That book rules. Space Marine, also by Ian Watson, is also great. This is an excerpt about a squad of Imperial Fists assaulting a Tyranid ship:
>Even as the armoured Fists, tightly packed into a stretched boarding torpedo, stared at the forward viewscreen in its mount of bronze bones, that sphincter pulsed. It expelled a quick milky cloud, which the torpedo's sensors assayed as consisting of bitter liquid dregs, foul gas, and ashy debris -- the fart of a leviathan...
Ive never read it, i just recall the immersion the 1st person narrative was able to achieve. It is a shame more people do not use it for fantasy works it is objectively superior.
>Remembering the gang sitting in the underwater house, relaxing and talking politics
There are some genuinely good books in the HH series but also some absolute garbage. Aaron Dembski-Bowden and Dan Abnett are both fairly talented writers, though Abnett shows his capeshit roots pretty often, for good or ill.
https://i.imgur.com/9uGLb6O.jpg
are any of these books any good if you're not a 14 year old boy?
There are a handful. Eisenhorn Trilogy is good without any background knowledge of the setting, Ciaphas Cain is pretty funny until it gets stale, worth one or two books' read. Infinite and the Divine is pretty good. Fifteen Hours is one of my favorite scifi novellas, it's tight and grim and may be the single best item Black Library has published, now close to 20 years ago.
I'm in the middle of Eisenhorn: Xenos, and so far I'm enjoying it. I was told it's the only thing worth reading in the entirety of WH40K novel pool so if you don't like that you can probably move on to something else.
The Eisenhorn books are great. Ravenor trilogy is maybe even better.
A sort of old school book that's actually really good is Eye of Terror by Barrington J. Bayley. That was before Games Workshop had their own personal stable of writers, and they were hiring established sci-fi authors to write the books. Some of the stuff is non-canon now, but probably nobody in this thread cares about that shit. Those early books are weird and entertaining.
yes, Gaunt's Ghosts is a really good series. it actually shows how the imperium works on an everyday basis level and you can actually relate to the characters because they're mortals and not hyper modified supersoldiers.
Necropolis is probably the book i liked the most. there are a couple of the late novels that i really, really liked but can't remember the precise title. i think they were honor guard and straight silver
this. the eye of terror is a fun 40k novel but it's old so probably not canon at this point
The Ciaphas Cain ones are always a fun read. The guy is a scumbag, but you can't help but love him a little as he blunders through crisis after crisis.
The Salamander novels are generally a decent pick for the Horus Heresy series.
Deff Skwadron is a solid read for the Orks, but that's a comic book.
Avoid anything by aaron bowden though, that homosexual is reddit.
There are some genuinely good books in the HH series but also some absolute garbage. Aaron Dembski-Bowden and Dan Abnett are both fairly talented writers, though Abnett shows his capeshit roots pretty often, for good or ill.
[...]
There are a handful. Eisenhorn Trilogy is good without any background knowledge of the setting, Ciaphas Cain is pretty funny until it gets stale, worth one or two books' read. Infinite and the Divine is pretty good. Fifteen Hours is one of my favorite scifi novellas, it's tight and grim and may be the single best item Black Library has published, now close to 20 years ago.
Glad to hear that Fifteen Hours is considered pretty good. I love the plot of a hopeless defense against a besieging horde that can't be negotiated or reasoned with. I just bought Rebel Winter because it has a similar story, though after that I'm not sure what other books have a similar feel to Fifteen Hours.
One of my favorite parts is when the Grand Marshall throws a temper tantrum over finding out that the city has only 6 months to live (based on attrition rates) and then deludes himself by reading propaganda >Then, noticing a single page sitting alone among the flotsam spread of maps and documents lying across the table, the Grand Marshall saw something there that excited his interest. >It was the latest edition of the Veritas, the city's twice-daily newsletter and, as so often in the past when he felt weighed down by all his troubles, the Grand Marshall turned to the newsletter in the hope of comfort. >Orks Defeated in Sector 1-13, the headline read. Jumael 14th Victorious! >Yes, he thought, reading the story written below it. It doesn't matter what the others say, here is the proof that I was right all along. >We are winning victories. We are defeating the orks. We are winning this war. >It says so right here in the news.
