The Ravenor series are quite good. I’d recommend them. Storm of Iron, which is being reprinted, is also an great book but I am a fan of the Iron Warriors so I may like it more for that.

Many of the books are written so that they contain a lot of expository text to bring along new readers so I think from a background perspective you are safe with most of the books.

I actually found Dark Adept and Grey Knights to be bad reads and I forced myself to finish Dark Adept.

Dan Abnett’s Gaunt’s Ghosts books are also good (especially the last few) and are available in inexpensive Omnibus editions.

Cool, thanks everyone.

I will have to second Gaunts Ghost series. So far all 10 books have been great. I have enjoyed the Horus Heresy series so far. A good quick read is “15 hours”. Another good series is The Ciaphas Cain series its a funny take on a Commissar who is a coward.

I love the Cain books - nice to see the light hearted (even if still grim and dark) side of 40k. Abnett is fantastic, Id love to see him do a non GW book.
-The Horus Heresy books are generally good or atleast have sections that are worth reading.
-I didnt like Fulgrim because either they shied away from what makes Slaanesh Slaanesh or they went and edited it heavily because the book takes a turn for the worse in writing style and flow after the legion falls - though the very ending was back up to the good standard.
-The Sons of Horus trilogy are all decent with Abnetts lead off book reading the best
-Flight of the Eisenstorm had some clunk but great characters (the bits in the warp were where I didnt like it) and some interesting twists.
- I also love the Shira Calpurnia series - very nicely done view of the Arbites. In my opinion it has all the good parts of the Ultramarine stories and not so much the bad.
-The novel about the Night Lord marine taking down the hive (cant remeber name) was also good because it was actually believable

I’m another Gaunts Ghosts & Dan Abnett fan.

I admired his comic script writing for 2000AD and then when he started doing GW stuff was very pleased to see his writing was some of the best the Black Library have to offer.

while no Glen Cook…Dan Abnett is really good with space opera…I’ve read all the omnibuses…the second one I finished in four days…so to me that’s a good sign…Brothers of the Snake should be the way all space marines are portrayed…because it just makes sense…Lone Wolves is exactly what Space Wolves are…and Titan is hard core, at least in the third series…I picked up the one about the Black Templars, and that was decent…Ravenor was good and solid…first book was solid…and Eisenhorn was good until the last book…it seemed rushed in it’s setup…and Double Eagle…if you guys don’t appreciate that book, you’re missing out…

The whole soul drinkers series is decent…a lot of death and murder, with simple plot devices…

The Inquistor trilogy was crap…only book I couldn’t finish…

Cain is good, and would be better if the setup for each story wasn’t always the same…”If I had known what was going to happen…blah blah blah” We get it…he’s a coward…

and Zac…kudos dude…Storm of Iron is probably the best book without a series to it…waiting for the next one in the whole Ultramarines series, not because I care about what’s his name, but more because of the continuation of the Iron Warriors…

as for the fantasy…Guardians of the Forest actually had a good, solid ending…

Grey Knights was good at the end…

But you know what is singlehandedly the best piece of fiction…Deff Skwadron…the graphic novel portrays 40K orks exactly…exactly, the way they should be…funniest, stupidiest, most coolest thing I’ve read…

if you can’t tell, I have read a lot of what has been offered in the last few years…it’s the only thing I buy other than some paints…and i go to Borders to get my 20% discount and a nice middle to the evil empire…good times..

having never delved too deeply into the 40k univierse i think the horus heresy series, while inconsistent, is interesting and worth reading.

As long as you view them as genre sci-fi, rather than expecting “Great Literature”, then you are best, in my view, just plumping for a storyline that takes your fancy. Some of the older books may have some conflicts and inconsistencies with the way the game background went in later years, but that doesn’t really bother me.

My personal preference is for “Space Mareenz” stories over Chaos stuff and Imperial Guard stuff, but that is simple personal prefeence. On the other hand no one ever has a bad word to say about the Eisenhorn trilogy!

I go for the Omnibus editions as a rule as they are much better value at around £10 (sometimes discounted - I picked up Souldrinkers from WHW for £8 last week!) Otherwise GW charges the “normal” UK price for a new novel of £6.99.

Strong lean towards ScFi, here… :)
I’ll pitch in with fantasy: I’ve read the malus Darkblade series, and found it entertaining. Good material for visualising the Warhammer world and ist denizens, and a likable enough ‘Bruce Willis in fluted plate armour’ type hero, who keeps getting beat down, gets back up and gets drunk.
If we’re talking ‘literature’ here, as opposed to ‘entertaining read’, I’d leave it aside. It whiles away the hours, but it doesn’t give your brain anything to chew on.

Black Library books are very hit and miss.

The Sci-Fi ones that I have enjoyed are;

Eisenhorn trilogy
Ravenor trilogy
Horus Heresy series.

The Fantasy ones that I have enjoyed are;

Gilead’s Blood
Riders of the Dead

Those that are good do provide a quick read, that is easy to get into. Beyond that I’d rather read Ian M Banks for ‘good’ Sci-Fi books.

As far as books about fighter wings (non fiction and fiction) Double Eagle is actually well written - I just didnt like the characters much.

Its sad that a good novel can be ruined by one character the fans dont like

I’m currently reading the Space Wolf omnibus and loving it, being a long time Space Wolves player helps :)