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Having had to look up a lot of the characters and events that are talked about relating to the 40K universe whilst trying to follow some of the discussions here, I realised that my knowledge of the background is not exactly fantastic.

What would you suggest are the best books to read in order to get more insight into the universe as a whole? Your essential required reading for a good 40K knowledge base as it were...

Thanks in advance for your suggestions.

Rogue Trader, Realms of Chaos, Codex Imperialis, 2nd Ed. Codexes, Adeptus Titanicus, Space Fleet, Index Astartes, Necromunda, Inquisitor, Battlfleet Gothic, Space Hulk, Codex Armageddon, Codex Eye of Terror et cetera.

Obviously the game manuals can have loads of background, especially the older games but White Dwarf (again, the older issues) and Citadel Journal to a certain extent also contain the same background, some of the same background, or are the original source for much of the background so really you just need to get your hands on as much as you can.

the ciaphas cain novels, the various novels based around the wars for armageddon, the eisenhorn novels too

Ive read none of those, but may be picking a few up, i picked up my knowledge from the world wide web the Horus heresy books, or this forum, if you want imperial history, just type in "missing primarchs" on search or if you want to know about how orks are made type in "how big can an ork grow".

IMO, Rulebooks and Codices (all editions) can be bewildering because they seem to be written in a style that assumes a great deal of general knowledge about 40k. This is undoubtedly to create a sense of realism, a la Tolkien's fictional history. It doesn't help that each edition tends to contradict the others with the oldest stuff (even including the vaunted Realm of Chaos) being totally retconned away and so the source of much confusion these days. The more popular pieces of fiction have fared much better.

The absolutely essential starting place, again IMO, is the short story collection "Let the Galaxy Burn." Where you go after that is up to you. I'd recommend starting with an omnibus.

Space Wolves (first omnibus) by William King (second one out in October)
Gaunt's Ghosts (entitled "The Founding" and "The Saint") by Dan Abnett for IG (there is also a general IG omnibus)
the Eisenhorn Trilogy by Dan Abnett (I'd start with this one rather than the Ravenor trilogy which will be released as an omnibus very soon)
Soul Drinkers by Ben Counter
Grey Knights by Ben Counter
Blood Ravens by James Swallow
Caiphis Cain: Hero of the Imperium by Sandy Mitchell

and . . . some people like Graham McNeill's Ultramarine novels

My best advice is to see what and who you like to read out of "Let the Galaxy Burn."

There is a much shorter collection of short stories, under the title "Heroes of the Space Marines," which I wouldn't recommend because the stories aren't all that good.

Or just drive right into the Heresy, if you're curious about the old days:

Horus Rising by Dan Abnett
False Gods by Graham McNeill
Galaxy in Flames by Ben Counter
The Flight of the Eisenstein by James Swallow
Fulgrim by Graham McNeill
Descent of Angels by Mitchell Scanlon
Legion by Dan Abnett
Battle for the Abyss by Ben Counter
Mechanicum by Graham McNeill
Tales of Heresy ed. by Nick Kyme (short stories but can't really jump in on this one)
and finally (so far)
Fallen Angels by Mike Lee

Thanks for your suggestions, I've read the Cain books (which were good), and I have read a couple of the Heresy books, which were also good.

I've also read a couple of books by Abnett.

I agree on the contradictions, I have not really looked at the fluff since around 10 years ago and things have changed quite a lot (plus I have forgotten huge chunks of it).

I will have a look through the titles suggested and see what I can find, thanks

Read anything other than C.S. Goto's novels. They aren't as bad as some of the crap out there, but they disregard a lot of the canon. People also say they're full of Eldar rape and stuff, but I haven't seen any of that.

The Eisenhorn and Ravenor books are best.

All Black Library novels need to be taken with a pinch of salt. The novels, those which aren't literally tearing the background to shreds, give a good flavour of the 40K mythos but if you rely on them for background then you will come a cropper.

Preferably you need to read the background books first, in sequence if possible and then read the novels so you can compare the two and decide how you want to interpret 'the background' in a way that pleases you the most.

The HH books are great. For current stuff, read the current codexes and the Rogue Trader book.

Of course, to really get a grip on it, just dive straight into wikipedia and lexicanium on the web. If you start from the basic "Warhammer 40,000" pages and then start exploring by individual race you can gain a pretty good knowledge of all the theories.

Lexicanium in particular is a really in-depth library of info...!

Read all the HH books, the Ravenor books, and the Last Chancers.

Gogsnik wrote:Preferably you need to read the background books first, in sequence if possible and then read the novels so you can compare the two and decide how you want to interpret 'the background' in a way that pleases you the most.

However, what are the background books?

And the Lexicanium is pretty good, I've been reading through some of the stuff on there already, just wondered if there was a slightly more interesting and full of explody way of getting information

You don't HAVE to read any backround books. I'm not even sure that there ARE any. From what I've heard though, if you wanna be an expert on Horus Heresy areas then you have to read "THOSE" books.

Seriously, you pick up plenty from just casual reading of the BRB and dexes.

The background books, as I would think of it, are all the Codices, rulebooks, gaming manuals and White Dwarf articles et cetera which contain, funnily enough, the background to the game.

If you just read the novels however you'll quickly start to think that there are such things as Colonel-Commissars, servitor-navigators, schisms within the BLood Angels no-one's ever heard of, a hierarchy within the Inquisition and all sorts of other guff.

Gogsnik wrote:If you just read the novels however you'll quickly start to think that there are such things as Colonel-Commissars, servitor-navigators, schisms within the BLood Angels no-one's ever heard of, a hierarchy within the Inquisition and all sorts of other guff.

Yes, it's difficult to tell what parts of this we are expected to take seriously. The same can be said for the old books--especially the vaunted Rogue Trader. You have to keep in mind that there aren't actually that many 40k book from BL that have made it past one printing. The bulk is stuff like Farseer, Fire Warrior, and Eldar Prophecy that have kind of disappeared into the mists of time.