Lion? If you’re a human in 40k you’re more likely to be a mangy street cat forced to work in a factory processing other cats into fancy feast. Fuck yeah I’ll be the Taus little pet over that, I can work in at a space turnip farm or something, maybe they’ll give me little human treats.
I should clarify that the “stop-motion” effect is largely an artifact of that specific half of the book where the narrative is largely internal dialogue with the POV character actively dissociating while experiencing a full-blown planetary assault for the first time
I think Abett was trying to do a ‘Saving Private Ryan Beach’ scene but in literary form, gruesome details interwoven with the POV’s reactions, with occasional dialogue from the Commissar and commanding sergeant characters interrupting
The other half of the book that follows the actual main cast reverts to the more natural dialogue-heavy form Abett’s known for, where he typically keeps detail paragraphs siloed to their own parts of a chapter
The difference in form between the two halves of the book was definitely noticeable in the audiobook and to my ears gave the book a cinematic feel
I don’t want to shit in your cereal. My love of purple prose is heretical in the modern age so I am standing on a hill of shit and sneering down :p
Critiquing a random passage in isolation is just about the laziest form of literary criticism there is anyway.
It’s one of those things that can really improve a work when done well but is so, so damn easy to screw up and just make things borderline unreadable.
That’s the mainstream opinion but imho even when a narrative dissolves into weird flowery prose poetry I am here for it as long as it’s moving.
I just love watching people do weird shit with language.
Yeah, I would rather read something that is trying to be unique and interesting instead of something “playing it safe” and just being generic slop.