#genefather

[alex-leweird]

[ghostinthegallery]

Man, I do love 40k. I mean what other franchise can give you a conversation about the nature of humanity, morality, and hypocrisy, what ends justify what means, what "humanity" even is only to have the entire argument undermined by the fact that one participant is wearing a coat made of human skin?

[tagedeszorns]

May contain spoilers of both "Genefather" and the Fabius-trilogy

Guy Haley - Genefather

Since @robot-roadtrip-rants asked for my live-opinion while reading the book, I'll try my best to be a totally unbiased literature-critic!

I'll avoid reading other people's posts about the book to go into this experience as unbiased as possible.

So, let's begin!

Current status is about 15% in the book. Maybe 20. I haven't yet figured out how to turn on, toggle or turn off any features on ReadEra. it's not the most intuitive e-reader app imaginable. But it's free and it tries its best.

Anyway. The book!

So far I've been very pleasantly surprised! I never read the Cawl books as he bored me in the Heresy. But here he is downright amazingly amusing. Apparently ten thousand years with himself has done him quite good. Maybe I'll give his novels another chance later?

Fabius also comes across as quite fresh. Of course, Haley has to cope with the abrupt and not very nice end of the trilogy, which leaves Fabius in quite a bad state and in a completely new set-up. Without his consortium, I feel a bit alienated by him. It's strange - before and during the Heresy I always perceived him as very much a solitary figure, but after the trilogy I find it hard to warm to him as a lone wolf. Especially since Haley has also so far omitted characters like Saqqara and Igori/Melusine that would make the gap easier for me to bridge (quick text search through the book: not even a mention of my Word Bearer. Not good. Not good AT ALL). Fabius has always worked best for me in the mirror of his environment. Through the eyes of his primarch, his brothers and later his pupils or creatures. Without that angle of view, he feels very naked to me.

Haley deviates somewhat from Reynolds' interpretation of the New Men, but I can live with that. A lot of time has passed, maybe Fabius has changed his mind.

In general, it's little things (except for the absence of Saqqara, that's no little thing!) that bother me. The big picture works for me.

Haley is doing a good job with the Clonelord's character so far. You can tell he cares more about Cawl and his characterisation, but he's also trying his best to do Fabius justice. He gives him self-irony (not as much as Reynolds, mind you. But that's next to impossible to top) and the healthy distance from everything that is politically scurrying around in the galaxy that Fabius needs to be credible as a character.

I'm still not entirely comfortable with his motivation. It doesn't fit my image of the Chief Apothecary. But maybe later I'll get enough details and plot twists to put it into a framework where it fits again.

So far: I like it! You can tell that Haley likes Cawl better than Fabius, but he tries not to make it too obvious and I can live with that!

Let's see what happens next.

[necrofuturism]

i haven't even read genefather yet

[minweber]

You know, I really don't think that Guy Haley had the whole Cawl/Qvo dynamic fully planned out even as he was finishing up The Great Work. Well, either that, or he is one of the funniest motherfuckers on the planet. Because going by how Qvo-89's awakening went in Genefather, Qvo-88's must have been something like:

"Hello, dear Friedisch... Yes, yes, okay, Qvo. Please listen. Please get up and listen. No, stop crying. Qvo, please. I really, really need you to go over to Felix's ship and explain to him what the fuck has just happened. Better make it sound good too, Qvo, because that mountain is gone. Try not to mention the loose C'tan. Make something up. Be a dear and do it Qvo. Okay? Good, the shuttle will pick you up in fifteen minutes."

[robot-roadtrip-rants]

Spoilers for Genefather beneath the cut

Cawl what are you doing

[paniwarhamauser]

By some warp shenanigans I got Guy Haley's Genefather today, a week before the release.

Shipping mistake probably. But I like to think some isoteric powers (Pater Mutatis himself?) thought that a madperson who buys both limited and regular edition(and has several versions of Bile trilogy) must be very excited for the book, and made sure I got it before everyone else 😁

The problem is... I am reading it and want to talk about it, but it IS a week early. So it is very unfair to everyone else.

So, do I post my thoughts into the draft and then post this unedited stream of consciousness next week(no way I'm going back to edit it all!), or post it as I read, with massive spoiler warning?

[historitor-bookshelf]

No spoilers for Genefather, just a funny line, I promise. It has Cawl, it has machines, it has weird science. That's it.

I'm still putting it under a readmore but it spoils nothing except things you can guess from the novel's premise.

You could say...

He turns his machine on.

I love him.

😎

[the-consortium]

Having a hard time getting into writing right now

I have to admit, the new novel is weighing me down quite a bit.

I am still struggling to come to terms with it on a multitude of levels.

Luckily I decided from the start that I will forever see Fabius in some kind of fictional limbo, so I wouldn't be bothered too much by GW's canon-decisions. I will never write 41st Millenium-Fabius because of that. It will always be during his (wonderfully horrible and totally dysfunctional) "family days" with the Consortium. With New Men not mutated into some strange horrors and without that shift into uncool territory.

Let that guy do his science in peace.

Maybe I should just jump in again. Cleanse my brain.

[scriptorumsanctus]

Genefather - Guy Haley

Archmagos Belisarius Cawl invites representatives from across the Imperium, hoping to secure their assistance in unlocking the secrets of the pylon network. Among the attendees, however, is an uninvited guest who may possess the only mind in the galaxy greater than that of the fabled Archmagos…

In the cataclysmic epochs of the 41st millennium, where shadows entwine the stars and the echoes of ancient heresies reverberate through the immaterium, a saga of profound arcana and forbidden knowledge unfurls its ominous scrolls.

