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Dan Abnett hands down, he attracts non 40k players to his novels, I have several friends and 1 of them being female and not knowing anything about 40k same with my two other friends say the Gaunts Ghosts series is one of the best war series they read and that's including outside of it being science fiction. I let then read some of my novels at first and they started collecting their own copies. If you are a 40k fan and you read novels Dan Abnett's Gaunts Ghosts series is a must. You can get the first 7 novels in 2 omnibus books for $16 or so a piece.

For my money? Aaron Dembski-Bowden.

Ben Counter
Every single book i have read of his i have loved.
The Grey Knights stories were well written and, despite truely massive amounts of violence, still had interesting plots.
Daemon World was just awesome, great plot and making there be no real good guys so you are voting for anyone you really choose.
I know most people would say that Dan Abnett is the best and i did love Gaunts Ghosts, but i couldn't get into eisenhorn or ravenor.
Ive only read Blood Gorgons from Zou but it was an amazing book so i'd suggest that.
Sandy Mitchell has hilarious but awesome books and i have loved all of the Cain books.

Steve Lyons: Death World was strange, but his other work is awesome.

Guy Haley: BANEEEEEEEEEEEEBLADE

Whoever wrote that book that I cannot remember the title of but involves guardsmen riding tanks and killing orks by the thousands, good times.

Aaron Dembski-Bowden for the second best. I love how he writes chaos.

Abnett keeps me entertained every time and that's a big ask to do it for so many years.
ADB started with a flurry and I was left thirsting for more with his original novels but he has a bit if an ego problem which bubbles over a bit in his writing nearly feel at times he is leaning over you saying 'my book is great love my book!!' maybe I'm just scared of him, it could be the hat he wears all the time.
Sandy M just makes me smile and enjoy 40k in a totally different way.

My favorites are:
John French, and
Andy Chambers

I thoroughly enjoyed Ahriman: Exile. John tied together Ahriman's 30k and 40k fluff in a great way.

I liked Andy Chambers Dark Eldar books. He built up numerous characters and kept them true to their fluff as well.

Abnett.

I just finished the space marine omnibus and it IS a fantastic way to get a large amount of authors and their various ways of writing, get that

I've read a ton of 40k BL books over the years, and honestly, I'd have to agree on the book titles, vice buying the books by author comments.
Recommendations:
-The Macharius Series (great sense of being a guardsman)
-Eisenhorn/Ravenor are must, it isn't anything Space Marine-y, and you can almost relate to the characters.
-The ADB Night Lords Trilogy.
-Gaunts Ghosts' series.
-The Ultramarines series are a great read. as well, at least, the 1st 3 books were.
-The beginning books of the Horus Heresy, before it became repetative.

I didn't enjoy Ahriman all that much, it was quite slow and didn't capture me the way I thought it would, and I loved Ahriman in Thousand Sons.

Anyway, my two cents.

Ben Counter has generally been pleasant for me, not always AWESOME!!!! but fairly consistent (though occasionally BORING).

Dan Abnett I find to be fairly decent, true, his endings consistently leave me wanting more (not in the good way) but okay.

I've only read Flight of the Eisenstien but that made me just about scream for more James Swallow.

Goto: Yo dawg, I heard you like multilasers and spessshhhmureeens, so I stuck multilasers on your spessshhhmureeens so you can read ridiculous warporn while you read ridiculous warporn while doing backflips. In terminator armor. Like a boss... HAHAHAHA... no.

Chris Wraight, forgot about him, outstanding!

Are the soul drinkers books any good? As I do like the idea of a loyal chaosy chapter, but no-one seems to recommend them

Overall, Dan Abnett. His stuff reads great (though thinking to hard about some of his books will suck you into terrible logic holes).

Honorable mention for Steve Parker. Deathwatch was the most fun I've had with a 40K book in a long, long, long time. He probably hasn't written enough to make a credible claim to the throne though.

ADB's and Graham McNeill's early works are excellent, though the more recent stuff by both was less impressive IMO. I think BL should probably give them a bit more time to recuperate, do something other for a change, and then let them return strong. Milking them for 2-3 books a year each seems to make them much more formulaic.

Dan Abnett. Titanicus and Know no Fear are my two favorite BL books. Also, check out his "Embedded." Its some of the best military sci-fi I've seen in years.

Overall, I have to give it to Dan Abnett, he is a BL stalwart, who always delivers no matter which race he is writing for. The only book of his I wasn't overly keen on was Legion, but I've enjoyed everything else he's done.

Dunno, I like Dan Abnett, but I would NOT recommend Embedded.

