PDA

View Full Version : Worst Black Library Author



Grailkeeper
07-10-2010, 12:07 PM
Whilst there are some great black library Authors (take a bow Dan Abnett, Graham McNeill et al) its no secret that there are some really awful ones.

The range of terrible books usually stretch to some filler works with title like "Imperial Guard regiment" or "Space Marine Chapter" with lines like for "for the emeperor Shouted the Space Marine- Bang Bang Bang went the bolt guns and twenteen Chaos spacemarines died like the traitors they are".

I honestly wonder if anyone who works for games workshop and who owns a laptop is allowed to write a black Library nopvel

I was wondering who the least liked authors are? Gav thorpe gets a lot of stick for the Last chancers (which I actually kinda liked) Ben Counter is the worst offender in my opinion altough the worst book by far was the tie in with the Fire Warrior game. Reading it was like watching someone else play the computer game and describing it to you whilst limiting himself to words of seven letters or less. I wouldn't have been surprised if at some point it mentioned the fire warrior pausing the game for half an hour to have some lunch and a quick toilet break.

So have at you- who is the least liked Black library author?

Herald of Nurgle
07-10-2010, 12:28 PM
COOOOOOOUNTEEEEEEEEEERRR!!!

*shakes fist up to the heavens*

Baron Spikey
07-10-2010, 04:32 PM
Since you've missed a fair few BL authors I'll just choose the one I dislike most out of that list- C.S Goto, the Uwe Boll of the Black Library, at least Counter has got a fair few decent novels to his name.

p.s. if you included the full list of authors I would have vote Lee Lightner, he writes like a dyslexic 5 year-old.

BlackKnight15624
07-10-2010, 05:01 PM
Counter ruined my Legion with his awful book... Though as stated above, had you included Lee Lightner I would have voted 'him' (I think it's a pen name for two people). The Space Wolves series, so exquisitely set up and explained by Bill King, was torn down and ruined by the simple over-repetition of a few choice words: "The young space wolf..."

Baron Spikey
07-10-2010, 05:18 PM
Re-reading Will King's books I'm not so enamoured of him either- in his BL days his stuff was great, but only in comparison to alot of the stuff being churned out then. If he'd started now I doubt he'd make it into the top10 best BL authors list (I certainly think Nathan Long is doing a better job with the characters Bill created than Mr King did himself).

Hugz4Genestealers
07-10-2010, 06:00 PM
I propose siccing the internet on anyone votes against Abnett. Either that or hunting them down and killing them in their sleep. See? Restraint. I'm such a nice person.

Grailkeeper
07-10-2010, 06:00 PM
I always considered william king to be basically a childrens author writing about warhammer with children in mind. as for Lee lightner I plain forgo- my bad.(tho not as bad as his novels

SierraFiveOne
07-10-2010, 08:33 PM
One word: Multilasers.

My vote goes to Goto.

eldargal
07-10-2010, 09:36 PM
Some of the others might be bad, but Goto is abominable. Terrible writer and no grasp of fluff.

Melissia
07-11-2010, 12:18 AM
C.S. Goto is the worst for sure. But the douchebag who wrote Redemption Corps gets honorable mention.

BlackKnight15624
07-11-2010, 06:00 AM
I always considered william king to be basically a childrens author writing about warhammer with children in mind. as for Lee lightner I plain forgo- my bad.(tho not as bad as his novels

Good thing I was a kid when Space Wolf came out then.

Herald of Nurgle
07-11-2010, 06:12 AM
Wow. Lastie would be proud of all the hate against Goto. :)

infilTRAITOR
07-11-2010, 06:35 AM
Redemption Corps was pretty good but seemed to take a helluva lot from Black Hawk Down. CS Goto gets my vote with Counter a close second. You never know what you're gonna get with Counter, he can be either amazing or sickeningly bad.

Aaron Dembski-Bowden is fast proving to be an excellent contributor to the Black Library. Very much enjoyed each of this offerings so far and am looking forward to The First Heretic.

Simon Spurrier is by far my favourite but I did notice his profile is absent from the BL site.

