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Ok, here's what I've read of the Black Library:
Reading:
Enforcer

Waiting to read:
White scars

Done reading:
Brothers of the snake
The ultra marines omnibus
the killing ground
Hero of the imperium
death or glory
duty calls
dark adeptus
hammer of deamons
cains last stand
Grey knights
Angels of darkness
Damnation Crusade 1: Warhammer 40,000
Planet kill
Ravenor
Eisenhorn
The Blood Angels Omnibus
The Founding
The Soul Drinker's Omnibus
Ravenor returned
The Saint
Space Wolf, the First Omnibus
Ravenor rogue
Gaunts 3
Imperial Guard Omnibus Volume 1
Titanicus
Soul drinkers 4: Hell forged
Ultramarines 5
dark apostle (Oh god I hated it)
Salamander
Blood pact
Inquisition War (Trippy...)
Double Eagle
Emperors finest
Sabbat worlds
Firedrake
Chapters due
Space wolf second omnibus

I'm waiting for:
Next Gaunt book
Next Cain book
Next Salamander book



While there are plenty of books left to read aside from the HH books:
1. I hated Dark Apostle and gave away the other two books I bought in anticipation of the first being good
2. Dark Apostle has coloured my view of the chaos centered books and makes me not want to read the others
3. I find IG books outside of GG and the cain series to be pretty boring..
4. I'm not sold on the BFG books

I will probably give the Eldar book a read but I'm left with the HH books which I've tried to read before but struggled with the snails pace story telling in the first book and have been put off since.

Convince me to be excited about having not read the HH books and convince me to buy them.

GO:


Oh, can someone tell me where the GASH the next Iron Snakes book is?

Iron Snakes was a stand alone novel AFAIK

HH is good. Some are bad but most are good. You get a very in-depth look at the events leading up to and surrounding the HH.

I don't know if you've ever read the Lord of the Rings, but I think of it like this: LOTR is a great read, well paced with a great plot. Then you pick up the Silmarillion. The first time I did I couldn't get past the creation of Arda chapters and thought it boring. I went back to it later and didn't put it down.
The Silmarillion is like the Horus Heresy, it gives more background information than the stories set in the LOTR world. It tells you why the world is the way it is, why certain factions even exist and why certain characters behave the way they do and how some of them even ended up where they did.
The HH is the tale of the old legions and how they reclaimed the planets inhabited by humans that had been lost after warp storms had isolated the worlds of the original imperium of man. It gives a major insight into the presence of chaos in the galaxy and just how long it has been involved in the affairs of man. It shows a number of human civilizations that kept their technology intact and even surpassed that of the Imperium in some ways and what happened to them when the Crusade fleets arrived.
We learn about the civil war that broke out on Mars between those members of the mechanicus that supported Horus and those that supported the Emperor and a whole lot more.
There are good stories mixed in with a lot of personal stuff as various characters struggle to deal with where their loyalties lie while others are simply possessed by demons at a time when the very concept of demons is laughed at as being primitive superstition.
We see the start of the Imperial faith and the ironies that surround it such as who started it and what they ended up becoming later.
Stick with them and you'll get a whole new understanding of how the 40K universe works.

You've read quite a bit there. So you found the first HH book had a slow pace? Horus Rising opens with a massive battle.

The best books are Dan Abnett's, but if you're complaining about the pacing of a book like Horus Rising, you won't enjoy them. Just keep re-reading Ragnar's tale of a teenage Wolf Lord drinking farting around with his buddies, and you'll be happy.

Omegus: Are you really THAT irritated by my comment?

Canuk: Might be a big battle but after the battle slows things down far too much for me and lost my interest pretty quickly.

Cheers for the replies though. I wanted to know if you Dakkites are as passionate about the HH series as the guy who introduced me to the Gaunts Ghosts series is about Gaunts Ghosts. I wasn't so sure about those when I started but pushed through my initial doubt and found I loved them. It just took a bit of encouragement...ala this thread's purpose but for the HH books.

If these books are more like Tom Clancy's books that I was recommended: Red Storm rising being the only bloody book he's ever written that's worth reading, then I wont make the mistake that I made with him and buy books like Kardinal of the Kremlin and Without Remorse that I wont ever finish.

dave_salmon wrote:Omegus: Are you really THAT irritated by my comment?

Canuk: Might be a big battle but after the battle slows things down far too much for me and lost my interest pretty quickly.

Cheers for the replies though. I wanted to know if you Dakkites are as passionate about the HH series as the guy who introduced me to the Gaunts Ghosts series is about Gaunts Ghosts. I wasn't so sure about those when I started but pushed through my initial doubt and found I loved them. It just took a bit of encouragement...ala this thread's purpose but for the HH books.

If these books are more like Tom Clancy's books that I was recommended: Red Storm rising being the only bloody book he's ever written that's worth reading, then I wont make the mistake that I made with him and buy books like Kardinal of the Kremlin and Without Remorse that I wont ever finish.

Where did you make it too? Bottom line I do like the HH series. It has unique battles (there was more weird stuff back then) and is a continous origin story. I'd say at least try the first 3, which make up The Luna Wolves trilogy.

