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So, anyone else like to indulge in some slightly shonky fiction with a familiar setting?

I ask because I just bought my third Black Library book this month, which I expect to have polished off by Monday (need to finish Curse of the Necrarch first).

Although I am not so into the 40k novels, I do have a fair amount of their wares which I always find an enjoyable read. Thus far, I have all the Slayer Novels, all the Darkblade, the Vampire War trilogy in seperate volumes, The Witch Hunter Trilogy, again in seperate volumes, the Brunner trilogy (really rather good!) the first three Time of Legends (Sigmar, Nagash and todays purchase, Malekith) plus various other odds and sods which make for good bath time reading.

I think I stick with the Black Library because I am very funny about my Fantasy. To me, a Goblin is a squitty little monster with more ambition than threat, not something that can knock up a steam powered suit of armour, and an Elf is haughty and removed from the world by it's own arrogance, rather than some tree hugging hippy who just wants everyone to get along. I have tried a few other types, but didn't get on with them!

Although I don't read a lot of sci-fi literature (at least, not the more formulaic pure genre stuff), I find I really enjoy a lot of Black Library's 40K stuff. It's pulpy, and most of it is narratively limited and predictable. But I soak up the atmosphere, the details, the descriptive passages.

I suppose that's because my enjoyment of the hobby is essentially narrative at its core. I'm a so-so tactician, but I love the fluff, the modeling, the story-telling.

So, yeah, keep it coming, Black Librarians. Your over-the-top, bloated, purple prose and baroque, bizarre, and often downright ridiculous imagery? Guilty pleasures. Exquisite ones, too.

i havent read any,but when (or if) i do it will probably be a malice dark blade book. I liked it in wd. and i skimmed through the whole book

Love Eisenhorn & Ciaphas Cain.

I've loved all of the Heresy stuff. Still never read any of the fantasy fiction though. It's wierd - I like the WHFB game more, and the 40K universe better. Play fantasy, read 40k..

Cain books.

Stupidly bought a lot of the Gaunt stuff, primarily because I thought the first short story published in Inferno many moons ago was very good. I managed to slug through them, in the vain hope that it would get better as it went along. It didn't do so, in my opinion at least.

The books threw up some nice ideas, like the intervention of Imperial forces in a world's own civil conflict as well as Imperial tech versus WWI-esque tech.

They fell down in my opinion on the sheer amount of characters Abnett tried to write about, to the point they keep popping up and it feels like you are expected to know just exactly who they are, but they just don't ring a bell. A few other things, like the Imperium being very lenient towards apparent criminal soldiers and a few other odds and ends made the books nowhere nearly as good as they ought to have been.

The Cain books, on the other hand, I've found brilliant. They add a bit of a human touch to the 41st Millenium which isn't there in a lot of books, like showing people getting on with their lives and being unaffected by a lot of the wars going on. The level of politicking involved in a lot of them is fantastic and something I really like. The humour and pop-culture references are also right up my street.

I read "Eye Of Terror".

Barrington J Bayley is the author and the only reason I read it. He is one of the great writers of serious weirdness. Sadly he passed away this last October at 71 years old.

I also read Abnett's "Ghostmaker". it was meh.

I read a lot of this stuff. It's not Swann's Way but it passes the time while I'm working on my morning constitutional.

Reading some of the Horus Heresy books right now. Enjoyable. Graham McNeil seems ot be one of the better writers in their stable.

Currenty 245 pages into Malekith, and by far the best Time of Legends yet. Other than Angels of Darkness, I've not read any of Gav Thorpe's books thus far, but I am enjoying the style of this one. Rather than following Malekith into the unknown, it's treated more historically, as if the tale is being regaled to you by a Story Teller, rather than putting you there in the action.

Very satisying read thus far!

I read the first Gaunt and thought it was ok for killing time on a train. Other than that, I read the High Elves novel that came out last year. All characters seemed permanently depressed, with the exception of apparently cute female elf mage who got fried half way through. The book seemed more like a travel guide of Ulthuan more than anything else.

I must admit to having a dirty little Black Library habit too. Precisely because they are unchallenging pulp mainly. Just the sort of escapist thing to help me doze off last thing after another crap day at work.

I'm not so sold on the Horus Heresy stuff in general - the first 2 books were a bit slow going for me and then I got bogged down. But I'm looking forward to getting into Mechanicum and the new Titanicus when it comes out in paperback.

Not sold on Gaunt either. All got a bit samey after a while - and too much like Sven Hassel for my tastes. I liked 15 days though.

I think the Caiphas Cain stuff is some of my favourites. But then I always liked Flashman. Gotrek and Felix are always a good romp too!

The Iron Snakes book was quite fun. I liked that. It was nice to read about Goody-two-shoes marines that weren't Ultramarines!

I'm with the "Good on the train" lot when it comes to BL and I own a few, though a few have also been given to charity shops or used to keep a fire going. However I too must declare my love for Gotrek & Felix and Commisar Cain.

I have found the Fantasy fiction to be much stronger than 40k. Now, given my favour of Fantasy games to 40k, that might be the reason right there, but I highly reccomend trying some outside of Gotrek and Felix.

I've read a few - generally I prefer GrimDark(TM) to the WFB universe, which colours my judgement. I read a couple of the Malus Darkblade novels, which didn't really appeal, but then I also read the Genevive series, which I thought was a lot better. My favourite WFB novel was Zavant, but the Konrad books were quite good as well.

My personal strike-rate favours GrimDark (TM) over WFB, but as I said, I think that's just personal preference rather than a reflection on writing standards.

I do agree about Zavant. Peculiar old book that, and fantastic for it.

For those uninitiated, think Murder Mysteries in the Warhammer World. Very satisfying in a strange way!