Grailkeeper
07-11-2010, 07:32 AM
Redemption Corps was pretty good but seemed to take a helluva lot from Black Hawk Down. CS Goto gets my vote with Counter a close second. You never know what you're gonna get with Counter, he can be either amazing or sickeningly bad.

Aaron Dembski-Bowden is fast proving to be an excellent contributor to the Black Library. Very much enjoyed each of this offerings so far and am looking forward to The First Heretic.

Simon Spurrier is by far my favourite but I did notice his profile is absent from the BL site.

So you like all the night lord authors then?

infilTRAITOR
07-11-2010, 07:34 AM
So you like all the night lord authors then?

It's because of these authors that I like the Night Lords

scadugenga
07-11-2010, 05:54 PM
I'm not going to go out and say "X writer sucks!" because, let's face it--they were good enough to get published under a label, rather than having to "self publish" like so many aspiring authors do.

Which means that they were obviously able to do something that the vast majority cannot.

However, C.S. Goto's Eldar Prophecy was definitely time of my life I would like back. The book fairly screamed zero grasp on the subject matter, which even if I were not an eldar player, would be unacceptable.

wittdooley
07-11-2010, 06:32 PM
I have to agree with Melissa on Redemption Corps. I think there was a lot of good potential there that was ruined by a multitude of things.

I've not read any of C.S. Goto's stuff, so I can't comment on those.

I'm really surprised Chris Roberson isn't on here for his Son's of Dorn stink-fest.

I voted for Gav Thorpe... his Space Hulk novella abomination did it for me, though I'm hearing good things about the new Eldar book, so I may give him another (4th?) chance.

SierraFiveOne
07-11-2010, 07:53 PM
I've not read any of C.S. Goto's stuff, so I can't comment on those.

Just for those of you who have had the good fortune to not come into contact with Goto's book-analogues, the following forum pretty much explains everything. All of this is from the very first chapter of his "Warrior Brood" book.

http://forums.relicnews.com/archive/index.php/t-77273.html

For those of you who don't want to follow the link, allow me to summarize:

1. Space Marines fire multilasers. No Imperial Guard are present.

2. A single hormagaunt is totally hardcore and can pin down a Space Marine Librarian.

3. Space Marine armor is made out of "adamantite".

4. Tyranid spore mines do not explode when shot, but are powerful enough to drag away a Space Marine and dent his armor in the process.

5. A Space Marine must be told to fire his lascannon at a Hive Tyrant instead of at hormagaunts.

6. Zoanthropes are flat-out invincible.

7. Everybody uses hellfire rounds in their bolters.

8. Terminators are slaughtered by barbed stranglers from the most pacifistic Carnifex ever.

9. A Terminator sergeant somehow conveniently remembers "Oh yeah, I have a Cyclone Missile Launcher!" after being owned said barbed stranglers

Yeah....

Porty1119
07-12-2010, 02:59 PM
SM with multilasers?

That guy MUST have been drunk.

The AKH
07-12-2010, 10:09 PM
C.S. Goto's Eldar Prophecy was definitely time of my life I would like back. The book fairly screamed zero grasp on the subject matter, which even if I were not an eldar player, would be unacceptable.

I second that thought. Heavily. The Dawn of War tie-ins aren't much - if at all - better.

Warp
07-12-2010, 11:58 PM
The Dawn of War trilogy by Goto was the first 40K novel I read. I did it as I was getting into the hobby and I thought the book would connect me a bit since I knew about some of the stuff from the video games.

I STILL find myself thinking "wtf was he on about?" on some of the stuff I remember. Fortunately, lots of that book has been pushed out by me reading too many books a year.

Lord Anubis
07-13-2010, 01:01 AM
Gav Thorpe almost turned me off the Black Library altogether. The Last Chancers books were just so God-awful. It's not that they were bad 40K books. They were just bad books, period. Calling them horrible is being generous.


I'm not going to go out and say "X writer sucks!" because, let's face it--they were good enough to get published under a label, rather than having to "self publish" like so many aspiring authors do.

Which means that they were obviously able to do something that the vast majority cannot.

Well, except close to half of them were high-end employees of Games Workshop, parent company of the Black Library. So in a way they were self-publishing. ;)

Dan Abnett's written for the Black Library, and BBC books, and has a regular gig with Marvel Comics. I've yet to hear about anyone else begging Gav Thorpe to dabble in their universe...

