron he wanted to be reincarnated in as. And he was like, oh, I'm so attached to Oltics.

And he made up everything I was. So I guess I better be him again. And he gets reincarnated as not King Oltix. Yeah, it was really weird. That whole scene, I had a big puzzled look on my face when I was, listening to it. I did not understand what was going on. Agreed. But he wakes up and in the lower chambers

of this area and then packets there. And that, the sea with packets really fucking good. It makes me really sad because I was like, oh shit, she would have been a great character if they kept her around. Yeah, yep, yep. But, you know, she has all this thing. She's like, yeah, I taught you how to use the glave when you were a kid.

Yep. I was your tutor. Your instructor and you sucked at it. Hey, you were awful with that thing. You were a bitch, and he's like, oh, yeah, I was. You were trash, but you had a good heart, too good of a heart. That was your problem. You couldn't be a good Necron leader. But, and then what did he say?

It's like, how did I do as a king? And she was like, you were better than Eunus. And it's just like, oh, thanks. Yeah, fucker. Yep, yep. It was really, that part was good. The ending with Packet was surprisingly well. done. Like, everything after

Oltex's death is pretty solid. Oh, yeah, definitely. Because then he finds Yenek and all the flayed ones in the ship. Yeah, which is also weird. I'm not sure how Yenac got in there. Oh, I get that. Because they're in the ghost wind.

And since he's a flayed now, they can travel around. Oh, you're right. Okay. I guess I didn't realize that the ghost wind was a specific, like, flayed one's transportation device. That's true. That's right, because Uh, uh, uh, uh, Altix actually talks a little bit more about how he's able to move in the ghost wind once he, uh, you know. Yeah. Um, it's like, whatever the way they do that. But that was the idea

was, was like that, this is what took a turn for the, for the better. It was, yeah, these flayed ones are, they're my people, despite their illness. They shouldn't be cast out. They should be treated with respect. Yeah. And then boy to those flayed ones go fucking absolutely hog wild on the Lystrugon. That that's that was really super dope. That whole thing. I really like that whole part because it's very it's very much like, hey, these are your people, altics. The flayed ones are not something that you should be ashamed of. It is not a sickness. It is simply what you are. Do not cast out your people instead. Treat them well and they will follow you. you. Yep. And Yenic

too. And so then he's like, all right, it's now Oltick's king of the flayed ones. Yep. And then they just go ham. Oh man. They rip the ship apart. They, the, the Imperium

and the Leicester go, they have no chance. They're absolutely overrun and decimated. They're literally in your walls. Oh yes. They're in your walls. They're coming to eat you. Yep. Because they're in the ghost wind,

which means that they can literally teleport anywhere on the ship that they want at all times. Mm-hmm. So they're just, they're like running, they're running on all fours with these like long, bladed, rictus grinned-looking robots. Yep. Just like running at Mach 5,

but with completely silent and they're coming out of grates and, and ripping open walls and grabbing people and dragging them into the dark to be like sliced to ribbons. Yep. It's, and even Yenick, it's his like, the razor of Seda can finally be

unveiled, you know? Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. It's... Yeah, and they do such a good job that the rest of the Imperium is just like, fuck this shit, I'm out.

Like, uh-uh. We're not dealing with the flayed ones. We are out of here. Fuck this. Yeah, it's... It's very, a very, very, very satisfying ending. Oh, yeah. The whole part of them

running through the ship murdering people is written phenomenally. Oh, God, yeah. It's so badass. I'm just imagining like a, like a film, like a side shot of Voltix like running through the fucking place and you see Flay ones like,

like running past him and like grabbing the people to his side and stuff. You get this one long tracking shot type thing, you know? And they're all like crawling on the walls around him like this just big wave of insects of, and they're just flayed ones. Yeah, and you can hear like the screeching and the like nails on shockboards and stuff.

