Josh Reynolds no longer works for BL

[Sandlemad]

It's interesting to hear he considers other BL writers more professional. His 40K work alone is a proof enough of his professionalism. He mentioned it multiple times he's not that into 40K and he doesn't find Space Marines interesting, yet he gave us one of the best SM books. His Fulgrim in his novel had more depth than what McNeill managed to butcher in 500 pages in his Fulgrim novel.

 

I still hope one day he will come back.

 

Exactly, specifically on that professionalism I've said it a bunch of times but the clear and evident effort he went to to work with other authors' characters, to accommodate concepts developed in other BL books, and to do his research on factions he doesn't particularly care for. Fulgrim was great and Lukas, despite his distaste for SW, shows a far better awareness and understanding of the faction than exhibited by authors who have a professed liking for the SW. If that's not professionalism, I don't know what is.

[Kelborn]

I'm currently into Apocalypse, chapter 6 or 7 and I would already rank it amomg my most fav SM Battles/ Conquest/ whatever novels.

Like you said, he really goes into what others have done before. In this case, the Word Bearers are excellent. Subothan Khan could've been written by Wraight himself. You get what I mean.

 

Lukas gave me a completely different view on the Wolves, which I didn't anticipated at all. It was great and felt good to get something new of a faction you're loving for years.

 

He alone is responsible for selling me on AoS. Plague Garden and Soul Wars were a chiefs kiss.

 

For me, it feels that other authors work rather on their own while drawing links and inspirations by others. Reynolds and Hayley (he's expanding on these skills more and more) take something, twist it around and add a personal and new touch.

 

It's still a great shame and I really hope that one day, there'll be a chance for a get together.

[Shinros]

I will always appreciate what he did for the AOS setting, while so many authors focused on 40k, he gave us wonderful novels that helped build the setting into what we know and love today. Most of the good AOS books belong to him, on the side of 40k, every time I read his works I can tell he takes his craft seriously. 

 

With the Lukas book he captured the SW in ways that other authors miss entirely, his work with EC, my favourite legion has far surpassed whatever was put out before. I honestly wish Josh Reynolds luck for the future, he's talented and it shows in his books. I don't know what goes on within Black Library, but I think they've made a mistake. 

Edited October 18, 2020 by Shinros

[Fedor]

Was Josh more of an oldhammer fan than 40k? He was one of the authors that could transition very well between the different tabletop universes and settings. Some others like Werner and Mike Lee that wore their favouring of one on their sleeve seemed to lose a lot of flair when transitioning over.

Edited October 18, 2020 by Fedor

[cheywood]

Was Josh more of an oldhammer fan than 40k? He was one of the authors that could transition very well between the different tabletop universes and settings. Some others like Werner and Mike Lee that wore their favouring of one on their sleeve seemed to lose a lot of flair when transitioning over.

He wrote a lot more fantasy (in both WFB and AOS) than 40k fiction I believe. I remember him mentioning that he preferred Necromunda to the 40k universe at large.

[Scribe]

Man, I hope the guy knows he has some fans out there. His stuff is top tier, easily in that ADB/Wraight zone and maybe if I read more of his stuff, above it.

 

Gotta be some juice behind this really...

[Volt]

If you read the list of Josh Reynold's rejected pitches, they contain books that would have been far better than any BL book prior. Especially the idea of Gotrek and Felix having a run around the Imperial Zoo.

[mc warhammer]

i don't even like blood bowl and i'm bummed

[Bobss]

Black Library doesn't want Josh Reynolds's, it wants Guy Haley's who can pump out six cookie-cutter books a year that bring nothing refreshingly new to a subject, and use copious amounts of bolterporn and whatever seminal work Abnett/ADB/Wraight have written in the past ten years as a leg-up

 

Give me my Fabulous Bill omnibus with all of the shorts and I'll be a happy man who's calling it a day

Edited October 19, 2020 by Bobss

[SkimaskMohawk]

Haley isn't consistent with quality, but his good stuff is quite good and definitely brings refreshingly new stuff to a subject. Dante is great, Dawn of Fire has some incredible stuff with the scribe's journey, curze and perturabo do a lot to tie all the factions various works together.

[theSpirea]

In case people wish to follow Josh's future work you can check it out here https://aconytebooks.com/ (I've already read Wrath of N'kai and it was quite enjoyable).

