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My sons just recently started reading a 40K book: Ultramarines. They seem to enjoy it, so I want to continue giving them options.
I've only ever read the Path of the Eldar books plus a couple Dark Eldar ones but they don't seem all that interested in Eldar.

I also don't want to get them books that are part of a saga, so basically want to keep with "bite-sized" stories that take place in 40K (not 30K) and don't have a series.
My boys have a particular interest right now in UMs and Salamanders.
Any suggestions?

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Of Honour and Iron is decent, fairly by the numbers, but it's not a bad read and is based around Ultramarines and the whole Primaris coming into the chapter dealings then going off to help a successor chapter.

Try the Ciaphas Cain books. they're part of a series sure but each story is very stand alone.
they're fun books, not "dark and serious" proably play well to kids. and frankly if you've never read em you'd proably like them too

Thanx guys. Let's keep 'em comin. I'm making a list

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 Galef wrote:
Thanx guys. Let's keep 'em comin. I'm making a list

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ohh since you said they have an intreast in Ultramarines specificly, dark Imperium is worth a read for sure. and, it's a series but eventually they're presumably wanna read the Uriel Ventriss books.

Any Salamander books?

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I second the Ciaphas Cain novels, particularly the first two omnibuses - with the caveat that the first two stories feel a little too similar. Don't read them back to back, maybe. They don't have to be read in order anyway. They're lighter stories focused on the Imperial Guard with a nice dose of humor and limited grimdarkness.

I'm also a big fan of Guy Haley's Baneblade and Shadowsword. Better than his Dark Imperium books so far.

Titanicus is a must-read if they have any interest in titans.

If they like the Ultramarines, Know No Fear is set in the Horus Heresy but it's great, and fairly standalone. I won't make many recommendations in the Heresy line because they tend to weave into each other and have entire plot arcs that don't make sense if you read a book in isolation. But I still recommend the White Scars novellas and novels as a fairly self-contained series: Brotherhood of the Storm, Scars, The Path of Heaven, and Jaghatai Khan: Warhawk of Chogoris.

TITANICUS seriously thats what gave my girlfriend to break her into 40k and she ate it up. Great way to introduce the general ideas of how the Imperium works, and also the idea of Chaos/Ruinious Powers. Also its a one off book.

Also cause I'm a Dan Abnett fan-boy got to drop Guant's Ghosts as well. Really excellent reads, even though they are a whole series of books, but they also do an excellent job of portraying life in the guard, and fleshing out a lot of aspects of life in 40k that arent really show in most "Bolter Porn" novels. For instance one novel pretty much entirely takes place on a Chaos occupied world following a resistance cell and you see a lot of stuff that explains how Chaos operates beyond just being frothing at the mouth crazies on the battlefield (agriculture, logistics, ect...)

BTW Galaf, it might be benifical for us to know how OLD your kids are? some of the novels, well excellent reads aren't nesscarily good ones for children (Titanicus has a bit of a downer ending for example)

Anything by Aaron dembski bowden. Night Lords trilogy is fantastic. Talon of horus and black legion are also very good. All the horus heresy books I've read have been great and are stand alone so don't require reading the rest. A fairly short book I just finished is lukas the trickster. It's about a space wolf, with a rebellious streak. It does have a little foul language though.


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Turn them to chaos! The characters are so much more interesting than the no personality imperial SM are

 Galef wrote:
My sons just recently started reading a 40K book: Ultramarines. They seem to enjoy it, so I want to continue giving them options.
I've only ever read the Path of the Eldar books plus a couple Dark Eldar ones but they don't seem all that interested in Eldar.

I also don't want to get them books that are part of a saga, so basically want to keep with "bite-sized" stories that take place in 40K (not 30K) and don't have a series.
My boys have a particular interest right now in UMs and Salamanders.
Any suggestions?

-

Helsreach - great story, great characters - they can even watch it online

Some of the HH anthology short story books are good. They build snippets of the world and a lot of the stories arent long drawn out battle bunny stuff.

