Recommendations?

[deathspectersgt7]

Warrior Brood ( C.s. GOTO )  Deathwatch, Mantis Warriors, Inquisition. Not a Bad read the other book in the series was ok.

[Flint13]

@DSS7 - What is your experience with CS Goto? I have only heard shockingly black and white, hate or love reviews, never in between.

[Sevatar]

 

If you're an Iron Warriors player, have you read Siege of Castellax? It's an IW world against an Ork invasion. I particularly enjoyed the glimpse at how "regular" (if you can ever really call them that) Chaos Space Marines interact with members of the Obliterator cults.

I'd avoid Castellax, myself.

 

C.L. Werner has written lots of Warhammer Fantasy novels featuring the skaven (mutant ratmen with a comically high reproduction rate who keep their population size under control with chronic backstabbery and tacticless horde warfare).

 

The Iron Warriors in that novel didn't feel like Chaos Marines the way Honsou, Forrix, Talos, the Exalted, and even Barsabbas did...they read like big hazard striped skaven.

Agreed. They really reminded me of Skaven when I read it. Just backstabbing scum, with no sense of loyalty and honour, including straight up murder of one another. 

 

Spoiler!

 

However,  the Warsmith and his final battle was very nice, a good touch of justice. Humiliated and broken was his deserved end. 

[deathspectersgt7]

@DSS7 - What is your experience with CS Goto? I have only heard shockingly black and white, hate or love reviews, never in between.

His first book in Dawn of War was really good action packed then the rest were Meh!

Warrior Brood the same way the second book in the series was ok.

Great starts in some of the books and lack luster finishes.

[Sothalor]

That... ok, that's a new one. I've never seen Goto on the list of recommended reads, myself.

[Plague Angel]

I've never actually heard anything about Blood Gorgons from anyone else that's read it.

 

I don't think I finished it, or at least I don't remember the ending. But "non-stereotypical" is certainly true; the Gorgons felt very distinctive, and the biggest reason I put it down was so that I could just read the Bastion Wars books from the beginning instead.

[Flint13]

Yeah, that's why I really liked it. The Blood Gorgons are very unique. They're not an original legion and they have a sort of warped bunch of rites and customs that sort of parallels that of a loyalist chapter. I thought it was a very neat idea.

 

Just like their blood bond rites. Imagine all the super human ability of a space marine, but twinned to a companion who can watch every blind spot, share every experience, and builds upon a shared pool of knowledge and skill. That was a cool deal, as well as a good fluff point to show how a "newly" turned chapter could have the same experience and force that a thousand years veteran could.

[Kol Saresk]

That... ok, that's a new one. I've never seen Goto on the list of recommended reads, myself.

It mostly depends on how......... "hardline" you want to be about something as rigid as "canon" in an universe like 40K. I didn't mind it too much.

 

As for Blood Gorgons, having read the books, I like them, but there was a ton of complaint about perjury in Flesh and Iron I believe, the about the Riverine regiments. Apparently one of the scenes virtually word for word matches a scene in a completely different book by a completely different author. So he ends up getting a love-hate relationship from some too.

[battle captain corpus]

To be honest there is, I find, a LOT of bolter porn out there. By this I mean "Ermergerhd the nasty khaos mareenz have invaded lets purge dem brothers!" stuff that is churned out by a few of the Black Librarians.

 

Personally this is not my favourite subject matter. Noooo waaaaay. So:

 

- Anthony Reynolds Word Bearers omnibus: makes it cool to love CSM's in a book that's non-heresy

- Night Lords work by ADB: natch

- Blood of Asaheim by Chris Wraight: What happens when you leave the Wolves and come back and the pack has left you behind?

 

Dave

[Flint13]

Oh, I may have to pick up Blood of Asaheim then. 

I've heard good things, and the Wolves can use all the anti-brotastic press they can get.

[battle captain corpus]

Blood of Asaheim is great and its out in small paperback now too so cracking choice :)

 

Dave

[SteelPaladin]

Hmm. I may have to give Blood of Asaheim another shot. I was only a chapter or two in when I got distracted by the release of Mark of Calth, and never picked it back up.

[Kriegsmacht]

15 hours or Let the Galaxy Burn anthology

[Wade Garrett]

- Anthony Reynolds Word Bearers omnibus: makes it cool to love CSM's in a book that's non-heresy

 

Ehhhh....Sabtec and the Warmonger are decent characters, but the majority of the Word Bearers are an interchangable mass whose characterization never rises above "Blaaarrr! I'm evil and bad and I like being evil and bad because I'm evil. And bad."

[Rain]

Siege of Castellax was awful. I tried to read it as an IW fan and got about halfway through before I just gave up. Besides the raptor character being named after the pterodactyl monster from Godzilla (he had one of the old style batwing raptor packs) it was just boring, terribly written, and full of the usual incompetent evil faction tripe. That said, I quite enjoyed Angels of Darkness, it's quite old, and apparently gets DA players' skirts in a twist, but I thought it was great, if not very bolter porn-ey. I enjoy 40k conspiracy theories about mysterious groups like fallen Dark Angels and Alpha Legion and whose side they are *really* on.

