Warhammer Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader - turn-based Warhammer 40k RPG from Owlcat Games - Void Shadows DLC coming September 24th

[Yosharian]

IMO it's a huge downgrade from Woljif

JFC she must be fucking awful then

 

[La vie sexuelle]

Definition in literature? Impossible. I can tell you about my associations, though.

Slop literature is a continuation of what was called "littérature de la gare", then pulp (I specifically avoid this term because it has associations with a certain type of subject matter, and I am less interested in the general nature of this type of literature than in subject matter). Another, more apt name is "industrial literature", born in the industrial era and produced like an industry.

Slop is convenient, easy, simple, easy to replace. It gives quick pleasure, empty calories. It is something worse than ordinary entertainment literature, which preserves the proper features of a literary work (or at least it used to be distinguishable), by which I mean an appropriately high technical, psychological level and avoidance of infantilism.

In other words, literature assumes that a mature individual operates a craft appropriately. This is what distinguishes Chandler (a writer) from Hammett (a sloper with the makings of a writer). For example - Eisenhorn or Gorek & Felix. Both series have their moments, even some depth, but too quickly they fall into very gamey brawls, inability to lead the action in a sensible direction or plain childishness.

Just like Harlequins.

And yet Gotrek and Eisenhorn are the better ones (I can also add books by Newman and Watson, forgotten nowadays). And yet there is the edgelord Bowden and the really weak Goto and a lot of nameless slopers.

I expect it to be hard to define. It's a very subjective term. Which is exactly why it needs a definition or at least decent context / examples if you really want a sensible answer.

What do you think of:
- Pawns of Chaos
- Witchbringer
- Grim Repast
?

I haven't read any of those three, partly because two of them are from the modern Warhammer era. Why do you mention them? Has the level of GW books increased recently?

Because I think they are well written, and not so much focused on the typical tropes of space marine superhero novels and mil-scifi guard novels that have been covered ad nauseam already.

I don't think the level has increased at any rate. Just that the occasional great books are swimming in an ocean of mediocre (but imo still entertaining) books.

For me, the biggest problem with the Warhammer books was how uneven they were. Eisenhorn starts off great (for a fantasy thriller), but somewhere in the middle Abnett gives up trying and goes for a regular Warhammer brawl (Eisenhorn not fucking a willing telepath is censorship in the style of Marvel comics, where it's "adult" until it has to be shown).

In this respect the 2000AD related books (Judge Dredd and so on) were better.