Adeptus Ridiculous - WARBOSS | Warhammer 40k Book Club

Episode Date: March 10, 2024

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Wow. No, keep it in. Keep going. Keep going. You got this, buddy. You got this. You got this. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Welcome everybody to another episode of the Adeptus Ridiculous. Today we're doing a book club on WarBuzz if you appreciate us. Patreon.com slash Adeptus Ridiculous. Discord. Discord. Discored. Discored. Discord. Blupers if they happen. And the $15 tier gets you access to the posters and digital format. Patreon.com slash Adeptis. Damn, we're good at this. Holy shit. Let's go. Let's go. Baby. War boss. Oof, this is, I mean, to be fair, this is starting off like a proper orc episode. Just all off the rails going crazy. Nobody knows what they're doing. But hey, it works. You know, we got ourselves, we got ourselves a book here. We do have ourselves a book.

And this book, in fact, involves orcs. It does. It does. I have mixed feelings about the book. So, okay, interesting. I, shy also said it's not perfect, but it's good orky fun. I'm, okay, I think we should start with shy's opinion on the book because shy, she is our resident orc, orc fungus, beer drinking, etc. She's a proper.

Oh, she's currently writing out her thoughts. So we talk now. We'll get to her thoughts later. Okay. Can I, can I say something? that I think we are all unanimously in agreement of. Sure. The audiobook narrator for this book absolutely killed it.

Oh, 100% killed it. 100% great voicing of the orcs and all that. Yeah, absolutely. Not only just the voicing of the orcs, but the writing of the chapters, the ongoing gag. Yeah, the ongoing gag of, I don't know what chapter is and lots and lots and lots. Yeah, yeah, yeah, definitely.

A lot of that going on there. I mean, the VA, he was, he is a Brit. One, oh, yeah, they got a proper Brit to do the orcs, for sure. Good old Harry Myers, hats off to you. I genuinely don't know of many other people who could have done as good of a job as you. Like his default voice was an org voice. This might be interesting to note, but they also were the VA for, for Day of Ascension.

Really? Yeah. I did not realize that. I did not either. I thought this was the first time I'd been hearing them, but hey, whatever. They were also for Dave Ascension, which I thought it was the first time hearing them, too, but I guess not. And they also are the VA for Da Big DAC, which is, you know, kind of kind of a little end bit, a little segue. Okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay.

But for the most part, it would appear that he is a relatively new VA into the world of Warhammer audiobooks. I am on his audible... Done three books, relatively new. That's done more than three. What? Well, I thought you're saying he was relatively new. And he's done more than three books? It's not really like that new, is it?

No, okay, so he's relatively new in the world of 40K. He's done a whole bunch of other books. Okay, got you. But, like, it seems like his credits are about, like, you know, about like 20 to 25. But as far as I can tell right now, there, he has done one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, eight 40K books. But it's, but a couple of them are Sigma Bayes. Or sorry, so Warhammer books, couple are Sigma, couple are, uh, okay, got you, et cetera. Not exclusively 40K.

So you have mixed feelings on this I do I have some mixed feelings Because like on the one side It is it's good orky fun And I feel like This is a great book If you're like

If you want to know about like the orcs And the clans How the hierarchy works Oh why don't they like grots How do you get a war boss What is what happens when a war boss Dyes like it's a really good like, you know, orc clan primer, you know, it's, it's good for that. But I don't know,

something about it just didn't do it for me. Uh, I'm not sure if it was the ever shifting POV or not, but I don't know, like halfway through it was just kind of like, oh man, can we just focus on like Magdeadfest or like DeGeneral and, you know, uh, huh, interesting. That's, uh, I don't, I, I, I, I, I, I, I think that if you, if you were to read this book as a physical copy, I don't think you would get the full experience because I, I think that Harry Myers's VA work is pretty, pretty substantial here and very useful. But I actually, okay, did you like it more or less than Brutal Cunning? Um, that's tough to say. A part of me likes it more because Brutal Cunning had so many downtime moments where it's just like, oh look, it's the Mechanicus part and it's like, ugh, let's get back to the Ux. So I actually, I think I might have liked it more than Brutal Cunning

because it was pretty much just orc focused and then the humans kind of toiling away and and trying to figure out what the orcs were doing and, and, you know, the orcs actually outsmarting them to some degree. So, a part of me wants to say more, but I feel like there were maybe more memorable moments in Brutal Cunning with the Orks. So maybe like a side grade. You know, that's a fair thing. I think that the human moments in Brutal Cunning,

