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I love reading 40k books and was wondering which books people are reading or have read and rate highly and why. It's also helpful for me in case there are some gems that I've missed. I was just about to start reading the ultramarines omnibus, but if anyone can recommend something better I'm open to suggestions.

The Ciaphas Cain series by Sandy mitchel were really good. its debatable how acurrate things in the book are but its a Commissar recounting his "adventures" with interesting commentary by an Ordo Xenos inquisitor in them. they are good reading

Cogboy wrote:The Ciaphas Cain series by Sandy mitchel were really good. its debatable how acurrate things in the book are but its a Commissar recounting his "adventures" with interesting commentary by an Ordo Xenos inquisitor in them. they are good reading

Yeah I've been tempted by these books but there's just so many of them. I'd need to dedicate a lot of time to commit to them.

Horus heresy novels by far are my favorite so far.

Brother Thomas wrote:Horus heresy novels by far are my favorite so far.

They are a good read, ive just finished the primarchs. I've got to say though that as the series has gone on they tend to open up more questions than answers. I'm guessing if you have a pretty solid background knowledge then it all makes sense but they jump around too much for my liking.

My favourites are the Ciaphas Cain series as well. Anything by Dan Abnett is also awesome, but I find the Cain books are a good relief from the unrelenting grimdarkness of it all. Not as much rape and spanking as the Flashman books (thankfully) but the same kind of irreverent humour. Also the random plays on words that get introduced amuse me no end. Eyore Dedonkey and the Reclaimers chapter as Wombles being me own personal favourites.

I think Duty Calls and Cain's Last Stand are my favourits. The Perlia stuff is rather neat.

My favorite book would have to be Titanicus. It's filled with giant titan battles, but also has regular characters as well.

DILL3NGER wrote:

Brother Thomas wrote:Horus heresy novels by far are my favorite so far.

They are a good read, ive just finished the primarchs. I've got to say though that as the series has gone on they tend to open up more questions than answers. I'm guessing if you have a pretty solid background knowledge then it all makes sense but they jump around too much for my liking.

Well i started with book one and now im on #4 it all makes sense (to me) because i started at the begining

I'm in on anything not written by james swallow or ben counter. I'm reading the iron warrior's omnibus atm and it's AMAZING. I loved the ultramarines omnibus as well. Graham mcneil is awesome The only space marine battle book I haven't enjoyed has been the architect of fate that just came out but both of the orks and the hunt for volidorius were great. I've read all of the HH as well and they're all good some are hit and miss by far (IMHO) the worst was nemesis...took me about 6 months to get through that crap >.> try the omnibus of anything you can get your hands on it's three books for three dollars more than a space marines battle book. I'm going for the word bearer's omnibus next. The space wolves were good too...lol just about anything is good but I didn't enjoy the blood angels or the soul drinkers...to much off topic crap going on and not enough fighting (again IMHO)

Brother Thomas wrote:

DILL3NGER wrote:

Brother Thomas wrote:Horus heresy novels by far are my favorite so far.

They are a good read, ive just finished the primarchs. I've got to say though that as the series has gone on they tend to open up more questions than answers. I'm guessing if you have a pretty solid background knowledge then it all makes sense but they jump around too much for my liking.

Well i started with book one and now im on #4 it all makes sense (to me) because i started at the begining

It's quite a strange response to suggest I havent read them in order.

I've read all of them. Dont get me wrong I love the series and look forward to amazon delivering the latest edition everytime ones released. The fact that I've just read book 21 means that there are so many different stories and backgrounds with so many individuals popping up in different senarios with different motives and plots and some are bad and some are good and some your not really sure about. This is all good stuff and keeps you hooked but my fear is that in the end I'm gonna go 'eh?' 'what about so and so?' and 'what happened with that dude'.

