BL: Path Of The Renegade

Well my fellow Commorrites I have just finished Path Of The Renegade and seeing as I haven't seen anyone else on the net do it just yet, here is a little review, attempting to avoid spoilers.

When I heard that there was a Dark Eldar novel coming out I was overjoyed and being a child of 3rd edition, warm to the fact that Andy Chambers was writing it, although not convinced. After reading Midnight on the Street of Knives I was beginning to really look forward to the book and satisfied that the author had the talent necessarily to bring Commorragh to life.

Without spoiling the story, the book follows Yllithian and an ensemble of other characters in their plot to overthrow Vect and the surrounding events, criss crossing to different views. The characters are richly imagined and vain in all sense of the word. For those seeking imagination for conversions there are a motley array of main and supporting characters, individual and original in their depiction, they could serve as the next round of Special Characters.

I sometimes felt that Chambers was recycling the Codex at times as he uses lots of the locations, past events and weaponry. I then forgave this as each time he did this he was bringing them more and more to life with rich and fluid descriptions, easing more original ideas and locations as the story unfolded.

The arena and battle scenes are perhaps the more heart pulsating moments as you immerse yourself in the action and turns the pace up, however I find the book is at it's best as it slows down, allowing you to drink in the surroundings. The excitement of the Kabals getting ready for a raid, the grand descriptions of the Archons and their courts and trappings are well described, laced with dark humour.
Path Of The Renegade takes the background in the Codex and runs with it, delving deep into society and really elaborating on what it means to be one of the Dark Eldar. From their fears of She Who Thirsts and thoughts of the Exodites- tree huggers and mud people, this book begins to serve as almost encyclopedic insight into Commorragh..

I'm not sure if I would simply reccommend this to a friend who enjoys reading sci fi or 40k lore but in my view this is a MUST BUY for anyone who takes their Dark Eldar seriously. If you're still unsure read IMidnight..., it's less than two quid and serves as a prelude to the novel, in fact if you plan on picking up Path Of The Renegade make sure you read the eBook first.

If you love Dark Eldar or enjoyed reading their codex fluff - then buy this book.

Thanks! Will get it this w/e!

I did not know this had been released?!?

To the LGS!

Hasn't been released yet - is due out in March. It is available to preorder and I believe you can buy it in ebook format.

As i found out at the LGS... bummer!

Question , does this Ylithian is the same Archon that was mentioned in the codex, when they explained how Lelith helped Vect during Salamanders controled invasion?

I would say no, not that particular Yllithian as the one in the codex leads the Silent Scream whilst Nyos Yllithian leads the Kabal of the White Flames. He is quite obviously the descendant of House Yllithian. You will find other Archons and Houses from that particular story present in the novel.

Really tempted to read it all over again.

How would you rate the quality of the writing vs. the 'Path' series?

Gobsmakked wrote:

How would you rate the quality of the writing vs. the 'Path' series?

From what I remember its was suppose to be part of the "Path" series along with the next one Path of the Outcast.

Well at the moment it seems to sit sepearately as there is no crossover that I can see at the moment. Perhaps Path of the Outcast may cross in slightly seeing as it is based on Corsairs.

I got this book today, and I'm about halfway through. It's quite good, and offers some more insight into life in Comorragh. Some facts I've picked up so far:

Vect's plan to turn Dark Eldar society into a meritocracy didn't quite work, as most old noble families juts changed their names to Kabals and kept going as usual, albeit reduced in power. The subrealms are more true to the ideal, with survival of the strongest being the only factor in determining the rulership.

Consequently, the Archons of High Commorragh look at the Archons of the subrealms like established wealthy families look at "new money" people. They tend to view them as crude and stupid, stuck with unprofitable areas of land. The sentiment is reinforced by the fact that in many subrealms the wardings separating Warp and Webway are weaker, causing all sorts of weird stuff to happen (Aelindrath of the shadows is mentioned as an example, aswell as a subrelm where the spirits of the dead can confront their killer and one where time jumps back and forth erratically).

A subrealm Archon can counter the snooty former nobles by pointing out that while they rule an entire realm, most Kabals in High Commorragh have to share their spire with multiple Kabals, and only the most influential can controll an entire spire (spires are huge, though, kilometres tall and compared to mountains).

Dark Eldar apparently delight in making their slaves think they might be able to escape, even staging fake prision breaks where the slaves try to make it to a portal they think leads back into realspace but actually dumps them in the middle of the arena.

Dark Eldar still do have psychic potential, but it is entirely focused on supressing their abilities and masking them from She Who Thirsts. In Low Commorragh there are still plenty of people who read future from cards or runes (or atleast claim to do it to swindle people), despite the fact that getting caught using psychic powers/sorcery for divination carries it's own hard punishements.

