READ THIS POST FOR CONTEXT BEFORE FINALIZING YOUR VOTE:The Spring Patron decided episode for Poorhammer was won by the Black Library Book Club. I'm adding a list of books that I've read and know will be high quality enough to not be 30 minutes to an hour of just bashing a subpar book. We're going to bias the options toward books we mentioned previously that should make for a good modern entry point into 40K Lore. That should entice more of the audience to actually join in the Book Club.
YOUR OPTIONS:
1. The Infinite and the Divine - My personal favorite entry point into 40k lore, 2 old men in robot bodies argue for thousands of years while having Indiana Jones adventures.
2. Assassinorum: Kingmaker - Assassins are sent to a "Knight World" to assassinate their leader and put someone more cooperative with the Imperium in charge.
3. Flesh and Steel - A cop has to solve a murder case involving the Imperium and Adeptus Mechanicus. He ends up paired with a woman from the Adeptus Mechanicus in a tense investigation/murder mystery.
4. Belisarius Cawl: The Great Work - Cawl does a little trollin'. You get a lot of background on, and inside look at, Cawl himself. (Also some Space Marines are there and are boring as hell.)
5. Dark Imperium - Guilliman-centric book that features the first Primarch heavy plot in 40k. Beginning of a trilogy that ends up with major impact on the current plotline of 40k.
6. Avenging Son - Good introduction to Primaris with a more overarching look at Guilliman and Cawl, mostly from external perspectives. For being a Space Marine-centric book it's thankfully light on the obligatory "Bolter Porn" that plagues Space Marine story lines.
7. Day of Ascension - A Genestealer uprising occurs on an Ad Mech forgeworld. You get a very good look at both the Genestealer Cults and Ad Mech politics and practices. It's also by an externally famous Sci-Fi writer which guarentees a certain level of quality in writing compared to usual 40k books.
8. Alpharius: Head of the Hydra - The only Great Crusade/HH era book on this list. For good reason too! Alpharius is one of the best looks at the state of the early Imperium and the most elusive of the legions.
9. The Twice-Dead King: Ruin - This is the first half of a 2 book storyline. You see a very different view of the Necrons from the glory shown in The Infinite and The Divine. Focusing instead on a small dynasty barely holding on to their meager domain. Oltyx, a young Necron prince in exile, has to unite his dying dynasty to fight off an Imperium crusade before it destroys their empire.
BRAD'S THOUGHTS/BIAS:
Of these Eric has read The Infinite and The Divine already. I&D may be weird since we'll both be doing a second (or 3rd in my case) read through so you won't get any first impressions. I expect it'll be a patron favorite choice anyway though.
Day of Ascension Eric is currently part way through and if it gains ground he'll probably shelf it and finish it when we do the episode. It's definitely well written and it focuses on factions you don't often see explored (outside of Cawl because he's basically a walking plot point in the current 40K plotline.)
I don't think Cawl should win, because Adeptus Ridiculous just covered that and I don't want to outwardly look like we're copying them. That said, I know it's probably going to be popular, because it's a solid book and one of the most interesting "important" characters in current 40k.
Assassinorum is by the same author as The Infinite and The Divine and I think it would make for a good conversation as you don't often get a good look at Imperial Knights in lore. 30K focuses more on Titans and 40K tends to forget them other than to bring out for a generic battle scene to make it impressive. I didn't think I'd care about either of the primary factions, but I really did love this book after giving it a shot.
I doubt Flesh and Steel has a chance vs the larger more impressive stories, but I highly recommend giving it a shot if you're into crime novels or noir books.
The other books I enjoyed well enough to put on this final list, but I think they all fight for themselves just based on which factions are popular to read about. I'll let you pick those without my input.
WHY THESE BOOKS AND NOT XYZ?!
There are also plenty of other books I'd like to try doing Book Club episodes for, but I'm playing it very safe on this first batch. Let's see how this goes and then we'll start putting some riskier options in the poll. (Not Xenos though, I'm not reading that again. Even for content's sake.)
You have until the end of March, you can vote for multiple books and change your votes over time. Bribe other patrons into voting your way and good luck.