And the sort of chittering sound of metal on metal claws skittering around on the deck. It's really good. The last hour and a half of this book is pretty fucking great. Oh, yeah. And the book ends with them kind of rejoining. I guess Menteb's dead. Yeah, Menteb is dead. The big reveal is Zott is actually Menteb's version of the sub.

minds that uh it's like it's like men tep scarab so it's men's temp scurab technically a part of him is still alive is but mentep is dead yeah it's uh yeah yeah um and then at the end they make it to drossack yep and there's not a whole lot on dravik there's literally jackall there's nothing there there was no reason to be afraid is literally just an empty sort of white palace. An empty, like yeah, white palace. I think it almost kind of like the idea of, you know that part in NIR where you had like the copied city?

That was like the remade city of all like white blocks and like white. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. I kind of imagine it like that. Sure, I go with that. Yeah, and Oltex just takes his seat on the throne. There was a... Let's see what's going to happen. Yeah, there was like a crown that was waiting there for like whoever would lead or whoever had led before and he was like, oh, I'll just sit here.

I guess it's my crown. Yeah, yeah. It was kind of interesting that it was surrounded by like the, a debris field that had necrone ships from literally every era. Yeah, everyone always was coming there for some reason or another. And the acrops like willingly took them there because the acrops wanted to find them. be at peace. And then the Acrofts was like, guess I'll die and flies into the sun.

Guess I'll just die here. Yep. And that's the end. And then the book ends. Yeah, that's it. So yeah, I guess, I guess Oltics, Valgoal. That's the name.

Oh, that was the Bowling King. Valgoal. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So that's the question. Is Oltix the new Valgoal? Like, in terms of like the Litch King style with Frostmorn and like, in Wow?

Or is he, was he, Valgoal the whole time. Oh yeah, is it a prequel? Is he the Valgoal originally? I don't know. The Valgoal was the friends we made along the way. Shut the fuck off. But, I mean, we're harder.

We're probably both harder on this book than we actually consider it. Because it's certainly not bad. I give it a firmly planted good. Oh, yeah. It was definitely good. I just, it may be. Not great. Yeah.

think it had a it had a large shadow to live in is a big problem that it had it's it was really it would have been really hard to live up to ruin because ruin was very very good so it had big shoes to fill and i don't think it quite filled them but that doesn't make it a bad book no i think it definitely more so i mean it had some shoes the need to fill absolutely but i think it i feel like it could have used another two or three drafts, a couple of revisions. Just like a little bit, a couple of looks, looking over to make sure that it flowed better. Yeah, the pacing was kind of all over the place, yeah. Yeah, because ruin was a tight book.

It was, it was so good. It started a little slow, but that was kind of intentional. Yeah. And to build its way up, it was a great tragedy. It had almost no dull moments. Yeah. It was, it was just really well made. It was nice, tight thing.

And I feel like it's like when you do your first project and it's like nearly perfect and then you have to do the sequel to and you're like, I don't really, I didn't plan for this. Yeah, like how do I live up to that? Like I literally got like a 99.9% on my first project. I don't know how I'm going to get that extra point one.

Oh, no. Yeah, it's good, but it's a bit sloppy. It's a bit, uh, needs a little bit more. It has all the parts to be a really good book from like the beginning, the part with the trebushe, uh, when they go to Carnotite and they're with the warlock, uh,

like, they're all really good parts. It's just, you're right. Like, they just kind of don't flow that well. And like, you almost feel like you don't get enough of these big moments because they feel this need to have like the, this constant chase going on. And yeah, it's, it's

good. Oh, I totally forgot. Dennett summoned the monoliths. That's right. Denet, he saved the Necrons, he summoned the monoliths. They only lasted for like two seconds, but it was just enough time to absorb that one blow that would have killed them. I got to be honest, I actually thought that scene wasn't handled very well.

Well, yeah, I mean. Despite, like pacing. Like, Oltics looked out. He's like, oh, the guns were about to fire, and Oltx looks out. And then it was like the next line was, Dennett summoned the monoliths. And I was like, no, too fast.

