Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

I have a friend who is interested in 40K, but has never really heard of it except from me. What book from the Black Library would you recommend as a first novel to read that encompasses 40K as a whole and would be a good starting point for 40K lore?

I'm going to use your post, I apologize, to go off on a tangent I had been considering. Having just finished a BL novel, I must say that 40k is tricky. I hate to say negative things, but in my opinion, a lot of the newer GW publications has been crap in a fancy wrapper. Awesome artwork, great quality paper and hardcovers, but the story just Lacks charm, and reminds me of a quote I read about Robert Howard's writing

"Although he had his faults as a writer, Howard was a natural storyteller, whose narratives are unmatched for vivid, gripping, headlong action. His heroes – King Kull, Conan, Bran Mak Morn, Solomon Kane are larger than life: men of mighty thews., hot passions, and indomitable will, who easily dominate the stories through which they stride. In fiction, the difference between a writer who is a natural storyteller and one who is not is like the difference between a boat that will float and one that will not. If the writer has this quality, we can forgive many other faults; if not, no other virtue can make up for the lack, any more than gleaming paint and sparkling brass on a boat make up for the fact that it will not float." ~ L. Sprague de Camp, Conan of the Isles, "Introduction", 1968

I hate to say it, but a lot of the newer GW fiction , just strongly reminds me of the boat not floating. They do everything right, they try make it so cool, but it just doesnt flow like it does from a great author.

To answer your question, I would say, pick up Let the Galaxy Burn.


Automatically Appended Next Post:


Further on this point, I feel like GW+BL know they have a market, and they are publishing stuff for that market. That's cool, power to them, but in a way, a lot of this stuff was better left to the imagination, before it all got 'set in stone' as 'canon' if you will. Take the chaos 3.5 codex entry on Kharn, In fact, I just took a picture of it.

Those interested will have to click the link , as i'm not going to blow up your post with a massive image.

http://imgur.com/g4kwnWq


It's mysterious in a way. It uses cool words and artwork to describe this champion for this factions simple, 3 page entry. What more is there to know about Kharn? well, that is up to the player. I read a short story that was pretty cool but it was a bit too Trying-to-be-edgy-trying-to-be-grimdark-trying-to-be-cool. Like it was trying too hard, it wasn't cool like this entry, no offense to the author, who did well (also, he is not the author who i am talking about above, the story was decent but a few other BL one left me disappointed recently, or were mediocre at best). It was just different. And that is canon for 40k now, I guess.

Granted, that's all I've read from the Horus Heresy series. I'm going to delve a bit more deeply into new stuff, but carefully. I felt the story Wrath of Kharn was superb however.

 sub-zero wrote:
I have a friend who is interested in 40K, but has never really heard of it except from me. What book from the Black Library would you recommend as a first novel to read that encompasses 40K as a whole and would be a good starting point for 40K lore?

Pick a one-off novel.

I found Helsreach to be a fun read, but I'm a Black Templars player and a huge ADB fan. The guy writes Grimdark very well.

If you bought the full 3-book 7th Edition rules, you could loan him the third book:

The history of the 41st Millennium is presented in the second book, Dark Millennium. In 128 pages it describes the crumbling Imperium of man and their many enemies, within and without, which wage war against humanity and each other.

If you are trying to get him/her into 40k, you could also loan him the second book:

A Galaxy of War explores the art of collecting and painting your own force of miniatures.

Ian Watson -- Inquisitor was actually *good*.

Everything else verges between passable airport fiction (Abnett) or crimes against literature.

40k is puplp fiction, never has pretended to be otherwise. that said there's plenty of good places, I'd start with the Ciaphas Cain books. their lighter tone might be appreciated, and Cain at one time or another deals with just about all the big factions out there (save eldar, there hasn't been a single novel dealing with them. beyond asides suggesting nasty encounters with dark eldar)

I second Ciaphas Cain. The Ciaphas Cain series gives you a good overview in my mind, he runs across just about everything.

I still enjoy the Gaunt's Ghosts series as well, but they deal almost entirely with Chaos.

If you want SM specific, I enjoyed the Ultramarines Omnibus as my first foray into 40k fiction.

It's a bit more difficult to find a novel that spans the entire WH40K universe, so I'd recommend to start them off with one of the WH Wiki pages. Have them read through some of the basic history and see of they are a fan of a particular faction. I personally enjoy reading the novels, but most are from the perspective of SM, AM, or Inquisitors. Some of the smaller armies (i.e. specific SM/CSM Chapters, SoB) are used in multiple books, but they are generally told from the "good guy's" perspective.

Most of my favorite WH novels are the ones that span 3+ books, but they follow the same group/theme across multiple battles... Aside from the Horus Heresy series. HH will flesh out the details from earlier events in the Wiki articles.