Horus Heresy Books worth reading, some fat nerds outraged. [WH40k]

[Hoax]

So yeah if you have ever been interested in the WH40k universe you know of the Heresy when Horus turned to chaos and marine fought against marine on earth itself.  It has always been a compelling story, but one not touched on all too heavily by the official lore.  There is a new set of books out (well 2/3 are out) that tell the story of the Lunar Wolves / Sons of Horus during the crusade prior to the heresy.  While the writing is spotty at times it has not gotten in the way of enjoying the backround.  In fact several aspects of the story came as quite a surprise to me:

-The space marines of this time are characterized as quite human, with brotherly banter, jokes, pranks etc.  A huge shift from the typical pray-kill-pray-clean armor marines of the 41st millennium.
-During his life the emperor was a man of science, denying the existence of god's demons and magic.  He sought to unite mankind under a banner of secular enlightenment.  He was completely against anyone declaring him a god.

I wouldn't really recommend these for anyone lacking prior knowledge of the subject but for those who are familiar these are in my opinion definitely worth reading.

[Chenghiz]

So is the emperor not alive? I know he's somehow sustained by the sacrifice of psykers (sp?) but I thought he was actually alive. I've never really seen a clarification on it, looking through the Codexes and settings I've seen.

[Azazel]

He's essentially kept in a form of Stasis. He's not "dead" but not exactly alive either. His shrivelled semi-corpse keeps the Astronimicon going, but he has no direct influence over the running of the Imperium.

Also, more 40k books worth reading? Interesting. Who wrote these ones?

[HaemishM]

I liked the first Commisar Cain book. I'd certainly be interested in Horus Heresy stories.

[Hoax]

First book is called Horus Rising written by Dan Abnett who has done a great deal of writing in the WH universes:

http://isfdb.tamu.edu/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?Dan_Abnett

The second is called False Gods written by Graham McNeill. I do find it sort of annoying that they went with an author rotation for just a 3 book series tbh but so far he's done a great job of keeping the character's consistent.

[penfold]

-The space marines of this time are characterized as quite human, with brotherly banter, jokes, pranks etc.  A huge shift from the typical pray-kill-pray-clean armor marines of the 41st millennium.

There's some banter and human nature from Space Marines, but it depends on the chapter. The Space Wolves novels are the best example.

The fourth Horus Heresy artwork book answered for me more than a few things, the fate of some of the primarchs, what the Golden Throne is, and a bit about the pre-throne Emperor. Nice to see what it all looked like back then too.

I kinda like all the 40k books, although the Necomunda ones are the least re-read of them all, here's a round up of a few. I've more or less the entire catalogue now apart from some of the short story collections and a few Chancers novels.

Executioners Hour and Shadow Point by Gordon Rennie - Battlefleet Gothic novels, 40k in space. I wish there were more space warfare novels, it makes a very nice change from the others.

Space Wolves series by William King  - following a Space Marine from recruitment to leader.

Soul Drinkers series by Ben Counter - renegade Space Marines, but not Chaos Marines. Quite unusual as they follow neither the imperium or chaos, so differ to the majority of 40k books.

Storm Of Iron by Graham McNeil - one of my faves. Siege warfare, although the siege is conducted more or less like a classic medievil one in line with 40ks meatgrinder philosophy, with focus on a Chaos Marine anti-hero, who appears in an novel in the Ultramarine series by the same author, Black Sun Dark Sky.

Lord of the Night by Simon Spurrier - Another traitor marine anti-hero, and from one of the lesser known traitor legions.

Eisenhorn series - Dan Abnett. Follows an Inquisitor through his career. The series sort of continues in the two Inquisitor Ravenor books.

Gaunts Ghosts series by Dan Abnett. The longest series available, about a Imperial Guard regiment. Might as well get the Sabbat Worlds Crusade art/information book if you liked it.

Cain series by Sandy Mitchell. Cain's a funny chap, the accidental hero. He looks after number one, is sarky, easy going, and tries to avoid trouble and danger at all costs. Which is why he always end up in the thick of action and saves the day, naturally.

Grey Knights series by Ben Counter. Space Marine daemonhunter specialists. The Grey Knight Chapter are Space Marine special forces, as are the Deathwatch Chapter alien hunters, also the subject of another series by CS Goto.

Deus Encarmine and Deus Sanguinius by James Swallow - Focus on the Blood Angel Space Marines. Which might mean something if you know who they are. I guess which Space Marine Chapters get their own novels depend on how many fanboi's they have, the Blood Angels are one of the originals and have their own codex rules, figures and what have you.

Xenology  - fine pencil drawings done of alien autopsys in the style of Grays Anatomy of most of the main named 40k species, with artwork, descriptions  and annotations by tech priests and inquisitors, and a sort of diary that tells a story. Oh, so thats what a Hrud looks like.

