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Black Library employs numerous authors and churns out many novels. We should expect variation in quality.

I've divided the novels into 5 categories, Great Reads, Good Reads, Average Reads, Not So Good Reads, and Time Wasters/Toilet Paper.

Rate the novels you've read according to these categories. Clichéd novels would generally be Not So Good Reads.

I'd read by authors. ADB, Dan Abnett, Andy Chambers, Gav Thorpe, and Rob Sanders typically produce excellent novels. Never pick up a Ben Counter or McNeil book. Use it as kindling for a fire.

 Wyzilla wrote:
I'd read by authors. ADB, Dan Abnett, Andy Chambers, Gav Thorpe, and Rob Sanders typically produce excellent novels. Never pick up a Ben Counter or McNeil book. Use it as kindling for a fire.

BL has exhausted Abnett though. I agree with you on McNeill, he's a toilet paper factory.

Ho ho ho wyz. Gav Thorpe. Emperor on a bike.
Theyre all toilet reads. Most of ADBs stuff is good to great. Lets see if he can be the first BL writer to manage a trilogy that shouldve ended at 2.
Abnetts solid. McNeil is interesting because you wont know if its good til youve read it.
Most writers can only manage one subject. Wraights good with wolves. Haley and Annandale are good with guard.
Thorpe, Swallow, Counter and Kyme are trash, no matter what they write about, but good luck stopping them.
But its a bit hard to judge most when they only churn out a couple of pages to flog off.

Haley's marines, Orks, and Eldar were all really good as well. Annandale is just good enough to not be called terrible, but he's not even top five for me. Chris Wright and Rob Sanders are great. I just wish they could write a little faster.

Great reads:

The Eisenhorn & Ravenor series by Dan Abnett
The Shia Calpurnia series by Matt Farrer

Good Reads:

The Gaunt's Ghosts series by Dan Abnett (would be "great", but war stories tend to get a bit repetitive)
The Sisters of Battle series by James Swallow

Average Reads:

Anything with Space Marines as the protagonists

Not So Good Reads:

Blood of Asaheim

I'd definitely add Talon of Horus by Aaron Dembski-Bowden into the great reads category after finishing it the other day.

McNeill is hardly as bad as some of the people in this thread are saying he is. He's written a lot of crap, but he does have some solid reads like A Thousand Sons, Storm of Iron, and The Imperial Infantryman's Handbook. If anything, he's just very hit or miss. His books are very rarely spectacular, but most of them are passable. His main problem is that he can get very wordy, and a lot of his dialogue can feel static and unnatural, but he can write some very interesting characters and scenes. Fulgrim had some of the most interesting and vivid descriptions of what the perversity of Slaanesh would be like that's ever been written.

I get why people don't like him, but he's hardly as incompetent as some people paint him as.

the ancient wrote:

. . . Swallow . . . are trash, no matter what they write about, but good luck stopping them.

Have to vehemently disagree with you here. Fear to Tread, Flight of the Eisenstein, and Nemesis were all great reads.

McNeil manages to make the fantastic into the mundane, and Fulgrim is a particularly shallow example of his "Tell, don't show" style of writing.

 Darth Bob wrote:
McNeill is hardly as bad as some of the people in this thread are saying he is. He's written a lot of crap, but he does have some solid reads like A Thousand Sons, Storm of Iron, and The Imperial Infantryman's Handbook. If anything, he's just very hit or miss. His books are very rarely spectacular, but most of them are passable. His main problem is that he can get very wordy, and a lot of his dialogue can feel static and unnatural, but he can write some very interesting characters and scenes. Fulgrim had some of the most interesting and vivid descriptions of what the perversity of Slaanesh would be like that's ever been written.

I get why people don't like him, but he's hardly as incompetent as some people paint him as.

the ancient wrote:

. . . Swallow . . . are trash, no matter what they write about, but good luck stopping them.

Have to vehemently disagree with you here. Fear to Tread, Flight of the Eisenstein, and Nemesis were all great reads.

I wouldn't call having wooden characters with less dimension to them than cardboard cutouts "passable". The problem with McNeil is that he is only qualified to write children characters, and nothing of greater complexity. McNeil is the main guilty party of taking the Primarchs and turning them into mentally stunted whining children whose actions could only be logically explained by all of those being touched by McNeil as bipolar. Of course the Black Library is a terrible place to go for good literature, but McNeil really goes above and beyond the call of trashing the characters he writes.

 Wyzilla wrote:
I wouldn't call having wooden characters with less dimension to them than cardboard cutouts "passable". The problem with McNeil is that he is only qualified to write children characters, and nothing of greater complexity. McNeil is the main guilty party of taking the Primarchs and turning them into mentally stunted whining children whose actions could only be logically explained by all of those being touched by McNeil as bipolar. Of course the Black Library is a terrible place to go for good literature, but McNeil really goes above and beyond the call of trashing the characters he writes.