40k stuff is very swingy. Recently read Legion because I was interested in Alpha Legion, it was fine - tried to read Shroud of Night and Deliverance Lost for more, but they were balls. Are any of the other AL books good?
Inquisition War Trilogy, Lord of the Night, and Storm of Iron I remember being good.
I read the first 50 books of the Horus Heresy and I would say any book related to the Dark Angels, Raven Guard or The Wolves can be skipped as their storylines tend to be pretty shitty and not add much. Also skip every short story compilation book.
First 5 books are likely the best overall, and outside of thsoe I would say the ones that drive the main plot forward are usually the most memorable ones. All the tangent books/self contained stories etc tend to be completely unmemorable.
>series does not get good until the second or third volume >still have to read the first or second books to get proper introductions and context
many such cases!
No, none of them are good on principle because if you buy them you're financially supporting patent trolls at games workslop. Reddithammer 40k novels are for people who don't really read sci-fi but saw this epic warhammer maymay on reddit and need to read something so they fit in with the group.
I was going to say that their IP has pretty much nothing worthwhile, but then I remembered that orks exist. Goddamnit, why is it that the only books that actually focus on orks are only made by Mike Brooks? Its so unfair.
Theres a lot of light horror with Chaos stuff through the books in the Horus Heresy, lots of small stories about corruption and demons and so on. Usually either side stories or recollections by civilians
What does it have to offer that is good and original? I like Night Lords, but I'm honestly not sure whether to pick it up because like the other Anon said its made by ADB and I've also heard that ADB wants to have his evil characters secretly be the good guys which if true is really stupid for a faction like the Night Lords.
No important characters in this book are to be remotely considered good guys so don’t worry. They are all absolute fricking psychopaths. The main character is the least crazy of the buttholes and even he has a part where he tortures and murders hundreds of innocent women and children just to troll the imperium. Nobody in the trilogy has any redeeming qualities whatsoever, they are however, all pretty interesting characters.
The pre H.H. Night Lords were super cruel in the way they conquered planets and brought them into compliance and integration into the new Imperium. Like way over the top gore, torture and mental cruelty compared to other Legions. But there was a logic to it supposedly. The fear they instilled in the enemy meant that their enemies would give up sooner meaning much less bloodshed overall and thus actual SAVING lives. That was before they fell to chaos of course.
The Eisenhorn books are enjoyable page-turners. The author does a good job of trimming the fat from the story and presenting the world in a neutral way without stopping every paragraph to dump exposition on you.
I got tired of the Cain books real quickly.
I haven’t read it yet, I’m not sure I’ll like it - I don’t really like “horror”. Yes, they are looking for new authors for new "sub-genres". In general, writing “horror” stories about “The Galaxy That Burns on Fire” is like writing about hydrophobia at the bottom of the ocean. But I usually read even what I don’t like, because I read everything.
Confession time: I got a Kindle for the sole purpose of reading W40K novels (most of them are no longer in print and the homosexuals in Black Library refuse to republish)
>most of them are no longer in print and the homosexuals in Black Library refuse to republish)
I feel ya. But there's hope. They are releasing their backlog slowly over time probably to keep a steady stream of content and income. They might not release anything that's retconned and no longer canon though.
>books about Gaunt's Ghosts are often very down to earth
i like the "regular men against a whole universe of horror with just flashlights and stealth" approach.
and i also think all the Chaos exposition through the novels plus brother Holofurnace have the whole exaggeration department well covered
It all depends on the author. Some of them read like muh lore and are nothing more than surface level junk shat out to movie the overaching plot of the ip forward. Guy Haley is the worst offender of this.
Other writers are good to great to underrated god tier. Look for Dan Abnett and Chris Wraight for the best of the best the setting has to offer.
