Getting Started with 40k BLACK LIBRARY: a Book for Each Faction

All right, so getting started with The Black Library, it's a, it's an interesting question, isn't it? What do you...

What do I mean, getting started? Do you want to collect? There's a lot of people out there collecting Black Library, and that's because there are lots of different editions of the books that come out.

And how this really works is that a novel is usually announced, a few months later they go up for pre-order, and they usually go up for pre-order as a limited edition, very limited, really hard to come by, and these get scooped up and potentially resold for quite a lot of money 'cause they're also quite pretty, and they all look really good on your shelf.

In recent years, this has been going on more and more often, a lot of titles getting this exclusive limited edition treatment with some older titles also getting this anniversary reprint or new edition for a book that's been out for many, many years.

Regardless, eventually these books get released again half a year to a year later on average as paperback covers.

This is usually what you're gonna run into in shops and various stores and online retailers, and that's how a lot of people pick up their print.

They usually miss out on this limited edition stuff and then wait for the paperback.

For me and for us here on the TTP, we tend to follow the audiobook versions over on Audible, not sponsored [laughs] but you know, if you're listening, Audible.

And this is actually really clutch for us because pretty much all of the novels that get put out when those limited edition stuff do come out, the audio version is usually there right away.

As well, of course, we have the e-book side of things, your PDFs and your e-readers.

There is a new Black Library application which is gonna go into that whole ecosystem of e-reading s- like files and stuff, but that's not really the topic of today.

Black Library itself has been going on for a couple of decades now.

A lot of the earliest works, if you will, are considered quite seminal and are often what you are going to hear if you were to ask the question, where should I begin? What novels should I start with? You're going to hear very often, start with Eisenhorn, which is a very infamous Inquisitor who is probably my favorite character in all of the Black Library tapestry.

His sort of saga spans 10 books, not always focusing on him, but people in his orbit.

As well, you're probably going to hear Gaunt's Ghosts, which is more of the Guardsman side of the Imperial coin.

Again, many, many, many books written by Dan Abnett, who's well-regarded for bringing these worlds to life.

And depending on who you're asking, you're probably gonna get a couple of fan favorites.

You might get The Infinite and the Divine by the Necrons, which we did do a book club on as well.

You'll probably start to hear things such as The Devastation of Bal, which is Blood Angels versing the Tyranids, or rather the Tyranids come to devour their home world and almost succeed.

As well, you're probably also going to hear things such as Hell's Reach, where the Black Templars defend one of the hive cities of Armageddon from overwhelming amount of Orks.

We also have done a book club on that one.

Or the Night Lords omnibus, which is a very well beloved look at some absolutely cracked villains [laughs] setting.

They are not good guys, all right? They're not good guys.

As well, you probably will hear a lot of, "Oh, just get started with the Horus Heresy Just, just start with The Horus Heresy.

Mm, you could.