There are so many contributing authors in the 40k universe, some are brilliant, some are not, if you try to adhere to any sort of timeline, you'll be forced to read horrible books that will really put you off the 40k universe entirely. There is a timeline, it's a pretty interesting itself if you have some time to kill, but you should really read the books you like the sound of. I'd really advise you not bother trying to follow any sort of timeline in regards to what you read. The timeline is pretty meaningless in the 40k universe, read the books you like.Īfter The Horus Hersey, everything is a massive jumble.

The important thing to note is that wherever you choose to start you wont spoil stuff for yourself as the books raraly mention events in other books. Then you have your Gaunts Ghosts series ( 13 books so far and counting )Īnd I have barely scratched the surface here.

Then you have your Inquisitor series (Eisenhorn trilogy and Ravenor Trilogy, read the first before the second as they are connected) There are the Blood angels Series, The Ultramarines Series, The Dark Angels trilogy, The Space Wolves books Starting with how Ragnar Blackmane became a Space Marine and going to how he became the Wolf Lord. You basically wont loose any continuity if you read them in any order you want. Some books have timestamps and tell of a particular period, others dont. When you are done with that series then it is anybods guess. The Heresy books span the 30th and the 31 millenium.Īfter that you could read the Beast Arises series. Most of the answers would be hugely speculative and based on personal preferences. That is a very tough question to answer as by now there are virtually hundreds of books in the W40k universe.

Horus heresy order