Hugz4Genestealers
07-13-2010, 01:01 AM
Would the poor, misguided fool who voted for Abnett please offer even one viable reason for why they think he is a worse author than the likes of Mr. Goto? Don't worry, we won't bite...

Warp
07-13-2010, 01:29 AM
Dan Abnett's written for the Black Library, and BBC books, and has a regular gig with Marvel Comics. I've yet to hear about anyone else begging Gav Thorpe to dabble in their universe...

You mean apart from Angry Robot (http://angryrobotbooks.com/our-authors/gav-thorpe/)?

I can't even begin to fathom how someone can find books like "Angels of Darkness" to be worse than "Dawn of War trilogy", but to each his own.

Lanparth
07-13-2010, 03:25 AM
I would say the worst is easily Goto.

Grailkeeper
07-13-2010, 04:06 AM
One thing I'd like o hear is the reasons behind the votes for james swallow- I'm unfamiliar with his work but he has a relatively high score

khornelord0129
07-13-2010, 10:05 AM
One thing I'd like o hear is the reasons behind the votes for james swallow- I'm unfamiliar with his work but he has a relatively high score

I think Swallow is a great writer. He wrote "Flight of the Eisenstein" and wrote the blood angels omnibus and black tide. I put him #2 on my list behind Abnett.

FaultyVoodoo
07-14-2010, 06:36 PM
I must say, I was excited about reading the deathwatch novels. Then I read the first chapter. Then I closed the book, threw it away, and picked up Gaunt's Ghosts. The first few were rough fluff but very enjoyable. They are a bit old after all, so I could forgive the Iron warrior plague marines.


C.S. GotoHell.

murrburger
07-14-2010, 11:29 PM
Good lord, Goto.

I read Prophecy, but... I just read it. I didn't understand a damn thing that was happening (I play Eldar), or who the hell anybody was, or why they were doing what they were doing. I just saw words on the page, and then turned to the next page.

Never in my life have I tried so hard to finish a novel.

daboarder
07-16-2010, 06:11 AM
I think Swallow is a great writer. He wrote "Flight of the Eisenstein" and wrote the blood angels omnibus and black tide. I put him #2 on my list behind Abnett.

It should be corrected that James CAN be a great writer, flight is one of my favourite horus books so far and near the top of BL books af all time. That said however the man has done nothing but systematically butcher the BA background time and time again, not to mention in his books his marines are almost literarly too dumb to breath, as in they thought that fabius bile just happened to be a regular magos biologis, despite the fact marines look completely different to regular people.

I would also like to say that Faith and Fire is a fair read making the hurt James does to my preccious BA all the more painful...sigh.

anal_parsons_project
08-05-2010, 10:42 PM
why can't I vote for Henry Zou. That piece of garbage they just released featuring every hackneyed Vietnam war movie cliche smashed together with stereotypically cajun influences was proof that he hates his audience

Commissar Lewis
08-05-2010, 11:35 PM
I agree with the sentiment someone said about Goto being the Uwe Boll of BL authors. Me and a friend have a theory that were Goto and M Night to write a movie and Uwe Boll to direct it, the concentrated suck generated by such an unholy abomination would begin to tear reality apart.

Vaddok Sek
08-09-2010, 10:27 AM
Yeah Goto is a definite for worst, But Mitchell Scanlon should also be on the list, anybody who can make my favourite legion/primarch as uninteresting as he did definatly deserves an honourable mention. Seriously I thought they had much higher standards for the Heresy novels especially after I read the shining piece of awesome condensed to paperback that was "Fulgrim", but then read "Descent of Angels" and just thought, "Really?...." Ben Counter can be a great writer when he sticks to what he is good at, i.e. Grey Knights/Daemons and remembers to keep it short. His large battle scenes tend to be drawn out and tedious especially when the Imperium is losing ground, for instance you could have cut 3 or 4 chapters out of the center of "Crimson Tears" and the book would have actually gotten better. I've also noticed that Jonathan Green is absent from this list.
On another note I'm glad to see that at the moment of this post Graham has zero votes, I've really enjoyed watching him come into his own as a BL author having written the epic "Fulgrim", "Thousand Sons", "Mechanicum" and "False Gods" Heresy novels. He managed to do a good job of making the vanilla smurfs interesting in his Ultramarines novels, and "Storm of Iron" is a novel you must get and read at all costs, even jail time for the old ladies and little children you beat up for standing in your way.

