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Warhammer 40k books, where to start?
Foomy
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
So I've absorbed tiny bits of the lore of this over the years, and want to know more.
But there are like 100 books, where do I start, whats good, whats bad?
But there are like 100 books, where do I start, whats good, whats bad?
Steam Profile: FoomyFooms
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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.
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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.
3DS: 1650-8480-6786
Switch: SW-0653-8208-4705
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.