***Spoilers***
Holy beslubber sticks there's a lot of fluff. On first read through I really enjoyed it. Farsight is now much more sympathetic as to his destiny/plight and they narrowed down a lot of the
OMG, what happened! bullamphetamine parrot. Amusingly, the plot behind some of
Dawn of War II was actually conducted by Farsight and team (they poison Tyranid bioships they were feeding off their world).
Yes, there's some dodgy battle bullamphetamine parrot in places (theatre wide FAE fuelled by planes dumping their tanks then ignited by a plasma shot
)but generally it wasn't so bad.
Farsight's longevity is directly answered which, while creepy, is reasonable (it's the sword). The Enclave still has supporters in the Empire so they've been fed technologies at times (can use Riptides for example) while also having developed a few of their own. The Enclaves are surprisingly tolerant. For example, there are rules for Earth caste pilots for battlesuits.
We have
The Eight, Farsight and seven varied companions. One of whom is basically an AI version of their departed selves, one an Earth caste pilot, a Dreadnought eqv pilot, a young upstart from the Empire, and Brightsword. Brightsword is a
Dread Pirate Roberts hence a lineage rather than an individual. Something we suspected of Farsight himself at one point.
In summary - I liked it. Probably going to buy a hardcopy in October as well.