I respectfully disagree with your assessment, but it may just come down to taste. I personally think Gav Thorpe isn't all that, but that's just my opinion.

Edit: In retrospect, there are a couple books of Gav's I enjoy, so I actually wouldn't call him garbage, but I definitely wouldn't call him one of BL's best writers.

+1 for ADB. Cool guy who writes cool stories.

The Night Lords books are liquid gold that should not be missed.

 Wyzilla wrote:
Of course the Black Library is a terrible place to go for good literature.

Sadly true. But the surprise when you find something good certainly gives you a warm fuzzy feeling. :-)

Abnett's Eisenhorn books are excellent, for example. And I too have to place Farrer's Shira Calpurnia in the good department.

Ofc, some of the best stuff is very old. If you ever get your hands on Jack Yeovil's Genevieve books hold on to them - these were written before Warhammer/40K was a children's game. ;-)

Maximus Bitch wrote:

 Wyzilla wrote:
I'd read by authors. ADB, Dan Abnett, Andy Chambers, Gav Thorpe, and Rob Sanders typically produce excellent novels. Never pick up a Ben Counter or McNeil book. Use it as kindling for a fire.

BL has exhausted Abnett though. I agree with you on McNeill, he's a toilet paper factory.

I've read more bad stories by Abnett than McNeil, but both can be hit and miss.

The Priest of Mars series is great, and if you never read anything else by McNeil I would suggest at least reading book 1.

I highly recommend any guard or tau lovers to check out fire caste. The title is pretty misleading as its a story about the imperial guard, but I thought it was an excellent and well paced book, not to mention it feels a lot like heart of darkness if it were 40k

Aaron Dembski-Bowden has a knack for taking the most one dimensional, ludicrous, nonsense factions (fluff wise), and somehow turning those turds into character rich, multilayered literary diamonds.

 Jimsolo wrote:
Aaron Dembski-Bowden has a knack for taking the most one dimensional, ludicrous, nonsense factions (fluff wise), and somehow turning those turds into character rich, multilayered literary diamonds.

Relevant

 ImAGeek wrote:
I'd definitely add Talon of Horus by Aaron Dembski-Bowden into the great reads category after finishing it the other day.

+1

It comes down to taste. Ben Counter and Graham McNeil have been slated here for good reason. In my opinion they have both written some of the finest books for Black Library as well as the poorest. Storm of Iron and Daemonworld are a couple of the best books ever released for BL if you ask me. So of the ones I have read, not including HH or anthologies.

Great Reads
Storm of Iron
Daemonworld
Lord of the Night
Eisenhorn
Legion of the Damned
Soul Hunter
Dark Apostle
Liber Chaotica

Good Reads
Dark Disciple
Dark Creed
Battle of the Fang
The Inquisitor War Trilogy
Blood Reaver

Average Reads
Void Stalker

Not So Good Reads
Salamander

Toilet paper has thus far been reserved for some in the HH series.

 Pilau Rice wrote:
It comes down to taste. Ben Counter and Graham McNeil have been slated here for good reason. In my opinion they have both written some of the finest books for Black Library as well as the poorest. Storm of Iron and Daemonworld are a couple of the best books ever released for BL if you ask me. So of the ones I have read, not including HH or anthologies.

Great Reads
Storm of Iron
Daemonworld
Lord of the Night
Eisenhorn
Legion of the Damned
Soul Hunter
Dark Apostle
Liber Chaotica

Good Reads
Dark Disciple
Dark Creed
Battle of the Fang
The Inquisitor War Trilogy
Blood Reaver

Average Reads
Void Stalker

Not So Good Reads
Salamander

Toilet paper has thus far been reserved for some in the HH series.

What's the cause? Maybe they were pressured by BL to write something quick?

Maximus Bitch wrote:

What's the cause? Maybe they were pressured by BL to write something quick?

In Mr McNeills case I think it's to do with volume, he seems to churn out more than any other BL writer and suffers for it. I hope that ADB doesn't fall into the same trap. I feel that some of his later offerings haven't been up to his usual standard. But then that's just me, someone else will say he's doing great and his books have been as awesome as usual.

In Mr Counters case I don't think he's that great a writer. I haven't liked his Soul Drinkers or Grey Knights and the only other book of his I have enjoyed is Galaxy In Flames. I think he must have offered up his soul to Slaanesh for Daemonworld

The Cain books are definitely good for what they are.