[penfold]

He's essentially kept in a form of Stasis. He's not "dead" but not exactly alive either. His shrivelled semi-corpse keeps the Astronimicon going, but he has no direct influence over the running of the Imperium.

/nerd on
As GW change 40k history and races at a drop of hat there's more than a few questions about the Imperium universe that can are never certain. That's one of them. In the old Inquisitor series by Ian Watson, part of the Emperors fractured mind communicates and influences the hero of the book. This and older fluff have part of his mind is running the Astronomicon, part of it is soul binding pskyers and astropaths, part of it is holding audience in the throneroom, some of it oversees the Imperium itself.  The current novels continually feature 'miracles' that influence the course of history in the Imperiums (and hero's) favour, so i reckon that theory fits in well.
/nerd off

[Johny Cee]

Quite a few of the WH40k short stories have been collected in Let the Galaxy Burn.  Variable quality,  but some are pretty good.  I think 40 or 41 stories in all,  by most of the prominent Black Library authors.

"The Last Chancers" series is one you missed.  Follows a the 13th Penal Legion from the viewpoint of a pretty fucked up Leutenent.  Roughly based on Dirty Dozen plus Arnold's crew from Predator.  Collected in omnibus.  Has more of that really dark Warhammer tone then some of the other series.

[Azazel]

/nerd on
As GW change 40k history and races at a drop of hat there's more than a few questions about the Imperium universe that can are never certain. That's one of them. In the old Inquisitor series by Ian Watson, part of the Emperors fractured mind communicates and influences the hero of the book. This and older fluff have part of his mind is running the Astronomicon, part of it is soul binding pskyers and astropaths, part of it is holding audience in the throneroom, some of it oversees the Imperium itself.  The current novels continually feature 'miracles' that influence the course of history in the Imperiums (and hero's) favour, so i reckon that theory fits in well.
/nerd off

I don't remember much of anything from the original Inquisitor novel (the one before the Squats were wrwritten out of the book). I've got it somewhere but no idea where. I've been into 40k since RT was released, and while there's plenty of "divine intervention of the Emperor" out these. I can't recall any of the older fluff having him hold court in the throne room or overseeing the day-to-day running of the Imperium. That's what the High Lords of Terra are for. If you have any specific sources I'll check them out.

[Wolf]

I've been reading WH40k lately and I like it a lot. I read the first two Cain novels, and now I'm reading Eisenhorn. I love the guard, so naturally I must get that Gaunts Ghosts series :)

[Comstar]

The Ghosts guard novels are quite, if a little unrealistic (for example, the Ghosts often HIT thier targets, which in a  real guard army is unheard of). Gaunt is quite an interesting charavcter I find, not a 1-dimeionsal character most Commisars are painted to be in the 40K universe. I havn't read all the novals, but I'd like to see what a space marine thinks of them.

[Rodent]

I thought only a few cells of the emperor still lived, essentially keeping him from being reborn as the starchild and unleashing the final war on chaos. I also thought this was done deliberately by the high lords of the imperium in an effort to retain the real power and humanity blindly followed and died for the shade of the emperor.

I should pick these up, the Horus Heresy certainly is one of the more interesting things that came from the fluff.

[bhodi]

I got a quick rundown by my old roommate when we played space hulk about what the whole 40k universe was about; I never really had the money to do the 40k thing and wasn't all that interested in elaborate painting.. but recently I played the warhammer pc games (dawn of war, winter assault) and got so intrigued I spent 2 or 3 hours on wikipedia learning all about it.

The world's pretty cool, it's a shame I have no interest in the game. I did like how the contests determined the outcome of the storyline, that was very neat.

[penfold]

I don't remember much of anything from the original Inquisitor novel (the one before the Squats were wrwritten out of the book). I've got it somewhere but no idea where. I've been into 40k since RT was released, and while there's plenty of "divine intervention of the Emperor" out these. I can't recall any of the older fluff having him hold court in the throne room or overseeing the day-to-day running of the Imperium. That's what the High Lords of Terra are for. If you have any specific sources I'll check them out.

It's from my Inquisitor novel, but I've also read similar elsewhere in older editions and stuff. I remember reading something more recent about him holding personal audience with the very highest members of the Imperium.

The latest art book changes the lore quite a bit regarding the Golden Throne too, although nothing about the present day Emp. It's only a week old I'm not sure i should spoil it.

[Azazel]

It's from my Inquisitor novel, but I've also read similar elsewhere in older editions and stuff. I remember reading something more recent about him holding personal audience with the very highest members of the Imperium.

I don't recall any of that stuff being set "in the now" though. Certainly he did before he got all shrivelled up and shit. But from the beginning of the earliest fluff it's been a matter of shove the corpse-Emperor into the throne and feed him some psykers! Stat!

But as you say, GW's fluff is contradictory all over the place anyway and gets retconned almost as much as the Marvel Universe.