Best works for each Legion/Chapter/Warband?

[Scribe]

What are in your esteemed opinions the best series, or individual novels for each Marine faction?

 

I'm just reading the Fabius Bile series, and its fantastic.

The First Claw series, is fantastic.

 

Are there any other series or stand alone novels that reach those heights for everyone else? 

[Valkia the Bloody]

I really enjoyed the Word Bearer series, too. That was really dark and gritty.

 

And of course the Inquisition and Gaunts Ghosts novels by Dan Abnett, which are my favorites (along with ADB's Night Lords of course).

[Roomsky]

Sticking to the legions for now, may post again for successor chapters later. Also excluding short stories, novels only.

 

Emperor’s Children – Reynolds’ work: Fabius Bile and The Palatine Phoenix
Reynolds’ work with the legion is anything but one-note. He gives them a sympathetic arrogance in The Palatine Phoenix, and explores many facets of excess in Fabius Bile. All the way through they remain competent, in their own way.

 

Iron Warriors – Tallarn, supplemented by French’s other Heresy work

Resigned to duty is how I would describe the IV, and French captures the deep-seated bitterness of the legion very well. He also gives them an actual arc, which I appreciate.

 

White Scars – Wraight’s work

I don’t think this one needs explaining.

 

Space Wolves – Prospero Burns, Ragnar Blackmane by ADB

I’m sure I have some bias because I don’t really like the faction. Abnett builds a distinct, intriguing culture for the now extinct 30k variety of wolf. ADB’s treatment of the legion focusses on their virtues and faults without resorting to memes or wolf-wolf-wolves.

 

Imperial Fists – Praetorian of Dorn, supplemented by French’s other Heresy work. Watson’s Space Marine

Another duty-bound legion, which French’s humourless style works excellently for. He makes them straightforward without being stupid, a hard balance to keep. Space Marine is insane but awesome.

 

Night Lords – ADB’s work: First Claw and Prince of Crows. Lord of the Night also

Lord of the Night establishes a precedent of greatness that ADB follows strong on the heels of. Their takes on the legion are nuanced but brutal, unwilling slaves to destiny who defy the associated tropes as much as conform to them.

 

Iron Hands – Guymer’s 40k work

Guymer never forgets the brutality of the Imperium, and ratchets it to 11 with the X. His Iron Hands are monsters, and he thankfully never applies the blatant heroism of Stronos that Clan Raukaan tried to foist on the chapter.

 

World Eaters – Betrayer, Slave of Nuceria

ADB gives a great portrait of a tragic, broken legion that never had a choice in meeting its dark destiny. Slave of Nuceria is an excellent companion piece, injecting agency, and by extension a dark heart, back into the legion.

 

Ultramarines – Know no Fear

The book that made the haters stop hating. If there could only be one work featuring the Ultramarines it should be this one.

 

Death Guard – Lords of Silence

Wraight finally gives a compelling look into a constantly mishandled and ignored legion. It also makes great use of the legion’s grossness and patience as a part of their being rather than set dressing.

 

Thousand Sons – A Thousand Sons, the Ahriman trilogy

Mcneill’s opus does a ton of legwork in establishing legion culture, and of course has the advantage of telling their most compelling story. French establishes a legion tangled in so many plots they can barely tell anymore, everyone believing they are atop the scheme pile until its too late. French’s twist-based plotting is a perfect fit for the legion.

 

 

Sons of Horus – Horus Rising

In fairness, nothing short of Forge World really manages to make them both charismatic and especially unique. But in their relationship to Horus himself, and in giving us a compelling cast, no book does it better.

 

Word Bearers – The First Heretic

A masterclass in making a legion of zealous mass-murderers understandable without ignoring their atrocities. They seem competent as well, rather than suicidal and unsustainable.

 

Alpha Legion – Legion

Memes aside, it’s the best way to look at a mysterious faction – through the eyes of another. The XX here are intimidating and intelligent, and more intriguing in their distance from the POV characters than they ever can be laid bare.

Edited August 13, 2020 by Roomsky

[Sandlemad]

Awkwardly I don't think every chapter or legion has a novel as good as the NL trilogy, or even being generous, in the same ball park as the NL trilogy. Can't think of anything written for e.g. the Dark Angels comes close.

