Black Library observations...

mattrock

New member
Ok, so I received a copy of Horus Rising for Christmas (which turned out to be a good thing as I doubt I would ever have bought it for myself) and I must say that it is far better than I expected it to be. With that in mind, I was wondering what other books from the black library might be worth the read, and particularly if there are any good ones in which the Eldar play a large role.

Just curious. :)
 

lono

New member
It depends on what you are looking for really. BL stuff ranges from pretty decent, through to entertaining but throw-away nonsense, down to spectacularly awful.

If you just want complete pulp entertainment that\'s very easy to digest, then anything William King has done for them is reasonably fun and enjoyable.

For me, Dan Abnet\'s probably the most consistent writer they have and the one I\'d recommend if you like a bit of depth to the stories you read. Even his stuff\'s not always on the money, but at worst it tends to be enjoyable enough. At best it actually shifts from being a GW book and crosses over into the realm of being a real novel!

That probably sounds horribly pompous, but for me a lot of BL novels read more like fan-fiction, with a great emphasis on men fighting like men and not as much else going on. There\'s still plenty of manly combat in Abnet\'s stuff if that\'s your bag, but he also manages to work in quite a bit of decent characterisation and also has a knack of fleshing out the GW worlds in interesting ways - giving lots of interesting insights into less militaristic aspects of their universes.

His Inquisitor books offer an intriguing load of detective style stories whilst the Gaunts Ghosts books offer more military shenanigans.

If you could only pick up one, I\'d say you cheat and go for the Eisenhorn Omnibus. Three books in one. You can check out a sample here.

As for Eldar, who wants to read about those Panzees? Boring. pointy eared, effeminate freaks the lot of \'em!
 

Torn blue sky

New member
Have to agree the Eisenhorn trilogy was fantastic, Dan Abnet is a very consistant and acomplished writer. The Ravenor books are also good (Eisenhorn spin offs). To be honest I\'ve never read anything Dan Abnet has written that I just thought...\"This is pure pish\" lol

William King is alright, like Lono said though, more for a fun yarn than an emersive read. That said I love the Space Wolf books.

I always had a gripe about the heresy books being written by all different authors... The style is way too inconsistant. If I had it my way i\'d have Abnet write all of em lol

OH The Felix and Gotrek books were great too.
 

noneedforaname

New member
avoid anything by cs goto its utter pish. The blackhearts omnibus is a good fantasy read as is the malus series and defenders of ulthuan.

dan abnett and graham mcneil seem to be the most consistent contributing authors.

for a stand alone book definately give storm of iron a go.

oh yeah and dont bother reading anything by mitchell scanlan, descent of angels was pish aswell.
 

JesterzUSMC

Recovering Megalomaniac
Loved the Ghosts.
Eldar Prophecy was a decent story that got butchered in the telling of it.
I\'ve read them all, like at least a chapter of each.
Waiting for the next run.
Can\'t say anything for the Fantasy side, haven\'t read any of those.
I actually liked the Nightlords one.
 

Cleezy

New member
Have to agree with the others here. Especially on the Heresy novels, Descent of Angels being the one i have least enjoyed yet one i most wanted to read. The others are good though.

The Gotrek and Felix novels are a good read aswell.

The Eisenhorn novels were also enjoyable.

Thats pretty much all i read
 

DaN

New member
That fella who did the Ciaphas Cain stories wasn\'t baaad...

Also I think it was Ian Watson who did a story about an inquisitor who was allowed into the ACTUAL black library, but it was a series and I only got to read one of them - but it was very good.

(I\'ll second what everyone\'s said about Dan Abnett though - qualitaahhhh) :D
 

Thecadian

Active member
I liked the ones with the imperial guard in

gaunts ghosts are my favorate but cain and the last chancers are good aswell.

