5. Horus rising, its a great build up and I love Loken. 4. Outcast Dead, I love the dynamic between the renegade marines. 3. Descent of Angels, every reason you have given. 2. First Heretic, how dare they make me a fan of word bearers. 1. Betrayer, it's simply the best book with the best character. Honourable mentions. Fallen Angels All the blackshield audio dramas Prince of Crows
Also love Betrayer and am a fellow WB & Lorgar simp post-First Heretic. Shout out to Tallarn, which slightly suffers from being a sort-of anthology but the main story is a novel in its own right and is excellent.
I started reading the books earlier this year and so far it’s been Horus Rising False Gods Galaxy in Flames Flight of the Eisenstein Fulgrim The First Heretic(about to finish) I’m planning on A Thousand sons next and then probably follow the Imperial Fists for a while. The books do such a damn good job at making the Primarchs likable and their Astartes relatable pre heresy. Loken and Garro are absolute units.
@@the_kieran_show hard to say Horus Rising and The First Heretic are tied but for different reasons. Horus Rising is written in a way that makes you really relate to Loken and Dan does a fantastic job of bringing you into the book. But The First Heretic is extremely captivating in a way that makes you understand the gravity of what’s about to come.
The Praetorian of dorn has to be my 1. I got it for the alpha legion and was super surprised of how much i loved the imperial fist and dorn by the end. Archamus was such a great character and i loved the alpha legion subterfuge stuff. I also loved how it wasn’t as bad as other heresy books with having too many storylines going on. It was really good at sticking with the Archamus’s squad and the alpha legion’s team. I would highly recommend.
This was interesting. I wasn't really interested in HH before. Not just because of the crushing length, but also because of its reputation for. . . Let's say mixed quality among the titles. But after this video I might check some of these out once I get through more of my own Audible backlog.
I'm always a sucker for the first books in series because they have the most "normal" look into the universe for lack of a better word, and that's why Horus Rising has to be near the top for me
Great lists and another great video! And oh boy, my darling Legion. I totally agree about the world building being some of the most fun and feeling very different from the big battles. I should read Descent of Angels! so my top 5: 5 - Know no Fear 4 - Eisenstein 3 - Master of Mankind 2 - Fulgrim 1 - Legion(could have had less John and the Cabal though)
I read the first 3, then just finished the seige of Terra books. Now I think I'm going to start with dark angels and make my way through some of the legions I like.
I have read zero, I do love reading....but have never really been into audio books. Maybe if I find any second hand ones, I will give them a go. Your combined enthusiasm is tempting me.
@@the_kieran_show Hmm I can get the real book here in Australia for under 8 pounds (under $15). Why the heck is the audiobook $36.99 (almost 20 pounds)? Thanks.
Agree with must-read books are 1st 5 books all stella. 1st,heretic is my fav with betrayer & know no fear. I became a word bearers hh player with argel tal leading them with loads of ghal vorbak lol. Lorgor is still on my shopping list because he became my favourite primarch because of them books. I liked some of the Raven Guard books also & and Legion were hard to get into, but I really enjoyed it by the end.
Yeah I think First Heretic, Know no Fear and Betrayer are the strongest overarching plot of any of the books in the series. For me, Betrayer is my favourite. Besides those three, I really enjoyed Scars and Mechanicum. As for honourable mentions. The Path of Heaven is a solid follow up to Scars/Fulgrim. Titandeath is fun but not as good as Mechanicum. Vengeful Spirit is the first real continuation of the Sons of Horus story after Galaxy in Flames and it does a decent job. And then I think Praetorian of Dorn is a better Alpha Legion book than Legion.
"Do I like Lorgar?" Found myself thinking the same thing 😅 I enjoyed the Word-Bearer/Ultramarine "trilogy", except I wish Know No Fear wasn't written in present tense... also I detest the perpetuals stuff.
