Black Library Top 10

[Uprising]

A bit of a fun topic.  Let say your stuck for the rest of your life on an island and can have only 10 Black library novels.  Which top ten would you pick?  

[Malkydel]

In no particular order:

 

Fire Caste

Honourbound

The First Heretic

Traitor General

The Infinite and the Divine

Primogenitor

The Carrion Throne

Priests of Mars

Know No Fear

Talon of Horus

[Tolmeus]

From the top of my head:

Spear of the Emperor
Horus Rising
Fulgrim (HH)

Angel Exterminatus
Titanicus
Helsreach
War of the Fang
Saturnine
The Unremembered Empire
Perturabo

(Shame on me, but I haven't read Gaunts Ghosts, Eisenhorn/Ravenor and Peter Fehervari till now)

[Ammonius]

Kind of in order (as of the date/ time of posting):

 

The Lords of Silence

Helsreach

The Lion: Son of the Forest

Titanicus

Warlord

Brothers of the Snake

Titandeath

Luther: First of the Fallen

Dropsite Massacre

Brutal Kunnin

 

 

 

 

[Valkia the Bloody]

For me it is:

The Eisenhorn and Ravenor Books

The Night Lord Trilogy

Gaunt's Ghosts

Betrayer

A Thousand Sons

The Burning of Prospero

Lord of the Night

The Commissar Cain series

The Emperor's Gift

Space Marine (Ian Watson)

 

Honorary Mention goes to the Dark Coil books by Peter Fehervari. 

[sitnam]

I think my list would be:

 

Infinite and Divine

Twice Dead King (I'm counting it as one)

God-Eaters Son

Assasinorum: Kingmaker

Elemental Council

Kingsblade (Underrated imo)

Red Tithe

Requiem Infernal

The Reverie

Bad Loon Rising

 

I included AoS novels, as I feel like they don't get enough love. I only included two Fehervari books. I love Fire Caste and Cult of the Spiral Dawn, but I think the latter two novels are superior and I wanted to include a bit more variety. 

[Scribe]

Last time we did this, I think I went with 3 trilogies and Valdor...

 

Valdor, the only Valdor that matters.

Soul Hunter, of course.

Carrion Throne (one of the best books in all of BL, not close)

Master of Mankind

Wrath of Iron

Primogenitor

Lords of Silence

Bloodlines

Betrayer

Helsreach

 

Yeah, sure.

[Alpharius902]

Revised my old list a smidge:

• Imperial Glory
• Path of the Dark Eldar Trilogy (Path of the Renegade, Path of the Incubus, Path of the Archon)
• Requiem Infernal
• Urdesh Duology (The Serpent and the Saint, The Magister and the Martyr)
• Execution Hour
• The King of the Spoil
• The Fall of Cadia

[Roomsky]

Here's some more if you're interested, OP, though the parameters were a little different:
https://bolterandchainsword.com/topic/383290-if-you-could-only-keep-ten-40k-books-what-would-they-be/#comments

Gosh, doing Heresy and 40k makes this so much harder.

1-4: The First Heretic, Betrayer, Master of Mankind, Echoes of Eternity
ADB is my favourite Black Library author, TFH got me into reading again, Echoes is his magnum opus, and these 4 flow well into each other. Definitely the unshakeable core of my collection.

5: Space Marine
Watson's best, and the most unfiltered look into the madness of 40k that still has a proper beginning, middle, and end. A classic.

6: Fire Caste
Heart of Darkness meets 40k meets whole new levels of screwed up. An essential read.

7: Twice-Dead King - Ruin
The best Necron book. I will not be taking questions.

8: Titanicus
Such an amazing spread of characters, written with impressive verisimillitude. Love me some AdMech, too.

9, 10: Outgunned, Above and Beyond
I'm sure more's coming, but this is an excellent duology on its own. Immaculately paced, and always fun.

[darkhorse0607]

In no order (mainly judged by either multiple reads or wanting to buy a mini to paint after it, or reading and immediately thinking "yeah I could go again")

 

Elemental Council

Know No Fear

Head of the Hydra

Dante

Scars

Infinite and the Divine 

Caphias Cain For the Emperor (dont @ me)

Betrayer

 

And that's kind of it for my favorites but I'll add 

Fall of Cadia 

And

Talon of Horus 

Both are really solid in my opinion, but I find that I have to be in a certain mood for them

[theSpirea]

I wonder how different the list is going to be compared to the one I made before. I can't find it now to check. Thanks @Roomsky for linking that old thread. A bit different question, but my top 10 still includes many of those I posted there.

The list is in alphabetical order. There's no way I can actually rank them.

• Fire Caste (this goes beyond Warhammer and it's a crime Fehervari isn't on every SFF reader's bookshelf)
• Fire Made Flesh (best Necromunda novel. I'm still angry at BL for ditching that setting)
• Ghazghkull Thraka: Prophet of the Waaagh! (Crowley gave us Orks that are scary and funny at the same time. No other author has managed to balance it so well.)
• Godeater's Son (this type of writing can easily rival any modern fantasy writer)
• Horus Rising (Perfectly managed to set the tone for the biggest series I've ever read. I don't think I'm ever going to experience anything like that again: following a series/setting for decades. It was exhausting but well worth it.)
• Lords of Silence (my favorite traitor's pov standalone novel)
• Primogenitor (I love Reynolds's writing. He gave us one of the best CSM novels/series and he openly stated he doesn't even like them and finds them boring!)
• Prince Maesa (It's far from perfect but Haley somehow transported me back to my early teens when I was deep into D&D and reading Gemmell, Holdstock, etc.)
• Scars (my favorite HH novel. The whole WS arc is excellent. Oh, and that short story Restorer at the end, cherry on top.)
• The Carrion Throne (I've said it many times here and on other forums: this one is in my top 10 not just of BL books but of all books. Wraight simply gets grimdark. The ending of the whole trilogy is peak.)

 

Going through the lists you guys posted, it seems I have quite a few picks in common with @Scribe

 

[Scribe]

2 hours ago, theSpirea said:

The Carrion Throne (I've said it many times here and on other forums: this one is in my top 10 not just of BL books but of all books. Wraight simply gets grimdark. The ending of the whole trilogy is peak.)

 

Yeah its really really great. I may have to read that whole thing again.

 

2 hours ago, theSpirea said:

Primogenitor (I love Reynolds's writing. He gave us one of the best CSM novels/series and he openly stated he doesn't even like them and finds them boring!)

 

Or I may have to crack that out again, and see if I still think its a story of fatherhood or if I just had that on my mind at the time.

[sitnam]

@theSpirea I forgot about Fabius Bile, probably some of my favorite CSM lore. I think the only reason I wouldn't put it on a top 10 is because I'd want the whole trilogy, and it'd knock off some other options

 

@Roomsky I love Twice Dead King, but it's so hard to justify just having one half of the duology imo. It's almost required to have it combined, both halves really shine together

Edited 3 hours ago by sitnam