40k starter pack: (in order)
Eisenhorn trilogy books 1 thru 3
Revanor trilogy books 1 thru 3
Horus Heresy books 1 thru 4
Fulgrim: The Palatine Pheonix
Horus Heresy: Valdor
Bquin Novels 1 and 2 (Pariah and Penitent)
Horus Heresy: Legion
Fulgrim
Horus Heresy: The Master of Mankind
Vaults of Terra books 1 thru 3
Siege of Terra series books: 1, 2, 5, 6,
Watchers of the Throne books 1 and 2
Siege of Terra series: 8, 9, 10....still ongoing today
This will get you a through line of the overarching plot of the universe. All of these books are well written. (Except H.H. book 2 where the writing is mid but the plot is essential)
Stray from these and the quality varies greatly from hack writing to hidden gems and everything in between. For any 40k veterans looking for something different try 40k Crime: Bloodlines by Chris Wraight. I can't reccomend it highly enough even though its barely even 40k. Its slower paced but sooo worth it if you are into it.
It doesn't. It'snot really crucial to the over arching lore. Gaunt's Ghosts simply gives you the best perspective on life from the P.O.V. of the Imperial Guard who are simply the normal human army foot soldiers of 40k. The first book does explain the relative importance of a certain background piece of the overarching lore though. STC's
Frick yeah it is. So much subtle and granular detail. Expert level writing.
>>The Ciaphas Cain, not very good.
Meme character. I get it but I'm not reading a whole book about him and I didn't finish it. He's worthy of a short story at the most for the memes but that's it.
>Meme character. I get it but I'm not reading a whole book about him and I didn't finish it. He's worthy of a short story at the most for the memes but that's it.
As far as I know Kafias Kayn is an allusion to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Flashman_Papers
whereas Gaunt on https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sharpe_(novel_series)
These books are little known in my area, but I wanted to get to know Sharp.
I've just finished Ben Counter's Gray Knights trilogy - the first two books are below average, the third is very bad. But I started reading Soul Drinkers (I read Phalanx a long time ago) - so far the quality is noticeably better.
He get's shilled so hard by people for a possible adaptation by Cavil. Which is fricking moronic. He's a parody. Like autists cannot wrap their heads around why making a parody character the foundation of your live action universe would be a bad idea.
I actually just got Beasts in Velvet today after being recommended it, but I've heard the rereleased books under the title of Kim Newman (who used Jack Yeovil as a pseudonym) are censored because Kim Newman used the pseudonym as a shield to write all the horrific scenes he wanted with little fear of backlash which meant a lot of them would be too fricked up for a Black Library book. I'm not sure if it's true because I've only heard it from one guy, but if you can, you probably should get the older ones.
I love the Ciaphas Cain stories for the schlock action fun. The other guardsman 40k novels are depressing and the space marine ones I've read don't have enough differentiation within the main characters, though they try.
Schlock or not, reading a 40k book and knowing the basic functions of the universe and factions is fairly unique. You don't need an establishing novel setting up a premise.
For any 40k newcomers it is important NOT to start out and read Horus Heresy first. You read current era first and then go back to H.H. Reading H.H. first is like reading about George Washington and Abe Lincoln first without knowing what the United States is in modern times. Reading Horus Heresy is like reading important history. It all has a feeling of massive importance because you are reading history. But you can't have a feeling of something being important history if you don't know the state of the world today.
The games don't really delve into the state of the Imperium at large. They usually just focus on factions and skirmishes related to the whatever game it happens to be.
Have you read any of them?
i read a little bit of pic related
Never read that one, but all 40K novels are pretty lowbrow with a simple plot and writing, so probably not.
Low brow but comfy as hell
Yes. Even more yes, if you don't expect much.
Inquisitor is a great 1st person novel.
That book rules. Space Marine, also by Ian Watson, is also great. This is an excerpt about a squad of Imperial Fists assaulting a Tyranid ship:
>Even as the armoured Fists, tightly packed into a stretched boarding torpedo, stared at the forward viewscreen in its mount of bronze bones, that sphincter pulsed. It expelled a quick milky cloud, which the torpedo's sensors assayed as consisting of bitter liquid dregs, foul gas, and ashy debris -- the fart of a leviathan...
Ive never read it, i just recall the immersion the 1st person narrative was able to achieve. It is a shame more people do not use it for fantasy works it is objectively superior.
>Remembering the gang sitting in the underwater house, relaxing and talking politics
Dozens of comfy scenes
I'm really enjoying the Horus Heresy series. I'm on flight of eisenstein.
These books are inspiring and it's sad that we will never see humanity reach these heights.
There are some genuinely good books in the HH series but also some absolute garbage. Aaron Dembski-Bowden and Dan Abnett are both fairly talented writers, though Abnett shows his capeshit roots pretty often, for good or ill.
There are a handful. Eisenhorn Trilogy is good without any background knowledge of the setting, Ciaphas Cain is pretty funny until it gets stale, worth one or two books' read. Infinite and the Divine is pretty good. Fifteen Hours is one of my favorite scifi novellas, it's tight and grim and may be the single best item Black Library has published, now close to 20 years ago.
I'm in the middle of Eisenhorn: Xenos, and so far I'm enjoying it. I was told it's the only thing worth reading in the entirety of WH40K novel pool so if you don't like that you can probably move on to something else.
The Eisenhorn books are great. Ravenor trilogy is maybe even better.
A sort of old school book that's actually really good is Eye of Terror by Barrington J. Bayley. That was before Games Workshop had their own personal stable of writers, and they were hiring established sci-fi authors to write the books. Some of the stuff is non-canon now, but probably nobody in this thread cares about that shit. Those early books are weird and entertaining.
yes, Gaunt's Ghosts is a really good series. it actually shows how the imperium works on an everyday basis level and you can actually relate to the characters because they're mortals and not hyper modified supersoldiers.
Necropolis is probably the book i liked the most. there are a couple of the late novels that i really, really liked but can't remember the precise title. i think they were honor guard and straight silver
this. the eye of terror is a fun 40k novel but it's old so probably not canon at this point
The Ciaphas Cain ones are always a fun read. The guy is a scumbag, but you can't help but love him a little as he blunders through crisis after crisis.
The Salamander novels are generally a decent pick for the Horus Heresy series.
Deff Skwadron is a solid read for the Orks, but that's a comic book.
Avoid anything by aaron bowden though, that homosexual is reddit.
Pic rel is the only one worth reading.
Glad to hear that Fifteen Hours is considered pretty good. I love the plot of a hopeless defense against a besieging horde that can't be negotiated or reasoned with. I just bought Rebel Winter because it has a similar story, though after that I'm not sure what other books have a similar feel to Fifteen Hours.
One of my favorite parts is when the Grand Marshall throws a temper tantrum over finding out that the city has only 6 months to live (based on attrition rates) and then deludes himself by reading propaganda
>Then, noticing a single page sitting alone among the flotsam spread of maps and documents lying across the table, the Grand Marshall saw something there that excited his interest.
>It was the latest edition of the Veritas, the city's twice-daily newsletter and, as so often in the past when he felt weighed down by all his troubles, the Grand Marshall turned to the newsletter in the hope of comfort.
>Orks Defeated in Sector 1-13, the headline read. Jumael 14th Victorious!
>Yes, he thought, reading the story written below it. It doesn't matter what the others say, here is the proof that I was right all along.
>We are winning victories. We are defeating the orks. We are winning this war.
>It says so right here in the news.
40k stuff is very swingy. Recently read Legion because I was interested in Alpha Legion, it was fine - tried to read Shroud of Night and Deliverance Lost for more, but they were balls. Are any of the other AL books good?
Inquisition War Trilogy, Lord of the Night, and Storm of Iron I remember being good.
I read the first 50 books of the Horus Heresy and I would say any book related to the Dark Angels, Raven Guard or The Wolves can be skipped as their storylines tend to be pretty shitty and not add much. Also skip every short story compilation book.
First 5 books are likely the best overall, and outside of thsoe I would say the ones that drive the main plot forward are usually the most memorable ones. All the tangent books/self contained stories etc tend to be completely unmemorable.
Oh the White Scar books are also shit
yes, start with picrel and read that series then eisenhorn/ravenor/bequin and then we'll talk about others
Better than Goosebumps by R. L. Stein I would assume
30 YO and enjoying so much the Horus Heresy. Never read anything from 40k until now. It's very fun.
That specific series does not get good until Necropolis. It has a slow build until its just a solid 300 page battle of dozens of isolated squads.
>series does not get good until the second or third volume
>still have to read the first or second books to get proper introductions and context
many such cases!
