FINALLY: Path of the Archon

The black library also offering a $40USD bundle of all of the trilogy/novellas this month.

Anyone else excited to finally wrap that story up?     

Not a big fiction reader. I did buy path of the incubus though. Haven't read it. I started but wanted to get path of the renegade first, and couldn't find it at any local book shop. Just been kinda lazy about it. How would you rate the whole story so far?

I'd give it about three out of five personally. It started quite well with Path of the Renegade, giving plenty of detail about how Eldar and Dark Eldar interact and so on, and then fumbled basic storytelling a bit in Path of the Incubus. Random stuff and locations spring up just to move the story on, with no real build up or justification, so that gets a bit irritating. There are some decent characters though, Motley and Morr making it worth reading by themselves. Read it to flesh out the universe, but don't expect to be bowled over.

Yes, I was not overtly smitten.

(like Morr and Motley though)

Bellathonis is just too nice to be a haemie, and I would have like to see the Exodites more fleshed out. Its a rare look at a part of Eldar life we so seldom see.

Expect Aerlindrach to be just as...unlighted.

I rate it very poorly actually.

Compared to the brilliant series about craftworld Eldar these books just doesnt bring anything really satisfying, but insted delivers C class sci-fi with villans speaking mighty phrases to the imaginary audience (which there isnt often).

Like the Incubus yell at the almost empty and slaughtered Eldar cave - the blood fued is not forgotten, awwrhhh, grrrr! Yeah man, why did you even tell this, they all kinda dead...and so on...

In short craftworld series explored what is already established about Eldar in detail, enriching the backgound, while Andy Chambers just tried to add something with little regard to what is known about DE.

He just have to tell about Slaanesh worshipping Archon, even when it is kinda set that warp-meddling is out of law. Well, in the first book you will see that it isnt, anyone can do it, and to hell with Vect.

Vect is just flying in a giant vessel projecting his giant face over the audience....sic!

Characters are one-dimensional and their motivation puzzles a lot. I know a phrase, if you want to be evil, you have to be very smart. Well, characters in the series arent smart, so they kinda fall being evil.

Overall a lot of little mistakes breaks immersions and i stopped reading at the middle of second book. The only good part about these books is cover-art, it is gorgeous.

I for one loved both books and can't wait for number three in my hands, yet it's interesting to read such different opinions.

I'm with SleepyPillow on that one. I wouldn't go as far as saying it is the best books I've read. They're not by far, but I found the whole thing quite entertaining. You get to experience a lot of places in the dark city and the webway in general and maybe the third book will even take a step forward in the fluff?

I have to agree that it is not as much canon to the established fluff as the Craftworld Series, but I liked it anyway, because there is not a whole lot known about Dark Eldar society other than "well, Vect is boss and they all kill each other to become more powerful". Thus the DE series fleshes that out a bit.

I'm more or less in the camp with Sleepy and Dogmar. It's not great sci fi writing by any stretch of the imagination, but it is the best Dark Eldar trilogy that we have. Okay, it's the only one   I'll admit that the last book dragged, though the buddy comedy of Motley and Morr certainly had it's entertaining moments. Crone world was neato.

This isn't as bad as the Matrix series where I watched the 2nd and 3rd installments because hoping that it would pay off, but I do need to know how a story ends. (Is this like the Torturers Tale?)

Azdrubael, I'm so glad that there is somebody that agrees with me!

I guess it's a good idea to release them in a bundle, but I will not be purchasing it

Path of the renegade really surprised me. It helped me put into context how this city of villains would function and interact with each other. The Codex gives you some history and story's but these books really explore all the little subtleties and nuances of Commorragh and DE society.

I have to admit I liked path of the renegade a lot more the path of the Incubi. The story in path of in Incubi jumped around between all the characters so much that it got a little tiresome remembering where a character was and what they were in the middle of doing.

That said I loved these books and recommend it to anyone on this forum. If your interested in DE enough to hang out on a DE forum then I think you'll be able to find something in these books for you.

I'm 3 chapters in the new DE book and all I can say is Wow.   Andy Chambers has spun a fantastic tale with this story and I am far more excited about how this will go than I've been with a BL book in quite awhile.

Not to ruin anything, but several special characters have already made an appearance.  Absolute must read.  



Merged this post into the other thread on the new book - Count Adhemar

I personally enjoyed them for what they are. Fast, silly and lots of blood and gore. Can't take these things too seriously after all. I find them fun reads. Don't need some high brow stuff. no they aren't perfect but thats ok.

the_dukes_scion wrote:

I personally enjoyed them for what they are. Fast, silly and lots of blood and gore. Can't take these things too seriously after all. I find them fun reads. Don't need some high brow stuff. no they aren't perfect but thats ok.

Nailed it. I'm not expecting Herbert here, just a good laugh or two, maybe a decapitation here and there   

Glad to hear that, there is another thread in the News and Rumours section discussing the new book as well.

Merged the threads - Count Adhemar

Enjoyed Renegade more than Incubi, which I thought was quite poor. Hoping Archon will get back on track.

So the trilogy is finally done, I miss it already   
This book was great, the trilogy over all was brilliant.       



