# I want to get into Warhammer Fantasy novels. Where to start?



## Designation P-90

As the title suggests, what is a good starting place? I saw the Sigmar Omnibus the other day but wasn't sure it was a good jumping in point.


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## The Sullen One

It really depends what you want in a book. Blood for the blood god is a nice read, especially given the ending, but if you want a story with more intrigue then its not for you. Personally I started with the Vampire Genivieve omnibus (which isn't just about her) by Jack Yeovil or as he's more commonly known, Kim Newman. Given the sheer depth and variety of all the stories in there, I'd say start with that.


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## Diatribe1974

Start in the "Beginning" area novels and work yourself forward:

All of the "Time of LEgend" novels:

Sigmar Trilogy
Malekith Trilogy
Nagash Trilogy

Anything dealing with the Sundering.

From there, it depends on what interests you. For a GREAT read, you've got the Gotrek & Felix Omnibus (all 3) for one massive story started about by William King & continued at Book 8 by Nathan Long to this very day. If you like Skaven, there's C.L. Werner's awesome Skaven novels in the Thanquol Trilogy (also in some of the Gotrek & Felix novels too!), a novel I just finished called Vermintide & an "Age of Legends" novel called "Dead Winter" (if you read all the Age of Legends novels by this point, it's already read!)

The list goes on and on and on as there's a HUGE backlog of books to read.


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## Designation P-90

So the Sigmar books are a suitable starting place seeing as how I dont know ANYTHING about the universe and don't have a preference in stories?


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## Rems

The Witch Hunter series from C.L Werner's good. Action and adventure as well as a look at life in the empire away from the front lines. Rarely for this genre it also contains character development.

Sword of Justice and Sword of Vengeance are pretty good. It starts off with internal politics in the empire before devolving into all out war in Averland. There's a strong cast of supporting characters and the rivalry between Schwazhelm and Helburg is engaging.

If you're looking for something a little different the Zavant books are interesting and frequently amusing. Think Sherlock Holmes but in the warhammer world. Watson is a halfling. 

Knights of Brettonia is a good series, where the good guys are not protected by invincible plot armour. It follows a knight's attempts to make a name for himself and struggle to govern his realm whilst Norscans invade the northern coast and beastmen pour out of the woods. 

Personally i dislike the Gotrek and Felix books, they're fairly formulaic and the two protagonists uninteresting. If you like seeing heroes defying the odds and defeating monsters time and time again they might be for you.


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## Lord of Ruin

I personally started with the gotrek and felix books at least the first 3, as they are very easy to read and introduce alot of the key aspects of warhammer fantasy very well. They are also very fun to read and lighter on background material.

However if you want a more serious introduction then the Time of Legends series, particulary the Sigmar trilogy is then the way to go.

Cheers


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## Diatribe1974

Designation P-90 said:


> So the Sigmar books are a suitable starting place seeing as how I dont know ANYTHING about the universe and don't have a preference in stories?


Reading about Sigmar & the world he lived in BEFORE reading current world Warhammer Fantasy helps give an idea of the magnitude of change in brought about & it doesn't tell the whole story of Sigmar either (don't worry, it's still a great read).

Basically:

Sigmar: Story of the founding of the Empire & setting the foundations of the later "God-King of Mankind".

Nagash: Think of if the Egyptians had really freakin' awesome Necromancers bordering of near titanic power. Yeah, that was Nagash.

Malekith: Elves. Sissy, frilly elves. Oh yeah, the story about how they got f*cked up hardcore.

Gotrek & Felix: This is essentially current day WHFB stuff, but still a great story about arguably the greatest Dwarf Slayer and his manling pet, Felix.

Thanquol: (involved in the Gotrek & Felix stories) Grey Seer Thanquol & his adventures of failure & how to blame other Skaven for his misfortunes (seriously, it was never his fault, other incompetents caused his failure/lack of success!)

Luthor Huss: Warrior Priest of Sigmar. One of the greatest zealot WP's of Sigmar in a truly epic story.

Sword of Vengeance/Sword of Justice (Omnibus collecting both named: Swords of the Emperor): One giant epic story containing the adventures of the Emperor's Champion (Ludwig Schwartzhelm) and the Reiksmarshal (Kurt Helborg) and the slow damnation of the city of Averheim. Great stuff.

Witch Hunter (Matthias Thulmann) Omnibus: For a trilogy, it's a fairly light/quick read (average book is like 250 pages) but has several short stories from various anthologies to help fill in the gaps. If you liked the Thanquol novels, it's done by the same author (C.L. Werner). I've not read it yet (I own them), but since I'm a huge C.L. Werner fan, I know I'll love it.

If you have any other book questions, let me know, I own a huge selection of BL books!


