# Is it me.....



## Diatribe1974 (Jul 15, 2010)

.....or does the average Graham McNeill book need about 100-150 more pages? Not to complain about his writing style, it's just that in my (admittedly limited) amount of books I've read from him (starting my 3rd book from him in the Ultramarines Omnibus). To explain what I mean is that he does a great job introducing an incredible amount of characters in each book (which can be great, mind you), but at times, he kinda has me going "Bleh.....not enough Space Marine action." by the time the book was completed. To me, this can easily be remedied by adding in more pages of dialogue/action/adventure of the very thing we bought the book for in the first place. It's like going to your favorite steak restaurant, eating the side salad that came with your steak dinner and only nibbling on a small portion of the New York Strip.

Am I wrong in my thinking here?


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## Barnster (Feb 11, 2010)

I don't think thats limited to mcneil, alot of abnetts seem rushed in places as well as other authors

Alot of mcneils better books are longer than the norm like fulgrim and a thousand sons

the only normal length book that was great was defender of ulthuan and thats only half a story


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## Baron Spikey (Mar 26, 2008)

Barnster said:


> the only normal length book that was great was defender of ulthuan and thats only half a story


Though the other half is, finally, coming out this year.


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## Shogun_Nate (Aug 2, 2008)

Eh, it does seem to be a trait amongst his books (and others) when it comes to them. It sometimes feels as if they've run out of ideas and simply want to get it done. While good, I do find it annoying sometimes when I've finished the book only to feel that so much more could have been done with the story. 

Good luck and good gaming,

Nate


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## raider1987 (Dec 3, 2010)

I find his books do take a while to get going... but they always go out with one hell of a bang. I mean the battle of prospero at the end of A Thousand Sons is arguably the best battle in the Horus Heresy series.


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## TheSpore (Oct 15, 2009)

eh i feel that abnett and mcniels books are goods at least most of them but i personally think ADB is writing more unique books and stories which bring some much newer stuff to the table. With most of abnett and mcniels stuff sometimes seems like same old same old to me.
Now the new one from zou blood gorgons has been pretty cool so far it least brings something new to the 40k universe instead of reading about the same old chaos legions and sm chapters.


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## Diatribe1974 (Jul 15, 2010)

Shogun_Nate said:


> Eh, it does seem to be a trait amongst his books (and others) when it comes to them. It sometimes feels as if they've run out of ideas and simply want to get it done. While good, I do find it annoying sometimes when I've finished the book only to feel that so much more could have been done with the story.
> 
> Good luck and good gaming,
> 
> Nate


I wouldn't say that he's run out of ideas, but more like he was almost presented with either a word or page limit that a certain book couldn't go beyond and he was forced to do things within those constraints. I'd honestly wish that if he was putting out, say......a 320 page book (that was under the aforementioned constraints) that he simply work things out with GW to make it 2-300 page books and tell a completely fleshed out story, without any limitations. I mean, c'mon, his books sell well enough to warrant things like that, yes?


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## M3N0N26 (Sep 18, 2008)

I think Graham McNeill is the best author of all, in the HH series. Fulgrim, and A Thousand Sons, were literally mindblowing :/ I firmly enjoyed The First Heretic also, but just those two books has made me a staunch McNeill fan.


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