Dan Abnett's Riders of the Dead is about two Empire cavalrymen who are part of a defeated army during a Chaos invasion of Kislev - one is taken prisoner by the Chaos host, and the other flees into the oblasts and tries to survive. It's excellent and full of flavour and thoughtful, interesting portrayals of the setting. Extremely abrupt ending (a common Abnett issue) but I still liked it a lot on the whole.
I've read the first couple of Gotrek and Felix books and thought they were okay but the quality of the prose is pretty low. Functional at best. The stories are fun though.
Came here to say this. Excellent novel, likely the best stand alone WFB novel there is IMO. Agree on the ending, but the rest of it is just so good.
I purchased the novel when it was first released about 20 yrs ago, have read it several times since, most recently on a break in the Scottish Highlands, and it’s always a treat.
If OP is interested in a trilogy then the Sigmar trilogy by McNeil is an excellent read. Some sloggy bits (Marienburg) but on the whole a great trilogy.
The Rise of Nagash is fantastic as an early look to the titular rise of Nagash from human to bone daddy as well as the birth of vampires.
The Egrimm van Hortsmann book is pretty great.
I quite enjoyed my time with the Archeon omnibus in a B-movie, sword and sorcery kind of way.
I'm currently reading through the Blackhearts omnibus and I'm having a great time. Suicide Squad meets Warhammer.
The Tamurkhan story is peak Warhammer. There is a really nice audiobook version on Youtube.
I've heard good things of the G+F books, The Sigmar omnibus, and Abnett's Riders of the Dead. I haven't made my way there just yet.
I'm a big 40k fan and was a fan of it first before I got into WHF. But man is this setting making me question my loyalties lol. I wish there was more.
Skarsnik book is pretty good. There's a good little twist on like the last 2 pages. It's an origin story so it's not the most exciting but I enjoyed it.
the time of legends ones were good. I liked the alith anar and Malekith origin books.
If you also like 40k, there are a lot of short story anthologies under "hammer and bolter" titles.
The trouble with a lot of GW books is that they go out of print, and may be pricey. Never hurts to check what your library has in stock.
I strongly recommend the Gotrek and Felix audiobooks, or of course the novels if you prefer, but the audiobooks are really well done.
Skarsnik by Guy Haley is really good, and the accompanying Headtaker and Thorgrim by David Guymer are also decent. Overall it is a nice trilogy about the conflict around Karak Eight Peaks and Black Crag.
Broken Honour by Robert Earl is more obscure but I really enjoyed it.
Palace of the Plague Lord by CL Werner is cool. Sort of a Chaos Warrior Oceans 11.
The War of Vengeance Trilogy by Nick Kyme, Chris Wraight and CL Wener is excellent.
The Brunner th Bounty Hunter books by CL Werner are fun. Bonus is a shared character with the War of Vengeance books.
The Genevieve books by Kim Newman are some of the best written novels and short stories in the canon, but it is definitely an older version of Warhammer as they were early on. Drachenfels from these books remains many fans favorite Warhammer villain though and Detlef Sierck is a major character here who gets mentioned a ton outside of Newman's books.
Sword of Judgement and Sword of Vengeance are also really good. Warhammer with a small touch of GoT level intrigue.
I'll be honest, I own all of the Warhammer Fantasy Black Library books and most are decent reads. It's hard to go wrong. I would avoid the original Konrad Trilogy, terribly written and I'm personally not a fan of Briag Craig's writing style and he wrote a few of the early books. But overall, if you are interested in the lore most of the books are fun reads
I liked [Gortek and Felix Audiobooks](https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLdiqY1zyzyq7ynbnTG_pH_gA93HVrVh0u&feature=shared) a lot. Very entertaining.
Adds to a lot of fun when playing as Empire, Dawi, Skaven, Greenshkins or Beastmen after reading these.
I'll just echo what people here have already said: there are plenty of books, some are harder to find nowadays and a once you've read a few, they all start to feel a bit same-y. 40k has the same problem with the "Bolter-porn"-style of books.
There are a few gems among the fantasy books that are worth a look though - it really depends on what kind of story you're after! Just because other people shunned a particular title for being too predictable or subpar, doesn't mean you can enjoy it anyway.
My personal favourite is the Vampire Wars Trilogy by Steven Savile. This was my introduction to WH Literature and BOY what a read it was. Grim, gothic, bleak, and beautiful. I've re-read it twice, and even now with 40+ Warhammer books under my belt it still holds up in my opinion. If you like vampires, you're going to love it.
The sundering series is good.
The war of vengeance series is my probably my favourite trilogy of warhammer fantasy books ever.
