Reddit reviews The Emperor's Gift (Warhammer 40,000)

https://www.amazon.com/Emperors-Gift-Warhammer-40-000-ebook/dp/B01N942WJS/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1557243151&sr=8-1


>Annika burst into tears. I’d never seen anything like it – one moment she was composed, staring daggers at Kysnaros; the next she was weeping softly, her hands up to her rebreather mask, the tears freezing into silver trickles down her cheeks.

>I turned from the advancing war machine to glance at her. ‘Mistress?’

>She was already sliding down to her knees, still weeping, staring up at the approaching figure.

>‘He’s real,’ she said in a whisper over the vox. ‘Don’t you understand? Don’t you see? He’s real.’

>The Dreadnought stomped closer, drawing to a halt some ten metres away. Moonlight became bladed lines on the edges of its dense armour plating. Tribal paintwork marked its old, old hull. One of the war machine’s arms was a heavy, brutal rotary cannon – lowered and aiming away from us. The other arm was closer to humanoid, ending in a curved, vicious array of metal talons.

>Annika wouldn’t stop weeping. It wasn’t a display of undignified wailing – but the soft, muffled weeping was becoming unnerving. They were a pilgrim’s tears, shed in a temple at the end of a long journey.

>‘You’re real,’ she whispered to the towering war machine.

>‘Of course I’m real.’ The Dreadnought’s voice was bionic thunder. ‘Get up off your knees, foolish girl.’

>‘My lord,’ I said, as I went to one knee myself.

>‘I am Ghesmei Kysnaros,’ Kysnaros said to the Dreadnought. ‘A ranking lord in His Holy Majesty’s Inquisition.’

>The Dreadnought turned slightly on its waist axis, with a low growl of sacred mechanics. ‘Enough of this. Get up.’

>‘…and a duly appointed representative of the God-Emperor…’ Kysnaros finished, still unsure where to look.

>‘God-Emperor?’ The Dreadnought made the sound of gears slipping, grinding together. From the booming augmetic tone, I assumed it was supposed to be laughter. Either that, or an internal weapons system reloading. ‘Calling him a god was how all this mess started.’

>[...]

>He took a lumbering step forwards. His claw could have wrapped around any one of us with ease, so to see the gentleness with which he touched Annika was almost heartbreaking. The war machine rotated his wrist servos, rattling and grinding as he rolled his claw. Then, with the flat of one savagely sharp talon, he tilted her head to one side, then the other, showing the tears of ice on her pale cheeks.

>‘Enough tears now, little maiden. You have the look of the frostborn about you. What tribe, huntress?’

>‘The Broken Tusk, Great King.’ Her voice was a mouse’s, no louder than that.

>‘I still remember them. Vicious bastards, every one. A blessing in a battle if they were on your side, and a curse if they weren’t. Awful sailors, though. That’s the sad truth.’

>The Dreadnought stepped back, releasing her cheek. ‘No finer sight on any world than a frostborn maiden. Especially a beauty with black hair. Rare back when I had eyes to stare, and surely even rarer now.’

>I stared at the towering figure, wondering if there was some difference in the process by which gene-seed was once cultivated compared to the method now. He seemed to be able to determine that Annika was attractive. I wasn’t sure I could make that perception myself, and I had a thousand other questions to ask: about the warrior’s experiences in the age of the Heresy; about witnessing the Emperor in person; about the classes of vessels that once sailed the stars and now no longer saw use…

Eisenhorn Story about an Imperial Inquisitor's career, as he fights Daemons, Aliens, and Heretics who try to destroy the Imperium.

Ravenor A spin off from Eisenhorn, about his once-pupil Ravenor who has now become an Inquisitor in his own right, as he fights a shadow war against an evil genius heretic trying to destroy the Imperium while a bigger threat looms in the background.

The Emperor's Gift Story about the Grey Knights, who are a special chapter of Space Marines who fight Daemons specifically, and work with the Inquisition. Has a cool tie in with Ravenor, but I don't want to spoil it.

Gaunt's Ghosts Stories about the Imperial Guard, the grunt troopers of the Imperium, as they fight the forces of Chaos. Has a cool tie in with Eisenhorn, set a little bit after it in the 40k timeline. This is omnibus 1, books 1-3. There's literally 15 books in this series, it goes for a while. Very good stuff though.

Titanicus Story about the god machines, the Titans, that are the most powerful weapons of war in the Imperium.

Those should give you a pretty firm grounding, and it's basically the order I read them in (except the Emperor's Gift, I read that one later, I just included it because of the Ravenor tie-in). I read Eisenhorn with no background on 40k, and found it easy enough going to understand when I was in Highschool. I didn't even know it was a 40k novel, I was just looking for sci-fi. It's still my all-time favorite 40k book.