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Notes -
Start with Gaunt's Ghosts series. Abnett is a functional and reasonably entertaining writer when given good enough schlock; the plots are nothing special but it's a very vivid and clear-eyed picture of the crapsack universe and the daily life of combat as experienced through elite Guardsmen.
Then you can dabble around a bit more. The Horus Heresy books are a very mixed bag, there are some gems and some lumps of coal all mixed together, but it's still worth it as a whole because that era of the 40k universe is foundational and epoch-making for the entire setting.
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