We need to talk about HIVE by Dan Abnett

[00:00:00]How are we all doing?

[00:00:02]Good evening. Good evening.

[00:00:04]Um, first things first. I hope that you're [clears throat] all uh incredibly proud of my very clickbaity thumbnail.

[00:00:13]Uh, yeah, I spent a lot of time on that this evening. I have observed that many successful channels use similar faces to clickbait and encourage people to join in. So, yay. Yay me. Um, yeah. First things first, at the top of the live, we should say we I should say there are going to be a bunch of spoilers. So, if you haven't read Hive, 100% do not watch this. You will absolutely ruin yourselves. Like, in more ways than one, in more ways than I am ruined this evening having finished reading.

[00:00:54]Caprice. Caprice is proud of my clickbait thumbnail. It's the click batiest thumbnail I've ever done. Um, yes, this is an unscheduled live because imagine if you will, I've been listening to this book on audiobook and reading it uh on my devices for a really long time now. Imagine if you will like the last the dying embers of the book at home happening when you've popped into your favorite uh you popped into your favorite like supermarket, you're buying some seaweed snacks and having to go and pay and be a normal human. So, as usual, when the grim dark has traumatized me, I drag you all in and I traumatize you all, too. So, that's what's happening at 9:30 on Tuesday, 21st of July, 2026.

[00:01:55]I was there the day Mera finished the audio book of Hive. Um, hello. Uh, let's say hi to Caprice, very average miniature painter. Hello, Vader. Ra, hello. Oh, Pigeon's gonna have to drop out then. Good night, Pigeon. Russell says, "Hi." Hey, Tony says, "Hi." Uh, Vader Ra says, "Hive is a great book. I burnt through it in three days." Um, very average miniature says, "I'm halfway through the audio book. As much as I want to stay, I don't want to spoil myself and I respect that." So, every few minutes I will say do not watch do not watch this if you have not finished reading Hive. This is this is basically a Hive support group. Um, wow. I have got my little sign up here which says there are darknesses in life and there are lights. You are one of the lights.

[00:02:50]And let me tell you, let's talk about lights in the grim dark and hive and where that sits. So on a scale of like, you know, a fun story about squigs doing each other's hair to the grimmst of grim things in the grimmington town of Grimswick in the county of Grimbucks.

[00:03:17]This is the scale. Funny Squigs, Grim Downingtonsville.

[00:03:22]I would say Hive is like here or maybe here. Um, yeah. Slacker at large has written, "Hive is a wild trip." Tony says, "Trauma buddies here." Yeah, it's really wild. I mean, one of the things that we know and love about the amazing Dan Abnner is that the man can craft a story. There's a brilliant afterward at the back of the book, by the way, by Dan Abnet where he discusses some of his methodology behind the craft of the story. And let me tell you, although I have the opportunity to read the text, you know, and put my questions together, this is going to be a really hard one to interview on, not least because the afterward by Dan explains so much so beautifully, but there's so much I want to know. It's so intricate. Um, this is this is one of the grim most grim, dark books that I've read. I have no doubt in my mind had I not been shopping in public and listening to an audio book, you know, picking out my Japanese snacks for the week, I would have cried in real life. Like, I did feel my eyes go wet and I very quickly blinked them. Um, so yeah, it's it's not for the faint-hearted. I would not uh when Ian bought me into Warhammer 40k, he introduced me with Xenos, a Dan Abnet classic, the beginning of Eisenhorn's adventures. Perfect. Perfectly pitched.

[00:04:57]Um this is not for the humble begivers beginners. Or maybe it is. Maybe it's it is there for fans of dystopian.

[00:05:08]Okay, we're not going to go there. But um I thought I'd just throw some thoughts at you all. Tony says, "Now that's a book Squig Hair Care. I think the orc fans would love it." Um, firstly, as usual, Dan's world building is exquisite, and you are immediately placed in this hive that's covered by a protective dome. The first scene involves uh a character being thrust out of the dome as a punishment. And the the character is so scared he would have almost preferred to he says he would have preferred to have been executed. So everything is all the living is within the dome. The dome is very dirty. The air needs to be filtered regularly. And of course being 40k there is a there are stratas and stratas of society. So you have your underclass who work you know the very bottom of the grim dark ladder and then you have um well we get to meet a new Dom who is coming in right at the top to lead the whole planet who has been dispatched you know under the wishes of the emperor himself to come and take over from the last ruler. Um, yeah. So, some first impressions.