@@the_kieran_show It feels like they are from another series and wandered into HH by accident. Honestly you can just ignore them and it doesn't change much at all lol.
Just started reading (audible) the HH a few months back. Blitzed Galaxy of Flames in 2 days. Now started on The Flight of the Eisenstein and enjoying it too. Is it just me or are Chaos just so much more interesting than loyalists?
As for the picks, guess I'm one of the readers who loves what you call a slow setup, and also, having human (and not post-human) characters be important. So my list would definitely include Mechanicum, Outcast Dead, Legion and the Thousand Sons.
I just recently started collecting the HH novels last month. Before getting serious with it, I owned a handful of books I was solely interested in for characters and one chapter. I have almost all of the Salamander/Vulkan focused books(dont appreciate the bad mouthing of my favorite chapter lol), all of the Nathanial Garro books(Rise of the Eisenstein was fantastic), and Betrayer(which Im glad I havent started since I didnt know there were others tide into it). I found that book in a used book store that pretty much started this whole collection process. Since then Iv managed to get the Seige of Terra novels fairly easy being the newest books. And Iv been going back and forth between my FLG's and retail bookstores to find more. So far been pretty succesful, and am glad I out of the 10 novels you guys recommended I have over half of them.
You guys need to do a Bottom 5, totally skipable HH books.. not including anthologies, or books made to seem like it isnt an anotholgy but actually is (im looking at you Scars)
Hey I liked Scars! 😂😂 We've thought about that alot tbh, the only thing we don't want to get caught up in is slamming authors. I can't imagine dedicating my life to a book series for two idiots to slam it online.
@@the_kieran_show Scars is great, dont get me wrong, but they sold it as if it was a full novel.. and not an anthology.. so it was shock as i was really getting into the first story and then it suddenly ends.. As to bad books.. bad in the confines of HH, not bad authors.. Personally i dont like James Swallow's blood angels stuff.. but he is a still a phenomenal author. We can all agree that The Outcast Dead (where the author forgot the lore already set up in the already existing franchise) and Battle For The Abyss are some of the worst books in the HH series.. But Graham McNeil is a god in the HH and Ben Counter is also superb.. te just happened to also write really bad books
Outcast Dead, the Vulkan books (Old Earth, Vulkan Lives, Deathfire), Damnation of Pythos. More controversially, I would also put Fulgrim, the Crimson King, and Wolfsbane.
I have to say the truth. Horus Rising, False Gods, Galaxy in Flames, The Flight of the Eisenstein and Fulgrim should not be in the top best books. Because this is the minimum books that everyone should read to understand what happened in the 30th millennium. Mechanicum, The First Heretic, Know No Fear, The Master of Mankind are the best books in the series.
Reading Prospero burns right now. It’s really bad. It honestly has the same problem that Legion does. I think that Dan Abnet makes a really good story when he is constrained by plot. If he’s allowed to run wild with the plot then he makes it over complicated.
1. The Outcast Dead. 2 Master of Mankind. 3 First Herectic 4 Know No Fear 5. First-4-books. If you haven’t read The Outcast Dead yet, you need to - it’s a great prison escape story, emperor shows up in just the right way, we have thunder warriors and sympathetic traitors. Voice acting is outstanding on the audible
@@the_kieran_show yeah, but such solid world building for Terra… the emperor showing up is just like this perfect amount, and the spectacle at the end, oh man, it’s got warp stuff, astartes, traitors, custodes, psykers… like a perfect 30k novel! I love the other ones, no doubt, but this one is gripping end to end!
See, the problem with the First Heretic is it almost went too far or just in the wrong direction with that idea of humanizing a Primarch. You want to see the human side, the flaws and perhaps even insecurities, but at the end of the day, Primarchs should still be impressive and formidable. FH made Lorgar look like a pathetic crybaby. Personally, I much prefer the image of Lorgar in the short story "Scions of the Storm". He comes off as a bit of a madman there, but a cool one at that!
