With the epic conclusion to the Horus Heresy, the Fall of Cadia, and an Ork Warboss who killed a Warlord Titan with a flying car, it’s been a banner year for Black Library.
Last week we gave you the chance to vote on the Book of the Year, and tens of thousands of you weighed in. Alas, as with any ‘Best Thing of the Year’ contest – even one held in March – there can be only one winner. Here’s the top 10…
Sneaking into the top ten (as is his style) is Cypher: Lord of the Fallen by John French, while another elusive character with sinister motives takes ninth place – Fabius Bile, co-starring alongside Belisarius Cawl in Genefather by Guy Haley.
Everyone’s favourite reluctant hero, Ciaphas Cain, steals eighth spot with his latest book, Vainglorious, and also takes the fourth spot with Ciaphas Cain: The Anthology, a collection of 13 short stories and one novella. Both are by Sandy Mitchell.
The first part of the final part of the Siege of Terra series, The End and the Death: Volume I, by Dan Abnett comes in seventh (more on this landmark series later…), while another cataclysm for the Imperium comes in sixth with The Fall of Cadia by Robert Rath. Mike Brooks’ Warboss fends off the opposition to plant his boss pole in fifth spot.
Phew! On to the top three….
Picking up from Volume I, Dan Abnett’s The End and the Death: Volume II sees the Imperium on the brink as the Siege of Terra series approaches its grand finale. Noble Sanguinius takes the fight to the flagship of his traitor brother, hoping to strike down the leader of the galactic civil war. Let’s see how that plays out.
It’s all nailbiting stuff. If only there was an even more epic Horus Heresy book to read afterwards. Well….
The End and the Death: Volume III comes in second place on your Book of the Year list. And what a tale it is.
After over 60 novels and a whole host of short stories, the Horus Heresy series reaches its climax – Emperor versus Warmaster, father versus son, shiny golden armour versus sinister obsidian armour. And the fate of all humanity hangs in the balance.
Dan Abnett’s iconic novel would have taken top spot if the votes for all three volumes were added up, but we’re sticklers for the rules here at Warhammer Community. If there was a Metawatch: Black Library Edition, we’d host it.
So the Book of the Year, with the lion’s share of the vote is….
The Lion: Son of the Forest by Mike Brooks clinched the top spot by a mere 500 votes, proving the prowess of the First Legion’s Primarch. This momentous tale has been 10,000 in-universe years in the making, and 30 of our own.
After millennia of dreaming, locked in stasis at the heart of his shattered home world, Lion El'Jonson wakes to the nightmare of Imperium Nihilus. Faced with these strange times, the Primarch of the Dark Angels can be certain of nothing and no-one, except for himself.
You can catch up on this latest seismic shift in the Warhammer 40,000 narrative, as well as all the other epic tales in this list, via the Black Library webstore.