I actually preferred, only because they had a narrative. the human moments in this book had no narrative for the most part they were just kind of little glimpses that pretty quickly and abruptly ended that's fair it was a lot of oh no orcs

what do we do don't fight them oh just defend the wall oh what are you doing why did you go out there uh oh we're screwed orcs are stronger than we thought and yeah yeah like there was only one particular human side grade section that I was invested in and that was in the captured captain and that ended in a narratively make sense situation or in a universe makes sense situation

but in a narratively awful situation that I very much did not enjoy. Yeah, that kind of just, yeah, yeah, it was kind of just like, oh look, we're using the captured captain to figure out a cool way past the walls and then he's just like gone. Yeah, that was in its own right the entire point of his subplot

was to get one of the three war bosses to an area they were already kind of getting to. Yeah, it was to get the general under the walls, yeah. Yeah, so it's, I mean, obviously, you know, that's what you take as a surface level. You start off with, like, the whole point of Mechanicus was like,

okay, in brutal cunning that it was, was like, okay, let's take the literal opposite of orcs, the most technological, the most like, logical, logical, planet, yeah. And watch has that logical fallacy

and underestimating of the orcs is what dooms them. And it's like, okay, there was a bit too much mechanicus stuff, but it had a point, you know? True, it did. It had a point. Whereas a lot of the human stuff was very,

like also, in a sense, has a point, but it's really quick and is over fast. And just, and because of that, It's like, ooh. Yeah. Also, I, it's not really a spoiler per se, but like the epilogue to the book, book ends the first part of the book where it's like, oh, look, Snaggy is captured and he's like telling the story of how they got there. By the epilogue, I forgot that that was even the point.

I forgot too. I completely forgot too. The epilogue happened. It's like, oh, yeah, take the blindfold off and untie him. And I'm like, wait, what? When did he get captured? What the? happened? Didn't we just have the thing where the general wins and he's the only one? What the

happened? And then it was like, oh, right. At the very beginning, he's telling his story because oh, right. And it's like there was no point in between where it ever like refreshes you to the fact that that happened. It was just like eight hours later, remember what happened at the beginning? And I was like, Damn, I forgot about that. Yeah, no, I mean, it clearly segues into the big DACA, obviously. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. But it is, I will say, I did kind of, I did totally forget that that was what we were here for. It would have been nice if there were some moments where it kind of interjected and like the

orc listening to the story was like, what are you mine or something? Like a little refresher would have been nice. Yeah, it's a little, maybe a little extra to remind you that would be. be good. No, granted, the book is not particularly long. It's like eight and a half hours. Yeah, something like that. You could bang this out in like a weekend.

I literally did. I started on Friday. I had 20 minutes left yesterday. I had 20 minutes left. I left for the weekend and I came back and I was like, uh-oh. That's right. I need to finish this. So I banged out the last 20 minutes yesterday.

So I must say, even though, okay, we've harped on some issues we have initially. right here, but I actually thoroughly did enjoy the book. I had a proper good time with it because I don't think I've, oh, damn, all right, there's, there's Shai's thing. Whoa, there's Shai's thoughts. Do we want to read that now? Sure. Did you want to or would you want me to?

Um, I guess you do a lot of the talking normally, so I can read it. Perfect. Here's my short review of Warboss from Shai, though I listened to it a few months back, so I might misremember a few things. I quite liked War Boss. It's a fun book, but it's not the greatest book. I appreciate they drop switch between boring humans and fun orcs. The human parts are short and not too bad, and orc parts are switching between three very different orcs and a grot, so it keeps it spicy and gives good overview of orc society. The plot is very basic. It is indeed an orc rat race. Orcs race each other to get to MacGuffin and hilarity ensues. It barely goes deeper than that with a small twist of third faction getting. in. My big criticism is something space marine fans probably won't get, and theme of orcs fighting other orcs is what fits the faction. Jesus Christ, can orcs get some challenge for once? Humans are downright pathetic in this one, even weaker than ad mech in previous one. That is actually

very true. The amount of brain power on display on the side of the orcs is also pretty nuts. The commandos in GW lore are generally as smart as don't run at the wall, blow up the wall. then run into the hole. Here, commandos are a freaking splinter cell, Sam Fisher brain level, and spoilers. That kind of continues into the big docker. Orcs are so effing smart, but at least in Big Dhaka,

enemy faction is way stronger and more interesting. I kind of miss dumbass orcs. In general, book was a series of set pieces with fun, orc action, and comedy and switching points of view, and it kept my attention and was entertaining. Bro, if you were an elder, okay, we're getting into spoilers now.

