What can I say about it now, without spoiling anything? Well…for a start, I’d recommend reading (or rereading) both The Magos and Pariah before tackling this (I actually revisited the whole Ravenor trilogy in audio too), just to make sure you’re fully up to speed.
Pariah was first published in 2012 and it took nine years for the sequel to arrive, but I can say with total honesty that I don’t mind – it was absolutely worth the wait! Selfishly, I decided to read Penitent purely for myself with no consideration of writing a review, so that I could concentrate on just enjoying the story without thinking about how I might talk about it later on. You can thank me later!Ĭheck out my review of Ghazghkull Thraka: Prophet of the Waaagh! And Also… I was lucky enough to be given a copy of the LE by my mates as a birthday present (they’re a good bunch!), and even five months later I’m still in awe at how good this book is, and devastated that I can’t discuss it in more detail with most people! For the time being most of you will just have to take my word for how good this is – but trust me, this is one BL book you don’t want to sleep on, once it’s more widely available. It’s a tragedy that this has only been released in Limited Edition format so far, with the regular release not due (according to the wider book trade – BL haven’t confirmed anything) until March. This is a powerful character study of one of the big names of the setting, and it really does an incredible job of bringing the big lad to life (by way of his little buddy the little monster, Makari), but it does so much more too! I can’t remember the last time I laughed so much while reading a 40k novel, or stopped so many times to marvel at how a scene or even a single line could perfectly capture the essence of 40k, of orks or even of the Imperium.
At the same time though, there’s only really one book that could take the top spot, and that’s Nate Crowley’s incredible Ghazghkull novel, a book that while relatively short for a novel, packs in everything I want from a 40k story. I say it was a tough call, and in some respects it was – all of the other books I’m going to mention here are fantastic. Ghazghkull Thraka: Prophet of the Waaagh! by Nate Crowley It was a tough call, but in the end I chose one book as my absolute favourite, along with four more that definitely need talking about (in no particular order)! Track of Words Top BL Pick for 2021 Without further ado then, let’s take a look at my personal favourite Black Library books from 2021 – check out the links to reviews or author interviews where available too. So this article is mostly a recap on what I’ve reviewed in 2021 (with one exception), with a couple of honourable mentions and a few thoughts on some other 2021 releases that I definitely still want to read. That might still sound like quite a lot, but it’s less than half the number of BL books I reviewed in 2020 and less than 10% (!) of what I reviewed in 2019. Out of 40-ish brand new titles (plus various omnibuses etc.) released in ‘21, I’ve read 14 (mostly novels or anthologies) and only reviewed five. I think it’s safe to say that 2021 has been a bit of a weird year for Black Library for various reasons (I might talk more about this in another article), and for various reasons I’ve generally found myself less inclined to read BL books than in previous years. In previous years I’ve also covered other formats and split out my choices into different articles based on the main BL settings – 40k, Age of Sigmar and Horus Heresy – but this year I’m just going to do this one article, and concentrate on novels. As always, I want to open with the caveat that these are my personal highlights based solely on what I’ve read – I’m not suggesting that there haven’t been other excellent BL titles released this year, just that I haven’t read them! I should also point out that I’m basing my selections on books which were first published in 2021, which means I’ve chosen one that only had a Limited Edition release and won’t be more widely available until 2022, and that this year I’m almost entirely looking at novels. 2021 is rapidly coming to a close, which means it’s time for my usual roundup of the best Black Library books I’ve read over the last year.
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