[00:06:20]There are elements of the book where I thought, "Oh, you know, there's like a job where you can go and harvest a bunch of mushrooms. There's a lot of Oh my goodness, Russell, what's this? I've never seen this before." Russell sent a gift that is also a goat. You sent me the goat trophy. Thank you. I don't know what that means. Someone tell me what that means. Um there are moments where you could imagine yourself living in this hive. For example, they've got dons which are like I think you know the equivalent of cows and there are like mush there's like a mushroom black market. People enjoy going and eating a good mushroom. I like those elements of it. Um very average miniature painter says when my special edition of the book finally arrives I might see if my partner wants to read it. She's got Eisenhorn and Kaiaphas Kane as recommendations for me to read and she knows a lot of law.

[00:07:17]I mean, if she's already in the universe, she knows what she's in for.

[00:07:21]Thank you, Russell. I don't know what these jewels are. I believe they must be new fan things. Thank you so much. Um, very average says from she knows a lot of law from Osmosis. Yes, it's funny how that happens.

[00:07:35]Vader Ra says, "I find it funny when people say 40k's lost its grim dark because this is grim dark times 100."

[00:07:42]This is I mean this is they need to invent a new term for this book. What is more grim than grim dark?

[00:07:50]I mean, yeah, catastro disaster dark. I don't know. I don't know. Give me some time.

[00:07:58]I'll come up with it. Thank you, Russell, for the 10 bucks. Thank you so much. If anybody knows about these jewels and gifts and what they are, that be that'd be lovely. Let me know in the chat. Um, yeah, there are very few fleeting moments. I mean, the world building was incredible. We learn about all the factory shift workers and we see where they live, their tenementss. There's so much explored. I can understand why the book had to be so long and of two parts.

[00:08:25]It's an epic. It really feels I was trying to think of books in the outside world outside of Warhammer to compare it to and I really can't. Like the scale is incredibly epic. Um I am looking forward to finding some literary literary uh comparisons for when I talk to Dan. Um oh, somebody sent a corgi. [laughter] That's so hilarious. This is definitely brightening up the grim dark subject matter. Thank you, very average miniature painter. Very cool. Appreciate that, Russell. Thank you so much as well for gifting. Let me spam you guys with some hearts. That's appreciated. Uh, very average says, "Grim dark indeed."

[00:09:11]Um, yeah. So, as usual, Dan's world building is exquisite. Absolutely exquisite. We get a lot of the bureaucracy of Warhammer. It's it's just fabulous. We are so lucky. Um there are lots of stunning moments.

[00:09:31]There was a really moment there was a moment where I can't stop thinking about this but two characters. Well, firstly let's talk about the characters. I think there were over there are so many characters in this book. Like for some reason there is a glossery at the back of the book with all of the inorld slang because we have a whole a whole new language. We have frack for [ __ ] We have burbo. We have ea. Um Tony sent a chest for what are these jewels? Where are you getting jewels? What do they mean? I love them. They're so fun. They're really cheering up the tone of this very grim, dark um I'm sorry I keep getting distracted. This is going to really frustrate anybody that doesn't normally watch this channel. Let me try and get on. Um, thank you, Tony. Just hammering some more hearts for you. Uh, there's so many characters. So, we have an amazing glossery. Uh, by the end of the book, you're going to find yourself using these swear words in real life. Um, it it's very onomatopic. Like the sounds are kind of similar to expressions of disgust or sounds that you might use in the real world. And oh, hello Dan Hanley is here. Dan Hanley would probably love this book because Dan Hanley, if any of you want to give Dan Hanley a Google or a follow, his books are incredibly dim, incredibly grim dark. not sci-fi grim dark, but kind of very folk grim dark.

[00:11:04]So, if you're into that kind of shenanigan, follow Dear Dan, who's popped in the chat. Hi, Dan. Um, I should say there are a cast of tens, like almost hundreds of people running around in this book that some of whom you're going to come to absolutely adore. Very surprising. There are so many adorable characters in this book. Of course, there are complete bunch of wankers as well. I guess this video is not going to be PG-13 because the content of the book is quite uh uh [laughter] quite yes innovating. So I am breaking my own rule. Um average says I love the scene where Awkward's talking to someone and he quotes a bunch of 40k quotes. Grim dark slave to dark. Yes, there was lots of really gorgeous moments where 40k lore was kind of sprinkled in like an in joke, like an Easter egg. So, I feel like if you were not a Warhammer fan, that would just be part of the pros and make total sense.