Oh, yeah, this is spoiler territory. We're talking about the third faction that got involved. Right. So if you were like an Eldar fan and you were really upset when I think, I think it was Fulgroom, whoever strangled an avatar of Kane to death. And you're like, ma'am, the avatar of Kane never gets anything done. And you read this book, you would be furious. You would be fucking furious

Well, to be fair Well, to be fair, it took, what, Three war bosses and a bunch of orcs to take it? Bro, an Avatar of Kane is like, It's like, like, like, Like, even the idea that Fulgrim, A Primark killed an Avatar of King by, like, strangling it is the stupidest thing ever

Because it's made of lava. But no, dude, an Avatar of Kane is like, that's something that like one v. one's like a knight. it's oh they're giant they actually made it seem really tiny in the book yeah i was gonna say it like it seemed like it was a big deal in the book but it didn't seem like it was like oh yeah a primark can't beat this thing or oh this thing one v one's a night like it seems strong it seemed like it was given the war bosses trouble it killed two of them uh but it didn't seem like it was like you know yeah it did kill two of them that that is that is

fair. It did kill two of them. Did kill two war bosses, yep. I will say, I did really, I would, I half agree, like, I think we both agree, we all agree that there was too much admec stuff in brutal cunning. It's a fair comparison, because

there's also a Mike Brooks book. But I think there was, while I was happier with the amount of human stuff and things in this book, I felt it was a little too scatterbrained. Like, if If we had, like, let's say, two hours of ad mech in Brutal Cunning, I would have preferred at least an hour and a half of humans, but at least, like, following the same characters instead of just kind of bouncing around between the colonel and then the tank commander and then the captive and then the Eldar for like 20 minutes.

Yeah. So there was a little bit of that. A little scatterbrain, for sure. Yeah. I mean, they're all interesting characters. And, like, I enjoyed the book. and I would recommend the book to an orc fan, but I don't know, like,

I kind of just wanted to stay with, like, either DeGenal or Magdeadfist the whole time. As fun as the Speed Freak was, a lot of times I was just kind of like, eh, I kind of want to know what Mag Deadfest and DeGeneral are doing, and what the Humi bait is doing. I don't really care about the Speed freak.

He's going fast. He loves life. Speed freaks are great, sure, but I kind of just found myself not caring much about him. I found the overarching story a bit, a bit meh. It's just the race to the finish line with a bunch of MacGuffin. Yeah, it's the rat race. Yeah, it's the rat race.

We got ourselves a cute little bit of the Red Gobbo, also written, I think, by Mike Brooks, the short story. Yep, yep. The Revolution. Yeah, with the Grots, which was fun. I liked that. Yeah, I like the Grotwa. I was interested in what, you know,

know, the little grot wall was going to do to keep themselves alive and try to outsmart the orcs, that was fine. I found myself mostly being extremely entertained with Mike Brooks's writing more than I did with the actual plot. Like, there's the part when the speed freaks try to go into the wall and the shock jump drags to hits the big red button and it does nothing and he just fucking hits the wall and dies. It just gets flattened and, yeah.

And I was like, that's hilarious. That was fantastic. It became the shortest and whitest thing ever. Or like when the general was like, why does no one want, why is everyone want to be a lieutenant? Is it because it has the name loot in it? Yeah. Like that shit was hilarious. That is fair.

That was a great moment. Everybody wants to be a loot. And then, yeah. The entire opening of this book was absolutely like gut wrenching. The admec talking about the orc and then having him executed. for heresy and then and then having the grots pull the big lever to drop the gargans head that the mechroy installed to kill the first war boss that you think is going to be the main character is just yeah absolutely hilarious why is there a lever that drops his head off why would you

install that it's so it's so funny that entire entire section it did have a very strong intro i will i will definitely agree. That whole setup of killing off the war boss to start the rat race was chef's kiss for sure. He just looks somebody like, oh, Zog. It just kills him. Yep.

There is a lot of that that I found really, really endearing. And it's all those little bits. It's all the little interactions with orcs. And like Mike Brooks gets orcs. He probably gets orcs more than any other writer

I've seen. Yeah, definitely should be writing the orc books. But shy did make a good... He didn't make a good point or in his book Shai does make a good point where... I worded that weird.

