Where do I start

[jgebi]

I am a big fan of 40k and got some cold bloods from a mate and that made me wonder where do I start with the lore and books for warhammer fantasy. I'm more interested in the books over the codex stuff, so yer a short list of say 5 books would be perfect to get me in.
Thanks

[Dumah]

You can't go wrong with the Gotrek & Felix books, especially the first two omnibuses. Back when William King was the writer and even some of the Nathan Long books are some of the more entertaining ones of that setting. They provide a great cross-section of the setting in that the title characters encounter/fight/ally with almost every faction/race in the background at some point or other. If you're into High Elves, I highly recommend the Time of Legends trilogy called The Sundering (Gav Thorpe).

I know you asked for a list of 5 books, but there are just too many good ones to choose from so I'll leave you with a list of preferred authors in no particular order (YMMV):

Graham McNeill (The Ambassador is a good two parter omnibus)
Gav Thorpe (The Sundering as mentioned and a good Chaos-centric trilogy called Slaves to Darkness)
C.L. Werner (His Witchhunter series is good fun & does some great Chaos novels i.e. Palace of the Plague Lord and Blood for the Blood God)
Anthony Reynolds (Knight Errant & Knight of the Realm are Bretonnia novels)
Nathan Long (Some of the more recent Gotrek and Felix books as well as The Blackhearts Omnibus (think The Dirty Dozen, warhammer style))

Hope my ramblings have helped!

[jgebi]

ok sounds good... here goes my grade 12 oh well now time to buy books :D

[jgebi]

also whats the deal with time of legends?

[Dumah]

It's basically Warhammer Fantasy's answer to The Horus Heresy. Origin stories of legendary figures and events such as the Sundering, the rise of Sigmar and the formation of the Empire, the Story of Nagash and how he spawned the first Vampires, and so forth and so on.

[jgebi]

hmm, are they any good?

[Brakkart]

They are a bit of a mixed bunch, all of them are worth reading but the real stand out ones (for me) are the following:

Book 1 of the Nagash Trilogy (Nagash the Sorceror) is a masterclass on how NOT to fight a necromancer. Seriously if you have any knowledge of fantasy and magic at all you'll be almost screaming at the tactics and such being used by Nagash's foes. This isn't because they are badly written, they're not, it's just that they are from a culture that reveres death and the dead and thus has no experience with necromancy and what it can do at all. Great fun. Books 2 and 3 of the series sadly focus far more on Neferata and the vampire in Lahmia than Nagash himself, which while a good story really should have been in its own book series as in those books Nagash basically becomes a guest star in his own trilogy.

Book 2 of the Sundering Trilogy (Shadow King) Books 1 and 3 are both good but suffer in that they are told from a couple different viewpoints (book 1 for example is told from the point of view of Malekith up until he goes bad at which point it switches to being told from the point of view of the Phoenix Kings herald/messenger which is a bit weird really). Book 2 however is a really well written story of tragedy and revenge told from the point of view of Alith Anar, the Shadow King himself and does a fantastic job of detailing how this shy boy who only wanted to hunt and write poetry became the leader of his people and the living personification of their anger and hatred.

The entire Sigmar trilogy, but especially books 1 and 2, as book 3 while good wasn't anywhere near as good as the first two parts.

Dead Winter and The Great Betrayal are both good too, though the second and third books in their trilogies are yet to be released so no idea how they will rate compared to the other books in their respective series.

I've not yet read Neferata but there is a review of it here on the boards from Eldargal which is well worth a read.

[jgebi]

sounds like i may need to give up school and sleep... mums going to be mad

[Dumah]

I seem to be alone in having not enjoyed Neferata overly much. It's hard to put my finger on why; it just didn't grab my interest. It was all very predictable and a little bit slow.