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I've been wanting to get a WH40K novel for a while now, but as the title suggests, I'm unsure what to buy. I'm after something about Space Marines, not overly complicated, something I can get into easily and hopefully educate me on the fluff . I know the obvious choice would be the SM Codex, but it's a bit on the expensive side. My friend was going to lend me Flight Of The Eisentein (is that right?) would any one recommend that? I read a page out of something in White Dwarf and that was pretty good. Also does GW sell a lot of books? (Yes embarrassingly enough I'm yet to go to GW)
So any suggestions would be very much appreciated.

I would recommend CHapter approved from 1990, or Realm of CHoas, The lost and the Damned.

Avoid the novels, they are awful. They have no relation to the game (every single marines is portayed as a WS9, S10, 9 W super hero). Also they tend to be long winded and simplistic.

Things that dont get answered in the just infuriate me and are just plain silly.

Borrow the codex of a buddy, it is a better read than the novels!

That's not really a fair assessment, Curtis. Some of them are better than others.

That said, I'm trying to think of one to reccomend outside Eisenhorn, Ravenor or Gaunt's Ghosts and coming up short.

13th Legion was pretty fun when I read it, but that was several years ago and I was a teenager then.

Hey l.o: if you want a proper novel, try the Horus heresy series, sold at GW, about twenty bucks a book (that's only a few week of chores for me), 300-500 per book, and they'll edjamacate you on the hardest thing to explain -the horus heresy.
If you want the new codex, PM me.

Thanks people. I'll try the Horus heresy series. I saw a book in White Dwarf called Space Marine: Omnibus, 800 pgs, $27. Has anyone got an opinion on it?

Haven't read the omnibus but I'd definitely recommend the HH series! I'd start from the start (Horus Rising) as there are events in Flight of the Eisenstein which are explained in the previous books. FotE is the 4th book (and you should go through them pretty quickly) so it's not like there's a huge backlog to read.

Eisenhorn is good. As is the Night Lords trilogy by ADB.

If you are going for the heresy I'd recommend "One Thousand Sons" and "The First Heretic"

Brothers of the Snake is awesome. If you like CSM the night lord trilogy is good. I can also recommend the HH series too. Probably 4 in the entire series are skip worthy.

Best 40k series: Gaunt's Ghosts.

Jimsolo's Dakka Boilerplate #4:

My first recommendation is the short story collection Let the Galaxy Burn, edited by Christian Dunn and Marc Gascoigne (not to be confused with the Horus Heresy book of the same name). It's a huge collection of short stories from a variety of authors, with a huge spectrum of topics and viewpoints. It will give you a better idea of the authors that you might want to look into, or groups you might not have realized you were interested in. (I had no interest in reading about the Guard until this book.)

My second recommendation would be the Night Lords trilogy by Aaron Dembski-Bowden, (beginning with Soul Hunter) since it's my personal favorite series in the Black Library.

"The Night Lords" trilogy by ADB is my biggest recommendation for a Marine book.

"Cadian Blood" is my general recommendation to get people interested.
Zombies? Guardsmen?
If that doesn't get them into a GW store or a LGS, they're not interested.

 the shrouded lord wrote:
Hey l.o: if you want a proper novel, try the Horus heresy series, sold at GW, about twenty bucks a book (that's only a few week of chores for me), 300-500 per book, and they'll edjamacate you on the hardest thing to explain -the horus heresy.
If you want the new codex, PM me.

Oh god, not the Horus Heresy series. That's something you have to prepare yourself for. Half of it is good, one quarter is somewhat readable, and the last quarter is mind-bogglingly stupid that leaves you wondering how an author who just wrote a fantastic previous book can suddenly come up with such stupidity.

Some of the space marine battles are pretty good. I highly recommend Legion of the Damned and Siege of Castellax. I also highly recommend you buy the Talos Trilogy by ADB, but you can only get Blood Reaver as an e-copy now from BL.
What I'd reccomend you get the most however to start you off with the Black Library is buy 'Space Marines'. It's a massive collection of short stories that is composed of the previous smaller collections 'Heroes of the Space Marines', 'Legends of the Space Marines', and 'Victories of the Space Marines'. Some of the stories are bad misses, but the majority are very enjoyable reads, especially one on the Black Legion.

Oh, and protip, avoid anything written by C.S.Goto if you don't want to get eye cancer. And anything by Ben Counter on the Space Wolves unless you want to see just how many ways the word 'wolf' can be fit into a since sentence.

@ abovE: according to him, the answer is OVER NINE-"
"wait what? Horus heresy (or at least the first two) are awesome.

Avoid Gaunt's Ghosts, it is the most overrated series in all BL, and is beyond the point not about Marines.

The Horus Heresy series is an okay start.

Also I left out legion of the damned and the night lords series.
how could I have forgone the night lords series?!

I really liked the Dark Apostle series. I forget which they started with but they're all titled Dark something.

Just read The First Heretic and it explains a lot about how this whole thing could have gotten started, and why the CSM still think they're the good guys and hate the emperor so much.

That there time travel, though. Always makes you wonder "wait...so this happened... because someone went back... but they couldn't go back.... unless they knew something had happened....but they wouldn't know it happened.... unless someone went back.... and they wouldn't go back....unless....."

Darn time travel.

 the shrouded lord wrote:
Horus heresy (or at least the first two) are awesome.

I'd dare say that the initial four are worthwhile reads (I do admit that Ben Counter could have done better with Galaxy in Flames, but it was still enjoyable).

 the shrouded lord wrote:
@ abovE: according to him, the answer is OVER NINE-"
"wait what? Horus heresy (or at least the first two) are awesome.

HAH!

Yeah, it starts out good, sucks you in, and then you get hit with perpetuals and Alpha Legion Electric Boogaloo.

I definitely recommend the HH series, start at the beginning and work your way through.

If you want a good insight into how the Imperium functions in the 'modern' 40k setting, check out Titanicus. It's not about Space Marines but it shows a lot of the culture that goes on in the setting that you don't get from other books.

Is there a chapter you particularly like? There might be books specifically about them.