The Hall Monitor is published every other week, the same day as the latest installment of the Black Library Readers’ Hall of Fame drops on Tabletop Battles. A cross between a director’s cut and a backstage pass, it’s a look behind the scenes at the Hall of Fame project.
Subscribers note: You are receiving this email since you’re subscribed to the Black Library Features segment of the Warhammer Wordforge. You can easily update your subscription and notification preferences at any time (see here). Thanks for your support!
The comedian Rodney Dangerfield built an entire career on the back of the perception of being perpetually undervalued- not for nothing his 1980 Grammy-winning comedy album was titled No Respect. “I could tell my parents hated me,” he characteristically joked. “My bath toys were a toaster and a radio. When I played in the sandbox, the cat kept covering me up.”
While he played the image to perfection for laughs, Dangerfield was very successful. He was a regular on the late-night talk-show circuit in the 1960’s and 70’s, headlined shows in Vegas, and his breakout film role in 1980’s Caddyshack led to a succession of films in the 80’s and 90’s.
The juxtaposition between Dangerfield’s on-stage persona and personal one was of course deliberate (he’d paid his dues as a struggling jokewriter and comedian before adopting the persona), but this week it put me in mind of longtime Black Library author Guy Haley. Like Dangerfield’s persona, Haley too doesn’t necessarily get the respect he deserves.
“Guy Haley is the vanilla of the Black Library,” said one commentor in the Black Library Subreddit, “he gets the job done and is given the big things to handle because Abnett is too busy. Like vanilla he's good.”
While that’s somewhere between a genuine compliment and ‘damning with faint praise’ territory, Haley’s reputation in Black Library reader circles has generally been as a steady and dependable writer, stronger in substance than in flair and with a high fidelity to the lore and close relationship to the tabletop
I’m not sure that’s entirely fair.
“Honestly he’s a sleeper writer like people talk about ADB and Dan Abnett but Guy Haley is up there too,” read one comment on a Reddit thread praising Haley’s stories.
Haley’s case for greatness received a nice boost this weekend, with Dante, Dark Imperium, and The Devastation of Baal entering the Black Library Readers’ Hall of Fame. Fittingly enough, he’s only the third Black Library author to ever manage that incredible feat, as he joins William King (Class 1999-2000’s Skavenslayer, Space Wolf, and Trollslayer), and Aaron Dembski-Bowden (Class of 2010’s The First Heretic, Helsreach, and Soul Hunter).
With this bringing his Hall of Fame total to five, he’s now in the top 25% of Hall of Fame authors by book count as well. Not a bad place to be at all!
So for those sleeping on Haley, today’s inductions may well be one heck of an alarm clock.
Now let’s get to the books!
The Vox Populi Top Twenties
So here are the updated Top Twenties for both halves of the Black Library, but first a look at the updated Leaderboard:
Hall Winners Leaderboard
First off, congratulations to first-time winner Robbie MacNiven, who entered on the strength of his trilogy-opening Red Tithe! The Carcharodons have long been a fan-favorite, so that comes as little surprise.
Next, the “middle tier1” Josh Reynolds pushed himself past Sandy Mitchell to draw level with the legendary William King. And Guy Haley firmly climbs into that tier just on the strength of this incredible year.
Finally, frontrunners Dan Abnett and Aaron Dembski-Bowden climb up a rank apiece.
Fantasy/Age of Sigmar
No changes to Fantasy/AoS this time, but wait till we see what happened on the other half…
30K/40K
A seismic change! The congestion at the bottom of the table has long been teetering, but Aaron Dembski-Bowden’s Black Legion coming in to tie at #19 finally gives a shove to clear out the table a bit. We bid adieu to the incredible six books that were all clinging by their fingernails:
Betrayer, by Aaron Dembski-Bowden
Double Eagle, by Dan Abnett
Know No Fear, by Dan Abnett
Only in Death, by Dan Abnett
Ravenor Returned, by Dan Abnett
The Talon of Horus, by Aaron Dembski-Bowden
So what does this mean for the table? Well, Dan Abnett now sees his dominance slightly reduced, owning just under 50% of the table. ADB is right behind with seven entries, and all other authors account for just four. I haven’t run a number crunch on the “percentage of author’s books that made it into the hall,” but I suspect ADB would be untouchable there. I may do just that for next time; I’ve got the stat-loving heart of a baseball fanatic.
That’s all for this time, thanks for reading!
As I said about this last time, “it’s important to note that “middle tier” is not a qualifying descriptor- these authors certainly aren’t ‘mid,’ but rather just a representation of quantity at this particular time.”