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Something wrong with BL books...?


marvmoogy

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marvmoogy,

 

I hear you.  And agree with you, along general lines.

 

I think there are a good number of very well-written novels published by the Black Library.  Unfortunately, there are also many with telegraphed scripts and shallow characters.  My suggestion is to be thorough with your research (in terms of reviews, etc.), and vote with your wallet.

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You had to mention pictures.  I'm not a huge fan of the pictures that have started to pop up in the HH novels.  (There is a time and  a place for pictures in novels its called college!) a map at the front or the start of a chapter that is ok bu pictures in a novel is just wrong I want to imagine what character x looks like not see a picture of them that jars with my vision of them.

 

I agree with you Phoebus.  Unfortunately, big series like the HH or even Stars Wars expanded universe need a lot of authors just to keep them moving and if your a fan of the series you sometimes have to plow through the dross just to make sure you don't miss something that another author picks up on at a later date.  Ideally BL should be more selective but if the HH was just down to ADB, Dan Abnett and Chris Wraight the story wouldn't move very far as their hands would be bleeding at having to produce so many novels, short stories etc. each year.  The good point of having wirters that I'm less keen on is that when ADB, DA & CW start thumping the keys in earnest (i'm assuing none of them write in long hand in a red leather journal like Bilbo, would be cool if they did though) the work they produce is that little bit more special.

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Absolutely, its why I don't do the mp3 and prefer books to films.  I have my image of how a character looks and sounds.  Admittedly if BL do a HH sapce wolves novel on mp3 with russ voiced by the sweedish chef from the muppets.

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People seem to be unnecessarily critical of many of the other authors - if those 'disliked books' were removed from the HH series, and were standalone, I should think that they would be much more popular.

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I don't agree, I think the series is the big draw not the actual author writing the novels. Personally if I see a BL novel has been written by an author I don't like I rarely buy them unless I've money to spare and need my BL fix, when a HH novel comes out I buy it as soon as I can regardless of who the actual author is.  It would be intersting to see how the sales of authors books outside the HH compares with the sales of their novels within the HH series.

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I don't doubt that at all - but equally, they're decent books, just perhaps not considered as that because of the fact they don't necessarily follow the biggest story arcs or whatever - they're more tangential. Admittedly, you may get a smaller readership - but the books do have an intrinsic value in themselves, and would perhaps be more interesting when removed from the series. I'm thinking Outcast Dead or say Nemesis.

 

For sure, people buy them because it's the latest in the series - I'm simply positing as to whether they'd be better received without being under that banner.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I don't doubt that at all - but equally, they're decent books, just perhaps not considered as that because of the fact they don't necessarily follow the biggest story arcs or whatever - they're more tangential. Admittedly, you may get a smaller readership - but the books do have an intrinsic value in themselves, and would perhaps be more interesting when removed from the series. I'm thinking Outcast Dead or say Nemesis.

 

For sure, people buy them because it's the latest in the series - I'm simply positing as to whether they'd be better received without being under that banner.

I actually really enjoyed The Outcast Dead and Nemesis.

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I don't doubt that at all - but equally, they're decent books, just perhaps not considered as that because of the fact they don't necessarily follow the biggest story arcs or whatever - they're more tangential. Admittedly, you may get a smaller readership - but the books do have an intrinsic value in themselves, and would perhaps be more interesting when removed from the series. I'm thinking Outcast Dead or say Nemesis.

 

For sure, people buy them because it's the latest in the series - I'm simply positing as to whether they'd be better received without being under that banner.

I actually really enjoyed The Outcast Dead and Nemesis.

 

I did too, but people generally present them as being weaker tomes within the series.

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Well The Outcast Dead kind of went [voice=Marvin the Martian]"Ha-Hah! Be gone, Foul Continuity!"[/voice] not to mention virtually eery character except for the astropath went through a major Worf Factor routine. "Oh, World Eaters can punch through power armor with their bare fists!" and for not other purpose except to make the Thunder Warriors look that much more powerful. It was good, but ultimately it was rather 2-D.

 

As for Nemesis, I honestly can't think of a reason why it wasn't liked so much other than it probably wasn't as "Assassin's Creed" as some may have liked. Although the existence of a Slaanesh cult on Terra was a rather funny thing to find out. I mean it wasn't fantastic but it wasn't horrible. I'd rate it higher than some of the other HH books.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I love the addition to audio dramas. Maybe its because I spend a lot of time on the road, but they definitely make long car drives much more bearable. You make it seem like they have switched to audio dramas to the exclusion of physical books. That is not really true. They even put out hardback collections of the audio dramas for people that do not want to listen.

 

The quality of BL writers has never, ever, been better. From old stalwarts like Abnett and McNeill, to the fantastic "new kids on the block" ADB, Wraight, French, Sanders, Haley, and Annandale.

 

The new crop of authors have breathed new life into BL, and I am very excited for many more stories to come.

This is spot on in my opinion. Being in a job that has long hours to kill, the audio dramas, although some extremely short sometimes, are a god send. You cant beat a hardback at the end of the day but I for one cant get enough of the mp3 range. The price is the only hurdle for me, $60AU for Pandorax. Ouch.

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I see what you mean about the first 3 HH books and get that a trilogy will be able to afford more detail.

 

From a writing point of view, I really liked the first DA book.  It did a really good job developing the traits of the Chapter....but the ending could have used an extra 100 pages or so!  To me, Battle for the Abyss and Flight of the Eisenstein are the worst offenders......so far!

 

I found those two a bit lacking as well. The DA book did have a lot of detail in it for the first 2/3rds of the book but I just found it a bit of a chore to read. Incidentally my favourite of the series so far is Dan Abnett's Know No Fear, which I think you will like as it covers a single event in quite a lot of detail.

^^^ This and distant echos from old night are amazing. Then I love the short story from Iron within about the war smith and the schadenhold. That's brilliant writing there.

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