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Just looking to see what 40k books everyone would recommend. I'm looking at the HH books but i'm also interested in other SM fluff. I tried reading Sons of Dorn but it was too awful i never finished it.

Defiantly look at the HH books, they are a must read for every 40k player IMHO the best are Horus rising and A thousand sons, both are SM books and both are absolutely amazing, some of the best books the black Library's ever produced! Also Rynn's World (Crimson Fists) is also quite good

So whats this i've been reading about this Goto fellow that people seem pissed about. How bad did he screw up fluff?

Not too badly.

It's just something fun to nerdrage about.

Anyway, I echo the recommendation of the HH books and I'm also a pretty big fan of Gaunt's Ghosts and Eisenhorn.

misfit wrote:So whats this i've been reading about this Goto fellow that people seem pissed about. How bad did he screw up fluff?

From Space Marines wielding multi-lasers to servitors that can think for themselves, he's pretty much done it all. It doesn't help that his writing style is very dry, and not the best gramatically.

The Horus Heresy series are definately worth taking a look at. If you're a Space Marines fan, you're in luck, as a large percentage of the Black Library stuff is Space Marines. Brothers of the Snake, the Salamanders 'Tome of Fire' trilogy (Although we're still waiting for the final one), the Space Marine battles (Battle for Rynn's World, Helsreach, etc.)...even the Chaos Space Marine stuff such as Storm of Iron and ABDs Night Lords series....they're all rather good. I personally would recommend Brothers of the Snake, as well as the Space Wolves and Ultramarines series above all the others, but you're going to get varying opinions on pretty much everything.

Pretty much the only ones that everyone can agree on being worth reading are the Horus Heresy novels, and the Eisenhorn series, with a large percentage saying the same for the Gaunts Ghosts stuff.

Anything Dan Abnett.

Specifically, Eisenhorn, Ravenor, and all of the Gaunt's Ghosts omnibi.

They are the only great 40k fiction out there. You'll find some good stuff, but nothing else is great.

misfit wrote:Just looking to see what 40k books everyone would recommend. I'm looking at the HH books but i'm also interested in other SM fluff. I tried reading Sons of Dorn but it was too awful i never finished it.

Sons of Dorn was interesting and something I had to pick up as an IF player/fan but the way the second half of the book played out...silly.

Some of my personal picks would be Fulgrim, Legion, A Thousand Sons, & Prospero Burns from the HH series. From the Chaos Space Marines I have enjoyed reading Storm of Iron and Soul Hunter.

Best I've read:

-Eisenhorn: Omnibus
-Ravenor: Omnibus
-Grey Knights: Omnibus
-The Inquisition War

Storm of Iron, Daemonworld and the Daemonifuge graphic novel are my personal recommendations.

Eisenhorn and the Inquisition War are also a very decent read.

I liked daemon world. And the soul drinkers books are good (though YMMV).

How about the legends/heroes of the imperium, i havent read them but i think they are mostly about SM's.

And agree with previous poster on Storm of Iron.

ChaosGalvatron wrote:I liked daemon world. And the soul drinkers books are good (though YMMV).

How about the legends/heroes of the imperium, i havent read them but i think they are mostly about SM's.

And agree with previous poster on Storm of Iron.

Legends of the Space Marines and Heroes of the Space Marines both have decent stories, but the quality isn't consistant throughout the book, which makes sense as each short story has another author.

Both have interesting short stories about characters from other book series however, so are worth reading at some point on that basis alone (Legends featuring both Uriel Ventris from the Ultramarines, Da'kir and Tsu'gan from the Salamanders, and more, with Heroes featuring Honsou of the Iron Warriors, Tsu'gan of the Salamanders, and more).

Rynns World was pretty good, and as everyone else says, you can't go wrong with Mr. Abnett

the HH series are great, the grey knights omnibus is fantastic, the ultramarines omnibus is ok, all the gauts ghosts books (armour of contempt is my personl fav) and the soul drinkers book. o and angels of darkness i sa good read to

HH series, especially the first four books and thousand sons and legion. Also, grey knight omnibus. they are vcery great novels to gives the feeling of what is a space marine, an adeptus astartes.

I also recomend personnaly helsreach, for which I read a lot of WH40k novel but I have never read anything to give a battle atmosphere better than that book...

And if you got time, the Soul Drinkers omnibus should do fine..

Gaunt's Ghosts...

read it and have your mind blown.

I tuck the book Fulgrum in my bed every night when I go to sleep...

In a whole the HH series is amazing (except Battle For The Abyss) And if your into short stories "Let The Galaxy Burn" Is a treat.