 

I also liked the novella Tallarn: Executioner. It was unfortunately limited edition so it may be difficult to get a hold of *ahem* legitimate copies, but it was a very good story. The description of tank battles in a poisoned environment has a real submarine warfare vibe to it, and builds the tension well. Oh and the twist at the end is nice, though not that difficult to see coming.

[Stormborn]

Siege of Castallax is the worst of the space marine battles series which was a real disappointment as C L Werner has written some excellent Warhammer books.  Then again the whole series is extraordinarily patchy.  BL books I would not recommend include

 

Series - ultramarines, salamanaders, word bearers, iron warriors & grey knights

Books - Siege of Castallax, fall of damnos, purging of kadmilua, wrath of iron & fire caste

[Brother Heinrich]

So let me see if I can sum up some of the ones you most of you guys suggested vs. what you think I should avoid.

 

Read:

• 15 Hours

• Tallarn: Executioner

• Blood of Asaheim

• Blood Gorgon

 

Avoid:

• Anything by C.S. Goto (Unless he makes a radical change I think I'm good skipping multi-lasers for now)

• Ciaphas Cain (Already told you guys I hate that series, I'm not in 40k for the comedy, if I want to laugh I'll go watch some Jim Gaffigan stand up)
• Siege of Castellax and most of the Space Marine Battle series (which interestingly enough it seems like I just happened to read all the good ones and skip all the bad, minus the Gildar Rift, wish I could get my money back on that one.)

 

So minus a handful of titles it actually seems like I'm not crazy and that most of what BL is releasing these days is just sci-fi trash. Chris Wraight has thus far made a positive impression with Wrath of Iron, minus:

 

flying daemonettes taking out warhound titans, golly gee was that all about?

 

So I am looking forward to Blood of Asaheim. That Tallarn: Executioner novel sounds awesome as well, tank battles in crazy environments are always cool. Sadly though, outside of adding Chris Wraight to my list of decent authors, it appears that I'll keep ignoring most Black Library products until Abnett or AD-B put something new out.

[Conn Eremon]

I'm honestly still leery of Wraight myself, after Battle of(for) the Fang. Scars was solid, and I haven't read too much of his other stuff, but I rather felt his Fang book was to the Wolves what Ventris' series is to the Ultramarines.

[Kol Saresk]

I'm honestly still leery of Wraight myself, after Battle of(for) the Fang. Scars was solid, and I haven't read too much of his other stuff, but I rather felt his Fang book was to the Wolves what Ventris' series is to the Ultramarines.

Meant to be Mary Sue but becomes across as demeaning and insulting? Huh. And here I had high hopes for the day I would eventually read that.

[Conn Eremon]

 

 

 

I'm honestly still leery of Wraight myself, after Battle of(for) the Fang. Scars was solid, and I haven't read too much of his other stuff, but I rather felt his Fang book was to the Wolves what Ventris' series is to the Ultramarines.

Meant to be Mary Sue but becomes across as demeaning and insulting? Huh. And here I had high hopes for the day I would eventually read that.

It was the whole "Noooo, if only we, a single Great Company, were not attacked by the Daemon Primarch Magnus and what was probably the entire remainder of the Thousand Sons Legion, I could have finished my apothecary work and molded us into the bestest Marines with SOOOO many Successors that we can ring the Eye of Terror and TROLOLOL Chaos for, like, ever!" that killed it for me.

 

Edit: Oops, forgot the "But at least we, again a single Great Company, were able to completely and utterly defeat the everybody sent against us."

[Kol Saresk]

I'm honestly still leery of Wraight myself, after Battle of(for) the Fang. Scars was solid, and I haven't read too much of his other stuff, but I rather felt his Fang book was to the Wolves what Ventris' series is to the Ultramarines.

Meant to be Mary Sue but becomes across as demeaning and insulting? Huh. And here I had high hopes for the day I would eventually read that.

It was the whole "Noooo, if only we, a single Great Company, were not attacked by the Daemon Primarch Magnus and what was probably the entire remainder of the Thousand Sons Legion, I could have finished my apothecary work and molded us into the bestest Marines with SOOOO many Successors that we can ring the Eye of Terror and TROLOLOL Chaos for, like, ever!" that killed it for me.

Edit: Oops, forgot the "But at least we, again a single Great Company, were able to completely and utterly defeat the everybody sent against us."

So yeah, meant to be Mary Sue but comes across as demeaning and insulting for any fan of the faction that has dignity and self-respect.

[Conn Eremon]

Yep.

 

But Scars was awesome, so who knows. I will eventually read his other works before consigning him to the category of "Talented, but whyyyyy,' and keep company with Graham McNeil.

[Stormborn]

The problem with battle of the fang and a lot of the space marine battles novels is that they are based on GW fluff.  It would have been much better if GW let BL write novels rather get them to expand on codex fluff which is usally a few paragraphs long.  Of course something like that would never sell just ask Dan Abnett...

[Jareddm]

Was Legion of the Damned based off a previously defined event?  I don't recall reading anything about it.  Though that might be the one exception.

[Conn Eremon]

The only thing GW, as far as I know, had already released on the Fang was that there was just such an assault. Everything wrong with it was all Wraight.

 

If it had been bolter porn of a single Great Company holding against such a terrible assault, with great cost, and had skipped all of that apothecary nonsense, it would have been an improvement.