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Essential Reading List ?


sibomots

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I need to boost my BT knowledge.   In my modest library I have these:

  • The Flight of the Eisenstein
  • Wolfsbane
  • Crusdade for Armageddon
  • Horus Rising
  • The First Heretic
  • The Solar War
  • Helsreach

I am in the middle of FotE.    What other key volumes am I missing to grok the BT mayhem?  Thanks.

Edit: these are not in order of reading.

I think I read the Armageddon books first, but was a long time ago.

 

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You're reading those Heresy books in a strange order. I'd have read Horus Rising first!

You will be wanting Blood and Fire immediately after Helsreach, as it's the sequel, Guy Haley's The Eternal Crusader is pretty key.

The whole Beast Arises Series is very Templar Focussed, and I would recommend reading the whole thing in order, not picking and choosing as otherwise it would make little sense overall.

For Primaris stuff you want at least the most recent Dawn of Fire novel, but any with Sergeant Lucerne are useful.

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Yeah, Beast Arises series has a fair bit of Templars stuff going on.

New book about Helbrecht is out in LE form.  Not sure when hardback and paperback editions are coming out.

 

The HH series has a few things were Imperial Fists who will become Black Templars have some bit parts.  Somewhere in the 1st 3 books there is an interesting conversation between members of the Sons of Horus and Sigismund.  I've read the 1st 39 HH novels and the fists haven't had much coverage thru most of it because they were mostly confined to the Sol System. But yeah, IF stuff in general during the HH series typically relates to Black Templars at least tangentially, tho frequently Sigismund himself is directly in there.

 

I need to check the book titles... 

"Flight of Eisenstien" has some IF stuff.  

"Mechanicum" is about the civil war on Mars.  I know Sigismund and some IF are sent to Mars to secure Astartes Power Armour, but I don't recall if it's in that book or in a compilation (the next HH book is the compilation "tales of heresy" so maybe in there⸮ I'll check)

(Name TBD) There is a short story or novella about the IF vs IW at Phall that is lumped into one of the HH novel compilations.  It's mostly about the future CM of the Crimson Fists, but I think it covers a bit about why Sigismund isn't there.

"Praetorian of Dorn" is about the Alpha Legion attacking the Sol System, so lots of IF stuff including some Sigismund stuff.

 

Outside of novels...

Besides the obvious things like:

Codex Armageddon (3rd Ed supliment)

Codex Black Templars (4th edition)

Codex Suppliments Black Templars (9th edition)

There is a little bit in the 6th and 7th edition space marine codexes when all the Codex Compliant chapters were lumped in with us.

 

The less obvious codexes with BT stuff (rules and lore snippets):

The 3 campaign books that ended 7th edition aka "The Gathering Storm" series featured the Black Templars fairly heavily.

I think BT had a role in one or more of the Vigilus campaign books in 8th edition.

And one of the psychic awakening campaign suppliments "Faith and Fury" had BT stuff in it too.

Going further back, the Apocalypse rulebook (prior to the 8th edition one) had a fair bit about templars because of the section about the 3rd war for Armageddon.

Edited by Canadian_F_H
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By far I prefer to take in my 40k books by listening to them rather than reading them. It's the best background noise for painting really. Sadly not too many Templar specific books are in audiobook format. Helsreach is the big notable exception, which I've listened to more than once. But are there like any others?

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I enjoyed listening to the whole Beast Arises series, and Dawn of Fire is all recorded. 

Oh! the Lords of Mars Trilogy is now on audiobook too I think? That's some good Templar lore. One to annoy the 'purists' as it features Templars fighting alongside Eldar and confirms that the Sergeant badge for a Templar is a laurel leaf akin to the codex badge. (All written by Graham McNeil, who wrote the 4th Ed Codex!)

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@sibomots

How could I forget...

The Black Legion series by Aaron Dembski-Bowden.

The second book, "Black Legion" is about the start of the 1st Black Crusade.  And the Black Templars are a fairly big part of the book.

Despite having little to nothing about the Templars in it (it's been a while) I would definitely read "Talon of Horus" first.  Otherwise I don't think the "Black Legion" novel would make much sense.

 

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On 7/24/2022 at 5:40 PM, Gederas said:

Even though it's not about the Templars specifically, Spear of the Emperor, as it's essentially a sequel to the Celestial Lions arc with Grimaldus.

is there a chance to get a sequel? I´ve heard that its just the beginning of  a series. I hope so becuase our knights in black will have a big role in it as I think

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  • 1 month later...

Brother, 

I would really recommend reading Warhawk (part 6 of the seige of terra books, actually read them all). In that book It explains the reason why Sigismund get the black sword and from who, and why he is called the Emperors champion and the enemies he kills. Teaser: For he was not the 1st Emperors Champion. Its done really good and im sure any BT fan will enjoy it.

The Emperor Protects

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A book  that is one of my favorites and doesn't get mentioned  very often is  Crusaders of Dorn by Guy Haley, it's an anthology of short stories which some have recurring characters so there's a feeling of progression. It's a really cool book that has some interesting situations like the point of view of a dreadnought or a neophyte doubting his orders to kill a family. I can't recommend this  book enough, Guy Haley really nailed the character of the chapter and puts it in interesting scenarios.

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17 hours ago, Chaplain Dak said:

Brother, 

I would really recommend reading Warhawk (part 6 of the seige of terra books, actually read them all). In that book It explains the reason why Sigismund get the black sword and from who, and why he is called the Emperors champion and the enemies he kills. Teaser: For he was not the 1st Emperors Champion. Its done really good and im sure any BT fan will enjoy it.

The Emperor Protects

Dumb question but is the novel entitled Warhawk? I’m a big fan of Sigs.

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There are a handful of older, yet very good Black Templar novellas and short stories .... Eternal Crusader has already been mentioned and it is one of them, The Black Pilgrims, Only Blood, Season of Shadows ... I have them all on electronic copy (iBooks). Also as mentioned the new Helbrecht novel, Hellreach novel, the recent Sigismund novel, etc.

They've given Black Templar a lot of attention in Black Library, novels, novellas, and short stories .. which is a good thing, and they all tend to be pretty decent!

 

Definitely one of my more favored chapters.

The only reason I don't have a Black Templar army is because they and my Blood Angels play so similar.

 

 

 

Edited by Helias Tancred
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On 7/21/2022 at 10:20 AM, Canadian_F_H said:

+++

(Name TBD) There is a short story or novella about the IF vs IW at Phall that is lumped into one of the HH novel compilations.  It's mostly about the future CM of the Crimson Fists, but I think it covers a bit about why Sigismund isn't there.

+++

the book is called Shadows of Treachery, and it's the first short story in it, The Crimson Fist, by John French.  I couldn't finish it cause i don't like French's writing style; i'm more a fan of Graham Mcneill, Nick Kyme, or James Swallow's writing styles.

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  • 1 month later...

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