Wolf Hunt/Magnus: SPOILERS

[Dlatrex]

Ok, so I just finished listening to Wolf-Hunt. The first audiobook for me; since I do not have anything else to compare it to I would say that I enjoyed the voice acting and Foley work, but I was not completely blown away. Maybe if I had listen to more murder-radio I could better critique it.

That said, I would like to air a grievance which may or may not be fair, towards Mr Graham McNeill. Over the summer I finally got to read The Outcast Dead (I am through Angel Exterminatus in sequence) and one of the largest issues that many readers have is the apparent inconsistency of the timeline of the Horus Heresy, specifically dealing with the warning of Magnus the Red to the Emperor at Golden Throne. In McNeill's previous 1,000 Sons it is pretty clear that the warning occurs before the Dropsite Massacre, which lines up with the end of Fulgrim and the addition of Magnus to the Traitor forces. The Outcast Dead, seemed to throw that all askew, with Terra receiving word of the Massacre *BEFORE* Magnus shows up and causes all sorts of pyschic shenanigans.

Fast forward to Wolf hunt, at the very end of the story Malcador comes as the God From Machine and interferes with the standoff. He then explains to Nagasena, that Magnus' warning to the Emperor occurred 2+ years ago, and "...the emperors wards were able to contain it from escaping. A host of pskers from the hollow mountains attempted to dissipate that enormous reservoir of power before it broke the psychic levees. But the energy Magnus unleashed eventually overcame them... and the entire world felt the results of that."

Typically I am the first to give an author a great deal of latitude with apparent 'ret-cons' and reason that we perhaps just did not know the full story, but this particular case just seems hard to swallow. That massive a psychic undertaking ongoing for 2+ years apparently under the radar? There would have been no reason to 'hide' this fact in The Outcast Dead only to reveal it here in the Wolf Hunt, other than to cover up a previous mistake!

Admittedly McNeill does seem to like to wildly contradict the concluison a reader draws from one book, with a following book. The Possession/Entrapment of Fulgrim/Daemon in the painting springs to mind. I am torn over this: half of me is happy that the timeline is patched back together, but it seems to have been done in a kind of blunt way.

Am I being too hard on the guy? I do like his stories, but I wonder if his notes just got confused...

[Blood Shadow]

Actually I loved that twist, it opens up so many questions.......equally a full year after the drop site massacre the word bearers assault Ultramar...yet Guiliman doesn't have a clue...

Personally I think its cool so long as they deal with the why later....

[Dlatrex]

It does open more questions, I will give you that.

The lack of dissemination to the region of Ultramar is not really a problem in my eyes. Even if the currents are traveling well, messages going across 50%+ of the galactic plane can be delayed by weeks or months or more. Heck, Terra only learned of the Virus Bombing due to the Eisenstein and the fortuitous positioning of the Imperial Fists.
...That is excluding Magnus' warning, which SHOULD have occurred nearly instantaneously due to him using the webways. I think 1000 Sons discussed it taking a course of a few days.

[DWest]

Remember though, when Magnus sent the message, he was shown the way into the Webway by what was most likely Tzeentch himself. It's not inconceivable that the Changer of Ways could have misdirected the message somehow. Granted, this means the Wolves were dispatched "before" the message was received, but that doesn't really make less sense than any of the other temporal shenanigans of the Warp, I don't think.

[Cap'nSmurfs]

Whisper it, but Graham McNeill just isn't very good at writing.

The rest of his stuff is likewise riddled with inconsistencies, plot threads left hanging, unresolved, and crisis moments that just go away almost without comment between stories. He's easily the weakest of the big BL authors, and I'm always wary of reading an HH novel with him at the helm.

[John Grammaticus]

Whisper it, but Graham McNeill just isn't very good at writing.

Heresy!

Halfway through The Outcast Dead at the minute and still trying to reconcile the timing of the warning. My only alternative explanation is that getting news of the rebellion before Magnus invented intergalactic cups on string was some kind of ploy by the Alpha Legion or other faction in a Liar's Due (Tales of Heresy)-esque way to provoke a response. A time signature at the start of every HH chapter would be helpful....

[Dlatrex]

So have you finished TOD, and/or Wolfhunt?

[DrLove42]

At the horus heresy weekender this year the BL panel said they believe Prospero happened before Istavan. Suggesting Magnus' message reached Terra longer before Istavan to give time to mobilise the wolves and give the kill order for the 1K sons

[m3g4tr0n]

The Outcast Dead was weak on many levels. I was not a fan of that book.