[00:12:07]But for a Warhammer fan, I was like, ah, oh my gosh. And the other thing about the Hive is, so the Hive are like me.

[00:12:15]They're like mirror before Ian told me all the things about they're like mirror when she was reading Zenos. They don't know about Xenos. They have never seen them. All they know is about the emperor that they are supposed to like toil really hard that they have to support the war efforts. Um yeah. Uh Dan has said this book is definitely on my list. Just hearing the glossery of the swear words. Absolutely Dan. It's it's a good shout. It's a good shout. Um but the characters are each character kind of has an expression of like their journey in in the hive. So for example, you have someone whose job is to go to the factory every day and his hands are dyed green from the the materials that he's using. You have somebody you have some arbiters. You have uh two kind of detective types. If you have like somebody that's just a don herder and it just feels like it could be any normal book about any normal town or city and these people that you kind of grow to like very quickly um you see their relationships and there isn't really a hero of this book. It's like it's almost like a slice of life, right? It's like the very worst day to go and visit this hive and meet the residents. And it's just such a sprawling plot and story. I mean, I completely feel like it's been a complete roller coaster of emotion. And, you know, I've been Oh [snorts] my god, the horror. The horror in this book. If you like horror, I mean, we got it all.

[00:14:01]What do you want? Do you want body horror? Do you want like I mean again if you're watching this if you've just come to this there's going to be lots of spoilers. Go away now.

[00:14:12]Go away. I mean it. I really mean it.

[00:14:14]I'm going to spoil everything right now.

[00:14:17]I mean let's talk about horror. Let's talk about tyrannids. I mean one of the most horrific things I've ever read maybe in any book. Um this is a huge spoiler. So there's a minute where two characters are talking like walkie-talkie style. Come in. Come in.

[00:14:33]What's happening? And you're hearing this character that you've grown to love in a tricky situation. And the order comes like, "Get away. Run away now.

[00:14:42]You've done enough observation. Run away now. Run away now." So the character's like, "I'm coming." And then the signal starts going bad. You're like, "What's happening? What's happening? What's happening?" And you realize that this is a big spoiler. tyrannids have got to the character and yeah I mean it's horrible but you know the character's like what's happening and then you know he hears and he goes quiet and the other characters are like what did she say what did she say and he said I'm not going to tell you and they're all saying tell us tell us tell us and basically she said it's eating me So that was one of the most chilling, horrific things. I don't know why I'm smiling.

[00:15:30]I'm smiling out of pure panic. Um, so yeah, absolutely. If you have any fans of horror, there is also an element uh where there's another character that I'm really fond of who kind of doubts themselves, is not that confident, and you're rooting for them, and she gets trapped. All I will say is if you think 1984 was scary with the rat section and what they do to Winston, like I mean [ __ ] this book right off. Like don't get involved. Don't get involved. Like seriously. Um yeah, incredibly horrific. Obviously tyrannids when they I'm I'm not a fan of Jean Steelers or Tyrannids at all. I had no idea that this would turn out to be a Jean Steeler story. And let me tell you, I mean, in my mind, I was thinking I've just read Day of Ascension by Andrew Tchaikovsky, which is another Warhammer Black Library book. And I feel like, yeah, I feel um, you know, that has maybe covered off Jean Steelers for this quarter. So, when the reveal was that Jean Steelers and I was thinking, "Oh, lord, there's a Jean Steeler. you know what's coming behind that like beat the living daylights out of me. I was like, "No, I cannot even handle tyrannids when I'm playing a game. When I'm playing a Warhammer game on the PC, like trying to kill them. Like, they're they're a lot. They're too much. They are intense." And the way they were just chowing down on humans like there were some really like chilling descriptions of someone's and that was just someone's skull being bitten into and the last thoughts as the skull was being bitten into. And you know, they're at a point where the leaders are thinking there, oh, I mean, I'm sorry, I'm tumbling over my thoughts. Vader Ra says this could have been in the Warhammer horror series.

