Hello and welcome to the latest instalment of Black Library Weekly, my regular look at what’s been happening in the world of Black Library. This week has been a little up and down for me, with some great new releases…but some disappointments as well.
Monday
The week started with another Digital Monday story pulled from a previous anthology – David Annandale’s The Keys to Ruin (£2.49 in ebook). This is the fourth and final story from the Legends of the Age of Sigmar: Fyreslayers anthology to get a standalone release, and while it’s an enjoyable story full of Annandale trademarks, it’s less of an obvious introduction to the faction – that might be a good thing or a bad thing depending on what you want from it. Have a read of my review by clicking here; if you’re thinking of picking this up, however, it’s worth looking into other format/release options to find the best value. I’d recommend either Hammerhal & Other Stories (from £4.99) or Legends of the Age of Sigmar: Omnibus 1 (from £9.99) as being much better value than the standalone e-short.
Midweek
Very little on the Black Library front during the midweek period, with little more than the usual Wednesday Warhammer Community post – which this week featured Guy Haley talking about his new Horus Heresy novel Wolfsbane. It’s nice to get a little bit of insight about the process of researching and writing a novel, and Guy is always interesting to listen to – there’s nothing mind-blowing here, but it’s worth checking out.
The only other thing I can think of to mention is a competition (that’s open to UK residents only, I’m afraid) on the Forbidden Planet website to win tickets to Black Library Live next month. If you’ve not yet got a ticket and fancy the opportunity to win a pair, it’s worth having a look. I don’t remember seeing this sort of competition for previous events, and it’s slightly alarming to think that perhaps the event isn’t selling all that well…hopefully that’s not the case, but it’s a worry.
Weekend (including Warhammer Fest)
Three brand new releases this weekend, although I’m a little bit unhappy about one of them (more on that later); it was also Warhammer Fest – I attended on Saturday – so I was hoping for lots of exciting Black Library news and releases…
Let’s quickly run through the releases first, starting with Wolfsbane by Guy Haley – book 49 in the Horus Heresy series. As usual for Horus Heresy titles this is out in hardback (£20), ebook (£9.99) and MP3 audiobook (£29.99) formats first, with two different paperback formats due out later on. I’ve got a review already up for this one, as I picked up a copy at the Weekender in February, so you can click here to check that out. I also have Rapid Fire interviews for all three new releases, so click here or on the banner below to have a read of the Wolfsbane interview.
Next up, again for the Horus Heresy, is Josh Reynolds’ audio drama Blackshields: The Red Fief, available in CD (£12) or MP3 (£9.99) formats. This is the follow up to last year’s Blackshields: The False War, and once again features ex-World Eater Endryd Haar. Once again you can read my Rapid Fire interview about this release by clicking here or on the banner below.
Lastly, there’s Neferata: Mortarch of Blood by David Annandale, which is David’s first Age of Sigmar novel. On the face of it this looks great, but I’m a bit disappointed with Black Library about a couple of things to do with this release. Take a look at the product page for this on the BL website. First problem – nowhere is it clear that this is a small format hardback, the same size as the Nagash: The Undying King Warhammer World-exclusive LE hardback that was available a couple of years ago, and quite considerably smaller than BL hardbacks tend to be. Here’s a size comparison photo:
In itself that’s not an issue whatsoever – it’s actually a really, really lovely edition. The problem is that it costs £40 – the usual LE hardback price – but there’s nothing making it clear that it’s not the same as the other LEs. I bought a copy of this at Warhammer Fest, so I was able to pick it up and have a flick through before making my decision. Anyone ordering online is going to receive it and have a bit of a surprise – which I just don’t think is acceptable. All it would have taken was a sentence on the product page explaining that this is small format, or a comparison photo. Without that, it feels like BL are deliberately mis-selling this. Not everyone is going to be happy to pay £40 for a MUCH smaller (and quite clearly shorter) novel than what they’re being led to expect. I don’t like that at all.
