Black Library: Where to start?

[Kozemp]

Okay so between 40K and Fantasy there are like 900,000 novels. It is enough to get lost in.

What's a good place to start reading them? Say, pick one starting point for 40K and one for WFB. I am interested to hear people's thoughts.

[Aldramelech]

Ive only started reading them this year. I'm an avid reader (at least 1 book a week) but in my 20 odd years of gaming Ive never bothered with anything GW related. I always thought (wrongly) that they would be badly written and puerile, not proper books at all. But at the local car boot sale I came across The Ultra Marines Omnibus and the Blood Angels Omnibus for £1 each! What the hell I thought, if nothing else I could sell them on Ebay for a nice profit.

WOW........ I started with the Ultra Marines and could not put it down. I wouldn't dream of selling them now and prowl Ebay for bargains every day. I'm currently reading the Dawn of War omnibus.

For WFB I would strongly recommend The Witch Hunter Omnibus, a great intro to the old world.

[Kozemp]

Rock and roll, keep the suggestions coming. I smell a big Amazon order...

[Drew da Destroya]

If you're into the fluff of either series, I heavily suggest the Horus Heresy series (40k), and I've heard good things about the Time of Legends (fantasy).

Horus Heresy is overall pretty well written, and sheds a lot of light on why the 40k universe is as grimdark as it is now.

I don't know much about Time of Legends since I'm not really that into Fantasy, but it's supposed to be the origin story of the Fantasy world.

[Kozemp]

Sweet, I'll look at those as well.

Where in South Jersey? I'm in NE Philly.

[lauran]

Just like Aldramelech I tought they would be badly written, until I got First and Only the first book in the Gaunt's ghosts series. I finished the book in 2-3 days and have the entire series now.

I also bought the ultramarine omnibus but I think it was rather dissapointing. I have it for three years now and still not finished reading. This was mainly due the fact that it wasn't what I expected it to be(frontline space marine combat).

The horus heresy novel are also verry good.

I am not into WFB but I think times of legend is interesting especially the story of sigmar.

[Gotthammer]

Titanicus is very good. The Commisar Cain series is very funny and a lighter take on the genre - more a pulp action style than total grimdark. The Grey Knights series is ok, but a few things kept puttin gme off bits (describing normal people only coming up to the waists of guys in terminator armour? Good thing the Imperium builds everything with catherdral ceilings [I think the author meant twice the size (as in bulk), rather than twice the height]).

Ian Watsons Space Marine and Inquisition War series are... interesting... especially for his bizzare fetish for describing eyes in terms of eggs. Not terribly great characters either, and the current series has some recent edits to remove Squats and other 'outdated' fluff.

The Blood Bowl Omnibus had me in stitches, and is a great novel with really well written characters.

[ThePov]

Personally, I've only read parts of both the Horus Heresy and Gaunt's Ghosts series, but what I've read from both has been stellar. Horus Heresy is an origin story, but very well done, and since each book generally focuses on a different Legion (or Imperial institution, in the case of Mechanicum), they each have unique view-points on the same events, so it pays to read as many as you can.

Gaunt's Ghosts is literally one of my favorite sci-fi series of all time. I'm not saying it's Dune or anything, but it injects a lot of humanity into a very dark, inhumane universe, and when you compare the earlier books to the later books, you really get a sense of how much the Tanith First and Only has lost over the years of constant war. Occasionally some of the plot arcs get slightly reperitive, but part of that is that this is a military unit with a specific mission-set, and they often get called upon to fulfill that mission, so it's forgivable.

[DevilUknow]

Read the Inquisitor Wars by Ian Watson and then set the rest on fire (well, maybe they're not that bad, but better safe than sorry).

Ian Watson has his haters, but I've never been bored reading his books, while Abnett (the golden boy of BL) just writes combat porn and makes my eyes roll at least once every 2-3 pages.

[wittdooley]

To be honest, I think the best place to start is the Horus Heresy for two reasons:

1. It's a really epic story that tells the history of all the fun stuff you know about the 40k universe
2. Books are written by different authors, and as a result you get a good opportunity to see who you like more than others. That'll lead you to other books.

Beyond that, I haven't read anything by Dan Abnett that I haven't been a fan of.