2025 & 2026 Reading Challenge discussion

I want to begin reading physical books again after about 5 years of mostly online reading and conveniently got into Warhammer 40k recently, which will be the majority of my reads at least this year. If finances and shipping times allow, I will probably overshoot my 5 book goal, since I'm already on #3 since the beginning of the month. I will write a review hopefully for every book I read, but they will probably be short - better than nothing, I guess :)

Backlogging my two previous reads: I started October with the Master of Mankind by Aaron Dembski-Bowden, and read Godblight by Guy Haley immediately afterward. They might be set roughly 10,000 years apart in their timeline, but very close in how much I enjoyed them and I would be hard pressed to pick a favourite. However, if you aren't the kind of person that likes to know what happens before you buy, I'd favour Master of Mankind, since Godblight is the end of the Dark Imperium trilogy (which I hope to finish retroactively eventually). Both, as with many Warhammer books, feature numerous POVs, but that made them all the more enjoyable to me, since it gives insight in the perspective of so many different characters and for me, a better feel for the impact of what's happening.
Right now, I'm starting on The End and the Death I by Dan Abnett, the beginning of its trilogy, longer than both its predecessors by about 200 more pages but broken up into many perspectives. It will take some time for me to finish all three - part III won't arrive until the end of November :( But that just gives me time for other books in the universe.

Just finished The End and the Death I and surprisingly, considering the length of the book and amount of perspectives it switches between, rarely got bored. The comparative shortness of the chapters helps, of course, but in other books with many POVs I usually have several characters whose perspective I truly do not care about, which did not really happen here. You also get a lot of interesting looks at the inner workings of the Imperium, and the Emperor's presence is created very well - just his getting up from his throne is preluded by awe and terror from his subjects. However, I would not recommend the book to anyone who isn't very sure they're committed to finishing the trilogy, since it is very long and obviously much of it sets up subplots for II and III. It is certainly not a book, unlike Master of Mankind or Godblight IMO, that can be read casually on the side (and of course, considering the trilogy is the culmination of the 54 book Horus Heresy, it was not meant to). Still, I enjoyed the book, and am very much looking forward to the next two in the trilogy.

I finished the End and the Death II yesterday evening, and this one took me a bit since I was busy with exam preparation. Last night, after being stuck on page 77 due to lack of time for almost a week, I intended to read only a hundred or so pages and was done with the entire 700+ page book less than 5 hours later, which I believe speaks to the quality of this book. Although the first half felt a little bloated at times with a few of the soldiers' perspectives not feeling like they contributed too much, this volume continued to make the war for Terra come to life, and I actually felt anxious for the characters at times. The setup for the Dark King from part I was built upon incredibly well, and even though I knew the outcome, the confrontation made me fear that it wasn't going to work. Especially the introduction to the Dark King, where even the forces of Chaos are going mad and fleeing, was quite impressive. Although a few chapters could have been cut from the first half, the second half was great with its pacing, and I couldn't bring myself to put the book down. I'm already burning to start part III, especially since despite the November 29th delivery date it actually arrived last week. Now if only I had any time to get through over 400 pages until late next week :/

I've officially overshot my goal (as I suspected) and was able to pick up 3 new Warhammer books, including two on my TBR list, while I was on holiday.
On Sunday I managed to read the entirety of The End and the Death III and its 480+ pages in a little over two hours, and it is now one of my favourite Warhammer books and possibly one of my favourite books, period. The fight between the Emperor and Horus was so well done, especially the tarot setup, and the segment where the Astronomican finally relights gave me chills and I've reread it several times. After the whole trilogy (and obviously the previous books in the Heresy and Siege series) spends time immersing you into the sheer hopelessness of the battle, this segment gave me such an amazing feeling of hope. Of course it doesn't all end in rainbows and sunshine, this is Warhammer after all, but I loved the conclusion to all the many characters the trilogy follows. I was also furious at Garviel Loken's death, since I already had been enjoying his POV throughout the trilogy and his segments in this book catapulted him to be one of my favourite Space Marines.

While waiting around at the airport on the way home, I read Valdor: Birth of the Imperium by Chris Wraight, which is also very good despite how short it is at just under 200 pages. It doesn't have as much of Valdor himself as I initially suspected (although he is of course one of the driving forces of the plot), but I think that just made his appearances better. Especially the slowly revealing intrigues made the book interesting, and I had myself a little laugh when it becomes obvious in the end that the whole thing was an elaborate scheme set up by the Emperor and Malcador (not stated, but in hindsight quite obvious: for example, the unnatural snowstorm that aids in concealing the final plot twist of the Astartes army is remarked on my several characters, and since it concealed the Astartes in the first place you can only assume the Emperor and /or Malcador caused it, since they knew both coups would be happening). I will definitely reread the book in the next few days to get the full scale of the scheme behind the schemes, and I think this might be the first Warhammer book I've read that I could recommend to someone with no knowledge of the setting without thinking too much. Since it is one of the earliest books timeline-wise, much of the overly complicated stuff hasn't happened yet, and ignorance of the primarchs might even improve your experience with the plot twist. Most of the characters and lead up to the plot is explained throughout the book. IF I had to give someone a book that isn't a huge commitment but allows them to get a feel for some parts of the setting, I would go with this one.

I have already overshot my goal, but in addition to Valdor I also brought back the Avenging Son buy Guy Haley and the Solar War by John French from my holiday and am now onto reading the Avenging Son, which is already shaping up to be quite interesting in its first 100 pages, and I am greatly looking forward to finishing it.