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...anyone else think it was a bit crap?

I was really looking forward to seeing the 40k conflicts through the eyes of a tanker crew, especially a super-heavy crew, but by god was it a slow book. The author gave us silly names (Bannick, Gannick and Hannick are all used in the book), a meaningless side-plot that I had quite frankly forgotten about when it's all revealed at the end, and the overall writing itself appears sloppy and unchecked.



I bought the book ages ago and didn't want to just leave it despite it getting bad, but I wish I had put it down and re-read Titanicus.

Anyone feel the same way? Does Haley's other work have the same problems?

95% of BL books are crap. The key is to find the diamonds in the rough

Eisenhorn, Ravenor, The Emperor's Gift, Ciaphas Cain, Gaunt's Ghost, Storm of Iron, and some of the HH books (Thousand Sons, First Heretic, Betrayer, Legion, Scars, etc.)

I liked it, personally, although I did find it was missing a few tank battles, could've skipped the flashbacks and add in said tank battles.

Check out Gunheads if you haven't already.

Pretty much the definitive tank-porn BL book.

BL puts out a lot of crap, particularly in more recent years. In general, I find the older it is, the better the book usually is with BL (obviously exceptions apply). I haven't read Baneblade, but there's some other stinkers. Borthers of the Snake by Abnett was awful, anything by C.S. Goto is painful to read, the HH series after the first 5 or 6 books gets *really* hit or miss.

I think my favorite BL books are Dead Men Walking, the earlier Gaunts Ghosts's books, Storm of Iron, and probably the best was the Inquisition War trilogy.

I haven't read Baneblade but I really enjoyed Guy Haley's book on Skarsnik, it was a really interesting and different way of getting into the gobbo psyche and the way in which they rise through the ranks.

If you want some good Guard books, Vakthati has already mentioned Dead Men Walking, but there's also Cadian Blood by ADB, the Macharius Crusade Trilogy, I personally liked Rebel Winter, and the early Ciaphas Cain novels.

Good tanker books include Gunheads, Honour Guard and Necropolis, and two of those are just partially tank books.

Steve Parker's Gunheads is great, but Baneblade is almost a re-write of Gunheads with minor variations.

The book might be too similar to read em back-to-back.

Steve Parker's Deathwatch is also fun, though some characters feel a bit too "fantasy", especially the Imperial Fist with all the Dwarf-cliche-traits.

Gunheads by Steve Parker is a pretty decent novel

Wonderwolf wrote:
Steve Parker's Deathwatch is also fun, though some characters feel a bit too "fantasy", especially the Imperial Fist with all the Dwarf-cliche-traits.

Except that the Imperial Fist is modeled heavily after Steve Parker himself, as he's mentioned in an interview. The guy is short and ripped.

I agree about Baneblade [it was crap] but must also say that Gunheads was so boring through first 100 pages that I almost gave it up.

 Vaktathi wrote:
BL puts out a lot of crap, particularly in more recent years. In general, I find the older it is, the better the book usually is with BL (obviously exceptions apply). I haven't read Baneblade, but there's some other stinkers. Borthers of the Snake by Abnett was awful, anything by C.S. Goto is painful to read, the HH series after the first 5 or 6 books gets *really* hit or miss.

I think my favorite BL books are Dead Men Walking, the earlier Gaunts Ghosts's books, Storm of Iron, and probably the best was the Inquisition War trilogy.

Dead Men Walking is the best for the slow slip into insanity of the main character when having simply had patience would have led to him surviving and having a pleasant life.

And Kriegsmen, too.

Writing aside (because I guess I was able to just gloss over it), I enjoyed Baneblade. The interpretation of machine-spirits, the laser-data communication systems, they're all fantastic.

I had trouble getting into Brothers of the snake, but then it really grabbed me later on. I like reading about the weirdness of space marine chapters in their "daily" lives more than I like reading about them crushing the enemy of the day. The snakes really fit with 40K the way I like to think about it, and the spartan references were cool. They oiled their hair fer crying out loud. Firewarrior is one of my recent favs. Gunheads was a bit off I thought. I like Cho and Abnett mostly.

Thou shalt not praise Brothers of the Snake on Dakkadakka,

For the Guard and Dark Eldar players will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger!

The BL book that I personally found most enjoyable, was the 15 hours. Second best propably the Dead World.

15 hours was great. I am a fan of a Cadian Blood, personally.

Oh and Redemption Corps, The Trophy and Tempestus were enjoyable, maybe not by Dakka standards, but by mine they were fun.