# Most anticipated BL novel- Summer 2012



## VulkansNodosaurus (Dec 3, 2010)

My list is:
1. Wrath of Iron
2. Fear to Tread
3. Orion: the Vaults of Winter
4. Priests of Mars (would be in the top 3 if it was paperback)
5. The Emperor's Gift (see above)


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## Angel of Blood (Aug 18, 2010)

Fear to Tread, without a shadow of a doubt.


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## Lord of the Night (Nov 18, 2009)

Anyone who doesn't vote for _Fear to Tread_ hates Sanguinius and is basically saying that Sanguinius isn't cool. 

I vote for Fear to Tread obviously.


LotN


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## March of Time (Dec 4, 2009)

Fear to Tread for me.


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## Boc (Mar 19, 2010)

C'mon, not the Emperor's Gift? AD-B's GK will doubtlessly be awesome... granted, Fear to Tread is a close second.

1. The Emperor's Gift
2. Fear to Tread
3. Priests of Mars


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## Doelago (Nov 29, 2009)

Angel of Blood said:


> Fear to Tread, without a shadow of a doubt.


This.


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## Bane_of_Kings (Oct 28, 2009)

In order of most anticipated, from first to last: 

_Fear To Tread_ by James Swallow
_The Emperor's Gift_ by Aaron Dembski-Bowden
_Priests of Mars_ by Graham McNeill
_Angel of Fire_ by William King
_Wrath of Iron_ by Chris Wraight
_Bloodsworn_ by Nathan Long
_Path of the Outcast_ by Gav Thorpe
_Valkia The Bloody_ by Sarah Cawkwell
_The Great Betrayal_ by Nick Kyme
_Orion: Vaults of Winter_ by Darius Hinks


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## piemelke (Oct 13, 2010)

Swallow will not deliver, he just does not seem to understand the BA,


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## Barnster (Feb 11, 2010)

Out of the listed ones I'm going to day priest of mars, but really I want to read architect of fate and the primarchs...

Oh and the iron warriors omnibus heard alot of positives about those stories look forward to personally reading them


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## Dead.Blue.Clown (Nov 27, 2009)

I never understand these polls. The Heresy series is read by a squillion more people than non-HH stuff. There'll never, ever be a non-HH book come close to a HH book in these mini-surveys, let alone when it's the one by one of the most popular Chapters in the game line, in their most famous HH event, and the first time they really show up in the series.

Madness, I tells ya!


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## Baltar (Aug 16, 2008)

piemelke said:


> Swallow will not deliver, he just does not seem to understand the BA,


This.

It's still at the top of the list without any question, though.

I won't bother going into another rant about how pants Swallow is and how someone else should have been given this novel. Seems as though he just gets to do it because he did the other BA novels (they weren't even good).

It's not like anyone is going to care what I think anyway. I'll let the disappointment of the novel speak for itself. (it's being built up so much that it will be almost impossible for there to be anything other than disappointment)


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## Lord of the Night (Nov 18, 2009)

Baltar said:


> It's not like anyone is going to care what I think anyway. I'll let the disappointment of the novel speak for itself. (it's being built up so much that it will be almost impossible for there to be anything other than disappointment)


Well my review of it in late June or early July will give my opinion. So until then, we'll wait and see.


LotN


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## VulkansNodosaurus (Dec 3, 2010)

Dead.Blue.Clown said:


> I never understand these polls. The Heresy series is read by a squillion more people than non-HH stuff. There'll never, ever be a non-HH book come close to a HH book in these mini-surveys, let alone when it's the one by one of the most popular Chapters in the game line, in their most famous HH event, and the first time they really show up in the series.
> 
> Madness, I tells ya!


Well, in the poll slightly down the page, Void Stalker currently has 12 votes to Know No Fear's 18. Not that close, but given Know No Fear has the same things going for it as Fear to Tread AND is by Dan Abnett, I think it's safe to say it isn't impossible for a non-HH book to beat something like The Outcast Dead.

But yes, the HH books have a massive advantage. That doesn't mean the polls aren't interesting, though, IMO. You still get the spread of the choices beyond the most popular, after all.

(Though given I've started this, my perspective might not be the most neutral!)


