Warhammer 40,000 Novels

Gavinmad said:

My single biggest problem with the way they decided to tell the story is that it revolves so heavily around ignorance. For some retarded reason (probably tied in to his futile attempt to destroy religion) the Emperor keeps the truth about the warp hidden and ultimately that's what undoes everything. The Luna Wolves ignorance of Chaos is what makes it so easy for Erebus and the corrupted Word Bearers to manipulate Horus. And Magnus, who probably knows as much about the warp as the Emperor, should know damn good and well there is no primordial creator, but he lets his legion dick around with fucking "tutelaries".

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In the latest HH Book, which has some massive reveals, one of them is that Emps intentionally played the "I'm not a God" thing as a reverse psychological ploy on Mankind. His plan all along was to be thought of as a God.

Its also heavily implied that the Emperor is operating on multiple timelines, ala Dr. Strange or that Tom Cruise movie, and has so far only figured out how not to lose. There is also implications that Horus was starting to operate on that level, but the Emperor obliterated his soul and removed him from all of existence. So no, Horus is not coming back. He hath been smote.

Lleauaric said:

In the latest HH Book, which has some massive reveals, one of them is that Emps intentionally played the "I'm not a God" thing as a reverse psychological ploy on Mankind. His plan all along was to be thought of as a God.

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And yet punishing Lorgar and the Word Bearers for their "premature" worship of him was the pivotal moment that screwed everything up, so what possible worse future did he avert with that action?

Yeah, Saturine.

Major spoilers in this link:

Really fucking gay to keep seeing "Pert" in place of Perturabo.

Gavinmad said:

And yet punishing Lorgar and the Word Bearers for their "premature" worship of him was the pivotal moment that screwed everything up, so what possible worse future did he avert with that action?

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Probably because it would have made 17 other Primarchs and their legions say "DaFuq?" Most of them would have turned on him right there.

Lleauaric said:

Probably because it would have made 17 other Primarchs and their legions say "DaFuq?" Most of them would have turned on him right there.

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He could have easily just chosen to turn a blind eye to Lorgar's behavior instead of humiliating him so tremendously that he went off to the Eye of Terror and brought corruption back to the other legions. It's not like his only choices were 'harshly censure Lorgar or admit to everyone that Godhood was his plan all along'. If the slow pace of the Word Bearer's legion was such an issue, he could have had a private word with Lorgar telling him to speed it the fuck up rather than making such an extravagant demonstration at Monarchia.

Godhood having been his secret plan all along is a fucking stupid Shymaladingdong-esque twist.

Gavinmad said:

He could have easily just chosen to turn a blind eye to Lorgar's behavior instead of humiliating him so tremendously that he went off to the Eye of Terror and brought corruption back to the other legions. It's not like his only choices were 'harshly censure Lorgar or admit to everyone that Godhood was his plan all along'. If the slow pace of the Word Bearer's legion was such an issue, he could have had a private word with Lorgar telling him to speed it the fuck up rather than making such an extravagant demonstration at Monarchia.

Godhood having been his secret plan all along is a fucking stupid Shymaladingdong-esque twist.

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My headcanon says it goes back to the Emperors fatal flaw... that he demands total obedience. He knows Lorgar has been doing this for a long long time. He only really cares because it slows down his progress. So he tells Lorgar to cut the shit and speed it up, and Lorgar disobeys. That's the point of Monarchia. Emps doesnt give a shit about the religious shit, but will absolutely not have a Primarch defying his will. The very point of their creation was that they would do exactly what he wanted them to do, unlike the other Perpetuals whose free will and independence fucked up his plans in the past.

Emps is also a micro manager. They write about how when he is looking at the future, he can see the end goal, he just has no idea how to GET there. So he has tendency to try to control all the variables. In a sense, Lorgar may have been a canary in the coal mine. He might have been the first thread of the Emperors Primarch plan to unravel not by getting involved with Chaos, but before that, when he started to diverge from the Emperors will. So the Emperor sees this and tries to crush it utterly, yet it backfires spectacularly. Looking back, most of the mistakes the Emperor made were over-reacting badly to when a Primarch defies him in even the slightest way. He is a really shitty parent.
E to Angron: "Come on, lets get off this backwater and conquer space" Angron "No, my friends" E: "Fuck off kid" Drags him out by his ear
E to Magnus "Stop fucking around with the Warp." Magnus: "But I learned it from watching you Dad!" E: "Do what I say because I said so, oh and here's some public humiliation, Dogboy.... go kick his ass for me"
E to Perturabo: "Shut up Nerd, you'll never be as good as your older brother. Now go clean the shitter"
E about Curze: "Sure the boy tortures animals, its a phase, he'll grow out of it. Besides therapy is expense and I have shit for him to do."

Horus, Fulgrim and Mortarion were kind of entrapped so they don't fall into rebelling. But the other 5 were totally there because the Emperor fucked up handling them.

Lleauaric said:

the Emperors fatal flaw

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His real flaw is his autism.

Other than full blown torrenting, any handy mega etc links for a bunch of the novels? Love 40k but honestly hadn't read many of the actual novels. After in the other thread folk pushed codexes figured I'd ask here about the books.

Gavinmad said:

He could have easily just chosen to turn a blind eye to Lorgar's behavior instead of humiliating him so tremendously that he went off to the Eye of Terror and brought corruption back to the other legions. It's not like his only choices were 'harshly censure Lorgar or admit to everyone that Godhood was his plan all along'. If the slow pace of the Word Bearer's legion was such an issue, he could have had a private word with Lorgar telling him to speed it the fuck up rather than making such an extravagant demonstration at Monarchia.

Godhood having been his secret plan all along is a fucking stupid Shymaladingdong-esque twist.

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Uhhh.....then you wouldn't have a story. It's like you're trying to debate real actions from real life. This is all fiction and the whole point is it DID get fucked up and the characters DID make the wrong decisions so that a story and an expansive universe of stuff could be sold.

If Daddy would have just given Perturabo a hug, the emperor may be alive today.

Oblio said:

Strongly considering getting into this lore. The interwebs say start with Horus Rising. I the saw toward beginning of the thread someone start with Ravenor (of which I see two) or Eisenhorn. What say ye?

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Horus Rising is the first book out of 57 (soon to be 58) in the Horus Heresy series, set 10-11k years before the contemporary period of the setting. I think the Heresy series is actually a pretty awful starting point for someone new to the setting.

The Eisenhorn trilogy is a decent starting point, Dan Abnett being one of the better Black Library authors by a wide margin. Ravenor is a somewhat weirder spin-off trilogy involving a minor character from the Eisenhorn trilogy. Both books are about Inquisitors, so it's whacky adventures by people who are largely above/outside the law.

The Gaunt's Ghosts series is another decent starting point, sort of standard military fiction except in the 40k setting, follows an under-strength Imperial Guard regiment through a major military undertaking across dozens/hundreds of theaters. Imperial Guard are just your standard dog soldiers, so this is a lot more grounded and doesn't involve too much of the crazier stuff present in the setting.

I definitely recommend against starting with anything involving Space Marines, they're just so absurdly overpowered that it takes an exceptionally talented writer to come up with a compelling story involving them.