[Captain_Loken]

What do you guys think of the three?

I have heard of some mixed reviews, so I thought I would ask here to find out. I had to take a break from the HH set... getting kinda....dry...

I want to stay in the realm of the CSM, and I heard these books; Soul Hunter, Blood Reaver, Void Stalker.

The review site I looked at for some recommendations said they could be read individually or as a set. I think the set would be best. hah.

Also, does anyone know of any other good CSM novels they could recommend to me? If so, just let me know who the author is please!

 

[Brother Lucian]

They are considered some of the better CSM books. ADB certainly has a much better hold on traitor marines, than he does loyalists. The Talon of Horus is also a quite good read, though I think his Night Lords series hits the vibe a good deal better.

http://www.blacklibrary.com/warhammer-40000/night-lords-the-omnibus_.html
It has a couple interlinking short stories as well, so a quite pickup.

 

[Angel of Blood]

Mixed reviews? I've never heard anything but praise for the series. I thought they were fantastic, some of the best books you will find in the Black Library, I would even say they are 'must reads'. On another note though, I wouldn't say you could read the series out of order or on their own.

The novels I believe everyone should read include:

The Night Lords trilogy
Eisenhorn, Ravenor and Bequin
Gaunts Ghosts
The Emperor's Gift(ideally read after Ravenor)
Certain Heresy novels, but only if you're reading the series.

A lot of reading material there, but it's the best of BL imo.

 

[Captain_Loken]

Mixed reviews? I've never heard anything but praise for the series. I thought they were fantastic, some of the best books you will find in the Black Library, I would even say they are 'must reads'. On another note though, I wouldn't say you could read the series out of order or on their own.

The novels I believe everyone should read include:

The Night Lords trilogy
Eisenhorn, Ravenor and Bequin
Gaunts Ghosts
The Emperor's Gift(ideally read after Ravenor)
Certain Heresy novels, but only if you're reading the series.

A lot of reading material there, but it's the best of BL imo.

I never really believe the review websites. I just dont think they know about the 40k universe, which doesn't help.

I have seen the books you mentioned and though about those a great deal, however, I wasn't sure if I really cared for imperial guard stuff, but the story line is more important to me.

Anyways, thanks for that list, it's quite helpful!

I would love to hear from others, and how their experience with the books have been.

 

[Mob]

All the books in Angel of Blood's list are worth your while.

The Night Lords series is great. Characterisation and humour in spades, plus lots of tasty fluff and some slight rumination on the human condition. A lot of people have a real affection for the characters, which is interesting considering they're Night Lords.
Sometimes I think of them as akin to the 100 Acre Wood cast. Except, you know, also damned superhuman killing machines.

 

[Angel of Blood]

I have seen the books you mentioned and though about those a great deal, however, I wasn't sure if I really cared for imperial guard stuff, but the story line is more important to me.

Gaunts Ghosts is the only one of those that is Imperial Guard based. But it's imo a truly fantastic series. The beauty of it being that it is quite big, so you do end up knowing and loving the characters quite a lot as you go, which makes their triumphs and casualties that much more meaningful, or so I found anyway.

Eisenhorn, Ravenor, Bequin, are so good because they show you the side you never see of the Imperium. The actual worlds, cities, politics and behind the scenes machinations. These novels aren't set on battlefronts or in the middle of giant wars and campaigns. They're on the ground, investigating leads, getting amongst Imperial society and politics, but with good solid action mixed in.

The Night Lords trilogy is so good I suppose, because it really get's you attached to these traitors, and some of the most brutal ones at that, yet still makes them protagonists in there own way.

On that same note, I knew I was missing one book out, and it's a truly unforgivable miss. I would put it up there in the top spot with others as one of the best books BL have produced and overall one of the best books I have read myself. Like the Night Lords, it focuses on traitors, but makes them into very sympathetic characters somehow in some cases and just downright likeable. It is a must read in every way, and the series will no doubt only get better. That book?

The Talon of Horus.

 

[Captain_Loken]

The Talon of Horus.

Is this a stand alone or a part of a series?

Also, Angel, what do you think of the Dark Apostle books? I know there is a second and third, but I can't remember the name. Again, heard some not so great things about that, but I bought it at a half price book store today as I like to collect many books. Hah.

I will have to scoop up The Talon of Horus. I think I may have it already, but will have to change it from mobi format.

 

[Brother Lucian]

The Talon of Horus is the first in a new series about the black legion.

 

[cottrelli]

Mixed reviews? I've never heard anything but praise for the series. I thought they were fantastic, some of the best books you will find in the Black Library, I would even say they are 'must reads'. On another note though, I wouldn't say you could read the series out of order or on their own.