My second problem with this is actually what’s really annoying me, and that’s the fact that it’s currently only available in this format. At present the BL website doesn’t have a listing for the standard hardback or ebook versions, and I’ve not seen any information on the website, Facebook or the Warhammer Community site explaining why that’s the case or when the non-limited versions might be coming out. Or even if there will actually be other versions! I simply don’t understand what they’re doing here. Is BL returning to the bad old days of catering to collectors first and making everyone else wait? I’ll put my hands up – I’m a sucker for a limited edition, and I can (just about) afford to buy it. But what about everyone else who for whatever reason doesn’t want to or can’t buy the LE? It feels like a smack in the face for those fans, in my opinion.
Ultimately, BL can choose to release books however they want. What needs to happen, however, is simple, basic communication which lets fans know what’s happening and demonstrates that different fans’ needs are being catered to. When the Primarchs series, for example, was first announced it was clearly set out that these would be released in LE hardbacks first, with the standard editions coming three months or so later. That’s fine, because everyone knows what to expect – and that message is regularly reinforced. ALL other LE editions that have been released in the last couple of years, however, have seen both LE and standard formats released at the same time. Look ahead to August on the BL website and Chris Wraight’s The Lords of Silence is listed with both formats. So what’s going on with Neferata?
This is the sort of basic communication mistake that shouldn’t ever happen. It’s the sort of thing that winds me up no end, and I’m not even directly affected – I can only imagine how frustrating it must be for all the rest of the Age of Sigmar fans out there who really want to read this book but can’t justify spending £40 on it. It’s very disappointing, to be honest. I’d like to see a much clearer message communicated in future – and I hope this doesn’t affect the sales or reception of the book, which promises to be great. As I mentioned before, I’ve got a Rapid Fire interview for this one as well, which you can check out by clicking here or on the banner below.
I’d love to say that it’s rant over now…but actually I’m going to continue in a similar theme and talk a little about Warhammer Fest, which from a Black Library perspective was disappointing this year. I’ll make it clear right away – I’m writing this Sunday morning, having only attended the Saturday instalment of Warhammer Fest. My comments on the event are entirely subjective, and based on yesterday and how I felt it went. I’m not going to talk much about the rest of the event, as I spent most of the day enjoying the Forge World seminars and studio area – which was all great…but not relevant to Track of Words.
I normally focus on Black Library when I attend GW events, but I went into Warhammer Fest knowing that there would be much more GW and FW content, and that’s fine. I made a beeline for the BL sales stand once I’d arrived, assuming that the week’s new releases (i.e. Wolfsbane, The Red Fief and Neferata) would all be available, and hoping to see a few advance titles – maybe War of Secrets or Martyrs of Elysia, for example. The sales stand was pretty massive, with piles and piles of books, including those new releases…but nothing else. I can’t fault the enthusiasm and positivity of the BL staff (as usual), despite the technical frustrations they were having with one of the tills, but I was really quite disappointed at the absence of any advance titles.
Does that sound silly? I don’t know…but I’ve said it before and it’s worth repeating – when fans pay to attend an event, it’s such a simple thing to reward them by providing the opportunity to buy things in advance. For me it was disappointing to not see anything like that. I did pick up Neferata so that I could have a good look at it straight away – but I was tempted to just order it online and have it delivered. Here’s the thing, though – I was ready to spend WAY more money than that, and probably buy books in hardback that I would normally wait to pick up in paperback…just because I really, really enjoy the excitement of getting hold of things early, and tend to get swept up in all of that. Instead, I bought one book and left. That just feels like a shame, to me.
Sadly, that’s not the only thing that struck me about BL’s involvement in Warhammer Fest. I was in the queue waiting to pay for my book, listening to people around me ask for titles which weren’t there…despite being shown on the massive stand-up poster we were all looking at. The poster displayed a load of LE hardbacks that should have been there, but out of the ten books I think only six of them were available. Once again, not the fault (in any way) of the BL staff manning the stand and frantically looking for copies…but if you’re going to send people to an event to sell books then you really, really need to make sure the signage is accurate – if you’re going to advertise a book, make sure you have it in stock! I felt bad for the staff, because it’s not an easy conversation to have.
