[King Bear]

Ok so I want to read Warhammer 40K. I was thinking of starting with Gaunt's Ghosts, since that seems to be a favourite on here. However, when I looked into it I found a lot of people say that the Ciaphas Cain books are superior: Cain is a more complex, balanced character, the books are more fun to read, the stories more unique, interesting and less formulaic. This made me wonder if I should read Cain instead. But then I learnt that the Cain books are atypical for Warhammer 40K, and therefore I think might not be the best place to start if I want to get a feel for the 40K universe.

So would it be ok to start with Cain, or is Guant's Ghosts the best starting point?

Are there any good space marine series or novels that would serve as a good/better introduction?

Also, and I wouldn't start with these, but are there any novels starring the aliens?

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This post has been edited by Bombur: 16 March 2011 - 04:15 AM

[Silencer]

CIAPHAS CAIN, HERO OF THE IMPERIUM!!!!!!!!!!!

Heh, personally, I think Gaunt's Ghosts is more 'W40K', but the Cain series is just as good, entertainment-wise.


BUT, I think the Eisenhorn novels are the best of the 40K stuff. But I'm an unashamed Inquisiton fan, so I might be biased.

Basically, if it's Dan Abnett, you can't go wrong.

[Primateus]

There's William King's Space Wolf series, it ain't half bad. But neither is it extremely good. If you don't read these you won't miss anything, but I doubt you'll regret reading them either.

Then there's a book called Gunheads, it's about an imperial guard armoured company. It's pretty decent.

The Dawn of War novels are also somewhat decent.

Whatever you do, however, you should at all cost avoid the Blood Angels and Grey Knights novels.

[King Bear]

Silencer, on 16 March 2011 - 05:05 AM, said:

CIAPHAS CAIN, HERO OF THE IMPERIUM!!!!!!!!!!!

Heh, personally, I think Gaunt's Ghosts is more 'W40K', but the Cain series is just as good, entertainment-wise.


BUT, I think the Eisenhorn novels are the best of the 40K stuff. But I'm an unashamed Inquisiton fan, so I might be biased.

Basically, if it's Dan Abnett, you can't go wrong.

Would the Eisenhorn novels be a good starting point? If so I might start there, since it's only 3 books/1 omibus vs the 14 of Gaunt's Ghosts and 7 of Cain.

@Primateus: thanks for the appraisal of the space marines books!

[The Tyrant Lizard]

I'll second William King's Space Wolf trilogy. The first book is quite interesting in that the inhabitants of some savage world know nothing about the Imperium until they are abducted from their planet on account of their war like hardness... and transformed into space wolfs. These book gradually take you into the 40,000 realm so its not too hard going.




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This post has been edited by The Tyrant Lizard: 16 March 2011 - 09:42 AM

[King Bear]

The Tyrant Lizard, on 16 March 2011 - 09:38 AM, said:

I'll second William King's Space Wolf trilogy. The first book is quite interesting in that the inhabitants of some savage world know nothing about the Imperium until they are abducted from their planet on account of their war like hardness... and transformed into space wolfs. These book gradually take you into the 40,000 realm so its not too hard going.

Ah that does sound like a great entry point, getting to know the imperium along with savages-cum-space wolves.

Right I'll start there, then move on to either one of the commissars or the inquisitor.

This post has been edited by Bombur: 16 March 2011 - 09:44 AM

[Amondaris]

Personally, I'd start reading the Horus Heresy series. Why not start with the series that's chronologically earliest? To my knowledge, that is. Granted, it doesn't ease you into the world that easily, but they're good reads.
Not read any Gaunt's Ghosts yet, alas, but I can vouch for the Ciaphus Cain books. Highly entertaining.

[Werthead]

There's a minor character in the EISENHORN trilogy who shows up later in GAUNT'S GHOSTS (people in the 40K universe live for centuries, Inquisitors even moreso), but the EISENHORN and RAVENOR trilogies (RAVENOR is the sequel to EISENHORN) were written later, so you can read them in either order.

I'd personally go with GAUNT'S GHOSTS first and then the two Inquisitor trilogies or the CIAPHAS CAIN books. Chronologically the order is EISENHORN-RAVENOR-GAUNT'S GHOSTS-CIAPHAS CAIN, even if there isn't a huge amount of crossover between them.

THE HORUS HERESY may be a little confusing, as it's the grand backstory of the 40K setting. It may be more effective to read other books first and come to that series (which is still ongoing) later on.

Note that, aside from the HERESY, all the other series mentioned are available in handy omnibuses, none of which are as big as an Erikson book, so they're easy enough to collect and get through. Various bookstores often do 3-for-2 deals on them quite frequently as well.

[QuickTidal]

I haven't decided if I'll start with the first "publishing-wise" (Gaunt's Ghosts) or "chronological-wise (The Horus Heresy)....but the cool thing is I can get them all from the Black Library site for my Kindle.

Woot Woot!

[ShadowRaven]

As a 40k reader and on/off player of about 10 years, I'd seriously recommend you start with the "main timeline" stuff (i.e. the 40th millennium onwards), which contains stuff like The Gaunt's Ghosts Series, Eisenhorn (my personal favorite by far, but somewhat atypical as far as 40k novels go), Ravenor, etc. Also one of the best out there is Storm of Iron by Graham McNeill, which is basically one novel with the bad guys as main characters.

