# negative review of Soul Hunter from another forum



## MontytheMighty (Jul 21, 2009)

http://novaimmaterium.yuku.com/topi...k-review--people--don-t-read-boo#.Tp4Cj-xPjF8




No2wookie said:


> Ah, Soul Hunter. The first novel entirely about the night lords in recent memory, not counting Lord of the Night, which has half of its pages devoted to Young Slender Female Inquisitor time. This novel, one of writer Aaron Dembski-Bowden's early work, chronicles Talos the Soul Hunter, an apothecary of the Night Lords' Tenth Company, First Claw, as he does...well, that's our first problem. Damned if I could figure it out.
> 
> But let's get started, shall we?
> 
> ...



apparently, there are Night Lord fans who actually don't like this book
their main complaints are that 
- Zso Sahaal (from Lord of the Night) is portrayed too negatively
- Talos is a Gary Stu 
- Night Lords have become "Nice Lords"

I'm not a NL fan, but I thought the book was nicely written 
interesting to see an opinion so different from the consensus of this forum


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## Commissar Ploss (Feb 29, 2008)

MontytheMighty said:


> http://novaimmaterium.yuku.com/topi...k-review--people--don-t-read-boo#.Tp4Cj-xPjF8
> 
> apparently, there are Night Lord fans who actually don't like this book
> their main complaints are that
> ...


This forum is not for quoting other reviews from other forums, unless they are in some way affiliated with Heresy-Online, or written by you on another forum.

for discussion of "bad" reviews from other sites written by other people, even though there shouldn't be for this book, as it's brilliant, it should be done in the Black Library Fiction forum. 

thread moved.

CP


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## Dead.Blue.Clown (Nov 27, 2009)

4-5 guys inventing nonsense, about 2 years ago. What's not taken out of context (which is most of it) is still fairly farcical.

I think they were looking for something to rage about; it has all the hallmarks of the exaggerated stuff people level at Dan Abnett, or Goto, or Jim, or whoever else is the target of Fan Group X that delight in raging over whatever they've decided they understand in Y way.

As someone with more fan/reader contact than most writers, I'm always interested in criticism. This is just silliness though, and miles out of date. Won't be losing sleep over it.

I do like the way they invent reasons for me doing stuff, though. Admittedly, it's the mark of someone who has no idea what they're talking about and relies on hyperbole to make a point, but it's always funny.


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## deathbringer (Feb 19, 2009)

i really do hope no one reads that "review" a full description of the plot warped by such idiotic bias, it spoils the suspense and twists of the book plus it's like handing anyone who thinks to pick it up troll glasses.

No chance of getting a good first impression after that shit. Sad thing is he'd probably offer to suck the author off behind the dreadfleet stand if he ever walked into his local gw.

Pathetic really and he's a mod, god bless the interent.


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## darkreever (Apr 3, 2008)

I haven't bothered reading that review, yet, but if the three points are anything to go by then I will say this.

I liked Soul Hunter, wasn't as big a fan of Blood Reaver for some reason (but whatever), and I liked The Core. My biggest dislike of Soul Hunter was the way Sahaal was portrayed, because he is a character I really like; coming from his single novel that may not mean quite so much to some.

Can't please everyone, just hope they have enough sense to be civil about things and not prove themselves blithering idiots. (Which I am assuming that reviewer did.)

Edit: And wow, thats an insult to all reviews both good and bad. As I have said once or twice before, a shitty effort of a shitty summary does not make a review, even a shitty one.

I will say this though; I found the below quoted to be hysterical.


That thing claiming to be a review but is most assuredly not said:


> Night Lords slave is officially the cushiest job in the grimdark farfuture.


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## MontytheMighty (Jul 21, 2009)

what I noticed is that people who dislike the "new" take on the NL are *really big* fans of Zso Sahaal and _Lord of the Night_

they also want a less sympathetic, more sadistic portrayal of the legion
I think it really just boils down to their fan desires not being met


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## Phoebus (Apr 17, 2010)

I read through it. It wasn't so much of a review as a super expanded synopsis. What bored me about it was that, having read the book, it was obvious that the writer's complaints totally missed the context behind his gripes.

I mean, seriously, how direct does Talos have to be in basically explaining to you that the shortage of skilled labor precludes him from letting Uzas slaughter one of the few people left who can repair power armour and such?!?

Is it so difficult to understand the delicate balance between the Exalted and Talos, wherein the former loathes the latter and fears his perceived attempts at his power... but at the same time doesn't want to kill him for fear of losing his prophetic abilities?

