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What's your favourite novel, novella, or other written stories about Warhammer 40k?

Myself, I'm reading "Ciaphas Cain - Hero of the Imperium" at the moment (no spoilers please!) and I'm absolutely loving it so far!

Dead Men Walking is one of the best.

Vaults of Terra: The Carrion Throne is a great new one.

Its a tie between Dead Men Walking and Cadian Blood for me

Too many to count!

Eisenhorn Trilogy, Ravenor books, the Gaunt's Ghosts novels, etc. But I tend to like Dan Abnett.

Helsreach by ADB.

Horus Rising. Great start to the series.

I know a lot of people don't like them, but I greatly enjoyed the Inquisition War trilogy. I also found Eye of Terror to be a good (but dated) read.

Obligatory Eisenhorn trilogy mention.

I also thoroughly enjoyed ADBs Night Lords omnibus.

James Swallow' "Faith and Fire" was a book i thoroughly enjoyed. I found it to be really well written and the ending well done. Most books have a clear line of goodies and baddies, but i thought the end of this one had some interesting elements that left me internally debating whether the protaganist and company had followed the right course of action. Still find myself rereading this book.


As for the Inquisitoon War trilogy mentioned above. That series is a very hard read. I found it took about 12 chapters before getting into the groove of the writing. Once you get past that, there is actually some interesting stuff in that trilogy.

I really enjoyed mechanicum, just because it brought so much to the knight house lore and made them really freaking cool.

Eisenhorn by a mile. I really enjoyed Fifteen Hours as well.

I haven't read many Horus Heresy books, but my favorite one is Flight of the Eisenstein. It's worth a read for the description of a Gellar Field failure alone.

I couldn't get through the 2nd Eisenhorn novel for some reason. It just didn't keep my interest.

Horus Heresy: Flight of the Eisenstein. My first HH, book, and glimpse of a Primarch in action. Plus, I was always a Death Guard fan boy. The description of the plague virus just laughing at you inside your head.... Then consoling you comfortingly... Sold me on Papa Nurgle right there

40k: Chaos: Lord of the Night. Seeing just a single Night Lord wreck havoc on a hive world was pure delight.

Other: 15 Hours. Average Joe guardsman vs Orks. Just goes to show how unconcerned Imperials are for their soldiers. Also very reminiscent of All Quiet on the Western Front.

Battle of the Fang.

I'm a big fan of the old Storm of Iron

Flight of the Eisenstein for sure.

You know what happens, we all know! We've known for 20 years! But that book still keeps you flipping pages like a 80s housewife through a Jack Kerouac...

Fulgrim was also really good

Ordana wrote:
I'm a big fan of the old Storm of Iron

Likewise.

For Chaos both Primogenitor and Clonelord are excellent.

 Backspacehacker wrote:
Fulgrim was also really good

What? No way! That book made me stop! I couldn't do another Fulgrim! I mean, no offense if you actually liked it, but man... It was sooooo bad! You must be trolling!

Pretty close between Dante and Ahriman: Exile for me.

Dead Man Walking - A book that encapsulates war by having characters diminish rather than grow. People start off human, and devolve into soulless cannon fodder and doomed champions.

Fifteen Hours - Shows instead the horror and inadequacy of the Imperial bureaucracy, from paranoid generals to exhausted clerks, and the impact they have on the poor fool holding a lasrifle.

Sons of the Hydra and Shroud of Night - Just kidding. Screw these books.

HH series: Fallen Angels by Mike Lee

Battlefleet Gothic: Execution Hour by Gordon Rennie

General 40K: Xenos (Eisenhorn trilogy, book 1) by Dan Abnett

Aaron Demski Bowden: Betrayer aka Angron the totally justified heretic.


Lorgar: I'm gna save Angron

Everyone else including Angron: Why bother?.

Storm of Iron is one of my favorites. It gives depth to IW and csm in general, showing them as more than cartoon villains

 darkcloak wrote:

 Backspacehacker wrote:
Fulgrim was also really good

What? No way! That book made me stop! I couldn't do another Fulgrim! I mean, no offense if you actually liked it, but man... It was sooooo bad! You must be trolling!

You must be that was probably one of the best books in the series. It perfectly depects the fall of a primarch to the point of killing his best friend. It's the high point of the main story where Horus finally betrays the emperor and covers the drop site massacre. The first half was slow but it was hands down one of the best in the series

Eisenhorn

Storm of Iron defiantly.
Other props worth giving are The Emperor's Gift by ADB (I partiuclarly liked that because the conflict was something beyond just "there be chaos/xenos to kill hur hur space marines) and the recent Watchers on the throne. which Showed a fun side to the IoM we rarely get to see

I'll throw one in for Necropolis, aka Stalingrad 40k. Also Titanicus.

I'm currently reading the 1st Blood Angels Omnibus, and I'm really enjoying it, especially after the Blood Debt short story.

I also really enjoyed the Deathwing book that has a bunch of short stories in it. I've read a lot of complaints about the book in reviews, but I truly enjoyed most, if not all, of the short stories in Deathwing.

The first Blood Angels Omnibus is fantastic, the second one has been a real let down. I am about 150 pages into it, and am struggling to get any further due to a lack of interest.

Dan Abnett's novels, especially the Inquisition trilogies. I liked Ravenor better than Eisenhorn, but that's probably because I read it first. Met him at a GenCon once (Abnett, not Ravenor); really great guy, gave a great panel and hung around afterwards to give me advice on writing and productivity.