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hey all

i just wanted to read some 40k books and i was wondering what are some good ones?

I have never read any before and they look and sound interesting but im sure they have the potentiol to get boring fast.

any help would be nice

mrdimgo

There's an "Eisenhorn" omnibus which is quite good. I also enjoyed "Horus Rising" and the "Inquisition War" trilogy. At its best, 40K fiction is decent pulp SF. Some of it's pretty bad, though.

The gaunt's ghost series is very good as well, but Pariah has it right, it is at best pulp sci-fi. I enjoy it a lot (as do many other people), but you wont find any modern classics there.

Anything by Ben Counter is pretty solid.

Soul Drinkers
The Bleeding Chalice
Crimson Tears
Chapter War
Daemon World
Grey Knights
Dark Adeptus

Pretty much anything by Dan Abnett.

Yeah, I also liked Dan Abnetts Eisenhorn series alot. Its what got me enthusiastic to buy and paint some minis actually.

wow thanks for the feedback sounds like theres a bunch of of good and whole lot of bad. I remember reading an excerpt from one of Gave thorps books in a white dwarf from a long way back (like 7-8 years) he sounded pretty good is he?

While I've been a big Abnett fan for a while, I just recently picked up a couple Ciaphas Cain novels. I was skeptical, purely because of the supercheesy cover art. But I've been pleasantly surprised with the storylines. I'd definitely recommend them.

mrdimgo wrote:wow thanks for the feedback sounds like theres a bunch of of good and whole lot of bad. I remember reading an excerpt from one of Gave thorps books in a white dwarf from a long way back (like 7-8 years) he sounded pretty good is he?

Gav is spotty. Some of his stuff is okay at the level of relax-for-an-afternoon, and some is trash hackwork.

Speaking of trash, never read anything by C S Goto.

Abnett is the best. Gordon Rennie is pretty good. William King has been phoning it in. Ben Counter sucks. C S Goto is a talentless hack.

ah ok thanks for the warning

Gav Thorpe is awful, really. My list of worthy BL books (novels - they have done some very nice fluff books but I dunno if that's your thing)

Eisenhorn
Lord of the Night
Daemon World
A couple of the earlier GG novels
Storm of Iron is ok, though I'd reccomend avoiding McNeil as a general rule
Horus Rising
The first two Ravenor books (the third is somewhat of a miscarraige though)
I'm expecting Legion to be good, but it's still unread on my shelf atm

How do you feel about WFB novels? They're generally better imo (though I'm more of a 40k fan when it comes to painting/modelling).

The short story collections are usually good. Most of the guys who can't write a 300 page novel for crap can usually do a 10 page story. Let the Galaxy Burn has loads of good stories by pretty much everyone who ever wrote for GW.

I'll add another voice of praise for the Eisenhorn Omnibus. Lord of the Night is also good. The first 2 books in the GRey knight series were great, but the 3rd, Hammer of Demons, was pretty awful. Jazz Hand's advice about McNeil is pretty solid.

Gaunts Ghosts is good, but it's a bunch of the same after the first 500 pages. There are just so many angles one can take on describing battle against chaos cultists before it all starts to sound the same. Some people really enjoy it, I'm not going to knock that, because the writing's good.

It's more about what type of story you like. If you're into descriptions of battles, then Gaunt's Ghosts and Storm of Iron will appeal to you. If you're into characters and intrigue, then Eisenhorn, Ravenor, and Lord of the Night will appeal to you. If you like over descriptive writing, undeveloped characters, and the maturity level of a 12 year old, go ahead and pick up Fulgrim.

haha thanks lifeeafter that was good. im gonna read these more for the battles so i think storm of iron sounds good.
thanks all of you for helping

fellblade wrote:Speaking of trash, never read anything by C S Goto.

Abnett is the best. Gordon Rennie is pretty good. William King has been phoning it in. Ben Counter sucks. C S Goto is a talentless hack.

QFT re: Goto. William King hasn't written a Gotrek and Felix book in a few years now - someone else is writing them for him.

I haven't read Ben Counter's stuff. Are the Grey Knights books that bad?

im going to put one in for the gaunts ghosts series, they're just great, nothing over complicated, just a good yarn in general

Some people seem to dislike the Grey Knight books since they add some background to the Grey Knights that hasn't actually existed anywhere. (GK Chaplains, Apothecaries, the Castigator Titan, etc) I personally think they're great, and Hammer of Daemons (newest one is the best of them yet, IMHO, barring a few miscues.

I will second the Ciaphas Cain Novels (and admonish the rest of you for only being the second) It's the grim darkness of the 41st millenuim as seen through the eyes of a Commissar who's only goal in life is to die happily of old age as far from a firefight as he can possibly get, yet somehow, despite his abject cowardice, is continually thrust into situations where he ends up being the greatest heros the sector's ever seen.

Plus they feature scenes like a tau sympathising human, with his face painted blue (in support of the Xenos) shouting "You can take our world, but you'll never take our freedom!"

You can't make this stuff up. :p (well, I suppose Sandy Mitchell can, but still...)

wow feor that sounds really funny i think ill check that out

The Eisenhorn series are pure Gold.

Jurgen, his smelly Aide-de-camp is a star in it also.!!

He KNOWS how to use a Melta-gun....

fellblade wrote:

Speaking of trash, never read anything by C S Goto.

C S Goto is a talentless hack.

I'm going to go out on a rather large limb here and say I actually enjoyed Descent of Angels. it was a fantastic look at pre-destroyed Caliban and gave a good account of how Marines where recruited at that time in 40k history. just because it didnt show the Dark Angels in a positive light doesnt automatically make it crap.

Death By Monkeys wrote:I haven't read Ben Counter's stuff. Are the Grey Knights books that bad?

I haven't read any Counter that I haven't enjoyed. He's not a great writer, but he's far from terrible and he is a solid ideas man when it comes to chaos. Daemon World is pure inspiration for me as a chaos player, and I look forward to reading the newest about the grey knight battling his way out of the warp.

As noted though, Abnett is the best writer of the lot. Eisenhorn trilogy is probably his finest, then I enjoyed a lot of the Gaunt's Ghosts series until I got bored with the concept and gave it up. Necropolis was my favorite of the lot I read. And I'm really excited to check out his Legion book.

- Salvage

Feor, I think you hit the nail squarely on the head of what makes the Ciaphas Cain novels so much fun - it's not like he's an abject coward, he just has an overabiding sense of self-preservation.

akira5665 wrote:Jurgen, his smelly Aide-de-camp is a star in it also.!!

He KNOWS how to use a Melta-gun....

Jurgen FTW!!!!