Brutal Kunnin: An Epic Waaagh! Novel (Warhammer 40,000)

£9.9
FREE Shipping

Brutal Kunnin: An Epic Waaagh! Novel (Warhammer 40,000)

Brutal Kunnin: An Epic Waaagh! Novel (Warhammer 40,000)

RRP: £99
Price: £9.9
£9.9 FREE Shipping

In stock

We accept the following payment methods

Description

If you’re looking for something a little more low-tech, how about tossing a fungal ball of teeth and attitude at the enemy? The squig launchas on the Rukkatrukk Squigbuggy don’t have an explosive payload, but squigs are much worse. The ork stuff is superb on its own as well. Brooks sets a good balance between normal prose mixed with orky nouns, a decision that kept this section entertaining instead of unreadable. They have a good cast as well, all feeling distinct while remaining orky. Each chapter in the book is from the perspective of a different character, roughly 40% Ufthak, and another 40% from the perspective of Zaefa Varaz, Hephaesto’s Lexico Arcanus. The remaining chapters are divided between other characters which would be spoilers, which we won’t be discussing here.

In everyone of Mikes story he seems to use plural pronouns to generate a singular non-gendered pronoun. This would be well and good if this didn't come at the cost of collapsing the difference between singular and plural. This is especially frustrating when one person works in conjuncture with a group (Skitarii in this case) or for interactions between two people that use this "new" pronoun. The worst part is that it isn't even necessary to get the idea across, just use "it". It's not that Mechanicum personnel will mind, after all getting refereed to as "it" would bring the even closer to the holy machine. Plus the ease of using the proper genderless pronoun "it" is also demonstrated in this novel during the chapters about Te'Kannaroth. Which are a joy to read. In the end I hoped that I would get used to it but even at chapter 24 I still needed to pause every time to make sure I didn't misinterpreted anything. This does not include Tyranids or the T'au. The latter are still fairly minor on the galactic stage, so their omission isn't a complete surprise. The Tyranids' absence is a little harder to explain. My guess is that, to an entity as ancient as Te'Kannaroth, they're simply too recent an addition to worry about. This would also apply to the T'au. However, since time holds little to no meaning within the Warp, I'm not certain how relevant that actually is. In a way, what's left out is as intriguing as what's put in. Mike Brookes proves that you can have compelling point-of-view xenos characters even when they're as different as orks.

Navigation menu

This story shows the fight from both sides, and it does a good job of showing the contrasting views. For the orks, it's humorous. They're having fun and getting into shenanigans as they butcher their way through the defenders. On the other side, you have a palpable sense of the desperation and hopelessness of the AdMech as they desperately try to save as much as they can while they're being ground down by overwhelming ork numbers and power, while being hampered by their own incompetent leadership and an insidious third party. In this story, two rival Ork Warlords decide to beseige a Mechanicus Forge World to try and grab some loot. This isn't a massive WAAAGH of any sort, just 2 small fleets that want to smash some 'teef' in. A full length followup to the short Where Dere’s da Warp Dere’s a Way, this one follows the story of a WAAAGH! way to loot the shiniest, most technological gear they can find. CONTEXT: During an Orkish invasion of a Forge World, Te'Kannaroth — a greater daemon of Khorne now bound into a daemon engine — looks over the battlefield. This prompts the daemon to think about each of the galaxy's major 1 races, particularly "the abhorrence" (AKA the Orks). More potential spoilers below: read at your own risk! Ere we go! It’s the moment every ork fan has been waiting for, the collector’s mega limited edition of Warboss by Mike Brooks!

Yet the abhorrence would see only another enemy to fight. Even those amongst them who could bend and shape reality to their will drew that power mainly from the massed latent psychic ability of their kin, not from the raging tempest of the warp. It was as though the glory of Chaos were simply irrelevant to them. I also really appreciate that Brooks’ antagonists always have a struggle of their own in his books. His antagonists are not unstoppable until the climax, rather, the protagonists and antagonists are constantly struggling to outplay each other and I really love that in a story.Is a lot of my enjoyment down to the novelty of reading an Ork perspective? Absolutely. But that’s no bad thing, since the rest of the writing also hits the mark for me. Thanks as ever to Mike for taking the time to answer these questions! I’m sure I’m not the only person very excited to read this novel – it sounds so much fun! Expect a review just as soon as I get hold of a copy…

