Just to give things some scale, the longest book series in WH 40k is the hours heresy. It's 60+ books. And that takes place in the 30th millennium, so it's just background to current times lore.
There are more than 300 novels to read, and that's just counting novels. There are also codexes (codecies?), other supplementary books, other game books (like dark heresy), and the many issues of the white dwarf magazine.
It's less about length and more about absurdity and power levels. As a rough translation, imagine if everything ever done by chaos was defeated by a single entity that ate them. That's basically how Kirby lore works.
Don't worry, most worldwide fans didn't either. Outside of first world countries few can afford such a hobby so a big chunk of the community are just lore enjoyers
I think some of them are pretty good! My favorites are the Ciaphas Cain series and Eisenhorn series. Gaunts Ghosts is also good if you want a more serious military read. If you want non-humans, check out "The Infinite and the Divine". It's about necrons (highly advanced ancient space robots/terminators).
I finally got round to listening to a bunch of 40k stuff, I've read some in the past but not a lot and it's been a while. I started with the ciaphas cain series, it's somewhat comedic at times and the main character reluctantly gets into situations thanks to his heroic reputation. Lots of fun. Now I've been going through a bunch of Dan Abnett's stuff, eisenhorn and gaunt's ghosts. They both take themselves a lot more seriously. There's like 11 cain books and 16? Gaunt's ghosts books. It's all down to preference but I've been enjoying the guard-focused books a lot.
I think it's worth getting into, but you will quickly find authors you like and ones you dislike. I think the worst part of reading 40k is that you'll find a book you like, but it isn't a part of a larger series. For example hellsreach, or rin's world.
Maybe watch some YouTube videos about the setting first to see what interests you about the lore, and then start with books about that.
Warhammer, both Fantasy/AoS and 40k, have a billion books so if that's what you want, I'd say definitely check out at least a couple of the different series. Horus Heresy was mentioned, then there's a different series about Egyptian space terminators that is highly recommended, think the book is called Infinite and the Divine, then there's all the Ciaphas Cain books, really there is an ungodly amount, and all of that is just 40k.
On the Fantasy side, most highly regarded is probably Gotrek and Felix, a guy and a dwarf that travel and kill monsters and shit.
There are a shit ton of series to choose from, you could easily spend a long time reading only Black Library if that's what you'd like.
Imagine all the people who would do the Matrix thing and learn martial arts... Only to gain the wisdom that knowing how to do martial arts doesn't make it any easier when you're fat and out of shape.
I like to think it would be like playing a new game from the beginning vs replaying a game from the beginning and youd still have a big leg up in the knowledge and methodology for training, and a good understanding of the progress you make
I did sports when I was young. I know how to correctly do the exercises, running routines and all that. I'm still not doing it now because all of that knowledge is worth nothing without willpower.
I had gotten to green belt in judo when I was much younger. I still retain that knowledge. It still wouldn't stop my back from going out if I tried to throw someone now and I probably wouldn't win in a sparring match even against a white belt unless they were a child. The point is like GI Joe: knowing is only half the battle.
The Matrix thing is only really useful when you go inside the Matrix, where your limits are your mental strength. Outside the Matrix you're still a weedy little person. Look at when Neo and Bane/Smith fought: it was messy, ugly, and the opposite of choreographed martial arts.
Ironically, the matrix is also the one place where you can negate the need for kung fu because you can just alter reality with your thoughts by simply believing hard enough.
And those with motivation and willpower do it the old fashioned way. Plenty of people would jump at the chance to take a shortcut like downloading the knowledge into their brain, only to realize knowledge alone doesn't make one a kung fu master.
It’s endlessly funny to me that Orks are among the most brutal, caste-system based, martial strength = legitimate authority, but they are powered by feels.
A Eldar or Guardsman would look at a typical Shoota or Mek built by Orks see a series of parts assembled to a facsimile of the intended device - but it is the Ork’s belief that it will work, that makes it work. In a future where the Imperium will invade whole systems over rumors of ancient human technology that is superior to their creations, Orks pop up from spores and can bullshit themselves to overcome physical laws.
Yep, as a fictional concept they are fascinating. They're less of a nation or a race, but more like an invading self contained ecosystem that makes supply lines obsolete. Their technology is so ridiculous that it's almost useless in other species hands, but they can pillage their enemies weapons to their own advantage. Their entire species social class structure is based on merit, biggest ork is DA BOSS, because it's biologically baked into them.
OI I KNOWZ DAT!! I IZ A BADMOON OLDHEAD, BUTZ I GOTZ TO DUM IT DOWN FOR DEEZ HUMMIEZ! DEY NOT READY FOR "DAKKA IZ AZ DAKKA DOZ" OR ANY'TING BOSS GHAZGHKULL IZ YELLINZ ABOUT!!
The games aren’t deep per se, but they just get a little tonally weird towards the end given the franchise’s cute presentation. You go from fighting a tree who won’t stop disrupting forest creatures to battling an unknowable alien incarnation of darkness who wants to take over all of reality. The series has a lot of, “Oh no, our friend’s been possessed by a manifestation of pure evil!” plots.
It is plain tbh. What makes it feel interesting is that it never explains 99% of the lore. You have to pick up on it through tiny little details in the game. Sometimes it's more blatant, sometimes it's super subtle.
Just reading up on it doesn't give the same experience as "did the incarnation of the limitless void just turn into Kirby for a second there?"
Kirby is an unstoppable force with the brain of a child. He has killed multiple elder gods, often over nothing more than food. if you want examples, look up bosses like Zero-Two, Marx/Marx Soul, or Void Termina.
The most interesting part about Void Termina is that its core appears to be another one of whatever the hell Kirby is. So we possibly got a glimpse of what Kirby could be if he weren't so childlike and innocent... and not so easily placated with cake.