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Title pretty much explains it all I play Tau and Blood Angels and am looking for some decent Blood Sngels reads I assume most will say the omnibus 1 & 2 but I wanted to ask the community.

Tau: For the Emperor is good, but it's from the IG's perspective (or, rather, a certain Commissar). Fire Warrior (based on the computer game) is ok as far as I can remember (it's been a while since I read it). Fire Caste is so boring that I couldn't even finish it.

Blood Angels: The novels by Swallow are, uhm... mediocre. Fear to Tread (I think that's the one, from the Horus Heresy series) is ok, but not anything to write home about.

Man that sounds pretty lack luster, what are would you say some of the best you've ever read?

I heard Vulkan Lives is pretty good...

Pawns of Chaos, Storm of Iron, most of the non-SM novels

The BA Omnibus was fairly lackluster

BA and Tau are not 2 of the factions most represented in the Black Library.

For Blood Angels my favorite novel is Fear To Tread, which is a Horus Heresy novel (although its in the middle of the HH Series, it doesn't really build upon much of whats in the other books, because its the first one really featuring the BA.)

I haven't read any of the books from the Tau perspective, and honestly cant think of any books about them, they are in The Greater Good, but that's a Caiphas Cain novel that happens to feature the Tau, not one about the Tau.

SMC1988 wrote:
Man that sounds pretty lack luster, what are would you say some of the best you've ever read?

Moving on past BA and Tau, I'd recommend the following:

- The Ciaphas Cain series. A good amount of novels, and although they get very formulaic after a while, it's still worth it to read through them all.

- The Eisenhorn and Ravenor series. About Inquisitor Eisenhorn, and later about his apprentice Ravenor.

- The Inquisition War trilogy. Many years ago GW told Ian Watson to write some novels, examining the 40k universe. Watson, apparently taking it very literally, covered pretty much everything.

- The Horus Heresy series. They've been decreasing sharply in quality lately, but start at the beginning and you've got some good reads ahead.

- Atlas Infernal. More Inquisition stuff; Czevak hobnobs with some Eldar.

- The Dark Heresy series. About an Inquisitor and his retinue, by the same guy who wrote the Cain series. Possibly my favourite books, but it's obviously supposed to be a trilogy and the third book just never materialized. Bloody annoying.

- Relentless. Starship captain is ousted in a plot. Takes his ship back. Probably written in the 19th century by some aristo who'd only passingly seen members of the lower classes, and considered them only slightly above vermin, but still an engaging read.

- Star of Damocles + Rogue Trader. About, you guessed it, rogue traders. Can't remember which is the first one, so look into that.

- The Last Chancers series. Dirty Dozen in space.

- Soul Drinkers. Space Marine chapter is kinda naughty, regrets it, kill stuff.

I really liked the first 2 of the legacy of Caliban series, i wish the next one was out.

So I hate to be a bother but can you list which Horus books where good and which are passable? I love the primarchs story's

I've read a few Black Library stories, here's the ones I'd recommend:
-The Bringers of Death short story collection was awesome, the 3-part Xenocide was particularly fantastic (although there's a C.S. Goto story in there which was utter crap)
-Prospero Burns was really good, in that it was pretty much the anti-Black Library book: it's character based, a slow burn, largely combat-free and stays away from the Primarchs and the grand stage as much as possible. As a result though, it's super-divisive.

If you're looking for something a little more bolter-porn-y, then Battle for the Fang is top notch for the first 2 acts (although it drops sharply in quality in the last 60 pages or so). Faith & Fire was also quite enjoyably low-brow. If Prospero Burns doesn't sound too enticing, then A Thousand Sons will probably tickle your fancy instead, although it is basically over-glorified bolter porn as well and isn't nearly as well-written as Prospero Burns (which is ironic, considering that this is the Thousand Sons' half of the story). The Space Wolf stories are also pulpy fun, although the William King ones were WAY better than the Lee Lightner ones (which try too hard to be super epic, whereas King tries to tell a tight story with lots of comic relief).

Excellent, I just bought Horus Rising off of amazon so hopefully that's good I know the author is rather favored.

The first Night Lords novel (Soul Hunter) features Blood Angels, and is the intro to (in my opinion) the best BL series.

Other winners include the Inquisitor series (beginning with Xenos), the Ciaphas Cain series, and The Emperor's Gift.

I highly recommend beginning with the short story compilation Let the Galaxy Burn, edited by Christian Dunn and Marc Gascoigne. It has a huge array of stories, which can turn you on to series, authors, or armies you might otherwise not have read more about.