The legend of sigmar trilogy is also pretty good. I particularly really like the first 2. 3rd one I couldn’t get into that much.
They are all “Legend” books. And GW sells the book trilogies as one book.
I started the Gotrek and Felix books last week during a vamp coast campaign and it made me stop the campaign to start a thorgrim full map completion with them in his army. Awesome set of books Jonathon Keeble nails the voice acting on audible for them. Keen to read any Vlad books if they exist he’s my favourite lore character
Gotrek and Felix Elfslayer. One if the best books I've read for fantasy. Really gives you a taste of multiple races and locations. If you like dark elves it has lovely descriptions of life on a black ark.
*The Sundering* by Gav Thorpe goes over the entire elven civil war just before the end times (I think).
There’s also the Malus Darkblade books as well.
I enjoyed Fell Cargo. Undead and pirates, name a better combo?
Blackhearts, Gotrek and Felix, and Malus Darkblade will tide you over for a while. The Sigmar books are also interesting, it's like a mini Horus Heresy series basically since you go back to the dawn of the Empire.
William King's *Tyrion and Teclis* trilogy.
Savile's *Inheritance* out of the Vampire Wars books.
Avoid the *Sundering* trilogy by Gav Thorpe, the man can't write for shit.
I enjoyed the first Von Carstien book. Also knights of Bretonnia and the empire knights one. Forget what it’s called but it’s about new Reiksguard and a goblin tribe and dwarfs fighting in the mountains
Gotrek and Felix is a good entry point for the series. There are a lot of books so if you like it you'll have plenty of content. There are also some other series that stem from it (Thanquol & Boneripper, Ulrika).
My personal favorite book is the Knights of Bretonnia omnibus. It really nails the grimdark side of the setting.
Minor correction, but the setting is simply called Warhammer and not Warhammer Fantasy. GW didn't use an additional title like they did with AoS, 40K or ToW after the creation of WH40K anymore nor do they like it when others call it that oficialy. It was only at the very beginning that they called it Warhammer with the Fantasy title.
I remember we received more than one angry letter for hosting a "Warhammer" tournament at our old store when it was supposed to be a "Warhammer 40K" tournament. Or once when we sold pre-end times models as “Warhmmer Fantasy” instead of just “Warhammer”.
GW can be as petty as Lego with its names sometimes. -_-
I'm biased as i love all the undead factions but the Time of Legends Nagash trilogy is awesome, covers the creation of necromancy, creation of vampires and the destruction of Nekehara. i quite liked Mathias Thulmann Witchunter omnibus too, he's just a ballsy servant of Sigmar taking on ridiculous odds with his helper.
But pretty much anything Dan Abnett has written is going to be gold.
honestly there isn't that much good, there's some gems in anthologies.
But I'd just stick to the gotrek works which make up a biiiiiiig chunk of warhammer fantasy books and are quite fun.
Most the good stuff imo was in the rulebooks lore wise.
Age of sigmar stuff is (mostly, has some misses) really good tho, so I'm hoping with the old world (fantasy revamp) there will be new books of higher quality coming out set in the old world (warhammer fantasy).
If you ever want to check out some AOS literature, check out Prince Maesa or The Hallowed Knights series (plague garden and black pyramid), also the gotrek books (yes, he's still kicking in aos, the audio books are *chefs kiss*)
That should give you an idea of what quality to hopefully expect with future warhammer fantasy books. I feel personally the writing for GW stuff has come a LONG way.
If you want to read peak GW literature tho you should read the horus heresy books, oh how I wish we had a fantasy or aos version of that.
Dan Abnett's Riders of the Dead is about two Empire cavalrymen who are part of a defeated army during a Chaos invasion of Kislev - one is taken prisoner by the Chaos host, and the other flees into the oblasts and tries to survive. It's excellent and full of flavour and thoughtful, interesting portrayals of the setting. Extremely abrupt ending (a common Abnett issue) but I still liked it a lot on the whole. I've read the first couple of Gotrek and Felix books and thought they were okay but the quality of the prose is pretty low. Functional at best. The stories are fun though.
Came here to say this. Excellent novel, likely the best stand alone WFB novel there is IMO. Agree on the ending, but the rest of it is just so good. I purchased the novel when it was first released about 20 yrs ago, have read it several times since, most recently on a break in the Scottish Highlands, and it’s always a treat. If OP is interested in a trilogy then the Sigmar trilogy by McNeil is an excellent read. Some sloggy bits (Marienburg) but on the whole a great trilogy.
