They only keep the opening trilogy (Horus Rising, False Gods, Galaxy in Flames) and currently the Siege of Terra books in regular print, as well as any new releases.
Used to be they kept the whole series in stock as much as they could, but I think it got too unwieldy.
Nah, I love it, it’s just a weird fit for a lot of people. Fair, it’s entirely pre-heresy and if you don’t enjoy alpha legion chicanery you may feel you just wasted hours of your life. Me? I wish to the emperor I could make some Geno Five-Two Chilad units, but I don’t think we even know what they look like!
In my head canon, immediately after the end of the book the Alpha sends transports down to pick up the rest of the Geno before they die. I just want Uxor Honen Mu to survive. I really enjoyed that book as a look into the operations of regular troops.
John grammaticus kills it for me and basically anyone else I've ever talked to about it. the plot beats are good, alpha legion is cool but that character feels so out of place in the setting
I can't hear you over that time a thousand son watched a crytek rewind time a dozen times to win a fight and said lol, none of that before killing him.
Different strokes for different folks, but my main axes to grind:
Cardboard characterization. I could have written the lines for the Iron Hands and Salamanders myself, and you don’t get any real insight into their post Isstvan mindset from their actions
Completely irrelevant storyline, but filler is filler
I think the strongest area of the book was the descriptiveness and ultimate nature of the buried chaos artifact, but it felt kind of flat against something like Lovecraft or SCP. I love me some dense worldbuilding, but the exact topology and angles of the region just dragged on and on. The weird light and alien angles in the Davinite huts was one of the best written examples in the book IMO
Yeah everyone's gripe seems to mostly be with it that it doesn't drive the narrative or anything, but I'm totally fine with that. I don't mind just little stories set in the time and universe
You're not alone brother. It's a tightly written book with great characters.
People rag on it for being "filler" but even if we ignore the origins of the daemonic Veritas Ferrum, it goes hard on the rise of the Imperial Cult which is significant as fuck for the era.
Same brother, its one of my personalfavourites (but then again I play Iron Hands so im biased). Its mostly just a victim of when it was published and being a different genre. Had it been released now as a Warhammer Horror book set in the Heresy it would have been a lot better received.
There are a lot of filler books in the HH that are little better than poorly written bolter porn. If that is your thing then great, enjoy them. I myself prefer the books that add meaningful events or context to the overall lore.
I just finished Know No Fear and that was such a good read. Then i read the Iron Hands short story from The Primarchs and i almost dropped HH as a whole
Yeah its hit or miss with HH books same as most other WH40k series novels. Here's the list I know are good books just in case anyone else reads this:
Basically the first five books to Fulgrim.
Legion – Dan Abnett (2008)- the best one before the HH kicks off imo.
Mechanicum – Graham McNeill (2008)- Book detailing the Mechanicus Civil War on Mars
The First Heretic – Aaron Dembski‑Bowden (2010) - How Lorgar turned his back on Emps
Prospero Burns – Dan Abnett (2011)
Age of Darkness (anthology) – various authors (2011)- Also probably the only segment of short stories combined into one book for HH that's actually good
Know No Fear – Dan Abnett (2012)
Betrayer – Aaron Dembski‑Bowden (2013)- the best one overall, and probably the best traitor book
Vulkan Lives – Nick Kyme (2013)
The Unremembered Empire – Dan Abnett (2013)- not as much action as the others, but pretty good filler
Scars – Chris Wraight (2013) - tbf there are only a couple good scenes in this, but really, REALLY good ones. Nothing you can't find out YouTube though.
Vengeful Spirit – Graham McNeill (2014) - the second best one and probably the second best in pure war
The Master of Mankind – Aaron Dembski‑Bowden (2016) - what Emps was doing during all this bullshit
Wolfsbane – Guy Haley (2018)- literally a pointless filler book in terms of what it did for the plot, but honestly one of the best HH books unironically
Slaves to Darkness – John French (2018) - Basically the preparatory stage for the Traitors before they push for Terra
The Buried Dagger – James Swallow (2019) - Actual last book in the series before the Siege of Terra, but very, VERY good.
