I’ve always been a bit of a 40k voyeur, so to speak. I’ve always absolutely and unconditionally loved the universe. When I was younger I used to paint the models (when they were lead, not this plastic nonsense nowadays) but didn’t get into the actual tabletop games. Just crafting and painting was enough for me (and reading White Dwarf oc).
Gorka Morka was released when I was painting the models that would actually make a pretty cool videogame, thinking about it! I’ve still got a limited edition Gorka Morka Ork Boss that was only available to buy from the Golden Demon event I went to… I’m old! I think I witnessed the second edition 40k box launch.
I’ve never stopped loving the 40k world but life happened, so I’m very detached from the details and lore. I’d like to get more familiar again, but I’m dyslexic AF and busy with work and parenting, so looking for audiobook recommendations I can listen to whilst working.
Can anyone recommend any audiobooks please? Ideally starting somewhere as if I knew nothing about 40k so I can get a total refresh? Where is the best place to start?
Dramatised audiobooks are not a problem if done well.
Many will recommend the Horus Heresy as a starting point. Horus Rising was released 18 years ago and there are now a massive amount of books.
I cannot recommend the Gaunt’s Ghosts series enough. The first book is First and Only, the series is written by Dan Abnett, who wrote the background for Darktide.
There are many other books I could recommend, anything by Dan Abnett in 40K is usually great.
I’ve not listened to/read the Gaunts Ghost books yet (I’m still working my way through the Horus Heresy) but I’ve also heard great things. If you’re into the whole Space Marine thing the first 3 books of the Horus Heresy are a neat little trilogy that help set up the HH major events. If you want something that’s 40k in the literal sense, the Dark Imperium trilogy is good too, although I’m only halfway through it myself.
Eisenhorn by Dan Abbett is pretty excellent. I read a lot of sci-Fi and have been a 40K fan forever - but a lot of the 40K fiction I find…not the greatest. But Eisenhorn was really solid, and given it’s about the Inquisition it’s a nice companion to Darktide.
Gaunts ghost is amazing, Toby Longworth does such a good job doing everyones voices and making them sound like different people. He’s also one of the ogryn voice actors.
Yeah much like the 40k video games, it’s very hit and miss. I’m about halfway through the HH without skipping anything and some of the books are real sleepers and not in a good way. On the flipside, some are amazing and keep you on the edge of your proverbial seat throughout. A couple standouts off the top of my head are Pharos, Deathfire, Vulkan Lives, Fear to Tread, Know No Fear and Prospero Burns.
Just FYI, the Horus Heresy is about 65 books, if I remember correctly. They cover the whole thing from every legion’s perspective and a couple regular humans as well through multiple books for each. That being said, those YouTube links are fan-written, unofficial stories. They might be good though, I’ve never heard them.
Yeah I think that’s a fair point. But that’s also why I only recommend the first 3 books, since they form a single coherent thread throughout the Horus Heresy, just in a limited and simple way.
@MadMartigan if you’re coming into this completely cold, my personal recommendation is the Dark Imperium trilogy. It’s basically the “now” of 40k. There’s been some recent lore additions with Lion El’Jonson coming back but it’s still very relevant stuff.
Thanks again for all the info and recommendations. Yeah I might as well be going in completely new as everything I do know is super hazy now, so I’ll check those out.
I actually just found some of my old miniatures
I was kinda obsessed with the Legion of the Damned and loved taking bits from Warhammer undead to mod/create LOTD SM. His bolsa wood banner shield fell off unfortunately lol. I couldn’t understand why they didn’t have official miniatures released. I mean… Zombie SM!
Never finished painting the Gorka Morka guy unfortunately. I wish I could find the gorka morka vehicles I made from scratch. Lost to the void I think.
All these I must have painted/made about 26 years ago!
Finished watching this recently: The game part of it is really scuffed, and the voice acting of some characters is too, but it was a decent watch for the story, non-scuffed aesthetics and Mark Strong.
Definitely going to get the books/audiobooks because of it.
You can listen to “ALL THE GODS ARE DEAD” pretty much whenever because it’s not really connected to any of the “significant” events in 40K’s lore.
To summarise it…
It’s about a farmer who leaves his sick wife to die during a Slaanesh Cult uprising and he ends up doing a lot of other horrible things just to survive.
that would actually make a pretty cool videogame, thinking about it! I’ve still got a limited edition Gorka Morka Ork Boss that was only available to buy from the Golden Demon event I went to… I’m old! I think I witnessed the second edition 40k box launch.
