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Hey guys,

I always troll through the background forums, and it's peaked my interest.

I want to read more, but I don't even know where to look for titles.

Suggestions?

I first read the Eisenhorn and then Ravenor books myself. Was a great introduction imo. If you want more gritty warfare i suggest Gaunts Ghosts.

Then there is the Horus Heresy books if you want space-marines but half of them are really lacking in story for me. Some are good though, like the first 3

At the very beginning. Horus Rising. Read them all and then move into 40 realms. Chronological order and all that.

Ugh, read Horus Rising if you want to be put to sleep.

Start with the Eisenhorn trilogy, in my opinion.

 Furyou Miko wrote:
Ugh, read Horus Rising if you want to be put to sleep.

Start with the Eisenhorn trilogy, in my opinion.

Or the Night Lords Talos Trilogy which was recently released in an handy Omnibus.

For background to the universe, start with 30k. There are really two options. You could read the first 3 heresy books, which give a LOT of information on how things really started going to hell. Or you could just get the FW HH books, which don't go into all the intricate detail but provide a fantastic overview of how things went.

IMHO, the FW HH stuff is great to work out the timelines of how things progressed. The BL books are good at getting the nitty gritty details... even if some of them don't seem to mesh up and the later ones feel monotonous to me.

Beyond that it really depends on what you are more interested in knowing about. The Cain novels are good IG stories with a slight introduction to the Inquisition - although you probably shouldn't read more than 3 of them in a row as it starts being repetitive. Meanwhile the Eisenhorn / Ravenor series is really in depth Inquisition. I'd add The Emperor's Gift to this list, as it shows just how far the Inquisition is prepared to go.

There are a number of good books and certainly a number of yawn'ers in the BL stable. The main thing is: what are you really looking for?

clively wrote:
For background to the universe, start with 30k. There are really two options. You could read the first 3 heresy books, which give a LOT of information on how things really started going to hell. Or you could just get the FW HH books, which don't go into all the intricate detail but provide a fantastic overview of how things went.

IMHO, the FW HH stuff is great to work out the timelines of how things progressed. The BL books are good at getting the nitty gritty details... even if some of them don't seem to mesh up and the later ones feel monotonous to me.

Beyond that it really depends on what you are more interested in knowing about. The Cain novels are good IG stories with a slight introduction to the Inquisition - although you probably shouldn't read more than 3 of them in a row as it starts being repetitive. Meanwhile the Eisenhorn / Ravenor series is really in depth Inquisition. I'd add The Emperor's Gift to this list, as it shows just how far the Inquisition is prepared to go.

There are a number of good books and certainly a number of yawn'ers in the BL stable. The main thing is: what are you really looking for?

No, the 30k books aren't necessary. You get the gist of a lot of the HH with the Night Lords Talos Trilogy, or you can just look it up on the Lexicanum. Plus the HH series can be off-putting given the ridiculous varying levels of quality.

I find the HH books to be, with a few exceptions, quite good. I could literally not put the first five books down and read them all in a span of about two weeks. I've been keeping up with the series since then and now finally have the complete set (up to this point, about thirty books). Standouts for me so far are:

Horus Rising
False Gods
Galaxy in Flames
Flight of the Eisenhorn
Fulgrim (possibly the best in the series, imo)
Battle for the Abyss
A Thousand Sons
Prospero Burns
Angel Exterminatus

The real yawners for me were:
Legion
Mechanicum
Fallen Angels
The Primarchs

The Gaunt's Ghosts novels, already mentioned, are also awesome, and Necropolis in particular is fantastic.

 Retrogamer0001 wrote:
I find the HH books to be, with a few exceptions, quite good. I could literally not put the first five books down and read them all in a span of about two weeks. I've been keeping up with the series since then and now finally have the complete set (up to this point, about thirty books). Standouts for me so far are:

Horus Rising
False Gods
Galaxy in Flames
Flight of the Eisenhorn
Fulgrim (possibly the best in the series, imo)
Battle for the Abyss
A Thousand Sons
Prospero Burns
Angel Exterminatus

The real yawners for me were:
Legion
Mechanicum
Fallen Angels
The Primarchs

The Gaunt's Ghosts novels, already mentioned, are also awesome, and Necropolis in particular is fantastic.

