Graham McNeill

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**bullyboy**

haven't read too many BL novels, but Storm of Iron still ranks up there as one of my favourite books (I'll admit I don't read a lot of sci-fi).

**Crablezworth**

I'm on the last book of the mechanicus trilogy and he's just not as good as abnett. It feels like the first two books were mostly wasted space and only existed to add more and more characters. I'll be content to just get it over with, the story is much longer than it needed to be and the mechanicus and many other characters just kinda bleed together. It's also a damn crime that he builds up telok only to make him the most one dimensional bond villain of all time. What's his motivation? Who cares!? He's evil and and has a big ego.

**Brother SRM**

McNeill is so all over the place. The Index Astartes articles he wrote are awesome, and are as good as any fluff in any codex. Wrath of Iron is one of the best old Black Library books, his Mars series is super well received, and I thought A Thousand Sons and some of his other Heresy books were excellent. I even thought Angel Exterminatus was pretty damn cool for the most part.

Then on the other hand you've got his pretty mediocre Ultramarines books (replete with weird Iron Warriors rape machines, in a scene that makes me really wonder what his relationship with his mother is like) and his fairly spotty quality here and there.

Basically the dude can write a few things pretty damn well, and when he really wants to, he can write some really entertaining and exciting books. Other times he can write some good ideas and bog them down with less interesting ones, or just make a mediocre book altogether. I'm always cautious whenever I hear about a new book of his, because I never know which it could be.

**BlaxicanX**

For every Eisenhorn there's a Salvation's Reach.

For every The First Heretic there's a Betrayer.

For every Thousand Sons there's a False Gods.

Inconsistency is the hallmark of Black Library writers.

**BrookM**

Ugh, False Gods, where he mentioned that Tallarn was a desert years before being turned into one..

**Harriticus**

Tamwulf wrote:
Such is the life of a corporate writer of pulp fiction. He is probably under contract for X amount of books, and the books are scripted already, with the plot already outlined and what characters he can write about dictated to him. He might get 1-2 books with free reign- and those are probably his best books- but for the rest, he just writes what he is told to write. A writer has to pay the bills, ya know?

R.A. Salvatore fell into this "trap" with TSR and later WoC with Drizz't Do'Urden. The couple Star Wars novels he wrote were heavily scripted and he was told what he could and couldn't write (it's why he doesn't do them anymore). Look him up, he has a lot of interesting thoughts about writing for IP's (Intellectual Properties).

Micheal Stackpole is another author that went through a lot of IP writing issues.

Another good example: Margerat Weis and Tracy Hickman and the Dragonlance series.

Writers who have contracts with big IP's do it for the steady money, instead of living book to book (when it can take a year or more to write a book... ). They don't get full control over their works (they sign all those rights away for the pay check), and they are handed scripts/plot outlines and basically told to "flesh them out".

It's no surprise to me that Graham McNeill has a lot of misses and a few hits.

I disagree with this. GW doesn't really care about what is inside the BL books, just the prices and how many limited edition anthology antics they can do. There's nobody to pre-script the story or oversee what he's doing. I think BL writers actually have pretty free reign to do what they want.

I mean GW was fine with a book being released that just had 01's in it over and over.

**BrianDavion**

I mean GW was fine with a book being released that just had 01's in it over and over.

you DO realize that book wasn't published and was an april fool's day joke right?

**BlaxicanX**

It may be true that normal 40k books are loosely regulated, but the authors have explictly stated that they have to attend "canon meetings" monthly, which dictate what they write about for the HH series.

**deviantduck**

Jimsolo wrote:
Dozer Blades wrote:
Every novel should be a compelling masterwork where you just keep flipping one page after another until the wee hours of the morning... Yeah

No, books are like food. It's perfectly acceptable to consume one now and then that's essentially bubblegum for your brain, with no nutritional content whatsoever. (Otherwise Preacher wouldn't enjoy nearly the success it does. )

Graham McNeill isn't a bad author necessarily, but his books are pretty consistently like cotton candy for the mind. Candy floss is fine for a while, but you need some substance eventually.

.
I'm about 15 books deep in the series and Fulgrim was perfection by perfect far perfection my perfect least perfection favorite. I think if you do a word count on the book 30% of the words are some form of "perfect".

Also, Jimsolo, what do you think about the actress Seth Rogen cast to play Tulip in the Preacher series coming out on AMC? The rest of the casting seems spot on, especially with Rogen as Arseface.

**Bronzefists42**

BlaxicanX wrote:
For every Eisenhorn there's a Salvation's Reach.

For every The First Heretic there's a Betrayer.

For every Thousand Sons there's a False Gods.

Inconsistency is the hallmark of Black Library writers.

I personally loved Betrayer I see your point. First Heretic really brought a genuinely new look and spin on the Horus Heresy series as did Thousands sons.

Automatically Appended Next Post:

BrookM wrote:
Ugh, False Gods, where he mentioned that Tallarn was a desert years before being turned into one..

And False Gods is such an amazing title too...

He does have some pretty bizarre stuff in his books, like that extended Fulgrim torture scene in "Reflection Cra'ked" (can't remember exact title but it was a stupid misspelling.)

**NoPoet**

I really enjoyed Betrayer too, although Erebus is looking more pathetic with every book. And so is Eidolon. Hard to believe Eidolon stood with the other Primarchs and ended up getting slapped down by Horus himself after (politely) challenging Angron! What a bloke.

Angel Exterminatus SPOLIER ALERT:

It actually gets really good towards the very end, with Perturabo's dream, and Fulgrim's ascension is truly spectacular (I haven't quite finished it yet). The whole Eldar battle is a badly-written chore, but some moments in this book make it worth the slog.

As I understand it, BL writers DO have to jump through hoops and attend planning meetings, but there are always mistakes, such as important characters getting killed and then being resurrected.

I think their quality control for their existing writers is non-existant. It still pees me off considering half of us are better writers and way more passionate about 40K/HH than the blokes they've got.

**Yodhrin**

BrookM wrote:
CL Werner wrote some of the best fantasy novels out there, including the Bounty Hunter trilogy, the Witch Hunter trilogy and the fething excellent Wulfrik novelization.

Agreed. Werner is up there with William King as one of the authors that made me love Fantasy as a setting, and one of the things I dislike most about AoS is that it means we'll probably never get a continuation of the Witch Hunter storyline or any other similar books.

**Dozer Blades**

He doesn't even work for BL anymore now.