Do you need to be like, and Oltix looked out and sees two oculars flaring in the acrops? And he looks at, it's like, is that Dennett? Why is Dennett on the bridge? And then, and then Denet's, and then it's like, oh, this oculars flared. And then a wisp of translocation arrives in front of him in the shape of a monolith.

Like that's, I think they need to be like said like that Because he literally just said he summoned the monoliths Like no, you had to build up to that You've been setting this up for two books Yeah, it's been a joke for two books That he can't remember the password for the monolith Then it's like you finally remembers it And you're over and done with it like that

It's just yeah It needed more buildup It was, I'm happy it happened But it needed more There was a part of me that was actually hoping The Monolith would like warriors Would come out of the monolith And actually do something

No, they literally, all they did was take tank to big explosions. Yeah, that's it. I was actually kind of hoping that Dennett would summon actual warriors and the warriors would help fight off the Imperium or something. Nope, they just tanked a super blast from the Leicesterogonian. I think it was. I think, yeah. Save the Acrops, which is, you know, saving the Acrops pretty good.

That's pretty good, but yeah, I mean, for the big thing that you've been joking about for two whole books. You need it to give it a little bit more, You need more payoff. A little more payoff. I need some more payoff on that. Yeah, yeah. All right.

That's about it. I think I don't have anything else I really think I need to say. No, I think we've expressed our feelings on the book. It was all right. Yeah. After coming right off of ruin,

a little, mid. Indeed, I need another draft or two. It needed to be tightened up. Yeah. Maybe a few fewer. like, sub,

like them trying to figure out how to fix the drive in the ship or something like that. You could have like taken away a plot point or two and instead stretched out the warlock

and the, and the trebushe, like, trebusheshoe was pretty long already but like certain things and kind of figure that stuff out a little bit more. It needed to be refined

a little bit, I think. Agreed. But it's, uh, it's still a fine book. I'm still absolutely going to read the next one. Oh,

hell yeah. 100%. I'm assuming there's going to be a next one, right? there's going to be a third one? I'm going to assume. They're not just going to end it with like, oh yeah, and Oltix found peace on Drazic and hooray,

he is the bone king and his subjects love him and that's where they live forever underneath whatever that shroud thing is. I'm hoping they'll have a third one. What's the conflict, though? Just Oltics leading as the bone king? bleeding, doing it, becoming it, maybe the Perium isn't quite dead,

they just left. I mean, like, Psycho just kind of fucked off, you know? Like, you, I don't know. I mean, he had a goodbye message, but... That was pretty funny. You see, he was genuinely disappointed that he didn't murder him. He's like, I'm sorry, I couldn't perform treason on you.

I really wanted to, but I just never quite had the chance. It's like, well, I stole 90% of your conoptic scarabs as well, and I was going to kill you with all of them, but damn. I never got the chance. I'm sorry. I'm not very good. I'm not very good at my job, am I?

I'm a bad death mark. Yeah, but good luck. Yeah, funny. There he goes. All right. So, a tentative recommend, but hot off the heels of ruin could have been a little better.

Agreed. Yeah. It was all right. It was fine. It was fine. I'm more, at the moment, I'm in like that situation where I'm more, I'm like, the book is not as far from bad or anything, but I'm a little frustrated by it.

Yeah. And so I feel more negative towards it despite the fact that it's not actually that bad. Yeah. Not a bad book. Just had a hard time living up to ruin. Yeah. All right. Well, in that case, that's our book club.

Our next book will be. Ooh, hey, I, yeah, I'm, I'm interested. What's our next book? I don't know. Oh. I'm sorry, I thought, I don't know. Fucking Buzzkill. Jesus, man.

I don't know. I don't know. I'm sitting here and I'm like, oh, man, I don't even know what the next book is. And he's going to, oh, shit. Yeah, man, let's go. What's you got to do? 50 Shades of Grey. Twilight, Breaking Dawn, Part 1.

Yeah, no, just read all four parts of Twilight. No, just read part one. Read part two, half of part two. The three-fourths of the ending. Part 2 is what we're going with. All right. Let's get the fuck out of here. Let's get the fuck out of here.

You're just shenanigans.