 

A lot of the better books, the ones that we put in the same league as ADB's NL books, also seem to be doing similar things. I would say that the Bile trilogy, Lords of Silence, the Ahriman trilogy, the Black Legion series all come pretty close to or exceed them. So do a bunch of others listed below but these set have a core cast of likeable and well-written traitor characters living that chaos warband life, bitterly wrestling with the past and the future, thinking about change, quipping to each other (usually), working through their fluid ideologies and relationships with their dads… I don’t know, might just have identified the kinds of stuff I like and find interesting but this very broad format does seem to get the best out of the authors. Not just these guys either, Ian St Martin’s Lucius the Eternal book and Anthony Reynolds Khârn: Eater of Worlds novella are also excellent.

 

Dark Angels: eh. 

 

Emperor’s Children: The Bile series does a good job with the caveat that it sort of swerves between Bile himself and thoughts about the broader legion. The second and third books might be the best stuff written about them though. Maybe Reynolds’s Fulgrim: Palatine Phoenix novel comes close? It's Fulgrim and the legion at their best, it's well written and tells a concise and interesting tale.

 

Iron Warriors: Storm of Iron, I guess. Fun for what it is but it’s on a different order.

 

White Scars: Brotherhood of the Storm. You could easily say the entire WS heresy sub-series and you'd be absolutely right but BotS does it all more succinctly and elegantly, I feel.

 

Space Wolves: Probably Battle of the Fang? I dearly love Prospero Burns and would maintain it’s about the most ‘literary’ book in the heresy… but it feels like Battle of the Fang does the best job syncing the varied depictions of the legion/chapter by being set at a sort of transitional point. Offers a kind of 360 view of the chapter’s angles as well, and of course it’s got Wraight’s prose. Good action scenes, consistant tone, solid emotions, a good few compelling characters if nothing on the order of fan favourites like Uzas and co. 

 

Imperial Fists: Praetorian of Dorn. Doesn’t reduce them to a one-note stubborn dude, has a fun twisty plot, engages not just with the practicalities of culture but of the underpinnings of their ideology. Manages to make a cast of pretty much entirely straight men interesting.

 

Night Lords: ADB’s NL trilogy.

 

Blood Angels: Dante, in that it does something similar to Battle of the Fang and offers a bit of a 360 of the chapter. Decently written and gets across the idealism, the whole fading of the light thing.

 

Iron Hands: Wrath of Iron. Not a complex book by any means but the image it puts across of the Iron Hands is a fine one. Minimal interiority but it’s a bleak chapter at its bleakest. Not in the heights of the NL trilogy in terms of characterisation but a good, stark book. You could maybe throw in David Guymer’s IH books, still surprised at the experimentation he got away with, but while they dig into the chapter well, I think the brute simplicity of Wrath of Iron is fitting and I liked it more on a sentence by sentence basis.

 

World Eaters: I wouldn’t go so far as to say the most good stuff about the WE’s background goes back to Betrayer - the short story ‘After De’shea’ has the germ of an astounding amount in it - but a lof of it’s there. Compelling story that could only work with the WE, great characters. One of the best heresy books.

 

Ultramarines: Know No Fear, for me. I think if you had to reduce the heresy to one book, it’d probably be this for how it does betrayal, disaster, etc. Just a fine example of how to write a Pearl Harbour/ or a 9/11 for 30k. Fine dialogue, a wonderful conceit with the mark/timestamp giving a sense of impending doom, immediately likeable characters. What Abnett does with the UM is simple, smart, distinctive and pretty restrained really.

 

Death Guard: Lords of Silence. I don’t think there’s any contest here. On a stylistic level the best thing Wraight’s written. Great characters, great prose, some exploration of the depths of despair as Nurgle's core emotion. One of a bunch of excellent chaos novels. Not sure what else to say about this, can’t think of anything else written about the DG that even comes close.