Grailkeeper
08-24-2010, 07:12 AM
If this poll is acuarate Nick Kyme is as good as Graham MacNeill. I find this unlikely- The salamanders book I read was tripe.

Valkerie
08-24-2010, 01:36 PM
Would the poor, misguided fool who voted for Abnett please offer even one viable reason for why they think he is a worse author than the likes of Mr. Goto? Don't worry, we won't bite...

I would say that the reason Mr. Abnett is on the list is because he probably has the most books published. The more books, the more likely it is that someone won't like one or more books.

I personally enjoy his writing overall. There are some incidents in his novels that make me go WTFO?, but overall, very enjoyable. You don't reach the end of the book and say, "Well, that was a total waste of time.":)

Carpenocturn
09-08-2010, 06:33 PM
Who ever wrote the Slamanders novel

Mount Deathfire.....sigh...Deathfire..../facepalm

and the continuity error of having a character in the story lose a hand and then later in the story clench his HANDS into FISTS and draw blood from his PALMS. All with only 1 hand

Porty1119
09-08-2010, 06:53 PM
I agree with the sentiment someone said about Goto being the Uwe Boll of BL authors. Me and a friend have a theory that were Goto and M Night to write a movie and Uwe Boll to direct it, the concentrated suck generated by such an unholy abomination would begin to tear reality apart.

That sounds about right...actually worse than Dora or Barney in a smurf novel. If they were painted blue and armed with automatic 1.0 cal rocket launchers...good god, that WOULD tear reality apart :(


Who ever wrote the Slamanders novel

Mount Deathfire.....sigh...Deathfire..../facepalm

and the continuity error of having a character in the story lose a hand and then later in the story clench his HANDS into FISTS and draw blood from his PALMS. All with only 1 hand

Mount Deathfire? That makes my 6th grade fan-fic look good by comparison. And a guard major with an autopistol one-shotted a Chaos Lord in that one. It also involved Gaunt flying a Vulture. I dunno either :P

Grailkeeper
10-23-2010, 07:01 AM
Just reading James Swallow at the moment. he's definitely up there

Cyberscape7
10-23-2010, 07:55 AM
After readin Path of the Warrior, i really quite appreciate Gav Thorpe.

JxKxR
10-23-2010, 02:58 PM
I’m probable going to get flamed for saying this, but I really don't like any of the authors. I just can't get in to the story when they throw in so much filler. Too many little details and maybe I’m just too low brow for all of the big words one after the other some of them I have no idea what they mean. I can't pick an author that I hate the most I can only say that Abnet is tolerable and has the best vision of the 40K universe.

Legoklods
10-24-2010, 07:26 AM
WHERE IS LEE LIGHTNER!?!?!?
me and him have unfinished business since he ruined the space omnibus II. Plot was good but horribly written!:mad:

rogue.trader.voril
10-28-2010, 06:51 PM
I have really enjoyed everything I have gotten from Aaron Dembski-Bowden (Currently reading Helsreach) and Dan Abnett (go Ghosts!). They could write box top lables and I'd reat them at this point :). I have to agree about, James Swallow... can be good, but is not consistantly good (I like his work with Horus Heresy, but thanks for F'n up the Blood Angels :(). I will give Graham McNeill a heart felt 'Thank you' for all his HH books and Storm of Iron. Maybe they should have left the entire HH sereis to these notable individuals.

Now for Nick Kyme, and his imaginative invention of the ever whinny space marine... sigh... spend the money I spent on your book to buy a clue. Go learn about space marines by reading Aaron Dembski-Bowden and Graham McNeill books.

Whatever drug altered state The Trial of the Mantis Warriors was written under C.S. Goto should do that more, because the rest of his work felt like money wasted and time lost reading his books.

Mistress Baeda's Gift by Braden Campbell was so funny. I hope it was ment to be. I laughed through out it.
Steve Parker's Gunheads was anenjoyable read, as was Mitchel Scanlon's Fifteen Hours.

