Gaunt's Ghosts: The Founding books in order

Q: "How many books are in the Gaunt's Ghosts: The Founding series?"

"There are 31 books in the Gaunt's Ghosts: The Founding series, published between 1999 and 2021."

Q: "What is the first book in the Gaunt's Ghosts: The Founding series?"

"The first book in the Gaunt's Ghosts: The Founding series is Sabbat War, published in 2021."

Q: "What is the difference between The Founding, The Saint, The Lost, and The Victory collections?"

"These are not separate series but different sub-groupings of the same overall Gaunt's Ghosts novel sequence. The Founding covers the earliest novels (First and Only, Ghostmaker, Necropolis), The Saint covers the middle period, The Lost covers the traitor-hunting arc, and The Victory covers the later novels. Each sub-collection was designed as an entry point, but reading all four in order gives the complete story. The Founding collection shown here includes all titles across the full sequence."

Reading order

#	Title	Published	Author	Buy on Amazon
1	Sabbat War	2021	Dan Abnett	N/A
2	First and Only	1999	Dan Abnett	Buy
3	The Founding	2007	Dan Abnett	N/A
4	Ghostmaker	2000	Dan Abnett	Buy
5	Necropolis	2000	Dan Abnett	Buy
6	The Saint	2001	Dan Abnett	N/A
7	Apostle’s Creed	2011	Dan Abnett	Buy
8	The Guns of Tanith	2002	Dan Abnett	N/A
9	Plata Pura	2002	Dan Abnett	N/A
10	In Remembrance	2013	Dan Abnett	Buy
11	Sabbat Martyr	2003	Dan Abnett	N/A
12	Vermilion Level	2013	Dan Abnett	Buy
13	The Lost	2004	Dan Abnett	N/A
14	Sabbat Crusade	2014	Dan Abnett	Buy
15	His Last Command	2005	Dan Abnett	N/A
16	The Armour of Contempt	2006	Dan Abnett	N/A
17	Son of Sek	2018	Dan Abnett	Buy
18	Only in Death	2007	Dan Abnett	N/A
19	You Never Know	2019	Dan Abnett	Buy
20	The Iron Star	2008	Dan Abnett	N/A
21	Blood Pact	2009	Dan Abnett	N/A
22	Salvation’s Reach	2011	Dan Abnett	N/A
23	The Warmaster	2018	Dan Abnett	N/A
24	Anarch	2019	Dan Abnett	Buy
25	The Vincula Insurgency	2021	Dan Abnett	Buy
26	The Vincula Insurgency: Ghost Dossier 1	2021	Dan Abnett	N/A
27	Sabbat Worlds	2010	Dan Abnett	Buy
28	The Headstone and the Hammerstone Kings	2011	Dan Abnett	Buy
29	The Blood Bound	2018	Dan Abnett	Buy
30	Tempest	2019	Dan Abnett	Buy
31	The Inheritor King	2019	Dan Abnett	Buy

Gaunt’s Ghosts is Dan Abnett’s flagship Warhammer 40,000 series, following Colonel-Commissar Ibram Gaunt and the Tanith First and Only, a light infantry regiment from a world destroyed before they could return to it. The series began in 1999 with First and Only and has continued across more than twenty novels and numerous short stories, making it one of the longest-running series in the Black Library catalogue.

The Tanith First are exceptional scouts and fighters, bonded by the loss of their homeworld Tanith and their loyalty to Gaunt, who saved them by getting as many off-planet as possible before Tanith was destroyed by Chaos forces. The series follows their campaigns across the Sabbat Worlds, a region of space being reclaimed from Chaos through a massive Imperial Crusade. Each novel centres on a different campaign or planet, with an ongoing cast of soldiers whose fates shift across the series.

The Founding sub-collection covers the opening novels through the early Sabbat Worlds campaigns, establishing Gaunt, his senior officers like Major Rawne and Colour Sergeant Varl, and the culture of the regiment. Abnett grounds the military science fiction in human character work, making losses feel significant and victories hard-won. Gaunt’s Ghosts is widely considered an essential starting point for Warhammer 40,000 fiction.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many books are in the Gaunt's Ghosts: The Founding series?

There are 31 books in the Gaunt’s Ghosts: The Founding series, published between 1999 and 2021.

What is the first book in the Gaunt's Ghosts: The Founding series?

The first book in the Gaunt’s Ghosts: The Founding series is Sabbat War, published in 2021.

What is the difference between The Founding, The Saint, The Lost, and The Victory collections?

These are not separate series but different sub-groupings of the same overall Gaunt’s Ghosts novel sequence. The Founding covers the earliest novels (First and Only, Ghostmaker, Necropolis), The Saint covers the middle period, The Lost covers the traitor-hunting arc, and The Victory covers the later novels. Each sub-collection was designed as an entry point, but reading all four in order gives the complete story. The Founding collection shown here includes all titles across the full sequence.

Reading order#

Frequently Asked Questions

Reading order