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I have a friend at work that wants to get in to the hobby, he wants to read some space marine novels before buying any actual models, so im just after some recommendations for s him.

Thanks

https://www.blacklibrary.com/warhammer-40000/bundles/blood-angels-collection.html

I have those books as two omnibuses and they're excellent. I also have the Ultramarines and Grey Knights omnibuses, but I think James Swallow's writing is the best.

As an intro to SM your friend could also do a lot worse than buying the codex. There's plenty of fluff and the added advantage that when he gets hooked he already has the rules

You missed out `chaos'. Tell him to get the night lords trilogy.

I'd reccomend "Crusade and other stories" https://www.blacklibrary.com/warhammer-40000/novels/crusade-ebook.html

It's an anthology intended to be a "good place to start" giving a look at several differant factions

There's a short story compilation (Edited by Marc Gascoigne and Christian Dunn) called 'Let the Galaxy Burn' (note: not the novel of the same name).

It has dozens of stories about a variety of factions, and functions like a good survey course of the 40k lore.

Look into the novel Dante, it alternates between 2 stories one set before the battle at Baal against the nids the other goes through the recruitment of Dante as a young boy.

Some of the story may go over the head of someone new depending upon how much they know, but I think stories following a boy being recruited by a chapter are generally good for newbies as the kid is as ignorant as the reader.

Another alternative is to pick up one of the short story compilations focused on space marines, you can cover more chapters and situations this way but may sacrifice some depth.

Maybe let him read summaries or watch YouTube videos of the main chapters online or from the rule books to see if any jump out at him, then look for books on the chapters that do.