The founding omnibus was my first experience of reading Dan Abnett's work. My collection of his works has mostly ended up in audiobook format now which, for me, means everything I have listened to has been elevated by Toby Longworth's narration. I shall choose First and Only as my favourite as it's where it all began for me.
Traitor General is my fav Dan Abnett! The pacing is exquisite and you get such a great set of deep dives on the Ghosts involved. Loved it even more on second reading
Best Dan Abnett? That's a difficult question. I'm going to go with Double Eagle. TEATD is close, but they are two different types of achievements. Double Eagle is incredibly hard hitting in a relatively short space, TEATD caps off the creative marvel that is the HH.
It genuinely was stupid on their part to destroy all those signed and numbered copies. I couldn't give a less shit if they were limited but it genuinely is just a waste of money, creating and shipping the novels. It also shows your fanbase that you do not care about the thing you sell. I mean FUCK who was the genius who thought destroying the already made novels was a great idea and approved of it ?
i only started reading since 2025 so my collection is not deep per say. however, i absolutely love know no fear. the countdown to destruction, the description of the fallen orbital defense. the chaos on planetside, everything just sums up so nicely.
not forgetting roboute's fight in space. that book had me locked on for so long periods that after it i am just so happy its an actual solid book from the heresy.
Brothers of the Snake is hands down my favorite Dan Abnett book I’ve read so far…and I’ve got quite a few to get through. The personal level you get on with Priad and how he is with other characters really helps focus on his writing.
Tough one. Dan has put out so much good stuff over the years (to say nothing of his non-Black Library output - mainly in the realm of comics, but his novels Triumff and Embedded are well worth looking up) and picking one as fave is tricky.
But after having a think, I've come up with one, and to my own surprise it's not anything to do with Ibram Gaunt, Inquisitors, or even the Horus Heresy. Nope, I'm travelling back to The Old World and yet another book that began life within the pages of Inferno! in the form of Hammers Of Ulrik, co-written by Dan with his partner Nik Vincent. And why this particualr book? I think mainly due to it's focus on the Imperial City-State of Middenheim, seat of the Cult of Ulrik, god of War & Winter, and the faith's dedicated Knightly Order, the Knights Of The White Wolf
It's a very tough call, but I'll go with Traitor General, because it was the most surprisingly great book. Painting a picture of what it's like to live and resist on a world taken over by Chaos was so chilling, and the enemy forces seemed so insurmountable that it made the whole story genuinely exciting start to finish, despite the obvious plot armor of our main characters. Also, for the record: Toby Longworth is a genius.
Know No Fear... it's a systematic eradication told through military timestamps... it places you right inside the assault! An almost traumatic experience that lingers long after reading. Abnett writes the Ultramarines just enough before tearing everything apart and it hits HARD.
Xenos by Dan Abnett made a very strong impression very quickly. It was my first 40k title and I remember assuming the titular character to be refined, cerebral, collected, going by the first pages... Gregor is all of those things but then he's also a man of action. Very early in the story, he nonchalantly punches a gun into a guy's mouth so hard he breaks all his teeth, and then shoots him. This is was a real curveball for me. The display of brutality was a very fun surprise which also let me know where the stakes were going to be, especially because the guy on the receiving end had been advertised as Eisenhorn's archnemesis. He made it all the way to the end of chapter 1. Poof! Gone.
As Jonas said, so many good novels. I feel like End and the Death hit especially hard after all those years of reading the Heresy, but more recently Interceptor City hit me like a sack of brick. The intensity of the city drops and dogfight! What a joy to read
Picking a favourite Dan Abnett book is like picking which pizza is best. They're ALL yummy.
Eisenhorn is wonderful and tragic. The HH books are epic and grand.
But I'll give a shout-out to Double Eagle. Maybe it's just recency bias, but it was a heck of a lot of fun! And having never read any BL books that featured pilots, it was a fun new take on warfare in the 41st millennium.
