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My first guard novel was Death World by Steve Lyons, it's pretty good so far, when reading this I realised I quite like the feel of older 40k novels (not Space Marine by Ian Watson level old, but more like Gaunt's Ghosts/Soul Drinkers era, if you know what I'm getting at. Late 90's to early 2000s basically). So, I figured I would ask if there are any classic novels from that era that are worth checking out. I've seen the old Last Chancers and a few Gaunt's Ghosts books selling for reasonable-ish prices on ebay secondhand, so it might be worth seeing what I can find. Space Marines, Imperial Guard, Xenos, whatever, just as long as it's before 'the primaris age'.

Read the Last Chancers Omnibus and the Armageddon Saint by Gav Thorpe. Really fun reads, and it shows how to build a special forces squad, the Warhammer 40k way.



I also recommend the Yarrick Omnibus and Desert Raiders, which a Tallarn vs Tyranids book... [I'll go find the author and insert it here].

If I remember any more, I'll add them.

Cadian Blood, Gunheads, Dead Men Walking, as far as Guard stuff goes.

Helsreach, more Marine focused but there's a big variety of side characters from all Imperial factions.

Cain

There you go. There’s a big recommendation.

Yes it’s tongue and cheek, but not to the point of ridiculing the Guard.

I enjoyed the first half of Iron Guard. Probably the most that's been written about the Mordians aside from Gate of Bones.

Find yourself copies of the old anthologies Enter The Maelstrom and Let The Galaxy Burn. Many of the short stories are Guard-based.

The Shira Calpurnia trilogy is always worth a read. Excellent worldbuilding completely true to the spirit of the setting.

Double Eagle and the Gaunt's Ghosts series by Damn Abnett, there's a reason why everyone reads this series.

Besides Ciaphas Cain, Last Chancers, Gaunt’s Ghosts (finishing with Sabat Martyr), Eisenhorn, Shira Calpurnia and the Ultramarines series, see if you can find Execution Hour. It’s the Battlefleet Gothic book, and full of awesome spacebattles.

The old short story collections are also very flavorful.

The Mars trilogy by Graham McNeil is good, too. I’m pretty sure that came out before Primaris stuff.

On the edge of Ian Watson old are books like Eye of Terror and Farseer, both of which feel kind of off-step with modern canon. The William King Space Wolves books are enjoyable reads but are seriously lacking in Wolf Blood Wolf-iness.

Fifteen Hours written by Mitchel Scanlon.

Old school Imperial Guard vs Orks. Its one of my favorite books.

The Redemption Corps by Rob Sanders.

It's a Storm Trooper novel that really gets the feel of small squad combat.

It's a shame we never got a sequel.