SMC1988 wrote:
So I hate to be a bother but can you list which Horus books where good and which are passable? I love the primarchs story's

My favourites (no particular order):

Horus Rising.
Flight of the Eisenstein.
Legion.
A Thousand Sons.
Prospero Burns.


I haven't read the last three yet (just started Scars), but all the other ones are, on their own, ok to good-ish, but the series as a whole is becoming an American sitcom where it just goes on and on for way too many seasons. I liked Unremembered Empire, though, it wasn't as good as I had hoped, but at least it didn't leave me intensely wishing BL would just get a move on and wrap it up, so I guess that's something.

I have not read any Horus Heresy stuff, but here are my 40k recommendations.

Gaunt's Ghosts: this is the series that brought me into the Black Library in the first place. Very good description and characters feel so real. Actions are awesome as well.

Ciaphas Cain: another AM series. This one has some dark humor into it. Very enjoyable to read.

Ultramarine Omnibus: quite long ago, still good right now.

Space Wolves Omnibus: what can I say, the Allfather blesses this one.

Battle of the Fang: the Thousand Sons invade the Space Wolves's homeworld. Epicness ensues.

Eisenhorn: best Inquistion novels out there, hands down.

Baneblade: if you are into heavy, hard-hitting tanks, this is the right novel for you.

Purge of Kadilius: a proof that classic Space Marines killing Orks never get old.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
If you are into Tau, check out Fire Caste, the Greater Good and Courage and Honor (part of Ultramarine 2nd Omnibus).

Definitely some good titles to stew over from the sounds of it. Need to skim through the BL site and check it out.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
I think for now what I might do is work my way through the heresy. I absolutely love every story in the codex about any of the primarchs, the Emporer the good old days lol and the start of the slip towards the end days. So I figure at 400+ pages a piece these should suffice but keep the suggestions coming I love hearing your ideas.

Tau fiction seems to always be from an imperial point of view. And the tau are not there to do anything except get killed by marines.

Fire warrior was bad
the shadowsun novel irk me, she was supposedly the best and brightest general the tau had but they portray her like a 12 year old girl having tantrums. she also gets bailed out by a scrub commissar.
Havent read fire caste but i hear thats another tau as setting not plot novel.

There is a few tau books on BL but I don't know if they're any good or not I know all the ones mentioning Tau are just for them to be momving fish targets lol.

I only read the Gaunt Ghost one, but I felt they were pretty good. Normally I don't read universe-bound book: I tried game ones (Starcraft and Diablo) and they were not great. But the Abnett one were very good. I really enjoyed them, 40k or not. They are both good Sci-Fi and war novels. I highly recommend them. It actually interested me on reading the Eisenhorn series which my friend highly spoke of.

TLDR : Try Gaunt Ghost series, very good.

Dan Abnett is perhaps the best author in the BL stable... of course, it doesn't hurt that he was an author before he came to BL.

Ciaphas Cain was really good in my opinion. On a side note, one of the stories even featured Tau in a co-star role (and I personally think the author did a good job of portraying them).

I will recommend Titanicus myself. I think it is really good. I actually read it all the way through over a couple days then immediately started again from page 1 to read it a second time. My only complaint is the ending is one of the worst pieces of"author fiat" I've ever read, and in the intent of no spoilers that is all I will say.

Also, I need to read Eisenhorn. I always mean to but I never get around to it.

For Horus heresy read: first 3, first heretic, a thousand sons, the dark angels one (gives important insights about the primarchs and legions from normal perspective), betrayed and mechanicum. The rest range from okay to terrible.

Darth Vader is Luke's father.
That's right I just spoiled it for you

 hiveof_chimera wrote:
Darth Vader is Luke's father.
That's right I just spoiled it for you

34/35 years later, that's as much a spoiler as Rosebud being the sled...

On topic...
Skip Legion of the Damned. Didn't get more than 100 pages into it before the 'all dialogue as exposition' got to be too much.
Vulkan Lives was good, though it has an Empire-Stikes-Back-ends-on-a-cliffhanger ending. Skips around between past and 30K-present, with some excellent first hand looks at the Dropsite Massacre.
Salamanders Omnibus has kept me going for a while (can't seem to find time to read it more than 4-5 pages at a go). Gives you characters you can empathize with (even the villains).
The Tribute of Flesh (Black Dragons short story) has me looking forward to The Death of Antagonis.
Limited reading of The Ultramarines Omnibus and Horus Rising has me looking forward to going back and reading them start-to-finish.

Storm of Iron, Lord of the Night for CSM
15 Hours, Death World for IG/AM
Flight of the Eisenstein, Fulgrim for HH