IMO, the reason you shouldn't start with the Horus Heresy series is that you really should understand the 40k main timeline stuff and universe to be able to fully appreciate the events of the 30th millennium (Horus Heresy series). The Emperor of Mankind, interred in an eternal coma on his Golden Throne, is worshiped as a God in the 40th millennium, the society has turned ultra-religious, and innovation and new technologies are feared (in general). You will enjoy the Heresy books a lot more if you have an understanding of the later developments of the Imperium of Man as things are a bit different between the time periods (apart from the constant warring that is ).

I would also recommend reading a wikipedia article about the heresy in general (this seems pretty good) because it will give you the main timeline and events of the heresy. The HH books are extremely varied in topics and although they cover the "main events" of the Heresy, they often feature main characters than aren't the prominent figures in the history (for example, the Emperor himself, Horus, the Primarches, etc. are rarely seen in some of the earlier books) so it might be hard to fully appreciate them if you don't know the background.


The Heresy books are better read in chronological (or publishing) order. The 40th millennium stuff not so much, apart from reading an individual series in order, as different series occur around a time period of 1000 years.

[Aptorian]

Primateus, on 16 March 2011 - 08:52 AM, said:

Whatever you do, however, you should at all cost avoid the Blood Angels and Grey Knights novels.

Don't know about the Blood Angels, but Grey Knights was the first 40K I read and I really liked it, because it was basically like reading a cheesy 80s action film. Just plain action with a smidgeon of background info on top.

[Stalker]

Gaunt! Absolutely my favorite WH40K series. It has reached the point where I buy the new ones in hardcover, despite their length, because they are that good.

Aside from that, I also really enjoyed The Space Wolves and Eisenhorn.

and echoing Silencer, anything Abnett will be good. I have yet to come across anything I disliked in his Gaunt novels, Inquisitor trilogies, or in his standalone work. He is awesome.

This post has been edited by Stalker: 17 March 2011 - 12:56 AM

[QuickTidal]

Stalker, on 17 March 2011 - 12:56 AM, said:

Gaunt! Absolutely my favorite WH40K series. It has reached the point where I buy the new ones in hardcover, despite their length, because they are that good.

Aside from that, I also really enjoyed The Space Wolves and Eisenhorn.

and echoing Silencer, anything Abnett will be good. I have yet to come across anything I disliked in his Gaunt novels, Inquisitor trilogies, or in his standalone work. He is awesome.

Abnett wrote a DOCTOR WHO book chronicling what happened to Martha in her year (that never was) traveling the world telling folk of the Doctor. I'm curious to see what he did with it.

[Bonecaster]

Cool. I didn't have to start a new thread.



Just sayin', today I ordered the limited release of the special edition of Mephiston: Lord of Death!!!!! MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAH It's the first book in a new 40K series - Lords of the Space Marines.


Re the topic of the thread, Eisenhorn and Ravenor omnibuses are the best!

[Garak]

The Night Lords trilogy by ADB is also very good. And of course Gaunt's Ghosts.

[Pig Iron]

I really liked the new Ravenor vs Eisenhorn novel Pariah (first of the Bequin trilogy). More similar to the Ravenor books than Gaunt, unsurprisingly.

This post has been edited by Pig Iron: 26 January 2013 - 04:38 PM

[Cause]

Sorry if I could just ask a question in this thread.

This question only occurred to me this week, do the forces of choas concern themselves only with humans or does it just seem that way. Are only humand suscptible to their influence? We never see choas Orcs, Tyranids, Necrons or Xenos species 1121. I know the Tau and the tyranids at least have a plausible reason for this but the others?

[Silencer]

Well considering the Eldar basically created Slaanesh out of their incredible level of debauchery and pleasure-seeking, and that the birth of Slaanesh then wiped out most of the Eldar race, I would say that yes, Chaos do concern themselves with other races.

As for Orks - you do NOT fuck with the Orks, is my understanding of why they aren't so hot on messing with them (besides, the Orks are pretty chaotic anyway, no?)

Tyranids are a hive-mind species, and waaaaay too focused on "eat everything!" to want anything the Chaos gods could offer.

Necrons already have their gods and, oh yeah, are mindless automatons.

...think that covers everything? I'm not 100% sure on those, but that's just what springs to mind.

[Illuyankas]

We've seen at least one daemon-possessed Ork, there's a couple of books with alien species that have practically evolved alongside constant chaotic interference so they're pretty wacky, but on the whole Chaos as it is now is a funhouse mirror to the psyche of the current galaxywide psychically promenient species, aka us.

Orks have their own deities that don't really give a shit about things outside Orks fighting, plus they're both easily manipulated by Tzeentch and right up Khorne's alley fighting wise, and the two lesser gods aren't really going to mess with the big two.

Tyranids are both outside the galaxy and not really having a presence there AND have a racial psychic Hive Mind that's the equivalent of the Chaos Gods because holy shit this is a really big conglomerate of galaxy-eating dudes here!

Necrons are pretty much anti-psychic Terminators.

e: Also wow I haven't thought about 40k in years, and go read Cain.

This post has been edited by Illuyankas: 28 January 2013 - 02:38 PM

[Garak]

The Horus Heresy series is also pretty decent.