Read some Warhammer 40000 stuff.

A few years ago, the last time I moved, I donated lots of books and comics. Stuff that didn't move me ended up not moving with me. So, lots of scifi paperbacks from many eras of the genre, entire manga collections, even some hardbacks and up to four of five books of that infamous GRRM saga that won't ever be finished.

Also, life got in the way and I didn't read as much as I did before. Easier, more instantly-gratifying passtimes such as videogames, streaming, or (yep) social media filled up my disposable time. But I always wanted to get back into reading. I love scifi and soooo many new books were coming out, new and exciting subgenres and voices and themes.

So I started buying books again. Some electronic, a few physical (mostly comics, new and classic). But I still don't get into the rhythm of regular reading. I will grab a book, or a book will grab me, I'll work through it in a few days and when I finish it up, I'll try to choose what to read next. Skim a few reviews, review my to-read list, load it up on my ereader and cell phone and promptly go to do other thing. What I'm trying to explain is that I intended to read the third book of the Culture series, but ended up grabbing a couple of WH40K books just because I saw some memes on reddit and wanted to get into it.

I've had some previous stints with WH40K. It's a fun, sarcastic setting that takes itself sooooo seriously. It's also so grimdark that it always ends up getting me a bit down, and I have to abandon it for some time until the itch starts again.

So, here they are:

And they're awful, but I couldn't stop reading. About 200 pages each, the last 20 pages or so are a extract of other books, so the end always comes up sooner than you expect. They're slow to start, they're full of adverbs, adjectives and loooong descriptions of the sinister, baroque stuff of the 41st millenium. They come with requisites: you have to know at least a bit of the universe to understand what the fuck you're reading. But all those exposition ends up painting up a really detailed ambience, and if you can get through the marshy prose, you end up with a cool action story, a couple twists and an ending in which even victory is grim, and bad, and with horrible consequences (as everything is this way in the Warhammer 40k universe).

I can't say I recommend them if you don't know what you're getting into. I could say I read them so you don't have to. If you want to get into the setting, better find a guide on how to get into this. There are infinitely detailed wikis that collate the events of books, novels and in-game chronology. Me, I just wanted some easy triumphs and a couple notches to make on my goodreads(*) tally so I build momentum to read something chewier.

(*) I'm still coming up to terms with bookwyrm. Selecting an instance, moving the content and all that stuff is work, you know.