 

Thousand Sons: the Ahriman trilogy. Appropriately convoluted, timey-wimey, and hits at the core thread of the legion. A Thousand Sons does so decently as well but French’s books by dropping you in after the tragedy make it feel more like a cycle. Post-rubric but kind of running through it partially again? A reunion but also a retread, without that meaning to sound perjorative. The main element here is the tripartite relationship between Magnus, Ahriman, and the rest of the legion. Everything, all the tragedy, revolves around that.

 

Sons of Horus/Black Legion: I guess for the latter it’s got to be ADB’s Black Legion books but for the Sons of Horus it feels harder. Horus Rising remains a fantastic book. There’s others which have a stab at the SoH culture post-Betrayal with mixed results but this wins out. It has memorable set pieces, characters who in one book do get close to the Talos/Uzas/etc level (still the best Horus) and I think the slightly more secular/professional/“regular sci-fi” approach Abnett brought to the first 30k book fits them better than any other legion.

 

Word Bearers: Probably The First Heretic. The Anthony Reynolds trilogy is good fun but TFH wins out as a very fine novel.  

 

Salamanders: I don’t know of any books about the Salamanders that come anywhere close to the Bile or NL trilogies.

 

Raven Guard: I think they’re pretty underserved as well but the Haley’s Corax: Lord of Shadows novel is more than decent. Looks at their philosophy, their flawed primarch and their relationship with him, where their freedom fighter shtick falls badly short, yeah, it’s good.

 

Alpha Legion: I have a possibly unjustified fondness for Sons of the Hydra but I think this would probably be Praetorian of Dorn as well. Legion would be a fair cop too, arguably doing much the same as what I've said Wrath of Iron did for the IH.

Edited August 13, 2020 by Sandlemad

[Valkia the Bloody]

Seeing these glowing reviews, I really should read Know no Fear and Betrayer. They are both sitting here on my shelf (together with the more recent Wolfsbane and Saturnine) collecting dust....

[Scribe]

Know no Fear is mostly great. If it had only had Ultra's (no Perpetuals) I would rate it very well.

Betrayer, is amazing.

 

Appreciate the feedback/lists everyone, most of these I have/had but a few I still need to pick up.

[Bobss]

These lists are basically the same five authors (+ a few anomalies): Josh Reynolds, Chris Wraight, ADB, Dan Abnett and John French. These also happen to be the same five guys that appear on my bookshelf 

 

I can't really add anything to what other people haven't already said. A few pointers though:

 

Would like to recommend Chris Wraight's a-mei-zing Emperor's Children work in The Path of Heaven. It might not be quite as good as Josh Reynolds' work in the Fabius Bile trilogy but I. it was released first and at the time was easily the best rendition of the Emperor's Children to date and II. is one of the best snapshots of a Legion midway through their corruption. These aren't Children of the Emperor. These aren't full-blown Noise Marines either - they are a (dis)organised Legion of Newfound Hedonists 

 

John French does the best Wubblies. ADB is loved for The First Heretic and Betrayer, but those guys have still only dipped their toes into the sea of Chaotic veneration. Poking around with astropaths and nailing dudes to tanks is rookie numbers. French's Word Bearers in Slaves to Darkness/The Solar War are the posterboy Cardinals of Chaos. French's Sons of Horus are also easily the best, incorporating a lot of the retrofitting their Legion received via Forge World supplements. In fact, if John French were more of a naturally gifted writer like Abnett or Wraight, he would probably be the strongest writer in the stable - in terms of Legion culture and portrayal, random Black Book snippets blow entire novels out of the water. However, his writing tends to be rather dense if not bordering on purple sometimes so his books tend to get skipped by a significant portion of the fandom in my experience

 

My favourite boys, the Bagels, probably goes to Guy Haley for a solid portrayal of them and their successors. Funnily enough, that recent ADB interview where him, John French and Alan Bligh all have/had designed their own Blood Angels successor chapters touched on Legion themes and stylistic features better than any portrayal to date: Gothic vampirism, Renaissance philosophising and wrathful angelic fervour. I'm still hoping ADB claims the IX Legion with his Siege entry and the Death Company death-company-ing in one of the future Black Legion books 

 

I would love more pre-Caliban First Legion though. Without a doubt one of the richest and most underexplored Legion cultures, arguably representing the ideal Space Marine crusading knight image better than anyone - before the Lion ruined things with tabards, secrets and autism. I couldn't give the smallest about Caliban and its culture, but rad-scarred Unification vets with rayguns who have followed the Emperor Himself into battle on giant baked saltpans against the cast of Akira makes me very giddy

Edited August 14, 2020 by Bobss

[mc warhammer]

Sticking to the legions for now, may post again for successor chapters later. Also excluding short stories, novels only.

