No matter what anyone says about the Smurfs being boring, McNeill's Ultramarine books will always hold a special place in my heart. They just strike me as the quintessential 40k literature.
I love the Soul Drinker series as it's always cool to get a totally different perspective on the war. The second book is my favorite as so much of the plot takes place set to the background of a MASSIVE interplanetary conflict with a rather original enemy.
But in the end, there is no 40k book I love more than Titanicus.
These are the true Gods of war.
These are the machines that are only rumored and hinted at.
Hell, the entirety of Winter Assault was spent trying to uncover ONE of them. Granted, it was a much larger class, but still.
And Titanicus is a book about a war of HUNDREDS of them going at it. Beautiful detail on the battles, incredible sense of scale and learning tons of things about their inner workings.
Furthermore, the previously mentioned is just the macro-level combat.
Add in a huge amount of very interesting political intrigue, infantry level combat to juxtapose the Titans as well as a group that has no power whatsoever just to illustrate the scale of the battle. It has a dozen minor characters that get maybe 5 pages a piece, but every one builds on the world and makes it come alive. For instance, the effectively brain-dead Titan commander working as a leaf sweeper. He begins to remember the things he did and the Titan he commanded as the war get's more and more intense. Nothing really comes of it. There's no heroic moment where he suddenly wakes up in time to jump in and save the day. His character simply passes through the book quietly. And yet even his simple act of remembering and speaking the word "Engine" (one of the 40k names for a Titan) is written so that it feels like a victory.
If I could make any piece of Warhammer 40k fiction into a movie, it would be Titanicus.
I have read the final battle sequence a dozen times, picturing in my head the music and scenes.
For me, it's truly breathtaking.
I love the Soul Drinker series as it's always cool to get a totally different perspective on the war. The second book is my favorite as so much of the plot takes place set to the background of a MASSIVE interplanetary conflict with a rather original enemy.
But in the end, there is no 40k book I love more than Titanicus.
[image/]http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-NkLgHKVMeYY/TlIr33qlH-I/AAAAAAAAACQ/YxhyLTc8OPU/s1600/Warlock+titans.jpg[/IMG]
[image/]http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20120229150222/warhammer40k/images/d/db/Titan.jpg[/IMG]
[image/]http://media.desura.com/images/groups/1/3/2055/Warlord_Class_Titan.jpg[/IMG]
[image/]http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20120229150222/warhammer40k/images/d/db/Titan.jpg[/IMG]
[image/]http://media.desura.com/images/groups/1/3/2055/Warlord_Class_Titan.jpg[/IMG]
These are the true Gods of war.
These are the machines that are only rumored and hinted at.
Hell, the entirety of Winter Assault was spent trying to uncover ONE of them. Granted, it was a much larger class, but still.
And Titanicus is a book about a war of HUNDREDS of them going at it. Beautiful detail on the battles, incredible sense of scale and learning tons of things about their inner workings.
Furthermore, the previously mentioned is just the macro-level combat.
Add in a huge amount of very interesting political intrigue, infantry level combat to juxtapose the Titans as well as a group that has no power whatsoever just to illustrate the scale of the battle. It has a dozen minor characters that get maybe 5 pages a piece, but every one builds on the world and makes it come alive. For instance, the effectively brain-dead Titan commander working as a leaf sweeper. He begins to remember the things he did and the Titan he commanded as the war get's more and more intense. Nothing really comes of it. There's no heroic moment where he suddenly wakes up in time to jump in and save the day. His character simply passes through the book quietly. And yet even his simple act of remembering and speaking the word "Engine" (one of the 40k names for a Titan) is written so that it feels like a victory.
If I could make any piece of Warhammer 40k fiction into a movie, it would be Titanicus.
I have read the final battle sequence a dozen times, picturing in my head the music and scenes.
For me, it's truly breathtaking.