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.

Ephrael Stern. I'd really like to know how the story ends.

"And so my lord, the case of Inquisitor Hand and Ephrael Stern is incomplete. I understand that senior members of the Ordo Malleus are hunting her, and in this regard I have linked Stern with the investigations of one Inquisitor Grinn. It is evident the Secret Masters of the Ordo Malleus consider her capture to be of the utmost importance, yet their thinking appears split as to her significance. Some regard her as a dangerous aberration, while others maintain she is Mankind's greatest hope against Chaos since the Primarchs. Whatever the case my lord, I am certain our investigations will uncover more, and that the saga of Ephrael Stern is far from over."
- GW teasing dated 2006

Also, +1 on the Marbo novel! That should be a great read. One of the rare cases where I'd approve of humour in 40k.
Perhaps even make it a comic a la Deff Skwadron - the humour should be even more "conveyable" in such media thanks to cliché facial expressions, overdone explosions and enemies flying through the air by the dozen when they are hit by Marbo's bullets.

Genosaurer wrote:There's an entire series of those, actually. Quality is mixed but some of them are pretty good, and they're nice spotlights on some Guard regiments that don't usually get into the fiction.

Hey, thanks - I was just about to add "I want a novel about Valhallans" to the things above. Looks like I'll have to take a look at "Ice Guard".

Jaghatai Khan going to take on the Dark Eldar.

I would like to read a novel about some plague marines maybe a chapter falling to Nurgle becoming Plague Marines after all just about every book with Nurgles forces in it has them as the main enemy who dies near the end give Nurgle some love

Also some more novels about the Segmentum Pacificus would be nice

The problem with Xenos POV stories is that it's very difficult to write from a completely alien perspective. To immerse yourself in a perspective that would involve ridiculously different societal and individual values. look how awkwardly most of the Black Library authors write Space Marines. These guys are thoroughly brainwashed, combat condition warriors who have had most semblances of human emotion and motivation conditioned out of them. They are effectively immortal, and live only to make war, and plan to make war. They are inhuman as is, almost entirely unrelateable for normal humans like we are. But many of the authors struggle to depict them in a realistic manner. Thus the quality of Space Marine characters varies widely. Some, like the recent audio drama Mission: Purge, are absolutely awful, turning Space Marines into 80s Buddy Action Movie stars making veiled gay jokes. Others are just somewhat awkwardly human, and suddenly reverting to emotionless killing machines as the story demands. It's not easy to adopt the personas of these kinds of characters and write them well. And they're technically human.

Orks can be done in the comedic sense, because they are the comic relief of the setting. On the other hand, the motivations of the Eldar might be ridiculously different from our own. They functionally live forever, but at the same time understand that death is permanent and horrible for them. They know the ultimate fate of the galaxy, and the true nature of the Warp and its entities, and yet remain "sane".

Ultimately, you're asking efficient, but only moderately talented writers to grapple with difficult characters. While I believe this isn't a problem (license fiction like this rarely has a discerning fanbase, they just want the war porn) sales wise, I think the reason why you find less instances of the Xenos books is because the authors don't want to tackle them due to the difficulty curve. I imagine they're getting paid by the book. Churn out two or three easy Space Marine books, or even the less popular but easy Imperial Guard, or struggle with a Xenos book? I mean, I imagine most of them have at least some level of standard they hold themselves to.

I'd like to read a book about either Necromunda or Blood Bowl.

I would walk across a field of corpses to get a good book about the Blood pact and is commanders in the Sabbat World Crusades.

I'd like more from the inquisition. Every one of them I've read so far has a lot more depth than the straight up marine novels.

 Lynata wrote:
Also, +1 on the Marbo novel! That should be a great read. One of the rare cases where I'd approve of humour in 40k.

Marbo makes a brief guest appearance in Death World (from the previously linked Guard series of novels). I wouldn't mind seeing more of him.

Maybe something on the Lamenters.

My issue with Space Marine-centric books is that it's very hard to give personality to people who aren't supposed to have them. It's also quite difficult to give them character development within the constraints of their design.

