Chaos Space Marine novels

[Zen21]

Hey guys.

I'm considering starting a CSM army for 40k when they get their new codex, but before then, I'd like to read up on some of their background and stories.

Does anyone have any books regarding CSM that they'd recommend?

I'm partly considering starting to read the Horus Heresy books to gather insight behind their background, but I'm unsure as to whether they're more loyalist oriented or Chaos oriented, or a mix? Also, are the books entirely focused on CSM vs. Loyalists, or do Xenos races (Eldar, Orks, 'Nids in particular*) appear in them occasionally too? Whilst I'm mostly interested in CSM, I'd probably get bored if the books were constantly focused on their battles against the Space Marines and nothing but.

*Although I'm unaware as to whether or not they'd been encountered at the time of the HH books

Any recommendations for books to read that will increase my knowledge of the background of the Chaos Marines will be greatly appreciated!

Thanks guys,
Zen

[Soul Hunter]

Dark Apostle, Dark Disciple and Dark Creed by Anthony Reynolds.

Soul Hunter, Blood Reaver and Void Stalker by Aaron Dembski-Bowden.

Lord of the Night by Simon Spurrier, Chosen of Khorne by Anthony Reynolds, Perfection by Nick Kyme, Treacheries of the Space Marines by Various Authors, Blood Gorgons by Henry Zou, Iron Warriors Omnibus by Graham McNeill.


Those are all the CSM releases that BL has. Oh and ADB is planning a Rise of the Warmaster series about Abaddon and the Black Legion, but that isn't going to be on our shelves for years.


SH

[Zen21]

Dark Apostle, Dark Disciple and Dark Creed by Anthony Reynolds.

Soul Hunter, Blood Reaver and Void Stalker by Aaron Dembski-Bowden.

Lord of the Night by Simon Spurrier, Chosen of Khorne by Anthony Reynolds, Perfection by Nick Kyme, Treacheries of the Space Marines by Various Authors, Blood Gorgons by Henry Zou, Iron Warriors Omnibus by Graham McNeill.


Those are all the CSM releases that BL has. Oh and ADB is planning a Rise of the Warmaster series about Abaddon and the Black Legion, but that isn't going to be on our shelves for years.


SH

That's fantastic, thanks for the info! Will have a look for some more information on them tonight when I get home.

Any further recommendations, or answers to the questions I had about the HH series, are much appreciated,

Thanks again!

[Antreus]

Black Legion-The Gothic War Omnibus, or you could wait for Aaron Dembski-Bowden's up coming trilogy on the Black legion.
Death Guard-Not a lot really.
Emperor's Children-Fulgrim, The Primarchs and Angel Exterminatus are good for the Heresy side of things.
World Eaters-Audio Drama Butcher's Nails or upcoming Heresy novel Betrayer
Thousand Sons-McNeil's 'A Thousand Sons'. A must read.
Alpha Legion-Legion, Deliverance Lost and The Serpent Beneath. Again all Heresy but give you great insight into how they work
Word Bearers-As mentioned, the Word Bearer Omnibus by Anthony reynolds or check out The First Heretic
Iron Warriors-Iron Warriors Omnibus by McNeil again (though ties in with Ultramarines series as well so may wish to invest in that also). They also feature in the upcoming Angel Exterminatus and Age of Darkness anthology.
Night Lords-As mentioned Dembski-Bowden's Night lord trilogy or Simon Spurrier's Lord of the Night.
For general renegade marines, try The Gildar Rift.

[shadowhawk2008]

No mention of The Battle of the Fang, pretty much the quintessential Thousand Sons versus Space Wolves novel? Or any of Bill King's Space Wolves novels?

How about Legion of the Damned for World Eaters?

Tales from the Dark Millennium has a lot of Word Bearers as well.

Death Guard feature in Cadian Blood.

Does Ciaphas Cain fight any CSM in Mitchell's novels?

