Some Book Suggestions

We’ve all got plenty of downtime at the moment so what better time to get a spot of reading done?
With Audiobooks being so common these days and everyone locked away indoors painting away
there’s never been a better time to get reading so here’s some of my personal suggestions of books
I’ve read in the past 18 or so months and thoroughly enjoyed.

Warhammer 40K

Caiphas Cain has finally made his way onto Audiobook and the first two books are for sale over at
Black Library along with the first two Gaunt’s Ghosts. These two series are pillars of 40K
Literature and are absolute classics.

Commissar Cain is a coward and a shirker who just happens to be a Commissar, Gaunt leads the last
few thousand men of Tanith as they fight for a new home, for revenge and for brotherhood all while
playing the bagpipes. Both stories are packed with laughs and are written very well especially
Gaunt’s Ghosts since the first two books were written as a kind of “Story of the Month” and put
together for a proper book which makes it perfect for people with little kids who might only get half
an hour at a time and can’t commit to longer stories.

Speaking of short stories and 40K there are a ton of short story compilations out there especially for
the Horus Heresy and almost all of them are stand alone which makes them perfect for both new
people and people who don’t want to have to read the whole Eisenhorn Omnibus just to understand
what the frag is going on.

Fantasy

With the Wheel of Time TV show already being filmed it’s a great time to get in early and start the
unbelievable slog that is the Wheel of Time series. Don’t expect to finish the 15 books, or the short
stories or the 30+ hour audiobook of book 6 but you can at least get a head start.

Wheel of Time is quite possibly the best built fantasy world in literature. With a dozen different
cultures ranging from those essentially run by the magic using Aes Sedai to those who enslave them
the Wheel of Time goes from a run of the mill “Three Friends out in the big bad world” to more
than a dozen epic story arcs all involving very real characters that you get quite attached to. The
universe is also so well explained that you’re never left wondering how someone can do a thing or
why a thing was done. A brilliant book not only to prepare us for the TV show but also to get ready
for the miniatures/board game that is inevitably going to follow it.

Ok so Wheel of Time is a bit thick but you still want to read some cool High Fantasy set in a world
that you can understand? Well YouTuber Shadiversity published his debut novel “Shadow of the
Conqueror” last year and it’s very good. I can’t really talk about the story itself since that would
giveaway an important part of the plot but if you like insane Science based Fantasy, Super Powers
and a strong moral undercurrent then you might want to check out “Shadow of the Conqueror”
although be warned there is a fair bit of adult content in here.

What about the literal Father of them all? The Lord of the Rings is available for Free on YouTube
and it’s been done to perfection. All three (six really) books have been done with music, emotion
and sound effects that draw you right in to Middle Earth. Rather than watch the movies for the
umpteenth time why not listen to a few chapters of one of the greatest stories ever written?

Historical Fiction

For this it’s the big three all the way. Flashman, Hornblower and Sharpe.

Flashman is a Victorian Gentleman, Hero and an all round despicable person. Flashman is my
favourite fictional character ever written purely because he feels so real. He doesn’t jump out of the
speeding carriage to let the Princess get away he throws her out instead. Flashman doesn’t ride
headlong into danger looking for glory he rides directly away from it and finds himself in even
more danger than before. The books are written in the form of a memoir so we get to experience
Flashman’s internal thoughts which are very well written and very funny in that Victorian style.
From Afghanistan to American, back to India then off to China Flashman does everything from
Slaving to Slave Freeing, from Piracy to Pirate Hunting and he does it all extremely reluctantly.
These books are definitely more adult in content but they’re written in a perfect Victorian style,
despite being written in the later half of the 20th Century, that really takes the edge off.

Hornblower is the Naval Sharpe. He’s a man of Duty and Honour who goes from a boy seasick in
Spithead to Commanding his own First Rate’s. Hornblower is a Napoleonic British Naval Officer
based on a few different Historical Figures and in my opinion is the best Naval Fiction of the period
if not the most historically accurate. Hornblower is a brilliant example of the ordinary less well off
gentleman of the Period who can’t afford an Army Commission but has the brains to make it in the
Navy and who takes on anything from Spanish Forts to Spies on his own ship.

Lastly Sharpe. We all know Sharpe from the TV show but while Sean Bean did a fine job the show
had to scale things back a touch. In the Sharpe Novels we get to see those relationships fleshed out,
those skirmishes turn into battles and far more of the Peninsular War. From humble beginnings in
India Sharpe leaves his old life behind and joins the Rifles in Copenhagen before getting left behind
in Spain with a handful of chosen men who he leads all the way to Waterloo and beyond taking part
in several South American Wars of Independence. The books really add and extra layer of character
to everything especially those lovable side characters like Hogan or makes villains like Hakeswill
especially repulsive.

Let everyone know your favourite audio-books in the comments below