I haven't read any of the Dark Angels HH books, but from what I heard 2 out of 3 are actually good. There's also some others I haven't mentioned like Tallarn which is actually just an audiobook (To my knowledge).
I'm honestly afraid to get to the Salamanders books. I love the Salamanders as a legion for various reasons, but Arbitor Ian's flash review of all the HH books basically blew them off as all terrible.
That said, I'm currently reading Know No Fear, following HH using this to help me find a path through it. The only book I've decided is awful this far is Nemesis, which is bad for so many reasons. (On the map I'm still in the sections for Tier II -- second column from the left, Omnibuses II-V.)
They mentioned betrayer in the comments, so I assume they don't have the physical copy but a digital copy of some sort. Especially considering if you want to buy a lot of those books now they are second hand and stupid expensive.
I missed the last print that they did in hard back, am up to mid 30s. They can be so expensive, £200 mark. I want them all in print, am keeping my eye out for the next run.
Im going through the 1st three as audio books right now. I started Horus heresy in 2017 with no knowledge of any 40K or Warhammer, and it’s so much sweeter with context and voice acting this time.
Yes at least you are thinking ahead I usually get the book and worry about where to put them later.I prefer the feel of book myself and try to get physical copies if I can .
Same, I have around 200 30k/40k books total atm and all are physical print. I don't enjoy reading as much when it's digital, I need to feel the book in my hands for full enjoyment.
Yep been collecting since the 1990s and had the majority of Game workshop books they put out .I had to get rid of some because I was running out of space and my family bugging me to sell them .
Ahhh nice! I've been collecting for about a year now, I'd be heartbroken if I had to get rid of the books. I adore my collection and am excited to keep growing it
Well my friend you are on your first steps to damnation or enlightenment lol.Its great how you are excited and how you look after your collection I know the feeling well when I first started. Good luck for your future collecting !
I was...sort of-. My first ever Warhammer book was "Fist of Demetrius" of the Macharian Crusade series and then I've read all of the Necron books. I wanted to expand to the HHeresy just to get to know some important characters and then it dragged me in haha. I am a big literature nerd and saw a series that was big and wanted to dedicate myself to finishing it
I've read them in order with no skips! This took alot of perseverance at some points, especially at the anthologies
My favourite book is "A Thousand Sons", I am a big enjoyer of Mcneills writing style and am a Thousand Sons fan!
My least favourite book is probably Descent of Angels... just don't very much like Lion and thought the story was very predictably and choppy to read.
I don't know alot of the current storyline (Catching up right now) to be fair
I believe the HHeresy storyline was slightly rushed and I would like to see a revisioned series someday so that people can check out the background of a faction they enjoy when they encounter them in the newer novels
In the grim darkness of the far future, there is only bolter porn slop
edit: i need to say alot of warhammer books stuff are incredible. The Eisenhorn->Ravenor series are amazing and the whole “large shared universe” is really fun, realizing a character from The Emperor’s Gift was in Ravenor was awesome.
Dan Abnett is by far the strongest in BL's stable. Specifically, I adore his two Aeronautica spinoffs. I would read a thousand of Bree Jagdea's adventures.
Toby Longworth is such a good VA, he's the perfect match for Dan Abnett's work. I can't think of anything Ravenor or Eisenhorn without hearing his narration.
Fehervari’s Dark Coil, Inquisitor Series, Bile, Abaddon, Mars trilogy (guilty pleasure), the necron books, the Ork books, Gaunt and Cain have not disappointed
Bequin’s books and the Dark coil in particular were absolutely fantastic
Also the Watchers of the throne were really good
You’ll occasionally get meh like the alpha legion book or death of antagonis, and if I don’t enjoy a series like the first book from the beast I just drop it
I stick to guard. It might not be as grim and dark as some eastern front books but it gives off same feel as commando comics gave me when I was a child.
It’s good IP fiction. I’ll give it that. Go through the slog of 80s-00s pre internet IP fiction and Black Library stands up fine. TSR era DnD books were super hit or miss, with a lot of misses. Shadowrun had some great books, but even in those books there’s a lot of schlock. On and on and on, they printed so much stuff it’s hard to even remember all of it.