Betrayer did a fantastic job of turning the World Eaters into fully rounded, almost tragic figures.
Yeah I think we could agree with that!
5. Horus rising, its a great build up and I love Loken.
4. Outcast Dead, I love the dynamic between the renegade marines.
3. Descent of Angels, every reason you have given.
2. First Heretic, how dare they make me a fan of word bearers.
1. Betrayer, it's simply the best book with the best character.
Honourable mentions.
Fallen Angels
All the blackshield audio dramas
Prince of Crows
Some great ones in there!
Also love Betrayer and am a fellow WB & Lorgar simp post-First Heretic.
Shout out to Tallarn, which slightly suffers from being a sort-of anthology but the main story is a novel in its own right and is excellent.
Ooooh will give that a listen!
I started reading the books earlier this year and so far it’s been
Horus Rising
False Gods
Galaxy in Flames
Flight of the Eisenstein
Fulgrim
The First Heretic(about to finish)
I’m planning on A Thousand sons next and then probably follow the Imperial Fists for a while.
The books do such a damn good job at making the Primarchs likable and their Astartes relatable pre heresy. Loken and Garro are absolute units.
Which one has been your favourite so far?
@@the_kieran_show hard to say
Horus Rising and The First Heretic are tied but for different reasons.
Horus Rising is written in a way that makes you really relate to Loken and Dan does a fantastic job of bringing you into the book.
But The First Heretic is extremely captivating in a way that makes you understand the gravity of what’s about to come.
Buried daggers worth a listen if u like the death guard. I enjoyed it way more than i thought i would 👍🏻
Ooooo will give it a listen!
Burried Dagger is a fantastic book - especially the ending!
The Praetorian of dorn has to be my 1. I got it for the alpha legion and was super surprised of how much i loved the imperial fist and dorn by the end. Archamus was such a great character and i loved the alpha legion subterfuge stuff. I also loved how it wasn’t as bad as other heresy books with having too many storylines going on. It was really good at sticking with the Archamus’s squad and the alpha legion’s team.
I would highly recommend.
Yeah i did enjoy that one when I read it! Similar to you, really liked Dorn in it!
Totally agree on Descent of Angels. I was originally told not to bother with it but so happy I did.
Isn't it a great one!
@@the_kieran_show yep, and Im not a fan of Legion either 😂
Just wanna say that ADB is the black library GOAT. No offence danny abnett. Also, echoes of eternity in my humble opinion was an absolute belter
He definitely is!
Galaxy in flames is like a D-day... ' everyone's ded....but we can't escape '
🫠🫠🫠
This was interesting. I wasn't really interested in HH before. Not just because of the crushing length, but also because of its reputation for. . . Let's say mixed quality among the titles. But after this video I might check some of these out once I get through more of my own Audible backlog.
To be honest just read the first few, they hold up really well on their own as a complete story!
I'm always a sucker for the first books in series because they have the most "normal" look into the universe for lack of a better word, and that's why Horus Rising has to be near the top for me
Totally get that!
for myself
1. Horus Rising
2. Flight of the Eisenstein
3. Galaxy in Flames
4. Master of Mankind
5. Know no Fear
great vid guys!
Thanks!!!
Great lists and another great video!
And oh boy, my darling Legion. I totally agree about the world building being some of the most fun and feeling very different from the big battles. I should read Descent of Angels!
so my top 5:
5 - Know no Fear
4 - Eisenstein
3 - Master of Mankind
2 - Fulgrim
1 - Legion(could have had less John and the Cabal though)
100% should read Descent of Angels! You wont regret it
@@the_kieran_show I walked into my local store and they had a copy so it must be fate, I will be reading Descent of Angels
Legion is my number 1 or 2
I read the first 3, then just finished the seige of Terra books. Now I think I'm going to start with dark angels and make my way through some of the legions I like.
That's the best way!
Betrayer, The First Heretic, Unremembered Empire, Wolfsbane and Angel Exterminatus.