Shy makes a good point. I mean, Shai makes good points, but you know, she's also a little you know, scary. Hey, I'm just saying... Well, yeah, but I'm just saying she is right. The orcs are a little bit

like smarter than normal in the hero, which is a 50. Orks were, I mean, I think the blood axes were very blood-axy, but they seemed like, even for blood-axes, they seemed like way more sneaky and cunning and actually smart. But they also had like, they had no challenge until the end. That's true. Until the Eldari came out of that weird little portal to the webway, they just steamrolled the humans. Nothing gave them a problem at all. It is just all orc all the time.

That is, that is true. Until, well, even, even the Eldari didn't even give him that much of a challenge until the Avatar of Kane showed up. Dude, besides the avatar, ironically, the thing that gave the orcs the most challenge by like a country mile was the single admec dude that jumped on the speed freak's bike. Oh yeah, and took off like half his face. Yeah, which like would, which is basically what happened in brutal cunning. I mean, the admec still kind of got trounced, but there's that ending bit, like the ending boss fight with the two main admec dominuses that actually like put up a real, like genuine fight.

Yeah, yeah, that's true. Like nothing gave them. Like, oh, there's no way we'll be able to penetrate these walls. And it's like, oh, yeah, no, actually, I have this, was it a mech boy or something that was just like, oh, yeah, I know how the wall works. I know how their tech works. Beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep. It's open. And it's like, whoa, like for an orc, that's like, okay.

Like, y'all, they definitely were O-P. The orcs were so overpowered. I was a little shocked by that. I do think there needs to be a bit more adversary. Or at least, you know, if the biggest issue was them racing each other and therefore the biggest problems are other orcs, none of the other orcs really fought each other much. Yeah, they kind of just all went their separate ways. Kind of just grumbled.

Yeah, it was just like, like, if they like maybe dueled each other and it was like, oh, the only thing they can stand up to an ork is another or, because, you know, orcs love fighting each other, that would have been good if like, you know, Dead Fist, dueled, uh, tried to duel the speed freak, but couldn't because he was too damn fast or something. But yeah, it's crazy. Yeah, there needed to be a bit more challenge there. And I think they're actually more conflict for them, yeah.

A little more conflict. I think it was actually a bit of a lull in the middle part of the book because there wasn't actually a lot of fighting, which did make the end of the book a lot better because it all came to a head. Oh, yeah. Once they started fighting the Aldari, it really picked up. Yeah, the beginning and the end of this book, I think, are definitely the best parts. Oh, for sure. Yep. Yep.

But yeah, there was a little bit of that issue. Also, I got to be honest, I was actually invested in the captain, the captured captain. I was too. He was going through the under high. and these names weird individuals. And I was like, oh, what? You met that hunter? Yeah.

And then there was all the weird, like, is like, oh, these are the Dyer Guardians, which, by the way, Eldar Guardians is the name of their main soldier. And Dyer Avengers is an Asper Warrior group, so. Gotcha. Well, yeah, once the hunter with the spider mask, it's like, oh, stupid monkey. I was like, it's an Eldar. You're an Eldar hunter. You're an Eldar. There's Eldar in this.

There's Eldar in this under hive. Yeah, and I was it was a whole thing where like the giant gate was just a webway portal. It was like this whole thing was really neat. And then and then he gets shot by the commissar immediately. And I'm like, okay, I get it. I get what you're going for. I get the point. But I'm narratively very unsatisfied.

Yeah, that whole like heretical underhive Eldari, whatever that was was so cool. Like I wanted more of that. I wanted to be more invested in that actually. I was like, dang, like, I want to see where this goes. And then it's like, no, it just gets trounced by the orcs. Which, again, fair, it's an orc book. Love the orcs. But it's just like, oh, man, I want.

Like, this is such a cool place. There are some edges that needed to be sanded down, I think. For sure. For sure. Which is unfortunate because, for the most part, all the orky stuff is very good. They act like orcs in a proper way. Mine is a little bit of intelligence. the speed freaks, the grots.

Usually not that smart. I mean, I mean, I also like some of his references to brutal cunning, not just to the fact that UffTock is the final, like, whoa, he's revealed to be him at the end. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But the fact that at one point, he did get in his gork or possibly mork. Yeah, he did, he did, he did. And also, I did enjoy the fact that at the end, uh, Snaggy Littletooth in grot fashion got kicked into the portal, which is very, very classic, classic orc and also a very brutal cunning style.

