What does Veeky Forums think of the novels set in 40k?

No one fucks an Inquisitor.

Some are just unlucky enough to be fucked by one.....and a scarce few lucky enough to be fucked by one.

Some are pretty fun.

>just unlucky enough to be fucked by one
Is that you Cain?

Can anyone recommend a good chaos novel?

The bible, you heathen.

Cain, Eisenhorn and Ravenor are the only truly good books in all of 40K fiction. The rest are garbage or Mediocre.

Legion of the Damned is my absolute favorite 40k book I've ever read. That book needs to be turned into a movie.

>He hasn't read Gaunt's ghosts.

Seems to be that you have read four books. One of which was the last church.

muh Fire Warrior nigga.

I love stories from a Xenos perspectivs. Almost everything in 40k is written from an Imperial viewpoint, so its fascinating to view it from the outside. Because their not attached to Imperial ideology, they can stand in for the readers and make them appreciate just how weird the Imperium is.

There's a scene in Fire Warrior were the main character finds a shrine to Emperor and and talks about how it reminds him of a disappointed father figure. Its good shit.

> Thinking Gaunts Ghosts remains good

I see you've only read the first three. I recommend stopping there.

Then again, I personally enjoyed the Shira Calpurnia novels. I found it nice to have a relatively low powered setting with only Humans from the Imperium - not even Chaos humans, just regular Imperials.

The middle book is rather weak as there are too many viewpoints and the author overreaches on his plotting, but it ties the first and the third one together to create a surprisingly coherent narrative arc that's quite enjoyable to read through.

I highly recommend reading the books for a truly Imperial viewpoint.

While the lasts one was rather lacking, the first two where the key paving stones for 40k. It defined the imperial sector for the common man and enacted many terms and events that show their effect on the game today. Most codexes uses terms made up for GG in them.

Reading about Uriel Ventris was pretty interesting though. I've read only first book, about tyranids though, so maybe it went downhill in following novels.

I would totally buy you a beer some time. We are officially friends.

My favorite part is near the end, when the Fire Warrior is all grizzled and raw from the horrors of war, and that super daemon shows up. The part with the juxtaposed parallel descriptions of something foreshadowed earlier in the book and the horrific fleshy winged thing writhing from the mountain of horror. Those tactful parenthesis give me a boner every time.

That, or the part where they're in the space ship, enter the warp, and chaos shows up for half a second, then the room is a slaughter-house horror show.

I explicitly said the first three were good. It quickly becomes special snowflake wankery that lives up to the hyperbole surrounding Matt Ward's Ultramarines but slips under the radar because "nostalgia" and having sucked people in with the first books.

I mean they unironically have Sly Marbo in them.

You have convinced me to read this book.

Could you guys recommend any ork novels if there are any? Even good fanfics will do. I've checked makari the gretchin and deff squadron and I crave more orkiness.

>inb4 inevitable "check out squad broken hurr hurr" joke

It's good, definitely worth a read. Keep in mind once your done that I first read that book when I was 11 and it basically shaped the formative years of my life. Fuck, I need to read that book again.

It's in the 40k novel dump, I just have no idea how to read a .mobi file.

So anybody here besides me read Legion of the Damned? Or other Rob Sanders awesomeness?

Fucking when, Abnett

Salvation's Reach was 5 years ago

None
BL universally treats Orks as characterless monsters who aren't allowed to talk

It varies, Space Marine books are the most widely written, therefore they tend to have the highest quantity of bad ones. I personally loved the Soul Drinker series, but didn't really care for Wrath of Iron and Fall of Damnos.

>Not having read Dead Men Walking
I don't even really like it or the Death Korps and even I admit that book is amazing.

You, you have have good taste

Well, fuck.

Orks really could be a goldmine for amusing characters, main heroes, villains or second row characters. Imagine a story about a rogue trader having shady deals with Blood axes. Or Gorka-Morka style Mad Max inspired lowtech planet with human survivors fighting over scarce resources with each other and scattered ork warbands (who also fight each other since they can't leave the planet). Or story about chaos/eldar hiring orks in desperation which backfires with a bang at some point. My sweet dream is reading a story where orks are treated as distraction for chaos against space marines and thus not considered a threat, which results in Waagh! snowballing out of control.

Main mistake is that people treat orks as if they are a simple derpy killing machines. While it is true for the most part, it does not mean that orks have no activities outside of Waaghing over others (story about Makari is extremely fun to read, and its just an average day in an ork settlement).

What's the name of the book where a chaos space marine has to be cheered up by his own slaves?

Still Mediocre.

Also Mediocre.

