Gaunts Ghosts is a good place to start; First and Only will explore one of the listed topics and has some pretty neat stuff in it alongside (Also one of the best 40k novels out there).

For the 'weird' tech kind of stuff, you can't beat the ___ of Mars trilogy (Priests, Lords and Gods) which follows a Mechanicus expedition to look for 'the breath of the gods/creation' which is kind of like a planetary/solar version of a GECK. You also get some lovely technotheology going on to boot.

The other place to start is in the Horus Heresy which... eh it's 35 books and counting now so I can't really condemn another person to that trial BuT if you pick out the 'Mechanicum' novel by Graham McNeil (also wrote the above mechanicus stuff) then you'll find some nice technology stuff there too.

For tyranids and amusement, Ciaphas Cain cannot be beat. However Jews Workshop beat the author to death and all his stuff is out of print now so good luck finding any that aren't £999.99 on amazon.

The Inquisition trilogies might be of interest to you too
Eisenhorn
Xenos / Malleus / Hereticus
Ravenor
I / Can't / Recall
Bequin
Pariah / tba / tba

These explore the 'real life' bits of 40k rather than the sword and fire stuff that most novels go for, along with plenty of the latter ofc.

The Imperial Infantryman's Uplifting Primer

^This is a great book on so many levels, but again it's kinda good luck finding it because it's been out of print forever.



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If you don't mind e-books, go to http://www.blacklibrary.com/ because they have all of the novels ever in digital format.

Quote from: Mr. Psychologist on May 17, 2016, 07:22:32 AM

Gaunts Ghosts is a good place to start; First and Only will explore one of the listed topics and has some pretty neat stuff in it alongside (Also one of the best 40k novels out there).

What are they about?

If you've ever read Sharpe, think Sharpe in Spehss.
It follows Gaunt and his regiment (Gaunt's Ghosts/Tanith 1st -and only-) throughout the Sabbat worlds crusade. It's hard to give one specific 'it's about' because each book tends to be a bit different in terms of what it's doing (with the same style ofc)

First and Only - the liberation of a forge world from a chaos insurrection and subsequent discovery of a really big spoiler.
Ghostmaker - Starts by looking at and fleshing out the different characters of the regiment with their own mini stories as a part of the overall narrative, then it returns to the present and the prosecution of a campaign to clean up a jungle planet from more chaos types (with some xenos thrown into the mix).
Necropolis - Tied with some of the later books for my favourite, this one covers the siege of a hive in such perfect detail that even years after first reading it when I opened the book and looked at the tactical map illustration the names of the places in the hive and the battles fought there hammer home like boolets.

^that covers the first 'arc' which is 'The Founding' and there are a lot more after that but keeping it brief.

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The other place to start is in the Horus Heresy which... eh it's 35 books and counting now so I can't really condemn another person to that trial BuT if you pick out the 'Mechanicum' novel by Graham McNeil (also wrote the above mechanicus stuff) then you'll find some nice technology stuff there too.

I'm planning on getting the first three HH books. I've heard they're good starters to get into the world.

Yes they are, the first 3 are brilliant and then the next 10 or so are good-above average but then it gets into this horrible 15 book long phase of fuck all happening beyond following side stories in the heresy. Not that they are all bad, it's just they don't really push the narrative anywhere because they are fleshing out the universe (well sub-universe 30k)

Quote

For tyranids and amusement, Ciaphas Cain cannot be beat. However Jews Workshop beat the author to death and all his stuff is out of print now so good luck finding any that aren't £999.99 on amazon.

The Inquisition trilogies might be of interest to you too
Eisenhorn
Xenos / Malleus / Hereticus
Ravenor
I / Can't / Recall
Bequin
Pariah / tba / tba

These explore the 'real life' bits of 40k rather than the sword and fire stuff that most novels go for, along with plenty of the latter ofc.

Like the political and civilian side of stuff? That sounds kind of cool.

Yep, they really are.

You get to see a lot of politicking and intrigue going on, whilst giving life to the 'ordinary person' in the imperium.

Quote from: Elegiac on May 17, 2016, 06:18:59 AM

The Imperial Infantryman's Uplifting Primer

^This is a great book on so many levels, but again it's kinda good luck finding it because it's been out of print forever.

What's it about? Is it like an in-universe guidebook kind of thing?[/quote]
Sort of

It's a self-referencing parody style book that's written as if it was provided to a Guardsman in WH40k. It's a propaganda piece and technical manual rolled into one and it's really quite witty how they managed to do it.

Quote

//
If you don't mind e-books, go to http://www.blacklibrary.com/ because they have all of the novels ever in digital format.

eewwwwww ebooks

If I have to (For the out of print ones), I guess its a necessary sacrifice.

Yeah, I don't use them but some day I might have to bite the bullet. I've been trying to find a certain cain novel for about 4 years now, but nothing doing.