Ok Veeky Forums rate black library authors from best to worst

Abnett.

sandy mitchell is great. hero of the imperium seies is one of the greatest stories in whole 40k

>Best - ADB
>Worst - ADB

fuck off aaron, chaos is for fags

Honestly, this sometimes.

is Ben Counter any good? he'll be writting story for this new mehanicus game

What ABOUT Abnett.

well Abnett jumpstarted HH book series, written eisenhorn and gaunt ghosts. all of this books are highly regarded by fa/tg/uys

I'm reading path of heaven at the moment. Wraight does action and tension better than most BL hacks, but my god does he need a better editor to prune his waffling plot meanderings. The sub plot about hunting down some warp scientist nearly made me put the book down on several occasions. I am positive you could have portrayed the same events and exposited the same plot points in less that a third of the word count, and the pacing and prose would have been miles better for it.

>well Abnett jumpstarted HH book series,
Oh, I see. Let's string him up by the town hall and let the crows eat his eyes while he still lives for the crime of laying the stones of THAT road.

Highly variable. He does actual story telling ok most of the time, but the stories themselves are often 14 yr old donut steel tier.

If I said it's leading to some cool stuff, would you be more forgiving towards it?

I can't argue with you honestly, because I'm really a guy who enjoys his purple prose. I like the way Wraight paints a picture, and I especially love what he was doing in Path of Heaven, but I can see your point well enough.

but eisenhorni is good

You misunderstand, the BL HH series was happening regardless, Abnett was just the first author involved, mostly because he was their most well regarded / popular at the time. As I understand it, the overall course and key events were decided by talentless GW middle management and authors only really got a say in the details of the story telling. At first anyway. I get the impression that the 'key' BL authors have a bit more say now.

Ok, I'll stick with it. I quite enjoyed Battle for the Fang, which most anons on here seem to think was a war crime for some reason, so I know he usually delivers. I think my issue is actually with the quality of BL editing and QC generally - so many of the books I've read have glaring inconsistencies and poor structure that I strongly suspect that the job of the 'editor' is to run the whole thing through spellcheck and, in the case of the latest GG novel, do a find/replace of 'Guard' into 'Astra Militarium TM'.

Hope it works out for you user!

I can see that, and honestly, between typos and other inconsistencies you mentioned, I totally understand where you're coming from. I just like seeing some of that rawer stuff coming through, when you can tell an author is enjoying writing about what he's writing, you know? BL Editors might be some hacks, but when a author gets to put out something he's really put some work into, I like seeing that.

...

I like Guy Haley and ADB.
Can't stand James Swallow and Gav Thorpe.
The rest is a, ok.

bump

Well, DoW 3 had backflipipng terminators, but i'm not so sure on those multilasers.

Gaunt’s Ghosts and Darkblade

me, my wife and her boyfriend are all big fans of ADB!

Abnett is the best.

Abnett on his whole body of work is clearly the best but has also added some awful details into the HH like the entire plot of legion, unremembered empire and prospero burns, but considering Merrett and his retard posse okayed them all I’d blame them instead since no author could make those insertions any good.

ADB also has well written novels, sadly they all seem to blend into one novel thanks to his novels having a lot of similarities, and his take on the lore and his ham fisted insertions of Abby and his magic sword are the fucking worst

Slight derail ...

I'm new to 40k and wanted to grab my first book. Which 40k novels are "must-reads"?

Terrible. Can't stand his writing.

I miss Sandy.

Read 30k first.

Horus Heresy book 1: Horus Rising.
mega.nz/#F!BxI1HSgI!0tKymKh9RZTzGpgIA5EyCg!Q5pzWKiI

>inb4 chimpout

The current "classics" are probably:

Eisenhorn Trilogy
Ravenor
Storm of Iron/Graham McNeil Ultramarines
Ciaphas Cain
Path of the Eldar
Night Lords Trilogy
Talon of Horus/Black Legion
Beast Arises (just due to importance)
Emperor's Legion
Dark Imperium (again because of importance)
15 Hours
Soul Drinkers series
Emperor's Gift
Firewarrior

Horus Heresy series is pretty much the central novel series by this point. It's like 50 books by this point and has a complicated as fuck reading order.

he's writing a new ciaphas cain book. was confirmed at BL weekender 2017

Forgot gaunts ghosts, that too

How does Steve Lyons fit in for you guys?