From the standpoint of actual books and not 40K novels, the books I listed are actually decent.

It was bretty gud desu. If I have one complaint it's that he didn't do enough with the spectre itself and there wasn't enough damned legionnaire screen time

Anybody have any PDFs of the mechanicus short stories? I really love the Cult Mechanicus, and I would like to see if their short stories are any good

does anyone know where I could maybe download the books?

the internet.

You are in luck, there is a decent novel about your faction. I found it fairly amusng to read, you'll probably like it. Also titan battles.

I don't have PDF though.

Storm of Iron, Dark Apostle series

Check the sticky at the top of Veeky Forums, its where I find alot of shit, espcially rare or out of print books.

>not liking First Heretic

Loyalist scum.

sumatrapdfreader.org/free-pdf-reader.html
That should work on mobis.

Dead Man Walking is probably my favourite 40k novel, I still think about it despite reading it 5 years ago
All of the Ciaphas Cain books are great as well

Shit man, I already own that one. Actually the first 40k book I read, and got me into the game in the first place, I just randomly picked it up at a Barnes and Noble because it looked interesting.

knights look really weird in your head when they've only ever been described to you, and you've never actually seen a picture of one

That's what I actually liked about the book. The Legion of the Damned weren't characters, they were a force of nature. 90% of the book was this slow buildup of tension with this sense of imminent doom, most of the book is surprisingly just space marines talking and character building (IN 40K).

THEN BAM, FUCKING DAEMONS EVERYWHERE, KHORNE BERSKERS FUCKIN SHIT UP, PEOPLE DIE, SHIT HITS THE FAN, AND BOOM LEGION OF THE DAMN MOTHERFUCKER.

And despite all this despair and pain, there's a fucking happy ending because all the women and children survived.

I think that book really drove home how fucked up chaos was to me. That scene where they're holed up in the reliquary and the librarian (melmoch?) is quietly calling for help and saying he's not feeling well, and everyone basically tells him to shut the fuck up, and then they turn around and he's vomiting blood and a daemon is coming out of his face? That scene ensured that I would never even consider sympathizing with chaos

>vomiting blood and a daemon is coming out of his face
If you think thats fucked up, then check daemonculaba.

Straken and Deathkorps series are surprisingly full of feels.
>Poor grandpa Commissar Costello
>Poor Straken and the story behind his plasma pistol

Poor striker unit

I really enjoyed firewarrior because the first 30 mins of the book really humanized the MC to me.
>That scene where Shas almost loses his shit and wants to call out to his dad who doesnt give two shits about him.

Seconding the Enforce/Calpurnia stuff, especially if you're getting into Dark Heresy (or possibly Rogue Trader).

Aside from them, I've enjoyed the Night Lords trilogy. Anything by AD Bowden is pretty good in my experience, even his "look, I can do 40k" book about Cadians.

Faith and Fire by James Swallow. Great read about the Sisters of Battle, plenty of twists and actually has bad guys who aren't one dimensional psychopaths.

Seconded. The follow up was pretty good too, though the name escapes me.

I just want a Necron book shown through the eyes/balefire of a Necron Lord.

You should read Deff Skwadron. It's a graphic novel, but it's from the Ork side of things and is a lot of fun.

Anyone have any recommendations for someone who has only read the Ciaphas Cain books?
Or just general recommendations?

Path of the Dark Eldar trilogy is absolutely fantastic, and made me thirsty for more Deldar shenanigans.

The Haemonculi character, and his Wrack assistant reminded me of picture related to such a degree, that I read their lines with their voices.

I didn't finish reading that trilogy, but I enjoyed what I saw. Got about half way through the second book, I think. Saw a couple of returning characters I hadn't expected, but that's Dark Eldar ressurection tech for you.

You should read trough it. It is bloody great.

This guy and Morr were the best couple.

Their banter was great.
Also, Morr went out like a boss imo.

Some recommendations about books mostly concentrating on the human cannon fodder.
I really enjoyed Ciaphas Cain books where he was with his own Valhallan regiment.

Indeed.
Arhra remembers! And so will you!

Was that the 2nd book? If so I guess I finished it.

They very a lot in tone, currently reading some Yarrick stuff. I enjoy the shlocky action tone in some of them, feels like a nod in style to a lot of different mediums that aren't 100% deep/amazing.

Spess Mareen books are a diamond dozen and generally pretty dull.
Best 40k books are the ones that show what living in the Imperium is actually like, Abnett's stuff, Shira Calpurnia and to an extent Flashm- Cain.

vary*

Honestly, I enjoyed the shit out of the Thousand Sons book. So far, the HH books are hit or miss, but I think Thousand Sons is one of the best. That being said, I think I'll finish the Death Korps books before going onto another HH book. The Fire Warrior recommendation also looks good.

