Brotherhood of the Scarcity - a Gobsmasha rant

Last week I thought a lot about the Chris Wraight novella Brotherhood of the Storm, and whether or not I could possibly justify paying 70 bucks Australian for a novella (let’s call that what it is: a long short story), with the author’s signature and some nice pics I can see any time I want by just going on the net.

As you can probably surmise from that intro… I did not give in to temptation. Has nothing to do with will-power – just cold resentment.

The moment that any primarch or legion realised that Horus and others have turned is a thunderclap through the 40K universe. It deserves a novel. It deserves a Know No Fear.

The White Scars have not been explored in depth in 40K fiction and not at all in the Horus Heresy. Hunt For Voldorius and Savage Scars do not explore the Scars culture in the way that Prospero Burns makes the Space Wolves even more marvellous. Now I will accept that this may not have been Andy Hoare’s intent.... only so much as I assert that these were also lost opportunities.

On that score too, the White Scars deserve a novel. A big thick Horus Heresy on-the-shelf-in-the-shop novel. One that we can feast on and then put down at the end and say "that was awesome".

And thirdly, we the fan base spend a cauldron of money, time and energy on this stuff… we deserve that novel. Or am I just spoiled by the masterpiece that Prospero Burns was?

Are Black Library, in effect, doing with the fiction... what GW does with plastic kits that happen to be elite choices and therefore are priced higher than a troops kit – even though materially speaking it’s still just a plastic kit and no harder to manufacture? (Like I pay more for just one demigryph model than for a box of 10 grots and runt herder).

That is they are lifting things out of the economic realm of what people ordinarily pay for fiction… and making more by giving less and being proud of that?

As if to say…“ this is REALLY interesting… we’ve never covered this before… so we are going to make you pay most of a dollar a page for it. Sorry chum, cashed-up fans only”.

That’s what it feels like. At least for people who aren’t paying through the nose to get HALF A book that they can fondle with ghoul-like covetousness and say ‘mwah ha ha ha ha…!’ over the internet.

I’ve read two books by Chris Wraight, and I don’t slight his abilities. I think he's good. Battle for the Fang was terrific.
I'd love to read Brotherhood of the Storm.
But I work for a living.

Someone who did get it... please read it and post a synopsis? thanks. I'll get you a beer. It'll cost me less anyway.