I am your average 37-year-old woman. I game, I read, and I have cats. A few weeks ago, I stumbled upon Azariah Kyras' glorious speech about the Blood God Khorne, and I started quoting him at least once every day when my boyfriend and I were talking about random everyday things. He suggested I look into the Warhammer Universe.
My God!
It started out with some lore videos about the Chaos Gods and The Emperor, and down the rabbit hole I went. When I found out they are doing a series with Mr. Handsome Henry, I knew I had to go deeper. It's been three days of almost no sleep, and I've finished the first two books in The Horus Heresy saga. They have no business being as good as they are.
If Warhammer has the power to infect even the most basic, whitest woman of all time, we are all in trouble!"
Pray for me
BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD !!!!
SKULLS FOR THE SKULL THRONE!!!!
Dan Abnett is a fantastic writer. Check out the Gaunt's Ghosts series if you like his writing - the Horus Heresy books are by a bunch of different authors, but he writes all of the Gaunt's Ghosts books.
He also was the writer who rebooted The Guardians of the Galaxy comics in 2008.
I've sworn off most things GW for being an evil scummy company, but some of the books are absolute bangers. Gaunts Ghosts, Ravenor, Eisenhorn, and the Night Lords books are up there.
My favourite Horus Heresy books are probably the ones to do with the Dark Angels. They have a medievalist/futurist feel which I really love. If you love these particular ones too I suggest checking out an unrelated book called A Canticle for Liebowitz, one of my favourite of all time.
Also, ditch those Chaos Gods. They are only using you. The God-Emperor is the only way.
40k is what got me back into reading after a decade and a half of reading nothing. If you're looking for recomendations of books outside the horus heresy, the nightlords trilogy and the Ciaphas Cain books are all excellent!
I used to play back when i sort of had money like a decade ago. I played Tyranids. The great hunger will one day consume all the space boys.
I ignored the books because i thought it was silly to read a novelisation of a battle of the game i played with my tiny plastic dolls. Boy was i wrong!
I started the Heresy series a couple months ago. I'm on book 5 now and have also dipped into Gaunts Ghosts. They're freaking fantastic and well written. They have AWESOME battle scenes as well as compelling narratives.
Also of course the space fascism satire of it all. I love that the Astartes, these giant macho men practically fall to their knees weeping at the sight of their primarchs. Or Himself forbid they witness the Emperor Lol. And I can't help but think of their hierarchy as the Invader Zim Aliens'. Where they pick the tallest to lead regardless of anything else.
I'm glad you're liking it! If you haven't already I really recommend checking out the audiobook books. They've helped me a lot with the odd pronunciations but the narrative atmosphere is awesome too!