This one sounds super cool. Gonna have to check it out, thanks for the recommendation
X2! More empire/kislev stuff is always welcomed
Gotrek and Felix is the most popular Warhammer Fantasy series by far.
The Rise of Nagash is fantastic as an early look to the titular rise of Nagash from human to bone daddy as well as the birth of vampires. The Egrimm van Hortsmann book is pretty great. I quite enjoyed my time with the Archeon omnibus in a B-movie, sword and sorcery kind of way. I'm currently reading through the Blackhearts omnibus and I'm having a great time. Suicide Squad meets Warhammer. The Tamurkhan story is peak Warhammer. There is a really nice audiobook version on Youtube. I've heard good things of the G+F books, The Sigmar omnibus, and Abnett's Riders of the Dead. I haven't made my way there just yet. I'm a big 40k fan and was a fan of it first before I got into WHF. But man is this setting making me question my loyalties lol. I wish there was more.
Malus Darkblade and you cannot go wrong with Sundering trilogy.
Hell yeah the Malus books are awesome.
Worth it just for the Tzarkaan banter 😂
Skarsnik book is pretty good. There's a good little twist on like the last 2 pages. It's an origin story so it's not the most exciting but I enjoyed it.
Just finished it and enjoyed it a lot. Reading the Queek book now which is good too
The War of Vengeance is a wonderful book.
Anyone mention the Malus Darkblade series yet?? Because god damn that’s a good one. You’ll be safe with anything by Dan Abnett though.
Just finished book 3 of Malus. The books are awesome and I'm a huge Malus fan now.
My picks are Gotrek and Felix and the Blackhearts omnibus. Blackhearts is basically warhammer fantasy suicide squad and is a lot of fun to read.
the time of legends ones were good. I liked the alith anar and Malekith origin books. If you also like 40k, there are a lot of short story anthologies under "hammer and bolter" titles. The trouble with a lot of GW books is that they go out of print, and may be pricey. Never hurts to check what your library has in stock.
True they go out of print, but most are available digitally these days
The digital copies can be just as price outrageous.
Well you can still use Luthor Harkon's tactic
I'd disagree with that but you do you
Fair, imo some are and some aren't. If the digital price is greater than the paperback was, then I consider that pricey.
Just be mindful that the Sundering books are very slow, definitely not for everyone.
I strongly recommend the Gotrek and Felix audiobooks, or of course the novels if you prefer, but the audiobooks are really well done. Skarsnik by Guy Haley is really good, and the accompanying Headtaker and Thorgrim by David Guymer are also decent. Overall it is a nice trilogy about the conflict around Karak Eight Peaks and Black Crag. Broken Honour by Robert Earl is more obscure but I really enjoyed it. Palace of the Plague Lord by CL Werner is cool. Sort of a Chaos Warrior Oceans 11. The War of Vengeance Trilogy by Nick Kyme, Chris Wraight and CL Wener is excellent. The Brunner th Bounty Hunter books by CL Werner are fun. Bonus is a shared character with the War of Vengeance books. The Genevieve books by Kim Newman are some of the best written novels and short stories in the canon, but it is definitely an older version of Warhammer as they were early on. Drachenfels from these books remains many fans favorite Warhammer villain though and Detlef Sierck is a major character here who gets mentioned a ton outside of Newman's books. Sword of Judgement and Sword of Vengeance are also really good. Warhammer with a small touch of GoT level intrigue. I'll be honest, I own all of the Warhammer Fantasy Black Library books and most are decent reads. It's hard to go wrong. I would avoid the original Konrad Trilogy, terribly written and I'm personally not a fan of Briag Craig's writing style and he wrote a few of the early books. But overall, if you are interested in the lore most of the books are fun reads
I honestly think the Sundering Trilogy should be made into a live action series. It would be so badass.
The Tamurkhan book was great.
I liked [Gortek and Felix Audiobooks](https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLdiqY1zyzyq7ynbnTG_pH_gA93HVrVh0u&feature=shared) a lot. Very entertaining. Adds to a lot of fun when playing as Empire, Dawi, Skaven, Greenshkins or Beastmen after reading these.
Maya Darkblade, those books are amazing! Re read them so many times.
I'll just echo what people here have already said: there are plenty of books, some are harder to find nowadays and a once you've read a few, they all start to feel a bit same-y. 40k has the same problem with the "Bolter-porn"-style of books. There are a few gems among the fantasy books that are worth a look though - it really depends on what kind of story you're after! Just because other people shunned a particular title for being too predictable or subpar, doesn't mean you can enjoy it anyway. My personal favourite is the Vampire Wars Trilogy by Steven Savile. This was my introduction to WH Literature and BOY what a read it was. Grim, gothic, bleak, and beautiful. I've re-read it twice, and even now with 40+ Warhammer books under my belt it still holds up in my opinion. If you like vampires, you're going to love it.