 

Emperor’s Children – Reynolds’ work: Fabius Bile and The Palatine Phoenix

Reynolds’ work with the legion is anything but one-note. He gives them a sympathetic arrogance in The Palatine Phoenix, and explores many facets of excess in Fabius Bile. All the way through they remain competent, in their own way.

 

Iron Warriors – Tallarn, supplemented by French’s other Heresy work

Resigned to duty is how I would describe the IV, and French captures the deep-seated bitterness of the legion very well. He also gives them an actual arc, which I appreciate.

 

White Scars – Wraight’s work

I don’t think this one needs explaining.

 

Space Wolves – Prospero Burns, Ragnar Blackmane by ADB

I’m sure I have some bias because I don’t really like the faction. Abnett builds a distinct, intriguing culture for the now extinct 30k variety of wolf. ADB’s treatment of the legion focusses on their virtues and faults without resorting to memes or wolf-wolf-wolves.

 

Imperial Fists – Praetorian of Dorn, supplemented by French’s other Heresy work. Watson’s Space Marine

Another duty-bound legion, which French’s humourless style works excellently for. He makes them straightforward without being stupid, a hard balance to keep. Space Marine is insane but awesome.

 

Night Lords – ADB’s work: First Claw and Prince of Crows. Lord of the Night also

Lord of the Night establishes a precedent of greatness that ADB follows strong on the heels of. Their takes on the legion are nuanced but brutal, unwilling slaves to destiny who defy the associated tropes as much as conform to them.

 

Iron Hands – Guymer’s 40k work

Guymer never forgets the brutality of the Imperium, and ratchets it to 11 with the X. His Iron Hands are monsters, and he thankfully never applies the blatant heroism of Stronos that Clan Raukaan tried to foist on the chapter.

 

World Eaters – Betrayer, Slave of Nuceria

ADB gives a great portrait of a tragic, broken legion that never had a choice in meeting its dark destiny. Slave of Nuceria is an excellent companion piece, injecting agency, and by extension a dark heart, back into the legion.

 

Ultramarines – Know no Fear

The book that made the haters stop hating. If there could only be one work featuring the Ultramarines it should be this one.

 

Death Guard – Lords of Silence

Wraight finally gives a compelling look into a constantly mishandled and ignored legion. It also makes great use of the legion’s grossness and patience as a part of their being rather than set dressing.

 

Thousand Sons – A Thousand Sons, the Ahriman trilogy

Mcneill’s opus does a ton of legwork in establishing legion culture, and of course has the advantage of telling their most compelling story. French establishes a legion tangled in so many plots they can barely tell anymore, everyone believing they are atop the scheme pile until its too late. French’s twist-based plotting is a perfect fit for the legion.

 

 

Sons of Horus – Horus Rising

In fairness, nothing short of Forge World really manages to make them both charismatic and especially unique. But in their relationship to Horus himself, and in giving us a compelling cast, no book does it better.

 

Word Bearers – The First Heretic

A masterclass in making a legion of zealous mass-murderers understandable without ignoring their atrocities. They seem competent as well, rather than suicidal and unsustainable.

 

Alpha Legion – Legion

Memes aside, it’s the best way to look at a mysterious faction – through the eyes of another. The XX here are intimidating and intelligent, and more intriguing in their distance from the POV characters than they ever can be laid bare.

i'm co-signing all of this except for:

 

iron hands - ferrus manus: the gorgon of medusa  (yep. i only care that the legion is interesting, not whether or not they're depicted "positively" or "negatively")

iron warriors - the iron within (if shorts are allowed). my first real intro to the legion's thinking and one that i thought really captured them. if shorts arent allowed, then it has to be the hammer of olympia.

 

only because i haven't read the 40k books roomsky noted.

