#genefather

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!