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## AK74Bob (Oct 2, 2010)

I'll go with _Angel of Fire_, the cover is epic and I'm a fan of Macharius, then _The Great Betrayal_ (fan of dwarfs), and then _Fear to Tread_.


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## World Eater XII (Dec 12, 2008)

Hmm Blood sworn my vote goes to.


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## MetalHandkerchief (Aug 3, 2009)

Depends, are any of the books *not* about any kind of Space Marines, loyalist or chaos variety, and *not* about Eldar/Orks or Warhammer Fantasy?

Like say, any of the _interesting_ races in 40K?

-Tau
-Dark Eldar
-Necrons

No? Well I'll be locked away in an asylum before I voluntarily sit down and read another mindless smurf or BLARGHFORTHEBLARGH GOD book. Especially with the variety of authors that the BL got kicking around...


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## bobss (May 18, 2008)

piemelke said:


> Swallow will not deliver, he just does not seem to understand the BA,


Oh look, yet more bitches who whine about James Swallow.

I ought to neg you for this.

Swallow's novels get far too much negativity and the vast majority of this is founded on fallacious, uninformed bullshit. The original two novels were written in a time when Black Library and even Games Workshop itself were _completely_ different. Abnett's, McNeill's and King's early novels are noticeably different. Watson's novels are utterly _alien_ to the modern enthusiast. I'm not a fan of the first two books because as pieces of literature they're horrid -though they do have their fair share of good points- however from the perspective of a Blood Angel fan I didn't mind them.

I don't want to go down this particular line of reasoning as it's incredibly intangible, but you _can't_ fault someone's interpretation of something that's been specifically designed to be subjective - the Codex. Only if someone is incredibly radical in their interpretation can you _begin_ to formulate a concrete argument. Even Matt Ward isn't radical enough that you can claim his interpretation is ''wrong''. I'm sorry, but the scenario between Necrons and Blood Angels is blown out of proportion by the fanbase who didn't get their daily dose of semantics or couldn't pass basic literature and language skills in Nursery.

Not to mention how it was clever foreshadowing for the Necron revamp. Oh noes...

Moreover, don't write off an author before you've read the novel they're produced. Balter is just so butthurt he's forced to stand up and has developed knee problems. I've written off novels _far_ too often with a certain author who likes to frequent this site inparticular and I was usually proven wrong in the end. :cray:


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## Baltar (Aug 16, 2008)

bobss said:


> Swallow's novels get far too much negativity and the vast majority of this is founded on fallacious, uninformed bullshit.


Not uninformed. I read the novels and they were crap (average at best, at times) - I didn't myself read into Swallow's writing any further than that.

If he's yet to have written a really good book, then why would I think he will do a great job with the BA in HH?

Can you give any logical reasoning at all behind why I should think he might (beyond pure chance, I mean)...?

As for being butthurt, I'm not sure what you think I'm butthurt about. I thought his detail of the BA in his novels was fine. I just thought his writing sucked major balls and the stories were quite bland (but they could have been epic under a different author).


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## Doelago (Nov 29, 2009)

In my book Swallow is second only to Abnett...


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## Baltar (Aug 16, 2008)

Even over ADB...?


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## Doelago (Nov 29, 2009)

Baltar said:


> Even over ADB...?


Yes.


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## Loli (Mar 26, 2009)

Baltar said:


> Not uninformed. I read the novels and they were crap (average at best, at times) - I didn't myself read into Swallow's writing any further than that.
> 
> If he's yet to have written a really good book, then why would I think he will do a great job with the BA in HH?
> 
> ...


Ill admit i havnt read the BA books, but ive read both Flight of the Eisenstein and Nemesis as well a few of his shorts and i like him yes he isnt my fav since thats held by Ben Counter, ABD and Graham McNeill (in no particular order) but i thought his writing was good. Cant see what your problem is, is it James Swallow or just his interpretation of the BA.

And even if its the 2nd option why not give him a chance with the new BA novel since Deus was more than 5 years ago so whos to say his portrayl will be the same. I dont really like Abnett as much as the 3 i mentioned above but it doesnt mean im going to skip his work, since i reallly like his HH stuff and the Iron Snakes book was good imo. So why noy give him a chance


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## Baltar (Aug 16, 2008)

I'm not going to flat out say his writing is 'bad', necessarily. I quite like his interpretation of the BA, too.

