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I don't know myself it's a toughie, I'm really enjoying the Nagash trilogy at the moment and I loved "Nefrata" but I think my favourite so far has probably been one of the Thanquol stories.

I always wanted to check out the Thanquol series.

Fifteen Hours and Lord of the Night are a couple of my favorites that I've read so far. I've got The Fall of Damnos which I intend to read after I'm done with '25 for 25'. Plus the first three Horus Heresy books coming in. I wonder if any of those will become my favorite.

Fall of Damnos is a great book trust me. The HH series is even better though makes for really great reading!

I'm torn between the Eisenhorn series, Last Chancers and The first three Gaunt's Ghosts trilogies.

You must have read a different fall of Damnos than I did.

Only in Death (Gaunt's Ghosts) and The First Heretic are probably my favorites, but there are just so many that I love...

I think my favourite is Necropolis. It's part of the Gaunt's Ghosts series, but it's still quite readable if you know nothing about the rest of the books. It's kind of like the battle of Stalingrad but on a much more insane scale. The battles and the scenes at the front lines really capture the feel of the Imperial Guard, while the scenes with politicians and merchants have a strange medieval/futuristic atmosphere that feels very at home in 40K...reminds me of when I first became aware of 40K as a kid and went in expecting something like Star Wars only to find it had this weird medieval/cyberpunk feel. I do think Dan Abnett can capture that unique Gothic feel of 40K quite well when he wants to.

Also worth mentioning is Traitor General, another of the Gaunt books, about what happens when a commando raid is launched on a planet infested with Chaos. In the introduction to the third omnibus Dan Abnett compares it to the film Where Eagles Dare and I think that's a fair comparison, only with the 40K background it gets extra bizarre as the characters encounter the everyday weirdness of a Chaos world and become increasingly paranoid. As far as I know there's nothing quite like it in BL.

 darefsky wrote:
Last Chancers

THIS

 cincydooley wrote:
You must have read a different fall of Damnos than I did.

I could see why some people might not like it but I personally did, not the best of books but still good.

One of One.

"Brothers of the Snake."

I really liked Legion. Call me crazy.
Either that or Dark Adeptus, such a good book.

#1 Titanicus

A close #2 is Hellsreach

i haven't read that many but for returnees like me, Ian Watson's Space Marine is part of our heritage. Humble and intelligent story of marines you simply won't find anymore. I guess this counts because Black Library did a reprint.
If you want you Astartes a little more "human", then I urge everyone to pick it up.

The modern iteration is a little hit and miss, but I think I agree with the general opinion that Dan Abnett is the best writer they have. So most of his work is excellent, especially Gaunt's Ghosts series and also Titanicus.

Titanicus for the cinematics and GS for the Bernard Cornwell- style "military fiction".

Maybe that was too many choices, so I say Space Marine is the best.

 Byte wrote:
One of One.

"Brothers of the Snake."

One of my favorite Space Marine Novels aside from the ultramarines omnibus , but I think my favorite is Blood Aenarion, the first of the Tyrion and Teclis novels by William King. If you've already read the current high elf codex, you would have a pretty good guess at what's going to happen in the last novel, but that hasn't deterred me from enjoying this one a lot .

Xenos, herritcus, maleus.

If you dont know what I mean... Find out.

So many for me to pick... I love the Gaunts Ghosts series by Dan Abnet but I also love the Ultramarines Omnibus's aswell. They are brilliant in that I think Dan gives a close and personal encounter of what life is like in the guard wtih all lthe human fears adn emotions and ailments that come with being but one in a billion of a billion of guardsmen.
Whilst with the Ultramarines ones they are shown as great and brilliant tanks on the battlefield, the character Uriel is still very human inside through his actions and perception of the men (not just other astartes) around him.
Also, its the quirky and engaging characters of both these series that have kept me and my father glued to these novels and rereading them.

Know No Fear. It's not just my favourite BL book, it's my favourite sci-fi novel overall. Abnett has written some great stuff, but Know No Fear is a standout for me even among his work.

As a second pick, the Gildar Rift. It's deliberately indulgently clichéd action nonsense with a fun plot and most importantly, space battles. Really gripping, well-written space battles. I picked it up in a store because the cover interested me, skimmed it for a few minutes, read a page of space combat and bought it on the spot.

The Night Lords trilogy. Specifically Void Stalker as the culmination of the series. No one has written chaos marines like ADB.

I haven't read many BL novels - most of them made me put the book down within a few pages.

I'm going with the Eisenhorn trilogy.

The HH books bored me (Do we really need another "paradise lost" retelling?) and the space wolf stories are a pastiche of badly written cliched viking tropes.

Blood Reaver hands down. Aaron Dembski-Bowden manages to add such rich depth to his characters that it makes his work a joy to read. He's one of the best working for the Black Library in my opinion, and while I've generally noted that the second installment tends to be the weakest of any trilogy, the Night Lords trilogy stands as a happy exception. (Although the trilogy as a whole is dynamite as well!)

Ravenor series. Also loved the Eisenhorn ones. 'Star of Damocles' was also a great read and I hope that the series will be continued at some point.

Eisenhorn Omnibus - Basically what got me into 40k in the first place.

Ravenor Omnibus - Not as good as Eisenhorn but still a fantastic read nonetheless.

Gaunt Omnibuses - The Tanith First and Only remain my favourite Guard regiment and I might try and make an army based on them one day.

Iron Warriors Omnibus - Soooo much better than the Ultramarines Omnibus. Honsou is such a delightfully, charmingly evil bad guy.

Can't wait to get a copy of Pariah, but I ain't paying $40+ for a hard over copy in my local stores. I'll wait for the price to drop.

The original Space marine novel by Ian Watson is still one of my favorites, The ragnar books and the old Dark future novels have some great stories.

Nightlords trilogy hands down, such well delveloped characters and story line. Eisenhorn/ ravenor is a close second.
Basically anything by abnett or adb.

Stay away from cs goto, horrible horrible stories.

Eisenhorn trilogy for me, then Thousand sons and I am quite partial to the space wolves books too.

1. Fear to tread
2. Horus Rising
3. Helsreach
4. Dead men walking
6, The hunt for Voldius

 chromedog wrote:
... and the space wolf stories are a pastiche of badly written cliched viking tropes.

I loved Prosper Burns simply because it takes the Space Wolves makes them into a much deeper, well thought out and cultured legion. It maintains the viking theme without relying on dumb tropes and stereotypes. Sure it didn't actually show a hell of a lot of the burning of Prospero but it showed a lot of the lead up to it and the events that caused it to happen. Also the marines laugh when the little human character refers to them as Space Wolves and tell him that is a silly name outsiders use.

Night lords trilogy and legion of the damned. Stay away from james swallow. got the BA omnibus as my first 40k novel, almost made me quit reading novels for a bit...

Used to be the Eisenhorn trilogy that was always my favourite, but Helsreach is by far my new favourite. Many epically written moments in that novel.

Know No Fear is quite possibly one of my favourite novels of any genre. The events it follows are suitably epic, and the Ultramarines are made into believable, likeable characters. Most importantly, though, the present tense being used throughout makes it thoroughly engrossing.

I read the first chapter of the copy of Eisenhorn from the library in Warhammer World yesterday, and it blew me away.

I'll back anyone who wants to say Necropolis. I was finding it difficult to get into Gaunt's Ghosts, and then I picked the series back up where I was, halfway through Ghostmaker. Once I got to Necropolis, I was hooked.

I don't understand why James Swallow isn't liked, I think Nemesis is one of the better Horus Heresy books (if anyone wants to fill me in on James Swallow, feel free ), the characters, plot and general position in the series is great.