[00:17:34]We're going to talk about series as well. Um, but the fact is the tyrannids are so scary because they are seemingly unstoppable. And there were moments where characters were emerging. They'd revisit a location. We'd been with them to previously and it was completely changed. Like they would just they would stumble out and be like, "Where is everything? Where are the people? Where are the plants?" And they were just looking at like raised land because the swarms had come in and devoured and eaten everything. I never ever heard so clearly the tyrannids are hungry. I was joking the other day like if you're a dog, your main quest is food. Like food gives you the happies. If you have food, you don't need a side quest as a dog. A food is going to overrule any side quest you have going on as a dog. These tyrannids, they take it to another level. Anyway, I hate tyrannids. I bloody hate them. I hated them when Ian made me play that silly game where you can be Yeah. Anyway, yeah, Ian made me play this very 80s Warhammer game where, you know, there's five tyrannids and there's five space marines and you basically are going to die because the tyrannids are always going to win. And um the other thing that I had to base this on was Deathworld by I always I always forget her surname because I'm a terrible friend by black library author Victoria.

[00:19:01]And I mean, let's face it, there this ba this book takes a turn and there's a moment of realization where the characters have been through a lot and there's just a moment. Again, if you're just joining the stream, please go away.

[00:19:20]There's like a bunch of spoilers going to be here. I'm just going to write a spoiler warning.

[00:19:26]Spoiler warning. Go away if you haven't read.

[00:19:32]Spoiler heavy. Um, yeah. One of the moments that also stuck with me was so for a really long time, everyone's like, "Oh, our oh god, our communication systems down. No one in the hive can talk to each other." I should also say the reason the whole hive is [ __ ] in terms of communication is that there's been like an uprising, right? Because all the oppressed grim dark toilers are like, "Fuck this. We want clean air. We want we want" and they have what they call a burn, which is like rioting essentially. But of course, you know, not only that, a different uh element, a different kind of hive town has sent spies in to get everyone riled up. And obviously, Genesteeler cultists have been up to their shenanigans, upsetting people, getting in position.

[00:20:32]So, everything was all kind of messed up and to made ready for the Tyrannist to just come in and destroy everything. So they finally, you know, this amazing Dom who's one of my favorite figures. She they finally get communications back and they flip on the screens and they just see a world that has been that's deeply deeply has no destiny. Like they see a world, they open up all the screens and they realize millions and millions and millions of people are dead and that's it. Tyrannids.

[00:21:06]Yeah. I I think that devastating journey from the beginning of the book which is very twisty because at the beginning of the book you think oh it's a hive divided maybe it will be like a riot story and then these factions will make friends and then takes a more mysterious route and we get the introduction of these two detectives who Ian said oh I get it there Moulder and Scully and uh Mhler and Scooty they're called and they're just starting an innocent investigation which is serial killings. Some strange tokens are being left behind and that turns out to be some very interesting kink kinkfilled individuals who are like uh trying to carry out rituals to get Slangesh involved and all kinds of shenanigans like that. Um yeah, they're trying to bring the warp demons in and then it goes absolutely left and there are there are these little pockets of so for example the poor woman who goes through the rat trauma notices a shadow with an elongated head and I was like oh Nigel reminded me of this. I spoke to my friend Nigel about this today. Um Jock Cop says spoil away. I don't know what to make of that name. JC will call you.

[00:22:29]Sebastian says, "I loved Hive. Such a great book." Kori says, "The ignorance of the characters really amplify the horror. They have no idea what's going on until it's much too late." Sebastian says in the style of Guns and Roses, "What we have here, what we got here is a failure to communicate the book.

[00:22:47]Slacker at large. The dual meanings of hive caught me." Yes, people. This is why I had to come and do a live. I'm not alone. I know you're all thinking the same things in the afterward of the book. Yes, Dan Abnet says, "And of course, when you finish the book, you understand the word hive has two meanings." I was really wondering, I bet there's some really law entrenched some deep dipped law reader who knew who read who looked at that cover and they thought, "Hm, I wonder I wonder if there could be uh yeah, the dual meanings of of hive." I mean, one of the reasons that Dan Abnet is one of my favorites is because I feel I read so much joy in him designing these, you know, eloquent, wordy, twisty things. So, you can come back. I mean, I'm I listened to an audio book and I'm reading. I'm going to relisten. I'm going to reread the book because there's so much that I didn't capture. Also, I have to say I absolutely hate audio books. I've basically had to be jamming audio book because my literary reading time is really low and I really wanted to find out what was going to happen. Not the same. Absolutely gutted I did my audio book. Um, I'm going to have to promise myself never to audio book ahead of reading ever again. But audio book is excellent. If you are an audiobook listener, it's Toby Longsworth, who so many people in this fandom love and adore, and he keeps going. He is great.

