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I know very little lore, so I'm going to start reading the books. Which ones are good, which ones should I start?

The Gaunt's Ghost series is (my opinion obviously) excellent. Best read in order, though the first two read a bit differently from the rest as they're short stories with a framing narrative.

My favourites: Traitor General, Necropolis, Only in Death and Blood Pact.

I've read a fair number of the Horus Heresy series. The first three are very good - Horus Rising, False Gods, Galaxy in Flames - and I also like the next two - Flight of the Eisenstein and Fulgrim. After that I find them very hit and miss and I think your enjoyment of some of them will be very dependant on how much you like space marines, since a lot of them are All Space Marines All The Time.

The Eisenhorn series is really good.

There are many....

I am going to say The First Heretic, by Aaron Dembsky-Bowden.

Eisenhorn by Dan Abnett could be a close second.But also Storm of Iron, by Graham McNeill; Grey Knight, by Ben Counter and Dark Apostle, by Anthony Reynolds.

The Salamanders Omnibus. Nick Kyme's work on the modern 40k Salamanders is nearly unparalleled and consistent without ever straying into the realm of stupidity, and balancing a happy ending with sour losses, it's W40K, so not everybody lives, but there's still those moments of Big Damn Heroes. I hold ADB's writing above all, by the Talos Trilogy, while excellently written, simply lacks the roaring mega ending of the final major book in the Tome of Fire series. Simply put, if the Talos trilogy was a movie you'd be wiping a single tear from your cheek, whereas with the Tome of Fire series you'd be jumping out of your seat wooping with the crowd at the obliteration of the Dragon Warriors and well-earned triumph of the Salamanders.

At the moment, has to be James Swallow's SoB books. It's pretty cool to have a book that not only stars the Sisters, but understand them well and has them in lots of epic battles. Fun stuff.

Though a special mention has to go to the Death of Antagonis. It just has lots of stuff that I enjoy. Badass SoB character, zombie apocalypse, Daemonic threat, epic battles, interesting Marines. I especially liked the idea of the Doubtworm, and enjoyed seeing the unfolding of the internal conflict within the Black Dragons chapter. This book almost made me want to field some Black Dragons, even.

Ah, may have just read the headline here. If you want good general recommendation, then Gunheads is a good story and a good look at the IG. Let the Galaxy Burn is a big book that collects lots of short stories, so it should be great for giving a good look around the fluff. Though I don't know if BL sells it anymore.

Wrath of Iron.

It is very atmospheric, gives a good view of the society on an industrial Imperial world, the characters and the villains are sympathetic and understandable, and it paints the cold, calculating and ruthless character of the Iron Hands very well.
The Space Marines are supposed to be the good guys, but this novel really shows the black and black morality of 40k, with the protagonists wondering what side is the most evil: The fleshy, bloated abominations of Chaos, or the metal, demonic 'angels' of the Emperor.

My first recommendation is the short story collection Let the Galaxy Burn, edited by Christian Dunn and Marc Gascoigne (not to be confused with the Horus Heresy book of the same name). It's a huge collection of short stories from a variety of authors, with a wide spectrum of topics and viewpoints. It will give you a better idea of the authors that you might want to look into, or groups you might not have realized you were interested in. (I had no interest in reading about the Guard until this book.)

My personal favorite novels are the Night Lords trilogy by Aaron Dembski-Bowden.

Followed closely by the Inquisitor series by Dan Abnett (the Eisenhorn cycle begins with Xenos, and the Ravenor cycle begins with Ravenor). After reading the Ravenor trilogy, you may want to check out the tie-in novel The Emperor's Gift, by Aaron Dembski-Bowden.

And of course, Sandy Mitchell's Ciaphas Cain series is pretty tubular. Always good for some more light-hearted 'brain bubblegum.'

Eye of Terror by Barrington J. Bailey - old school 40K by a great sci-fi writer.

Imperial Glory by Richard Williams - an I.G. story with fantastic ork perspective.

Titanicus by Dan Abnett - part of the Gaunt's Ghosts world but focussing on the Mechanicus and Titan Legions.

Gav Thorpe's Last Chancers trilogy although he does do an Arthur Conan Doyle with the main character at the end.

Redemption Corps by Rob Sanders - Stormtroopers with a bit of a difference.

There are loads more but to start off with these are all good books that don't require tons of pre-knowledge about the universe but which do introduce a lot of themes.

The Eisenhorn books are awesome and were my first foray into 40K.

