Reddit reviews The Chronicle of Malus Darkblade Vol. 1 (Warhammer Anthology)

Alright lets do this.

Fantasy:

You like friendship and grimdark? You get the Slayer series:
http://www.amazon.com/Gotrek-Felix-First-Omnibus-Novels/dp/1844163741/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1426257019&sr=1-1&keywords=gotrek+and+felix+omnibus

You like malice and conniving and plot twists? You get the Darkblade Series:
http://www.amazon.com/Chronicle-Malus-Darkblade-Warhammer-Anthology/dp/1844165639/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1426257058&sr=1-1&keywords=darkblade+omnibus

You like the Empire n shit? They did a whole series about every "part" of the army:
http://www.amazon.com/Empire-Omnibus-Warhammer-Chris-Wraight/dp/1849705879/ref=pd_sim_b_3?ie=UTF8&refRID=15PKR46KZZN2847VPRMN

The omnibus contains the arty, pikemen, and 2handed swords companies. There is also a Reiksguard book and some others.


40k:

You like comedy? You get Ciaphus Cain (currently 2 omnibus, books getting a bit stale now but the early ones are good):
http://www.amazon.com/Ciaphas-Cain-Hero-Imperium-Novels/dp/1844164667

You like philosophy (kinda)? You get the Night Lords series:
http://www.amazon.com/Night-Lords-Aaron-Dembski-Bowden/dp/184970676X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1426256834&sr=1-1&keywords=night+lords+omnibus

You like pure bloody action? You get any of the Gaunts Ghosts:
http://www.amazon.com/Gaunts-Ghosts-Founding-Dan-Abnett/dp/1844163695/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1426256866&sr=1-2&keywords=gaunts+ghost+omnibus

You like the movie The Dirty Dozen? You get The Last Chancers:
http://www.amazon.com/Last-Chancers-Warhammer-000-Novels/dp/1844163008/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1426256913&sr=1-1&keywords=last+chancers+omnibus

You want all the pre-lore in the game? You start collecting the Horus Heresy books (up to like 30 of em):
http://www.amazon.com/Horus-Heresy-Box-Volumes-1-12/dp/1849708290/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1426256963&sr=1-2&keywords=horus+heresy



I got plenty more. But these are good places to start. If you like one race in particular over others, let me know and I can recommend some race specific books for you.

There are a ton of fantasy novels, novellas, and short stories set in the Warhammer Universe. Some of them are mediocre, some of them are great.

People really seem to love Gotrek and Felix, but I haven't read those so I can't really vouch for that.

My personal favorite is Blackhearts, sort of a Dirty Dozen for Warhammer, a group of defectors and criminals forced into hazardous missions against chaos, defectors, and other threats to the Empire.

I'm halfway through the Witch Hunter omnibus as well and it's a doozey. I'm enjoying it almost as much as Blackhearts and it has me looking forward to more.

I've got the Bounty Hunter book and a Dark Elf book coming up next. Thinking of grabbing the Von Carstein trilogy after that.

You sorta skipped over the part where the Skaven live mostly underground, and have been tunneling under the empire for centuries moving around in the shadows with human agents, getting people addicted to warp-dust, and prepping their invasion of the surface world.

Oh and you also didn't mention Morrslieb, Clan Skyre bringing it down, the Chaos Wastes, or that they've been separated for the duration of the empire.

You could have also thrown an honorable mention to Kislev being the bulwark between the wastes and The Empire.


If anyone wants to real some good books I would highly recommend:

Brunner the Bounty Hunter

The adventures of Gotrek and Felix

Mathias Thulmann Witch-Hunter

The Chronicles of Malus Darkblade

The Rise of Nagesh

The Adventures of Florin and Lorenzo

Blood Bowl

The Tales of Orfeo

The Konrad Saga

All those links are amazon ones, most of those books have standalone series and omnibus to choose from, and you sometimes can grab a used copy a bit cheaper than those listed prices on like Alibris, but not all of them. Some are pretty "rare"

Check out the Malus Darkblade series by Dan Abnett & Mike Lee.

They focus on a delightfully ruthless, fairly evil anti-hero who violently rails against being made a pawn of the Dark Elven ruling elite, his Highborn Family, and the darkest of evil forces themselves.

The books are part of the Warhammer universe, but do not require any prior knowledge of said universe.

On a much lighter, relatively PG-13 scale: you might also check out the first few books of R.A. Salvatore's Legend of Drizzt series. Also follows a young, extremely talented dark elf who rebels against the inherently evil society he is raised it.

Minus the female lead, sorry but he is a elf this series has all evil and quests that have you rooting for the bad guy for a change. https://www.amazon.com/Chronicle-Malus-Darkblade-Warhammer-Anthology/dp/1844165639