[00:24:28]I mean, there's And there's music. I was surprised there were like little musical stings and things going on in this book.

[00:24:35]Not too much, just enough. Um, Sebastian says, "At some point, I looked at I looked up what a Goliath transport looks like, the miniature, and the first picture was a Goliath transport from the Genesteeler cult. That gave it away from me." See, Sebastian, that is why I wait till I finish the book and then I ask my friend Ian. So, so yeah. Um, yes, the horror, the horror, the horror.

[00:25:03]But this could also very much this also had the feel of I I know that one of my favorites has been um I love a Warhammer crime novel. So yeah, so things like um the Chris Rate books, anything that feels a bit gum shoe, a bit detectivey, a bit CSI, a bit true crimey, I really enjoy that.

[00:25:33]And I I definitely thought for one moment we have there's a lot of that in here. Um, if you really enjoy kind of detectives uncovering things in real time, and as Caori has said in the chat, the the humans who live in this hive are completely ignorant of any xenos. They don't really know anything outside of what they've known. Um, oh, thank you S6. Thank you so much for a little super thanks. So, Mera isn't an alien movie fan. I mean, I love Sigourney Weaver. I like Ridley Scott. I have watched it. I hate them. Ridley Scott has made having a dark sci-fi city impossible without scary chompy creatures in the shadows. Yes. Isn't it Geiger who's responsible for the look of those bastards? Um, yeah. [ __ ] Sorry, swearing a lot. Tyrannids are high on my bastard scale, have to admit. Um, so yeah, I really enjoyed Moulder and Scooty going through this investigation trying to figure out what the heck he thought was going on. That was like such not a red herring, but because we trusted Mhler and Scooty to figure it out for us, we didn't even think about the overarching arching ignorance that they were under and the fact that people were actively trying to disguise what they were up to. So the Slaneshi kind of cult, they were being very secretive and murderous. Oh my god, there was this amazing character, a bit like the the lady in the Sweeney Todd, you know, very dimminitive elderly type woman leading people in and then just Yeah. cutting their throats. What can I say? I mean, this book has it all. It's absolutely astonishing. Um, even the arbiters don't know. Absolutely. Kori, I have to say the arbit the arbiters were a bit on the bastard scale in this book which I will enjoy teasing our bite Ian about. Um Sebastian said I'm just reading through the Horus Heresy books but I had to pause my Horus Heresy read through for Hive. Yeah, all my reading has stopped apart from Hive and yeah as I said I've not got much time at the moment to read so I have been audio booking but my head is completely full of Hive. I am I am wondering why there was not a character list at the beginning of the book because there are so many. But I think what I do normally when I get a Dan book is I'm like, "Woohoo!" and I speedread through them. This book is deep and luxuriously layered. It's so full of like little moments and descriptions and interactions that you're not going to want to race through it. I mean, one of the bits that really affected me that made me like feel a bit tearary is there's a moment where two people are trying to escape over a fence and my heart was racing as I got to this bit and it's two characters you just want them to escape and they're looking at this fence um they they were protecting like a depot full of like weapons and the description or they say the fence was The fence was high. Of course, the fence was high. It was like a depot.

[00:28:55]And then the characters get to the fence and Dan writes, "It was really high." Oh, my voice is going a bit. And the narrator, Toby, what's his name? Goes, "It was really high." And that one line stuck out so much to me because even outside of a Warhammer book, if I was reading a novel or, you know, fantasy or or anything fiction, just that one phrase, it was really high.

[00:29:29]Like, however you read that, like the character like, oh, it's really high or it was really high. It's just such an unusual descriptor.

[00:29:40]Like I can't think of any other instance where a book would say it was really high unless it was in dialogue which this was not. And that one sentence took me out because in that moment like my heart started going oh no oh no and then yeah I think from that moment on I think my heart I was just completely destroyed. [laughter] I was in absolute emotional freef fall.

[00:30:07]Or maybe it was the moment where they opened the screen. I don't know. But yeah, I've been absolutely demolished.

[00:30:15]Absolutely demolished. I will not stop thinking about this book. Maybe ever.

[00:30:20]Maybe ever in my whole life. Um yeah. Uh hello.

[00:30:26]Oh my god. Maple, get out of this chat.