[Antreus]

Not to my knowledge Shadowhawk, mainly traitor guards/cultists and the like. May just be slipping my mind atm of course! Yes how could I forget Battle of the Fang!Totally brilliant. I personally don't hold the Space Wolf books as highly as some other people do, but this is just personal preference.

[MiyamatoMusashi]

Dark Apostle, Dark Disciple and Dark Creed by Anthony Reynolds.

Soul Hunter, Blood Reaver and Void Stalker by Aaron Dembski-Bowden.

I realise you were giving a comprehensive list, not recommendations, but... it sent a shiver down my spine to see those two series listed next to one another. One series is a subtle, powerful, gripping sequence where each book is better than the last and any of the three (were they stand-alone) could be recommended as among the very best novels BL have printed. The other is by Anthony Reynolds.

[warpoet]

I realise you were giving a comprehensive list, not recommendations, but... it sent a shiver down my spine to see those two series listed next to one another. One series is a subtle, powerful, gripping sequence where each book is better than the last and any of the three (were they stand-alone) could be recommended as among the very best novels BL have printed. The other is by Anthony Reynolds.

LOL.

On a serious note, though, I liked the Word Bearers trilogy. In fact, I think BL as a whole has done real well with the Word Bearers, and I recommend all their books. But I am a sucker for Space Marines who fight with rhetoric (I'm a Rhet/Comp PhD candidate . . . :P).

I might recommend the Soul Drinkers books, too. They are chaos marines to a degree, and between the Word Bearers books and the Soul Drinkers, I think you get two nice-presented rationale for becoming "bad guys."

[ThePope]

Not really sure why people take offence to the Word Bearer trilogy, the books are no where near as bad as say the Blood Angel books....

Also Iron Warrior books are a good read, I personally enjoyed them. Then again I have seen people rave over Blood Gorgons which I thought was pap so meh!

[Soul Hunter]

I realise you were giving a comprehensive list, not recommendations, but... it sent a shiver down my spine to see those two series listed next to one another. One series is a subtle, powerful, gripping sequence where each book is better than the last and any of the three (were they stand-alone) could be recommended as among the very best novels BL have printed. The other is by Anthony Reynolds.

Well of course the Night Lords series is better but the Dark Word series is great too, in fact its the consummate Chaos Space Marine series. Because ADB's Night Lords don't worship Chaos, they hate it. The Word Bearers are true CSMs, so its the best series you can read for pure and remorseless Chaos Space Marines.

And I just finished reading Treacheries of the Space Marines which contained a new Marduk story, Vox Dominus, one that is hopefully the prelude to a new series of novels.


SH

[nagash66]

Not really sure why people take offence to the Word Bearer trilogy, the books are no where near as bad as say the Blood Angel books....

Few things are .

[Killgore]

Give Daemon world- ben counter, a try, its abit of an old one now, but I still find it enjoyable, its set on a Daemon world (Duh!) and features renegade Space Marines as well as a Word Bearers Kill team, who are hunting down a fallen member of their legion, which is pretty cool.

[blackcherry]

Demon world is a good call. The iron warriors omnibus and the book blood ghorhons is a good read as well. The night lord novels go without saying.

Regarding the Word Bearers books...they get better I think. The first novel reads like the author was lifting whole parts from the rulebook and codexs whilst writing it and it flows poorly, though the action scenes are pretty well written. At no point did I actually care about what happened to the characters as even the good guys were a step away from 2D villains.

Compare that to the short story set after the trilogy (collected in the anthology handily), the writing is much better, as is characterization, feel and he wrote a genuinely good mysterious short story. If any new books come out and the writing is to the same standard, I would be happy picking them up.

[Zen21]

Well I've picked up Horus Rising and the NL trilogy, and will be on the lookout for the Word Bearers anthology. That should give me quite a broad spectrum of different CSM ideals etc to read about in the build up to the CSM release .

Thanks again guys!