I'm not going to let something silly like possibly dying stop me from getting into a good fight. I was actually pretty shocked that Snaggy's entire retinue just got sucked into the warp by a D-canon that caught me off guard. Eat a little bit, yeah. I was like, oh my God. I am glad that Snaggy made it all the way through though. I was, okay, so after what happened to the captain, I was 100% ready for the general to look at a Snaggy

and just like crump him right there and kill him immediately. Just step on him, shoot him or something. Yeah, I was fully prepared for him to just die because they set it up like that as like a punchline. They really did. They kind of, they set it up like, because I guess previously they kind of set it up like, Oh, yeah, the big weird boy is just using Snaggy as a way to, you know, get everybody in and converge on the Eldari portal, so the Eldari have to use it and blah, blah, blah, and then, oh, well, don't need you any more Snaggy.

Okay. Yeah, I was kind of expecting that, too. Fair point. I actually really liked the weird boy. I thought he was awesome. I, it was. Not for you? I don't know.

The weird boy just didn't seem like an orc. Like the weird boy just seemed kind of like Every time Every time the weird boy talked I was like he sounds more like almost like a hag Like a like a witch type character And it just didn't see I don't know

I was expecting it to be more It was great That's fine If he wasn't an orc I would have liked him more But obviously like what you know Of course the weird boy is an org I don't know

He didn't really do it for me I liked him I liked his I'm gonna go through the game Kind of voice line I don't know I actually liked him I thought he was really fun

I thought his whole con I also liked after he After Snaggy got kicked to the portal He laughed his ass off Which was pretty good That's how that's how That's how they was like oh

So he did show some semblance of orc humor in good sense. It was very fun. Yeah, it's weird. Like, Mike Brooks very clearly understands orcs. For sure. He hasn't nailed down the opposing force of the orcs yet. Yeah.

I don't think so. Not quite yet. Like, the whole Tank Commander stuff meant nothing to me. It was like a wet blanket. Oh, yeah. Yeah. You said Tank Command. And I was like, wait, which one?

Oh, right. Yeah. Yeah, the random little lady. And then there was like the governor and his, eh. Yeah, yeah, that's right. The one that went out when she was ordered not to got everybody in her squadron killed or something. And it was like, oh, yeah, yeah, that's right. I forgot about that.

Yeah, I liked the whole, what is it? I liked the captain, the captured captain. That part was good. Yeah, really liked the captured captain. It ended terribly, though. And that made me very sad. Yeah, I was actually expecting the captured captain to make it out alive somehow and just still be a prisoner or something or somehow just escape because everybody thought he was dead. I, yeah, I kind of wanted him to make it out and be okay.

I'm not going to lie when the commandos and stuff arrived, I thought that him and the hunter person got killed. I thought, I thought, because they said like Snaggy was like, oh, we mowed down two. random gets and I was like no no way. Oh wow. Yeah. They just, they just steamroll those two. What the fuck? Yeah, I was a little like no freaking way, not like that but apparently.

Yeah. And I really like that hunter with the spider mask and it's like I don't even know what a planet is, let alone the emperor. It's like, I wanted more of that character too. I like, I like the little like are you a man or woman? It's like, I don't know. Who cares? I don't know. It doesn't matter down

here. Don't even If you're alive or dead. It's like, don't eat the slugs. Giggle, giggle. I'm like, okay. And the slugs that just eat metal and turn it into their shell. It's such a cool little under hive area. Oh, man.

That should be, that would be the setting for a book. Is that weird under hive Eldari, heretical catacomb cave they found? That would be a great setting for an Eldar book. That would be pretty fun. El-Darri splinter cell trying to survive in a human under-hive? That'd be hilarious. Well, hilarious. That'd be entertaining.

Did you want to read Shai's little thing in the bottom? Sure. In Big Dhaka, the balance is a lot better. It's big chunk of orc story, small comedy bit with snaggy, then big chunk of star with Dracari, so you get into the feeling of one faction for an hour or so without being scatterbrained and then switch to another. Also, while orcs do kick a lot of dark Eldar ass,

opponents are a lot more balanced and setting is a lot more interesting. Kind of sounds like what I wanted from this book, from War Boss. Would you say that he improved at the orc writing books from War Boss to Brutel, to Big DAC shy? Yes, it is Mike Brooks and it is the same VA too, which is fun. Oh, nice. Yeah. Very nice.

