Now, I have to admit that when I first heard the rumours about Dan Abnett writing a Titan based book, I can’t say that I was all aflutter like the vast majority of people were when they heard that exact same news, but I wasn’t all doom and gloom about it either. In truth, I was fairly non-plused and just generally pretty much forgot about the news until Titanicus was officially announced to us all…..and even then I still wasn’t turning hand springs either.
Why was I not beside myself over the thought of a Titan based book written by Dan Abnett? Simple really, I had little or no thoughts or feelings on the Titan Legions themselves, having never really delved all that much into the Legions in any real way. True I knew what they were and most of the different classes (Forge World did help a lot and I so so so so so want a Warhound or two), how they functioned and all the usual, surface and anatomical stuff, but I’d never really gone into their background. And yes, I’d come across some books with Titans in them such as Storm of Iron, Dark Disciple and, of course there’s the Cruor Vult, but these were just side characters in a bigger story that focused on the more ‘normal’ branches of the Imperium…..so weren’t all that representative of the Titan Legions themselves…..though that’s not to say I’m panning anyone else’s take on Titans either.
So overall, I was generally lacking in enthusiasm for Titanicus as its release drew near……thought that’s not to say I didn’t intend to read it in time, if/when I ever got to the bottom of my ‘to be read’ pile and once it was in paperback. However, through unforeseen circumstances that caught me completely by surprise, I found myself in possession of a copy that I hadn’t expected to procure (don’t ask) so I thought ‘What the hell!’ and decided I should at least read it at the first opportune moment, but of course, Cain came first.
Needless to say…..I’m glad that I got the chance to read it now rather than kicking myself stupid over waiting at least a year for the paperback copy (which I feel will happen with The Killing Ground….and I’m not a glutton for punishment either with waiting for two).
Honestly, I’m not sure that I can praise this book enough…..thought that’s not to say it was perfect either.
Negative stuff first.
I have to admit that, especially with Mr. Abnett’s Imperial Guard based books, I find them a little jumpy and disjointed, mainly because his books have such a wide character base, who are all experiencing things at the same time in different places and so need to be covered during the course of the book itself, which necessitates the need to cut from one scene to another group elsewhere, even though their actions can and do have ramifications on other parts of the overall story. With means, on a personal level, there were sections that I read simply so I could get back to the story arcs that I was enjoying the most (which isn’t as bad as it sounds and I liked all of the story arcs, I just liked some more than others). I found this happened with Titanicus, as there were technically a sack load of characters that were covered over the course of the book itself.
However, this large character base is also what I love about Mr. Abnett’s work. Everyone fits into the world and adds an extra depth and richness that has been created, regardless on whether or not that have a bigger part to play in the main storyline….because sometimes characters that are introduced that do little or nothing to further the plot but give glimpse into the other side of Imperial life, to see those who aren’t soldiers and how they live and cope with what’s going on around them…….which, if memory serves, is something he said he liked to do with the Ravenor trilogy.
So characters like Zink, the ex-moderati turned gardener and Zember, the toy maker with his tin titans were such wonderful characters within this story because of the perspectives they gave, what it’s like on not quite on the ground. Looking at what was happening through the eyes of a business man and someone who doesn’t really know what was going on but felt it in his bones (no pun intended)….and I found I had a lot of empathy for these characters because they were victims of circumstance and, with the exception of Zink, or at least what he once was, relatively normal characters.
This is something that was somewhat shadowed with Cally and the Activated Twenty-six. Normal people put into extraordinary situations and being left to basically sink or swim, although I think they had more of an impact on the storyline than the above characters did, but once again, they were people that could be related too on a personal level because they weren’t career soldiers.
I must admit that I was surprised by the Titan Legions themselves. They weren’t as I expected of them, all mechanical, clean and efficient, like their ties to the Mechanicus made me think might happen. In fact I thought they’d be quite snobby too, a bit like the Imperial Navy are. But the camaraderie and loyalty that the Titan crews had for each other and their Legio was highly commendable to say the least. I enjoyed the banter between Moderati Tarses and the bridge crew on Dominatus Victrix and there was a great sense of care given off from the Titan crews for themselves, their crews and the Titans themselves, who I saw as characters in themselves as the book progressed. Despite the fact they never really spoke, a sense of sentience was given to the individual Titans through it all, which was quite creepy but well worth it. But I can’t say I had any love for the Executors though…..they seem too slimy to me, eager to please but it seems only to be lip-service to keep people happy since they answer to their Legio and no one else, despite being liaisons.
What also impressed me was what was done with Gearhart (though seeing all the dead Princeps from the past was a little at odds with everything, in my opinion), and the thought of loosing my mind to a Titan doesn’t make me feel any more comfortable than he felt, especially since we, as reader were pretty much privy to what was going on inside his head, and it felt like an argument I’ve had with myself on a number of occasions over the uncomfortable feeling of losing my mind to some outside influence…..or mainly just me fretting over the thought of getting old and getting some sort of neurological disease that robs me of my mind.
And I have to also admit that I’ve grown somewhat less hard-hearted about all the members of the Adeptus Mechanicus though the use of some of the more less exposed members via the Analyticae and the Enginseers. Those that are a little bit more human that the Magos that seem to get all the airtime. However, there were individuals that seemed to embody the exact reasons why I hate the Mechanicus too, for their greedy, back-stabbing ways.
And the Legio’s Skitarii…….YIKES! Nothing like I’d image them to be, and definitely not like the skitarii I’ve come across that are linked to the Mechanicus.
The pace of the book was perfect and I was sucked into what was going on from the very beginning with Gorland and his men, and the usual range of emotions was running high with what went on in various story arcs and characters, and needless to say there was a few tears by the end of the book over what had happened.
And there was a truly jaw-dropping moment with the sheer audacity of what was unsuspectedly dropped into our laps right in the middle of the book when things already had me on the very edge of my seat. And what was ever more flabbergasting was that there was a very real possibility that what had been discovered was true and could have spelt the end of everything, not just the battle for Orestes…..wasn’t sure how this one was going to play out at all, so that aided in the page-turning-fist-in-my-mouth-reading-into-the-early-hoursness of the book too (and why I finished it so quickly).
But, as always, there were questions that were left unanswered, albeit pretty minor ones that have simply piqued my curiosity over the smaller picture rather than being pivotal to the bigger picture.
Questions such as: Did Golla and Iconis get together? What happened to Gentrian? What happened to the Princeps of the Teratos Titanicus? Does he even have a name? Why was Stefan Stemstag such a burke? Why oh why did Koder drive that truck? What happened to the other, blind and deaf engineseer that Varco and his mob lost through self-presevation?
Favourite Character(s): Engineseer Koder, Golla Uldana, Moderati Tarses, Adept Feist
Favourite Titan: Morbius Sire
All in all…I have to give Titanicus 9.8 out of 10……almost a ‘Malleus’ perfect 10, but not quite.