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## Lord of the Night

Diatribe1974 said:


> Reading about Sigmar & the world he lived in BEFORE reading current world Warhammer Fantasy helps give an idea of the magnitude of change in brought about & it doesn't tell the whole story of Sigmar either (don't worry, it's still a great read).
> 
> Basically:
> 
> Sigmar: Story of the founding of the Empire & setting the foundations of the later "God-King of Mankind".
> 
> Nagash: Think of if the Egyptians had really freakin' awesome Necromancers bordering of near titanic power. Yeah, that was Nagash.
> 
> Malekith: Elves. Sissy, frilly elves. Oh yeah, the story about how they got f*cked up hardcore.
> 
> Gotrek & Felix: This is essentially current day WHFB stuff, but still a great story about arguably the greatest Dwarf Slayer and his manling pet, Felix.
> 
> Thanquol: (involved in the Gotrek & Felix stories) Grey Seer Thanquol & his adventures of failure & how to blame other Skaven for his misfortunes (seriously, it was never his fault, other incompetents caused his failure/lack of success!)
> 
> Luthor Huss: Warrior Priest of Sigmar. One of the greatest zealot WP's of Sigmar in a truly epic story.
> 
> Sword of Vengeance/Sword of Justice (Omnibus collecting both named: Swords of the Emperor): One giant epic story containing the adventures of the Emperor's Champion (Ludwig Schwartzhelm) and the Reiksmarshal (Kurt Helborg) and the slow damnation of the city of Averheim. Great stuff.
> 
> Witch Hunter (Matthias Thulmann) Omnibus: For a trilogy, it's a fairly light/quick read (average book is like 250 pages) but has several short stories from various anthologies to help fill in the gaps. If you liked the Thanquol novels, it's done by the same author (C.L. Werner). I've not read it yet (I own them), but since I'm a huge C.L. Werner fan, I know I'll love it.
> 
> If you have any other book questions, let me know, I own a huge selection of BL books!


Listen to Diatribe, he's 100% right.

Except he forgot _Brunner the Bounty Hunter_, whose just as badass as Gotrek except he does it for money and not glory. All of Diatribe's suggestions are ones I would second, and add Brunner to them.

And of course I second, third and fourth his suggestion on THANQUOL!!!! Best character in all of Warhammer. :biggrin:


LotN


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## LukeValantine

I find the adventure of Gortex and Felix are the best place to start as they gradual encounter every faction in WF.


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## alasdair

Can I highly suggest the Chronicles of Malus Darkblade. While the time of legends series are fantastic, most are not set in the current fantasy era. The 2 malus darkblade books are a great read, really unpredictable and overall stunning.


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## Words_of_Truth

If you want a good background of the world then the origin stories are best, before moving on to the present day like stories. I'll list what I think is best for each "race" from the ones I've read.

Malus Darkblade = Dark Elves. Awesome series wish they'd do more.

Gotrek and Felix - Dwarves and a bit of everything. Nice easy series to follow although it does switch writers and sometimes suffers from it.

Swords of the Emperor - Empire. As noted before it gives a good indication of the internal and external problems the Empire faces. Witch hunter series gives a really gritty portrayal to.

Thanquol is fun in Gotrek and Felix but I haven't read his stand alone books yet, but if he's anything like before it should be good if you want to read about Skaven.

Only High Elf series I've read is the Malekith series, which was extremely good, but after that I've not read much about them (Gileads Blood but he's not really a High Elf)


That's the best I've read from the Fantasy setting, I tend to read more about 40k though.


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## Paceyjg

I would also start with Gotrex and Felix as these got me into the Warhammer universe and subsequently 40K. Will warn you however, that after William King the series went downhill, but he did write the first 6 books so that will be enough for you.

I thinks its much better to get a picture of the Warhammer world before you go back into its past and read the Sigmar trilogy etc, thats the way I did it and ive no regrets.


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## Lord of the Night

Words_of_Truth said:


> Malus Darkblade = Dark Elves. Awesome series wish they'd do more.


Mike Lee is currently working on a new Malus trilogy which will cover the second third of Malus's adventures.

And I had forgotton about Malus. Yes _The Chronicles of Malus Darkblade_ is definitely a series any fan of Warhammer Fantasy should read, its a classic and the first five books only cover the first third of the story.


LotN


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## Gret79

Lord of the Night said:


> Mike Lee is currently working on a new Malus trilogy which will cover the second third of Malus's adventures.
> 
> And I had forgotton about Malus. Yes _The Chronicles of Malus Darkblade_ is definitely a series any fan of Warhammer Fantasy should read, its a classic and the first five books only cover the first third of the story.
> 
> 
> LotN


I really enjoyed the Malus novels - and now I find out there's more on the way! Thanks :victory:

I enjoyed the books that much, that for a good month after I wanted to make a Dark Elf army. I don't even know anyone who plays fantasy...


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## Lord of the Night

Gret79 said:


> I really enjoyed the Malus novels - and now I find out there's more on the way! Thanks :victory:


It was great news for me when I found out. Mike Lee confirmed some time ago that there will be a trilogy, coming soon, to cover the second third of Malus's adventure and then a quartology to cover the final part. So the current plan is for another seven Malus Darkblade books. :biggrin:


LotN


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## Gret79

Lord of the Night said:


> It was great news for me when I found out. Mike Lee confirmed some time ago that there will be a trilogy, coming soon, to cover the second third of Malus's adventure and then a quartology to cover the final part. So the current plan is for another seven Malus Darkblade books. :biggrin:
> 
> 
> LotN


7? :chuffed:

Thanks!


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## Zinegata

I would highly recommend Abnett's Thunder and Steel Omnibus. It has Elves, Empire, Kislev, and Chaos PoV stories.


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## Designation P-90

Thanks for the recommendations! I will be on the lookout for most of these.


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