This is kinda why I liked Legion, it took a human perspective with the Alpha Legion, instead of it just narrating what they did. I honestly think it's very difficult to write a good SM novel from the perspective of the space marine.

 GalacticZ wrote:
GHAZZZY!!!!!!

An Ork book would be awesome. But it'd probably end up being a better Graphic Novel since Orks aren't the most literary.

Written in Ork slang would be interesting

I would like to read more books set during the Horus Heresy but involving the little people. Not the Squats, but the normal troopers, the rememberancers and maybe rogue traders? Some of my favourite bits in the horus heresy series have been the early parts of legion, and the rememberancer sections. The Space Marines all have the crushing weight of canon on their shoulders, I would like to read more about the people who are living their lives in a sci-fi setting that doesn't have the grimdark ratcheted up to 11 yet.

I understand a xeno centric book would probably not fly, but a novel about the rise and fall of Commander Farsight would be on my immediate buy list.

Vect, he deserves a novel

 hawkeye wrote:
I would love to read about Ahriman after his exile from the Planet of Sorcerers. What he had to do to survive and his search for the Black Library I believe would be interesting to read about.

An Ahriman trilogy is set to be written by John French (Starting immediately after Magnus exiles him), with the first book coming out in 2013.

I'd like one about the harakoni warhawks or Elysians.

Lorgar (after heresy )who is by now probably more powerful then Magnus ...I' mean what is he conteplating about....??? Also purging of the FT would be nice....or them switching to chaos...

O and - YRIEL....

 Fifty wrote:
I'd like to read a book about either Necromunda or Blood Bowl.

there are a series of novels for each already - the Necromunda ones mainly centered around Kal Jerico - and not sure if they are still available - Bloood Bowl triology was a suprisingly enjoyable read for me.

re Xenos Novels

The recent Eldar Path books have been pretty good and very contrasting to the mainstream BL novels.
I still think Fire Warrior is great - despite people not being happy about his abilities - for me the whole point was that he was the exception.............in fact thinking about it - in a race of "blunts" he might have been one of the very few not blessed with that defence............so the Tau equivalnet of a Priah (but opposite) if you see what i mean.

Many of my favourite books - Helsreach, Legion, Titanicus, Cain novels, Night Lords books have a range of characters in them to give a fuller flavour of the 40K universe. They do seem to work by mostly having the Marines as in the background rather than the central characters - even in the Night Lords novels it is (fro me anyway) more about the human/ well Navigator and human characters.

I wouls also love to see more about the Mechancius - every little helps in finally getting us the Codex!

I've always liked the idea of an ork story from the perspective of a Kommando. Maybe a squad of Blood Axe Kommandos hired on by another clan (or heck, maybe even a desperate Planetary Governor) to run sabotage missions or something. Show how the other clans operate, how they see the Blood Axes, and how the Blood Axes see them. There's story potential there, I think.

There should be a book about Prince Yriel, gallavanting across the galaxy, kicking the gak out of Greater Daemons and Hive Tyrants while sipping Eldar martinis and having the sex with Eldar women.

He's basically the James Bond of 40K.

I'd be very interested in some Badab War novels, scope there for some interesting tales IMO.

I'd also like to see something to do with techmarines and their training/indoctrination/whatever on Mars.

 Lynata wrote:
Ephrael Stern. I'd really like to know how the story ends.

"And so my lord, the case of Inquisitor Hand and Ephrael Stern is incomplete. I understand that senior members of the Ordo Malleus are hunting her, and in this regard I have linked Stern with the investigations of one Inquisitor Grinn. It is evident the Secret Masters of the Ordo Malleus consider her capture to be of the utmost importance, yet their thinking appears split as to her significance. Some regard her as a dangerous aberration, while others maintain she is Mankind's greatest hope against Chaos since the Primarchs. Whatever the case my lord, I am certain our investigations will uncover more, and that the saga of Ephrael Stern is far from over."
- GW teasing dated 2006

This would be great and do you know who I suspect you would also like to see a book about, who also has a relationship with the Ecclesiarchy and Slaanesh, I know I certainly would.