Some things in the book sort-of contradict things in the codex, such as the mention that the descendants of the noble houses looking down on the Archons of the subrealms, while the codex mentions thta many of the subrelms belong to the desendants of some of the most powerful noble houses, and the fact that the Haemonculi are portrayed sniveling lackeys tot he Archons, while the codex seems to imply that they are treated with fear and awe even by the Kabalite overlords.

I had a quick flick through today instore, hopefully getting the book in a couple of weeks. One thing I did notice is that it is the start of a new series not just the eldar path series. The next book is due later this year I believe and is titled Path of the Incubus.

I guess it will be similar to the Eldar Path series in that it will give you three point of views of the same events.

@ Preacher

Path of the Incubus is set for 2013 if the inside cover of Path of the Renegade is to be believed.

I just finished this one and have to say I enjoyed it. It really does capture the dark humor of the city and it's denizens. The plot is decent, but I enjoyed the cast most of all, specially the Incubus Morr. Man, that guy is crying out for some rules and a model.

I also came away again wanting a stand alone Exodite codex.

All in all good read, devoid of movie marine nonsense with memorable characters. *Slight spoiler*

Just few questions regarding Motley and the Masque. Who is that guy?

Going to PM you and edit the last few words from your post to avoid spoilers

Levitas wrote:

I just finished this one and have to say I enjoyed it. It really does capture the dark humor of the city and it's denizens. The plot is decent, but I enjoyed the cast most of all, specially the Incubus Morr. Man, that guy is crying out for some rules and a model.

I also came away again wanting a stand alone Exodite codex.

All in all good read, devoid of movie marine nonsense with memorable characters. *Slight spoiler*

Just few questions regarding Motley and the Masque. Who is that guy?

Yeah, I started thinking about converting some Exodites after reading the book too.

Motley is obviously a Harlequin, and I got the feel he was more than just your average Harlequin. Can't be Solitaire since they're not supposed to talk, but he could be a Troupe Master or even an Avatar (an HQ choise in the old Harlequin codex that was the leader of a Harlequin force, the Chapter Master to Troupe Master's Captain).

The only real problem I had with this book was that it didn't portray Commorragh all that well. The Dark City is supposed to be an Escher-style nightmare labyrinth of a city the size of numerous planets, unable to be seen in its entirety, yet Chambers describes it simply like a big city. Hell, he even has one of the characters able to see all of it from near one of the webway portals, and it just sounds like he got a city, and made the skyscrapers taller, and the surrounding docks longer.

He seems to be describing Port Commorragh, ie. the original Webway city the Dark City grew from, which would essentially be just a really big city. Since then Comorragh has spread across the Webway by having all smaller port-cities and subrealms linked to it.

Still, I agree Chambers didn't really portray Commorragh that well. My biggest problem was that he made the subrealms seem to separate, like there was a clear distinction between Commorragh proper and the subrealms. While that would be true if you would view the Dark City in a map of the Webway (Port Commorragh would be in one place, and the various subrelams all over the Webway), to an inside oberserver such distinctions wouldn't exist as the subrelms have long since become integral parts of the Dark City, and there are portals all over the place.

That's my point though, even Port Commorragh shouldn't ever be entirely visible to the naked eye. It's supposed to be really, really, really damned big. Moving back a few kilometres shouldn't change that.

I agree, if port commoragh was the largest port city of the most technologically advanced empire in the history of the galaxy, it got to be MASSIVE, REALLY MASSIVE!

I think that is more to do with him seeing all of Commoragh whilst entering a webway portal, I can imagine the portal warping his perspective.

I did find the descriptions of Comorragh being a bit lacking to be honest, the smaller districts and sub-realms make up for this though. I like the idea that Dark Eldar use nanotechnology, in a sci fi setting it seems unusual that most other 40k races don't. The characters are all fleshed out enough for them to be likeable, but with gaps so you want to find out more. I'm seriously considering making "The Agents" for a killteam, they are varied enough for plenty of conversions and Morr is suitably badass to make up for the rest of the team.

I think the Dark Eldar series of books is going to be more like a standard series of books given its plot, whilst the Eldar books are fine as the same timeframe played out from different points of view. Whilst I preferred Renegade's story, I think Gav nailed how Eldar think, the way the characters play out in Path of the Warrior is superb and actually tries to capture how an Eldar interacts with the world around him and his inner self, whilst Path of the Renegade doesn't get this fully.

Indeed, Gav certainly gets across the "alien" feel of the Eldar, that they really aren't human.

One of the best books I'v ever read. It ends on one hell of a cliffhanger, and the only complaint I have is that I have to wait a year for the next one.

While I utterly despised his depiction of Scourges (for some reason Chambers seems to think that scourges are just another unit in a kabal, controlled by an archon who just sends of a few warriors to the haemonculi to be given wings, and treated with no less respect than a hellion) and Haemonculi (who are portrayed as far too snivelling and bow-backed toward the archons), the book itself was excellent, a very intriguing and driving story.

Without spoiling anything - You will love Morr. You have to love Morr. Morr is awesome.