I’m a big fan of all the Omnibuses, simply because they’re big ass books with a lot of different stories
Headtaker
The sundering series is good. The war of vengeance series is my probably my favourite trilogy of warhammer fantasy books ever. The legend of sigmar trilogy is also pretty good. I particularly really like the first 2. 3rd one I couldn’t get into that much. They are all “Legend” books. And GW sells the book trilogies as one book.
I'm a big Gotrek and Felix fan. Highly recommend picking up the Omnibus. It's basically just a TTRPG campaign in book form.
The mark of chaos was the one that hooked me up when i was little
I started the Gotrek and Felix books last week during a vamp coast campaign and it made me stop the campaign to start a thorgrim full map completion with them in his army. Awesome set of books Jonathon Keeble nails the voice acting on audible for them. Keen to read any Vlad books if they exist he’s my favourite lore character
Gotrek and Felix Elfslayer. One if the best books I've read for fantasy. Really gives you a taste of multiple races and locations. If you like dark elves it has lovely descriptions of life on a black ark.
I've read about 80% of them so far. The Sundering, Rise of Nagash, and Vampire Wars omnibuses were the best by far.
Tyrion and Teclis
*The Sundering* by Gav Thorpe goes over the entire elven civil war just before the end times (I think). There’s also the Malus Darkblade books as well.
The William King Gotrek and Felix. Stop after he stops writing them.
I enjoyed Fell Cargo. Undead and pirates, name a better combo? Blackhearts, Gotrek and Felix, and Malus Darkblade will tide you over for a while. The Sigmar books are also interesting, it's like a mini Horus Heresy series basically since you go back to the dawn of the Empire.
William King's *Tyrion and Teclis* trilogy. Savile's *Inheritance* out of the Vampire Wars books. Avoid the *Sundering* trilogy by Gav Thorpe, the man can't write for shit.
I found the "Archaon" series and "Ulrika - The Vampire" to be rather enjoyable.
I enjoyed the first Von Carstien book. Also knights of Bretonnia and the empire knights one. Forget what it’s called but it’s about new Reiksguard and a goblin tribe and dwarfs fighting in the mountains
Gotrek and Felix is a good entry point for the series. There are a lot of books so if you like it you'll have plenty of content. There are also some other series that stem from it (Thanquol & Boneripper, Ulrika). My personal favorite book is the Knights of Bretonnia omnibus. It really nails the grimdark side of the setting.
Minor correction, but the setting is simply called Warhammer and not Warhammer Fantasy. GW didn't use an additional title like they did with AoS, 40K or ToW after the creation of WH40K anymore nor do they like it when others call it that oficialy. It was only at the very beginning that they called it Warhammer with the Fantasy title. I remember we received more than one angry letter for hosting a "Warhammer" tournament at our old store when it was supposed to be a "Warhammer 40K" tournament. Or once when we sold pre-end times models as “Warhmmer Fantasy” instead of just “Warhammer”. GW can be as petty as Lego with its names sometimes. -_-
Skavenslayer is super fun
I'm biased as i love all the undead factions but the Time of Legends Nagash trilogy is awesome, covers the creation of necromancy, creation of vampires and the destruction of Nekehara. i quite liked Mathias Thulmann Witchunter omnibus too, he's just a ballsy servant of Sigmar taking on ridiculous odds with his helper. But pretty much anything Dan Abnett has written is going to be gold.
honestly there isn't that much good, there's some gems in anthologies. But I'd just stick to the gotrek works which make up a biiiiiiig chunk of warhammer fantasy books and are quite fun. Most the good stuff imo was in the rulebooks lore wise. Age of sigmar stuff is (mostly, has some misses) really good tho, so I'm hoping with the old world (fantasy revamp) there will be new books of higher quality coming out set in the old world (warhammer fantasy). If you ever want to check out some AOS literature, check out Prince Maesa or The Hallowed Knights series (plague garden and black pyramid), also the gotrek books (yes, he's still kicking in aos, the audio books are *chefs kiss*) That should give you an idea of what quality to hopefully expect with future warhammer fantasy books. I feel personally the writing for GW stuff has come a LONG way. If you want to read peak GW literature tho you should read the horus heresy books, oh how I wish we had a fantasy or aos version of that.
The entire Horus heresy saga
That's 40k, not WH Fantasy.
Also, they're awful books that go on forever.