[00:30:28]Get out of this chat immediately. You're going to be spoiled. Um, Tony says, "The human corporate Burke and his ilk are far worse for me." Tony, "They are the dregs. They're horrific as well. They really made my heart sink." Great job, Dan. Um, uh, Slacker says, "Hi, Carl's Oath by Gav Thorp. Somebody sent me a new book recently, which has been I'm really mystified as to why I got sent it.

[00:30:55]Someone sent me a Gav Thorp book, The Last Chances." was just apppropo of that comment by Slacker. Um, Sebastian, I made my own character list and printed it out. Too many names. Sebastian, you should definitely share that in the comments below. Uh, thank you. Maple says, I hope Hive success allows for more human 40k stories in the future, like the crime series. So many people have said this to me, Maple, everybody wants Warhammer crime. Everybody. I would imagine if Black Library are keeping an eye on what the people want that they already working on some Warhammer crime. I'll try and do some investigation into that area, but we don't know. Um, Maple says, "I take the Luton approach. There are not spoilers in 40k." Okay, fair enough.

[00:31:40]What else did I want to talk about? Uh, thank you, Tony, for reminding me how horrible many of the humans are in this as well.

[00:31:48]Yeah, one thing I was grateful for is we don't see any children really in this.

[00:31:55]What I would have liked is if they had said at the beginning of the book, "Oh, sadly no kids have been born here for many years." That would have made me feel a lot better about the whole thing. But right at the ending, uh, I mean, I'm smashing through the ending because I've just read through it, but there is a moment where this poor character who's just gone through it. I would liken this character to Job in the Bible, if any of you are down with your biblical stories, and right at the end, he realizes again, he sees everything's gone, everything's been eaten. and he says um he had to say goodbye to the air. And I don't want to go into why that's so particularly sad cuz I can feel I'm going to cry about it. But o yes and um the depth of which the edge I was on the edge of hope like the it was a razor's edge of hope the whole way through until there is a moment where the rug gets pulled and you know there's no hope and then you have all these characters who've been through so much so much.

[00:33:07]Oh Christ.

[00:33:10]Yeah, it's a lot. It's a lot. Um, another really beautiful thing that I loved was the book starts outside with someone being exiled and ends with someone going outside and I thought that was really beautiful.

[00:33:26]I love the symmetry of that. Um, the other thing I loved was we learn I mean I'm always kind of really obsessed with psykers. They have a terrible time. They have a [ __ ] time in 40k as well. But there's these beautiful uh not beautiful, there's a discovery of what it might feel like to have psychic abilities thrust upon you, like an evolutionary event, like how it might feel. And this poor guy, there's like body horror as well in it. This poor guy was like really going through it. He's feeling ill. He goes home from his factory shift and he Yeah. I really enjoyed that. I thought there are some really clever ingenious bits like points of view of humans who are just ordinary humans dealing with the absolute not only extraterrestrials but abnormal shenanigans going on. Um yeah, Sebastian says, "My list wasn't super prec precise. It had descriptions like military guy works at the hive."

[00:34:37][laughter and gasps] Um, does Horus Rising count as a biblical story? Absolutely. Horus Rising is Well, isn't Horus like, isn't Horus a bit like the angels that got cast out of heaven and became Lucifer and like the emperor is like God maybe?

[00:35:03]So, I mean, I I'm still not feeling Sorry, I just took some massive gulps then from Baby Yoda's going to protect me tonight. And I'm drinking my electrolytes before bed. How late is it to eat? Because I haven't eaten, but I think I probably just should go to bed now. I've had quite a long day, emotional day.

[00:35:25]Thank you for reminding me, Kori. I really wanted to talk about the two statue workers.

[00:35:32]Oh, I'm going to forget their names.

[00:35:34]It's going to annoy me. Hang on a sec.

[00:35:36]Uh, Charisma.

[00:35:43]Oh, their names is going to annoy me so much.

[00:35:47]Uh, Lauria and Cherish.

[00:35:51]So, this was a really cute moment. So, we see a little bit of Warhammer dating where Lori is like a higher Fallout uh statue sculptor with her own little baby uh cherub thingies that float around her. I forget what they they are called.