How well they reflect the 40k universe is another matter, of course. The Cain books are like Fawlty Towers - entertaining, but should not be taken as an educational representation of its subject matter.

In and of themselves, they are entirely workable.

Talons of Horus was an amazing read in my humble opinion. The way ADB writes characters really makes them feel like people which is saying something given that he's writing about blood crazed psychopaths.

All the novels by ADB ive read have been tippy top

Chris Wraight knows his stuff on the space wolves too. Love to read great books about my favourite army.

My current favorite is John French, his Ahriman series has been outstanding IMO.

I didn't enjoy talon of Horus at all sadly. I had huge expectations after the night lords series which I loved to bits but I found ToH boring. I'm rereading enforcer omnibus by Matthew farrer. Loving it, gets me deeper into the 40k world than 90% of BL stuff.

For a long time Ben Counter was my favourite BL writer and he has definitely been replaced by ADB. The Soul Drinkers and Night Lords series are fantastic reads.
I have always found Graham McNeill, Dan Abnett and Gav Thorpe overrated, though Storm of Iron and the Ravenor series are absolute top notch.
I love the HH series but I have found that all the writers are slowly losing their magic. Its a shame as it seems that they are going to stretch it out far too long and by the end everyone's personal favourite will seem a bit diminished.

Here's the novels I've read, and the ratings I'd give them;

Legion - Great read;

This one is the best book I've read so far, it had interesting characters and a good story. In my opinion, Abnett really manages to breathe some more life into the universe as a whole through this book.

Scars - Good read;

The White Scars Legion, aka the Mongols in Space, goes on a roadtrip to Prospero while Heresy engulfs the galaxy. Provides some more information on how the White Scars do things, their homeworld and why Jaghatai Khan is a badass.

Nemesis - Good read;

The story of an Execution Force ordered to kill Horus himself was a pretty good one, in my opinion, although the story stutters a bit near the end (the fate of some of the characters seems a bit forced or illogical sometimes).

Shadows of Treachery - Good read;

An anthology. Fun to read through, especially the Night Lord and Imperial Fists stuff.

Deliverance Lost - Good read;

I've always liked the Ravens, and this novel just made them like them even more, even if some of them end up getting killed by the Alpha Legion. I found it pretty suspenseful, although the ending nagged at me a bit.

Cybernetica - Average read;

Cybernetica is a bit of a mixed bag in my opinion. The story comes across as if it was meant to be the script for a videogame rather than a novel, the action sequences in particular feeling very bland and generic.

The thing that bugged me the most was something I only discovered after reading it: there's only one marine from a Traitor Legion in the group of protagonists at the start, and his name is Scaramanga... if you're wondering why that sounds familiar, that is because it's (almost exactly) the name of a James Bond villain.

I'll let you guess how that ends

Battle for the Abyss - Not so good read

I liked reading through it, but in the end, it's not exactly a good read. I think this one's been covered enough by other people.

Deathfire - Good read;

I liked it, a lot even. It's in the Heresy tier in the list someone posted though, so don't take my word for it that it's good.

I'll second anything about ADB - I've yet to read anything by him that's been less than (at very least) good.

I can't remember which HH novels I've read as I usually get them in from a Library. The exceptions are anything with Salamanders in - for fairly obvious reasons. Which leads me to say that I think Nick Kyme is given a bit of an unfair press. Perhaps he doesn't quite have the same versatility as ADB, but he captures the Salamanders well enough and I think he's done them justice - I would rate him as one of the better or at least average writers. I've read Vulkan Lives and Deathfire and neither of them are totally bad reads. Yeah, they aren't filled end to end with colossal battles, but there is a nice balance of action and character progression - I'd rate them as worth a read. The one proviso I do have is that Deathfire is best read in conjunction with Vulkan Lives - that way you understand the characters motivations a bit better.

I'd also second Deliverance Lost as worth a read and Unremembered Empire is decent too.

My problem with anything salamander related at this point is Vulkin's personal story line has become increasingly convoluted and as a tie in to that, the nonsense of Curze running around the galaxy by himself while acting like a psychotic batman is not appealing.

@HoundsofDemos - I can see your point, There were certain parts of the books where Curze's psychosis seems a touch theatrical, but by all fluff past and present, he [i]is[\i] insane. Hence, I can very well imagine him doing such things. I have to disagree on how convoluted the plot is though - to my mind it follows a fairly clear path throughout and you can see how Vulkan develops. I will concede that Kyme is not the best author, I have read many authors both BL and otherwise that I rate higher, but I feel it's unfair to relegate him as pure garbage - I think he's fairly solid with moments of great insight.

Anyway the point is irrelevant. As far as my humble opinion goes - I'd personally recomend him, though I respect other's criticisms.