# Ragnar Serie Irks:Spoilers:



## revenant13 (Feb 15, 2008)

Edit: Note there should be an "s" at the end of Series. somehow missed it lol.

so i finished reading _Wolf's Honour_ last night and i have to say i dont like those Lee Lightner author dudes. i dont keep up with BL or anything like that, but what happened to William King? I dont like how Lightner pretty much gave Sven and Strybjorn the boot. i mean i know he brought Sven in the last book, but it didnt feel like good ol Sven at all. and Haegr didnt feel like Haegr at all (comparing to _Wolfblade_). I also dont like how they ended this last book with "Haegr is dead, Ragnar recovered the spear, is now back in Berek's company, and says a 2 second good-bye to Gabriella and Torin and never sees them again".

sorry if my focus is unclear, but basically these last 2 books kinda pissed me off.

what are other peoples thoughts?


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## Baron Spikey (Mar 26, 2008)

Well I wont comment on the book itself but William King doesn't write for Black Library, hasn't for a fair while now.

His Space Wolf saga was completed by Lee Lightner and Nathan Long has taken over the writing duties for the Gotrek series. Now as to WHY he doesn't work for BL any more I don't know but I can only imagine he got tired of writing in such a restrictive fictional universe.


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## Vaz (Mar 19, 2008)

Basically, William King is a master of suspense. Lee Lightner can't write stories - on the league table, he's about level with CS Goto for accuracy, and lower down for creating an intelligent storyline.

It's why I only picked up the last two to complete the series - read them once, and haven't picked them back up.

After looking at critiques (one of my favourite was one I've seen on Bolter and Chainsword, saying the original writer was Jonathon King, quite funny), it seems that while I'm not the only one, the consensus is split. Some like it for the action, others don't like it for the lack of accuracy - I'm one of those, not to mention that this guy should learn how to write again. It reminds me of a writer who's grown up reading Ragnar during his GCSE's, thinks "I wanna do that when I'm older", and goes and does it. While the work of the editor etc has made a lot of the wording correct, undoutably, the writer himself writes like a 16 year old William King wannabe.

The Deathwing, after all, wear Dark Green Power armour, did you know? And Haegr - he's merely large. Not fat, or obese, but _large_.

It's why the series go to shit, and I hope to god no-one other than Nathan Long get's there hands on writing for Gotrek and Felix (as that's pretty much a similar style), which are bigger _*masterpieces*_ than Space Wolves.

If I wanted to read a generic story about a generic marine chapter with Wolves in their name fighting against a generic marine chapter with angels in their name, who each have a bit of beef with each other in the past, I'd read a book on a fanfic site. There are many who write better on here than Lee Lightner does, and naturally with greater accuracy - Dirge Eterna, Squeek, and Shogun Nate (although he's AWOL, atm ='[) to name but a few - and are far more enjoyable.

I'd suggest for any who have read the any of the first four, not to pick up the last 2 by Lee Lightner - the stories can easily be written as an on their own book, but don't link back to the past too much to encourage you to read.

And that last closing statement just ruined it for me. No joke, the story is like that - first time I read the story, I had to flick back to make sure Haegr truely had died - I misssed it in the drivel was written.

In the off chance that Lee Lightner does read this, then I'm not sorry for attacking you or your writing style. You've ruined a pretty much Master piece of 40K story telling, and probably a Master Piece of Sci-fi/Fantasy literature. Write your own series, and fuck it up, but not somebody elses. Just stay away from Gotrek and Felix, Grey Knights, and the Horus Heresy books. And pretty much anybody elses. Actually, to be better safe than sorry, stay away from a computer, notepad, or pen for the rest of your life.

For those TL;DR - The Ragnar Saga could have happily ended at Wolfblade - left you guessing and hoping for a William King sequel. I'm still waiting, as these last two are amateurish.


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## Dirge Eterna (Apr 30, 2007)

I agree with that completely. I really enjoyed Wolfblade, the last two just felt a bit...rushed. Like "OMG gotta pay the bills here's a book!" rushed. Wolfblade and the previous books all had cooldown periods where you learned about the characters and got to connect to the story a little more, but the last ones were just FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT END BOOK. A little repetition is nice, but not that much.

-Dirge


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## Khorne's Fist (Jul 18, 2008)

Vaz said:


> In the off chance that Lee Lightner does read this, then I'm not sorry for attacking you or your writing style. You've ruined a pretty much Master piece of 40K story telling, and probably a Master Piece of Sci-fi/Fantasy literature. Write your own series, and fuck it up, but not somebody elses. Just stay away from Gotrek and Felix, Grey Knights, and the Horus Heresy books. And pretty much anybody elses. Actually, to be better safe than sorry, stay away from a computer, notepad, or pen for the rest of your life.


:goodpost:Very true. Lightner, please heed this.


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## Inquisitor Malaclypse (Dec 6, 2008)

Dirge Eterna said:


> I agree with that completely. I really enjoyed Wolfblade, the last two just felt a bit...rushed. Like "OMG gotta pay the bills here's a book!" rushed. Wolfblade and the previous books all had cooldown periods where you learned about the characters and got to connect to the story a little more, but the last ones were just FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT END BOOK. A little repetition is nice, but not that much


not so much rushed as opposed to more blah.

it read like a David Eddings novel.

no obstacles really to speak of, no sense that one of the main good guys may die.

and when poor old Haegr got killed it was such a bland moment in the back that i was glad to see him dead, for the sake of seeing a great character be turned to literary paste.

the last two books were very lack luster, i'll agree with that, and would not recommend them to other people.


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