2021 - BL highs and lows, best book/story of the year

[byrd9999]

2020 and 2021 (and probably 2022) should have massive asterisks next to them.

 

2020 even had less than 12 White Dwarf issues!

[Triszin]

Penitent was my favorite book from bl this year

[aa.logan]

I *didn't* read Swords of Calth, Book of Martyrs or the mixed Horror anthologies; I’ve nearly finished Steel Tread; Volpone Glory and Urdesh 2 are queued up for me to read once I get through the last few advent shorts but I have, somehow, read everything else BL have published for 40k/30k in 2021.

 

It’s all been rather good, truth be told.

 

Liber Xenologis, Alpharius, The entirety of Warhammer Crime and Ghazghull are my personal highlights.

Edited January 3, 2022 by aa.logan

[USNCenturion]

Warhawk was my favorite I’ve read this year.

 

I’m disappointed to hear Godblight get such negative reaction. I wanted to start that trilogy on audio, but now I’m having second thoughts.

[theSpirea]

I wouldn't let other people's opinion on that book, or any other, prevent you from reading it. It's not the best BL book but it wasn't that bad and it's worth reading.

[Kenzaburo]

I wouldn't let other people's opinion on that book, or any other, prevent you from reading it. It's not the best BL book but it wasn't that bad and it's worth reading.

I agree. In my experience, even the not so great Guy Haley books are quite readable. I remember a lot of people not liking Pharos very much, but aside from some minor nitpicks I quite enjoyed it. It wasn't Dawn of Fire 1, Dark Imperium or The Great Work, but still enjoyable for me. 

 

And I hope for Godblight to be in the same vein - not awesome and maybe disappointing as an end to a trilogy with a great start, but far from drivel. :)

[DarkChaplain]

I think Godblight wrapped up the trilogy pretty well. The big issue most people will likely have is with its lore implications and how it goes about it. But that's more a GW/40k direction thing than something inherently wrong with the novel, if you ask me. A lot of other books have been teasing the reveal these past couple of years, anyhow. Heck, you could argue some of the first 40k fiction published did.

 

The big divide is likely more philosophical, though, and reflective of what the reader wants out of the setting. It's down to how involved they want the big players like Guilliman, Mortarion or even the Emperor to be in ongoing events, and events following from here on out. Or stuff like how they envision Nurgle's daemons - who are indeed rather jolly fellows. But considering I loved them this way in Josh Reynolds' stories for Age of Sigmar already, I personally have no issue with Nurgle being more on the comedic side than, say, Slaanesh or Khorne. It's an entertaining niche for them to maintain, in my eyes.

 

It's not like I didn't have issues with some parts of Godblight myself, really. Some action pieces dragged, as they tend to do for me whoever writes them. But the dialogue is still sharp and engaging, and Haley put in some nifty ideas while concluding ongoing Dark Imperium plotlines.

 

Honestly, I think Dark Imperium will only grow better as a trilogy with age, as the post-rift setting shapes up further; The Great Work is set basically right after Godblight (and in hindsight, there are hints in that, too), Wraight's two trilogies play into it too, and Dawn of Fire will lead right up to Dark Imperium, and is feeding right into what Godblight seemingly "kicks off"... despite being a prequel series. Considering that Haley is overseeing that entire series, we can expect him to have known what he was doing with Godblight, and the feedback between it and the remainder of Dawn of Fire should be very interesting.

 

Heck, I might even go so far as to suggest holding off on Dark Imperium if you haven't started the first book yet, because reading it chronologically will probably be a pretty cool experience. But... that'd mean not reading it for a few years yet.

[USNCenturion]

So the dawn of fire books come before the Dark Imperium trilogy which comes before Wraights two Terra trilogies?

[cheywood]

So the dawn of fire books come before the Dark Imperium trilogy which comes before Wraights two Terra trilogies?

Wraight’s Terra trilogies take place before/during the Dawn of Fire series, depending on the book in question. Dawn of Fire leads into Dark Imperium (though it’ll be a few years before they fully connect) and Dark Imperium will likely lead into another multi-author series further down the line.

Edited January 6, 2022 by cheywood

[Sothalor]

So the dawn of fire books come before the Dark Imperium trilogy which comes before Wraights two Terra trilogies?

 

Negative.