Gaunt's Ghost is pretty much amongst he best fiction written for 40K as far as I'm concerned. The Eisenhorn and Ravenor series are also fairly good if they are into murder stories. While the first three books of the Horus Heresy and the Night Lord Trilogy are also amongst the best book of 40K, they might be a bit denser and heavier than your average 40K book. I would recommand Deff Squadron if you can put your hands on it. It's absolutly hilarious and a great introduction to everything Ork.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Gaunt's Ghost is pretty much amongst he best fiction written for 40K as far as I'm concerned. The Eisenhorn and Ravenor series are also fairly good if they are into murder stories. While the first three books of the Horus Heresy and the Night Lord Trilogy are also amongst the best book of 40K, they might be a bit denser and heavier than your average 40K book. I would recommand Deff Squadron if you can put your hands on it. It's absolutly hilarious and a great introduction to everything Ork. The two Sister of Battle novels are surprisingly good in my opinion, but they might require a little bit more familiarity with 40K lore to be fully appreciated (the second one less so though, and they don't need to be read in order, so maybe Hammer and Anvil)

Execution Hour (either on its own or collected with it's sequel in The Gothic War Omnibus) is a great story full of adventure, space battles, and the Planet Killer.

You might not be too keen on series of books, especially the never ending Horus Heresy, but there is one book in there that is just the absolute pinnacle. Flight of the Eisenstein. Can't recall the author, but holy man! What a great book.

Don't feel bad about skipping the other books in the series, TFotE is pretty compartmentalized so you really only need a rudimentary knowledge of the HH to get up to speed.

I highly recommend you read it.

The first three HH novels are great and have a satisfying if very sad conclusion. It was how ever one of my favorite book series in showing marines well written. Most of the characters are well written and are giving (by 40k standards) meaningful motivations. It had some great action scenes, and and really highlighted what only in death does duty end means.

Nothing is better for a beginner in my opinion than Let the Galaxy Burn (the short story compilation, not the Horus Heresy novel of the same name), edited by Marc Gascoigne and Christian Dunn.

It's a HUGE compilation of stories, with a broad range of topics and authors. Several of the stories tie into ongoing series. It's a great place to start because it gives you a really good idea of which factions, story types, and authors you're interested in learning more about.

Fool, pledge your first born to the Dark Gods!

Well, renegades actually. If they want to last it out the Night Lords trilogy is a great read. ADB can do Chaos properly.

And if they play a bit of COD zombies, they'll love Cadian Blood, Cadian vs zombies.

If you are interested in Salamanders the omnibus collecting several of their stories was released this year. It is part of an ongoing saga, but each book holds up well on its own. May not be exatcly what you are looking for, but it is definitely one of the better options out there if you want some sons of Vulkan action!

Another good shout is Dead Men Walking.

Death Korp of Kreig vs Necrons. One book and well written. Also quite fitting for Haloween (ish) time of the year.

Clever title too given the two protagonist factions. Applies equally to both.

Ciaphas Cain books. I’d also recommend Eisemhorn. Probably the best 40k fiction written to date.

Any interest for them in Age of Sigmar stuff? There are a couple books with collected short stories in them, like the intro book that is $8 (wicked cheap for Black Library), and has about ten stories in it. Could give them some variety. Sadly, I don't have anything to really offer for 40k outside of the Heresy stuff...which is the very definition of "series". Could try the Vulkan book for them though; might be enjoyable, even if they miss a couple things. You could probably fill in the gaps and use it as bonding time!

 timetowaste85 wrote:
Any interest for them in Age of Sigmar stuff?

...No. Not even a little.
Partly because they are more into sci-fi Halo-esk future worlds rather than fantasy realms
Partly because I lost touch with the background after the End Times.
GW have now released so, so many new models for AoS, which is great, but honestly I have no idea what's going on now and it seem too daunting to keep up with AND keep up with 40K's rapid releases too.

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I'm not sure if still available but there was 3 or 4 books called space marine heroes/villains (depending on your flavour) which were collections of short stories.
Though I don't recall off the top of me head anything specific to ultramarines or salamanders.

There was also allot of 1 off space marine books that might of been a similar or same title.

It's hard to remember as it's been a couple of years since I was reading allot of BL stuff in libraries when I had no home.