Theres just so much going on its hard to keep up. At the begining of the series they very much centered around Hourus and his fall which was superb. But now they have branched off into so many different aspects of the heresy, I'm always left with the feeling that they haven't quite covered it all off.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Gharron wrote:I'm in on anything not written by james swallow or ben counter. I'm reading the iron warrior's omnibus atm and it's AMAZING. I loved the ultramarines omnibus as well. Graham mcneil is awesome The only space marine battle book I haven't enjoyed has been the architect of fate that just came out but both of the orks and the hunt for volidorius were great. I've read all of the HH as well and they're all good some are hit and miss by far (IMHO) the worst was nemesis...took me about 6 months to get through that crap >.> try the omnibus of anything you can get your hands on it's three books for three dollars more than a space marines battle book. I'm going for the word bearer's omnibus next. The space wolves were good too...lol just about anything is good but I didn't enjoy the blood angels or the soul drinkers...to much off topic crap going on and not enough fighting (again IMHO)

Wordbearers is a good omnibus. Plenty of descripive battles in there for you.

DILL3NGER wrote:

Brother Thomas wrote:

DILL3NGER wrote:

Brother Thomas wrote:Horus heresy novels by far are my favorite so far.

They are a good read, ive just finished the primarchs. I've got to say though that as the series has gone on they tend to open up more questions than answers. I'm guessing if you have a pretty solid background knowledge then it all makes sense but they jump around too much for my liking.

Well i started with book one and now im on #4 it all makes sense (to me) because i started at the begining

It's quite a strange response to suggest I havent read them in order.

I've read all of them. Dont get me wrong I love the series and look forward to amazon delivering the latest edition everytime ones released. The fact that I've just read book 21 means that there are so many different stories and backgrounds with so many individuals popping up in different senarios with different motives and plots and some are bad and some are good and some your not really sure about. This is all good stuff and keeps you hooked but my fear is that in the end I'm gonna go 'eh?' 'what about so and so?' and 'what happened with that dude'.

Theres just so much going on its hard to keep up. At the begining of the series they very much centered around Hourus and his fall which was superb. But now they have branched off into so many different aspects of the heresy, I'm always left with the feeling that they haven't quite covered it all off.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Gharron wrote:I'm in on anything not written by james swallow or ben counter. I'm reading the iron warrior's omnibus atm and it's AMAZING. I loved the ultramarines omnibus as well. Graham mcneil is awesome The only space marine battle book I haven't enjoyed has been the architect of fate that just came out but both of the orks and the hunt for volidorius were great. I've read all of the HH as well and they're all good some are hit and miss by far (IMHO) the worst was nemesis...took me about 6 months to get through that crap >.> try the omnibus of anything you can get your hands on it's three books for three dollars more than a space marines battle book. I'm going for the word bearer's omnibus next. The space wolves were good too...lol just about anything is good but I didn't enjoy the blood angels or the soul drinkers...to much off topic crap going on and not enough fighting (again IMHO)

Wordbearers is a good omnibus. Plenty of descripive battles in there for you.

Just picked up the word bearer's after dinner this evening =) will have to read it next. I'm starting to fall in love with chaos...but I've always been a space marine! ARGH!

I'm surprised no one has mentioned Eisenhorn/Ravenor yet. I've had to re-buy Eisenhorn because I have read through it....a good few times, and it started to come apart. Admittedly that may have had something to do with the travel I was putting it through, but it was still brilliant on each successful reading. The Ravenor omnibus I took more care of, so its still alright on its first copy, and again, I've re-read it a few times (not as good as the Eisenhorn omnibus in my opinion, but definitely up there).

If you like conspiracy, twists, neat characters and cool action, the Eisenhorn books will be what you are looking for.

15 hours is a great novel that gives remarkable insight into the life of Imperial Guardsmen.

Cain Novels
Probably my favourites - have action, romance, great characters and are fun whilst still IMO maintaining the essential character of the 40k universe

Night Lords
Dark and well drawn characters, a great story, a (doomed?) romance and excellent twists and turns - the ability to make you sympathetic towards actually evil charcters - until they show just how "wrong" they are.

Titanicus and Hellsreach
Epic conflicts but at the same time the lives of "normal" people as well as the heroes. I think Helsreach is slightly better - as the ending for Titanicus seems very abrupt? but they are both awesome reads

Storm of Iron
It is exactly what I imagine a full blown 40k movie would be.
You have a siege (with both the Iron Warriors and the Imperial Fists getting involved). You have guardsmen and titans. A man trapped behind enemy lines. A tech adept tempted by chaos. The list goes on.

Helsreach. Aaron Dembski-Bowden is one of the best (if not THE best) BL authors, pairing that with the book being about my beloved Black Templars and it's a slam dunk.

