I want to get into Warhammer 40,000. Help me out?

[MXRom]

For overall Imperium stuff go with Cain or Last Chancers, depending on how you want to see things.

For history, look up Horus Heresy

Too see the kind of messed up junk Inquisitors run into, the Eisenorn/Ravenor series.

For mindless violence, any of dozens of single shot books from "15 hours" to "Blood Tithe"

 

[Soviet Heavy]

Snip

While I dislike his Ultramarine books, what do you think of McNeil's other additions to the franchise? I found his short story Apostle's Creed (from the Sabbat Worlds Anthology) to be quite fun. We don't get enough air combat novels in 40K. I'm still waiting for Abnett to finish Interceptor City.

 

[Mangod]

Where do I start?

Just gonna throw this in, that if you are looking for cheap pulp stories, I can recommend the Necromunda books (assuming you can find them; fuck you, Games Workshop, for discontinuing that game), Flesh Works, Survival Instinct and Blood Royale specifically.

though I will admit that it can be quite hit and miss and some of the background fluff as far as the legions are concerned is still yet to be brought up fully... Night Lords anyone?!

I can highly recommend Lord of the Night by Simon Spurrier, which in essence codified how the Night Lords would be represented from then on. And it's really fun to watch how evil super-Batman brings down an entire city with a population exceeding that of modern day Earth.

 

[Tiger King]

I read about Warhammer 40,000 on TV Tropes and decided that it seems pretty cool. I don't want to start playing, but I do want to start reading books about it. Preferably novels, though that's not mandatory.

Where do I start?

before picking up any books I would strongly advise you to visit a 40k wiki (I recommend Lexicanum.com)
and look up a few things such as:
the Imperium
the Emperor
chaos and the warp
There may be spoilers but you could be in danger of picking up a novel and not understanding what is going on.
Book wise they are very hit and miss, sadly mostly miss nowadays

A lot of people recommending The Gaunts ghosts series here, I cant get into them myself but they are popular.
otherwise I would recommend....
Lord of the night
the trilogy soul hunter, blood reaver, void stalker
storm of iron
titanicus
you could also try some of the short story anthologies.
I've read so many I am trying to remember them all!

there are plenty of games out for 40k, most notably the dawn of war series and space marine. I'm currently playing space hulk on my computer, though it's not for everyone.

Also a cgi film named ultramarines came out a few years ago. sadly despite having a fairly good cast, it turned out to be quite bad.

A warhammer 40k group exists on the escapist too if you wanna geek it up with 40k fans.

 

[Ieyke]

Snip

While I dislike his Ultramarine books, what do you think of McNeil's other additions to the franchise? I found his short story Apostle's Creed (from the Sabbat Worlds Anthology) to be quite fun. We don't get enough air combat novels in 40K. I'm still waiting for Abnett to finish Interceptor City.

Most of his other stuff seems to be fairly good.
Can't think of anything else I'd single out as especially good or bad.

 

[Mangod]

I almost forgot; read Deff Skwadron! It is the most glorious thing ever put to paper, surpassed in its awesomeness only by Tyrannosaurus Reich!

Here's a link: http://www.cold-moon.com/40k/Deff%20Skwadron/deff_skwadron.htm

 

[VeneratedWulfen93]

I've read a decent way into the Horus Heresy and Gaunt's Ghosts and I'd advise reading both. After the first Soul Drinkers book I grew to hate Ben 'Bolt pistols kill everything' Counter as mush as C.S Multi laser. I avoid their stuff like the plague but that's not to stop anyone else to enjoy it.

As a xenos player I feel a a tad underrepresented by the Black Library as I feel the Eldar Path series was really well done. The Eldar are next to marines in difficulty to write in my opinion and I think that Gav Thorpe did a great job. The main thing I like about them as they aren't the usual 'SPACE MARINES ARE AWESOME, LOOK HOW AWESOME THEY ARE' war-porn stuff that alot of 40k books turn into(The short story Wolves at the door is a great example of this). The Eldar are the protagonists and the book accurately represents their proficiency for violence in battle but the characters don't get through unwinnable situations through merit of being SPESS MUHREENS. Aside from the ending there wasn't a cop out in any confrontation. Marines are represented as tough but killable to a race like the Eldar (on the flip-side the Eldar are normally a joke in most other books, having insane technology and going down like punks in wave assualts against marines).

