I've always read quite a lot of science fiction and fantasy. In my childhood I quickly digested most of the translated stuff in my local library but fortunately my language skills soon improved enough (largely thanks to Zork and other Infocom titles) to be able to read the books in English. This naturally broadened the available selection immensely, even before Amazon. Around that time, I also discovered role-playing games and soon thereafter gaming fiction.

I read a lot of gaming fiction. I still read a lot of science fiction and fantasy in general, but game-related fiction was a large portion of that in my teen years. I read BattleTech novels, the Dragonlance series ofcourse, Shadowrun books, even a TORG book (which was hideous even back then). Back then Games Workshop was taking the first tentative steps into publishing fiction, and I read those books too.

And I quite liked them.

Then I basically stopped reading any gaming fiction for almost two decades. My interests had shifted and I had less free time to read. Without actively playing in a gaming universe, the incentive to devour stories about it just wasn't there.

When I started getting back to miniatures gaming, I started listening to gaming podcasts. And they talked quite a bit about the Black Library books. I was intrigued, but hesitant. There was a huge selection out there without a clear starting point. So I went out looking for a starting point.

Reviews for the Black Library books are easy to come by, but I wanted something a little different. Call it cynicism if you will, but I wanted to hear an opinion from someone who is not an ardent Warhammer fan. Finally I managed to find one review by a non-fan. It is not glowing praise, but it was enough for me to justify experimenting myself.

I went ahead and ordered the Eisenhorn trilogy and midway through reading it I ordered the Ravenor trilogy as well. And unlike Cheryl, I actually read them all before forming an opinion. Quitting a book midway is extremely rare for me, what usually happens with a book that fails to engage me is that my reading slows to a crawl as I struggle to find the motivation to finish it yet I can't drop it for another one. Thus I guess going through almost 2,000 pages of Dan Abnett's prose in a couple of months is testament to something in itself.

I used to say about Babylon 5 that it is the very best TV sci-fi has to offer -- but that isn't a very tall order. TV sci-fi has improved in leaps and bounds since, but I fear the same does not apply to gaming fiction. If these two trilogies are the very best Black Library has to offer, it is not a very tall order.

Don't get me wrong. They are entertaining reads and not completely without merit. And the thing Cheryl didn't have the patience to see is that the books do improve a whole lot as you get deeper into the series. The first installment is the weakest of them all and Ravenor is generally better than Eisenhorn.

I guess the real problem is that I'm not 16 anymore. The books are entertaining, thrilling, even offer nail-biting suspense at times. They do have wonderful alien vistas and interesting characters (even though most of them tend to be super-proficient in at least something -- like they were all written to be player characters) and I do like the way the wide variety of Imperium's worlds and sub-cultures are presented. But I don't read Jerry Cotton or Remo Williams books anymore either. For lack of a better word, the books lack depth. At the end of the day, you have an exciting rollercoaster ride of adventure, but that's all there is to it. Nothing really thought-provoking. Even the main characters are not very deep (and this is not helped by the large ensemble cast) and the villains rarely rise above cardboard cutouts. And maybe it's that they are really aimed at a teen audience, but there isn't a whole lot of human emotion and interaction.

Reading is never a bad option. I would be extremely happy if I found my son reading these books (or anything besides TV guide for that matter). But I feel I'm just not the target audience anymore. I'm so unfamiliar with the latest 40K background that I miss nearly all the name dropping. All I remember is Abdul Goldberg, and where is he now?

Faced with limited free time, I'd rather spend it reading a real book, like these here. And I guess it's high time to put in an inter-library load request for the Foundation series...

P.S. While I honestly didn't set out to rattle anyone's cage, I think if this doesn't elicit any responses than no one's really reading this...

P.P.S. No, that's not me in the first picture but rather the next generation of readers. And she'll be the first one to hang me when she finds out.

P.P.P.S. Don't you find it mildly interesting that in the first book Aemos knows about tyranids but when Ravenor and his crew get attacked by gaunts in the last one, they don't recognize them at all? The Imperium is a big place I guess...

maxxon