Nightlords was one of my favs....
henry zou writes some pretty good books(Blood Gorgons...)
Salamanders was fun too X)

Nobody has mentioned Gaunts Ghosts by Dan abnett? those are awesome books. It's almost like an old ww2 television series in book form, and in the 40k universe. They are great, and have a good set of characters.

Pretty much anything Inquisition - Sandy Mitchell's Dark Hersesy novels, Eisenhorn, and even Ravenor (even though I dont think it matches up to the level of Eisenhorn.) STrong, well written and believable characters, plenty of tragedy as well as positive points to balance out (you can't have true tragedy and loss unless there is something to lose, a poitn which the needlessly grimdark crap fails to deliver.)

Horus HEresy series as a whole tends to be good. There is some dull and annoying filler at times, but on the whole its demythified, expanded on, and made the entire Crusade/Heresy era alot more complex and epic, and there are currently tons of unfinished questions. It also does a good idea of making people question even the good guys - Stories like 'The Last Church' make you wonder what goes through Big E's head, for example.

Ciaphas Cain is good for returning to 40K's roots of absurdity and not taking itself seriously, although it does have definite moments of seriousness (like in Cain's last stand) and it humanizes alot of the cariactures and stereotypes you find prevalent in 40K.

Gaunt's Ghosts - while the story has lost some of its epic-ness up until recently (say from between Sabbat Martyr to Salvation's Reach) I think that overall its a great series with plenty of great moments both good and bad (all the victories and high points, as well as all the tragic losses of characters.) It sort of grasps the excitement and the tragedy of war without descending totally into the absurd grimdarkian levels.

Gray Knights series: Say what you will about Soul Drinkers, but the Gray Knights series Ben Counter did is a great work all around. GK is the best of the lot, but I do love Hammer of Daemons for taking risks with the supposed 'canon' (does a Gray Knight actually 'fall?') Also a nice second for Sister Aescarion, which also tends to play on the Chaos role.

Anything by ADB. The man can make me enjoy reading about Word Bearers. 'Nuff said. Helsreach and the Night Lords trilogy in particular, although my heart holds a soft spot for Cadian blood as his first novel and being Guard oriented.

Angels of Darkness, 13th Legion, and Kill Team. Gav Thorpe's best novels. The first being the best Space Marine stuff because of the comparisons between Heresy and modern era and how the Imperium has changed (and whether the changes are for the best or worst.) and the latter two for a good look at the grittier side of the Imperial Guard.

Gordon Rennie's BFG novels: Space warfare galore, pure navy stuff, with also plenty of non-grimdarky elements (like Imperium and Eldar collaborating to kick Chaos in the butt. What's not to like, unless you're a fan of Chaos?)

Graham McNeill's Ultramarines novels. McNeill does much better writing about the Smurfs and the AdMech than he does about Chaos. the Iron Warriors stuff is IMHO Graham's version of the Soul Drinkers. But the Ultramarines stuff, particularily books 1, 2, and 4 - tend to be some of the best stuff of the series. Especially 1 and 4 (I can't hlep but still be moved by Ventris and the Lord of the Unfleshed towards the end of Killing Ground.)

Rob Sander's post-REdemption Corps stuff. The guy is literally growing on me. I thoroughly enjoyed Legion of the Damned, and the short story he wrote in 'The Primarchs' was also good. But I also liked his Czevak novels and hope he writes more...

Oh and lastly, I am a big fan of the Necromunda novels. They put a really different and interesting spin on the 40K universe that is distinct from the main line stuff. No Space Marines. No WAR. But there's still plenty of 40K stuff in there to be interesting but also to allow for variation. I'm especially fond of Survival Instinct, Back from the Dead, Junktion, and the first two Kal Jerico novels.

I like Hunt for Voldorious and Savage Scars.
And Ciaphas Cain "Death OR glory" was amazingly fun.

DILL3NGER wrote:
I've read all of them. Dont get me wrong I love the series and look forward to amazon delivering the latest edition everytime ones released. The fact that I've just read book 21 means that there are so many different stories and backgrounds with so many individuals popping up in different senarios with different motives and plots and some are bad and some are good and some your not really sure about. This is all good stuff and keeps you hooked but my fear is that in the end I'm gonna go 'eh?' 'what about so and so?' and 'what happened with that dude'.

