# What to read first?



## Nordicus (May 3, 2013)

Greetings librarians of forbidden knowledge and untold clashes,

As I'm thinking about starting to read the lore books and stories in the Black Library I come to you for help.

My main interest currently is the Chaos evolution and the Horus Heresy. Everything about the faction (Chaos Daemons and Space Marines) that I play. *My question is then; Where do I start?*

With so many books and so much back'n'forth in the story, which books and in which sequence would you recommend that I read them?

I look forward to your answers!


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## The Scion of Chemos (May 24, 2013)

Nordicus said:


> Greetings librarians of forbidden knowledge and untold clashes,
> 
> As I'm thinking about starting to read the lore books and stories in the Black Library I come to you for help.
> 
> ...


I also am a Chaos lover, so hopefully I will be able to help you some lol.
There are plenty of AWESOME Chaos(40K) books out there, such as the Word Bearers trilogy, Ahriman: Exile, the Iron Warriors omnibus, the Night Lords trilogy, and a bunch of other ones TBH.

Now, you will hear different things from different people when it comes to the HH.
I, personally, recommend reading the series in order of publication. That is how I am doing it, as I don't want to jump around in the series and I think that is how the guys at BL meant it to be read.
However, there really isn't a problem if you jump around in the series a bit, it is really just preference.
So I started the HH series with Horus Rising, False Gods, Galaxy in Flames, Flight of the Eisenstein, Fulgrim, etc.


Now for a different bit, that I think EVERYONE will disagree with:

I personally think you should read a decent amount of 40K and understand A LOT of the setting before you go into the HH series. To me, it makes the HH series a lot more exciting.
The first BL book I read was Horus Rising, and I only knew the basics of 40K then.
When Abnett would introduce a character, such as Abaddon or Lucius, it didn't really mean anything to me. They were just normal characters to me.
I then moved on and read other 40K stuff(it has now been like 2-3 years since I read HR, and I haven't touched much other HH), and now when I look back and am blown away that I had just read about ABADDON before he was who he is today. Or Lucius before he was the Eternal.

To me, the HH books have a LOT more impact if you read them after having a pretty good understanding of 40K lore.

Hope that helps!


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## Nordicus (May 3, 2013)

That is an awesome start - Thanks alot!


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## Khorne's Fist (Jul 18, 2008)

The Scion of Chemos said:


> To me, the HH books have a LOT more impact if you read them after having a pretty good understanding of 40K lore.


I agree totally. However, in the last couple of years I've managed to get 2 mates with no previous 40k/BL experience into the HH series, and they are loving it, so don't be afraid to jump in if the mood takes you. As Chemos says, it might be better to read them in order, and not just concentrating on the ones dealing with the future chaos legions. Most of them cross over between legions anyway.

Of the 40k books, Ahriman:Exile is one of my favourites at the moment, with the Iron Warriors books by McNeill also worth a look. The Night Lords trilogy by ADB are widely thought of as some of the best novels BL have done in some years. There's no shortage of material for you to sink your teeth into.


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## Child-of-the-Emperor (Feb 22, 2009)

The Word Bearer (_Dark Apostle_, _Dark Disciple_, and _Dark Creed_) and Night Lord (_Soul Hunter_, _Blood Reaver_ and _Void Stalker_) trilogies would be a good place to start.

The Heresy series in itself is quite slow in actually getting to the nitty gritty Chaos stuff. So it depends if you want to dive straight into the Chaos stuff or actually want a comprehensive view of how it all went to pot.


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## Nordicus (May 3, 2013)

Hmm those are some good thoughts CotE and Khornes Fist. Knowing the basic outline of the heresy, before it came to pass, might be a good idea. Gives it more meaning in the end.

Very well, I will look into the Word Bearer and Night Lord trilogies to start.


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## Nordicus (May 3, 2013)

Hmm on GW shop I can only find the Void Stalker book from the Night Lords trilogy - Are the others out of print or?


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## Lord of the Night (Nov 18, 2009)

Nordicus said:


> Hmm on GW shop I can only find the Void Stalker book from the Night Lords trilogy - Are the others out of print or?


Sometimes they are tricky to find, try ebay or some second hand book sites.

As to recommandations for Chaos books, there needs to be more of them!! But seriously I would recommend the following;

CotE has already suggested the Night Lords and I couldn't agree more. These are my favourite books, period. I've never enjoyed a series more and not just because i'm a big Night Lords fan, but because they are brilliantly written and each and every character was interesting, flawed and in many cases somebody you can root for despite the knowledge they are brutal monsters. _Void Stalker_ is the best followed by _Blood Reaver_ and _Soul Hunter_ as the back runner, it's still excellent of course but the second and third novels just surpass the first entirely.

_Ahriman: Exile_ is another superb choice for any Chaos fan. John French's visuals are the best in Black Library, no other author immerses you in the world like he does, and his take on the infamous Azhek Ahriman is a very interesting one, he isn't at all what you'd expect when you look at his two incarnations, the kindly and sage-like Ahriman in _A Thousand Sons_ and the rapacious god-in-genesis Ahriman from _Atlas Infernal_. And Ahriman is supported by a very good secondary cast with some characters with a lot of mystery behind them that i'm really looking forward to finding out more about in book two, whenever that is due.

Two books that I have not seen recommended here. _The Siege of Castellax_, the only CSM Battles book, is a great read with something that no other BL book has done with CSMs as protagonists, C.L Werner's Iron Warriors are truly unrepentantly evil characters. There are no good guys in that book or even just grey-area characters, each and every CSM is a pure evil bastard, the guys who like to skin slaves because it's mildly amusing and burn worlds because their bored. And his Orks were great as well, the perfect mix of imposing threat that demands your respect if not fear and madcap humour that gives you a few absurd laughs.

