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I'm first and foremost a Space Hulk hulk fan, which is why I enjoy reading Blood Angels novels. I enjoyed the Space Hulk novelization and Sanguis Irae.

I've also read some other collections of short stories about W40k in general, such as Death Wing. I enjoyed most of the stories in that book, but some were a little lackluster.

When I started looking for additional Blood Angels books, the 2 Omnibus books seemed like a good place to start. I've enjoyed the first omnibus quite a bit (Deus Encarmine and Deus Sanguinius). Despite getting good reviews on Amazon, I've seen a lot of people rip on the James Swallow books on W40k related sites. Just wondering what is it that puts people off about him as I've enjoyed the books.

Also, what are some of the better Blood Angels books to read once I finish these?

I haven't heard any dislike of him to be honest, I've heard he's one of the better BL writers. Maybe not on the tier of Abnett and McNeil but definitely good.

One of my favourite HH novels is by him, Fear to Tread. Even if you don't read the HH series, it's a damn good one.

I've not read a ton of his stuff but my understanding is he's inconsistant sometimes telling good yarns other times........ less so

He wrote three paragraphs in Fear to Tread about Sanguinius lying KO'd on a table. <REDACTED> I have never read any author who pads his work as heavily as him. You can clearly see him working hard on that word count. To quote Henrik Ibsen: My apologies for the writing being so long-winded, but I didn't have a lot of time [to make this read well]."

I have never, ever gone after 10 pages "there was no substance here." In Fear to Tread, that happened quite a bit.

James Swallows Blood Angels are pretty bad and I had real high hopes for Fear to Tread as I love the back story about Signus but it was bad as well. However, Nemesis is a cracking read, warp spawn assassin thingy aside, as is Flight of the Eisenstein. When he's writing about his non adopted Legion/Chapter his writing seems to be fine. Otherwise not so good.

Its like Nick Kymes Salamander series, I just could not get into them and am really put off by his writing style. Whereas when he does the Iron Hands it seems to fit great. Gav Thorpe does Dark Angels well, but I don't really enjoy his Raven Guard.

It's a matter of preference and opinion of course, but that's how I feel.

Chris Wraight is the greatest I think, along with ADB and I think Rob Sanders is up there as well. But they all write some bad stuff from time to time.

 Pilau Rice wrote:
James Swallows Blood Angels are pretty bad and I had real high hopes for Fear to Tread as I love the back story about Signus but it was bad as well.

Just curious, what didn't you like about Fear to Tread? I loved it but it'd be interesting to hear another opinion on it.

Thanks for the replies, everyone. As I've been enjoying the first Omnibus, I'll probably get the second, but may steer clear of some of the other stuff mentioned.

The first Blood Angels Omnibus wasn't a terrible read... However the second one was just awful. Made it about halfway through the first book in the second Omnibus before I gave up in disgust. The story was trash, and the way he made the Chapter Masters seem like absolute donkey caves and Dante like an indecisive wimp was just hard to stomach.

I read the first omnibus a few years ago as well as the third book and I digged them. He is a word counter tho

I remember one of the stories had a good sentence or so that was just him repeating “and opened”. Which while painted an awesome image of that scene in my high school head, was ott.

CS Goto is the writer to avoid and my personal favorite is McNeill. His Ultramarine/ Iron Warriors series is what made me fall in Love with the Iron Warriors.

There are few universally liked/loved BL writers. Swallow isn't one of them. That being said...I enjoyed his BA work.

 Valkyrie wrote:

 Pilau Rice wrote:
James Swallows Blood Angels are pretty bad and I had real high hopes for Fear to Tread as I love the back story about Signus but it was bad as well.

Just curious, what didn't you like about Fear to Tread? I loved it but it'd be interesting to hear another opinion on it.

It's been awhile since I read it but I think it suffers from the same problems that some of the other stories do. The Heresy getting fleshed out isn't necessarily a good thing. The awesome legends that we had snippets about sometimes leaves us with the feeling that it wasn't as epic as we built it up to be. Signus, for me, was one of those instances. There are good parts in it for sure, but overall I found the story wanting. Kyriss was a bit of a let down for me and the birth of the Red Angel has set up one of the most pointless characters in the series since Samus. I should probably read it again since we are talking about it and see if I feel the same.

 NH Gunsmith wrote:
The first Blood Angels Omnibus wasn't a terrible read... However the second one was just awful. Made it about halfway through the first book in the second Omnibus before I gave up in disgust. The story was trash, and the way he made the Chapter Masters seem like absolute donkey caves and Dante like an indecisive wimp was just hard to stomach.

This is good to know. Thanks.

He also wrote "The Butterfly Effect".
The directors cut of the movie is far and away superior to the theatrical version.

The first Blood Angels Omnibus wasn't the worst thing I've read out of the Black Library (that belongs to CS Goto's Blood Ravens trilogy), but it also isn't the best thing I've read either. Overall he seems to be pretty mediocre. Flight of the Eisentein was great though.

Didn't he also write the Sisters of Battle Books? Were those any good?

 alienux wrote:

 NH Gunsmith wrote:
The first Blood Angels Omnibus wasn't a terrible read... However the second one was just awful. Made it about halfway through the first book in the second Omnibus before I gave up in disgust. The story was trash, and the way he made the Chapter Masters seem like absolute donkey caves and Dante like an indecisive wimp was just hard to stomach.

This is good to know. Thanks.

No problem, I play Blood Angels... And REALLY wanted the second Omnibus to be good. The first one while not a literary masterpiece was enjoyable enough, and the story was good enough to keep me interested. Don't bother with the second Omnibus and just read Devastation of Baal if you haven't.