Great choices!
I wish there was just a list of the books in order or idek i wanna read them all
Start from Horus Rising and go from there! 👀
@the_kieran_show ive read the first 3 and im on knights errent now garro story is cool but im not sure whats next?
I have read zero, I do love reading....but have never really been into audio books. Maybe if I find any second hand ones, I will give them a go. Your combined enthusiasm is tempting me.
Horus Rising is a really fun first book. Dan Abnett does a wonderful job at introducing the setting in a digestible way.
@@the_kieran_show Hmm I can get the real book here in Australia for under 8 pounds (under $15). Why the heck is the audiobook $36.99 (almost 20 pounds)? Thanks.
My top 5 would be Horus Rising, Galaxy in Flames, Scars, Path of Heaven, Betrayer
I spy a White Scars fan 👀⚡
Agree with must-read books are 1st 5 books all stella. 1st,heretic is my fav with betrayer & know no fear. I became a word bearers hh player with argel tal leading them with loads of ghal vorbak lol. Lorgor is still on my shopping list because he became my favourite primarch because of them books. I liked some of the Raven Guard books also & and Legion were hard to get into, but I really enjoyed it by the end.
Sounds like an ace HH force!
27:00 Legion is not even mentioned on the list.
Excellent, just as we wished it
29:30 Nooo..!
😂😂😂
Yeah I think First Heretic, Know no Fear and Betrayer are the strongest overarching plot of any of the books in the series. For me, Betrayer is my favourite. Besides those three, I really enjoyed Scars and Mechanicum.
As for honourable mentions.
The Path of Heaven is a solid follow up to Scars/Fulgrim.
Titandeath is fun but not as good as Mechanicum.
Vengeful Spirit is the first real continuation of the Sons of Horus story after Galaxy in Flames and it does a decent job.
And then I think Praetorian of Dorn is a better Alpha Legion book than Legion.
Forgot about Praetorian of Dorn! That was enjoyable too
"Do I like Lorgar?" Found myself thinking the same thing 😅
I enjoyed the Word-Bearer/Ultramarine "trilogy", except I wish Know No Fear wasn't written in present tense... also I detest the perpetuals stuff.
Omg yes the perpetual stuff is so bizarre 😂 even during SOT we didn't care at all.
@@the_kieran_show It feels like they are from another series and wandered into HH by accident. Honestly you can just ignore them and it doesn't change much at all lol.
But but John Grammaticus is such a great character.
@@shadeofheresy Nobody likes that author self insert character. :p
@pyrothem a boy is nobody.
Just started reading (audible) the HH a few months back. Blitzed Galaxy of Flames in 2 days. Now started on The Flight of the Eisenstein and enjoying it too.
Is it just me or are Chaos just so much more interesting than loyalists?
Yeah they totally are (except dark angels, their books are very interesting)
As for the picks, guess I'm one of the readers who loves what you call a slow setup, and also, having human (and not post-human) characters be important. So my list would definitely include Mechanicum, Outcast Dead, Legion and the Thousand Sons.
Outcast dead is an interesting choice for a top 5!
You mention the Ultramarine books, other than Know No Fear, which ones do you refer?
Betrayer, Mark of Calth, Unremembered empire :)
@@the_kieran_show nice one, thank you
Ferrus handing out hitting sticks to his brothers "save da world, my final message, goodbye!"
😂😂😂
I just recently started collecting the HH novels last month. Before getting serious with it, I owned a handful of books I was solely interested in for characters and one chapter. I have almost all of the Salamander/Vulkan focused books(dont appreciate the bad mouthing of my favorite chapter lol), all of the Nathanial Garro books(Rise of the Eisenstein was fantastic), and Betrayer(which Im glad I havent started since I didnt know there were others tide into it). I found that book in a used book store that pretty much started this whole collection process. Since then Iv managed to get the Seige of Terra novels fairly easy being the newest books. And Iv been going back and forth between my FLG's and retail bookstores to find more. So far been pretty succesful, and am glad I out of the 10 novels you guys recommended I have over half of them.
