Favourite Black Library Author and Novel?

[KingBrodd]

Gday guys who is your favourite BL Author and BL AOS Novels? 

[Ggom]

Aaron Dembski-Bowden by far! Betrayer is IMO the strongest book in the Horus Heresy. I also  a big fan of Soul Hunter and it's the reason I spent several hundred dollars and several hundred hours painting a Night Lord's army 😋

I am currently reading Covens of Blood because I paint Daughters of Khaine and unfortunately it's a tremendous struggle to stay interested. 

[Jator]

I'm afraid I'm going to be terribly unoriginal, but my favorite BL author is William King. I enjoy his writing and both his Gotrek and Felix books and the Tyrion and Teclis trilogy are my favorite reads from Black Library.

[EccentricCircle]

I'm afraid I'm going to be somewhat disparaging, and go for older Black Library Authors as well. Kim Newman's books just feel more thought out than most of what we're getting today, and the world is a lot more "lived in". I read a lot of the modern black library books, usually as audiobooks which I can put on while I'm painting. And they are great pulpy fun, but they generally lack the depth and characterisation that you get in the older books. I've kind of enjoyed the new Gotrek books, but the old ones are just better. William King's writing takes a few books to really take off, but once it gets there the characters feel like people, rather than miniatures fighting on a tabletop.

Its kind of telling that I don't think I could actually name any of the current batch of authors, or tell you who wrote which book, despite having read and enjoyed a great many of those books.

So yeah, Black Library gets my audible credit at least every other month, but it is what it is, and I'm never going to be ranking any of them among my favourite books of all time.

Edited February 13, 2022 by EccentricCircle

[Clan's Cynic]

Of the current authors, anything by Peter Fehervari, though he's only written for 40k.

Abnett in second place.

The rest I've never been dazzled by. 

[Greyshadow]

Dominion by Darius Hinks may be my favourite. Also could be The Silver Shard or Cities of Secrets by Nick Horth. I'm reading CL Werner at the moment which I am enjoying too.

[Baron Klatz]

Josh Reynolds and basically everything he touched but Huge kudos to “Spear of Shadows” and “Soul Wars” along with him bringing the always kind but epic Gardus Steelsoul to life.  

My favorite Stormcast pieces would be “Hammers of Sigmar” by Darius Hinks, “Blade Storm” by Guy Haley and “Fist of an Angry God” by William King.

 

[Chikout]

It's hard to pick a favourite. Dan Abnett has one of the best. Reading the Gaunts Ghosts short stories in the original Inferno was the thing that got me into Warhammer fiction.

As for AoS, The silver shard by Nick Horth is up there. He also was the lead writer on Broken Realms Morathi which is my favourite campaign book ever in terms of the lore. The Red Hours novella by Evan Dicken was also great. I really hope he gets a chance to do a full novel some time.

Despite the naysayers there is plenty of recent work that I'd strongly recommend. Gloomspite by Andy Clark is terrific. Court of the Blind King by David Guymer is great  and all the Prince Maesa stories by Guy Haley are awesome, particularly the series of stories in Inferno. 

Overall I've been impressed by the new Inferno. It captures a lot of the things I liked about the original. 

[Sleboda]

My fave?

 

The ones I can actually get before they sell out their standard edition.

 

/bitter

[michaelforster00]

Richard Strachan has taken number 1 spot for me. 

Both of his novels (Warcry Catacombs: Blood of the Everchosen and The End of Enlightenment) and all of his short stories have been great. 

Top notch writing, strong characters, good pacing.

[RandyRyan]

Josh Reynolds is it for me for AoS, Spear of Shadows closely followed by Black Pyramid are my favourites.

For 40k, it's ADB all the way.

[NinthMusketeer]

Josh Reynolds. His portrayal of Nagash and Mannfred across multiple books was truly quality work in my eyes, the depth he gave those characters beyond being simply evil bad guys is a massive boon to AoS lore. I remain very sad he doesn't write for them anymore, I can only hope at some point in the future GW will be open to Black Library writers who do more than *just* BL. Then maybe.

Favorite book is hard. While Josh Reynolds is my favorite author overall a few individual books edge out for me. Dynasty of Monsters is the one I would have to put on top, not just for being well written but for having a surprising degree of relevance to problems the world is dealing with right now. Covens of Blood and The Red Feast also top my list of favorites, both for the nuance and depth of culture provided.

[El Syf]

Josh Reynolds all the way! Spear of shadows was great, also massive fan of the Blood of Nagash Trilogy (although the third book got cancelled for the return of Nagash end times book).

He did death very well, sad that he no longer writes for BL.

[Whitefang]

There are many candidates regarding 40k books, but for AOS my fav is Josh Reynolds

[Draznak]

Dan Abnett far above all other BL writers, in any universe.

For AoS, Josh Reynolds. His departure was a big loss for BL.

[Public Universal Duardin]

I absolutely adore Mike Brooks and his ork novellas/novels. I also like works by Graeme Lyon.

Honourable mention goes to C.L Werner, whose Kharadron works got me into AoS in the first place and finally convinced me that AoS wasn't some terrible thing that had "ruined" my beloved WHFB.