It was nice to see the Eldar get some love and its a differant perspective of 40k from all of the other books mentioned. I am curious about the Tau book and may pick that up. However I will not tout the greatness of the Dark Eldar path book series. As much as I enjoy it I like it because the first book is just Archon's trying to out-dick eachother by being more cartoonishly evil than the rest of the Dark Eldar.

Most of the other books people have suggested are great although I haven't read got up to "Know no Fear" yet but I am dreading it. I don't like Ultramarines or their primarch Rawbutt Girlymann. The Word Bearers deserve to kick their ass.

 

[Queen Michael]

Thanks for the advice, everyone! I got my copy of First and Only, the first Gaunt's Ghosts book, in the mail today, and so far it's good!

 

[J Tyran]

Also a cgi film named ultramarines came out a few years ago. sadly despite having a fairly good cast, it turned out to be quite bad.

Thanks, you made me sad for the rest of the afternoon now you reminded me of that. I think it was made worse because of the things it got right as much as it dropped the ball, like the speed and agility of the Astartes. For some reason in the various types of visual or interactive media they portray Space Marines as being slow and clunky when they are actual as fast as the fastest sprinter, as agile as an Olympic athlete and as kinaesthetically aware and graceful as a dancer, even in full armour. Instead we always see them as slow arsed tanks thumping around.

 

[Mangod]

Most of the other books people have suggested are great although I haven't read got up to "Know no Fear" yet but I am dreading it. I don't like Ultramarines or their primarch Rawbutt Girlymann. The Word Bearers deserve to kick their ass.

Now, to be fair, Ultramarines can be written to be really compeling (the Space Marine game more than proved that), but Ultramarines (Space Marines in general, really) as written by Matt "Fuckwit" Ward are just plain awful, and not in the "he's an awful person" kind of way that make villains so fun to read about, oh no, it's the "how could anyone with an IQ over 25 find this in any way enjoyable" awful.

 

[Stu35]

I want to get into Warhammer 40,000. Help me out?

Play Warmachine [http://privateerpress.com/warmachine/] instead. It's got a pretty good backstory, the game mechanics are pretty sweet, and it doesn't have the gouging, sickening, naked-profiteering prices of GW and their evil empire of Lawyers.


*reads post*

Oh,

Yeah the Universe is pretty cool, I think the 'Horus Heresy' series are definitely worth a read, and when I was a child anything to do with the Space Wolves instantly had my love. I've not read it in a long, long, long, time, but 'Space Wolf' was a favourite of mine when I was about, I dunno, 12? 13? Pretty sure it was before the year 2000, because that's the year I discovered girls for the first time and kinda drifted away from 40K (until I hit 16 and drifted back into it).

Dan Abnett and Graham McNiel are, in my opinion, the two strongest authors of 40k material, generally can't go wrong with them.

 

[Ieyke]

As a xenos player I feel a a tad underrepresented by the Black Library as I feel the Eldar Path series was really well done. The Eldar are next to marines in difficulty to write in my opinion and I think that Gav Thorpe did a great job. The main thing I like about them as they aren't the usual 'SPACE MARINES ARE AWESOME, LOOK HOW AWESOME THEY ARE' war-porn stuff that alot of 40k books turn into(The short story Wolves at the door is a great example of this). The Eldar are the protagonists and the book accurately represents their proficiency for violence in battle but the characters don't get through unwinnable situations through merit of being SPESS MUHREENS. Aside from the ending there wasn't a cop out in any confrontation. Marines are represented as tough but killable to a race like the Eldar (on the flip-side the Eldar are normally a joke in most other books, having insane technology and going down like punks in wave assualts against marines).

It was nice to see the Eldar get some love and its a differant perspective of 40k from all of the other books mentioned. I am curious about the Tau book and may pick that up. However I will not tout the greatness of the Dark Eldar path book series. As much as I enjoy it I like it because the first book is just Archon's trying to out-dick eachother by being more cartoonishly evil than the rest of the Dark Eldar.