Still pretty early into that book, but already like it more.

 Red Comet wrote:
The first Blood Angels Omnibus wasn't the worst thing I've read out of the Black Library (that belongs to CS Goto's Blood Ravens trilogy), but it also isn't the best thing I've read either. Overall he seems to be pretty mediocre. Flight of the Eisentein was great though.

Didn't he also write the Sisters of Battle Books? Were those any good?

I enjoyed the first one. The second one was alright but I was skipping sections by the end.

The only book I have read from Swallow are his Sisters of Battle books (I'm not a fan of Space Marines). They were pretty damn good. The first one was a bit stronger than the second one in my opinion. Where I found him excel the most was in the framing of some scenes like the religious ceremony where little kids shoot themselves with shotguns in a battle recreation to celebrate one of St-Katherine victory or the mass funeral of the Sisters of Sanctuary 101. He does have a weird pacing though and I can see it turn into a problem sometime. Another problem of his, but which can extand to a lot of Black Library authors, is the editorial needs to make "product placement" of some new units or gear in their books.

I did read Flight of the Eisentein, but I thought it was an overblown short story extanded to a full novel. The story could have been fairly similar and much more pleasent if they decided to make it in a 100 pages or so instead of 350. I need to make a mention to the most obvious traitorous marine ever: Grulgor. With such a name how could this guy NOT be a servant of Nurgle. On the opposite end of the spectrum, he also wrote the scenario and dialogs for the audio short Red and Black and, while good, the story felt rushed and could have used a full novelisation.

Personaly, I rather trust James Swallow to make at least OK books. The only authors I truly disliked would be Andy Hoar (good codex and fluff writter, but gak novelist) and Graam McNeil (good act 1 and 2, but consistently terrible at endings and most of his series devolve into stupidity).

Swallows Blood Angel books are controversial, a lot of people don't like them. My own personal take is they start out horrendous but the last one is pretty good. In my opinion the Blood Angels pick up the idiot ball early and hard. It's the unrealistic naivety and stupidity of the Blood Angels that drives the plot. It's like swallow was told about the Blood Angels fluff and character but he didn't read anything about the general character of space marines or how they interact with the imperium. So the result, especially in the early books, is the Blood Angels template applied to a imperial guard regiment. He gets the Blood Angels so right but drops the ball so hard at depicting their space marine side. The BA are just to human in his books, worse they are weak and incompetent Humans.

Having said that there's some good stuff in them and a lot of people do like them so it’s personal opinion, and Swallow has done some good work, just not his BA stuff in my opinion.

If your looking for other BA books my first suggestion to anyone looking for Blood Angel info is always to pick up the novel Dante by Guy Haley it’s a great novel and as a bonus will give you a lot of info about the BA, plus there’s the excellent sequel Devastation of Baal which sets the stage for our latest codex, two great novels that will really help you get to know the BA. They go into the background of the BA like no other novels, Dante is 2 stories woven together one is the build up to the massive battle in Devastation of Baal and the other following Dante as a child and his induction into the Blood Angels. Devastation of Baal is the massive tyranid invasion of the BA home system Baal. Lots of info on Blood Angel successor chapters as well as info on Baal and the BA in general.

There is also Lemartes: Guardian of the Lost. Blood Angels/Death Company Vs khorne daemons and space marines. Bit of an overdone plot but gives good insite into the Black rage and the hell that is Lemartes existence.

I'd also recommend Mephiston: Blood of Sanguinius. Another good book and It gives some insite into how he's seen and how he views his transformation. I think I’ve heard mention of a sequel.

Pandion40 wrote:

Swallows Blood Angel books are controversial, a lot of people don't like them. My own personal take is they start out horrendous but the last one is pretty good. In my opinion the Blood Angels pick up the idiot ball early and hard. It's the unrealistic naivety and stupidity of the Blood Angels that drives the plot. It's like swallow was told about the Blood Angels fluff and character but he didn't read anything about the general character of space marines or how they interact with the imperium. So the result, especially in the early books, is the Blood Angels template applied to a imperial guard regiment. He gets the Blood Angels so right but drops the ball so hard at depicting their space marine side. The BA are just to human in his books, worse they are weak and incompetent Humans.

Having said that there's some good stuff in them and a lot of people do like them so it’s personal opinion, and Swallow has done some good work, just not his BA stuff in my opinion.

If your looking for other BA books my first suggestion to anyone looking for Blood Angel info is always to pick up the novel Dante by Guy Haley it’s a great novel and as a bonus will give you a lot of info about the BA, plus there’s the excellent sequel Devastation of Baal which sets the stage for our latest codex, two great novels that will really help you get to know the BA. They go into the background of the BA like no other novels, Dante is 2 stories woven together one is the build up to the massive battle in Devastation of Baal and the other following Dante as a child and his induction into the Blood Angels. Devastation of Baal is the massive tyranid invasion of the BA home system Baal. Lots of info on Blood Angel successor chapters as well as info on Baal and the BA in general.

There is also Lemartes: Guardian of the Lost. Blood Angels/Death Company Vs khorne daemons and space marines. Bit of an overdone plot but gives good insite into the Black rage and the hell that is Lemartes existence.

I'd also recommend Mephiston: Blood of Sanguinius. Another good book and It gives some insite into how he's seen and how he views his transformation. I think I’ve heard mention of a sequel.

Thanks, I appreciate the recommendations.

I’ve only read The Flight of the Eisenstein from him, and while it’s a bit slow and lacking in some of the drama and tension of the other HH books, it’s by no means awful.