Advice Novel 40k

[Whitelion]

Hi everyone, I would like to buy my first books to read, there are good retailers online where to buy?

I could also content myself with e-books

[Brother Tyler]

Do you have specific interests or non-interests? Have you perused the Black Library website to identify books you may be interested in?

[Black Knight]

I would suggest three choices for a beginner, but as Brother Tyler has mentioned there are many many different tastes.

 

1. Do you want to know about one of the major overarching events that created the current Warhammer 40K universe? Do you want to read about a Demi-Gods fall to evil? Then start with Horus Rising and the Horus Heresy story Arch.

 

2. Do you like Crime Novels and intrigue around mysteries and the suspense they bring? Do you want a story based on the worlds of the Imperium of Man and not the battlefields? Then start with the Eisenhorn Trilogy.

 

3. Do you want to experience the plight of a normal human soldier within the Imperial Guard? Then start with the Gaunt's Ghosts series of books.

 

The above are a good starting point to which you can figure out what interests you. You can then venture off to those areas like the Mechanicum series, Various Space Marine Chapter books, Necromunda, Current Dark Imperium stories, etc. It can be a little daunting if you do not start with the books above.

[Trevak Dal]

The first Ciaphais Cain omnibus was the first 40k work I read. It wasn't so miserable and depressing as the setting can be, was quite funny and really entertaining.

 

The second thing I read was the Grey Knight omnibus (who are still my favorite space Marines, all of my Grey Knights are named after GK characters)

 

Then I think I read the Ravenor books, and started the Ghosts books (basically they get :cuss on every which way, they are light infantry and are constantly being used in situations that light infantry shouldn't be used but somehow pull out despite the odds against them. And Dan Abnett kills many characters that are beloved like the fat fella RPing as Tolkien but with silver haired == REDACTED - JUVENILE & NONCONSTRUCTIVE == the funny dwarf guy and the dragons and all that ended badly)

 

I also read Firewarrior (first and largest army I have is Tau and that was like...the only Tau related book/lore for the longest time, based off a video game appearently)

 

The first three of the Horus Heresy and then picked and chose Heresy books based on Whether I liked the legion in question and If it was about Istvaan again.

 

Like I kinda get it's sorta like reading a dramatic historical novelization of like Second Antietam where you get the different novelizations from each Commander in each army.

 

Horus Heresy series can largely be summed up as Lots of Captains, couple of tough Sargents and lots of mook space Marines dying like Guardsmen. So pretty much your average 8th edition game pretty much.

 

Also Primarchs are portrayed, oh and the obligatory "yo here's some human people to react to all this to break away from the Bolter porn, the remeberancers!"

 

Only good Word Bearer is Argal Tal. The rest could all be killed and the universe would have been better off (there Warband tactic sucks too. 'oh, got and they shall know no fear' as your one trait eh? I guess you can say they aren't silver painted Campers or Green painted Sneaky boys.

 

Regarding the Alpha Legion, :cuss gets to Shamalan levels of "what a twist!" After a bit, takes a cool concept and then takes it too far if you get what I mean.

 

Betrayer and First Heretic are must reads.

[Rob P]

 

Hi everyone, I would like to buy my first books to read, there are good retailers online where to buy?

I could also content myself with e-books

 

Which country are you in and what language do the books need to be in?

 

I find amazon to be the easiest place to get both hard-copy books and kindle (.mobi) books.

[TorvaldTheMild]

 

Hi everyone, I would like to buy my first books to read, there are good retailers online where to buy?

I could also content myself with e-books

 

Ebay is great for getting paperbacks and hardbacks.

[bluntblade]

I would suggest three choices for a beginner, but as Brother Tyler has mentioned there are many many different tastes.

 

1. Do you want to know about one of the major overarching events that created the current Warhammer 40K universe? Do you want to read about a Demi-Gods fall to evil? Then start with Horus Rising and the Horus Heresy story Arch.

 

2. Do you like Crime Novels and intrigue around mysteries and the suspense they bring? Do you want a story based on the worlds of the Imperium of Man and not the battlefields? Then start with the Eisenhorn Trilogy.

 

3. Do you want to experience the plight of a normal human soldier within the Imperial Guard? Then start with the Gaunt's Ghosts series of books.

 

The above are a good starting point to which you can figure out what interests you. You can then venture off to those areas like the Mechanicum series, Various Space Marine Chapter books, Necromunda, Current Dark Imperium stories, etc. It can be a little daunting if you do not start with the books above.

 

If I may:

 

4. Do you want to jump into what the Space Marines (them being the poster boys) are about with minimal context? If so, Battle of the Fang and Wrath of Iron will both do nicely and give a thorough sense of the setting's darkness and grimness.

[Whitelion]

Many thanks to everyone for the valuable advice, I really appreciate it, being new of 40k I don't know where to start.

Let's say I would be interested in reading about the destruction of the planet Calth, the battles that involved the three Abyss Classes, the destruction of the planet Nostramo, the destruction of the hive planet.

 

In general I love the fights between spaceships, I approached 40k because of its beautiful ships, even if I'm also interested in land forces. Space marines are fantastic.

 

The only books I know of that I want to buy are: Space Marine Battles: The Death of Integrity

Night Lords: I do not know which one exactly but they destroy a moon with a single cyclonic torpedo.

 

I am Italian, but I don't think there is much in my language. 40k I like it so much that I'm willing to read in English too. Perhaps with e-books it would be easier to translate, perhaps using google translate.

[Claws and Effect]

 

Many thanks to everyone for the valuable advice, I really appreciate it, being new of 40k I don't know where to start.

Let's say I would be interested in reading about the destruction of the planet Calth, the battles that involved the three Abyss Classes, the destruction of the planet Nostramo, the destruction of the hive planet.

 

In general I love the fights between spaceships, I approached 40k because of its beautiful ships, even if I'm also interested in land forces. Space marines are fantastic.

 

The only books I know of that I want to buy are: Space Marine Battles: The Death of Integrity

Night Lords: I do not know which one exactly but they destroy a moon with a single cyclonic torpedo.

 

I am Italian, but I don't think there is much in my language. 40k I like it so much that I'm willing to read in English too. Perhaps with e-books it would be easier to translate, perhaps using google translate.

I wouldn't use Google translate. There are a lot of words used in 40k that have no direct translation to any language and it could (and likely would) end up a confusing mess.

[Whitelion]

I thank you for the advice, you are right, technical terms would be translated in a misleading way. Maybe I could make a slow translation, basically reading the text one realizes if words appear out of place, and I could correct them in a targeted way.