I'd add Gaunts Ghosts (and some of the spin offs) as well as Gotrek and Felix and the old Inquistor War/Space Marine novels.

Fuckin' A

Best Sandy Mitchell

Worst nick kyme

The only correct answer is

"Whoever writes 40k with an actual sense of humor."

So typically, that means the older stuff you used to see back when Inferno still existed like Deff Skwadron, the Mordheim comics, and The Redeemer.

GW lore without the gallows humor is just joyless shit.

I'll be honest, I picked up Gaunt's Ghosts purely off of Veeky Forums's reccomendations and because IG is my favorite part of 40k. But holy shit was I disappointed. Inquistors being oneshot by guardsmen? Space marines oneshot by guardsman? Gaunt is cool, I like him, but things seem to work out 'just so' for him so often. There's contrivance that I can't seem to fathom.

And honestly, all that can be mostly waved away but then there's just dumb shit. Like how (just as an example, not the main issue), every single female soldier they picked up in Vervunhive is a badass superwarrior who can outshoot the best snipers, outcharge the best guardsmen, and do it all in sign language. Seriously? What the fuck is that? I expected some serioiusly badass ladies but they're basically space marine tier. One of them picks up a long-las and immediately headshots 3 people in one paragraph at 500 yards. I'm supposed to buy a hive worker woman can pull that off?

Its not really just that, but its a good example of how everything just sort of always seems to work out for the Ghosts. Not a fan really. Only on Honor Guard, book 4, and intend to keep reading.

I like Abnett and Mitchell.

I fucking hate ADB most of the time.

Nick Kyme is a fucking hack who should be baned from writting for BL

>Ian Watson, Brian Craig or Jack Yeovil not even on the chart
why.jpg

>Inquistors being oneshot by guardsmen? Space marines oneshot by guardsman?
This is literally how reality works- a high speed projectile or intense energy blast to your face is entirely capable of killing you, even if you're super-important and/or have mutant toughness. You're effectively demanding a greater level of complete silliness from 40k novels.

why is Ben Counter in a shit tier and why is he presented as andy chambers

>Merrett
Now there's a dickhead that deserves to be tarred and feathered. Author quality in genre writing is always going to fluctuate, but this piece of shit is the reason the HH is such a bloated poorly paced and directionless mess. Plus he completely fucked with some of the original key details from the earliest fluff for no reason except possibly to give pet favorite legions more screen time

> posts author ranking with Gav Thorpe anywhere but Goto tier
>Tries to preempt responses to such awful taste with chimpout
Didn't work user, you are still a faggot and your list is still worthless

> lists 'classic' books
> includes garbage tier books because they are 'important' AKA push retarded nucannon
That's not how it works user.

True

>tfw think Gaunt's Ghosts are massive mary sues
>angry neckbeards mob me

enforcer trilogy (crossfire, legacy, blind)
BFG duology (execution hour, shadow point)

They're unique, fresh, and written by guys who didn't linger like a bad odor.

I need my eyes bleaching after this and Shroud of Night. I'm an Alpha Legion player and even I was cringing at how mary sue ridiculous and super powered the Sons of Alpharius can magically become.

>We can rapid fire our plasma guns without fear of overheating because of magical Xenos tech
>We can appear as our enemies making them unanticipated our arrival thanks to a Sorcerer's pendant.
>Our armour can change colour thanks to Chamelioline scales
>We have Chamelioline cloaks too
>We also have a Callidus Assassin waifu
>Watch as six Alpha Legionaries cling to the underbelly of an immolator through icy terrain, presumably by hiding in each other's assholes to make room.

I really liked Josh Reynold's books on vampires, but I've yet to read his AoS books.

any good aos books?
his knights of the blazing sun book was great too

It is funny how Veeky Forums never talks about the early authors. I read an article about how they tried to get good, established authors on board in the early days (they actually approached Terry Pratchett)- plus in those days the canon was much less fixed/restrictive. I'd expect the early books to actually be better, or at least more interesting, although I haven't read enough myself to know.

