Good books with Imperial Knights?

[Scribe]

Are there any?

[Malkydel]

I enjoyed Knights of the Imperium, tbh. It was a good foot forward when they first released. Had a really good feel to it, and a bit of utility with McNeill's wider Ad Mech stuff.

[aa.logan]

‘Good’ good?

 

Maybe not.

 

But Kingsblade is fun and silly, and when judged on its own merits probably counts.

[Kelborn]

There's not that much covering Knights:

 

- Knights of the Imperium by McNeill, next one on my to read list

- Kingsblade, Knightsblade and the related shorts by Andy clark; except Knightsblade (haven't read it yet) they're solid, more an adventurous one than a 40k one but I enjoyed it quite a lot

- little Knights part in Master of Mankind, which are really good but not more of a side story than anything else

 

That's all I'm aware of.

[Malkydel]

There's not that much covering Knights:

 

- Knights of the Imperium by McNeill, next one on my to read list

- Kingsblade, Knightsblade and the related shorts by Andy clark; except Knightsblade (haven't read it yet) they're solid, more an adventurous one than a 40k one but I enjoyed it quite a lot

- little Knights part in Master of Mankind, which are really good but not more of a side story than anything else

 

That's all I'm aware of.

I suppose if you go the Heresy route then there's chunks of Vengeful Spirit as well, paired with "The Devine Adoratrice."

[Canadian_F_H]

There are some bits about Knights in Horus Heresy book 9 "Mechanicum"

 

I'm about 20% of the way thru it right now and so far they've had at least 2 parts with knights Questoris actively doing things and another part where leaders of knights are involved in martian politics.

Edited September 8, 2020 by Canadian_F_H

[Noserenda]

I recall Andy Knights books being fun if not great but yeah Knights tend to be side characters in most things.

[N1SB]

Oh boy, it's 1 of my favourite Warhammer books, but I'm not sure I should recommend this: Titanicus by Dan Abnett.

 

The issue is as follows: when Dan Abnett writes about something, he actually writes around it.  The central story is about a Titan war, but all the interesting stuff happens around that, like a tank crew whose tank got blown up in the middle of no man's land and they have to rely on their skills to survive, and the survivors of Guardsmen squad who basically failed their Morale check.  In case you ever wondered what actually happens to the models that fail a Morale check, this is the perfect book for you.

 

TL;DR - Titanicus is a really fun book where the Titans are actually the least interesting part.

[Dumah]

Oh boy, it's 1 of my favourite Warhammer books, but I'm not sure I should recommend this: Titanicus by Dan Abnett.

 

The issue is as follows: when Dan Abnett writes about something, he actually writes around it.  The central story is about a Titan war, but all the interesting stuff happens around that, like a tank crew whose tank got blown up in the middle of no man's land and they have to rely on their skills to survive, and the survivors of Guardsmen squad who basically failed their Morale check.  In case you ever wondered what actually happens to the models that fail a Morale check, this is the perfect book for you.

 

TL;DR - Titanicus is a really fun book where the Titans are actually the least interesting part.

 

I think it's important to note that Titans and Knights are not the same thing. I don't recall any Knights in Titanicus, though it has been some  years since I read it.

[Scribe]

‘Good’ good?

 

Maybe not.

 

But Kingsblade is fun and silly, and when judged on its own merits probably counts.

 

Yes, I'm looking for 'good' good. As in, actually meeting the standard of a good book. ADB/Wraight/French/Reynolds level of 'good'.

 

I will not, read Adnett. :p

 

I've read the 30K stuff (re-reading Master of Mankind right now, and its still an utter masterpiece, even better on follow up readings) but was wondering if theres one that just covers like, a Knight World. 

 

I'll see if I can get a hold of the ones mentioned. :D

[DarkChaplain]

Personally, I really enjoyed Titandeath, it did a great many things right. The big issue I have with it is thatit could have used a companion piece from another part of the war, or even an anthology for Beta-Garmon. But the main narratives of Titandeath were well done and impactful.

 

As for the chutes, that's basically a Mecha-staple anyway. Evangelion (probably the most well-known Mecha anime, as much as I dislike it) has those, too.

