Any chance of a small review? I feared to read it because I don't find Gav Thorpe's style to my liking. Informed thoughts might help me to decide if it's for me

Right o, I'll try my best not to drop too many spoilers .

Firstly, the blurb:

http://www.blacklibrary.com/warhammer-40000/asurmen-hand-of-asuryan-hardback.html

That doesn't really tell you much, so I'll elaborate a bit.
The story centres on a warhost associated with the minor craftworld called Anuiven, who have mobilised in order to recover an artefact from an ancient Eldar world now occupied by a human population that has fallen to chaos. Standard 40k fare.
The good stuff is that the book explores several neglected themes of Eldar culture. The key ones for me being:

• The symbiotic relationship between the Eldar (living and dead) with their technology is given a good airing. I felt this also provided an insight into why the Eldar find contact with the Mon-keigh races so distasteful.

• There are also decent examples of the Eldar way of war and some explanations as to why they have their preferred strategies.

• The nature of the relationship between the Eldar society, the interpretations of the skein and the Phoenix Lords and the Rhana Dandra.

The book doesn't give a definitive guide to these subjects, but it does provide some good examples.

The Fall is also a sub theme of the book along with the genesis of the Asurya. Given that the primarchs have had their legends fleshed out with the HH books I'm hoping this ethos will continue for the Phoenix Lords.

In comparison to the Path books. I would say that Asurmen: Hand of Asuryan has a much faster pace and allows the reader to more easily identify with the Eldar characters. Plus it shows much more of the Eldars badass wargear. Wraithknight anyone .

Oh and a very minor passing reference allows us to add yet another mysterious group of Aspect warriors to the Slicing Orbs of Zandros and Crystal Dragons.

Basically when someone asks "what should I read to understand the Eldar?" I will now recommend this book first and then the path books.
I don't really know how to write a review. So I just listed the things I liked about it. I hope it has helped.

Thank you! That's the sort of thing I need to know - it sounds as if there's a goodly amount of interest for me. I may have to get myself a birthday present

What i liked most about the hand of Asuryan book was the Stormlance character, That ship was very badass. I liked it so much partly cause it adds more insight to the myth that are the phoenix lords and expands their lore. It was a very interesting concept and i expect the other phoniex lords to have its equivalent as well.

Now that i think about it, the side characters were very well written and in some parts of the book they even steal the show.

So I just finished Valedor, and although I'm sure Ynnead being close to awakening is not as close as Iyanna believes it got me wondering. When a Chaos god is born they are retroactive in certain ways. Although they only just come into being it's also as if they had always been there. What would this mean for the Eldar as he's a new god to counter a new god? What does it mean for the rest of the galaxy as well considering Isha helps the rest of the universe and not just the Eldar?

Firstly @Norm Thanks for the nice write up. I'm going to read that book because of you.

You raise some good points there Dyne. I will have to ponder these...

Asurmen has a talking space ship made from his own rage. That is all.

Once I get money, I'll have to pick this up. The local store has it and I can always use more books

Hay, no fare. Don't go spoiling it for me!

Hi everyone, I'm also thinking about picking up a few Eldar novels. I was interested in Asurmen: Hand of Asuryan (Hardcover). But I took notice of the Asurmen: Hand of Asuryan - First Edition, found out that it may contain nice descriptive art (I love art) but was confused on the big gaps of differences.

The Hardcover says it contains 320 pages, yet the First Edition says on The Black Library it has only 224 and is A5 notebook size? 0_o

I really enjoy having big hardcover sized books in my hands. Like "Darth Bane: Path of Destruction" I have paper backs too, but I would prefer having something less flimsy that had a plastic cover to protect it.

Does anyone have a idea or copy to help me decide?



I also wish I could have both covers (Yes I'm greedy, but they both look so nice) I'm wondering if the Edition will be similar in art compared to Book of The Sith