[00:36:09]Serveter baby cherubs and Cherish has works in the ne the neg the neb which is very dark. So she is like I compared those two a little bit to to like Frodo and Sam Ganji. Cherish was a bit like Sam Ganji and she was like, "Oh, it's a big wide world up here." And Lori was like, "Um, don't worry. I'm going to show you around. You're going to be fine." And then when everything goes to [ __ ] Cherish is like, "Don't worry. I've got you. I'm used to the dark." And they have this most amazing cute date where in 40k you can have like ice cones, flavored ice cones with syrup and they like get along and then there's a really tender scene. You see their friendship grow throughout and then they become more than just friends and there is love there. There's another surprising couple as well. So there's also love in here.

[00:37:09]But the great thing about the cherish uh sections of the book was they were looking they were excavating the hives history and all the statues that had the previous doms head on. The heads were being removed and then re redone for the new dome. And these two went and explored and found other statues like historical statues that had female forms. And they were delighted. They were like, "Yay, the new Dom is female.

[00:37:40]We can use these statues as templates."

[00:37:43]And there were moments of like where you're not even, it's not story A, it's not story B, it's like the architecture of a world that Dan has made up for one book and you're like, "Oh, I'd love to know more about the history of these statues." And you know, you realize that this hive has been here for hundreds and hundreds, if not thousands of years, and you want to know what comes before. So, um, yeah. Well, we've been talking for quite some time now, like nearly 40 minutes. I don't even know. I feel like I've just spoiled the whole story and I don't know if I've brought anything of value. Um, like I said, this is my first impressions.

[00:38:22]I am so excited to talk to Dan. I need to get my head together. I need to really get my questions organized and I need to just roll around in this text and like sunbathe between the pages.

[00:38:36]plenty be my light, you know, and get to grips with it a little bit more. Um, I'm really excited to discuss it with Ian.

[00:38:44]I'm a little bit scared to discuss it with Ian because I always find out how much I've missed when he's like doing a wrecky of these books.

[00:38:53]But yeah, I mean I think my overwhelming feeling from this book is like I think I feel sorrow not only for the ending for the characters that I loved, but yeah, just sorrow that the book is over.

[00:39:15]Like it's interminably readable. Like if if it was like every week there'd be a little chapter. I'd be I just read that chapter every week. Um Oh, thank you, Vader Ra. Thank you for joining us from work. Thank you so so much. Let me hammer out. I don't feel deserving of these beautiful gifts. I mean, I love it. You all know me. I freaking love money. I'm very, very misely and I love money. Um, thank you so much. It's so kind of you. Um, I hope you're getting value from this. I feel like I'm having a nervous breakdown in front of you all.

[00:39:49]So, apologies for that. Um, Maple says, "The detail of linguistics and cultural squares and colleialisms have been great." They have. I mean, yeah, my I think my overwhelming feeling at the end of the book is sorrow, grief, sadness that I'm leaving those characters in the dark apart from Nay.

[00:40:11]But there was one death of a character that I really loved and the death in the dark. The death in the dark. A death in the park. Um God that was devastating. Um, so yeah, and and yet again, I mean, I don't know if there's something wrong with me, but I I definitely whenever I read a book that just completely transports me and like bamboozles my brain and makes neurons buzz in my head that I didn't even know existed.

[00:40:49]I just want to know how Dan does it. And there's a beautiful afterward at the end of the book which feels like you're in a sitting room with Dan as he explains his method and um he knows exactly what he's doing. I just feel so grateful that that we have these amazing creators in our life. Like what gift is art and literature? Oh, Sebastian, thank you.

[00:41:14]You sent me a little jewel, a gold coin.

[00:41:17]This is so fun, you guys.

[00:41:20]What are these new things? the jewels.

[00:41:22]Anyway, we'll have to explore them more.

[00:41:24]I would like to do more chats about uh this book. I think what I'll do in my members is I'll break down chapters.

[00:41:32]We'll go through it in more depth and of course I'm going to start rereading the book and I'm going to get my questions together for Dan Abnet. If you're a Mirror Manga YouTube member or a Patreon, please send me any questions you'd like to send for Dan. Um, yeah. If you didn't join us in this live, please write any comments or insights that we could chat about in the comments below.

[00:41:54]We love to talk about that stuff all the time. And yeah, thank you so much for letting me have a small nervous breakdown, a reckoning of the ending of the hive. And yeah, sorry if I haven't been very coherent, but thank you for not making me do this alone. May your light be plenty and hopefully I'll see you all again very very soon. Stay in touch and yeah, thanks for being my groom dark buddies.

[00:42:21]Night friends.