Most of the other books people have suggested are great although I haven't read got up to "Know no Fear" yet but I am dreading it. I don't like Ultramarines or their primarch Rawbutt Girlymann. The Word Bearers deserve to kick their ass.

A week or two ago Andy Chambers told me he'd just finished writing the 3rd Dark Eldar book.
Oh, and here it is for preorder: http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catalog/productDetail.jsp?catId=cat440341a&prodId=prod2380032a


...You should really read Know No Fear.

 

[Tiger King]

Also a cgi film named ultramarines came out a few years ago. sadly despite having a fairly good cast, it turned out to be quite bad.

Thanks, you made me sad for the rest of the afternoon now you reminded me of that. I think it was made worse because of the things it got right as much as it dropped the ball, like the speed and agility of the Astartes. For some reason in the various types of visual or interactive media they portray Space Marines as being slow and clunky when they are actual as fast as the fastest sprinter, as agile as an Olympic athlete and as kinaesthetically aware and graceful as a dancer, even in full armour. Instead we always see them as slow arsed tanks thumping around.

If I could be allowed the oppertunity to make amends, look up 'the lord inquisitor' on boob tube.
It's fan made but surpasses the quality of ultramarines by a great length. It has also been given the blessing of games workshop so it won't be sued into oblivion, or rather the warp.

http://thelordinquisitor.com/

 

[J Tyran]

Also a cgi film named ultramarines came out a few years ago. sadly despite having a fairly good cast, it turned out to be quite bad.

Thanks, you made me sad for the rest of the afternoon now you reminded me of that. I think it was made worse because of the things it got right as much as it dropped the ball, like the speed and agility of the Astartes. For some reason in the various types of visual or interactive media they portray Space Marines as being slow and clunky when they are actual as fast as the fastest sprinter, as agile as an Olympic athlete and as kinaesthetically aware and graceful as a dancer, even in full armour. Instead we always see them as slow arsed tanks thumping around.

If I could be allowed the oppertunity to make amends, look up 'the lord inquisitor' on boob tube.
It's fan made but surpasses the quality of ultramarines by a great length. It has also been given the blessing of games workshop so it won't be sued into oblivion, or rather the warp.

http://thelordinquisitor.com/

Been waiting for this one but I refuse to get excited about it after the last time, still the quality of the CGI is a massive improvement.

 

[Irony's Acolyte]

Hope you like humans and Space Marines because there isn't a huge variety of stuff out there from the view of other races. There's some pretty good stuff with certain groups of Chaos Space Marines, but of course they're pretty much "evil Space Marines" anyway. There have been some Xenos fiction that's come out over time though, but not nearly as much as Imperium centered novels.

 

[Ieyke]

Also a cgi film named ultramarines came out a few years ago. sadly despite having a fairly good cast, it turned out to be quite bad.

Thanks, you made me sad for the rest of the afternoon now you reminded me of that. I think it was made worse because of the things it got right as much as it dropped the ball, like the speed and agility of the Astartes. For some reason in the various types of visual or interactive media they portray Space Marines as being slow and clunky when they are actual as fast as the fastest sprinter, as agile as an Olympic athlete and as kinaesthetically aware and graceful as a dancer, even in full armour. Instead we always see them as slow arsed tanks thumping around.

If I could be allowed the oppertunity to make amends, look up 'the lord inquisitor' on boob tube.
It's fan made but surpasses the quality of ultramarines by a great length. It has also been given the blessing of games workshop so it won't be sued into oblivion, or rather the warp.

http://thelordinquisitor.com/

It's written by Aaron Dembski-Bowden (who's actually a friend of mine).

 

[VeneratedWulfen93]

Most of the other books people have suggested are great although I haven't read got up to "Know no Fear" yet but I am dreading it. I don't like Ultramarines or their primarch Rawbutt Girlymann. The Word Bearers deserve to kick their ass.

Now, to be fair, Ultramarines can be written to be really compeling (the Space Marine game more than proved that), but Ultramarines (Space Marines in general, really) as written by Matt "Fuckwit" Ward are just plain awful, and not in the "he's an awful person" kind of way that make villains so fun to read about, oh no, it's the "how could anyone with an IQ over 25 find this in any way enjoyable" awful.