No, none of them are good on principle because if you buy them you're financially supporting patent trolls at games workslop. Reddithammer 40k novels are for people who don't really read sci-fi but saw this epic warhammer maymay on reddit and need to read something so they fit in with the group.
>patent trolls
What patents does GW own? Are you sure you didn't mean IP trolls?
Yes, they are patent trolls, but they do it with IPs instead of patents.
I was going to say that their IP has pretty much nothing worthwhile, but then I remembered that orks exist. Goddamnit, why is it that the only books that actually focus on orks are only made by Mike Brooks? Its so unfair.
40K seems like a good setting for horror stories, did anyone ever attempt one?
Theres a lot of light horror with Chaos stuff through the books in the Horus Heresy, lots of small stories about corruption and demons and so on. Usually either side stories or recollections by civilians
There's several horror novels. I really enjoyed The Reverie.
Night lords trilogy is the only good series that isn’t actually plagiarized and stolen shit from better source material
>ADB
What does it have to offer that is good and original? I like Night Lords, but I'm honestly not sure whether to pick it up because like the other Anon said its made by ADB and I've also heard that ADB wants to have his evil characters secretly be the good guys which if true is really stupid for a faction like the Night Lords.
No important characters in this book are to be remotely considered good guys so don’t worry. They are all absolute fricking psychopaths. The main character is the least crazy of the buttholes and even he has a part where he tortures and murders hundreds of innocent women and children just to troll the imperium. Nobody in the trilogy has any redeeming qualities whatsoever, they are however, all pretty interesting characters.
Sounds good, I'll check it out.
The pre H.H. Night Lords were super cruel in the way they conquered planets and brought them into compliance and integration into the new Imperium. Like way over the top gore, torture and mental cruelty compared to other Legions. But there was a logic to it supposedly. The fear they instilled in the enemy meant that their enemies would give up sooner meaning much less bloodshed overall and thus actual SAVING lives. That was before they fell to chaos of course.
Not really, no. But the lore and some of the audiobooks on youtube cured my insomnia.
The Eisenhorn books are enjoyable page-turners. The author does a good job of trimming the fat from the story and presenting the world in a neutral way without stopping every paragraph to dump exposition on you.
I got tired of the Cain books real quickly.
Yes
Hey this looks neat. I don't know the writers there except Graham McNeill though (and he's not my favourite)
Meant here:
>https://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Warhammer_Horror
I haven’t read it yet, I’m not sure I’ll like it - I don’t really like “horror”. Yes, they are looking for new authors for new "sub-genres". In general, writing “horror” stories about “The Galaxy That Burns on Fire” is like writing about hydrophobia at the bottom of the ocean. But I usually read even what I don’t like, because I read everything.
Confession time: I got a Kindle for the sole purpose of reading W40K novels (most of them are no longer in print and the homosexuals in Black Library refuse to republish)
>most of them are no longer in print and the homosexuals in Black Library refuse to republish)
I feel ya. But there's hope. They are releasing their backlog slowly over time probably to keep a steady stream of content and income. They might not release anything that's retconned and no longer canon though.
>books about Gaunt's Ghosts are often very down to earth
i like the "regular men against a whole universe of horror with just flashlights and stealth" approach.
and i also think all the Chaos exposition through the novels plus brother Holofurnace have the whole exaggeration department well covered
It all depends on the author. Some of them read like muh lore and are nothing more than surface level junk shat out to movie the overaching plot of the ip forward. Guy Haley is the worst offender of this.
Other writers are good to great to underrated god tier. Look for Dan Abnett and Chris Wraight for the best of the best the setting has to offer.
40k starter pack: (in order)
Eisenhorn trilogy books 1 thru 3
Revanor trilogy books 1 thru 3
Horus Heresy books 1 thru 4
Fulgrim: The Palatine Pheonix
Horus Heresy: Valdor
Bquin Novels 1 and 2 (Pariah and Penitent)
Horus Heresy: Legion
Fulgrim
Horus Heresy: The Master of Mankind
Vaults of Terra books 1 thru 3
Siege of Terra series books: 1, 2, 5, 6,
Watchers of the Throne books 1 and 2
Siege of Terra series: 8, 9, 10....still ongoing today
This will get you a through line of the overarching plot of the universe. All of these books are well written. (Except H.H. book 2 where the writing is mid but the plot is essential)
Stray from these and the quality varies greatly from hack writing to hidden gems and everything in between. For any 40k veterans looking for something different try 40k Crime: Bloodlines by Chris Wraight. I can't reccomend it highly enough even though its barely even 40k. Its slower paced but sooo worth it if you are into it.
