Snowflake Challenge Day 3

In your own space, share a favorite piece of original canon (a TV episode, a song, a favorite interview, a book, a scene from a movie, etc) and explain why you love it so much.

One of my favourite books in the Horus Heresy series, and probably in 40k overall is Know No Fear* by Dan Abnett. It's just so good, so good you guys. It has lots of overlapping and interweaving plot lines, and a pacing that makes it work. And sure, there's a couple plot lines that I would have rather had a bit more detail on, but there's none where I fwlt like it got dropped. I also like the use of the Mark (which is both the timekeeping system, and the name for the radiation burns a lot of people end up getting), both as a symbolic thing, a way of building up tension, and a way of keeping track of the what the heck is going on as everything happens near simultaneously.

I also really like it because it makes the Ultramarines interesting. The Ultramarines suffer a bit from 'Poster Boy Syndrome'; because they're the go to example of a space marine chapter, they often end up with no distinct flavour. While the Blood Angels get to be the Vampire Marines, and the Imperial Fists get to be the Siege-y Marines, the Ultramarines are the Marine-y Marines. But not in Know No Fear. There, they get to be the Nerd Marines. And I love it. The way they think about strategy (and the fact that strategy is their big thing) makes them interesting, and characterful.

*Which I keep wanting to call Mark of Calth but no, that's a different book.