Morr was the best part of that series in my opinion.

I found the ending to the third book rather disappointing. Most of the third book still feels like a build up and then it just ends in my opinion.

This for the most part.

Exceptions for Rynn's World and Legion of the Damned which were fucking sweet.

Although they did deal quite a bit with non-Space Marine characters so there is that. Also they had the Space Marine characters be something other than murder-bots.

Bullshit. You've never even looked.

Engine of Mork, followed by Evil Sun Rising.

Death of Integrity is still the best Space Marine Battle book for me. Alongside Helsreach, Legion of the Damned, and Wrath of Iron.

Also Night Lords series. So good.

Are there any books with an Ork as the narrator?
>deer diary today da boss told us to krump some 'umies an' it wuz a right good scrap

Dranon's Delight.

See
Also Deff Skwadron.

Helsreach is a Black Templars novel, but has a lot of humanizing and even funny Guard characters.

Thanks fellas

Strictly pulp fiction. Devoid of literary merit and frequently actively harmful to your intellect. Fine if you can distance yourself enough to enjoy them without letting them into your head.

Hot opinions coming through. Probably missing some, especially the IG novels and the novellas that are in anthologies.
Must read
>Baneblade
>Fifteen Hours + The Red Reward short story
>Dead Men Walking
>Imperial Glory
>Gaunt's Ghosts series
>There Is Only War anthology
>Legion of the Damned
>Eisenhorn omnibus
>Pandorax
>Rynn's World
>Engine of Mork + Evil Sun Rising
>Lord of Night

Other good reads
>Rogue Trader trilogy
>Angels of Death collection
>Armageddon omnibus
>Macharian Crusade trilogy
>Gunheads
>Cadian Blood
>The Beast Arises series
>Flesh Tearers stories
>Death of Integrity
>Crimson Dawn
>Pawns of Chaos
>Titanicus
>Night Lords omnibus
>Double Eagle
>Helsreach

Who was that again? I've heard that his stories are pretty good, but I can't ever remember his name long enough to actually search for them.

Is the KillTeam trilogy shit? I loved it as my entry into 40k lit and I never hear it talked about.

Yarrick was commander of IG on Armageddon and had some tactical vendetta with Ghazghkull. In one of the battles he sliced off an arm with powerclaw from a Nob, then he raised it to inspire terror into surrounding orks. He actually used it as weapon later, to make orks fear him even more.

Found the series after the saint went downhill

I've read path of the warrior/seer which were alright aside their bullshit endings.
Path of the Renegade was fantastic almost exclusively because of Morr.
Legion was okay.

Has anyone read Daemonifuge, and if so, would you recommend it? I saw that GW has it on their webstore and I was thinking about grabbing it.

I thought the last chancers series was pretty great. learning about the penal legions and the part in the last book where Colonel Schaeffer despite being captured and chained up in one of his most badass moments looks into the eyes of a demon possessed kage and grapples him screaming at the demon that kage is his.

Hero's death in kill team was my favorite of that whole series. Also just the idea that even if you get pardoned Schaffer is ALWAYS watching from the shadows waiting for you to fuck up.

My favorite Schaeffer moment was how he stole Fenn. The whole reaction from his C/O was priceless when he realized what happened.

I can see that, it did feel like there should be more to the story. I still want to know what happened to that Eldar Ranger that made all of the story possible.He kind of just leaves and is never heard from again.

I'm reading "First and Only" now

It's pretty good

It was the complete opposite with me. I've read the first book whole but skipped all the way to the assault on the Craftworld in the next two books.

He also got a lazer eye because he heard that the orks thought he could kill just by glaring at you and decided to make it so he could actually do that.

Siege of Castellex is from the Iron Warriors POV during a Ork Waaagghhh

They aren't really Scottish, more Welsh.
>inb4 space sheep

Storm of Iron, my negro. Also Dark Apostle was amazing

Nemesis, the one about the Assassins was a pretty good read.
Liking the assassinorum arc in the Beast Arises series so far (finished the second book) too

>assassins
Why is it that whenever I think of the assassins, I think of Love Can Bloom? I don't just mean the Vindicare, I mean any of them.

You've been infected with fa/tg/uy-itis.

There is no known cure.

W-What shall I do user?

Remenber that is not canon, and if that is not enough, play Dark Crusade as the Blood Ravens to be part of the canon.
That or just imagine Tarkus glaring at you for your foolishness.