My favorite however is Titanicus, which is by far the best 40K book in my opinion.

My favourite personally is Malediction, Fire Caste (Which imo is the best Imperial Guardsmen book I have ever read because emboldens who the Guardsmen are and what they mean [which is pitifully little]), Gaunts Ghosts and the A Thousand Sons.

I really liked the old Necron Codex as my favorite book. When GW actually wanted to add character and fluff to their books in a somewhat believable way, I loved how they unfurled the story of an ancient advanced tech horror reawakening into the 40k universe with sketchy reports and interrogations from survivors about what they saw.

The First 3 books of the Horus Heresy: Horus Rising,False Gods and Galaxy in Flames are still my favorites

The First Heretic, definitely. Aurelian a close second.

Mechanicus!

Helsreach, False gods, Enforcer, The Death Of Antagonis and the Gaunts Ghost series alongside Dead Men walking, Redemption Corps and Ciaphas Cain series are my favorits. All worth reading

I really enjoyed the first Shira Calpurnia novel by Matthew Farrer. It's a very nice change of pace from epic space marine battle after epic space marine battle.

All the ones I would normally recommend are here...
Uhhh...
Some of the IG novels are great.
15 Hours, Rebel Winter, Cadian Blood, Gunheads, Dead Men Walking, Imperial Glory, Baneblade.
Redemption Corps is a little odd but a decent read...
I also really enjoyed the Soul Drinkers series but that's a bit hit and miss it seems.
Pretty much the entire Gaunt's Ghosts series.
Titanicus.
The old Space Wolf series is pretty cool though it's a touch outdated now I think (Also got a bit gak nearer the end)


EDIT: Just read Trondheim's post and realised i repeated it nearly exactly

Farseer by William King is probably my favorite, it was the first book I ever read that really focused on eldar characters outside of a codex, and it was also the first time I ever read about weapons that could actually kill daemons permanently. It also names the Daemon that brought about the fall of the empire which was a cool bit of history. The Dark Eldar series came close, but Farseer is just a fantastic read

I have some stuff to read too now. Apparently Eisenhorn is on my list.

I absolutely loved Titanicus. I love big stompy robots and I love the Ad-Mech. This book has lots of both of them. I think that is about the only book I have ever finished then immediately started reading again from the front. The first couple chapters actually make a lot more sense the second time through since there's a lot of Ad-Mech jargon that gets thrown out and never really defined. About my only complaint with the book was the really disappointing author fiat ending (no further spoilers from me).

Also another nod for the Cain series. I very much enjoyed it. Fits pretty well with my "head cannon" where 40k is really a silly place.

My top five in no apparent order are Titanicus, Necropolis, Helsreach, Storm of Iron and Double Eagle.

Double Eagle was really great. Especially if you read the GG series.

Dan Abnett's Iron Snakes is good

HH: Mechanicus.
Any of the Space Marines Battles books, esp. Siege of Castellax.
The Best of Hammer and Bolter, Vol. 1 and 2, esp the short story The Iron Within, possibly the best piece of short fiction in the entirety of 40k.
Anything by Dan Abnett.
Anything by Aaron Dembski-Bowden, esp. Betrayer.

You're pretty safe reading Dan Abnett and Graham McNeil.

I think my two favourite books/series are the Deark eldar trilogy by Andy Chambers and the adptus mechanicus series by Graham McNeill. The dark eldar trilogy is just so amazingly written with interesting characters, cool plot twists and a good knowledge of the dark eldar fluff, ie the writer doesn't stray from the established fluff. The adeptus mechanicus series, although not jet done is also realy good since it sheds light on the adeptus mechanicus as it is today.

 GuardRalph wrote:
You're pretty safe reading Dan Abnett and Graham McNeil.

No you aren't. Half of the garbage ideas introduced in the Horus Heresy came from Dan Abnett and McNeil is responsible for the "Ultramarines Play Idiot Ball for over Three Books" series.

The Eisenhorn and Ravenor books are a must, imo, beautifully written works. I'd also recommend Priests and Lords of Mars, I enjoyed them, but not everyone did.
And the HH books are standard for any 40k fan.

Daemon World by Ben Counter and the Inquisitor series by Ian Watson.

 Wyzilla wrote:
McNeil is responsible for the "Ultramarines Play Idiot Ball for over Three Books" series.

How exactly does McNeil mishandle the Ultramarines in his books? I haven't yet read them myself, but I've seen a few Ultramarine fans criticising them.