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.

Does anybody have any good books they could recommend for learning about Blood Angels or Raven Guard (or successors of either)? I’ve narrowed these two down for the competition for the spot as my favorite chapter, so I’d like to learn more about typical demeanors and whatnot.

I would prefer no HH books, though. Thank you.

Best Blood Angels books are Dante and Devastation of Baal. They're tied into the Shield of Baal campaign supplement. The campaign isn't necessary to read but it gives some context to the events in the two novels.

I can;t recal any Raven Guard focussed 40k books - they do appear in the odd novel but rarely IIRC

jareddm wrote:
Best Blood Angels books are Dante and Devastation of Baal. They're tied into the Shield of Baal campaign supplement. The campaign isn't necessary to read but it gives some context to the events in the two novels.

Definitely these for Blood Angels. The Shield of Baal campaign stories wouldn’t hurt but are completely unnecessary. Dante and Devastation of Baal are far superior in my opinion. I’d read Dante first as in my opinion it’s THE book to learn about Blood Angels, it has 2 stories one follows Dante from a young boy on Baal to a captain of the Blood Angels the other story transitions from the shield of Baal stories into the massive battle told in the next novel Devastation of Baal. After you’ve read these you can go back and get the Shield of Baal books if you want.

Below is a link to the Author of Dante Guy Haley talking about the novel on the Warhammer Community site when the book first came out.

https://www.warhammer-community.com/2017/03/03/dante-by-guy-haley/


I’d also recommend a short story by Guy Haley called Redeemer, it’s a story that explores the Black Rage but it goes deeper than the rage and madness that’s at the surface to the pain and sorrow that’s at the heart of the Black Rage. It’s an oddly touching little story for a Marine tale and Haley seems to understand the Blood Angels like few others at Black Library.

Lemartes: Guardian of the Lost is also pretty good and also offers a lot of good insights into the Black Rage


There’s also 2 Mephiston novels :-
Mephiston: Blood of Sanguinius
Mephiston: Revenant Crusade

First is good and gives some understanding of the very mixed feelings the Angels including Mephiston himself have about him. Not read the second book yet.

As you can probably tell I’m a bit of a Blood Angel fanboy, not so into the Raven Guard and there’s less out about them but I’ll have a think and if anything jogs loose I’ll reply again.

Agreed, Dante and Devastation of Baal cover the Blood Angels in 40K very well. You have the option of going back to the Horus Heresy too when Sanguinius was still alive with novels like "Fear to Tread". I am not sure if it is worth effort as unless you want to get into the Horus Heresy proper as the Blood Angel novels are some of the weakest Heresy books sadly.

For Raven Guard, the Horus Heresy books are somewhat better and stand alone slightly more as the Ravens operated independently for much of the Heresy. "Deliverence Lost" and "Corax" both provide a nice insight into the Raven Guard although they are largely framed through their Primarch Corax.