[ Warhammer 40,000 ]
edited 2026-06-19A reading and playing order for the core Warhammer 40,000 fiction — the documented beginner-friendly Black Library series (Eisenhorn, Ravenor and Bequin, Gaunt's Ghosts, Ciaphas Cain, Uriel Ventris, Night Lords) plus the landmark canon video games. A curated path through a 400-book universe with no single official start; the Horus Heresy is tracked separately.
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page order
▾books46 items · 46 unwatched
01NOVEL
1999The first Gaunt's Ghosts novel by Dan Abnett, published in 1999, opening the long-running Imperial Guard military series. Commissar-Colonel…
416 pp›02NOVEL
2000The second Gaunt's Ghosts novel by Dan Abnett, published in 2000, structured as a set of linked episodes that flesh out the Tanith First's k…
416 pp›03NOVEL
2000The third Gaunt's Ghosts novel by Dan Abnett, published in 2000, depicting the defence of the hive city Vervunhive against a massive assault…
416 pp›04NOVEL
2001The fourth Gaunt's Ghosts novel by Dan Abnett, published in 2001 and opening the Saint arc. After a costly victory, the Tanith First are tas…
416 pp›05NOVEL
2001The second Eisenhorn novel by Dan Abnett, published in 2001, set roughly a century after Xenos. Now a senior Inquisitor of the Ordo Malleus,…
416 pp›06NOVEL
2001The first Eisenhorn novel by Dan Abnett, published in 2001 and the recommended starting point for Black Library 40,000 fiction. Inquisitor G…
416 pp›07NOVEL
2002The concluding Eisenhorn novel by Dan Abnett, published in 2002. Eisenhorn confronts a resurgent foe from his past as the consequences of hi…
416 pp›08NOVEL
2002The first Ultramarines novel by Graham McNeill, published in 2002, introducing Captain Uriel Ventris of the Ultramarines Fourth Company. Sen…
416 pp›09NOVEL
2002The sixth Gaunt's Ghosts novel by Dan Abnett, published in 2002, pitting the Tanith First into a brutal, entrenched trench war on the world…
416 pp›10NOVEL
2002The fifth Gaunt's Ghosts novel by Dan Abnett, published in 2002. The Tanith First mount an airborne assault to liberate the city of Cirenhol…
416 pp›11NOVEL
2003The first Ciaphas Cain novel by Sandy Mitchell (pen name of Alex Stewart), published in 2003. Commissar Ciaphas Cain — secretly a self-servi…
416 pp›12NOVEL
2003The seventh Gaunt's Ghosts novel by Dan Abnett, published in 2003, in which the reincarnated Saint Sabbat returns to lead the crusade and be…
416 pp›13NOVEL
2003The second Ultramarines novel by Graham McNeill, published in 2003. Uriel Ventris and the Ultramarines defend the Tarsis Ultra system agains…
416 pp›14NOVEL
2004The second Ciaphas Cain novel by Sandy Mitchell, published in 2004. Cain and his aide Jurgen are posted to an ice world where a promethium r…
256 pp›15NOVEL
2004The third Ultramarines novel by Graham McNeill, published in 2004. Condemned for breaking the Codex Astartes, Ventris and his sergeant Pasan…
416 pp›16NOVEL
2004The eighth Gaunt's Ghosts novel by Dan Abnett, published in 2004 and opening the Lost arc. Gaunt leads a small team deep behind enemy lines…
416 pp›17NOVEL
2005The ninth Gaunt's Ghosts novel by Dan Abnett, published in 2005. Gaunt and his team return from Gereon changed and under suspicion, and Gaun…
416 pp›18NOVEL
2005The first Ravenor novel by Dan Abnett, published in 2005, opening the second trilogy of the Inquisitor Cycle. Gideon Ravenor, once Eisenhorn…
416 pp›19NOVEL
2005The third Ciaphas Cain novel by Sandy Mitchell, published in 2005. Cain's regiment is deployed alongside a fanatical rival commissar against…
256 pp›20NOVEL
2006The fourth Ciaphas Cain novel by Sandy Mitchell, published in 2006. Marooned behind enemy lines after an Ork ambush, Cain reluctantly gather…
320 pp›21NOVEL
2006The second Ravenor novel by Dan Abnett, published in 2006. Operating off the books on the world of Eustis Majoris, Ravenor and his team purs…
416 pp›22NOVEL
2006The tenth Gaunt's Ghosts novel by Dan Abnett, published in 2006, returning the Tanith First to the world of Gereon as part of a full Imperia…