You do know that not a single one of the Alpha Legion hero group was a real Alpha Legion marine? All of them were marines from other legions and chapters who adopted the colours and creed of the Alpha Legion.

And all of them except the leader died in the end. Fucking speed reader.

Yes I do know. It was still cringy mary sue shit.

bump

/thread

If you took off his writing privileges, would he die?

The only good thing Bean Counter wrote is Hammer of Daemons, and only because of how balls-to-the-wall zany it is.

>I am the Hammer
>you are the Hammer
>the Hammer is a metaphor
>the Hammer is a literal hammer
>the Hammer doesn't exist
>the Hammer is a spaceship

City of Secrets was a nice read as its protagonists are humans, but I've yet to read more books in AoS. Spear of Shadows sounds like it could be enjoyable, I'll probably start it soon.

why does salamanders get no love from BL

>Gav Thorpe not in God Tier
get out normalfag.

Gav "Hang a Human" Thorpe is a champion of the Elven/Eldar races. Also wrote an elf sex scene in one of his books.

I wouldn't say things go "their way" all of the time. Since you just read the book with Vervunhive, you'll recall that the Tanith took some major losses there, hence why they needed to recruit locals.

But yeah, I've read all the way to Blood Pact, and trust me when I say that things dont go their way all the time.

Oh, and one more thing, when you start reading Sabbat Martyr, prepare to praise the Emperor. Goddamn, it's probably my favorite book out of the series.

I liked the author of Night Lord, Simon Spurrier.

Literally nothing besides the last one is a issue for chaos marines

I tried reading a bit of a Gav Thorpe book once and the writing was so bad it gave me hives

Chris Wraight/Josh Reynolds are fun authors.
I thought Rise of Nagash and Fall of Altdorf were good reads.

However, Nick Kyme left a sour taste in my mouth. I just don't get it.

I've never really had a problem with his books although I've never read any of his 40k stuff.

>>This is literally how reality works-

What is power armor? What is rosarius? What is literally any of the many ways an Inquisitor has to protect himself? A chaos dreadnought was killed by a literal lasgun. That's a fucking tank.

Gotta love me some ciaphas cain. HERO OF THE IMPERIUM..

Awwyeah. Didn't read any other 40k shit but his ciaphas cain novels were cash.

>user never got a bad roll

To be fair ciaphas cain is what you get if you put moist von lipwig in 40k. So I'm digging that they asked pratchett.

>ALL FLUFF FROM WHEN I PERSONALLY DISCOVERED 40K MUST BE FROZEN IN TIME FOREVER

On the subject of Abnett, when is this new Eisenhorn novel supposed to take place? Before, during, or after the original Eisenhorn trilogy?

Also, has Abnett explained why he went with this rather than us finally fucking getting Penitent?

For WHF Skarsnik and Darkblade are also good reads

>ADB is god tier
Son, I am disappoint.

>WHF

No one reads that shit

Many people do.

That post has Gotrek and Felix, or is Skaven a 40k race now

is It true that ADB occationaly lurkes Veeky Forums?

heres my large collection of 40k novels audio and comics:

mega.nz
/#F!MmBA0Q5A!7i-AOdgrDCvNOjqlPxX-jA

>mobi

Into the trash.

alfa legion should be writting/ reading audiobooks for BL

how about no

well some of VA's should voice audiobooks

It was like watching a Lets Play of Metal Gear Solid with the invisibility cheat on. Boring and tedious.

His last chancer stuff was shit, but I think he does the Eldar a fair and fun service.

That's not even remotely what I said, you fucking mong.

He single handedly killed any chance the dark angels had of interesting role in HH and ruined them in current 40k to boot.
Abnett writes an infinitely more interesting and compelling Lion / 1st legion in unremembered empire, and they're practically a cameo appearance. ADB even does a better job with them in his books, and he only uses them to make his Night Lord donut steels look super cool.