 

It looks it's a new publisher and there are quite a few current and former BL writers (Werner, Guymer, Parrott, MacNiven, etc) working for them.

[SkimaskMohawk]

Wait is Rob Mac gone too? Don't do this to me lol

[Sandlemad]

Haley isn't consistent with quality, but his good stuff is quite good and definitely brings refreshingly new stuff to a subject. Dante is great, Dawn of Fire has some incredible stuff with the scribe's journey, curze and perturabo do a lot to tie all the factions various works together.

 

Yeah, as much as Haley can and does churn out the books and as much as that is often evident in what he writes (and I'd second Bobss's point about how clumsily he occasionally works with ideas executed better by earlier authors), at the same time he does take surprising risks and try new things. Far more than you'd expect from someone who's clearly been designated BL's safe pair of hands.

 

I'd throw Titandeath in there as well. Half written-to-order 'event' book to patch a hole in the release schedule with writing that only just goes above 'draft outline' text, half really very decent exploration of motherhood, pregnancy, legacy, in the context of giant robots. That's without parallel anywhere in 40k literature so fair play to Haley for going above and beyond. I don't know if it's just down to clashes of personalities with editors or what but it's not fair to caricature Haley for the sake of Reynolds.

[Kelborn]

Rob's not gone.

He's a freelancer and currently just busy with other projects.

 

I'm constantly teasing him for Charcharodons 3 and Last Hunt 2. He recently said that he started his tenth book. Don't think that we lost him. Especially the Shark Boys grew on him as he's regulary sharing awesome fan stuff.

 

And don't forget his Harakoni Warhawk blogg.

[WARMASTER_]

Although this seems like more of an echo chamber in the last few days, I believe josh to be right personally as regards to himself being less professional than his peers in the BL, his multiple ranks on Twitter of “why didn’t I get this?!” “I was perfect for this!” “they’ve knocked back all my amazing ideas! Look!” just screams unprofessional disgruntled former employee and an inflated ego compared to his ability at 40K prose

[Scribe]

Inflated ego? Perhaps.

 

His work is unquestionably great though.

 

I'll take inflated ego over multiple authors we get churning out skip worthy reams of material.

[WARMASTER_]

For me personally his work is average, he lacks the love for the subject and it shows! he also projects a lot of his own personal bias and views on to a very well established fictional universe which always seems strange to me?

 

I mean that’s the thing though isn’t it, the best authors at BL don’t have an inflated ego and they still definitely put out better work than him, so it’s unnecessary, are there worst authors than him definitely are there definitely far better who enjoy and embrace and understand the lore far better definitely

Edited October 19, 2020 by BladeOfVengeance

[DarkChaplain]

Imagine thinking that a super humble author who is understandably miffed about being skipped over for years, having a bunch of his stories left unpublished for years, getting taken off projects he was planning to wrap up on short notice and shuffled about while still being the fixer-upper anyway, commissioned to write not what he pitched over and over and over again but some by-the-numbers short notice boxed set / studio release tie in novels, is having an inflated ego.

 

Chances are, he's had more frustrations dealing with the editors at BL and GW over the years than anybody else still writing for BL. Heck, they didn't even let him continue G&F back then and gave the job of finishing the series to Guymer, despite Josh's continuity-free novels (and novella) being a sheer delight. Back with Time of Legends, he's gotten his third book canned, had countless character pitches for Warhammer Heroes - and was denied them all - and even his 40k pitches got shafted in favor of stuff he wasn't personally interested in.

 

That he wasn't even considered for a Heresy role at all when pretty much all of his peers were, up until the end when he got to write three audio dramas that didn't even get a proper payoff in the Siege novel where the protagonist gets killed off, is a sham as well. Yes, he got to write Fulgrim: The Palatine Phoenix, but without his work on Fabius, that is unlikely to have happened. Heck, even Fabius was uncertain to even become a complete trilogy for a few years.

 

Personally, I enjoyed almost everything Josh wrote and I had the time to read, or listen to. I cannot say the same about even the most revered authors on here, like AD-B, Abnett, Wraight, French or whoever else. I'd trade all of AD-B's upcoming novels for the Black Legion, Spears, or Heresy for Josh to return and write more Warhammer Horror, Blood Bowl and whatever Fantasy he likes. I'd do it in a heartbeat, even if I'd earn a lot of enmity from fans of the other authors.

