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.

I know Black Library has most of its fanbase because they love a good action novel, but I would personally love to see one that just digs into culture, the perceptions of citizens or more normal folks for their times than Space Marines. That sort of thing.

So even if they have such a book that isn't well reviewed, I might still love to give it a look. Hell, I might want to try and write one myself some day in the future.

Does anyone know if such a Black Library book exists? One that is not so focused on sheer action/warfare?

NON battle centric? Geez, as the motto of warhammer 40,000 is that "there is only war" this is hard to find. I'm not sure any exists.

Eisenhorn and ravenor trilogies immediatly come to mind. sure there's combat but thats NOT the focus of the book.


among the HH novels, Unremembered Empire didn't have a heavy combat base.

Combat is absolutely the point of Eisenhorn and Ravenor. Come on now. Neither series can go more than 10 pages without someone's brains getting blown out.

The only non-combat heavy book I can think of off the top of my head is Xenology, which does have a story, but is mostly art and background fluff for the different alien races. There's a good description on lexicanum.

The Shira Calpurnia novels sound like what you're looking for. The first novel, Legacy, is one of my favourite Black Library novels. Crossfire is OK, even though it doesn't really focus on Shira. Blind is not great but I would still recommend it if you enjoyed the previous two books.

 BlaxicanX wrote:
Combat is absolutely the point of Eisenhorn and Ravenor. Come on now. Neither series can go more than 10 pages without someone's brains getting blown out.

It feels more like combat is something that happens, though, rather than combat being the aim of the novel. The inquisitor's retinues don't aim to get into fights.

The seventh book in the series, Pariah, actually has the protagonist spending most of her time avoiding fights.

Sadly, to get the most out of reading Pariah, it really helps to have read Eisenhorn and Ravenor.

 Furyou Miko wrote:

 BlaxicanX wrote:
Combat is absolutely the point of Eisenhorn and Ravenor. Come on now. Neither series can go more than 10 pages without someone's brains getting blown out.

It feels more like combat is something that happens, though, rather than combat being the aim of the novel. The inquisitor's retinues don't aim to get into fights.

The seventh book in the series, Pariah, actually has the protagonist spending most of her time avoiding fights.

Sadly, to get the most out of reading Pariah, it really helps to have read Eisenhorn and Ravenor.

yeah and I'm passing on Pariah for now, it sounds like in terms of release pace the eisenhorn vs ravenor trilogy has become the 40K Game of Thrones

I concurr with the eisenhorn and ravenor series, they are a fantastic couple of series. Most all the inquisition books are pretty good bet. If you're willing to endure it, "inquisition war" has some...interesting stuff in it if you can manage to get far enough into it.

Titanicus.

Yeah It has battles, a few of them. But I think you would like its political subplot that it has as it takes nice breaks from the "Just War" for a bit.

BrianDavion wrote:

 Furyou Miko wrote:

 BlaxicanX wrote:
Combat is absolutely the point of Eisenhorn and Ravenor. Come on now. Neither series can go more than 10 pages without someone's brains getting blown out.

It feels more like combat is something that happens, though, rather than combat being the aim of the novel. The inquisitor's retinues don't aim to get into fights.

The seventh book in the series, Pariah, actually has the protagonist spending most of her time avoiding fights.

Sadly, to get the most out of reading Pariah, it really helps to have read Eisenhorn and Ravenor.

yeah and I'm passing on Pariah for now, it sounds like in terms of release pace the eisenhorn vs ravenor trilogy has become the 40K Game of Thrones

Also Pariah is gak writing from Abnett. It's really terribly written. Such bad story telling

I enjoyed Pariah. It's different. But its a heck of a lot better than Horus Rising, Story of the Boring People Doing Boring Things, Before Getting Betrayed By Boring People.

I enjoyed a lot of the nods to other writers in Pariah, and I liked the inclusion of some really twisted Chaos imagery. I liked Eisenhorn as some old fart. I thought the surprise reveal of a certain character was pretty amazing. I liked seeing both of the Inquisitors from an outsider's perspective... when they are the protagonists of their own series, it's very easy to side with them, but seeing how they operate from the outside, that is less-certain.

Darn, typing this in the Barnes and Noble. Only one of these they have is The Unremembered Empire. Keep the discussion going though, I'm really interested to learn more of 40k novels whose plots don't get slowed down by ample battle scenes/descriptions.

I found the Priests/Lords/Gods of Mars to be a great insight into rogue traders as well as the Mechanicum. Yes there are fight scenes, but the whole of the series seems to be more centered around intrigue and politicking than straight bolter porn.

