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pretty much title. Are these books well written? Looking for a new book and was thinking maybe I could read these. With GW though its either hit or miss. Are these good?

Yes, they are good. They aren't bolter-porn. Read them.

Books 1-4 are good and follow a time line. Apha legion is also good and T-sons, Karn. Stay away from the DA ones and the "unremembered empire".

They are of varying quality. Very varying. I liked Fallen Angels, but you should read the abominable Descent of Angels first. Unremembered Empire was okay. Legion was okay. Fear to Tread... Well, I guess we have freedom of speech.

You're better off asking about specific books you want to read

I'm going to be controversial and say that about 25% of the current line are excellent, 25% are good 'holiday' reads, and the remaining 50% are stinkers.

The first five books are a must, after those you can pretty much skip forward to anything with Word Bearers or Primarchs in it and still get the whole story. Unfortunately the series became a cash cow very early on and led to a lot of substandard 'marine X shoots marine Y because daddy left them and big bro is cool' storylines.

Look at it this way; 30 books in and Horus is still fannying about. It's like that scene in Austin Powers where the steam roller is coming veeeeery slowly towards the henchman.

 luky7dayz wrote:
pretty much title. Are these books well written? Looking for a new book and was thinking maybe I could read these. With GW though its either hit or miss. Are these good?

What sort of book do you like - with varied authors and topics some you will love, others you will hate i would think....like the rest of us

I pretty much agree with what everyone else has said. The best part for me is seeing the momentum that the imperium had and then watching it all fall apart into the civil war and stalemate that 40k is known for. You may have to give the books time as well. Prospero Burns is one that i was bored with at parts because I wasnt sure where it was going and then it had a really good final act. I would try to research the topic of the book and the legions involved. If it focuses on one you like read it. If it sounds random (The Outcast Dead *cough*cough*) then save yourself sometime and take a pass.

Hit and miss for me.
Several are very enjoyable (Nemesis, First Heretic, Prospero Burns, Legion, Fulgrim) but then you have stinkers like the DAs duology, Outcast Dead.
YMMV and everyone has a different opinion on what they loved or didnt.
Pick up the first 3 at least, FH and Fulgrim. If you hate them, the style and narrative of the rest wont interest you either.

Read them all if you can. Some are bad some are good. What you like will probably be different from what we like. People say Fulgrim is one of the best of the series, I personally think it's a load of tripe.

The first four are probably the best though, although False Gods does let the set down for quality, but it is still one of the better in the series.

Personal favs are Flight of the Eisenstien, Nemesis and Scars.

The first 5 books are excellent and important for the Heresy storyline. As for the rest, just read the particular books that involve whatever marine chapter you are a fan of as some of them are quite hit and miss.

From my personal experience:

Essential:

Book 1 - Horus Rising
Book 2 - False Gods
Book 3 - Galaxy in Flames
Book 4 - Flight of the Eisenstein
Book 5 - Fulgrim

The above are also the best books in the series.

The following are worth reading:

- A Thousand Sons (1k sons are awesome)
- Prospero Burns (Space Wolves vs 1k sons)
- Fear to Tread (for Blood Angels and also lots of daemons which is a good thing)

 Slaphead wrote:
snip

Leaving out The First Heretic and Betrayer? Madness.

Yeah, I just finished Flight of the Eisenstein and it was killer.

I wonder though, what were the legions like before their Primarchs show up? Where can you read about that because some of those are pretty cool, like the way Garro describes Dusk Raiders? Makes you want to paint.

You want to read the FW Horus Heresy books. They go into extensive detail for each legion they cover regarding War of Unification and Great Crusade-era information.

Some are good, some are bad. But if you read Battle for the Abyss, you'll be sad.

I love the books would definatly recomend them but look out for the referances between books.
Really cool when you find them.

jareddm wrote:

 Slaphead wrote:
snip

Leaving out The First Heretic and Betrayer? Madness.

Ah, sorry, haven't read those ones yet, but they are on my 'to read' list as I like ADB's style. Am I right in presuming that they are excellent?

Most are horrible. The rest is merely bad, with the occasional novel rising to mediocre.

If you enjoy reading intelligent fiction, don't bother and read some Gaiman or Stephenson. If you enjoy pulp scifi or fantasy, pick up some David Eddings or Larry Niven instead. You'll be much better off.

 Slaphead wrote:

jareddm wrote:

 Slaphead wrote:
snip

Leaving out The First Heretic and Betrayer? Madness.

Ah, sorry, haven't read those ones yet, but they are on my 'to read' list as I like ADB's style. Am I right in presuming that they are excellent?

I thought so. Easily giving any of the first five a run for their money.

I'd say only around twenty-five percent are worth reading. Material by Dan Abnett and ADB as worth reading. Most of the other books, especially McNeil and Ben Counter are only fit to be used as kindling for a bonfire. False Gods is especially horrible as it butchers the character of Hous and he utterly fails to continue the writing of the characters from Horus Rising.

I would put First Heretic and Betrayer as my 2 top reads in the series with the first book in place as 3rd.

The original 3 set the world up so are almost essential reading and then book 4 and 5 fill in gaps and show events from other perspectives from the first 3.

Know no fear I really enjoyed as well as Scars. Most are ok to read in a casual manner.

I've read the first 4 books and several of the short reads that take place during that time and have enjoyed them. I'd recommend at least those 4, but I must say, I'm more intrested in the plotline of the individual characters, than the legions as a whole, and considering (Not really a spoiler) most of non-traitor people you learn about in the first 3 books die on Isstvan 3, it really made me slow down my reading pace on the series.

Noc

The series is black library in a can. The older books rock but it's got poorer over time. Now it's just a mess of novellas and mini articles on ebook format. You need to watch too if you want to collect all in the series as some of the novellas and e reads are reprinted within main series books. You can end up buying a novella at £15 and later finding yourself with it contained in a series book at £20.

I have read them all to date but am only keeping going because I have come this far. Which is pretty patethetic on my behalf.

I would leave it to be honest. A series is one big book and a book with a great start and poor middle is a poor book no matter how good the start.

Yeah they vary, didn't enjoy the dark angel books or the whole attack on calth books, First Heretic is one of my favorites,
Interesting is that some chapters are very different than their current counterparts.