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magistralucis · 5 months

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Conflict in Literature + Necron Books

(Read more for titles and notes, watch out for spoilers)

Man vs. Nature - Devourer This is not the only necron vs. tyranid lit, but I thought the cover illustrated the conflict best. Out of all the horribad things in WH40K, the tyranids tend to be presented as the closest faction to a natural disaster; certainly in Devourer they do not logically justify their presence, nor can they be reasoned with, not by the Blood Angels or Anrakyr or the Tomb World he's trying to wake. Not mindless, but an amoral happenstance, like nature itself.

Man vs. Society - The Lords of Borsis Necron court intrigue played straight, with a sprinkle of delusion on the side. Since this story revolves entirely around the schemings and plottings of necron(tyr) society, with changes in dynastic hierarchy as the final objective, it fits best here.

Man vs. Technology - Indomitus This is an awkward placement, since Indomitus was not, well... a compelling story, with most of its tropes not being explored beyond their first introduction. But it is the most bare-bones way of describing this book's premise. Humans battling a robotic malignancy, albeit with a Bolivian Army Ending, which doesn't conclude the plot in either direction 😞

Man vs. Man - The Twice-Dead King: Ruin Ruin is an exceptionally deep novel, and fits every conflict listed here. It was the hardest one to place, because it's not so much choosing the one that goes best, rather crossing off every other conflict not central to the story. Both gods and the absence-of-gods are a problem in Ruin, as well as nature and technology, but they're not at the heart of Oltyx's problem. Society could be a big one, since Oltyx is an exile - but he’s not trying to antagonize his society throughout Ruin, he's trying to work with it, or at least save it from doom. Self and reality both count, but fit better with other stories in the Nate Crowley corpus. So man vs. man it is. His most important clashes are all with individuals ('man') - Djoseras, Unnas, Hemiun, arguably Yenekh in reserve - and by the end, his crownworld is overrun by the Imperium, who will become the antagonists for the second part of his tale. Man vs. 'Man', with a capital M.

Man vs. Self - The Twice-Dead King: Reign Again, this could have gone elsewhere. In man vs. reality, perhaps, or the god-related ones. But the self is where the conflict of Reign truly lies, since Oltyx's greatest obstacle is himself, and it is his inability to accept that which brings his dynasty close to destruction. Thank goodness he got over that one.

Man vs. Reality - Severed The emotional and philosophical core of this novella relies on it. Zahndrekh's inability to see the world as it is brings about the whole plot, and is at the centre of all of Obyron's musings. Interestingly, reality does not win at the end, at least not what necrons envision reality to be: a place of cold hard facts, with no room for emotion. Zahndrekh would rather dream the impossible dream, which might be the healthier way to deal with their situation.

Man vs. God - The Infinite and the Divine 🚨 𝔻𝕆 ℕ𝕆𝕋 𝔹𝔼 𝔻𝔼ℂ𝔼𝕀𝕍𝔼𝔻 🚨

Man vs. No God - Crusade: Pariah Nexus Not a novel, not 100% about necrons, not even out yet as of now (Dec 2023). This is an inherently problematic conflict for WH40K, because gods are very real and very present in that universe... here I'm only thinking about the necron perspective, and the civil war unfolding in their lore. They banded together in a shared purpose eons ago, destroying the Old Ones who oppressed them, and sundering the star gods who subjected them to biotransference. Now they are as antigod as they could be, and they did not retain their bonds, they have once again turned on each other. So it goes.

Man vs. Author - Codex: Necrons (10th Ed.) (Collector's Ed.) James Workshop knows what they did. 😑

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ghostinthegallery · 9 months

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A Necron Reading Guide

For anyone who wants to experience the wonders of Warhammer 40K's incredibly dramatic undead robots from space, here are basically all the published books/stories, ranked into tiers:

Must Read:

The Infinite & The Divine- You've already read this one. If not, your friends and family and the whole internet have recommended it to you. Go read it. A skeleton robot archaeologist throat-punches a dinosaur in like...chapter 2. This is worth your time.

Twice Dead King: Ruin & Reign- duology, so read both books. Wonderfully tragic, all the epic Greek poetry vibes, necrons who need therapy but will never get it. Bring tissues.

Severed- Somehow the most wholesome relationship in all of 40K, plus some fun lore, but mostly we are here for feelings. Also bring tissues but for happy tears this time.

Once you are done and need more (aka the good short stories):

War in the Museum- More of Trazyn being Trazyn, what more can you want?

The Bleeding Stars- See above.

The Word of the Silent King- Szarekh is a weird dude, but it's definitely fun watching him screw with some space marines

Once you really need a fix and realize there's basically nothing else:

The Lords of Borsis- fun scheming political short story, but it misses some of the little touches that make a necron story feel like necrons to me. Not the author's fault, pretty sure at that point GW didn't know the necrons' lore either.

The Devourer- decent little novella featuring Anrakyr the Traveler, but he has to share a lot of page time with some random Blood Angels and a cryptek who does not matter. Not the most compelling of the bunch, but there are worse ways to spend an afternoon.

Don't bother even once your get desperate:

The Everliving Legion- short story anthology. Has Word of the Silent King and Lords of Borsis, so you can get it for those, but the rest of the stories are just humans fighting necrons or being scared of necrons and that is not really what I'm after. Let my necron books be about necrons pls.

Indomitus- don't. Just don't. The book is bad, even by GW standards. They will never explain what the Pariah Nexus thing was about and I have given up hope of ever getting answers.

#warhammer 40k #necrons #the infinite and the divine #twice dead king #warhammer books #go read and then write fanfic so I have more necron stuff to read #because this list is basically it and it is not enough

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