 

Thankfully, Josh not writing for BL anymore doesn't mean I won't get to read his works anymore. I do, just under other publishers, or independently. And if it ain't Warhammer Horror, I might as well read Arkham Horror, or future Royal Occultist endeavours instead. The party that definitely loses here is Black Library, who's got one less author whose books I'll be preordering as far in advance as I can given Amazon listings.

[Scribe]

For me personally his work is average, he lacks the love for the subject and it shows! he also projects a lot of his own personal bias and views on to a very well established fictional universe which always seems strange to me?

 

I mean that’s the thing though isn’t it, the best authors at BL don’t have an inflated ego and they still definitely put out better work than him, so it’s unnecessary, are there worst authors than him definitely are there definitely far better who enjoy and embrace and understand the lore far better definitely

Uhh...I disagree.

 

His Fabius series is top tier. I don't know who you enjoy, but I get the impression your list of good authors doesn't align with my list.

[WARMASTER_]

Imagine thinking that a super humble author who is understandably miffed about being skipped over for years, having a bunch of his stories left unpublished for years, getting taken off projects he was planning to wrap up on short notice and shuffled about while still being the fixer-upper anyway, commissioned to write not what he pitched over and over and over again but some by-the-numbers short notice boxed set / studio release tie in novels, is having an inflated ego.

I don’t know man the only side of the story you’ve got is his and he was clearly angry at BL so I’d take it all with a pinch of salt, there’s definitely reasons for book cancellations and pitches being rejected, probably lack of sales

 

And for me yes the Twitter rants of he’s all my amazing book ideas they had the cheek not to take seemed very egotistical, the whole list had one idea in it that sounded like a really good book the rest were very meh

 

We’ve got different opinions of quality of work has I wouldn’t sacrifice one of ADB Wraights or Abnetts for his in a millions years but as you say it’s a mute point now he’s gone

[cheywood]

For me personally his work is average, he lacks the love for the subject and it shows! he also projects a lot of his own personal bias and views on to a very well established fictional universe which always seems strange to me?

 

I mean that’s the thing though isn’t it, the best authors at BL don’t have an inflated ego and they still definitely put out better work than him, so it’s unnecessary, are there worst authors than him definitely are there definitely far better who enjoy and embrace and understand the lore far better definitely

In which works has he inserted his personal bias? That’s a common, unjustified complaint with ADB, but I’ve never heard that about Reynolds. I haven’t read his whole oeuvre, but what I have read has been well-researched and equally well presented so I’m surprised to hear that claim. Edited October 19, 2020 by cheywood

[WARMASTER_]

In which works has he inserted his personal bias? That’s a common, unjustified complaint with ADB, but I’ve never heard that about Reynolds. I haven’t read his whole oeuvre, but what I have read has been well-researched and equally well presented so I’m surprised to hear that claim.

I agree it’s a unjustified complaint of ADB especially with woman characters! But for me it’s in most of his work he’s stated on multiple occasions he’s finds Space marines boring, so IMO you never see a nuanced view of any chapter or legion through his eyes they are always the archetype or most obvious version of what they should be

 

And then his subtle political views mentioned in the Fabius bile series on female space marines (let’s leave that well alone though, as it just starts very heated arguments)

 

There’s definitely mostly JR fans in this thread and I’m not trying to just ruffle feathers intentionally it’s all just my opinion on an Ex BL author

 

Edit spelling

Edited October 19, 2020 by BladeOfVengeance

[Scribe]

It's not a female space marine though...what was the possible issue with that character?

[WARMASTER_]

That’s not what I’m talking about? But as previously stated I’m not getting into this it leads to very strong opinions that are nothing to do with this topic

[SkimaskMohawk]

Wait...The view on the EC and word bearers wasn't nuanced? You have a ton of characters that were more than "orgymaster" or "chaos zealot" and really help round out the various legions, especially when combined with some other authors takes (which are also often referenced).

 

Idk, his EC in Fabius have more nuance and depth than ADBs word bearers or black legion.

 

And also Savonna is clearly not a female space marine. She's a chaos champion that wears power armour, a concept that comes straight out of WFB with how someone can attain power from the gods.