I did not see some of the twists in this coming

Spoiler:

I am kind of sad its over now

Spoiler:

I'm reading Archon currently, and it's been pretty good so far. I also enjoyed Renegade and Incubi. None them are spectacular, but they are pretty solid stories. Compared to the majority of 40k related literature they are amazing. I think that they are pretty crucial reading if you like dark eldar background.

Quote :

Especially the DE wraith constructs

Yeah, well, that was what im talking about. Andy Chambers just have to be a special bird. Cause hey, normal DE are just too boring, right? There was one author C.S. Goto, it reminds me much of his books. Hope not all of you saw them. There was that funny romantic involvment between a female Farseer and a Space Marine captain...

Quote :

Compared to the majority of 40k related literature they are amazing.

Read Horus Heresy. And Path of the Warrior.

Haven't got it yet (thus I am careful while strolling this topic) but I will definitely chew through it soon!

MOTLEY MOTLEY MOTLEY!

Azdrubael wrote:

Yeah, well, that was what im talking about. Andy Chambers just have to be a special bird. Cause hey, normal DE are just too boring, right? There was one author C.S. Goto, it reminds me much of his books. Hope not all of you saw them. There was that funny romantic involvment between a female Farseer and a Space Marine captain...

I think that's a bit too stark comparison - Chambers' prose is nowhere near the thickness of a syrup that slowly oozes down with oddly worded descriptions. The thing about 40k novels though is that they are all interpretations of the respective author. Whether one likes them or not is entirely up to themselves, same goes for what they do with the source material. Besides, this isn't the worst case of Andy going wild.


All that said, I enjoyed his vision of Commorragh in the past and look forward for the final book to get in my hands.

I personally enjoyed the books. I didn't go out of my way to judge the value of the writing and nothing just jumped out as glaringly bad.

I did enjoy the look into the Dark Eldar, I mean I'd never considered they might cheer after a hard fought battle and this helped me to remember that wracks are not mindless like the grotesque.

Most importantly it's shown me that I would really like some of this in our next codex (in order of least to most want). Castigators, assuming some kind of anti psycher role considering the reason for their design, maybe similar to the new tyranid shadow in the warp (might also be a nice way to change the crucible)

. Shadow lords of aelindrach. I'm a huge supporter of the mandrakes being our supplement what with all the clans and unexplored lore.

And above all; Vallonias Sythrac, the soul hunter. With "hunting" rules similar to the decapitator, necron death marks, or the chaos murder sword. I mean maybe I'm partial because I always kit my archon with a huskblade and soul trap, but I mean read his fight which showcases some of his abilities. This guy is one bad mother.

Just my two cents.

Just started the first couple of chapters last night. (I had a Horus Heresy novel to finish before downloading anything new)

So far so good, but it has only been 30 pages or so   

Finished it. IMO that it was the best out of the three by far although it did have the over-the-top-super villain problem that any novel of its kind would have. The air battles were well done and established how vicious inter-Kabal warfare. It was also interesting to see how Kabals operated on the defensive, which is basically an alien concept in both Codex: Dark Eldar and the actual game.

I will say that parts of the novel made me uncomfortable but in a proper way. In some ways I felt that Chambers was channeling current events in Syria and, to a lesser extent, Libya. I will highlight two instances in the book (without spoiling) that accomplished this.

"Every day of his life he'd dreamed about a day like this, a day when he could go into the city and do whatever he wanted: kill whoever he felt like, steal whatever took his fancy, destroy at will. The rest of his clique felt the same way, he could see it in their wild eyes and fixed smiles--the Dysjunction was the best thing that had ever happened in Commorragh."

Another chapter featured the indiscriminate use of chemical weapons, specifically nerve gas, to pacify what was essentially a civilian population. This was done not so much to kill--the forces that used said nerve gas had conventional means in ample supply to do so--rather it was done to allow for the recovery of sensitive materials.

Ultimately, the novel accomplishes what most Black Library novels fail to do. It highlights the horror of senseless infighting and the lengths both tyrants and rebels are willing to go to achieve absolute dominion. I feel like it accomplishes this precisely because the go to guys for rebellion, the powers of chaos, take a back seat to overweening pride and ambition. That all of the actors are simply evil and are contrasted with Motley's "voice of reason".

@The Red King: While having Castigators would be very cool in the next codex, I feel that their use on the table top would cheapen them considerably. They are something like what the Adeptus Costodes are: something cool that are not supposed to be thrown around the battlefield.

Dark_Kindred wrote:

@The Red King: While having Castigators would be very cool in the next codex, I feel that their use on the table top would cheapen them considerably. They are something like what the Adeptus Costodes are: something cool that are not supposed to be thrown around the battlefield.

I hear what you're saying, but seeing as they're a brand-new introduction to the fluff (as opposed to Custodes) and many more singular and "rare" units and characters make daily appearances at tabletops the world over, I really would love to have them. The possibilities...

Yup, yup and yup.

I remembered I had a gift voucher, and so got a copy.

I enjoyed it very much, it wraps the story up well.

Things which are hardly spoilers...

The Mandrakes are lame.
Vect has a double.
Good aerial battles.
Are there any Archons left?
Everyone gets their just desserts
Malys saves the day...
Motley saves the day...
Vect saves the day (twice)
Kheraruakh `nearly` saves the day (But he gets not one but two heads so hes happy.)