The founding omnibus was my first experience of reading Dan Abnett's work. My collection of his works has mostly ended up in audiobook format now which, for me, means everything I have listened to has been elevated by Toby Longworth's narration. I shall choose First and Only as my favourite as it's where it all began for me.
Traitor General is my fav Dan Abnett! The pacing is exquisite and you get such a great set of deep dives on the Ghosts involved. Loved it even more on second reading
Best Dan Abnett? That's a difficult question. I'm going to go with Double Eagle. TEATD is close, but they are two different types of achievements. Double Eagle is incredibly hard hitting in a relatively short space, TEATD caps off the creative marvel that is the HH.
It genuinely was stupid on their part to destroy all those signed and numbered copies. I couldn't give a less shit if they were limited but it genuinely is just a waste of money, creating and shipping the novels. It also shows your fanbase that you do not care about the thing you sell. I mean FUCK who was the genius who thought destroying the already made novels was a great idea and approved of it ?
i only started reading since 2025 so my collection is not deep per say. however, i absolutely love know no fear. the countdown to destruction, the description of the fallen orbital defense. the chaos on planetside, everything just sums up so nicely.
not forgetting roboute's fight in space. that book had me locked on for so long periods that after it i am just so happy its an actual solid book from the heresy.
Brothers of the Snake is hands down my favorite Dan Abnett book I’ve read so far…and I’ve got quite a few to get through. The personal level you get on with Priad and how he is with other characters really helps focus on his writing.
Tough one. Dan has put out so much good stuff over the years (to say nothing of his non-Black Library output - mainly in the realm of comics, but his novels Triumff and Embedded are well worth looking up) and picking one as fave is tricky.
But after having a think, I've come up with one, and to my own surprise it's not anything to do with Ibram Gaunt, Inquisitors, or even the Horus Heresy. Nope, I'm travelling back to The Old World and yet another book that began life within the pages of Inferno! in the form of Hammers Of Ulrik, co-written by Dan with his partner Nik Vincent. And why this particualr book? I think mainly due to it's focus on the Imperial City-State of Middenheim, seat of the Cult of Ulrik, god of War & Winter, and the faith's dedicated Knightly Order, the Knights Of The White Wolf
It's a very tough call, but I'll go with Traitor General, because it was the most surprisingly great book. Painting a picture of what it's like to live and resist on a world taken over by Chaos was so chilling, and the enemy forces seemed so insurmountable that it made the whole story genuinely exciting start to finish, despite the obvious plot armor of our main characters. Also, for the record: Toby Longworth is a genius.
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Know No Fear... it's a systematic eradication told through military timestamps... it places you right inside the assault! An almost traumatic experience that lingers long after reading. Abnett writes the Ultramarines just enough before tearing everything apart and it hits HARD.
Xenos by Dan Abnett made a very strong impression very quickly. It was my first 40k title and I remember assuming the titular character to be refined, cerebral, collected, going by the first pages... Gregor is all of those things but then he's also a man of action. Very early in the story, he nonchalantly punches a gun into a guy's mouth so hard he breaks all his teeth, and then shoots him. This is was a real curveball for me. The display of brutality was a very fun surprise which also let me know where the stakes were going to be, especially because the guy on the receiving end had been advertised as Eisenhorn's archnemesis. He made it all the way to the end of chapter 1. Poof! Gone.
As Jonas said, so many good novels. I feel like End and the Death hit especially hard after all those years of reading the Heresy, but more recently Interceptor City hit me like a sack of brick. The intensity of the city drops and dogfight! What a joy to read
Picking a favourite Dan Abnett book is like picking which pizza is best. They're ALL yummy.
Eisenhorn is wonderful and tragic. The HH books are epic and grand.
But I'll give a shout-out to Double Eagle. Maybe it's just recency bias, but it was a heck of a lot of fun! And having never read any BL books that featured pilots, it was a fun new take on warfare in the 41st millennium.