Gaunt's Ghosts

Gaunt's Ghosts

Covers for the three omnibus collections
Author	Dan Abnett
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Genre	Science fiction
Publisher	Games Workshop
Published	October 2003 – October 2011
Media type	Print
No. of books	15

Gaunt's Ghosts is a series of novels written by Dan Abnett. It is a military science fiction series set in the Warhammer 40,000 universe.

The series spans 15 novels which document the efforts of the Tanith First-And-Only, a highly skilled yet unappreciated light infantry regiment of the Imperial Guard, during the Sabbat Worlds Crusade. The protagonist is Colonel-Commissar Ibram Gaunt, one of the few political commissars of the Imperium to be officially awarded command of a regiment.

Although Gaunt is the primary character, the perspective from which the novels are told shifts regularly to encompass a wider view of events – it is usually told from the Imperial point of view, though the perspective is occasionally seen through the eyes of antagonists. The series alludes to other series by Dan Abnett, such as Eisenhorn and Ravenor, and has resulted in three spin-off works.

The series began as a continuing set of loosely connected short stories in the Black Library magazine Inferno! (issues 4, 8, and 30). The next short piece, entitled "Vermilion Level", was written out to novel length as First and Only and published as the Black Library's first original novel (the book line up until that point consisting of reprints of novels from the pre-Black Library days and anthologies of short fiction taken from Inferno! magazine). The original short pieces subsequently appeared as flashback-chapters in Ghostmaker, the second book.

There are also ancillary novels devoted to minor characters in the main series and a mock "historical book" about the war in which the books take place, as well as merchandise such as badges, T-shirts, and special editions of the books themselves.

The novels fall into a series of four-story arcs, of which three have been completed while publication of the last is still ongoing.

After November 2002, the first five novels (from First and Only to The Guns of Tanith) were reprinted with new cover art by Adrian Smith; Smith has since drawn every cover illustration to date, with the exception of The Iron Star which used a stock image of the Tanith regimental badge. Previously, cover artwork had been created by a variety of artists.