That's definitely one of the laziest plots to ever blight a dead tree. Lazy reporter "just happens" to be drafted into super-secret mind-swap experiment that "just happens" to go wrong precisely so he gets full control (while conveniently retaining precisely the lewt combat skills), upon which he'll have to run for his life, though he continues to "just happen" to run into all the plot-points that finally reveal the big-ol' mysterious conspiracy? Not Abnett's best work, not by far.

Ah, Steve Parker wrote Gunhead, which is the book I described earlier, knew that name was familiar.

Abnetts name comes up on most people lists. I find that telling. I have also been wanting to ask this question so Im glad the thread came up. I have played since 2004, but not read a single 40K book. I started one, on sisters of Battle but never finished, It wasn't that well writen, I didn't think. The subject matter was more interesting than the content. Lol.

King Pariah wrote:Goto: Yo dawg, I heard you like multilasers and spessshhhmureeens, so I stuck multilasers on your spessshhhmureeens so you can read ridiculous warporn while you read ridiculous warporn while doing backflips. In terminator armor. Like a boss... HAHAHAHA... no.

Is this truly so much different from many of the other writers that have been lauded in this thread, though? Dan "Abnettverse" Abnett and his emotional, feeling servitors or 9-foot-Marines? Sandy Mitchell and his unindoctrinated Commissars and flirty Sisters?

I get the distinct impression that such .. deviations are rather prevalent in 40k licensed fiction, but most are simply not noticed because the readers are less knowledgeable about certain details (in many cases perhaps similar to the writers).

I have read hundreds of books and short stories from BL, and I never understood the CS Goto hate. Yeah he is bad and I would not recommend any of his books. But I have read far worse things by authors that are not that hated.

 Lynata wrote:

King Pariah wrote:Goto: Yo dawg, I heard you like multilasers and spessshhhmureeens, so I stuck multilasers on your spessshhhmureeens so you can read ridiculous warporn while you read ridiculous warporn while doing backflips. In terminator armor. Like a boss... HAHAHAHA... no.

Is this truly so much different from many of the other writers that have been lauded in this thread, though? Dan "Abnettverse" Abnett and his emotional, feeling servitors or 9-foot-Marines? Sandy Mitchell and his unindoctrinated Commissars and flirty Sisters?

I get the distinct impression that such .. deviations are rather prevalent in 40k licensed fiction, but most are simply not noticed because the readers are less knowledgeable about certain details (in many cases perhaps similar to the writers).

For me, CS Goto just has the misfortune of poor writing combined deviations which make those deviations all the less tolerable.

Aaron Dembski-Bowden (sp?). All of his books have a gritty, visceral tone that I like in my 40k.

Graham McNeille doesn't completely suck, either. But I hated his Priests of Mars book. You're on notice, Graham! You hear me!?!?!

McNeil is probably my favorite.

Aaron Dembski Bowden. Dan Abnett is a close second.

Helsreach was really tense, gritty and badass, while 'The Emperor's Gift' had a very interesting plot and characters, and Betrayer is my favourite of the 3 by him I've read.

Is this truly so much different from many of the other writers that have been lauded in this thread, though? Dan "Abnettverse" Abnett and his emotional, feeling servitors or 9-foot-Marines? Sandy Mitchell and his unindoctrinated Commissars and flirty Sisters?

I get the distinct impression that such .. deviations are rather prevalent in 40k licensed fiction, but most are simply not noticed because the readers are less knowledgeable about certain details (in many cases perhaps similar to the writers)

Agreed 100%. While I can see where some might not like Goto, I actually enjoyed a lot of his work. Let's be honest here, as literary fiction goes, almost none of the BL stuff is "good". It is however, FUN (or at least it's suppose to be). They're the modern equivalent of the old dime store adventure novels. "Guilty pleasures" if you will. So that being said, I found some of Goto's outlandishness refreshing and fun to read. He wasn't taking the setting nearly so seriously as an Abnett (whom I feel is often trying too hard) for example.

Problem is where other authors deviate from the accepted "40k norm" quite frequently (McNiel's entire Ultramarine series is, for example, about a semi-rebelious Ultramarine - when in the game fluff does THAT ever happen?), they do so in ways many gamers either don't notice or are able to tolerate. Flirty SoB? Hey that's fun! Emotional servitor? Wow neat! Unindoctrinated Commisar? He was probably sick that day! Marine with a multi-laser? HEY! You can't arm Marines with Multi-lasers!!!!!!!!! lol Why the line gets drawn right there I have no idea but that's where it is and Goto just had the unfortunate experience of being the one to find it. lol

I started one, on sisters of Battle but never finished, It wasn't that well writen, I didn't think. The subject matter was more interesting than the content. Lol.