Similarly, is he blind to the sarcasm and veiled insults central to the exchanges between the Night Lords and the Black Legion?

Most of the gripes outlined basically boil down to "I was upset that the Night Lords were not indiscriminately killing, torturing, and/or terrorizing everyone around them". That kind of mindset requires a willful suspension of logic.



MontytheMighty said:


> what I noticed is that people who dislike the "new" take on the NL are *really big* fans of Zso Sahaal and _Lord of the Night_


I really, really enjoyed "Lord of the Night". I will also admit to being disappointed for, oh, about a minute when I saw how dismissive of Zso Sahaal Talos was.

But then I happened to remember that, well, the author of that same book revealed that Zso's outlook was hardly universally respected - nevermind universal, period - among the rest of the Night Lords.



> they also want a less sympathetic, more sadistic portrayal of the legion
> I think it really just boils down to their fan desires not being met


That seemed to be the cited reviewer's mindset. And, again, it's one devoid of logic within the 40k context.

Cheers,
P.


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## forkmaster (Jan 2, 2010)

All I could get out of this book is that he is angry about Talos smiling, being kind too his property/slaves. They are afterall a weak warband (if I may say so) with not many great resources and yes, CSM dont tend to care for their slaves, but if you dont got that many in the first place, they arent expendable. 

And as the rest pointed out, its not a review but a retelling of the plot mention points he does not agree with.


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## OIIIIIIO (Dec 16, 2009)

My favorite part was when I read that was, they should basically want to be the exhalted and most of the other NL in fact despised him .... Yes, as it should be seeing as the NL geneseed is the most pure of all of the Chaos Marines. If these people think that they can do better then they need to sit their ass down and write a story, because that shit is not easy to do. I find it so amusing that people will say " He should have done this, or should have done that." They have most likely done ZERO writing and obviously missed the authors vision. BL approved of it and so it is canon, it is also, IMO, a very good book.

In the words of Les Grossman " Now I want you to take a step back... and literally fuck your own face! "


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## Rems (Jun 20, 2011)

I just laughed. It's not even a review, rather a poor plot summary. It seems like he had already decided he was going to hate it, write a bad 'review' and troll, so he chose a few out of context issues to harp on about. Then comes repetitive ad-hominem attacks in the subsequent posts. 

The vast majority of his issues with the plot could be explained by not taking them out of context and looking at the larger picture. Septimus is valuable as one of the few useful slaves they have available, hence no one's going to slaughter him in a fit of pique. 

I too loved Lord of the Night but i also loved Soul Hunter and its sequels, make of that what you will. 40k is big enough for multiple interpretations of chapters, events etc.


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## MontytheMighty (Jul 21, 2009)

the only issue I have with _Soul Hunter_ (more of a fan gripe, really) is Talos' way of butchering Blood Angels left and right with a Blood Angel relic sword...but I'm a big BA fan 
also, I'm aware that loyalists go about massacring traitors in loyalist novels

the writing itself is solid and more enjoyable than a lot of the other BL stuff out there 
I've just started _Savage Scars_, yeah...


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## Djinn24 (Jan 12, 2008)

MontytheMighty said:


> the only issue I have with _Soul Hunter_ (more of a fan gripe, really) is Talos' way of butchering Blood Angels left and right with a Blood Angel relic sword...but I'm a big BA fan
> also, I'm aware that loyalists go about massacring traitors in loyalist novels
> 
> the writing itself is solid and more enjoyable than a lot of the other BL stuff out there
> I've just started _Savage Scars_, yeah...


Kinda off-topic but seriously, capitalization and punctuation do fall under post quality and since you are posting in the Black Library section it would be appreciated if you would at least make an attempt to do at least one of the two with some form of regularity.


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## MontytheMighty (Jul 21, 2009)

djinn24 said:


> Kinda off-topic


Very off-topic. Please PM me if you want to complain about my punctuation and capitalisation.

Thank you.


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## Djinn24 (Jan 12, 2008)

Nah I find people will correct themselves quicker if it is brought to light in a more public forum. Nothing against you personally but it is becoming more of a habit for the forum in general. I get on to Ploss all the time for it as well, so do not feel bad.


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## MontytheMighty (Jul 21, 2009)

djinn24 said:


> Nah I find people will correct themselves quicker if it is brought to light in a more public forum.


really? because I was tempted to continue typing like this just to annoy you 

...but I have nothing against punctuating and capitalising if asked nicely.


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## Djinn24 (Jan 12, 2008)

Well played Monty, well played .


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## Commissar Ploss (Feb 29, 2008)

the "review" is bollocks. thread closed.

CP


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