Best taster novel....

[Mr Mystery]

This is about getting people on the verge of playing, erm....playing, and how to push them over that edge.

Let us turn our attention to Black Library, and it's expanding range of novels.

Which ones do you feel shows the quintessential nature of Warhammer as a setting, and which ones would you recommend people read to better understand the various races out there?

I'll kick off......

General Warhammer introduction? Gotrek and Felix. Any except Giantslayer, which remains bobbins. Classic trashy Fantasy Fiction and introduces most of the races over the course of the books.

Skaven - Thanquol. Who else!

Dark Elves - Darkblade series. Not sure if still in print currently, but really, really awesome. Took a five issue graphic novel, and turned each issue into a full on novel, without feeling just padded out. Excellent examples of the characters of the Naggarothi.

Right, next!

[completeHook]

Well, Path of the Incubus is a great pointy heads (Archon and Outcast though both have their merits, the only other of Gav Thorpe's Eldar books I've read to be fair, but they didn't nail it for me like Incubus did).

The Night Lords trilogy, Septimus, dirty heretic that he is, rocks like Bruce Dickinson driving a monster truck over a flaming pit of fire with Red Fang cranked up to eleven. It was the short stories that got me to read the novels though so that could be a good place to start.

Commissar by Andy Hoare is a massive towel flick of rip roaring IG/AM fun, even if he could think of a dozen way to describe someone getting shot in the head but every time the mountains came up they are always jagged, at one point on facing pages. The rest of the book is so competently written I suspect the jagged mountains were something to do with a bet.

However, If your friend reads proper books like what I used to read (arf! arf!)...

Eisenhorn and Ravenor are your self improving literary fiction readers way into the 40k GrimDark, or give them Pariah... that's positively Dickensian, and it has lady as the protagonist who isn't just a cipher with massive jubblies, so hey, moving with the times.

+++this isn't a 40k thread, if only I'd learned to read on my 34 years on this planet+++

[Darren Richardson]

The Vampire Genevieve (now out of print damn it) is well worth reading, as it gives an interesting view of just how life is within the Empire, I read the first book in the series (of which TVG is the collected edition of all four volumes) way back in 1993, it was my first GW book I ever read, so it must have worked!

40K side, Gaunts Ghosts and Caphias Caine books are a must, as well as the Eisenhorn series....

[Deadlift]

The Vampire Wars trilogy is worth a read. Lots of great action, twisted anti heroes, blood sucking, zombies and dwarves aplenty. Follows the Von Carstein bloodline Vampires and had me planning a Jerek "The White Wolf" Von Carstein army at one point despite never really playing fantasy.

[ACE01]

The Nagash trilogy as it forms the basis of the Warhammer World's early history, is a subject area most people are familiar with (egyptian undead), and includes some surprisingly human characters that are easy to relate to. Newbies then going on to play, or read further novels (Sigmar trilogy, Vampire series etc) will be familiar with the background and (hopefully) will make the connection jumping to 'present day'.

G&F are a bit hit and miss but I agree would also be good one off intro books.

My absolute favourite series is the long out of print Orfeo trilogy by Brian Craig (Zaragoz, Plague Daemon, and Storm Warriors) but that's not much help!

[White Tiger88]

Honestly best books so far (at least in my eyes) are

-Chronicles of Malus Darkblade (They ROCK!)
-Ulrika The Vampire (The series is great so far!)
-The Sundering Trilogy (Shadow King was the best though!!)

[James Q]

I have to say I love the G+F novels, just finished reading the serpent queen, awesome book.

[Cyberpunk66]

The Malus Darkblade series is a great read. Very Elric, but fun!

I enjoy the Thanquol books quite a bit but, my favorite thus far is Headtaker. This book is about Queek Headtaker and it does a suburb job in going into detail how insane Queek really is. Plus the other characters are tons of fun too!

[Brother Sutek]

I have to say I love the G+F novels, just finished reading the serpent queen, awesome book.

I honestly didn't like it as much as the earlier novels. The relationship between G and F has gotten better and there have been moments of honest respect between the characters, in this book G is seldom anything but contemptuous of F. If this was based earlier in the chronology it would have made sense but not where we are. Otherwise in general it is a great series and one of my favorites. The Darkblade series is also a good read and shows a new view on DE life. As for 40K the Cain series is a must read as are the Inquisitor books by Abnett.

[Tomgar]

I'm actually looking to check out the Fantasy novels, only read 40k stuff up til now. Can anyone reccomend the Orion books?

[Mr Mystery]

I honestly didn't like it as much as the earlier novels. The relationship between G and F has gotten better and there have been moments of honest respect between the characters, in this book G is seldom anything but contemptuous of F. If this was based earlier in the chronology it would have made sense but not where we are. Otherwise in general it is a great series and one of my favorites. The Darkblade series is also a good read and shows a new view on DE life. As for 40K the Cain series is a must read as are the Inquisitor books by Abnett.

Ah, the current books are set between the Bill King series and the Nathan Long series, sort of filling in the blanks.

And good news? I asked Black Library, and I am informed we will find out the fate of Snorri Nosebiter (best character in the series!)