Wow! Shaping up to be quite a cool collection!
You guys need to do a Bottom 5, totally skipable HH books.. not including anthologies, or books made to seem like it isnt an anotholgy but actually is (im looking at you Scars)
Hey I liked Scars! 😂😂 We've thought about that alot tbh, the only thing we don't want to get caught up in is slamming authors. I can't imagine dedicating my life to a book series for two idiots to slam it online.
@@the_kieran_show Scars is great, dont get me wrong, but they sold it as if it was a full novel.. and not an anthology.. so it was shock as i was really getting into the first story and then it suddenly ends..
As to bad books.. bad in the confines of HH, not bad authors.. Personally i dont like James Swallow's blood angels stuff.. but he is a still a phenomenal author.
We can all agree that The Outcast Dead (where the author forgot the lore already set up in the already existing franchise) and Battle For The Abyss are some of the worst books in the HH series.. But Graham McNeil is a god in the HH and Ben Counter is also superb.. te just happened to also write really bad books
Outcast Dead, the Vulkan books (Old Earth, Vulkan Lives, Deathfire), Damnation of Pythos. More controversially, I would also put Fulgrim, the Crimson King, and Wolfsbane.
I have to say the truth. Horus Rising, False Gods, Galaxy in Flames, The Flight of the Eisenstein and Fulgrim should not be in the top best books. Because this is the minimum books that everyone should read to understand what happened in the 30th millennium.
Mechanicum, The First Heretic, Know No Fear, The Master of Mankind are the best books in the series.
Master of mankind is great!
Reading Prospero burns right now. It’s really bad. It honestly has the same problem that Legion does. I think that Dan Abnet makes a really good story when he is constrained by plot. If he’s allowed to run wild with the plot then he makes it over complicated.
Yeah totally agree on this!
1. The Outcast Dead. 2 Master of Mankind. 3 First Herectic 4 Know No Fear 5. First-4-books. If you haven’t read The Outcast Dead yet, you need to - it’s a great prison escape story, emperor shows up in just the right way, we have thunder warriors and sympathetic traitors. Voice acting is outstanding on the audible
Outcast dead as top is a wild choice!
@@the_kieran_show yeah, but such solid world building for Terra… the emperor showing up is just like this perfect amount, and the spectacle at the end, oh man, it’s got warp stuff, astartes, traitors, custodes, psykers… like a perfect 30k novel! I love the other ones, no doubt, but this one is gripping end to end!
For the algorithm!
❤️❤️❤️
Blimey, the Kierans actually, finally, like an army I love?
Word Bearer crew represent, Erebus did nothing wrong.
The best book is The Book Of Lorgar 🤘🏻
See, the problem with the First Heretic is it almost went too far or just in the wrong direction with that idea of humanizing a Primarch. You want to see the human side, the flaws and perhaps even insecurities, but at the end of the day, Primarchs should still be impressive and formidable. FH made Lorgar look like a pathetic crybaby. Personally, I much prefer the image of Lorgar in the short story "Scions of the Storm". He comes off as a bit of a madman there, but a cool one at that!
That’s an interesting take!
First 5 books are essential.
Totally!
31:53 Magnus did nothing wrong.
He was told to do nothing and he did it wrong.
Every time 🙃🙃
The first heretic was an absolute banger! Kind of fatigued after reading that book, It feels like the books got worse after that lol
There are some real diamonds in the rough though, its just a case of picking a few favourite chapters and testing the water!
Zahariel is my boy ❤
brb going to re-read it
Betrayer is epic!
Isn't it good! The ending absolutely crushed us 😂
That's a lot of words. Too bad I'm not going to read em.
Duke Nukem
Thank God for them audio books
Audio books are the best way to read Warhammer!