Your mileage may certainly vary. I should also note that I have not read Gods yet as I cannot stomach the insane price. Recommending it as a part of the series only.

Happy reading,

FM Argos

 Netsurfer733 wrote:
Darn, typing this in the Barnes and Noble. Only one of these they have is The Unremembered Empire. Keep the discussion going though, I'm really interested to learn more of 40k novels whose plots don't get slowed down by ample battle scenes/descriptions.

well thing about eisenhorn and ravenor is they're TRILOGIES.


try looking for novels named Xenos, Malleus, and hereticus.

The Eldar path trilogy has some gaps in the fighting where you learn more about space elf society. Each book does build towards the assault on the craftworld, though.

 Netsurfer733 wrote:
Darn, typing this in the Barnes and Noble. Only one of these they have is The Unremembered Empire. Keep the discussion going though, I'm really interested to learn more of 40k novels whose plots don't get slowed down by ample battle scenes/descriptions.

Eisenhorn is almost impossible to get hold of, but they recently re-released the individual books in the trilogy under their original titles of Xenos, Hereticus and Malleus.

Not sure if they've done the same thing for Ravenor yet, but in that case, they're Ravenor, Ravenor Returned, and Ravenor Rogue.

The Sigillite Audiobook by Chris Wraight.

Granted, it's short, but it's basically about a guy going through a job interview. Guaranteed no battles or anything else of relevance.

Also, Luna Mendax by Graham McNeill. No Battles. Just Loken doing some gardening and talking to himself (he does kill some plain spiders with a shovel though, not sure if it counts).

I'd reccomend 15 hours. Although it does still have battles in it, it focuses a lot on the basic guardsmen, not the SM or Company commanders or Commissars. 5 basic guys, and what goes on between battles in the IG. Still one of the best 40k books IMO.

 jifel wrote:
I'd reccomend 15 hours. Although it does still have battles in it, it focuses a lot on the basic guardsmen, not the SM or Company commanders or Commissars. 5 basic guys, and what goes on between battles in the IG. Still one of the best 40k books IMO.

I agree. This one is also a book worth reading.

If anything really shows off the Grimdarkness on the front lines, its that Fifteen Hours.

The Sigillite, Lightning Tower, and the Garro series is actually pretty light on fighting.

The Talon of Horus actually sticks out in my head. That one is very little fighting if I remember right. And makes Abaddon interesting.

 Furyou Miko wrote:

 Netsurfer733 wrote:
Darn, typing this in the Barnes and Noble. Only one of these they have is The Unremembered Empire. Keep the discussion going though, I'm really interested to learn more of 40k novels whose plots don't get slowed down by ample battle scenes/descriptions.

Eisenhorn is almost impossible to get hold of, but they recently re-released the individual books in the trilogy under their original titles of Xenos, Hereticus and Malleus.

Not sure if they've done the same thing for Ravenor yet, but in that case, they're Ravenor, Ravenor Returned, and Ravenor Rogue.

It's not that bad if you scout ebay. I picked up a copy around three months ago for about $25.00

I've still got a book called Eye of Terror from about 12 years ago. From what I remember it's very combat light, being about a rogue trader and an astropath going into the Eye trading in black market items from a Daemon world. There's some NSFW Slaaneshi stuff in it from what I remember; the sort of thing that's largely absent from a lot of BL these days. Remember it being a good read, might dig it out.

Unremembered Empire is mentioned. I kinda liked it; Guilliman was somewhat more interesting than I thought, and the whole hide and seek with Vulkan and Curze was actually pretty boring.

I"m surprised that Mechanicum has yet to be mentioned, from the HH novels. The ending is balls-to-the-wall war, but everything before that is mostly just political maneuvering, insight into pre-Heresy AdMech, and a lot of juicy bits about Knight Houses and Titan Legio culture. There are a few brief skirmishes in it, but it's mostly about the people. There's a great bit foreshadowing the Void Dragon's escape from Mars, should they ever do a 40k end-times thing.

 dusara217 wrote:
I"m surprised that Mechanicum has yet to be mentioned, from the HH novels. The ending is balls-to-the-wall war, but everything before that is mostly just political maneuvering, insight into pre-Heresy AdMech, and a lot of juicy bits about Knight Houses and Titan Legio culture. There are a few brief skirmishes in it, but it's mostly about the people. There's a great bit foreshadowing the Void Dragon's escape from Mars, should they ever do a 40k end-times thing.

Yeah, I highly suggest mechanicum. It gives some great insight into how things worked on mars, and the entire novel had a sort of almost intelligence to it. Even the battle scenes are far more based on strategy, due to being battle between great titans and what not.