Recommendations?

[A D-B]

 

I'd recommend anything by John French, Chris Wraight, and Andy Smille. They write completely differently to one another, but each one brings something to the table. 

 

 

I know the thread is headed in a Heresy direction, but I'll toss another vote out for The Emperor's Gift. Like everyone else around here, I've read most of AD-B's work, and unlike most everyone else, I think this just might be his finest writing to date. Ironic too, considering he was vocal about not being entirely satisfied with its flow.

 

 

I think it's probably my best prose, but I hate everything I write, so I wouldn't take my opinion on board. It was certainly the most difficult novel to write (until The Talon of Horus) largely because a lot of the time you get caught between what you as an author want to write about and see in the setting, and what fans expect from famous events.

 

Would the main character's lack of enthusiasm about describing the climactic battle on Armageddon be an example of the writer inserting himself into the story? 

 

A lot of memoirs and historical fiction novels drop out of extreme detail for some battles, and have the main character less willing to re-live it in absolute clarity. It was the same conceit. I like that once in a while.

 

You could also add that I was being mindful that I needed to keep it vague, as these weren't the main guys dealing with the battle. I wanted to show what it was like 'being there' without covering the wider picture. It was about what Squad Castian did in the fight, not the Grey Knights at Armageddon.

 

Lord of the Night - the Imperium at its worst, schemes within schemes, what't not to love?

Execution Hour - "This novel is a thing of rare beauty." - A D-B.

 

Good calls.

[Trevak Dal]

Also the Eldar trilogy. Path of the Warrior, Seer then Outcast is the order and they each intertwine with the others. A good read.

 

I do like the Commissar Cain series, but there is the Henry Zou books that are really good as well.

 

 

The lyrics from the Disturbed song Indestructible are very similar to the aspect warriors "putting on the Warmask" which in and of itself is a really cool concept because it makes a divergent personality for the Aspect Warrior, where they can fully commit all the atrocities of war with the War Mask on-and then remember nothing of it.  The closest thing to PTSD Eldar have is Exarchs.  But they basically have become The Engine from the novel Armor by John Steakley.

 

Not a 40k book, but awesome anyways.

 

Karen Traviss's books dealing with Gears of War are excellent too-I drew a lot of inspiration from them for my CSMs, along with ADB's Night Lords trilogy.

 

I also loved The Emperor's Gift (Squad Castian is my Grey Knight Killteam)

[Artein]

 

You could also add that I was being mindful that I needed to keep it vague, as these weren't the main guys dealing with the battle. I wanted to show what it was like 'being there' without covering the wider picture. It was about what Squad Castian did in the fight, not the Grey Knights at Armageddon.

I totally love this thing you did there (and other authors do sometime). We already know that the battle was epic and who won it. All we need to see is that they were there and what was the fallout of all this stuff going on.

One of the most epic battles in the entire 40k universe was just a piece of background, kinda important but still a background. Awesome.

[sitnam]

So the Path of the Eldar series seems to be well received, what about the similar DE series? I have an interest in both so just wondering

 

To add to discussion, i just finished Descent of Angels. Very different novel, more of a Great Crusade novel instead of Horus hHeresy. But i did like the concept of a primarch origin novel

[battle captain corpus]

The Dark Eldar books by Andy Chambers are sublime, give them a go defo :)

 

.....The Dark Angels books were widely recognised as the weakest ever written by BL....alongside the CS Goto works -shudder-

 

I'm just getting into the new Deathwatch collection of short stories. Very good so far but then the first few are always the best in an anthology I find. I have Blood of Asaheim to reread too, now that's a cracking book! Anything by Chris Wraight is worth looking at in my opinion!

 

BCC

[sitnam]

 

.....The Dark Angels books were widely recognised as the weakest ever written by BL....alongside the CS Goto works -shudder-

 

Really? That is quite different, I hadn't heard bad things about the DA novels. Not great things either, but I didnt see an abundance of multi-lasers or anything

[Knight of the Raven]

I recommend Perturabro's My Iron Warriors: Ordnance is Magic, which has been completed a few months ago. It's very swearing heavy though.

 

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Oh, you meant Black Library stories? Nope, got nothing.

[Stormborn]

Andy Chamber's Dark Eldar books are probably the best thing I've read by BL in a long time.   BL & GW should hire this Chambers guy to write more stuff I'd love to see his take on the HH or some of the codex or the rule book...

 

Personally I found path the eldar to be more plod of the eldar the first one was ok but the second two were very meh!  I'm not a huge fan of gav thorpe and like graham mcneil and nick kyme I never feel that by not picking up one of their books I've might have missed out on something special, if I'm really desperate for my BL fix and there is nothing else around I will read them but I'd never rush out and buy one of their books by choice.

[Kol Saresk]

I don't know if you are serious or joking.

 

@Joking: Definitely need to keep this guy on the payroll.

 

@Serious: It does help that he's been with the background since I was born, generally speaking.

[Wade Garrett]

 

I recommend Perturabro's My Iron Warriors: Ordnance is Magic...

If this is a real fanfic and not something you made up, for the love of the Dark Gods PM me a link.

[Scribe]

I dont know if Wrath of Iron has been suggested, but its my default recommendation for 40K.

 

EDIT: But I see it listed in the OP, serves me right...

[Iron Hands Fanatic]

I dont know if Wrath of Iron has been suggested, but its my default recommendation for 40K.

EDIT: But I see it listed in the OP, serves me right...

Just want to reinforce this.

Recently on the Iron Hands subforum, there have been some members posting that they were introduced to the IHs via the *shudder* Clan Raukann Supplement , and they have wanted to know what the chapter was like before it got reduced to black, bionic-fetishist, Ultramarines, because they really like the new fluff, and want to see what we are all complaining about.

To anyone in that position, Wrath of Iron is the book to read. Its grimdark, and paints a very honest picture of the Iron Hands - by far being the 40k chapter's best portrayal in a BL book.

Unfortunately, it turned out to be the last dying gasp of a fantastically characterful Chapter as it drowned in a tide of awful, hamfisted, retconned fluff.

[Scribe]

Yeah, I refuse to read the new stuff after seeing some of the summaries. Wrath of Iron was soooooooooo good. So good its one of 3 books I started reading again no more than a week after I finished it.