Theres just so much going on its hard to keep up. At the begining of the series they very much centered around Hourus and his fall which was superb. But now they have branched off into so many different aspects of the heresy, I'm always left with the feeling that they haven't quite covered it all off.

I don't consider leaving a couple loose ends a bad thing when it comes to the heresy series. 40k always needs new and interesting mysteries. In fact when the series was first announced, there was a fairly large minority of people who were (and most likely still are) adamently against covering the heresy in detail as to ruin the ancient myth feel to it. By introducing additional characters, events, and stories that were never known before, it leaves readers room to interpret and hypothesize what happened to a particular warrior post-heresy.

Storm of Iron and Dead Sky, Black Sun are two of my personal favorites. Beyond those, I really liked the Eisenhorn series and more than a couple of the HH books.

Space Marine by Ian Watson, still head, shoulders, torso and legs above anything else. Horus Rising was good, went downhill from there though. Don't get the hype about ADB, first Night Lords novel was good but everything else I've read by him is pretty pedestrian.

tyrannosaurus wrote:Space Marine by Ian Watson, still head, shoulders, torso and legs above anything else. Horus Rising was good, went downhill from there though. Don't get the hype about ADB, first Night Lords novel was good but everything else I've read by him is pretty pedestrian.

I still need to get me one of those... SOON!!!


I like the little short stories anthology books, ie victories of the space marines, fear the alien(xenos?), little short stories that are quick and fun.

Ravenor

This book was great because of the amazingly well written and developed characters. Even the irredeemable villain Zygmunt Molotch seems oddly human.

One of the books I like very much that hasn't been mentioned so far is Dead Men Walking from Steve Lyons.
A tomb world awakens and the Death Korps of Krieg must try to put them back to sleep for good

Not really up to date anymore regarding the new necron fluff, but still a very good read in my opinion and I'd definitively recommend it.

I cannot recommend Aaron Dembski-Bowden's Night Lords novels (beginning with Soul Hunter) highly enough.

Anything by Dan Abnett has my seal of approval as well, although I recommend his Inquisitor series (beginning with the Eisenhorn trilogy, which starts with Xenos.)

Sandy Mitchell does great work also. Check out the Ciaphas Cain series if you like a little bit of humor in your grimdark. (The first one is For the Emperor.)

But most importantly, I highly, highly recommend the short story compilations. Since they offer samples of work from a wide assortment of authors (and on a wide variety of topics) you can get a better feel for what you like and what you don't like, both in terms of subject matter and writers. I found both Dan Abnett and Sandy Mitchell through their short story work. My favorite short story compilation is Let the Galaxy Burn. It's a massive collection, offering 38 stories by twenty or so different authors. It's sure to turn you onto an avenue you hadn't expected. This compilation also houses my single favorite work of 40k fiction, a short story by Robert Earl called Angels.

Hope this helps.

Gaunt's Ghosts for me.

I love anything written by William King and Dan Abnett.

Being a long time space wolves collector, Ragnar's series of books were true to form and a great read.

Just started listening to the Horus Heresy on audiobook whilst painting and am really enjoying that too.

After thinking about it a lot, I've decided to rate my favorite books as books that I would actually read again. That's helped to narrow my choices down a lot.

Horus Rising
False Gods
Galaxy in Flames
Flight of the Eisenstein
Fulgrim (maybe)

That's about it. I've read all of the Gaunt's Ghosts Books, all the Eisenhorn and Ravenor books, a good 80% of the HH books, Lord of the Night, the Night Lords trilogy, and one and a half Ciaphus Cain omnibuses. They were all mostly good (except the Cain novels and Prospero Burns, I can't stand the repetitive jokes and formula of the Cain novels nor the Space Wolves' fluff in general), but I have tried to read through a few again (Ravenor, Eisenhorn, some GG novels) and I simply can't. The stories are either too long-winded (Ravenor and Eisenhorn again) or too shallow (Gaunt's Ghosts) for me to make it through them. Alternatively, the four mentioned above are written well enough to be excellent reads on their own.

Fulgrim... depends on how well you can stomach the disturbing stuff.