 

and i agree that tFH defines the word bearers, but i didn't find them interesting until apocalypse.

Edited August 14, 2020 by mc warhammer

[Lucerne]

Prateorian of Dorn is a very solid look at the AL's nature.

[Roomsky]

And as for the legion adjacent stuff:

 

Excluding chapters/factions that were practically invented by their coverage. Obviously Spears are best by ADB, Iron Snakes are best by Abnett, etc.

 

The Black Legion - ADB's work

No real competition here, you see it's genesis and are one degree removed from the guy who lays down its purpose. Strong cast, strong themes, just great.

 

Adeptus Custodes - Watchers of the Throne

They only take up a third of these novels but it's the most comprehensive look at who they are and why they act the way they do. Helps they're also supremely competent and pretty likable.

 

Sisters of Silence - Watchers of the Throne

Ditto.

 

Sisters of Battle - Mark of Faith

Harrison balances ritual, faith, passion, wrath, and mercy perfectly in this story, with an excellent diversity of Sisters who exemplify the various obsessions one might be driven by.

 

Black Templars - Helsreach, Blood and Fire

ADB unsurprisingly works his usual magic by injecting humanity into one of the most violently zealous factions in the setting. They're no less awesome for it, though.

 

Gray Knights - The Emperor's Gift

The usual. Shows the downsides of being a super-secret cream of the crop organization that suddenly needs to do anything but kill daemons.

 

 

Factions exemplified by a book they don't star in: Red Corsairs (Blood Reaver), Flesh Tearers (Ragnar Blackmane), Minotaurs (The Regent's Shadow)

 

And based on Blood Rite, Rachel Harrison would own the Blood Angels if given a full novel.

Edited August 14, 2020 by Roomsky

[Lucerne]

Counter's first Grey Knights novel  with the same title is still their definitive book.

[Scribe]

 

 

Black Templars - Helsreach, Blood and Fire

ADB unsurprisingly works his usual magic by injecting humanity into one of the most violently zealous factions in the setting. They're no less awesome for it, though.

 

 

 

One of the scenes that still resonates with me is when Grimaldus yells that the Emperor's Champion will suffer penance for disobedience and he just laughs and keeps going after Orks. 

 

EDIT: I'll also say, these lists are not shocking at all, but the fact its the same 4-5 authors across them is worrisome to me. Its great we have these prototypical books, that so well illuminate the factions, but...its essentially single point (or 4-5 points) of failure.

 

We need them to keep writing. :D

Edited August 14, 2020 by Scribe

[Sandlemad]

 

EDIT: I'll also say, these lists are not shocking at all, but the fact its the same 4-5 authors across them is worrisome to me. Its great we have these prototypical books, that so well illuminate the factions, but...its essentially single point (or 4-5 points) of failure.

We need them to keep writing.

 

 

Definitely, these are certainly good authors but I think it's also a quirk of what kind of novel we're focusing on here. There's other excellent authors writing for BL - Matt Farrer, Rob Sanders, Peter Fehervari x1000 - who perhaps sometimes get a bit overlooked because while they write excellent books, as good or better than many of the ones listed here, they're not the kinds of works that get jumped on in fan circles as the deep dive/cultural insight book for X astartes faction.

 

And there's promising newer authors as well who I guess either haven't had the chance or haven't done one of these kinds of prototypical books. Roomsky's mentioned Rachel Harrison but I'd also throw in Mike Brooks, Jake Ozga, Nate Crowley among others. Admittedly I'm not sure all of them would necessarily be interested in writing a story or novel like this but the potential is there.

[Xisor]

I definitely think there's room for shorts on this.

 

E.g. Salamanders Kyme's Scorched Earth or Guy Haley's Unforged and Strike and Fade do seriously marvellous work.

 

World Eaters, again I think it's criminal After Desh'ea by Farrer rarely gets a look in.

 

Speaking of which:

Night Lords, Thousand Sons, Iron Warriors, Word Bearers, Emperor's Children: All of them - and indeed all Chaos Legions, warbands and chapters by allegory - are definitively served by the very long short story The Masters, Bidding by Matt Farrer. 