How the hell is it humanly possible to like battle for the abyss? That POS was panned across the board.

I really want to just get a much better feel for the different factions of the Marines, as well as a deeper understanding of races I'm not familiar with like Tau (I get the greater good gak, but I still understand nothing other than, they're new, they're technologically inclined, and they are all about hyper efficiency)

I want to know stuff like why people say riptides make no sense fluff wise,

I want to know about the Dark Angels and space Wolves killing the inquisition visitors rather than dealing with them.

Stuff like that, history, etc...

HH books seem like a good start, I'll give them a go.

Let the Galaxy Burn. Not the novel, the collection of short stories. (Edited by Marc Gascoigne and Christian Dunn.) This HUGE collection spans a broad range of factions, authors, and styles, and is sure to offer a real sampler-platter of the fare available from the Black Library. It's a great way to get a taste of everything, so you can concentrate on the authors/factions/topics that you enjoy reading about. This was my first foray into the Black Library, and I highly recommend it. It also contains short stories that will introduce you to the character ensembles that are featured in the various novel series that are being suggested elsewhere in this thread. (Ravenor, Ciaphas Cain, etc.) Definitely worth a read.

bryceloop wrote:
I really want to just get a much better feel for the different factions of the Marines, as well as a deeper understanding of races I'm not familiar with like Tau (I get the greater good gak, but I still understand nothing other than, they're new, they're technologically inclined, and they are all about hyper efficiency)

I want to know stuff like why people say riptides make no sense fluff wise,

I want to know about the Dark Angels and space Wolves killing the inquisition visitors rather than dealing with them.

Stuff like that, history, etc...

HH books seem like a good start, I'll give them a go.

Sounds like what you really want, to be honest, is to read the Codexes rather than the novels. There's a lot of fluff in them.

Also, try looking up Hammer and Bolter.

Alot of my fluff knowledge comes from the rulebooks and codeces.

However for a good look into how battle is done I thought the gaunts ghosts series of novels was great! Although its been quite some time now since I read them and I started with sabbat martyr. It gives a good insight into the actual fighting in the 41'st millenium. Theres a bit of all the combat from what I remember, space, tanks. Gritty urban warfare. How they deal with some of the planets (like on in one of the books they al have to wear smelly zinc paste to prevent sunburn) traveling to and from. I was even thinking of buying the whole series the other day!

15 hours was a good read but mostly because of how the protaganist ends up where he is. I dont want to spoil it but you always read about how dangerouse the warp is and how innefficient the imperium is in the codeces but never really read about it.

Space Marine (all about the fists) and The Inquisition War trilogy (Inquisition, Eldar and genestealer cults) by Ian Watson.

A notch above the bolter porn of these times

My first 40k book is the purging of kadilius , space marine battle novel is nice in their own way

Storm of Iron, Iron Warriors and titans and such, was pretty good. Dark Apostle was also pretty good.

Eisenhorn and Gaunt's Ghosts compete for the best 40k literature there is imo.

it really depends on what your looking for. if you want some basic information, the dark millinum book with the core rules is a great starting point.
In terms of the fiction go for what intreasts you. if you're all about the Eldar, for example, you're not apt to get a lot out of Mechanium, but if you're intreasted in the Mechanium, obviously that books a gem.

that said the first 40k book I handed to someone else was a Ciaphas Cain novel. but in this case my dad was just asking if there are any books I have I think he'd like and I know he's a big fan of "The Flashman papers" which where one of the major inspirations for the Ciaphas Cain novels.

I thought '25 for 25' was a nice little collection. Maybe try that out....

Wyzilla wrote: How the hell is it humanly possible to like battle for the abyss? That POS was panned across the board.