The two main AdMech characters are Zaefa Varaz, Hephaesto’s Lexico Arcanus, whose role it is to interpret the data of the orks’ offensive and who has to deal with the whims of her Tech Priest Dominus, and Secutor Haphax Mitran-da, who leads the forge world’s defenders on the battlefield. Also featuring is Kaptin ‘Flash Git’ Badrukk, who happens to have arrived at the same time as the TekWaaagh! and has his own designs for the planet and its booty. There’s one scene in particular which would have been utter bloody horror for the humans involved, but for Ufthak it’s just a brief, slightly confusing diversion. A Chaos Space Marine, for example, might have gloried in the slaughter and the terror: Ufthak just kills a few humans and then looks around for a more challenging fight. So far as orks are concerned, fighting is the best thing in the galaxy, and they’re not sure why few other species seem to enjoy it as much, or aren’t very good at it, or even want to avoid it entirely. There is also a great side-story and internal dialogue of a senior tech priest, her name is Zaefa Varaz who is trying to figure out wtf is going on. All isn't what it seems on the forge world and the Mechanicus isn't so resolute in it's mission.

Table of Contents

MB: This was probably the easiest and most fun novel I’ve ever written, and I had an absolute blast! In part I think it’s because I already knew the characters: Ufthak and his ladz have been the subject of various pieces of flash fiction which I would write down and upload into the Facebook groups of whatever campaign they were appearing in at the time, so I already had a handle on how they act. Ufthak’s smart in a sort of counter-intuitive way; Mogrot Redtoof is a beast in combat but about as intelligent as a concussed squig; Nizkwik the grot is simultaneously eager to please and terrified; I even got to include Ufthak’s pet squig Princess, about which I am utterly delighted (yes, there is a reason the squig is called Princess, but you’ll have to read the novel to find out: also yes, this might just have been me finding a vaguely plausible reason for why Ufthak’s pet squig has always been called Princess).

Daemon Engine Te'Kannaroth (gets two chapters, interacts with Gavrak, is his mechanism for revenge, the Mechanicus characters witness and fail to prevent its birth, is destroyed by Ufthak) Mike Brooks: It’s a novel about the orks of the TekWaaagh! invading the forge world of Hephaesto. It’s primarily told from the point of view of the orks, although there are also Adeptus Mechanicus POV characters. honestly I think I just like Warhammer books but I really didn't expect to like it as much as I did. The 40k Orks are just forces of complete randomness and violence and yet its that vibe that makes this book a compelling, brain-off kind of story. This book is also legitimately hilarious with the Orks facing off against the cyborg Adeptus Mechanicus and the constant strain of the two factions trying to figure counter each other with opposing logic is very compelling.The story could have been cut down a bit, but I think it needed padding to get it to the standard BL novel length. There was an entire chapter that was a pretty good action scene of Mitranda and their team taking out a warboss...but for all the effect it had on the story, it could have been cut completely and it wouldn't have changed anything. We never figure out who the ork warboss was, if his death actually mattered at all, and the whole thing doesn't get mentioned again other than a throwaway line about Mitranda having to replace their axe. Honestly, I don't quite know how to feel about this novel. On the one hand the Orky parts are great and fun to read. On the other you've got the Mechanicum sections, that are at times just unreadable. MB: I think Guy Haley has said it before, but the key to orks is that they seem funny, unless you’re the one they’re happening to. It was interesting approaching it from the ork POV however, because of course to orks, what they’re doing isn’t horrific, it’s normal. So I was describing fights and scenes of slaughter for which, had it been from a human perspective, I would have been using words that really brought home the gruesomeness of what was occurring. When seeing the same events from an ork perspective, it’s much more matter-of-fact. With only 2,000 uniquely numbered and individually signed copies available, any self-respecting ork enthusiast needs to grab theirs before they are gone.



  • Fruugo ID: 258392218-563234582
  • EAN: 764486781913
  • Sold by: Fruugo

Delivery & Returns

Fruugo

Address: UK
All products: Visit Fruugo Shop