Guy Haley, the revered scribe of the Imperium’s sagas, has chiseled yet another illustrious script, a continuum to the sacred text of "Belisarius Cawl: The Great Work". Within the encrypted vellum of "Genefather", a meeting of minds echoes through the vastness of time and space. The confluence of Belisarius Cawl and Fabius Bile.

Key figures emerge from the shadows, amongst them Qvo and Alpha Primus—vessels of lore and carriers of destinies yet unveiled. Their tales intertwine with whispers of the Inquisition and the hidden mechanisms of the Adeptus Mechanicus, laying the foundation stones for epics yet to be sung.

Within the pages of this narrative scroll, the spirits of Qvo and Alpha Primus are the most legendary. They emerge as the paragons of intrigue, heralding a theatre of formidable conflicts, and sowing the seeds of mysteries yet to bloom in the grim vastness of Cawl’s odysseys. The story also breathes with the cold winds of the Inquisition’s scrutiny, lingering ominously over the arcane machineries of the wider Mechanicus.

In the labyrinthine corridors of 40k lore, where chronicles intertwine with the threads of prophecy and retcon, a tempest brews. The aeons have shifted, the celestial tapestry realigned, placing the saga of the Imperium Nihilus a hundred years beyond the sanctified scrolls of the Sanctus Lore. In the echoes of such celestial reconfigurations, murmurs vibrate through the Empyrean, speculating the heralding of novel armaments and divine theatres of the 40k dominion.

This humble scribe downloaded this tombs content as and audioscroll, the herald John Banks invokes the spirits of the saga with a vocal alchemy that reverberates with the essence of the 40k mythos. His sonorous incantations breathe life into the chiseled inscriptions, enshrouding the listener in the sacred atmospheres of the Dark Imperium’s echoed tales.

"Genefather", thus, engraves its revered glyphs in the sanctified codices of the 41st millennium, resonating with the arcanum and the chronicles of unyielding progress shrouded in the enigmatic veils of heresy and the Omnissian mystery.

★★★★

[flunkyofmalcador]

And then he will resuscitate the Emperor and everyone will have ice cream!

So (spoilers for Genefather, scroll past it if you want to read it without any foreknowledge) Cawl's body repairs faster than necrodermis, and he has an imperfect clone of Guilliman, and he has a pseudo primarch that contains the gene-seed of every legion?

This is on top of the reverse engineering xenos technology and generally solving a chunk of the Imperium's military tech shortcomings?

Can't wait for the next Cawl installment where he masters Enuncia, beats Vashtorr in single combat and decodes the Hive Mind into binaric. At least Fabius Bile stole the fancy progenoids, I guess.

[alex-leweird]

Random doodle

[ghostinthegallery]

Okay yeah I finished Genefather and I genuinely enjoyed it (with the disclaimer that's it's very much a 40k book with the common issues that entails and also some frankly uncalled for necron slander) but now I'm feeling unhinged about Belisarius Cawl, our messy jumbo shrimp of a man, so now I'm gonna make it everyone else's problem spoilers to follow.

I love Cawl. I genuinely do. He's one of my favorite 40k characters. I love his design, I love his devotion to his faith and the way he's basically a Mechanicus Jesuit. He's hysterically funny. He's a mad scientist crossed with a carnival huckster. He has one of the biggest egos of any human living or dead and he does not want to be machine Pope.

And he is an absolute monster.

Like obviously the things he did to create the primaris marine are... ethically dubious. So many people dying in agony. So many kidnapped children. People who were lied to about what was going to happen to them and suddenly they wake up hundreds of years later to find themselves something else. There was no informed consent. And yet Cawl loves each of them. He knows them and cares about them. That does not stop him from torturing them nor sending them to their deaths.in combat.

Cawl is so loving and that is one of the most terrifying things about him.

Which brings me to possibly the most monstrous thing about him. He will not let Friedisch die. He is creating copies of his dearest friend, putting them through a terrible existential crisis, ensuring they remember their deaths (all 87 of them!!) and all in service of making the "perfect copy." Of achieving a true resurrection. Something he can never achieve. Even the Dark Mechanicum thinks that is fucked!

I really think Genefather missed the boat here. I don't think the story addresses just how horrifying this is. The narrative acts like because it comes from a place of affection that makes it okay??

Of course Cawl wants Friedisch back. His only friend (or love, could go either way despite how hard the book tries to "no homo" them). The only person who calls him Belisarius. Who calls him on his shit, who knows the core person beneath all the mechanics and devoured consciousnesses. Cawl literally cannot function for five minutes without a Qvo by his side. He loves Qvo so much, but he is tormenting him. Qvo wants to die! And Cawl is too arrogant to see it.

It's terrifying and compelling and so ripe for drama and consequences. Because I do think that's one issue with how Cawl is written. He gets away with...a lot of shit. He thinks he's invincible because he is Belisarius Cawl (TM). Which is really fun! To a point. And I think Qvo should be that consequence. The thing he cannot achieve, cannot get back, and a living testament to the horrors his hubris and love can lead to.

God, Cawl is just a genius egomaniac who wants love and connection so badly. He loves humans and humanity and thinks his own humanity is still in tact but...is it? Is he all that different from the necrons he dunks on?

Food for thought.

[tagedeszorns]

Genefather makes me disappointed but one tiny part.

Which part didn't disappoint you?

For me it was very heartwarming how much Haley loves Cawl. He really likes writing him and wants to make him as cool and lovely as possible. Okay, giving the poor guy plot armour thick enough he could take a Necron head-on and not only survive but win ... maybe a biiiit too much! But else that was fun. Authors showing off their Blorbos is okay. That he did it by using Fabius as monster of the day was very uncool, though.

[cultural-marsism1]

so, i read Genefather

(based on this meme)

[minweber]

Belisarius Cawl, hiding for his life, his ass kicked, ship crashing, friends in mortal peril: I am such a smart boy, he-he-he =)