100% concur on this one, Mark, although I came late to the party. I always sneered at the Warhammer and 40k novels (I am a casual gamer, so I played in the universe but never read in the universe). I was challenged by one of my gaming mates to at least try and picked up Horus Rising by Dan Abnett (the first in the Horus Heresy series). I was completely blown away. The writing was excellent, the storyline was amazing and I had random squeee moments when I recognised random personages in the story from the gaming table. It was tremendous fun. And it was also pretty hard sci-fi: genetic mutations, space travel, aliens. I’m reading all the same kind of stuff in Gwyneth Jones’ Spirit right now, and *that* was shortlisted for the Arthur Clarke!

I would say that genre tie-ins can be a great way of starting a reader off into the realms of genre fantasy. A lot of wargamers, in particular, will pick up the tie-in novels while at a younger age than they might start reading full-on fantasy – and this just opens the door to new readers.

I fully support the inclusion of Empire in the shortlist.

Now you’re singing my song. I’m on a mission to introduce as many as possible to Black Library books. It’s because I discovered that they’re generally written to a much higher standard than alot of what’s out there.

I’ve reviewed Warhammer 40k books on my blog and now for bscreview.com, in fact most of the books I review for them are Black Library novels, most recently A Thousand Sons by Graham Mcneill. I challenge anyone, 40k fan or otherwise to remain unmoved by that novel. It’s a masterpiece. I’m often reminded just how good the likes of Graham Mcneill and Dan Abnett are when I pick up other novels outside the Warhammer/40k universes.

Definitely worth the effort to get into.

Adrian, he never said he was retiring. Just taking a step back in order to spend some quality time with the 3 dimensional people

I’ve read some tie-in fiction over the past few years. Some was decent, some was not. Typical percentages, perhaps. Yet I don’t read it very often for the same reasons I don’t read many secondary-world fantasies these days; my interests are shifting again more and more to the shorter form, to stories that are grounded much more in its characters than in its settings, especially settings on steroids (which I tend to find distracting more than pleasing).

So perhaps one can have a bias based not on blind assertions, but on a fuller realization of one’s likes and dislikes that develop and change over time?

Yeah, it’s a preference thing, more or less. It’s not that I don’t appreciate what authors of secondary-world fantasies have to deal with in creating their settings/stories, but what I note I suspect may be part of the reason why SF/F does not appeal to large segments of the reading population, regardless of any open-mindedness that may or may not have been taking place.

That being said, if an author skimps too much on the characterizations and has a narrative that feels hokey and not creative at all, I’ll blast both barrels of the critical shotgun, as witnessed in my scathing comments on the Clash of the Titans movie remake

The major problems with tie-in fiction are sprawl and what are they grounded on plus the general lack of a unifying vision from an author that writes in the universe and created it.

I do not play electronic games at all or watch movies/tv that much so I am usually uninterested in fiction based on such

I am also generally a “completist” in the sense that as long as I follow a series – I drop from series often (96 listed so far by me on Goodreads), though I also follow lots of series (131 ongoing listed so far by me on Goodreads), I like to read all the volumes and all the ss associated with it if any…

Most tie-in fiction has lots of novels and I just do not have the time and inclination for them.

This being said if a top, top favorite author (David Weber, IM Banks, PF Hamilton) would write tie-in, I definitely would give it a try as I did when Mr. Weber wrote in the Bolo universe or in the 163* universe – actually the 163* universe which I love is the closest it comes to tie-in that I read with multiple authors and tons of ss, but there is an unifying guidance from Eric Flint who created it and is the main writer

I will just argue again in the favour of the Horus Heresy tie-in novels. Those who have played 40k know the outcome of the Horus Heresy and the general events. However, reading the books of the Horus Heresy, knowing the outcome did not affect my enjoyment AT ALL, because it was the journey that I enjoyed, the little details. And anyone who hasn’t played 40k would be able to enjoy the books in their own right. Enjoyment for all, in fact

Mark, it’s one thing to base something closely on the style or content of a particular work (not fanfic), another to write missing scenes or alternative endings for LoTR, James Bond, the Odyssey or Piper’s Little Fuzzy as recently done by John Scalzi (fanfic).

A lot of literary fiction is fanfic of originals whose copyright either never existed or expired (examples: all retellings of epics including the Silmarillion, much of which Tolkien lifted straight out of the Volsunga Saga; a good deal of Shakespeare; Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead.)

I said that “much” (not all) fanfic is better than tie-ins” because I’ve read a fair amount of both. I stopped reading tie-ins early, because I found them uniformly awful. Fanfic, on the other hand, varies very widely in quality. You may know that there’s so-called alternative universe fanfic, which diverges completely from canon. AU fanfic is often better not only than tie-ins but also than the original (Star Wars is a prime example, given Lucas’ dismal characters and dialogue).

Fanfic is really a throwback to old-style storytelling, which left the tellers free to embellish and change according to their and the audience’s mood and circumstances. More here:

“Dream Other Dreams, and Better”
http://www.starshipreckless.com/blog/?p=94