Question

[telophase]

Why, in every book where there is a military group traveling down a road that encounters a fallen tree across said road, does nobody ever jump to the conclusion that it is an ambush? Because it’s always an ambush.

This thought brought to you by the Warhammer 40K novel I am currently reading in which a military convoy is stopped by a fallen tree. Yes, it’s an ambush.

Comments

[yhlee]

Because tropes are fun. :3

[alexseanchai]

fallen trees blocking the road are, outside stories, much more commonly mere weather-caused inconveniences (even if sometimes they take hours to clear) than human-caused dangers

but also inside stories, heroes taking a one-in-a-million chance usually pull it off

[telophase]

I just can’t bring myself to believe that a crack military troop would not at least consider the possibility.

[helen_keeble]

Dan Abnett, Honour Guard?

(I just finished the audiobook of that one; a military convoy is stopped by a fallen tree, which the Ultra Competent Elite Scout Dude spots as an ambush JUST too late)

[telophase]

Yup! Getting through the Can books has given me enough of an idea what the hell’s going on that I can actually understand this series now.

BTW does W40K subscribe to the idea of plot armor for familiar side characters or will some of these be dying in the next few books? (I woke up at 4:30 AM and couldn’t fall asleep again so I started the next book.)

[helen_keeble]

Ahahahaha no one has plot armour in Dan Abnett books. The body count is never egregiously high but he certainly kills them off effectively (or has even worse things happen...)

Keep an eye on Agun Soric (the Vervunhive leader who isn’t Kolea; at your point in the series, the two characters are still pretty similar). What Abnett does with that guy is one of my favourite character arcs ever, though the payoff comes WAY down the line.

[telophase]

Cool! I shall be appropriately nervous for various characters, then.

re: Soric, I shall! I’m in the middle of the disastrous drop right now, and recall that the priest they picked up in Honour Guard told Gaunt to trust him or some such.

[telophase]

Aaand misremembered it was Bonin the priest referred to. Oh well!

[helen_keeble]

Also, you may have spotted that Yoncy (Kolea’s baby, rescued by Tona Criid) changes gender between Necropolis and later books. Abnett admitted that this was originally an editing mistake but he turned it into a MAJOR plot point in the final books of the series. I love it.

[telophase]

Cool! XD

[havocthecat]

It's Warhammer 40K, I mean, come on. In that universe, they should always assume the worst! I've read, idk, maybe three books in that universe and a handful of gaming sourcebooks and even I know that!

Okay, I've also listened to Mr. Havoc rhapsodize about the Eldar. A lot. (He showed me his painted figs on our first date. That man. I guess when I didn't laugh or flee, it was true love?)

[adafrog]

lol It's always an ambush, even if it's regular people.

[staranise]

Why can't the military people just... assume it's an ambush and get very wary and defensive while some of them pull the tree off the road? Why can't they do that?

[telophase]

You'd THINK!