I just finished reading Brothers of the Snake by Dan Abnett and wanted to lay down my thoughts on the book. This is my first time reading a book from the 40K universe and I had heard Dan Abnett was the most favoured author by readers so this stand-alone story by him seemed like a good place to start.
As George once pointed out in another topic, a handful of Space Marines manage to butcher wave after wave of Dark Eldar and Orcs throughout the story. However, the concept of someone being a one man army isn't a rare one, so I got over this issue rather easily and continued to enjoy the book. The Dark Eldar seem very mysterious and badass during the story, it made me want to collect a DE army so bad but I keep remembering how awful their units look.
The book gave me some great insight into the Space Marines and some of their units. As ugly as Dreadnoughts are, it makes me look at them slightly differently when I know they are old veterans from the Chapter who are encased in an armoured body to continue doing battle.
I think next I'll check out the Fire Warrior book and then start reading the Horus Heresy series.