There's no space marines in it, but my personal favorite has been Titanicus. It really shows the relationship between imperium and mechanicus, and has giant titan fights.

Any of the Soul Drinker books, Storm of Iron, Lord of the Night.

Albeit it's WHFB, I have considered Mathias Thulmann: Witch Hunter to be one of the best BL omnibuses I've ever read.

Books dealing with SM: Grey Knight (Ben Counter), Sons of Fenris (Lee Lightner... I think)

Books dealing with other 40k stuff: Fifteen Hours, Scourge the Heretic, Lord of the Night, Eisenhorn, Faith and Fire.

You might want to check out Aaron Dembski-Bowden's stuff. I have yet to read any of it but I hear he is pretty good.

Grey Knights was terrible. It's about an idealistic young Grey Knights captain who solves mysteries battles daemons with the power of Friendship and Imagination! Still better than Faith and Fire, quite possibly the worst book I've ever actually read. Which was itself better than anything by CS Goto I've looked at, which is basically just a mass of incoherent rambling.

As for good books? Abnett's Eisenhorn and Ravenor trilogies. Particularly Eisenhorn. Ironically, the first trilogy contains spoilers for the second (the epilogue of Maleus reveal that [redacted], rather than [redacted], is [redacted]), while the second only gives away the fact that its title character (Ravenor) and a couple of minor (in the first trilogy) characters survive. Gaunt's Ghosts... eh. The first one is alright (though by the end of it I was thoroughly sick of all the characters, especially Gaunt, who can only be described as a paragon of mediocrity), the second is a terrible anthology of bad short stories, wrapped in a slightly longer, but equally bad story. I stopped reading them at that point.

The Ciaphas Cain books are quite good, though the books they're inspired by (The Flashman Papers) are even better (but not 40K). The Dark Heresy tie-in novels, also by Sandy Mitchell, are also good, though nothing spectacular.

You're not going to find many good Black Library books, sadly. Abnett and Mitchell are the only decent authors I've read, and only Abnett's Eisenhorn/Ravenor trilogies are particularly good by their own merits, rather than in comparison to the normal Black Library fare.

Im just going to stand back, put some Marshmallows on sticks and see what happens...

Sir Pseudonymous wrote:You're not going to find many good Black Library books, sadly. Abnett and Mitchell are the only decent authors I've read, and only Abnett's Eisenhorn/Ravenor trilogies are particularly good by their own merits, rather than in comparison to the normal Black Library fare.

Graham MacNeil isn't bad. I'm currently enjoying The First Heretic too, though I can't be arsed to look up who wrote it.

I agree completely about the GK Omnibus though. Horrendous.

I have been told Cain is a good read. My freind revers the Esinhorn books as one of the best written. HH is good, although I catch a lot of flak for saying that Loken was one of the best characters in the books.

My recommendations go to anything by Dan Abnett's, Henry Zou and Gav Thorpe. Also "Fear the Alien" and the Horus Heresy.

Monster Rain wrote: I'm currently enjoying The First Heretic too, though I can't be arsed to look up who wrote it.

I think it was Aaron Dembski-Bowden

Titanicus by Dan Abnett was quality.

Reading the HH series, currently Descent of Angels and enjoying it despite the bad press.

djphranq wrote:

Monster Rain wrote: I'm currently enjoying The First Heretic too, though I can't be arsed to look up who wrote it.

I think it was Aaron Dembski-Bowden

It was.

re the OP - what sort of story do you like to read - this will highly influence the sort of BL book to read.

The HH books are (almost without exception) very good - they are often not as combat intensive as they could have been - instead taking the time to tell the stories that have only been one lines in the rulebooks. I did not really enjoy the Dark angels ones

the Cain stories are really great - IMO MUCH better than the Flashman ones that inspired them (along with Blackadder) - love 'em and enjoyed the Dark Heresy tie ins -They may not be full enough of fighting and include (like the Gaunts Ghosts novels) include references to sex/realtionships etc which may also put some off

The new Path of the Eldar book was good - even if its spoiled somewhat by the fight at the end.

Lord of the Night was very good and gave some interesting perspectives. I really enjoyed Fire Warrior by the same author.

Titanics is a really great story - one of my fav of Abnets works - ranking with Eisenhorn, Prospero Burns and Legion

If you like the Sharpe Stories/films then Gaunts Ghosts is for you.

I just finished Horus rising by abnett. It wasn't bad but wasn't hard to put down either. Definitely better than sons of dorn, (which i'll be using to start my next campfire with)