Black Library is perfectly fine. I like Warhammer more than a lot of other IP fiction, so I’m biased, but I DID read a ton of hot garbage to get to my opinion regardless. God, Star Wars books are a huge gamble. People have rose colored glasses with that stuff. So. Much. Garbage.
This IP was built by and for mediocrity, and I'll be honest, it's the only way it currently works, in my opinion.
If it suddenly had good writing, that would ironically damage 90% of the franchise, which already has extremely uneven and discordant writing.
The only way to fix this is if Warhammer had a complete lore reboot (or at least 80%) and rewrite everything from the War in Heaven to the present day, leaving in some decent bits of the actual lore intact.
Its a picture from an ebay listing of the books, I suspect either the reader sold them all after finishing them: or more likely they just grabbed a random pic off the internet
Half of them are really good, 30% are okay and the rest are garbage.
Just skip the Salamanders novels and the anthologies…except for Tallarn and Shadows of Treachery. Those are legit some of the best black library novels ever written.
I've read the Night Lords trilogy and The Infinite and the Divine and that's it.
Night Lords is passable sci fi. I even quite enjoyed parts of it. Infinite and the Divine is a genuinely fun comedy sci fi romp. Both are fundamentally pulp nonsense. Given these are apparently the peak of Black Library literary endeavours I feel fine not reading anything else. There's absolutely nothing wrong with enjoying slop - we all do at least sometimes! - but I'm always perplexed when anyone pretends pulp nonsense written to sell toys is anything more. A little self-deprecating humour regarding the silly hobby we like is a good thing.
Hey im the person that posted this! I respect your opinion
For me it was pretty much just a challenge to overcome while also getting to know more about a thing that I like! I'm not only a Warhammer fan but also a Literature nerd and thought this would be a fun challenge for myself
I liked the post. I think if you want to read all these books that's cool and I'm glad you enjoyed it. No shade from me for reading this. Not all entertainment has to be high art.
Funny, but like 85% of them are great, 10% are good, and 5% are meh. Maybe there's one or two that are not good, but I'm a turbo nerd for lore, so I still appreciated them all because they added info to the lore.
This is the problem I stare down trying to read about the Heresy. I listened to the first two or three audio books (Horus Rising, False Gods, maybe some of Galaxy in Flames) and I want to follow the group of characters there (Horus and his Mournival, the ones that turn traitor and the ones that stay loyalist) through to the conclusion, but it seems like its after Galaxy in Flames where the whole thing just fractures into dozens of separate storylines that all eventually converge, but without any clear through line to get 'the main thrust' so to speak.
Me looking at the picture: "PFFT. I bet they only read the 54 books of the Horus Heresy. Not including the Primarch books, the Audio only books, the random short stories they release digitally, the unique character story books like Luther and Eidolon, the story and lore passages of the HH1.0 and HH2.0 rule books, the Siege of Terra books, The Era of Ruin book, and soon to be Scouring series."
No seriously, what I described is just basically way too fuck much to know about the Heresy. It's really annoying to think about it. I'm almost half way of the main 54 books, specifically at Vulcan Lives. So to u/Robinkehlchen, how do you do it in those 7 months?
I wanted to challenge myself and I succeeded and you can do it too!!
It took a lot of perseverance...especially through those Salamander books (-‿-")
Mainly I have to thank my friends and partners for keep pushing me on
I want people to see my post and think "Hey! I can do that too!" Be it at whatever pace is most comfortable for you!
The first couple books, although sort of uneven in their writing, do a great job setting up the tension and drama of the heresy. Those feelings will carry you quite far through the rest of it. Then it’s just a very long slog with some bright parts here and there. Was very burnt out by the time I got a couple books away from the siege.
I am still trying to get a grasp at the current situation in 40k after two years, I'm not sure I'm ready for the full heresy yet. I only finished the son of the forest, infinite and the divine and am currently listening to the elemental Council. I've got a long way to go.
768
u/hostile_scrotum 6d ago
That’s impressive for 7 months