I got to where Horus and the gang meet in the random garden under the moon light...I think.

Any way, I've just ordered Horus Rising from Amazon.

It can't be as a slow or crazy as Inquisition war (I know it's an older book but christ, Space Marines with Visors?) and the pace can't be as bad as I seem to have thought at the time.

That's barely a few chapters in to the first book. The pace picks up after that, and continues to the end largely. The second isn't really as fast paced as the First but it's the most important. The Third is the most action oriented of the three, so I would recommend you read at least those three. Flight of The Esenstein is very well paced, as is Fulgrim. A Thousand Sons is a bit slow, as is First Heretic. I haven't read my copy of Legion yet, or Prospero Burns, but I guess the latter is fairly high octane.

cadbren wrote:I don't know if you've ever read the Lord of the Rings, but I think of it like this: LOTR is a great read, well paced with a great plot. Then you pick up the Silmarillion. The first time I did I couldn't get past the creation of Arda chapters and thought it boring. I went back to it later and didn't put it down.
The Silmarillion is like the Horus Heresy, it gives more background information than the stories set in the LOTR world. It tells you why the world is the way it is, why certain factions even exist and why certain characters behave the way they do and how some of them even ended up where they did.
The HH is the tale of the old legions and how they reclaimed the planets inhabited by humans that had been lost after warp storms had isolated the worlds of the original imperium of man. It gives a major insight into the presence of chaos in the galaxy and just how long it has been involved in the affairs of man. It shows a number of human civilizations that kept their technology intact and even surpassed that of the Imperium in some ways and what happened to them when the Crusade fleets arrived.
We learn about the civil war that broke out on Mars between those members of the mechanicus that supported Horus and those that supported the Emperor and a whole lot more.
There are good stories mixed in with a lot of personal stuff as various characters struggle to deal with where their loyalties lie while others are simply possessed by demons at a time when the very concept of demons is laughed at as being primitive superstition.
We see the start of the Imperial faith and the ironies that surround it such as who started it and what they ended up becoming later.
Stick with them and you'll get a whole new understanding of how the 40K universe works.

Totally agree.

The only books from the HH I would recommend for their "epicness" and action are the first three (Horus Rising, False Gods and Galaxy in Flames). But even those three books are not excellent. The rest of the HH novels is only worth reading because of its fluff.

I just started the HH series in April, and have already read them all (as a whole, they are that good) up to First Heretic. A few are weaker than others, but I found almost all of them good to great. I loved the stuff with Magnus, Russ, Dorn, but read them all to know the background. The DA stuff is "good" (as good as the weaker Gaunt's Ghosts) and the SW and TS stuff is legendary.

I've read all of them except the short story collections, without a doubt my favorites have been 1) The First Heretic, 2) Mechanicum, 3) A Thousand Sons, and 4) Legion. They are all great and reveal so much about te background. IMO the weakest of the series has been Nemesis, although that's not to say it's a bad book, it just doesn't really stack up with the others.

Laodamia wrote:
The only books from the HH I would recommend for their "epicness" and action are the first three (Horus Rising, False Gods and Galaxy in Flames). But even those three books are not excellent. The rest of the HH novels is only worth reading because of its fluff.

The HH are often like reading history books, out of all the books there are only a small handful of characters who are fleshed out enough to be sympathetic with. The rest of them have stories that read like something out of the news. Still worth reading though for the aforementioned "epicness".

dave_salmon wrote:Omegus: Are you really THAT irritated by my comment?

Not at all, I'm simply being honest. If you got bored a few chapters into one of the better written Horus Heresy books, there's no need to "sell you" on it. So I offered you fare that would probably be more your speed.

Oh come on Omegus, don't be a gash.

Any way: Thanks for the replies, I'm considering moving to Horus Rising next instead of moving to Savage Scars like I was going to.

I'd love to love the HH series, and I'm going to give them the time they deserved this time instead of, as already balked at, a few chapters before I decide I don't like them.

If anything, my tollerance for 'iffy' bits in a book has been steel reinforced by Dark Apostle, Inquisition war and the first half of the fifth Ultrasmurfs book so I should better appreciate them this time. Should.

Thanks for the inpu everyone!

However that you may not like Chaos the two Night Lord's books (Soul Hunter and Blood Reaver) while not pressing heavily ideas of chaos they still manage to have interestin battle seens whether between Red Cosairs and Night Lords to Blood Angels and Night Lords. It has a interesting story with a intelligent plo as well as humour.

dave_salmon wrote:
Any way: Thanks for the replies, I'm considering moving to Horus Rising next instead of moving to Savage Scars like I was going to.

Certainly the best book I've read so far in the HH series. Truely epic and magnificent.

The following two books are... less epic and magnificent, but they still make up for a good reading.

When I started the HH books i was sceptic, but after picking up the BR trilogy to kill time on a journey I thought why not as that was enjoyable.
Best decision I made personally and was relieved they weren't the standard I feared. It's a slow build up giving insight into the most infamous time in the mythology from a wide view and also narrower views of individuals stories around the time. I couldn't put most down though a couple I'd skip reading again such as Battle for the Abyss as it was one I found less enjoyable personally.