[Candlelight]

Keeping it to AoS only, I have to go with Josh Reynolds. He was pretty much the only one making the damn setting interesting at the beginning. The atrocity they did with the The Realmgate Wars series... Those were one of the trashiest fantasy books I've read in my life.

From the current writers, I would pick Richard Strachan. His prose is one of the best from the AoS writers. The second one would be Jake Ozga. He only wrote a few short stories and one novella, but he's incredibly talented and proves AoS can be more than just your generic fantasy setting. I have high expectations for his first AoS novel (nothing announced but I do hope he's writing one).

[Charleston]

I agree like others before me on Josh Reynolds. He just mastered the art of describing situations through characters. And those characters he uses as viewpoints for the reader are written in such a good way that it is a pure joy to read. He doesn't write bland "NPC's" type of characters. Instead he introduce the reader in such a way that the characters feel deep, like real people. There are different facets to them. Also he has a good hand in describing the world the story takes place in, with all details like cultural perks, architectural standouts and so on. It's a pity that we won't be able to enjoy new BL books written by him, but I really look forward for some non-BL-works.

[Carnelian]

Richard Strachan: Blood of the Everchosen

The way he describes the land of the eightpoints and how the inhabitants survive in it is fantastic

[EonChao]

Aaron Dembski-Bowden is probably my favourite author, I've enjoyed most of his books I've read but have a lot of anticipation for his own series about the Black Legion and the Spears of the Emperor. He wrote a few short stories for the Slaves to Darkness battle tome and it really makes me want to see him write some AoS stuff. I also am really enjoying Chris Wraight's two series: Watchers of the Throne and Vaults of Terra. I need to dig into Peter Fehervari's stuff but most of it hasn't been released as audio books yet. I also have to give a shout out to Robert Rath's The Infinite and The Divine.

AoS books, I really enjoyed Gloomspite but haven't read too much yet sadly. I'm just about to start Gothghul Hollow and will probably pick up Kragnos at some point soon too.

[Ahriman]

Another vote here for Nick Horth and the Silver Shard - incredible adventure novel, adorable characters and gave the Realms the best sense of coming alive and being 'real' that I've seen so far.

 

Though C L Werner's Death stuff, Hink's Gotrek books, and everything by Reynolds (especially Dark Harvest) are all fantastic too.

 

 

[Popisdead]

Josh Reynolds had a gift for finding a unique niche and bringing that fresh take into Warhammer lore.  Having lost him i doubt I will really read much more about AoS unless it is specifically Beasts of Chaos, Slaanesh or Sylvaneth/Wanderer.  

However since this is BL anything space ork from the ork point of view is all that really interests me these days.  BL/GW FINALLY figured out people are sick of 921,254,234 books about space marines and could leverage sales into more interesting books, like,.. Eldar and Orks.  The last few novels/novellas/short stories from the Ork perspective are the best.

[RuneBrush]

Really difficult questions!  I thoroughly enjoy most stories written by Chris Wraight, his portrayal of White Scars and Space Wolves has been fantastic in both 30k & 40k eras.  ABD & Graham McNeal sits up there too without a doubt, although that feels like a disservice to the many other amazing authors I've read and enjoyed.

AoS wise, pretty much anything by Josh Reynolds.  I've enjoyed the newer Gotrek stories, Callis & Toll and the Eight Lamentions.  If I had to put my money on one book, I'd say The Undying King though.  Technically it's Age of Myth, but still in the mortal realms 😉

[Baron Klatz]

2 hours ago, RuneBrush said:

Technically it's Age of Myth, but still in the mortal realms

Age of Myth stuff is a big win in my book. That’s why I loved “Pantheon” with a closer look at the gods interactions when Chaos was still scratching & whispering at the edges of the Realmspheres trying to get in.

I’d absolutely love more with so many teases of the past golden glories like cities of learning in Ghur that had both human and Orruk scholars in them, the Chamonian sky-domes of Djeb’dah of crystal plateaus with duardin and grot nations built on soaring bridge-ways in the clouds or the Azyr city of Nordrath that connected straight to the underworld trade cities in Shyish and had a strong worship of Nagash as Deathrattle kings and Soulblights would come up to their celestial city and tour the wonders of Azyr with the undead knights & kings having friendly jousts on bridges of starlight.

So many lost wonders and alliances that can be explored as a goal to fix and bring back to the Mortal Realms again.

 

Edited February 18, 2022 by Baron Klatz

[Warboss Gorbolg]

Favorite AoS novel so far is probably Plague Garden, despite it being a pretty classic story in many ways. In general, all the Nurgle as villains stuff has been pretty interesting as their characters seem to get more attention as villains.  Also a big fan of books spending time on the non human, aelf, duradin, and undead\chaos variants of them (e.g., Gloomspite). As a long time O&G player, it's nice to see some portrayals that make the more primitive races more than fodder. Shout out for Skarsnik just before end times as well. The novellas like Warqueen are also good, quick reads.

For older stuff, the Black Hearts  by Nathan Long was fun and I see it very rarely mentioned. It's about a group of Empire criminals pressed into service against Chaos. Low magic omnibus and things go poorly for the anti-heros. The common man trying to survive in an insane world stuff from BL I've generally enjoyed through the years.

Unfortunately I have read very little during these last couple of years.