And _Blood Gorgons_, a really enjoyable CSM novel about a renegade Chapter the titular Blood Gorgons, and their quest for survival in the face of an implacable enemy. I really liked Henry Zou's unique ideas with this Chapter, a group of marines like no other, and seeing CSMs who follow the maxim of using Chaos as a tool like Horus did rather than worshipping it as the majority of CSMs do now. Some people dislike Zou but i'm not one of them, he writes powerful and exciting action scenes and his narrative and take on 40k feels markedly different to any other authors, in a good way.


LotN


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## Nordicus (May 3, 2013)

Thanks for the input LotN!

Question though; The Night Lords and Wordbearers trilogi, for the Ahriman book for that matter; They take place after the Horus heresy correct? I mean the heresy established the traitor legions in the first place.

My question would be what makes more sense to read first, in terms of getting the bigger picture. And seeing as there are so many Heresy books, is there anywhere to find a chronological order of them or the like? Just to make sure I get everything in a right timeline.


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## Lord of the Night (Nov 18, 2009)

Nordicus said:


> Thanks for the input LotN!
> 
> Question though; The Night Lords and Word Bearers trilogies, or the Ahriman book for that matter; They take place after the Horus heresy correct? I mean the heresy established the traitor legions in the first place.
> 
> My question would be what makes more sense to read first, in terms of getting the bigger picture. And seeing as there are so many Heresy books, is there anywhere to find a chronological order of them or the like? Just to make sure I get everything in a right timeline.


Both the Night Lords and Word Bearer trilogies take place in M41, but the Ahriman trilogy takes place after the Rubric of Ahriman so around M31-M32.


LotN


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## The Scion of Chemos (May 24, 2013)

Nordicus said:


> Thanks for the input LotN!
> 
> 
> My question would be what makes more sense to read first, in terms of getting the bigger picture. And seeing as there are so many Heresy books, is there anywhere to find a chronological order of them or the like? Just to make sure I get everything in a right timeline.


If you are buying the new hardcover HH books(which I personally am) then they have a roman numeral on the spine.
However in terms of actual chronological order, the HH series kind of jumps all over the place.
The first 3 are a solid trilogy, however the 4th book takes place shortly before, during, and a tad bit after the first 3, but from a different perspective. The 5th book takes place before, during, and well after the first 4 books also from a different perspective.
The 6th book takes place WELL before any of the others and that is as far as I got lol

I am reading them in order of publication, just because I don't want to jump around in the series, and I think they are publishing them in that order because they are meant to be read, roughly, in that order lol.

So it is really whatever you feel like my friend.


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## The Scion of Chemos (May 24, 2013)

Khorne's Fist said:


> I agree totally. However, in the last couple of years I've managed to get 2 mates with no previous 40k/BL experience into the HH series, and they are loving it, so don't be afraid to jump in if the mood takes you. As Chemos says, it might be better to read them in order, and not just concentrating on the ones dealing with the future chaos legions. Most of them cross over between legions anyway.
> 
> Of the 40k books, Ahriman:Exile is one of my favourites at the moment, with the Iron Warriors books by McNeill also worth a look. The Night Lords trilogy by ADB are widely thought of as some of the best novels BL have done in some years. There's no shortage of material for you to sink your teeth into.


Yeah, I got a few friends into reading 40K, and they started with the HH series, and they got pretty into it.
I still think that the HH series would be *best* if read with a decent knowledge of the 40K universe.
Luckily, I read the Blood Angels series before I read Fulgrim, so getting to see Fabius now compared to Fabius in the HH era was mind blowing as he is one of my favourite characters. That understanding of characters made me enjoy both books(Blood Angels book #4 and Fulgrim) much more than I think I normally would have, if I didn't know who Fabius was/is/becomes.

But ultimately, read whatever you want whenever you want lol.


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## The Scion of Chemos (May 24, 2013)

Nordicus said:


> Hmm on GW shop I can only find the Void Stalker book from the Night Lords trilogy - Are the others out of print or?


The first 2 Night Lord books are out of print IIRC, though I have talked to BL and they will be making an omnibus eventually. My guess would be sometime next year or the year after.
I am waiting to read the series as I want that omnibus lol.


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## Lord of the Night (Nov 18, 2009)

The Scion of Chemos said:


> The first 2 Night Lord books are out of print IIRC, though I have talked to BL and they will be making an omnibus eventually. My guess would be sometime next year or the year after.
> 
> I am waiting to read the series as I want that omnibus lol.


Scion. Don't post multiple times, just edit your previous post to include your new thoughts.

I'll be getting that omnibus as well. I've already got the series in paperback but the omnibus will have the chapbook short story _Shadow Knight_, perhaps a new short story, and ADB mentioned a while back he wanted to include a lexicon of Nostraman words into the omnibus edition. So that'd be cool to read. Plus it'll have new cover art, and i'm hoping for a group art of First Claw.


LotN


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## The Scion of Chemos (May 24, 2013)

Lord of the Night said:


> Scion. Don't post multiple times, just edit your previous post to include your new thoughts.
> 
> I'll be getting that omnibus as well. I've already got the series in paperback but the omnibus will have the chapbook short story _Shadow Knight_, perhaps a new short story, and ADB mentioned a while back he wanted to include a lexicon of Nostraman words into the omnibus edition. So that'd be cool to read. Plus it'll have new cover art, and i'm hoping for a group art of First Claw.
> 
> ...


Sorry about that, I am pretty new to forum posting and whatnot, so I will work on that lol.

I was also hoping that they would have a prose version of the audio drama "Throne of Lies" was it?


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