Warhammer 40k

Runnen said:

I'm on book 22 out of 54 in the Horus Heresy series, and I can attest that it's very uneven. I've not found any downright BAD books so far, but some have much more interesting stories than others. After a while some of the stories kind of blur together because you can only have so many remarkable characters in legions made up of thousands of nearly identical characters, except for the Primarchs and the occasional original character that's not a space marine.

It's my first dive into Warhammer 40K lore and I figured I'd start at the Horus Heresy because it explains why the galaxy is how it is in the 41st millenium. It's interesting and I don't regret reading it so far, but the epic / memorable moments are very spaced out, you can have entire books where the status quo hasn't moved an inch.

In a way, it's realistic than on a galactic scale, a Legion or some isolated garrisons don't know yet about what is happening on the other side of the galaxy even months or years after, but it really slows the story moving forward.

Considering said heresy happens 3 books in, you'd think by book 22 I'd be starting to see some shit happening near Terra, but nope.

Feels like a super slow Warcraft 3 multiplayer where everyone plays turtle.

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Yeah, I would definitely not have suggested that series as an intro. You’d have been better off reading the stories from the tabletop rule book and online summaries of events from a wiki.

read horus rising and going through the seige of terra for backstory. read eisenhorn because he's a pretty good character, there's a short story where he investigates some ritual murders committed by ex-imperial guard and it was really good. also read da big dakka because orks are awesome and the infinite and the divine was a great book, 2 old men (necrons) bickering for eternity. was happy with any of them.

One book series I’ll comment about: Carrion Throne. Everyone raves about it but it’s only average writing and glaring lore errors pissed me off. What it does do is beat you over the head with how awful Terra is and why.

The Warhammer Book thread here has some excellent recommendations on what to read/ what to skip, but I’d throw in here The Beast Omnibus (after the Horus Heresy) and Know No Fear (early Horus Heresy).

Honestly getting started past some basic setting info I’d read the first 4 HH books and then go from there based on your interests there is so much to explore. Rogue Trader is also an awesome CRPG if you like the setting!

Good luck Heretic!

A few little issues here and there but not bad, I liked when it swapped to videogame 3rd person was interesting that the ai did that

Commissar Cain books are amusing and provide "in world" sort of organization lore on a mostly smaller scale than anything from the heresy, or any inquisition or space marine books.

I was always fond of the 'slice of the setting' books. books that showed you some stuff happening in chunks of the imperium that show how the setting is, without making it a sweeping world changing event. like... s

shadowpoint is about a naval vessel (a miles long imperial cruiser if i recall) with the viewpoint from the captain, the press-ganged gun haulers, and a few other ship aspects.

"Double eagle" written by dan abnett was about pilots desperately ttryin to hold back the forces of chaos.

Gaunts ghosts is actually a 'small scale' series about imperial guards fighting in a crusade against....mostly corrupt chaos guardsmen, with some cameo chaos marines or demonic shit here and there.

i found 'soul hunter' (the night lords novels) to be sort of like this. it's really about a squad of rebel marines teetering on the edge of going mad, and persisting in their grudges with increasingly shittier gear.

"15 hours" is about a guy who is fresh and new in the guard who gets dumped onto a warfront that is like WWI trench warfare with little hope, the conceit of the book is that the average lifespan of a soldier on the world is 15 hours.

"storm of iron" is a story about chaos marine iron warriors beseiging a fortress that....i seem to remember was a garrison for titans maybe, and half the story is from the perspective of the guardsmen who are trying to hold out, and the other half is the chaos marines and as the story goes you can't really be sure who is going to win. I like that in a book. heroes that arn't guaraenteed a win.

Really all of dan abnett's (non horus heresy) 40k books connect in ways, with cameos or references. Like 'double eagle' is in the same sabat world crusades that "gaunts ghosts" is set in. titanicus (i think is the name?) was the same and it's about the crew of a titan, and survivors in a war torn. wasteland converging. a few characters in the ghost series (villians mostly) turn up in the eisenhorn trilogy, which leads into the ravenor trilogy. he's got his own little abnet universe in a way. it's a shame he lost his mind (he had some kind of medical issue where he coudn't write for a few years. i think he's better now. i never read the last couple ghost novels. i need to). He's one of the few writers that can write a story with a massive cast. like....the ghosts are like GI-JOes where anyone who has read it could belt off 12 guardsmen or more, and each one has a personality, prefered weapons, failings, and story arcs over several books. pretty cool imo.

I'd have to go home and look at my novels and see what else i'd reccomend in that respect. there's a lot of novels with great stuff in them, even if they arn't ground breaking amazing stories, they're still interesting as lore/pulp storytelling.