Brother Captain Ed Posted September 30, 2016 Share Posted September 30, 2016 My teenage son is playing around with Dawn of War and it has piqued his interest in all things Warhammer. I'm not really familiar with all the novels. What would be the best books to start with getting a teenager into the light of the Astronomican? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brother Dallo Posted September 30, 2016 Share Posted September 30, 2016 I've enjoyed the Eisenhorn series, as has my flatmate, who has only a basic grasp of the 40k universe, so it seems pretty accessible to non 40k folk. Hope this is of use. Dallo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roomsky Posted September 30, 2016 Share Posted September 30, 2016 If you want actual 40k era: Guardsmen: Eisenhorn, Gaunt's Ghosts, Ciaphas Cain Space Marines: Lord of the Night, Angels of Darkness, Storm of Iron, The Talon of Horus Orkz: Helsreach War of the Fang, The Ahriman trilogy, and the Night Lords Trilogy, are all also good, but should be read in tandem with the Horus Heresy series. The Horus Heresy is without a doubt the most popular series put out, and has a truckload of entries. Its my favorite part of the lore, but is of course 10,000 years early. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Never_born Posted September 30, 2016 Share Posted September 30, 2016 My teenage son is playing around with Dawn of War and it has piqued his interest in all things Warhammer. I'm not really familiar with all the novels. What would be the best books to start with getting a teenager into the light of the Astronomican? I wrote a blog post about this recently if you fancy a read - https://trackofwords.wordpress.com/2016/09/24/getting-started-with-black-library-warhammer-40000/ TL;DR If you only want one suggestion, I'd agree with the others so far and say Xenos (book 1 of the Eisenhorn trilogy) by Dan Abnett. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarkChaplain Posted September 30, 2016 Share Posted September 30, 2016 Eisenhorn. Ciaphas Cain might be a decent thing too. For Space Marines, the Space Marines Omnibus might be decent. It collects three anthologies worth of short stories from all manner of authors on all manner of Chapters. Space Marine Battles might be worth checking too, if the kid has a certain Chapter he'd like to read more about. The Legends of the Dark Millennium Ultramarines book is also good value in paperback. Eldar: Valedor, Path of the Eldar, Path of the Dark Eldar Tau: The Tau Empire, recently released in paperback Orks: Feature usually as antagonists, few PoV stories. Exceptions: Evil Sun Rising, Engine of Mork. Recommending Baneblade though. Tyranids: The Last Days of Ector, Valedor, Warriors of Ultramar Space Hulk action with Genestealers: Death of Integrity Necrons: Damnos, The World Engine (mixed reviews) Imperial Guard: Baneblade, Ciaphas Cain Inquisition: Eisenhorn, Atlas Infernal Chaos Space Marines: Word Bearers, Iron Warriors, The Siege of Castellax, The Gildar Rift I'd caution against a bunch of books/series for starters, however: * Horus Heresy * Night Lords * Ahriman Trilogy * The Beast Arises * The Talon of Horus There's a bunch of others, but those I wouldn't touch until much later. They're best enjoyed after getting to grips with 40k as a whole, and present a lot of nuance afterwards. The tragedies of the HH series can be appreciated more once you know where the good intentions lead the characters, ultimately. Honestly, there's not a end-all-be-all answer to where to start with 40k fiction. There's stuff like the Legacy of Caliban trilogy which ties into so much other stuff that you'd best hold off on reading them til you have a general idea of the Dark Angels, for example, but the best starting point will usually be something to do with the faction one is enthusiastic about. What caught the eye, what looks interesting, what bits of background snippets sound cool. Just... don't get him to read C.S.Goto's Dawn of War novels. Just don't. They're awful, and deserve being trashed. They're that bad. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JH79 Posted September 30, 2016 Share Posted September 30, 2016 My initial exposure to 40k was through PC Games too, Space Hulk in the mid 90's then DOW & Space Marine in the late 00's. From a book perspective Space Hulk by Gav Thorpe was what got me hooked. It's harmless self contained fluff, not too long, quite the fun ride that reminded me of being scared out of my mind in 1994 trying to kill aliens on a hulk at 2am, great times! There's also a decent audio adaption by James Murphy on YouTube if listening while playing is more his thing Additionally something like Helsreach could be likened to a DOW mission as the protagonists have to defend an entire hive city from an Ork planetary invasion. It is quite brilliantly written by one of Black Library's best authors of recent years and has the most climactic of endings possible, deffo one not to be missed! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brother Captain Ed Posted September 30, 2016 Author Share Posted September 30, 2016 Thank you everyone! Good to know. I'll get that kid into the Imperial Cult yet! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scribe Posted October 1, 2016 Share Posted October 1, 2016 I will always promote Wrath of Iron, as one of the more brutal 40K books out there. http://www.blacklibrary.com/all-products/wrath-of-iron.html One of the very few books I finished, and started reading again right away, so good. EDIT: Oh good, Never_Born mentioned it, I was about to despair that it could go multiple posts without a mention. It is 40K to me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thedarkprincesnun Posted October 1, 2016 Share Posted October 1, 2016 The iron warriors omnibus Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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