Do you have any particular faction or force you'd like to read about?
General suggestions for you as good places to start:
Ciaphas Cain.
There are two omnibus collections available and it's a great series. Bit lighter and more comedic than most 40k, but that makes it a great bait book to get friends and family hooked.
Ravenor and Eisenhorn
They also have omnibus editions available, if you want to read about Inquisitors, these are good series
Gaunt's Ghosts
The Tanith first and only. Again, they have omnibus collections out.
Last Chancers
Another omnibus collection (noticing a theme at all?), a fun read but I thought the ending was pretty weak. Felt like the author realized he'd hit the page quota for the project and decided to end it as quickly as possible.
IMO the books break down roughly like this. Of note the Horus Heresy series is over 25 books long at this point and just about every author has had a hand in it by now. I've included just the first 4 books and I'd suggest reading the others based on if you are interested in the characters or specific events covered, but YMMV (for example, I liked Nemesis by James Swallow, but I dislike anything he's written regarding the Blood Angels).
The good:
The Ciphias Cain books (Sandy Mitchell)
Gaunt's Ghosts (Dan Abnett)
Storm Of Iron (Graham McNeill)
The first 4 Horus Heresy novels (Horus Rising, False Gods, Galaxy In Flames, Flight of the Eisenstein, different authors).
Pretty much anything by Aaron Dembski-Bowden
Eisenhorn and Ravenor series (Dan Abnett)
Execution Hour (Gordon Rennie, a look at war at the space level).
The okay:
The Ultramarines series (Graham McNeill)
Anything by Ben Counter
Anything by Nick Kyme
Anything not listed above from Dan Abnett
The Space Wolves series (William King)
Fire Warrior (Simon Spurrier, based on the FPS from a few years back)
Anything by Anthony Reynolds
The ugly:
Anything by CS Goto
The Blood Angels series by James Swallow.
Just about anything by Gav Thorpe.
I love Ian Watson's The Inquisition War, from back when the lore was really weird, before the 4th/5th edition tidying up.
I think that's out of print, though.
As the post above notes, you're generally better off looking for stuff by authors that are well regarded. GW has a dreadful habit of letting people with other jobs (game designers, artists, etc.) write novels and some of them are godawful. The Horus Heresy series in particular is really uneven in terms of quality.
I'd also recommend anything by Dan Abnett, I don't think he's written a bad book yet.
Horus Rising is the best of the Heresy series. The sequel books of the series (which were not by Dan Abnett) weren't very good and I couldn't get into Gaunt's Ghosts, so I'd pick that going in as a completely filthy casual that just wants a good read.
It's one of the few books that has a consistent theming throughout the book, the allusion to the Mournival and the Four Temperaments/Humors representing Horus's psychological well being and even moments of creeping horror in it. It's a great book all around. It nails the tone perfectly given that this is supposed to be the time period right before everything goes Grimdark and everybody is still optimistic about the future.
I agree with everything cited above but just wanted to add two more specific recommendations:
Dark Apostle by Anthony Reynolds - This is the only black library book I have read several times. Without spoiling anything, the book builds towards a climax over a fairly large period, and it exponentially ramps up as it approaches the end. At least for me it reached the point where I could almost feel the desperation of the various protagonists as I read towards the conclusion, and I distinctly remember that feeling of almost hurrying to turn the page. Considering there are so many bad or mediocore 40k books that are forgettable (I once bought a re-issue of one 40k book and it took me about 2/3rds of the way through to realize i'd already read it), its really impressive that this story in particular has stayed with me for so long. It is the start of a trilogy and I only vaguely remember books 2 and 3, so my strong recommendation here only applies to Dark Apostle itself.
Helsreach by Aaron Dembski-Bowden - In the Space Marine Battles series, a great self contained story about a pivotal event in the 40k universe. Everything by ADB is great, and I'm not sure I'd say this is his best, but as an intro to 40k I think its a perfect choice.
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Psychotic OneThe Lord of No PantsParts UnknownRegistered Userregular
If you want the hows and why the 40k world is the way it is I'd recommend the Horus Heresy. For the most part good, but there are definitely a few stinkers in there. Namely The Battle of the Furious Abyss. But there are definitely some great books there. The Thousand Sons and the other half of the story Prospero Burns are great and shows how and why The Wolves and the Sons would become locked in an eternal rivalry with each other.
