The Twice-Dead King: Ruin (Warhammer 40,000) [Paperback] Crowley, Nate

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Memory is a funny thing, and so are the things that spark it. For me, books hold the power to transport me to a time or place in visceral – and sometimes unexpected – ways. For example, I cannot think of Nicobobinous (a Terry Jones kids’ book) without immediately finding myself where I conducted my yearly read of it – sitting under our family Christmas tree, covertly snarfling chocolates out of their foil wrappers. And Then John Was a Zombie: Oltyx has been unknowingly under the influence of the Flayer Curse for centuries without succumbing. It’s only until he hits the Despair Event Horizon that he finally gives in to the hunger. But it turns out, giving in to the Flayer Curse without fear or regret is something like Necron nirvana, and Oltyx ends up becoming/taking on the mantle of Valgul, the Flayer King, the only Flayed One to retain his grip on reality. Following on from The Twice-Dead King: Ruin, this sees Oltyx – now king of Ithakas – attempting to lead what remains of his dynasty to safety. Aboard a deteriorating flagship, and pursued by a vast fleet of vengeful humans, Oltyx has to come to terms with his newfound power, while bearing the responsibility of finding a way to safeguard his people. The pressures of leadership are great though, and as well as the external threats he also has to maintain the loyalty of his subordinates, and come to terms with who he really wants to be. Broken Ace: Yenekh. Amazing warrior and fleet commander, now fighting a losing battle against the Flayer Curse. I Never Got Any Letters: Subverted. Oltyx accuses Djoseras of ignoring his reports. Djoseras responds that a) he read every single report, he was just prevented from replying, and b) nothing ever prevented them from just talking normally via their Necron private messaging systems, other than Oltyx's refusal to.

Epic Fail: Oltyx and Djoseras both got a single-shot tachyon arrow built into their bodies after biotransference, an immensely powerful weapon that can obliterate Imperial Titans. Oltyx wasted his almost immediately on a single Eldar craft, and missed. He does not like being reminded of that. Unnas - Phaeron. Succumbed to the Flayer Curse and controlled by his corrupt Vizier Hemiun. Ultimately overthrown by Djoseras and killed as an act of mercy by Oltyx. [1b] Experience the tumutluous reality of ruling a necron royal court and battling the the Imperium from the perspective of an necron lord whose mind is split into discrete partitions.Who Wants to Live Forever?: The necrons have invincible bodies, but not invincible minds, and are all slowly going mad from the weight of immortality. Oltyx considers biotransferance the worst mistake of his life. But Crowley puts us in the crowded head of one of their scions, who knew life at court and in war, and who was amongst the first to see, understand and confront the decay which even the most elaborate system build of the most sturdy material will be condemned to eventually. In eternity, the Necron empire faces certain doom, unless they change their way of thinking - which, however, is as much an immortal part of them as any programming would be. Yenekh - High Admiral of the Ithakan Fleet of great renown and known as the Razor. Secretly succumbing to the Flayer Curse. After a brief exile by Oltyx for revealing he had helped hide Flayed Ones amongst the Ithakan refugee fleet, he returned to aid against the Imperials. Reappeared on Drazak as a mutated Flayed One and pledged himself to Oltyx, now known as Valgûl. [2a] Staking the Loved One: Discussed. When Oltyx finds out Yenekh is a Flayed One, he proceeds to tell him exactly how he should cast him out or execute him, while Yenekh begs for another chance.

Big Brother Mentor: Djoseras, Oltyx's elder brother, taught him almost all he knows about tactics and Necrontyr social structure.

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Si pensaba que el libro anterior era complejo, este lo es mucho más. Pero por otro lado, más sencillo. Es muy difícil de explicar, así como es difícil de explicar cualquier otro asunto relativo a los necron. In the final defense of Antikef, Djoseras shores up the city's Deflector Shields with energy from his personal, internal power source. It shorts all his other systems out for a while. Oltyx makes blunders: he kills his closest advisors and is cruel when he doesn't need to be. He, as mentioned, makes no plans and has no long-term goals. But, as a reader (listener since I had the audiobook), I didn't feel like this was wholly his fault. The narration is so close to him and focused on the desparation to survive another day that his faults are not fully laid bare to the reader. Instead of seeing the slow decay, until the very end of the book, I kept wondering "oh ho, how will Oltyx escape *this* scrape". But then the numbers in his control dwindle down to nothing and he is broken in both mind and body. It was only at this point that I realized I had not been reading a space romp but instead the tragedy showcasing the slow destruction of a people due to the hubris of their leader. Amazing fiction that got it all: A catching adventure of the most sophisticated undead, spiced up with occasional horror, sudden humor and unexpected moments of all too humane emotion. The Lystraegonian, a Space Marine battle barge, is named after a race of cannibalistic giants who sink all but one of Odysseus’s ships. It’s the Lystraegonian and the Angels Encarmine (a Blood Angels successor, and so subject to the Red Thirst) aboard who ultimately bring down Antikef, forcing Olytx to flee aboard a single warship.