Warhammer 40,000: Leviathan will be out in stores and available to take home on Saturday, and if you’ve pre-ordered a copy, it should be winging its way to you about now. When you open it up, you’ll see that it is absolutely bursting with sprues. There are 72 push-fit new miniatures in the box, so building and painting even one of the two factions in the box is no small task! We’ve furnished you with some excellent tips on batch painting, but if you’re not hanging out with a pal, how are you keeping yourself occupied while you paint?
With your hands and eyes occupied with all that building and painting, it’s really only your ears that are free to help keep you motivated.* Luckily, Black Library has hundreds of audiobooks to entertain you while you assemble your armies, so you can get two helpings of Warhammer at once. They’ve helped us pick out some of the most appropriate recordings for you to vibe to as you paint.
The Tyranids and the Imperium have been at each other’s throats for centuries. Devastation of Baal by Guy Haley takes place during the Third Tyrannic War, as Hive Fleet Leviathan surges into the heart of Blood Angels territory. The Blood Angels and their many successors are forced into a war of pure survival in the perfect backdrop for the new boxed set, which features the titular Hive Fleet making a renewed assault on the galactic west.
The Imperium is fighting a war on a new front, but the Arks of Omen series was full of terrible revelations and brutal conflicts that left the Imperium reeling. Check out Lion: Son of the Forest by Mike Brooks, which captures the moments after the Primarch of the Dark Angels returned from his well-deserved rest. The Black Library team’s other top picks include the hilariously eccentric Necron drama The Infinite and The Divine by Robert Rath, the first volume in the ongoing Dawn of Fire series – Avenging Son by Guy Haley – and the classic Eisenhorn novel Xenos by Dan Abnett.
Settle in for the long haul by listening to Horus Rising by Dan Abnett, the first novel of the now legendary Horus Heresy series. This absolutely epic saga lays the foundation for much of Warhammer 40,000 and is required reading for die-hard fans. You can finish the opening trilogy off with Graham McNeill’s False Gods and Ben Counter’s Galaxy in Flames and either continue in sequence or pick a book about your favourite Legion or characters.
Some other favourites from Black Library are John French’s Solar War, the first part of the climactic Siege of Terra series, and Valdor: Birth of the Imperium by Chris Wraight, which delves into the Unification Wars that preceded the creation of the Imperium as we know it.
Building miniatures is also the perfect time to expand your knowledge of all things Warhammer. You don’t need to read books about Space Marines when working on them – there’s another setting out there full of adventures and mystery. The Hollow King by John French and The Arkanaut’s Oath by Guy Haley are perfect entry points into the vast and fantastical setting of Warhammer Age of Sigmar. They feature new characters, Cado Ezechiar and Drekki Flynt, who present two different views on the Mortal Realms and its denizens.
Godeater’s Son by Noah Van Nguyen comes highly recommended by the team, especially if you want to see why regular people would turn against the big gold guy whose name is in the game. Bad Loon Rising by Andy Clark provides a gitz’ eye view of the world, and if you remember Warhammer Fantasy fondly, you can join Gotrek on his journey through this strange new land in Reamslayer by David Guymer.
There are hundreds of other audiobooks to choose from, including titles in the Warhammer Crime and Warhammer Horror imprints. If you’re building and painting with the younger people in your life, you could even introduce them to the fantastic stories in the setting with the Warhammer Adventure series. Let us know what your picks are over on the official Warhammer Twitter page.
* Taste and smell are free too. We sell candles, but currently no Warhammer-themed snacks.