That's the interesting. That's the interesting question. Growth is a writer. He's good at portraying orcs. He just doesn't balance them well. Okay. Fair enough. Okay, okay, okay.

Again, it's not like this was a bad book. No, I probably give it like a 7.5. Yeah, I was going to give it like a 6.5. Like it was teetering on 7, but I'm going to give it a 6.5. I found the little The little miniature Orc like goofy moments like the

like the shock jump dragster crumpling like a can Yeah That stuff like lasted with me for a while And so I think I think all those little writing bits like that Were really good Oh yeah

And just how he writes the interim monologues Of Orks is really really fun Yeah So I probably get like a 7. Yeah maybe like a 7.5 Maybe maybe 7.5 maybe 7.5 maybe seven, seven point five, give or take around there. I think as an orc book, it's worth listening to.

Oh, yeah. If you're an or if you're like, you don't quite understand how the orcs work and you just want to really like, oh, man, I want to know how everything orky works. It's a great book. Like I said, you get a really good insight as to how the speed freaks work or evil sons or you get an insight on how the goffs work and how the blood axes work. And there's still a lot of blood ax slander because they don't like being sneaky and stuff. And so it's still definitely a worthwhile read for sure.

So I want to talk real quickly about Mike Brooks. No, you can't. Well, too bad. Despite the fact that the man has one of the most baller Mohawks I have ever seen. Oh, that's right. You showed me a picture of him. He does. Sick Hawk.

The dude looks like someone who gets orcs. With that, with that look like, this looks like a man who understands orcs. And I appreciate that. Hell yeah, brother. I must say, he,

okay, so I don't know how the black library works in Warhammer. I don't know exactly like what's the, the time frame and stuff. Because clearly, unless you're Stephen King, and you're on like hopped up on cocaine. You don't write in like multiple books in a year. Yeah, you don't, you're not that prolific.

No. Unless you are a troubled writer. So I'm looking at his books that he's written so far. And he's done a couple things. Underhive is one of them. It's a sign called Rights of Passage, once a killer, which is like a crime novel, Road to Redemption, which is a Necromunda book.

and then he did something called Ork Boss, which is also War Boss, the same cover, I think maybe they're like different versions. And then Hereon Blackheart book, an Alpha Legion book, the Alfarious Primark book, Brutal Cunning,

and of course and then the Big Dhaka, but then of course, Lion's Son of the Forest. Oh, right. That's right. He did Lion's Son of the Forest, didn't he? He did Lion's Son of the Forest. And the oldest book,

that he has here is in 2019, which is Underhive. In 2023, he came out with Warboss, once a killer, Lion's Son of the Forest. And then in 2022, it was Hereon Blackheart, the Alpha Legion book. And then in 2021, it was Alfarious book, Brutal Cunning. He's done like 10, 10 books in the course of four years. That's prolific. Like, wow.

Which makes me wonder how many of these books he did like back in the day and they have now been turned into and finally published. Right. Like he had the basic manuscript for them like all written out and only now are they getting like compiled and edited and published and right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And now that we've read, well, okay, you and I have read Brutel Cunnen, Warboss and Lion's Son of the Forest at this point. I have also read Alpharius, the head of the Hydra book. And I got to be honest, the dude's got some pretty serious range. Yeah, I mean, just between like the orc books I've read and then like lion's son of the forest, it's like, whoa.

He's got incredible range to be from like pretty good understanding of orcs to like the lion stuff is like, whoa, okay. Like, someone's got some writing chops. Right. And I also noticed something. Do you remember the name of the... Yeah, okay. I mean, you and I remember bloodlines. You liked it.

I think it's the greatest thing since sliced bread. Do you remember the name of the city? I'm assuming you don't, but... I really don't. Okay. It was called Varengensua. He's also written a true crime book called Once a Killer that also takes place in that same

hive city. Though I believe it's a different character. The cover is actually pretty good. Let me give it. Let me give it. A little callback. A little callback. We see Bloodlines was written by Chris Wright, which is a different author. But, uh,

yeah, cool, cool cover, right? Yo, that's one of those ones I would consider buying just to display on my shelf. That's so sick. Looks like a Sin City cover. But this came out in 2023 at same year as War Boss and Lion's Son of the Forest. And the ratings seem good. It's got, it doesn't have many.