 

If you're going by chronological sequence of events/timeline, it'd be something along the lines of:

 

1. Vaults of Terra: The Carrion Throne, Chris Wraight

 

2. Watchers of the Throne: The Emperor's Legion, Chris Wraight / Vaults of Terra: The Hollow Mountain, Chris Wraight (These books form separate narrative lines but are practically concurrent)

 

3. Dawn of Fire 1: Avenging Son, Guy Haley (Note that The Emperor's Legion and Avenging Son share some chronological overlap between the Terra Siege sequences)

 

4. Watchers of the Throne: The Regent's Shadow, Chris Wraight / Dawn of Fire 2: Gate of Bones, Andy Clark (I don't remember every detail from Gate of Bones, but I think there's a case to be made for these to be occurring pretty much simultaneously. In either case, it won't really matter which one you read first)

 

5. [DISCLAIMER: SPECULATION - I haven't read this one yet, am just assuming] Dawn of Fire 3: The Wolftime, Gav Thorpe

 

6. [Also speculation] - the rest of Dawn of Fire, currently unannounced & unreleased

 

7. Dark Imperium Trilogy, Guy Haley

 

Edit: I'm a big dumb-dumb and completely forgot about Wraight's excellent Hollow Mountain in the list.

Edited January 6, 2022 by A Melancholic Sanguinity

[USNCenturion]

Thanks for that aside fraters! So confusing…

[DarkChaplain]

And to add to that list, there's also The Great Work, The Devastation of Baal (and its sequel, plus the third Mephiston) set after Dark Imperium: Godblight, both of which carry on from certain plot threads from Dawn of Fire and Dark Imperium.

 

I'm still waiting for Dawn of Fire to directly address the fate of Cato Sicarius; as per Knights of Macragge, Fleet Avenger was dispatched basically late into Avenging Son, but it's never actively brought up in that book, and neither has the disappearance of Sicarius been mentioned in Dawn of Fire either. Considering that by Dark Imperium, Sicarius is again by Guilliman's side, and marked by the events of his trip, there's bound to be a Dawn of Fire entry that will feature him at some point.

For now, it's safe to say that Knights of Macragge takes place roughly concurrently with The Gate of Bones, albeit with an indeterminate end point.

 

The 7th Uriel Ventris novel, Swords of Calth, is also set after Dark Imperium, though I'm not sure how far after book one.

 

There's a large tapestry being woven around Dark Imperium on all sides, and I expect that to become even more fleshed out over the coming years, alongside Dawn of Fire. A lot of things come back around.

[Noserenda]

Big fan of the "modern" 40k books so far generally, Especially Watchers and the Great work. I think Godblight suffers a bit from the metaplot/primarch dump at the end but the rest of the book is solid stuff. I suspect itll all make more sense once/if the Studio pushes forward a little with all the psychic awakening plots currently just kinda hanging limbo, which is sounds like the next Dawn of Fire book will be doing on some level :) 

[DukeLeto69]

This “current 40k” tapestry (nice metaphor) is actually quite exciting but a complete headmash to keep track of due to jump forwards and back etc.

 

Luckily for me some of the fraters on here seem to have it sussed so I will be keeping an eye on updates!

[DarkChaplain]

It's definitely suffering from the timeline reshuffle that happened in 2021. It really makes me wish they did the Star Wars thing of printing a brief chronological order at the front of related books. One page, just put a stylized graph in there to show when a book roughly occurs in relation to the major plot-driving novels.

 

...but that'd be convenient.

[Chaeron]

I’ve just finished Broken City and have to say whilst I’m behind on my reading of books published last year, it’s a fantastic collection. The plethora of perspectives make it such a fresh take on the setting: highly recommend!

[USNCenturion]

You know I completely forgot I think I read Lords of Silence this past year. That was right up there with Warhawk for me.

 

Edit: actually I may have read that in 2020

Edited January 8, 2022 by EnsignJoker

[Knockagh]

A book giving a high view of the history between Sons of the Selenar and The Great Work is sorely needed

[cheywood]

Finally finished with 2021’s releases. Despite a terrible lack of communication, decreased output and availability there were a number of great titles this year, and a pretty consistent degree of quality across most of the releases (AOS excluded).

 

Book of the year:

Pentitent. No question about it, a towering work of fiction that makes the wait almost worth it. I’m desperate to read Pandaemonium.

 

Favorites:

Mortis

Alpharius

Prophet of Waaagh!

The Vincula Insurgency

Bleedout

Warhawk

Twice Dead King: Ruin

Da Gobbo’s Revenge

 

Other great reads:

Deacon of Wounds

Silent Hunters

Godblight

Urdesh vol 1&2

Traitor Rock

Grim Repast

Steel Tread

Volpone Glory (surprise of the year for me)

 

Worthwhile/decent reads:

The Gate of Bones

Fire Made Flesh

The Wolftime

Hinks’ AOS titles

 

Forgettable reads:

The Book of Martyrs/most of AOS

 

Painfully awful:

Swords of Calth

Edited January 16, 2022 by cheywood