[Kelborn]

https://www.blacklibrary.com/Home/Search-Results.html?__csrfToken=tDo8ZsybM%2F6wJX6lRtQz3bUJv04oCcbYU0NmXzSAGprE&filter_type=6&filter_Action=0&filter_name=SearchTerm&submit=GO&filter_value=Imperial+knights

 

That's the search result on the BL homepage.

As you can see, more than half of it pops up due to some weird algorithm shenanigans.

 

Besides that, there isn't that much - a fact I personally dislike 'cause Knights have a lot of potential, at least as much as a SM chapter imho.

Try out "Becoming" by Andy Clark. It's a prequel story to Kingsblade. If you enjoy it, you got two novels and another short ahead of ya. If not, you didn't waste a full novel price.

 

But there's next to zero stuff from your favourite authors.

Edited September 9, 2020 by Kelborn

[Scribe]

The search function on the BL site is truly an abomination. I'll give those a shot though. :D

[DarkChaplain]

I remember the old days when books would have small icons for the factions on their storepages, though they never did that for all of them. Ideally, they should've paid somebody competent for the redesign back then and introduced a tag-based catalog system alongside the regular search (which needs to be far more robust than just... searching site text, indiscriminately). Looking up stories with Eldar or Tau in them should be MUCH more convenient.

[Sandlemad]

Can't say I've come across anything as good as the knight sections in MoM, though I've not read Clark's stuff. Titandeath's a decent book but the knight elements really are blink and you'll miss it.

 

Knights of the Imperium is definitely not 'good' good but it does do something extremely enjoyable with the plot in the back third. Not worth the price of a novel but if you found the opportunity to pick it up for a few quid, it's worth that.

[DarkChaplain]

For what it's worth, Knights of the Imperium is included in Servants of the Machine-God, which also includes two of Clark's Knight short stories (Becoming and Defiant) as well as a bunch of Titan stories. Most importantly, though, there's a Fehervari in there.

[Petitioner's City]

Titandeath and Master of Mankind are the two works that popped in my mind.

[sitnam]

I really enjoyed Clark's Knight books. They aren't really deep or anything, but good action novels that do a decent jobs displaying house dynamics and politics

[bluntblade]

If we get the Heresy treated as a setting in the future, I'm hoping someone mines the Forge World lore and narratives.

[Sandlemad]

If we get the Heresy treated as a setting in the future, I'm hoping someone mines the Forge World lore and narratives.

 

Yeah, the FW pieces on the various knight houses in Conquest are all brilliant. There's surely the seeds of good stories there.

[Brother Lunkhead]

"Good books".......veerrry subjective Brother Scribe

 

Graham McNeill's Mechanicum is my submission here. Although not exclusively a Knights novel, they do feature prominently. The novel gives the reader a good introduction the culture of a Knight House and how it differs from a Titan legion, the different mindset of a Noble Knight Pilot, and some good Knight combat action..... one of my favorite HH novels.

[Scribe]

I did enjoy Mechanicum. :D

[bluntblade]

 

If we get the Heresy treated as a setting in the future, I'm hoping someone mines the Forge World lore and narratives.

 

Yeah, the FW pieces on the various knight houses in Conquest are all brilliant. There's surely the seeds of good stories there.

I dearly wish that we'd had some BL books focusing on, say, Abaddon and Aximand, and depicting the Wraekan Dreor, Cthonian Jackals etc. Hopefully someone will go spelunking there at some stage.

[sitnam]

 

 

If we get the Heresy treated as a setting in the future, I'm hoping someone mines the Forge World lore and narratives.

 

Yeah, the FW pieces on the various knight houses in Conquest are all brilliant. There's surely the seeds of good stories there.

I dearly wish that we'd had some BL books focusing on, say, Abaddon and Aximand, and depicting the Wraekan Dreor, Cthonian Jackals etc. Hopefully someone will go spelunking there at some stage.

 

Whilst I agree, we still have a dearth of Black Library books exploring interesting 40k pieces imo. It is getting better though