416 pp›23NOVEL
2007The fifth Ciaphas Cain novel by Sandy Mitchell, published in 2007. Caught in a war zone where a genestealer cult and the Inquisition's own m…
320 pp›24NOVEL
2008The sixth Ciaphas Cain novel by Sandy Mitchell, published in 2008. Posted as a schola progenium instructor on a seemingly quiet world, Cain…
320 pp›25NOVEL
2008The eleventh Gaunt's Ghosts novel by Dan Abnett, published in 2008. The Tanith First garrison the haunted desert fortress of Hinzerhaus on J…
416 pp›26NOVEL
2008The concluding Ravenor novel by Dan Abnett, published in 2008. Declared rogue by the Inquisition, Ravenor pursues his quarry Zygmunt Molotch…
416 pp›27NOVEL
2008The fourth Ultramarines novel by Graham McNeill, published in 2008. Returning from the Eye of Terror, Ventris and Pasanius arrive on the wor…
416 pp›28NOVELLA
2008A short Gaunt's Ghosts novelette by Dan Abnett, originally published as a 2008 limited edition. Framed around Gaunt in an ambiguous, possibl…
64 pp›29NOVEL
2009The thirteenth Gaunt's Ghosts entry by Dan Abnett, published in 2009. Between front-line deployments, Gaunt is drawn into guarding a capture…
416 pp›30NOVEL
2009The fifth Ultramarines novel by Graham McNeill, published in 2009. Restored to his command, Ventris leads the Ultramarines to liberate Pavon…
416 pp›31NOVEL
2010The first Night Lords novel by Aaron Dembski-Bowden, published in 2010. Ten thousand years after the Horus Heresy, the remnants of the Night…
416 pp›32NOVEL
2010The sixth Ultramarines novel by Graham McNeill, published in 2010. The Iron Warriors Warsmith Honsou launches a war of vengeance against the…
416 pp›33NOVEL
2010The seventh Ciaphas Cain novel by Sandy Mitchell, published in 2010. Seconded to a Reclaimers Space Marine strike force, Cain is drawn into…
320 pp›34NOVEL
2011The second Night Lords novel by Aaron Dembski-Bowden, published in 2011. Talos and First Claw forge a fractious alliance with the pirate fle…
416 pp›35NOVEL
2011The Gaunt's Ghosts novel by Dan Abnett published in 2011, in which the Tanith First undertake a high-risk raid on the hidden enemy stronghol…
416 pp›36NOVEL
2012The first Bequin novel by Dan Abnett, subtitled Ravenor vs Eisenhorn, published in 2012 and opening the third trilogy of the Inquisitor Cycl…
416 pp›37NOVEL
2012The eighth Ciaphas Cain novel by Sandy Mitchell, published in 2012. Cain's Valhallans are committed to a planet beset simultaneously by a ty…
320 pp›38NOVEL
2012The concluding Night Lords novel by Aaron Dembski-Bowden, published in 2012. Hunted by the Eldar of Craftworld Ulthwé, Talos and the dwindli…
416 pp›39NOVEL
2013The ninth Ciaphas Cain novel by Sandy Mitchell, published in 2013. A tau intervention, a genestealer cult, and an Imperial world's fragile o…
320 pp›40NOVEL
2017The Gaunt's Ghosts novel by Dan Abnett published in 2017, opening the Victory arc. Now Lord Executor and effective Warmaster of the Sabbat W…
512 pp›41NOVEL
2018The tenth Ciaphas Cain novel by Sandy Mitchell, published in 2018. Cain investigates the aftermath of a Chaos cult on a recently-reconquered…
320 pp›42NOVEL
2018A late Eisenhorn volume by Dan Abnett, published in 2018, that pairs the new full-length title novel with a collection of Eisenhorn short st…
624 pp›43NOVEL
2019The Gaunt's Ghosts novel by Dan Abnett published in 2019, continuing the Urdesh campaign as the enemy Anarch and his forces threaten to over…
416 pp›44NOVEL
2021The second Bequin novel by Dan Abnett, published in 2021, continuing directly from Pariah. Beta Bequin remains caught between Eisenhorn, Rav…
320 pp›45NOVEL
2022A Gaunt's Ghosts prequel novel by Dan Abnett, published in 2022, set early in the Tanith First's history during a counter-insurgency campaig…
256 pp›46NOVEL
2023The eleventh Ciaphas Cain novel by Sandy Mitchell, published in 2023. Cain and Jurgen confront a fresh crisis that once again threatens to e…
320 pp›▾games7 items · 7 unwatched