I enjoy the BL books, but honestly, you just described a good bulk of their catalog.

That's definitely one of the laziest plots to ever blight a dead tree. Lazy reporter "just happens" to be drafted into super-secret mind-swap experiment that "just happens" to go wrong precisely so he gets full control (while conveniently retaining precisely the lewt combat skills), upon which he'll have to run for his life, though he continues to "just happen" to run into all the plot-points that finally reveal the big-ol' mysterious conspiracy? Not Abnett's best work, not by far.

I liked embedded better when it was called Total Recall. But the Arnie one ... not the Collin Ferral remake!

Overall, Dan Abnett. His stuff reads great (though thinking at all about some of his books will suck you into terrible logic holes).

Fixed that for you. lol/jk For me, it's not so much that Abnett can't write an ending as it is that he comes up with very interesting hooks that aren't completely thought out before he begins writing and ends up painting himself into a corner. The entire book becomes dependent on that one hook or plot twist and if that twist doesn't work everything else kind of falls apart. For example, his reasoning for why the Alpha Legion turned is kind of a cool idea. Very interesting and very tragic. Problem is it's a huge event in the series and it hinges on such a shallow story beat that the foundation becomes too weak for that reasoning to really stand up. He's kind of the M. Night Shamalan of BL authors.

ADB's and Graham McNeill's early works are excellent, though the more recent stuff by both was less impressive IMO. I think BL should probably give them a bit more time to recuperate, do something other for a change, and then let them return strong. Milking them for 2-3 books a year each seems to make them much more formulaic.

Solid point about how often they have to crank out books. I hadn't thought of that before, but that insane schedule could easily explain my (fairly minor) issues with both authors.

 kronk wrote:
Aaron Dembski-Bowden (sp?). All of his books have a gritty, visceral tone that I like in my 40k.

Graham McNeille doesn't completely suck, either. But I hated his Priests of Mars book. You're on notice, Graham! You hear me!?!?!

I am loving the mechanics books form mcneill, preceding them to his more standard ultra marine stuff which is fairly tedious.

Agree on ADB (can't be bothered attempting to spell!) he has written some cool stuff, but his most recent HH stuff has sucked bigstyle. Think all the hype over him went to his head and he went bad and boring. Hope he hides away for a while clams down and starts again because his night lords trilogy was outstanding.

 Lynata wrote:
Dan "Abnettverse" Abnett and his emotional, feeling servitors

And what book featured these now?

Anyway, Dan Abnett was good but seems to have really lost his touch (Legion is horse gak, and Know No Fear took a serious turn for the worse after the opening Word Bearer's attack) and even some of his older works weren't as good as people think (I had to really struggle to get past First and Only).

ADB can be good. Helsreach and The First Heretic are both great. The Emperor's Gift was good until the last third of the book, where it suddenly becomes a pile of horse gak. Betrayer was incredibly hit or miss, some parts were okay, some great, some truly fething terrible. ADB also has an issue with adhering to what his fellow writers wrote. This isn't so bad if it's a standalone book or his own series, but becomes problematic when he is just one of many contributors to a single series, like the Horus Heresy.

McNeill is probably the best, being mostly competent, although he has had some pretty glaring mishaps in his career (Most notably his portrayal of the fall of Horus).

There are other writers out there, but as Blax said, those tend to be more "niche" in their audience. Abnett, McNeill, and ADB are more or less the big three.

 Void__Dragon wrote:

 Lynata wrote:
Dan "Abnettverse" Abnett and his emotional, feeling servitors

And what book featured these now?

Ravenor showed the Inquisitor of the same name making telepathic contact with a servitor. I wouldn't call the being 'feeling' or 'emotional' in that scene, but it was certainly one of the most heart-wrenching passages I've ever read in 40k fluff. Certainly hammered home the living nightmare that is the servitor.

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Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Zweischneid wrote:

ADB's and Graham McNeill's early works are excellent, though the more recent stuff by both was less impressive IMO. I think BL should probably give them a bit more time to recuperate, do something other for a change, and then let them return strong. Milking them for 2-3 books a year each seems to make them much more formulaic.

McNeill is actually freelance.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Jimsolo wrote:

Ravenor showed the Inquisitor of the same name making telepathic contact with a servitor. I wouldn't call the being 'feeling' or 'emotional' in that scene, but it was certainly one of the most heart-wrenching passages I've ever read in 40k fluff. Certainly hammered home the living nightmare that is the servitor.

I'll wait for Lynata's response, just to be sure I know exactly what she is referring to.