Where does Gaunt's Ghosts fit on the list?
>Where does Gaunt's Ghosts fit on the list?
It doesn't. It'snot really crucial to the over arching lore. Gaunt's Ghosts simply gives you the best perspective on life from the P.O.V. of the Imperial Guard who are simply the normal human army foot soldiers of 40k. The first book does explain the relative importance of a certain background piece of the overarching lore though. STC's
The HH doesn't have the same impact if you're not knowledgeable about the 40k setting at large.
They lost me when he beat a chaos Space Marine in hand to hand. Yeah no.
they are based. in fact enjoying 40k and the related lit is the height of human experience and intellectual achievement.
>Video essays and books/toys for children is the peak of human experience!
>Legion - Great book
Frick yeah it is. So much subtle and granular detail. Expert level writing.
>>The Ciaphas Cain, not very good.
Meme character. I get it but I'm not reading a whole book about him and I didn't finish it. He's worthy of a short story at the most for the memes but that's it.
>Meme character. I get it but I'm not reading a whole book about him and I didn't finish it. He's worthy of a short story at the most for the memes but that's it.
As far as I know Kafias Kayn is an allusion to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Flashman_Papers
whereas Gaunt on https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sharpe_(novel_series)
These books are little known in my area, but I wanted to get to know Sharp.
I've just finished Ben Counter's Gray Knights trilogy - the first two books are below average, the third is very bad. But I started reading Soul Drinkers (I read Phalanx a long time ago) - so far the quality is noticeably better.
>Ciaphas Cain
He get's shilled so hard by people for a possible adaptation by Cavil. Which is fricking moronic. He's a parody. Like autists cannot wrap their heads around why making a parody character the foundation of your live action universe would be a bad idea.
>he’s a parody
He’s not a parody, he’s just GW ip theft from flashman in ebin future space. GW isn’t original
>Abnett, Dembeski-Bowden, French, Cawkwell
>most Inquisitor stuff
They've kept up standards decently for genre fiction, most of the above were established before writing for Games Workshop.
You forgot Chris Wraight. He's probably the best of them all. At the very least equal to Abmett.
What about the Warhammer fantasy books? I like Gotrek and Felix, and was thinking about reading the Genevieve books
I actually just got Beasts in Velvet today after being recommended it, but I've heard the rereleased books under the title of Kim Newman (who used Jack Yeovil as a pseudonym) are censored because Kim Newman used the pseudonym as a shield to write all the horrific scenes he wanted with little fear of backlash which meant a lot of them would be too fricked up for a Black Library book. I'm not sure if it's true because I've only heard it from one guy, but if you can, you probably should get the older ones.
Good to know. I'll make sure to grab old copies. Looks like Jack Yeovil/Kim Newman also did some books for GW's Dark Future setting
I love the Ciaphas Cain stories for the schlock action fun. The other guardsman 40k novels are depressing and the space marine ones I've read don't have enough differentiation within the main characters, though they try.
Schlock or not, reading a 40k book and knowing the basic functions of the universe and factions is fairly unique. You don't need an establishing novel setting up a premise.
For any 40k newcomers it is important NOT to start out and read Horus Heresy first. You read current era first and then go back to H.H. Reading H.H. first is like reading about George Washington and Abe Lincoln first without knowing what the United States is in modern times. Reading Horus Heresy is like reading important history. It all has a feeling of massive importance because you are reading history. But you can't have a feeling of something being important history if you don't know the state of the world today.
I think it's fine to dive directly into HH if you played some 40K game (Dawn of War comes to mind) and checked the Lexicanum a bit
The games don't really delve into the state of the Imperium at large. They usually just focus on factions and skirmishes related to the whatever game it happens to be.
No. I read six or seven when i was like 20 and found them pretty silly. I was playing a lot of 40k then tho, so felt comfy.
>silly
>comfy
Pick one anon