I honestly loved it - Skraal is one of my favorite HH characters so far, and I thought the overall story was much stronger than some of the other books, especially Legion, a book that I fell asleep reading more than once. Then again, anything with the Alpha Legion puts me to sleep instantly because all they do is go around sabotaging things.

 Retrogamer0001 wrote:

Wyzilla wrote: How the hell is it humanly possible to like battle for the abyss? That POS was panned across the board.

I honestly loved it - Skraal is one of my favorite HH characters so far, and I thought the overall story was much stronger than some of the other books, especially Legion, a book that I fell asleep reading more than once. Then again, anything with the Alpha Legion puts me to sleep instantly because all they do is go around sabotaging things.

Skraal's understandable, but every other character has absolutely no depth to them, and the entire book is written like a mediocre action movie.

 Wyzilla wrote:

 Retrogamer0001 wrote:

Wyzilla wrote: How the hell is it humanly possible to like battle for the abyss? That POS was panned across the board.

I honestly loved it - Skraal is one of my favorite HH characters so far, and I thought the overall story was much stronger than some of the other books, especially Legion, a book that I fell asleep reading more than once. Then again, anything with the Alpha Legion puts me to sleep instantly because all they do is go around sabotaging things.

Skraal's understandable, but every other character has absolutely no depth to them, and the entire book is written like a mediocre action movie.

I can see what you mean, but I thought it was good, mindless fun, and more entertaining than some of the others in the series. It is war-porn, after all

The Horus Heresy series is a great place to start. By virtue of them all being sequels, their fluff is very self-contained.

 BlaxicanX wrote:
The Horus Heresy series is a great place to start. By virtue of them all being sequels, their fluff is very self-contained.

One of the problems of the series is that the pacing is horrendous. The opening trilogy zips along at a fine pace and the next two do advance the story somewhat.

Then along comes Descent of Angels and the series sinks into a mire of prequels and subplots that lasts until A Thousand Sons six books later.

 ashcroft wrote:

 BlaxicanX wrote:
The Horus Heresy series is a great place to start. By virtue of them all being sequels, their fluff is very self-contained.

One of the problems of the series is that the pacing is horrendous. The opening trilogy zips along at a fine pace and the next two do advance the story somewhat.

Then along comes Descent of Angels and the series sinks into a mire of prequels and subplots that lasts until A Thousand Sons six books later.

Another problem is the fact that they abandoned some seriously great characters along the way, namely Loken and Garro. I realize their story continues with the audio dramas (I find them insufferable and corny) but I want them back in print form to continue their tale. The HH series does this A LOT.

My first 40k book was the Space Wolves series by William king.

I found it to be a great starter for the 40k universe, it gives you enough information just at the right pace so doesn't overwhelm you and really gives you a feel for the universe is specially of course the best chapter Space Wolves.

I'm gonna +1 both Jimsolo and Furyou Miko. Best places to start are:

- codexes and rulebook
- Let the Galaxy Burn
- Hammer and Bolter

Unless your interests are particularly of the non-Imperium of Man variety, the Gaunt's Ghosts, Ciaphas Cain and Eisenhorn series are all pretty solid starting points, too. The only problem is that they're a lot to live up to if or when you decide to expand into other areas.

The HH stuff is very much like the Star Wars prequels... people take it or leave it, generally, and 40K still functions fine with or without its input. So, again, unless you are particularly drawn to that era/characters you don't need to worry about missing out or not "getting it" if you decide to skip it.

Anything by Dan Abnett is a good starting point, they're all great novels.

 sing your life wrote:
Anything by Dan Abnett is a good starting point, they're all great novels.

Except Horus Rising, that one kind of sucked.

 Furyou Miko wrote:

 sing your life wrote:
Anything by Dan Abnett is a good starting point, they're all great novels.

Except Horus Rising, that one kind of sucked.

I liked Horus Rising, even though it not much about the heresy happened in it [more of a regular SM book in the 30th millennium]

Have a look on Lexicanum and perhaps get an idea on where you want to go from there.

I think Collected Visions would be a great place to start for a beginner into the world of the Horus Heresy. You can get extra detail from the books if you find it interesting enough.