It has very few, actually. It's like 17. Well, it's on ratings to be fair. It's a good point. I'm actually curious how people think about this, this book overall. But it's interesting seeing this, you know, as an option. And then, you know, brutal Cunning, we all agree, is about seven to an eight. War boss, about a seven, give or take.

About a seven, give or take between all of us, yeah. About a seven. Aferius for me was about a seven and a half maybe. Pretty good, not my favorite, but pretty good. And then Lion's Son of the Forest came out, and it's like a ten. Ten, yeah, that was like nine and a half because I was like, whoa, just in case there's something else that is sheer perfection. Yeah, that was such a good book. just drops it on us with like this insanely good caliber novel.

And it like terrifies me because, and shy, and we talked with shy about this before. He's like the one guy who really seems to get orcs. Yeah. And his best book by far is a space marine primark book. Which means, we might get more of them.

We might get more space marine books from old Mike. Which is like in this weird back and forth for me Because on one hand I'm like no we need to keep the orcs going Yeah we need more orc books but at the same time If you get books that are the quality of lion's son of the forest It's like you know what as much as I like some good ork fun I would much rather have that Like if I had to sacrifice one for the other

You know As much as I love the orc books It's a sacrifice I am willing to make It is it is a an incredible incredible novel. Yeah. And so it's tough, though it does show that Mr. Brooks has some fucking range. Oh, yeah.

It seems like you could literally task him with writing any faction and you are going to get a good book. Yeah, I'm actually really impressed. He might not put out like never-ending tens, but he certainly put out at least one. Yeah. Except knights or titans. Hey, listen. Listen, there's nothing out of character for a bunch of an orc, two orcs, a grot and a squig, teleporting onto a titan and then clobbering it. Holy princess, you got to be named after what you ate. Oh, God damn.

Because he can't read it. All right, so do we, do we have any idea what we're reading next? Are we sort of on the fence, or are we actually going into the big doca? Or what's on the docket or the dozer? What's on the DACA? What's on the DACA? I mean, you know, shy wants to read the big DACA, like, clearly. And that does technically is the kind of like the sequel to this.

She's been saying it leads right into it. So. And it's only about like nine hours. So, and you know, we don't get enough Dr. Khari lore. That's true. That's true. There's a lot of Dr. Kari stuff. I think, I think the decision has been made. This is, you know,

wow, you know what's going to be incredible about this? This is going to be a second book club where Shai is actually reading the book. Oh, my God. In a row. I know. I mean, it's unfortunate because I must admit the she did, that's right, she did read Bloodlines.

Oh, you're right. Oh, I failed again. I will, though that being said, it's unfortunate because Son of the Forest is really that good. So good. It's really that good. I can't believe it's in like my top five. It's insane.

Yeah. All right. So big DACA next, huh? Big DACA it is. Big DACA it is. Big DACA is. Let's go, baby. Let's go.

All right. Yeah. Solid book. I give it like a 7, 7.5. Yeah. We'll just say overall a 7. I gave it a six and a half. I'll round up. Sure. It's a seven. It was good orc fun. Good way to get introduced to the clans and how war bosses work and how the hierarchy of orcs work. Yeah, it's a seven. Chai, I think I heard you with a seven as well. Yeah, she said it's a round seven for me. I enjoyed it. But I also at points was very cognizant of things that didn't land.

Then you know what? I will choose seven. We will all go, we will all go into sevens. Nice. We all hit the sevens and Final Fantasy 7 rebrough just came out and I am absolutely losing my life to it. Love it. Oh, wow. I'm not playing it because I could give a shit. Oh, duh. Wow, that's a shock. I played the entire Spotify 7 remake and I hate everything it stands for. Were you completely lost in it because you didn't play the original one because the remake is totally just a love letter to old school fans of it? Uh, yeah. And I was like, I can't wait to play. I can't, I can't wait to learn about everything. That makes Final Fantasy 7 great. And then I played through and I'm like, I don't like this. And I don't like a J.R. Fegs anyway. I will say rebirth is significantly better. But anyway, sorry, this isn't a, this isn't a JRP podcast, though I could probably do one. I would not, D.K., I would not watch it. No, it's a podcast. You'd listen to it, you idiot.

Ha! We have a visual version of this, you idiot. Yeah, but I just wanted to make you feel dumb. You smell bad. Oh. Anyway, Brooke... That's what you're going to end the episode there. The big DACA.

The big DACA read it. We'll see you next month. Bye. Bye.