The novels I believe everyone should read include:

The Night Lords trilogy
Eisenhorn, Ravenor and Bequin
Gaunts Ghosts
The Emperor's Gift(ideally read after Ravenor)
Certain Heresy novels, but only if you're reading the series.

A lot of reading material there, but it's the best of BL imo.

Absolutely agree. One book I would add that is Angels of Darkness by Gav Thorpe. I'm not usually a fan of Thorpe's work (preferring ADB, Abnett and Wraight) but AoD really stood out to me as a great example of 40K fiction. It was released way back in the day (I want to say around '02 or '03) and was my introduction to the world of Warhammer, so maybe I'm just nostalgic.

On the other hand, it was one of the earliest examples I can remember of an interaction between a Fallen who was there for the Heresy and a zealot DA of the "modern" era. The absolute conviction from Astelan that he was in the right (detailed in the spoiler below) versus Boreas's determination to show him the error of his ways was a brilliant hook that kept me coming back for more, especially as we see Astelan's resolve begin to wear down. Of course it was interspersed with bolter porn, but even that was surprisingly well written and a good break from the interrogations. The fact that the ending beautifully tied together the interrogations and the more traditional action in the story made this all the better.

In short, Angels of Darkness is a great read and I would recommend it to anyone wanting to get a glimpse of DA Fallen-Faithful interaction before the letdowns that were the DA HH novels.

Astelan was convinced it was Lion El'Jonson who betrayed Luther and that El'Jonson was waiting to see who won the Battle of Terra before he decided his allegiances; he tried to persuade Boreas to believe this as well. In the end, as Boreas and his squad prepare to sacrifice themselves to save a DA training planet, Boreas leaves a record of all that his team experienced in tracking the renegade Fallen. Near the end he instructs that should his communique be found, one should go to the dungeons of the DA fortress monastery and tell Astelan he was right about the Lion. Granted, this was way before the HH series got kicked off, so it's been retconned all to hell and back. Still, I prefer Astelan's views on the Lion to the current continuity that makes him seem faultless.

 

[Captain_Loken]

The Talon of Horus is the first in a new series about the black legion.

I will look for the author. I have a list of most if not all the novels that I can get ahold of, and they're listed by author. I had no luck trying to find this one. haha

 

[Captain_Loken]

Also, Is there just the one book so far? Or have they published any of the others?

 

[Angel of Blood]

First book. Published last year. Author is ADB.

 

[Captain_Loken]

Awesome, found it. I shall be reading it through the next couple of days.

It is an honor to have you comment and give me some really good recommendations, sir. Thank you very much!

 

[darkreever]

Mixed reviews? I've never heard anything but praise for the series. I thought they were fantastic, some of the best books you will find in the Black Library, I would even say they are 'must reads'. On another note though, I wouldn't say you could read the series out of order or on their own.

We actually had a member who reviewed the first book and quite clearly didnt like it. Some of the things he said were pretty good (like the fact that the characters smile a bit to much and to often.) Sadly, a member of the staff who got to talk to ADB removed that review with a little to much gusto.

Overall I like the first book, thought the second was alright, and didn't care so much for the third.


Other books to look out for: Storm of Iron by Graham McNeill and Lord of the Night by Simon Spurier. The first is an Iron Warriors book, who's main character Honsou goes on to be a major antagonist in the later Ultramarine novels. The second is the first Night Lord novel black library produced, and its main character is actually mentioned a few times in ADB's series.

 

[Captain_Loken]

Overall I like the first book, thought the second was alright, and didn't care so much for the third.

This is what I meant about mixed reviews. It seems a couple of others on the site where I was looking felt the exact same way, about all three.

 

[Khorne's Fist]

I never looked at it as three seperate books, thus never had a problem with any of the instalments. Loved the whole thing.

 

[Captain_Loken]

Well the first one is turning out to be pretty good so far! I'm anxious to get through it all.

Either Chaos stories are so much different than others or ABD just write completely different from others.

 

[Brother Lucian]

The chaos pow does tend to be a lot more interesting than the loyalist one.

 

[Captain_Loken]

The chaos pow does tend to be a lot more interesting than the loyalist one.

I'm not sure if this was answered already, but what do you guys think about the Dark Apostle book? I think there are two more in the cycle, but that's the only one I have.

 

[darkreever]

I think Dark Apostle by Anthony Reynolds is a good book, and yes it is the first in a series. The other two books are Dark Disciple and Dark Creed. Overall I think the trilogy holds up a bit better than the Night Lords trilogy.

I know some have a bit of an issue with certain things in Dark Apostle, namely that the Word Bearers were able to take down a titan in the manner they did. But those same people seem to give the Night Lords a pass when it came to how they took down a titan in their own series (between the two the Word Bearers seems more feasible.)