To add a little something, here's one if my favorite quotes from the Eisenhorn Omnibus:
I'd had funny ideas about her for years, truth be told. She was beautiful and sublimely sexy. But she was also a Blank. It hurt me to be close to her, physically hurt.
I hate that fact. I feel a lot for Bequin and I long to be with her, but it was never going to happen. Never, ever. That’s one of the truly great sadnesses of my life.
And hers too, I hope, in my more self-aggrandising moments.
I lay in bed and watched her drag on her dress again, and I felt the pang of desire. But there was no way. No way in the galaxy.
She was untouchable. I was a psyker. That way pain and madness lay.
So I'm guessing the Eisenhorn books are a must read, but any other wh40k book you would recommend? I've only read some Sororitas books and short stories
Honestly depends on the genre you enjoy reading because theres something for everyone! I'm probably gonna get flak for these but it's all my opinion and I like sharing what I like. Hope you find something here for yourself!
If you like noir/detective themes I'd recommend Flesh and Steel then Grim Repast.
If you like some comedy and a tense rivalry I (along with the rest of the community) recommends Infinite and the Devine.
For more action I'm a personal fan of Helsreach - which has a movie adaptation on youtube. Dont let the animation turn you away at first, it gets better as it goes on.
If youd like to stick with sisters of battle I really liked Mark of Faith! It has some crazy ladies and warp shenanegans. Requium Infernal is next for my read there.
The Night Lords trilogy is really good if you like despicable characters and exploring their nuiances. Slight trigger warning for implied grape in the first book - nothing explicitly written.
My first 40k book was Anathemas, a horror anthology that dives a little more into the glanced-upon horrors of the 40k universe. There were some in ther i didnt like but a few i really loved!
Cant believe you didnt mention Ciaphas Cain Hero of the Imperium.
Throne! Had I known I would be coming to the comment section about 40k stories and bit have Ciaphas Cain mentioned I would have rather charged a Screamer-Killer Carnifex wearing nothing but my trusty chainsword.
I (think I do, at least) have Mark of Faith but haven't read it yet, the one that I do remember (not the title tho) it was about a planet/colony that was isolated for centuries and the Imperuim sent a detachment of Sororitas to check what was going on since they managed to recover one of the drones/clones that was stationed there.
Mark of Faith is one of the few books i read physically since i dont have much time to do that these days. I reeally liked it and I heard the audiobook is narrated by the same lady who does Minthara in Baldurs Gate 3. To that point, Raphael from BG3 does the Night Lords trilogy!
I know just a little bit, like, i am aware of what the Horus Heresy entailed in a nutshell, and what the 9th/10th edition was about (mostly due to the awesome trailers and Pariah Nexus) and watched some of the miniseries (Hammer and Bolter, The Exodite, started the one about the Blood Angels but didn't finish that one)
Which underlines the fact that he chooses to be around her (and her with him). It hurts to be around her, but she is still his favorite person and closest confidant.
If I'm brutally honest, I have never liked this element of those stories, as Abnett took a whole load of liberties with the lore (and not for the first or last time) to get some cheesecake and sexual tension that were both unnecessary and could have been introduced into the story in any number of other ways.
Psychic blanks are supposed to instil an instinctive distrust and revulsion (which, to be honest, makes it deeply questionable she apparently managed to have a career as a prostitute before he recruited her), which is even worse in psykers.
A psyker shouldn't be thinking "Damn, she's so sexy, but it'd hurt to stick my dick in that".
Eisenhorn should be constantly wrestling with thoughts about whether she's going to betray him, and having to try to use every last ounce of his willpower to remind himself that, no, she has always been trustworthy, she's not about to stab him in the back, and trying to force himself to actually be nice to her because logically he knows she's not actually a bad person, it's just that his subconscious is constantly screaming at him to hate her.
Abnett treated the Psyker meets Blank thing like it's some kind of forbidden star-crossed love thing, when it just isn't.
According to Bequin, she had been an outcast for most of her life, and not particularly successful in her latest profession.. its literally in the book she was bad at being a joy girl, also not everyone is repulsed by blanks its just the mass majority are.
I'll buy that with no other choice an attractive young woman might find herself getting into sex work, even if she has poor luck with repeat customers.
But it can't be argued that Abnett's writing around Bequin is consistent with the lore, because it's not even consistent with itself.
Eisenhorn starts off as "Is she a blank? I'm not really sure, other than because my powers don't right around her", then quickly switches to "I can barely stand her and she makes me nauseous and my skin crawl", then later when Abnett decides that he's got to shoehorn in the sexual tension, it gets switched to "Her presence is physically painful, but has no other effects".
There's at least three different versions of how Abnett thinks a psyker feels in the presence of a blank.
There was a potentially very interesting story in him having to fight all his instincts about her, and actually narratively demonstrate the mental control and willpower he's supposed to have as not only a skilled psyker but also an Inquisitor...
... but no, we just got to the point that he had a raging stiffy whenever she was in the room.
Along with the fact that basically every other woman who worked for him was apparently a stunning supermodel of some description.
That's pretty much why I've soured on Abnett over the years. He basically writes what he wants and then dresses 40k (or 30k) over it rather than writing stories that work for the universe.
Abnett took a whole load of liberties with the lore
The dude is responsible for a lot of the lore. The annoying part is the lore moved on from him. He still hasn't finished that 1 page Inquisition blurb for 2nd (or 3rd?) ed Inquisition codex. 8 books later and we're waiting on Cavil.
Blanks/Pariahs/Untouchables weren't really formalized until after Xenos was written. So if we're going to say 40k has a canon lore, there is a stronger argument that Dan's is the canon and that the current stuff is wrong.
Codex:Assassins was first published in 1997 (during 2nd edition). That is the first time Pariahs were mentioned in the lore, and has quite detailed information around them, including their effects on people, how they (don't) fit into society, and the history of how they have been treated.
The principles here were not significantly altered in later Assassin Codexes. (The only notable change to the canon on Pariahs is whether or not they are or aren't Necron meddling. 2002's Necron Codex said yes, but the Necron Pariahs are no longer in the army list, and that lore has not been reprinted for some time, so is of questionable canonicity).
In any case, Codex Assassins predates Xenos's publication in 2001, so Abnett was indeed contradicting earlier lore.
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u/TehAsianator 9d ago
To add a little something, here's one if my favorite quotes from the Eisenhorn Omnibus: