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There are so many good 40k books out there but why oh why does it appear that most of the blood angel books seem to be written by James Swallow??

His style is so boring, and his pacing and descriptions just irritate me so much.. Every other page in the blood angels omnibus mentions Sanguinius or the Emperor.

Everyone who collects and reads about the Blood Angels know about Sanguinius and definitely the Emperor so do we really need pages and pages of descriptions regarding these two figures. It seems that he delights in describing all the boring and yet when it gets to an exciting battle the descriptions get less and less and you don't really feel any excitement. In fact you just want to get through the first omnibus as soon as possible.

The second one wasn't to bad but still not in the same ball park as Horus heresy 1-3 ..

I've also just read James Swallows fear to tread and again the battles that should have been epic were poorly put together and I couldn't care less what happened. The descriptions of both daemons really didn't tie up with what you expected them to be, and the way Sanguinius was firstly defeated was so lame, ok so a lot of his marines died why pass out over it your a Primarch get your revenge...

It was a improvement on the first omnibus still not great :(

So what are your views on Mr Swallow? can we get Dan Abnett or Ben Counter on the case

I agree. I'm new to reading the Black Library novels with the two Blood Angels Omnibuses being the first ones...I found them hard to finish at times. His pacing doesn't flow well with me.

I bought Eisenhorn a few months ago and finished the first book in no time. What a world of difference.

Because Swallow adores the Blood Angels, Black Library operates on the 'come pitch us an idea' methodology, and as a result he's ALWAYS writing one.

I don't mind him so much, but Aaron Dembski-Bowden mentioned wanting to do something with the IX Legion, so I hope he gets greenlit for one.

Honestly I quite liked Nemesis, have never read anything else of his though.

ADB is definitely my favorite author. I also like James Swallow because even though his writing itself is "ok" he is the only author who writes about the sisters of battle. If ADB wrote about the sisters I would adore it im sure.

I probably would enjoy something by sandy mitchell as well. And on a little note. I also enjoy steve lyons. He tends to have actual twists in his book that I don't see coming and a great way of toying with the reader. I still remember reading dead men walking "nice lets go, alright alright, ooo close one. nice..oh WHAT THE!" Its probably in my top 5 BL novels so even though the author writes relatively little I enjoy his work.

Its probably just because he's the only author who was interested in writing about the BAs at the time of his first books, and has as such entrentched himself as the BL BA author.

Its like how the UMs are McNeil's turf and King writes about Space Wolves.


Having multiple Authors for the setting means you have to strike a balancing act. You can't have the authors writing on the same subject, otherwise you risk them writing contradictory books. It would be wierd for 2 books to come out with the same character doing things that could not happen together to that same person.

Plus it allows for sequel books to be written by the same person so you don't have wierd changes to the writing styles.

James Swallow isn't the best BL author, but he is tolerable. A decent 2nd class writer behind the giants that are ADB and Abnett.