Warhammer 40000, where to start?

[Necuno]

Awesome. Going to buy books, what else !?

Thanks guys

[Spartan]

Read the Warhammer 40k Wikia and the lexicanum. A lot of info there, read up on races and the past then read the books. That is how I started many many years ago.

[Kharrak]

Oh wow, can't believe I missed this thread.

Aside from novels in regards to Space Marines, if you want to know more about the other aspects of the imperium, I'd recommend the following:

The first two omnibuses of the Inquisition omnibus trilogy by Dan Abnett

Eisenhorn
Ravenor

Covers a lot of how the Inquisition functions, particularly the whole Purist vs Radical split inside the Inquisition - the purists who refrain from using any daemonic weapons, and the radicals who indulge in daemonic wargear to "fight fire with fire" and attempt to completely destroy all the foes of the Imperium, but always fall into chaos themselves.


The Enforcer omnibus by Matthew Farrer

This covers the faction of the Imperium tasked with keeping the law (the police), the Adeptis Arbites. They're very Judge Dredd like. The series has no xenos, no Space Marines, no apocalyptic events - it's more a detective action series.


Path of the Warrior and Path of the Seer if you want to learn more about the Eldar, and Path of the Renegade if you want to learn more about the Dark Eldar.

Path of the Warrior and Path of the Seer are two books of a trilogy covering the same events (each being from a different perspective of three friends going down different Aspects). As such, they tend to be openly ended until the final book, Path of the Outcast, is released.

Naturally you'd have the Gaunt's Ghost series. These focus on the continues story line started by Dan Abnett's first fiction for Warhammer 40k - it focuses on the battles and story of the Imperial Guard regiment led by Commissar Gaunt, ass they fight across the Sabbat Worlds Crusade to reclaim that sector. His regiment lost their planet on the day of their founding, so the soldiers they have, are all that's left (no reinforcements from their home planet). As the story continues, they get dumped more platoons who've also lost their homes, and they grow into the "homeless" regiment of people really good at killing things :P

The first three omnibuses / story arcs:

The Founding
The Saint
The Lost

And the two new books of the current Victory story arc.

Blood Pact
Salvation's Reach

Atlus Infernal is also apparently an amazing book, about an Inquisitor who manages to infiltrate and escape the Black Library guarded by the Eldar, and is hunted by both the Eldar and the renegade Thousand Suns sorcerer Ahriman.

Also, Titanicus!

It's a book about the Titans!

[Necuno]

Thanks Kharrak, I will definitely follow this up

This answers one of my looming questions

In which order should I read the books?
Our books do not tell a sequential tale of Warhammer or Warhammer 40,000 but tell the tales of the battles or events of the period. If it’s easier, think of each novel or series as telling of a battle or following a character or company through an engagement set during WWII rather than being the definitive history of the entire war. Each book listed on this site refers to the others in the series.

-FAQ

I am however wondering the cause of this all, where and how the choas started. That's one of my other dreading questions, but if it's a book or something to read then no spoilers. At least a pointer to that source then

I have gotten myself Horus Rising as a start, it is going to be awesome

[Kharrak]

I am however wondering the cause of this all, where and how the choas started. That's one of my other dreading questions

I can give you a quick run-down in regards to the origin of chaos. Not spoilers, don't worry, just general background information.

"Chaos", or rather the Warp, has always existed as another dimensional layer skimming "reality". The warp is affected and stimulated by emotions, running through it like water in a stream.

Over the centuries as life spread across the galaxy , their emotions grew in quantity and power. Eventually, certain emotions grew so powerful, that their presence in the warp formed entities that could act independently. Over time, the three largest entities gained sentience:

Tzeentch: Embodiment of the volatility and vitality of change, learning, hope, scheming, and manipulation.

Khorne: Embodiment of emotions that lead to violence (hate, anger), the desire to slay one's foes, as well honour, pride, and general martial capability.

Nurgle: Embodiment of life and death, decay and persistence, perseverance and depression, comfort and suffering, and general stasis of all things.

Slaanesh: Embodiment of lust, greed, excess, pain, pleasure, perfection and hedonism - and thus very strongly related to teh arts.

It's important to understand that the Chaos gods aren't exactly evil, since they embody both positive and negative emotions - but their entire existence is based on sustaining themselves on the emotions that they need to survive, and as such scheme to encourage the presence of their respective emotional spectrum as much as possible within the galaxy, which by extension results in considerable damage. It's through this that they reach into mortal minds and encourage them into acts that will result in emotions that will empower them -be it slaughter, scheming, lust, or suffering. The destruction of the Imperium is secondary to them, after the emotions it would generate for them to feed on.

As for the Chaos Daemons, they are effectively tiny shards of their patron.

[Necuno]

Thanks Kharrak, I'm actually quite blown away about the awesomeness of 40k to say the least.