Soo... Goto for the fail :(

Zoat
11-12-2010, 06:14 AM
Quite liked Thorpe's Dwarf books, so...

Gonna have to plump for Goto. I found the DoW tie-in's pretty unreadable.

Connjurus
11-12-2010, 06:28 AM
I think whoever voted for Sandy Mitchell should be fed to an angry Squig. Seriously, of all the authors of Black Library, only he and Dan Abnett actually seem to be more than just another typical run-of-the-mill Science Fiction writer.

Oh, I think I know why someone might have voted for Sandy Mitchell...not grimdark enough. :P

Psychosplodge
11-17-2010, 06:35 PM
CS Goto without a doubt is the worst BL authour,
Lee Lightner ruined the last two SW books.

Ben Counter and James Swallow are both very hit and miss.

Agree that Dan Abnett, and Sandy Mitchell are the better BL authours closely followed by McNeil....

Spider-pope
11-18-2010, 12:24 PM
C.S Goto is by far the worst BL author, if not one of the worst authors period. Heck i've just registered on the BoLS forums because i couldnt restrain myself from posting a diatribe against him. The fact that his interviews also show utter contempt for those unfortunate enough to be his readers sours me even further towards the man (his excuse for the monstrosity that was Eldar Prophecy was that the audience was too stupid to appreciate it).

In my entire life there has been only one book i've discarded without finishing, and that was his Dawn of War novelization. His work goes beyond badly written to barely coherent. The only way i can understand anyone not voting for him is that they've had the good fortune to have never read any of his drivel. I just pray that no one in GW head office decides to give him a shot at a Horus Heresy book.

sangrail777
11-18-2010, 03:44 PM
I can't even add anything to what has already been said except..... F*^* YOU GOTO!!!
& I hope this post gets you fired.

plawolf
12-05-2010, 04:52 PM
Where is Mitchel Scanlon? If he was the the list, i would vote for him, then register as another user and vote for him again. After that, i might find out where he lives so i can rip 'cover of darkness' from my copy of the legends of space marines and shove it down his throat. Never in my life have 80 pages seem so long. Couldn't bring myself to even finish it.

If they ever catch Bin Ladden, they shouldn't execute him. Just make mitchel scanlon read 'cover of darkness to him over and over again. That'll be a fate worse than death, and it should also keep scanlon from further poluting people's minds with his filth. Even gotto seems ok in comparison.

master_of_the_ordnace
12-07-2010, 09:16 AM
Didn't even have to think...C.S. Goto.

Shame he wrote all the deathwatch stuff so far.

I enjoyed Salamander (Just finished it.) but the Jerry Springer junk going on between Dak'ir, Tsu'gan and Iagon about the Captain was really out of character for Space Marines...Salamanders especially.

ColonelElibas
12-07-2010, 03:13 PM
It's an honest tie between Goto and Thorpe. Goto because he's Goto and Thorpe because he totally ruined Last Chancers for me.

And, I dunno if its because I'm a Guard fan or not, but Graham McNeill's 'Courage and Honor' and 'Killing Grounds' seem a little too overkill on the whole 'Space Marines being super-uber-duber-derber Marines'. He get's a minus for those two books.

Whoever voted Sandy Mitchell should be shot. He is the only author with the best main character in my opinion. Nothing else says 'Go Guard!' than watching a prominent Commissar running for his life just to get a cushy retirement and have fun with Amberly the Inquisitorial psycho.

Porty1119
12-07-2010, 03:44 PM
It's an honest tie between Goto and Thorpe. Goto because he's Goto and Thorpe because he totally ruined Last Chancers for me.

And, I dunno if its because I'm a Guard fan or not, but Graham McNeill's 'Courage and Honor' and 'Killing Grounds' seem a little too overkill on the whole 'Space Marines being super-uber-duber-derber Marines'. He get's a minus for those two books.

Whoever voted Sandy Mitchell should be shot. He is the only author with the best main character in my opinion. Nothing else says 'Go Guard!' than watching a prominent Commissar running for his life just to get a cushy retirement and have fun with Amberly the Inquisitorial psycho.

HERESY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That, my friend, is the funniest thing you can ever yell out in English class.