Oh I know how hard it is to write Space Marines as characters. A perfect example would have been from tales of the heresy short stories. One short story involves a Wolf Lord and like 8 Wolf Guard defeating an entire Dark Eldar raiding force RAIDERS and all, as well as killing an Archon armed with a Huskblade who is more than capable of dancing through a Wolf Lord and his furry buddies. In total they lost like.....2 guys and the story wasn't really compelling as the Wolves just smashed every obstacle in their path with ease. As an Eldar player of both colours this made me sad.

On the other hand their was a story called Children of the storm which featured a full invasion of Word Bearers vs what were essentially tripods from war of the worlds. The Word Bearers lost guys. LOTS of guys. I was more eager to see them triumph because they were struggling.

 

[VeneratedWulfen93]

As a xenos player I feel a a tad underrepresented by the Black Library as I feel the Eldar Path series was really well done. The Eldar are next to marines in difficulty to write in my opinion and I think that Gav Thorpe did a great job. The main thing I like about them as they aren't the usual 'SPACE MARINES ARE AWESOME, LOOK HOW AWESOME THEY ARE' war-porn stuff that alot of 40k books turn into(The short story Wolves at the door is a great example of this). The Eldar are the protagonists and the book accurately represents their proficiency for violence in battle but the characters don't get through unwinnable situations through merit of being SPESS MUHREENS. Aside from the ending there wasn't a cop out in any confrontation. Marines are represented as tough but killable to a race like the Eldar (on the flip-side the Eldar are normally a joke in most other books, having insane technology and going down like punks in wave assualts against marines).

It was nice to see the Eldar get some love and its a differant perspective of 40k from all of the other books mentioned. I am curious about the Tau book and may pick that up. However I will not tout the greatness of the Dark Eldar path book series. As much as I enjoy it I like it because the first book is just Archon's trying to out-dick eachother by being more cartoonishly evil than the rest of the Dark Eldar.

Most of the other books people have suggested are great although I haven't read got up to "Know no Fear" yet but I am dreading it. I don't like Ultramarines or their primarch Rawbutt Girlymann. The Word Bearers deserve to kick their ass.

A week or two ago Andy Chambers told me he'd just finished writing the 3rd Dark Eldar book.
Oh, and here it is for preorder: http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catalog/productDetail.jsp?catId=cat440341a&prodId=prod2380032a


...You should really read Know No Fear.

I'm at Mechanicum now, as I skipped Battle for the Abyss because Bolt Counter wrote it. I only skipped ahead to read Angel Exterminatus and Fear to Tread.

I already thought there was 3 Dark Eldar books? The Path of the Renegade, Path of the Incubus(Morr is a badass) and the Masque of Vyle?

 

[Drops a Sweet Katana]

Oh, thank god! I thought you were going to say you wanted to get into the tabletop game. Take the advice of the people who played it in the earlier editions and STAY AWAY! It is the wrong time to get into it. The models are WAY overpriced, there are too many things you need to buy in order to play and, if you ask me, there are TOO MANY GODDAMN RULES! And this coming from someone who chose Magic: The Gathering over 40k because it was TOO EXPENSIVE. That is a bad state of affairs!

If you're interested in the universe and whatnot, you've got Black Library novels and wikis like Lexicanum, which I have lost many hours to reading up on the history of the different factions.

 

[Tiger King]

Also a cgi film named ultramarines came out a few years ago. sadly despite having a fairly good cast, it turned out to be quite bad.

Thanks, you made me sad for the rest of the afternoon now you reminded me of that. I think it was made worse because of the things it got right as much as it dropped the ball, like the speed and agility of the Astartes. For some reason in the various types of visual or interactive media they portray Space Marines as being slow and clunky when they are actual as fast as the fastest sprinter, as agile as an Olympic athlete and as kinaesthetically aware and graceful as a dancer, even in full armour. Instead we always see them as slow arsed tanks thumping around.

If I could be allowed the oppertunity to make amends, look up 'the lord inquisitor' on boob tube.
It's fan made but surpasses the quality of ultramarines by a great length. It has also been given the blessing of games workshop so it won't be sued into oblivion, or rather the warp.

http://thelordinquisitor.com/

It's written by Aaron Dembski-Bowden (who's actually a friend of mine).

Really!!?

I know it's being written by him but he is your friend!?