Warhammer 40k Novels, Where To Start?

[Keef Monkey]

Picked up the recent Warhammer 40,000 game (Assassinorum) and while reading through the rule book and poring over the characters and models it struck me how much I've always enjoyed that part of their games (I used to play Space Crusade and Space Hulk as a kid and thought artwork and the universe was really cool and a huge part of what made the games fun), but that I never really dived into the lore beyond what was presented in the games.

Has anyone read a lot of them who could recommend a good place to start without being completely lost? Had a look for novels on Amazon but even using the wiki page I found it tricky to figure out how everything is laid out! Any advice appreciated, thanks!

[COMMANDO FORCES]

I'm reading the Horus Heresy and that story shows how the Space Marines split into Loyal and Traitor Legions, as well as the [spoiler]Emperor and Horus's fate[/spoiler], which are known but I thought I'd hide that. I'm up to the 30th book in the series and have also listened to many of the audio CD's and read a few of the Novellas but you don't really have to get them, they just add more to the whole experience.

I'm thoroughly enjoying the galaxy spanning story and it also shows how some of the Primarchs start off as well, so it's quite in depth. Dan Abnett starts it all off with the first book Horus Rising.

[JPMaybe]

I'd definitely start with the Eisenhorn omnibus, probably the best prose novel Dan Abnett's ever done.

I've not read the Rennie droid's Battlefleet Gothic books but I've heard very good things about them.

Si Spurrier's Lord of the Night is an excellent one-off and wouldn't require much in the way of background knowledge.

Sandy Mitchell's Ciaphas Cain books are a delight and well worth getting hold of, and again wouldn't require a huge amount of fluff awareness.

Those are the standouts for me; you might also consider the Gaunt's Ghost books if your appetite's been whetted, as they're generally quite good if a little repetitive.

Your mileage may vary on the Horus Heresy books- I found them massively padded and rather dissapointing, the problem being that Space Marines are all basically the same.  The exception for me would be Abnett's Legion, which I liked for upsetting fanboys if nothing else.

Ian Watson's Inquisitor trilogy is pretty poor but an interesting read to see how the background has changed.

[radiator]

A friend lent me the first book of the Horus Heresy series (Horus Rising?) several years back - I was interested partly because it was written by Dan Abnett, partly because it's a part of the fiction I always found fascinating when I was obsessed with all things GW as a young teen. I thought it was much better than a 40K tie-in novel had any right to be, and (as you'd expect from Abnett) had a lot of interesting sci-fi concepts and memorable characters in it.

Strictly speaking it's a '30K' novel, set 10,000 years prior to the 40K universe. What's particularly interesting is that it's set during a comparative age of enlightenment in which a resurgent, secular Imperium (the Emperor of mankind having long since outlawed religion in all it's forms) seeks to reunite (sometimes peacefully, sometimes not) the scattered galactic colonies of mankind following a great dark age during which the knowledge and means of space travel was lost. Each legion of  Marines travels with a detachment of writers, poets and artists who are tasked with chronicling the great Crusade. But gradually a sinister conspiracy is revealed, leading to inevitable disaster and the return to superstition and mysticism.

As far as I recall, I dipped my toe into the following novels (the series spans dozens of books by almost as many different authors) but I didn't find them anywhere near as well written or engaging.

So all in all, I'd say start with anything Abnett has written - I understand he's very well-regarded by GW fans in general.

[Theblazeuk]

Eisenhorn + Ravenor + Gaunt's Ghost + Imperial Eagle

What do these things have in common? Dan Abnett.

Gordon Rennie of this parish has written some great stuff in the Warhammer universe too.

Back in the day there was an excellent comic, Warhammer Monthly, and a great prose magazine called 'Inferno'. Wish I had all of those they were excellent

[ThryllSeekyr]

A friend lent me the first book of the Horus Heresy series (Horus Rising?) several years back - I was interested partly because it was written by Dan Abnett, partly because it's a part of the fiction I always found fascinating when I was obsessed with all things GW as a young teen. I thought it was much better than a 40K tie-in novel had any right to be, and (as you'd expect from Abnett) had a lot of interesting sci-fi concepts and memorable characters in it.

Strictly speaking it's a '30K' novel, set 10,000 years prior to the 40K universe. What's particularly interesting is that it's set during a comparative age of enlightenment in which a resurgent, secular Imperium (the Emperor of mankind having long since outlawed religion in all it's forms) seeks to reunite (sometimes peacefully, sometimes not) the scattered galactic colonies of mankind following a great dark age during which the knowledge and means of space travel was lost. Each legion of  Marines travels with a detachment of writers, poets and artists who are tasked with chronicling the great Crusade. But gradually a sinister conspiracy is revealed, leading to inevitable disaster and the return to superstition and mysticism.

As far as I recall, I dipped my toe into the following novels (the series spans dozens of books by almost as many different authors) but I didn't find them anywhere near as well written or engaging.

So all in all, I'd say start with anything Abnett has written - I understand he's very well-regarded by GW fans in general.

What does Regicide mean?

[Third Estate Ned]

If in doubt, dare to consult the oracle, ThryllSeekyr.

[locustsofdeath!]

What does Regicide mean?

It means no Slaine in the story.

[Keef Monkey]

Thanks all for the replies, lots to chew on there! Sounds like The Horus Heresy stuff is worth a punt, sounds very cool and seems well liked so I'll probably start on that and see how I get on.

No Kindle editions from the looks of it, only non-paper option seems to be the ebooks straight from the Black Library site. Seems like they're missing a trick by not having them on Amazon but I don't know much about book publishing! Looking forward to this.

[COMMANDO FORCES]

Have fun and enjoy the decline of humankind!