As also mentioned anything written by ADB and Dan Abnett are solid gold. Eisenhorn, Raveanor, The Emperors Gift, and so many more of their works are great. Also I like the Ahriman books. But then again I like the Thousand Sons so stuff from their perspective Pre/Post Heresy is a good read.
Posts
General suggestions for you as good places to start:
Ciaphas Cain.
There are two omnibus collections available and it's a great series. Bit lighter and more comedic than most 40k, but that makes it a great bait book to get friends and family hooked.
Ravenor and Eisenhorn
They also have omnibus editions available, if you want to read about Inquisitors, these are good series
Gaunt's Ghosts
The Tanith first and only. Again, they have omnibus collections out.
Last Chancers
Another omnibus collection (noticing a theme at all?), a fun read but I thought the ending was pretty weak. Felt like the author realized he'd hit the page quota for the project and decided to end it as quickly as possible.
The good:
The Ciphias Cain books (Sandy Mitchell)
Gaunt's Ghosts (Dan Abnett)
Storm Of Iron (Graham McNeill)
The first 4 Horus Heresy novels (Horus Rising, False Gods, Galaxy In Flames, Flight of the Eisenstein, different authors).
Pretty much anything by Aaron Dembski-Bowden
Eisenhorn and Ravenor series (Dan Abnett)
Execution Hour (Gordon Rennie, a look at war at the space level).
The okay:
The Ultramarines series (Graham McNeill)
Anything by Ben Counter
Anything by Nick Kyme
Anything not listed above from Dan Abnett
The Space Wolves series (William King)
Fire Warrior (Simon Spurrier, based on the FPS from a few years back)
Anything by Anthony Reynolds
The ugly:
Anything by CS Goto
The Blood Angels series by James Swallow.
Just about anything by Gav Thorpe.
I think that's out of print, though.
As the post above notes, you're generally better off looking for stuff by authors that are well regarded. GW has a dreadful habit of letting people with other jobs (game designers, artists, etc.) write novels and some of them are godawful. The Horus Heresy series in particular is really uneven in terms of quality.
I'd also recommend anything by Dan Abnett, I don't think he's written a bad book yet.
...so +1 on Dan Abnett's stuff.
Yeah like everyone else the best tip with the Black Library is to stick to certain authors.
Anything by Dan Abnett, Aaron Dembski-Bowden, Sandy Mitchell or Graham McNeill are must reads.
Ben Counter's books are solidly written and entertaining too if not of quite the same skill as the above guys.
Chicago Megagame group
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It's one of the few books that has a consistent theming throughout the book, the allusion to the Mournival and the Four Temperaments/Humors representing Horus's psychological well being and even moments of creeping horror in it. It's a great book all around. It nails the tone perfectly given that this is supposed to be the time period right before everything goes Grimdark and everybody is still optimistic about the future.
Abenett Only wrote 2 of the first 8 books, Horus Rising and Legion. Both were excellent.
Very true, I was just stating my opinion of how far into the series I enjoyed myself.
Chicago Megagame group
Watch me struggle to learn streaming! Point and laugh!
Steam Me
Not true! I have tons of 40k/Horus Heresy books on my kindle.
They just sell them directly. There's no DRM and you can download the ebooks in both .epub or .mobi formats as much as you want.
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For outer space alien grim darkness, they're each fairly grounded in their characters
Dark Apostle by Anthony Reynolds - This is the only black library book I have read several times. Without spoiling anything, the book builds towards a climax over a fairly large period, and it exponentially ramps up as it approaches the end. At least for me it reached the point where I could almost feel the desperation of the various protagonists as I read towards the conclusion, and I distinctly remember that feeling of almost hurrying to turn the page. Considering there are so many bad or mediocore 40k books that are forgettable (I once bought a re-issue of one 40k book and it took me about 2/3rds of the way through to realize i'd already read it), its really impressive that this story in particular has stayed with me for so long. It is the start of a trilogy and I only vaguely remember books 2 and 3, so my strong recommendation here only applies to Dark Apostle itself.
Helsreach by Aaron Dembski-Bowden - In the Space Marine Battles series, a great self contained story about a pivotal event in the 40k universe. Everything by ADB is great, and I'm not sure I'd say this is his best, but as an intro to 40k I think its a perfect choice.
As also mentioned anything written by ADB and Dan Abnett are solid gold. Eisenhorn, Raveanor, The Emperors Gift, and so many more of their works are great. Also I like the Ahriman books. But then again I like the Thousand Sons so stuff from their perspective Pre/Post Heresy is a good read.