Miriael Sabathiel

 reds8n wrote:
I'd be very interested in some Badab War novels, scope there for some interesting tales IMO.

I know it's Goto, but have you read his short in Legends of the Space Marines, for a Goto, it wasn't that bad in my opinion. Had some interesting ideas.

I'd like more eldar - Yriel would be good, but I'd also like Maugan Ra defeating a tyranid swarm/rescuing altansar. Just because I'd love to know how BL/GW can justify that fluff.


Also from an Ork Pov (kinda)

There's also a short story of an Ork Attack in 'Fear The Alien' called Iron Inferno with the story being a mix of Ork and IMP POV.

I would like more Inquisitorial based stuff or anything from the Badab war as there are a lot of untold stories in there and some great potential.

Only other thing I can think of is from Necron perspective as we have that potential now as they are not the horde of rampaging killbots they used to be.

Something from a Tyranids perspective could be cool although very tricky

 King Pariah wrote:
I'd like one about the harakoni warhawks or Elysians.

The Elysians play a big part in Dark Apostle, although they're the antagonists rather than the protagonists. They also feature in several of the Imperial Armour books, although those aren't really novels so much as Forgeworld product tie-ins.

Legion of Flame wrote:
Heh.

Deathwatch? I would be interested to see a small amount of elites going ape on a xenos horde.

We've got Cyrus, I suppose stories about his time in the Deathwatch could be pretty cool.

I'd honestly like more stuff on the Inquisition, preferably involving internal politics with other forces within the Imperium; we get a lot of people griping about how Inquisitors are untrustworthy sneaky buggers (Dawn of War 2: Retribution and Space Marine most prominently) but not a lot on the Inquisition griping about unsubtlety/bull-in-china-shop-ness/things like that which are prevalent in other forces.

 AnomanderRake wrote:

Legion of Flame wrote:
Heh.

I'd honestly like more stuff on the Inquisition, preferably involving internal politics with other forces within the Imperium; we get a lot of people griping about how Inquisitors are untrustworthy sneaky buggers (Dawn of War 2: Retribution and Space Marine most prominently) but not a lot on the Inquisition griping about unsubtlety/bull-in-china-shop-ness/things like that which are prevalent in other forces.

Inquisitor Amberely Vail (Cain Novels) says exactly that about her colleagues and others and def prefers to handle thins more subtely where she is able - although of course orbital strikes on occassion are the only possible option............

"Some Inquisitors believe the Emperor’s work is best done by charging around the place like a grox in a ceramic emporium, leaving a trail of carnage and destruction in their wake, while others prefer not to let the enemies of all that’s good and holy get clean away by making it blindingly obvious they’re coming for them."

but that might be what you are quoting ?

I always get really excited when Dreadnoughts show up. I read everything they say in the voice of the DOW2 dread.

 Genosaurer wrote:

 King Pariah wrote:
I'd like one about the harakoni warhawks or Elysians.

The Elysians play a big part in Dark Apostle, although they're the antagonists rather than the protagonists. They also feature in several of the Imperial Armour books, although those aren't really novels so much as Forgeworld product tie-ins.

Spoiler:

The Elysians always lose.

True, but I'd love to read a novel regarding them alongside Inquisitor Solomon Lok and how they got screwed over by the Red Scorpions

 Genosaurer wrote:

There's an entire series of those, actually. Quality is mixed but some of them are pretty good, and they're nice spotlights on some Guard regiments that don't usually get into the fiction.

I know you shouldn't judge a book by its cover but...they look rubbish to me.

Having said that, if you can recommend me one that's good I might stick it on my christmas list.

 Testify wrote:

 Genosaurer wrote:

There's an entire series of those, actually. Quality is mixed but some of them are pretty good, and they're nice spotlights on some Guard regiments that don't usually get into the fiction.

I know you shouldn't judge a book by its cover but...they look rubbish to me.

Having said that, if you can recommend me one that's good I might stick it on my christmas list.

Dead Men Walking is one of the best WH40K books IMHO.


Personally I would kile to see either a Tau book or a non-Imperial/non-Chaos Human book. Some break from the overemphasized grimdark would be refreshing.