I just find that he managed to make what could have been an epic story (in the BA novels) quite bland and dull to read. His style lacks what some of the other writers has, which is to really to create dramatic flare. A good example would be ADB, taking something I find really quite boring (anything relating to Word Bearers) and making it into an exciting thing. The depiction of the scenes and the action particularly.

I fear the same thing will happen with the BA in HH. It stands a good chance of ending up bland and flavourless. It will be a good read either way, simply because it's practically impossible for the cleansing of Signus to be anything other than cool - but it really won't hit its potential with Swallow as the author. He doesn't have what it takes to bring out the best in that battle - which is probably one of the most epic in the HH. It's right up there with the battle for Prospero or Istvaan in scale and general awesomeness.

I wouldn't have let him touch Prospero, and in the same line of thinking I wouldn't want him to get his hands on the BA at Signus. He just won't cut it. Plenty of people out there whinge about this sort of talk being BA fanboyism - but I'd like to see all the SW junkies sit back and be fine about it if swallow did A Thousand Sons and Prospero Burns. Doubt it would be an action that received much praise.

In just the same sense - I don't want Fear to Tread to lose any of the potential it could have due to a lukewarm author.

Though, saying that, it could be worse - Abnett could be writing it.

*BTW - Abnett wrote the Iron Snakes novel, not Swallow. I liked that book too.


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## Phoebus (Apr 17, 2010)

Dead.Blue.Clown said:


> I never understand these polls. The Heresy series is read by a squillion more people than non-HH stuff. There'll never, ever be a non-HH book come close to a HH book in these mini-surveys, let alone when it's the one by one of the most popular Chapters in the game line, in their most famous HH event, and the first time they really show up in the series.
> 
> Madness, I tells ya!


The only madness to be found here is the willingness of these heretics to NOT vote for the ONLY novel on this poll to feature the Lord Solar Macharius -- the single greatest mortal conqueror ever.

Don't get me wrong. I'm going to enjoy "Fear to Tread". And I'm going to read the shit out of "The Emperor's Gift".

But it's _*the Lord fucking Solar Macharius.*_ And William King's writing it. If everything goes right, it's going to be the unholy child of the reincarnation of Alexander the Great (in space) mating with the Grimdark of 40k.

*Baltar,*

You said James Swallow has yet to write a good novel... am I to assume you didn't enjoy "Flight of the Eisenstein" as well, then?

Cheers,
P.


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## Baltar (Aug 16, 2008)

Flight of the Eisenstein, for me, was one of the unmemorable HH novels. I haven't read it in literally years now, and those 4 early novels (say, everything before Fulgrim) have all melted into one big story in my mind.

Certainly out of those early novels, FOtE was the 'filler' to me. Then again, it had tough competition considering how much Horus Rising stood out.

It's unfair to say I didn't enjoy it. The only HH novels I didn't enjoy are Prospero Burns (actually gave up on it - it was like watching paint dry) and Battle for the Abyss (lulz to that book - wtf was it). Then again, I enjoy all of the HH novels. It's hard for me not to enjoy them simply because their content is great regardless of the writer. However - some novels are clearly way better than others, and it's down to the authors. FOtE was weak *in those terms*, in my opinion. I don't see Fear to Tread being any different - but that's not how it should be. It has such a strong basis to be one of the greats among the HH novels (like Fulgrim or First Heretic, for example) that it deserves an author that can make it happen. I reckon that Swallow won't. He hasn't done it before, and I have found his stuff bland. FOtE wasn't such a good HH novel, and his BA stories were milk toast (despite their awesome basis in terms of story).

Swallow isn't a deliverer of the next Fulgrim or First Heretic. He simply isn't that good. He can't produce the next big HH novel just like I can't be the next person to break the sprinting 100m world record. He doesn't have what it takes - he isn't THAT talented - it's that simple.


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## Baltar (Aug 16, 2008)

And also, I totally agree with Macharius.

Macharius is win, and William King is win. It's just a huge cookie of win.


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## Phoebus (Apr 17, 2010)

Only a shallow, vain man would reward another poster with rep simply for sharing his opinion of how awesome "Angel of Fire" will be.

+rep to you, sir. :wink:

Cheers,
P.


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