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So I kind of lost my way with the Horus Heresy. I read the first few books, probably as far as Nemesis or Burning of Prospero. It’s my birthday next month so treating myself to audible.

I’m thinking of skipping straight to the siege of terra, because I want to avoid spoilers for the end and the death 2 when it comes out.

But are there any MUST READ HH books that I really shouldn’t skip?

I really enjoyed First Heretic.

My personal list is:
First Heretic and Betrayer - They give you pretty much everything you need in terms of Word Bearers and World Eaters goodness.
Scars and Path to Heaven - For the most forgotten Legion in the Heresy the White Scars books are exceptionally good. Their Siege book tops it off brilliantly as well.
Know No Fear - Initially, I didn't like this book but I've gained more appreciation for it over the years and now it's one of my favourites.
Flight of the Eisenstein and Fulgrim - If you would like to read more perspectives of Isstvan III these are pretty good. Lucius ties with Erebus for one of the most evil characters in the setting specifically because of the novel Fulgrim.

This is a very personal list for me, so if anyone disagrees I completely understand. I'm a Thousand Sons fan at the core which is why Crimson King is there, since I know that's not a popular one, lol.

First Heretic, Betrayer, Fulgrim, A Thousand Sons, and Crimson King for the traitor fun.

Mechanicum, Know No Fear, Scars, and Path of Heaven will offer some good context if you do want to go right into the Siege as well.

Overall the Siege books really do not punish you that hard if you haven't read all the other stuff, but if you do want some more context to characters that tend to appear more than others in the siege books, I think those are all some good ones to look into.

Opening trilogy is a must, as it really sets the stage of exactly how Erebus went about his nefarious deeds, such as the Warrior Lodges. It also gets some of the early tragedy across, as we see Horus as he should’ve remained - a mighty, confident, charismatic war leader.

First Heretic is another must, as again it’s a significant piece of scene setting for why things went the way they did.

Just piling on to Betrayer and Know No Fear as really good reads that also set up characters/events that inform the series in a meaningful way.

Betrayer has great characters, and Know No Fear does an epic battle in a remarkably engaging way.

I will also offer a dark horse: Angel Exterminatus. I didn't know very much about Iron Warriors or Perturabo going in, and this book gives you a good window into them. Many of them turn up later in the final series, so its good setup that way.

I remember that Dan Abnett set up a LOT of his story threads early on. So, if you read "Saturnine", you'll be confused about the characters that span all of his other books. Same can be said for most of the other books. If you're overwhelmed, I'd recommend the short story compilations (Tales of heresy, Age of Darkness, The Primarchs, Shadows of Treachery, et all..).

I remember one of my friends was like "Oh, the HH is just the first 4 books.".. I told him that was like saying the Civil war was Sutter's mill and then Appomattox- there's a WHOLE SWATH of other things going on that interweave and affect other things. And the American Civil war took place that is like .000000000000000000000000000001% of the 40k universe!

From the books I've read so far, it seems like everything after the 3rd book and before the siege is mostly just exploring specific primarchs/legions/other subfactions.

So if you want to read the stuff that would likely be included in like, a HH short summary, it's probably just the first three HH books and then the Siege of Terra? Without having read the Siege' books myself yet, it seems like you might end up being confused about some of the subplots floating around, but it also doesn't seem like the subplots actually matter all that much overall to the main plot? But conversely, I think reasonable people could argue that the main plot is a lot less interesting than some of those side plots.

Like, yeah yeah, Horus gets stabbed with the Be-Evil-Now Knife and then points a messy rebellion towards Terra and loses. He also kind of stops being the same character once he goes evil, and my understanding is that none of the other main characters from the first book really matter much by the end. So there isn't really a main character arc to get invested in or an especially interesting main conflict that you're waiting to see resolved (because you presumably already know how the Siege of Terra ends.)

But on the other hand, you might find Jaghati's perspective on things interesting, or you might really enjoy the tragedy of the Thousand Sons, or you might just find Curze delightful to read about.

Thanks for the replies. I’ve read the opening few books and I’d say The Eisenstein, Fulgrim, and Mechanicus stand out as favourites so far. The opening trilogy is pretty damn good too.

I couldn’t get all the way through Nemesis so might go back to it at some point.

I’ve taken the plunge and started listening to Know no Fear this morning. Really enjoying the style so far.

A really good summary of ALL of HH is Visions of Heresy- I bought it for the collections of artwork from the covers, but it covers the key moments. It is both Pricey for a book, and Zoggin Huge! but, it beats shelling out $9 a paperback dozens of times.

Just finished inhaling Know no Fear. I was hesitant at getting it at first, but with recommendations from here, and knowing Abnett is usually quality I jumped in.

Damn that was good. That ending…oof.

Having to really resist the urge not to paint my Leviathan stuff as Ultramarines now.

Gonna be a long month waiting for that next audible credit to drop.

Look out for the Audible 2for1 and £3 book offers.
HH is in them from time to time. You can use a credit on 2for1 to get a couple.
Or just grab everything that’s £3.
They’re all an ok read if you can get through audios as quick as it seems you have that one..

Danny76 wrote:
Look out for the Audible 2for1 and £3 book offers.
HH is in them from time to time. You can use a credit on 2for1 to get a couple.
Or just grab everything that’s £3.
They’re all an ok read if you can get through audios as quick as it seems you have that one..

Thanks will keep an eye out

Personal choice but The First Heretic and Fulgrim are by far my favourites.

The original trilogy is a must read obviously and other ones that stand out are A Thousand Sons, Scars and Master of Mankind.

A lot of the latter ones are just fluff and are completley unremarkable and leave no impression afterwards and Damnation of Pythos is just terrible.

I wouldnt recommend any of the Salamanders unless you like Salamanders to begin with amd the Unremembered Empire arc is just.....no.

Some of the compliations have some really good stories but other than The Last Church they all blur in to one.

You're pretty safe choosing by author. Dan Abnett, ADB and Chris Wraight are the best they've got.

All of them can be skipped TBH. The entire series is taking something that should have been a single ~4-500 page novel and expanding it out to series length to milk the cash cow as hard as possible. If the back cover on a book grabs your attention read it, if there are any questions just look up the answers on a lore wiki. 99.9% of it is entirely forgettable filler content and if you're even a casual fan of the setting you already know all of the relevant plot information.

 Altruizine wrote:
You're pretty safe choosing by author. Dan Abnett, ADB and Chris Wraight are the best they've got.

This would be my recommendation too. Although I would skip the Imperium Secundus plotline books and the Shattered Legion stories, as without giving too much away they are basically 1000s of pages which lead to a 'choose your own adventure' fighting fantasy gamebook, where you turn to the page and there is no bit in bold telling you to turn to another page..

My favourites were:
The First Heretic
Prospero Burns
Know no Fear
Pharos
The Path of Heaven
The Master of Mankind