 

Imperial Fists (legion+legacy/successors): Legion of the Damned by Rob Sanders. Gives the legacy of the Imperial Fists (via the Excoriators Chapter) a lot more life and dimensions than any amount of gnashing teeth at Iron Warriors or bemoaning/loving being on fortification duty every has.

 

I can't think of more off the top of my head, but it's to these things my mind always goes when looking for 'best things' for a faction.

 

Novels are often much bigger and more expansive things relating to much more than being about one thing. Or maybe too big for them to be deeply memorable for it.

 

(So it's rare ones like Scars/Path of Heaven and Blood Reaver and Battle of the Fang [which eclipses ATS and PB, for me as time goes on] that really grapple with the hearts of big factional issues and don't let go. Legion of the Damned is an amusing counterpoint - the spooky fireghost marines are only one of many damned legions being explored and torn apart to inspect in the book, but bloody hell it's intensely focused on exploring legions of the damned. Damn, it's a good 'un.)

[aa.logan]

Ian St Martin’s Lucius book is great, not quite hitting the levels of the Fabius Bile trilogy, but giving good EC all the same.

 

My favourite portrayal of the Word Bearers is probably in Apocalypse, it really makes them feel religious in a way that few other works manage.

[sitnam]

I think we should be splitting these between the HH and 40k timelines, as the Legions/Chapters involved changed much in that time period. Know No Fear is a great UM novel, though it doesnt apply quite as much to the 40k timeline (which I prefer). I think this applies even more so for the various Chaos warbands.

 

As for the factions I'm somewhat well-read in (I'm better read on 40k stuff):

 

Iron Hands: Their best 30k works, imo, are Frenches shorts. I mostly despise the Iron Hands HH storyline, but his works actually gave them a unique angle besides the Shattered Legions thing. Whilst Wrath of Iron is a good novel, I think Guymers books do a better job characterizing the chapter.

 

Night Lords: I havent read their 30k, so I cant go there. But as for the 'modern' stuff, I really loved Lord of  the Night back when I read it 10+ years ago. I recently finished the ABD Night Lords trilogy and I was honestly underwhelmed compared to all the hype those books get.  Great books, but my nostalgia prefers Lord of the Night.

 

Alpha Legion: Legion is kind of the foundation of the legion in terms of lore. They dont have a ton of 40k novels, but I loved Shroud of Night, as it took Alpha Legionaires out of their element.

 

Black Legion: ABD's Black Legion trilogy really sells them for me. I think that the BL and SoH differ so much they shouldn't even be in the same category.

 

Death Guard: I'm kind of ambivalent towards Wraights stuff. I always end up loving it (Though I didnt care for Scars), but I got to really get into his stories.  Lords of Silence confounds this with the fact that I really dislike the Death Guard, but danm is it a satisfying novel at the end.

 

Red Corsairs: I'd really love if some non-Legion warbands got some love, and Red Corsairs are top of the list. Though they arent the protagonists, Blood Reaver does a great job depicting the Red Corsairs and Hurons ambition.

 

Carcarodons: I also wish we got more successor chapter love, and MacNivens Space Sharks are one reason why. Predators in the dark, hunting unseen threats to the Imperium. I wouldnt say his books are underrated, as they seem to get decent praise, but I think they are underappreciated. 

[Xisor]

@Sitnam: the distinction between 40k and 30k is a valid one, albeit one I think even authors sometimes struggle with. Or perhaps - to be peevish - don't struggle enough with!

 

The Iron Hands and Salamanders are a rich seam for this, to my eyes, and often a missed opportunity.

 

The Iron Hands largely because I feel there should have been a deeper sense of loss with Ferrus Manus, not one that was just about the loss of a father, but the loss of the opportunity and futures nd what could have been.

 

Many stories make the plunge into Mechanical stuff the only dimension - resist it or dive deeper.

 

But I kinda feel like the Iron Hands had freedom (Meduson certainly explores this in ways) but never quite in enough depth to capture the spirit I'm hankering for. The Iron Hands had the cusp of everything, Ferrus could have been a credible candidate for Warmaster, we could have seen his Horus-ness at Isstvan, in corraling the traitors so much that he might have been on the cusp of having, say, Perturabo or Curze or Alpharius and the like actually doubt their siding with Horus, not just in getting the subservience and acquiescence of low-key Corax or the essentially agreeable Vulkan, you know?