I enjoyed the ultramarine omnibus as well but i wasn\'t to keen on some aspects of the space wolf omnibus. I liked most of them but there are parts that i just cant imagin spacemarines doing. Ie farting:)
 

mattrock

New member
Originally posted by Thecadian
I liked most of them but there are parts that i just cant imagin spacemarines doing. Ie farting:)

Oh come on man! I suppose you just imagine that when the pressure gets too great the noble astartes simply explode in a spectacular show of methane and ceramite. lol

Those guys are BIG! I imagine a froggy captain could cause a premature deployment from a Rhino with a well-placed poot. Those things don\'t have too many windows to open as I recall. lol
 

freakinacage

Well-known member
all dan abnett.

ciaphas cain ones are ok. really funny in places but he pushes some jokes a bit far.

ultramarines omnibus i quite good

first 3 of the horus heresy books are brill. rest are ok so far. i\'m glad i got them abyways
 

mud duck

New member
like Dan Abbnet, but really have a problem with the way the most of his stories end. To me he\'s like 300 pages of working up to this killer ending, then three pages of \"And so the Ghosts charged though the un-numbered hoards of Chaos, saving the planet.\" It as the feeling, to me that his editor gave him a limit of X amount of pages and he simply ran out at the end.

As for the Cain stories, I think that the idea is for them to be a little tongue in cheek, and read them as so.
But then again, this is just my two coppers.
 
I agree with lono. BL stuff ranges from great to awful. I\'d go with one of the better authors as opposed to the popular books (Eisenhorn is very good as is Lord of the Night, Daemon World, anything by Brian Craig, and a few others).
 

demonherald

New member
personal faves in no particular order...
40k
Ultramarine novels....
Eisenhorn trilogy..
space wolves series.
and Deus sanguinius and encarmine...

depending on what you read for then it will vary.. The eisenhorn series would work if you knew nothing about the worlds as the writing is in depth and covers all the bases and great characters..

The others some knowledge is required..

Fantasy books..
Gotrek and felix are great books but my favourite are the Ambassador books..
Mallus darkblade are good but can get a bit long winded..

If you want deep and rounded go with Dan Abnett..
if you want fun and fast paced Graham McNeil.
 

freakinacage

Well-known member
ooh forgot the deus.. pair. they were pretty good as were the space wolf trilogy

i like the tongue in cheek way of the sandy mitchell stuff but some of it is a bit much
 

fat lad

New member
I\'m going to make this simple for you.

Anything by Dan Abnett and Graham Mcneill. The 2 best authors at the Black Library.

Especially awesome are; The Gaunt\'s Ghosts series (all 11), The Eisenhorn Trilogy and Storm of Iron.

-T-
 

emopainterguy

New member
I\'ve read every Gotrek and Felix book, and most 2 or 3 times. Really good reads. Although I would say the ones by William King are slightly better than the latest two by Nathan Long, but he\'s done a good job of keeping to the feel of the originals even if he did jump it twenty years into the future.
 

Undave

Flockwit
Bill King is good but there\'s only so many times I can take reading \"Gotreks axe rose and fell carving a path of red ruin through his foes\" and he does tend to have a fascination with Felixs red Sudenland wool cloak. Aside from the repititions they are quite reasonable books. The kind of role reversal between the two main characters is interesting as Felix gradually becomes more bitter and hardarse as the books go on an Gotrek seems to become more interested in the bottom of an ale mug than chopping stuff into chunks. I can\'t comment on Nathan Longs efforts though.

Ciaphas Cain is probably my favourite series as it\'s lighthearted yet still keeps close to the ethos of the 40k universe. Good ripping yarns.
 

Jericho

Consummate Brushlicker
Dan Abnett is the guy to read, like everyone says. I lost interest in Armor of Contempt, but honestly I wasn\'t in the mood for it when I started, so I should give it a fair chance. I bought Only in Death recently (everything since Traitor General has been hardcover for me) and so I should have an Abnett-fest some day when my University readings aren\'t too horribly overwhelming.

The Ian Watson Inquisition War series was pretty cool. Probably some of the best non-Abnett BL books.

The Sandy Mitchell Ciphas Cain books went downhill fast for me... I liked the first one a fair bit but the second one seemed like a terrible movie sequel that never should have been made. It was half as long, half as good, and he/she definitely pushed the humorous encyclopedia entry style way too hard.

Ben Counter seems to be slightly above BL averages, and I don\'t think I\'ve seen his name mentioned yet in this thread. Bill King was cool, and his style was very well suited to Dwarfs and Space Wolves, but honestly weren\'t among my favorites.
 
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