WH40k Novels

So by recommendation from here I finally got around to reading a bunch of the black library novels. More good stuff then I expected, especially the one involving the titan legions (Titanicus). But while I enjoyed them they did kinda dig up that feeling of boredom that I was starting to feel towards the Imperium.

So I ask/plead of you Veeky Forums, what are some worthwhile books in the selection that revolve around non-Imperium races/factions? Bonus points if it's Chaos-centric. I'll also take stuff covering the more unusual or underused elements of the Imperium, like the Adepta Sororitas or the Officio Assassinorum or Ogryn characters. Pretty much anything that isn't more marines/guard stories.

siege of castellax was pretty decent and it focused on the iron warriors vs the orks

...

One of the Horus heresy novels "Nemesis" was actually all about how the Officio assassinorum was formed and a group of assassins trying to kill Horus early on. "The Last Chancer" novels while about guardsmen are more like the dirty dozen. "storm of iron" is centered 90% on the iron warriors taking a fort built by perturbo, The "Eisenhorn" novels read like some good cloak and dagger. "Dark apostle", the "Night lords" trilogy and one I can't recall about the Blood gorgons are all very chaos-centric.

Word bearers omnibus
A brooding faggit named Marduk, he gets pretty edgy but it tends to tame itself

Are you me?

I've heard horrible things about Sororitas novels. Avoid.

This
Word Bearers Omnibus made me empathize with them a lot more about how it sucks to be a CSM that actually maintains most of the order of the Legions.

>everyone new is disrespectful and foolish
>everyone around long enough misses the old days
>everyone old is crazy in one way or another
>just about everyone is willing to "rise at cost" in the hierarchy

I assume you know about the pnp game? Dark Crusade, made by the same company behind Dark Heresy and Rogue Trader.

Dunno about the novels.

>go into last chancers hoping for thugs saving the imperium
>they're mostly just good men suffering from the imperium being the imperium

lame

OP read "Storm of Iron" it is hands down one of if not the single greatest 40k story ever published.

Peter Fehervari has some decent ones. There's a short story in the Death Watch book that's good, and Fire Caste is almost stellar. Almost. It makes some allusions to Heart of Darkness/Apocalypse Now, but goes too far in the second act. It rips that scene with Martin Sheen going through the documents detailing the conspiracy behind the war in Vietnam almost entirely. The third act then has a strange, unexplained time skip.

Fire Caste remains good however, simply because of how apocalyptic it gets. Trinity and parts of the ending are stellar, although it ends on something of a cliff hanger. It's flawed, but good.

Which Sororitas novels are we talking about? The James Swallow ones are mostly good, although the first is decidedly better than the second.

>necron lord declares "exterminate" to set his army on the march
>check Swallow's credentials
>doctor who

Otherwise they're good. The first book, Faith and Fire, takes queues from the political conflicts of northern Italy circa 14th century. It's a must for livening up a DH game.

Priests of Mars is good. I haven't read the follow up.

Don't

That bad?

Eisenhorn and Ravenor are pretty much the pinnacle of 40K books.

Have you read the Eisenhorn books?

Traitor General. It's a Guardman novel, but one quite a bit different from the rest. Also part of Gaunt's Ghosts series, though if you're sick of Imperirum worship then parts of the previous novels might annoy you.

Andy Chambers' Dark Eldar novels are pretty excellent as far as 40k novels go. Sadly, he hasn't written much more 40k stuff aside from some hive world novel I haven't read.

Valedor.
For me, it was the best Eldar novel in 40k.

Night Lords trilogy by Aaron Dembski-Bowden?

Priests of Mars for you OP

Thanks all for the suggestions. Pretty much all look interesting. Probably start with Storm of Iron and Word Bearers.

And yes I've read Eisenhorn, pretty damn good. Stayed away from Ravenor cause people here said earlier that it was a lot of nothing, same with the followup.

It's called Black Crusade. Sadly it seems like support for it got cut short, cause it didn't sell as well as the Imperium games. Sigh...

A 40k book I'll always recommend is Dead Men Walking, It has 3 views on a Conflict between the Imperium of Man and a Necron Tomb World (Oldcrons btw) All of which are from a Human's view point. It doesn't have all of the movie marines shit/ Humanity Fuck yeah feel that most Imperial books usually have.

Seconding this, Finish Path of the Incubus today and it was fucking amazing, Starting Path of the Archon now.

...

DMW was okay, but ultimately I didn't like how manipulative one of the characters is. The 40k audience is fairly small, and easy to accurately stereotype. One of the characters is made to appeal to that audience, and suffers the absolute most of all the protagonists.
It's not a particularly well-done or clever manipulation either, because it ends up being so apparent it's like the author was trying to force a message to his audience. It's not subtle like good manipulation should be, i.e. the characterization of Perry from In Cold Blood.

It's still good, especially for a look at the necrons, but it is only strong for the author's portrayal of said necrons and the collapse of the city.

I would not bundle all of the Space Marine Battle books together. The shit like The Purging of Kadillius, Siege of Castellax, or The Gildar Rift aren't even remotely the same quality as Death of Integrity, Helsreach, Legion of the Damned, or Wrath of Iron.

>Redemption Corps in Heresy tier

would you mind a spoiler-free version of why it's bad? The general description of it always appealed to me but I never got around to it.

I've read both Mechanicum and Angel Exterminatus from the Horus Heresy lineup, and they're both pretty good, especially if you like the Adeptus Mechanicus, Titan Legions, and Knights for the former, and the Iron Warriors for the latter.

easier to just rank by authors. sometimes good authors write dreck or a shit author happens upon a good story, but they generally do what they do

these are my personal opinions, in no particular order

>GOOD
chris wraight
aaron dembski-bowden
jes goodwin
sandy mitchell
dan abnett (old)
matthew farrer
william king
anthony reynolds

>SOLID
steve parker
steve lyons
anthony reynolds (i liked word bearers)
james swallow
dan abnett (current)
lee lightner
guy haley
graham mcneill (most of the time)
gordon rennie

>AVERAGE/SUBPAR
mitchel scanlon (15 hours was good)
graham mcneill (fucking outcast dead)
gav thorpe
nick kyme

>EXTERMINATUS NOW
CS Goto

>NOT SURE, HAVEN'T READ ENOUGH
henry zhou
david annandale
john french
rob sanders

ben counter sucks too. forgot about him. wish i could forget about Battle for the Abyss

Personal thoughts:
John French and Guy Haley belong in Good.
William King, Rob Sanders and Anthony Reynolds in Solid
Nick Kyme in Exterminatus.

Never heard of Gordon Rennie or Lee Lighter

gordon rennie wrote the battlefleet gothic books. they're solid.

might've misspelled lee lightner (?). he's the guy writing space wolves after william king stopped.

I have never read anything good by Henry Zhou
>got caught up in a plagiarism case over his writings about his military service or something

Not impressed.

I haven't read Battle for the Abyss, but his Soul Drinkers novels are genuinely good. Mind explaining the problems with the former?

A completely unnecessary book with a ton of bland cardboard Legion stereotype cutouts you don't care about, a superweapon that is deus-ex-machinaed in for the sake of artificial tension, and with no real implications to any overarching plot as a whole. A complete and utter waste of a book where the grand sum of consequence falls somewhere between 'fuck' and 'all'.

It's the equivalent of cape comics latest 'UNIVERSE SHATTERING CROSSOVER EVENT' which no one remembers six weeks later.

And I don't think the Soul Drinkers books are good. There's a lot of logical errors and I don't find anyone's reasoning very compelling.