 

The Iron Hands themselves, after Isstvan had a capacity to go anywhere, just imagine that capacity before Isstvan, with Ferrus whole and hale and hearty - what about Medusa or the Legion really meant they *had* to become angry cyborg bores? They could have had any sort of character at all with some tie to Medusa's wierd heritage, but we never saw any of that.

 

That's where Guymer's works shine - they echo the core plot of "Battle of the Fang": what does it mean to be that Chapter? Who's really commanding their destiny, and how ambitious do they want to be to it versus how true do they want to be to themselves?

 

Where the Iron Hands of Guymer's work are somewhat downtrodden and ignorant of their fate, that makes them a very unlikely underdog too - almost Nigh Lordly in how little they see of the truth of their situation, and how much power others have acquired over them.

 

Contrast that with the Wolves of "Battle of the Fang" , and to a great extent those seen in "The Emperor's Gift" - they're not rampaging conquerers living their best life, they're in a very sorry state, metaphorically (and indeed: literally!) under siege with dwindling resources and even faster dwindling friends and allies... They're underdogs (underwolves?) not purely because someone else has duped or hoodwinked them into being subservient, but because in resisting such manipulations, and trying to remain steadfastly true to themselves, they've isolated themselves to a perilous degree.

 

It's fascinating, and really speaks to the independent natures of both Chapters - but in very distinctive ways. There's parallels, but it's the differences that make their similarities so compelling. They're nothing alike, and yet...

 

---

 

All that reminds me, Kyme seemed to pursue a similar route in the 40k Salamanders trilogy, but did emphasise an intriguing point: on a personal level, the Salamanders preach independence and self-sufficiency, but at a faction level, they are *so* much about dependence and teamwork, in the big factional interplays.

 

I'm not sure he necessarily does the concept justice to merit it's place as a sort of archetypally brilliant or definitive Salamanders 40k story, but the gist of "Fire drake" really nails it, even drawing things kinda full circle with the "rehabilitation" of the Dragon Warrior, and the way that their very existence eems to have unified goodness knows how many in the whatchamacallums - the Blood Dragon traitor beasties.

 

It draws to a head in the 3rd book neatly - "Nocturne" where their homeworld comes under attack from a vast coalition of unlikely allies.

 

It's not quite as coherent and peerless as I'd like, but it's a great contrast to the more "empty, small" world of the Salamanders in the Heresy, where things come and go without much impact on a factional level, despite the "claimed" themes of the stories being quite, y'know, high concept.

 

In 40k that commentary works well enough in those books, but in 30k it's much less effective for my tastes, hence why I went for the novella and two shorts: even other authors don't quite find a place for the Salamanders at the higher levels of the Heresy.

 

(For example: cowardly feckless suicidally broken s-good-as-traitors, seeing how they in their entirety abandoned the Imperium Secundus - totally AWOL - to go off on a wild goose chase/dead horse (err, Primarch) flogging expedition. It's bizarre that other legion's get such reputations for less (to the Imperium) egregious acts.)

[Scribe]

I still rate Wrath of Iron as definitive Iron Hands, and one of the great examples of the Grimdark trope.

 

I'll also second (third?) The Masters, Bidding. I wish he wrote more Chaos.

 

My local didn't have a copy of Slave of Nuceria, and that's the only WE book I think I've missed, so it's on my short list for after I slog through Saturine.

[Medjugorje]

Emperors Children - Fulgrim

Black Legion - Black Legion

Black Templars - Black Legion(yes I like it even more then Helsreach although ist a masterclass too - but Black Legion is the best book in whole 40k)

Night Lords - Soul Hunter

Ultramarines - Know no fear

Blood Angels - Dante (its the secound best book in whole of 40k so far)

Dark Eldar - Path of the incubi

Iron Hands - … waiting for any good one

Eldar - Path of the warrior

White Scars - White Scars

[Scribe]

 

Iron Hands - … waiting for any good one

 

 

You dont like Wrath of Iron?