To be honest, I think there were two things at play. Firstly, it’s an event run by Games Workshop, not Black Library – if I think back to the BL Weekender last year, and how beautifully organised it was, this was just a world apart. I suspect there just wasn’t the same level of rigour applied to organising BL’s involvement in this…which is a shame, but understandable. Secondly, I can only assume that the absence of advance copies was down to Black Library Live taking place next month – I don’t believe for a minute that there aren’t copies of June’s new releases already printed and ready…they’ll just be held back. I do understand the thinking behind that – BL Live is BL’s own event, and they want to offer value for fans attending – but I don’t agree with it. I think it’s a poor showing to prioritise one event over another, and for anyone attending WH Fest but not BL Live it’s not going to feel great, is it?
Overall that just feels symptomatic of Black Library’s involvement in the event as a whole. I’ll be honest here, and say that I was disappointed enough at that point, early in the day, to decide that I’d spend the rest of the day focusing on things I knew I’d enjoy – so I spent it cooing over the lovely new Adeptus Titanicus, Blood Bowl and Necromunda models instead of Black Library. A friend of mine attended the seminar entitled The Horus Heresy enters the Final Stages and reported back that there was nothing particularly new or exciting discussed, which is a shame. I did suspect that there wouldn’t be much more BL could reveal than what had already been discussed at the Weekender in February.
I should point out that none of these criticisms should apply to the Black Library authors who took time out of their calendars to attend, to sign books and to chat with fans. I’m not particularly fussed for getting books signed so I didn’t queue up for that, but I did see plenty of people bringing books along and chatting to Guy, Nick, Phil and Robbie. A quick shoutout to Robbie as well for taking a few minutes to chat when we bumped into each other towards the end of the day! It must be hard work attending these events, but Robbie was full of cheer and very enthusiastic as always!
There was, at least, one piece of Black Library-related news to come out of the day that I’m genuinely excited about. At the BL Weekender in November it was revealed that Gotrek Gurnisson would return to Age of Sigmar in audio form, and earlier this year the title and cover for that audio was confirmed – Realmslayer by David Guymer. It had been hinted that there was going to be an amazing name cast to voice Gotrek, and some friends and I joked that it would be brilliant if they got Brian Blessed to do it. What do you know…it turns out they have! That was revealed during the main GW new releases seminar (which I couldn’t get a ticket to, sadly), but it’s also included in the Warhammer Community roundup – so it’s official! Brian Blessed as Gotrek. Well I never…
Thoughts on the week
I’ve already rambled and ranted WAY more than I usually do, so I think I’ll keep this section short. I hope that anyone who regularly reads Track of Words knows that I always look for positives, and don’t enjoy complaining…but this week just hasn’t felt quite right for me. That’s a real shame, but I hope that BL address some of these issues – ESPECIALLY the lack of communication around Neferata – and make a renewed commitment to clarity and transparency. It feels like Games Workshop overall are doing a better job than ever before on that front, so I’d hate to see Black Library fall behind.
Thinking about the rest of the week, and the releases, when you put those complaints aside it’s actually been pretty good. I mean, any week which sees three brand new titles released at the weekend should, fundamentally, be a good week. I hope Wolfsbane is well received, as I thoroughly enjoyed it – to me, Guy Haley is one of the most consistent and dependable BL authors, and I always trust that I’m going to enjoy his writing. Likewise with Josh Reynolds – I’ve listened to The Red Fief, and it’s excellent – expect a review reasonably soon.
I’m a bit drained from all the grumbling, so I’m going to leave it there. Let me know in the comments, or on social media, if you’ve got any thoughts – in agreement or disagreement, either is fine – about what I’ve talked about here.
As always, here’s a quick rundown of what else I’ve been posting this week:
– Hammerhal by Josh Reynolds.
– QUICK REVIEW: The Keys to Ruin by David Annandale.
– QUICK REVIEW: The Strange Demise of Titus Endor by Dan Abnett.
– RAPID FIRE: Guy Haley Talks Wolfsbane.
– RAPID FIRE: Josh Reynolds Talks Blackshields: The Red Fief.
– RAPID FIRE: David Annandale Talks Neferata: Mortarch of Blood.
Coming up…
It looks like next weekend we’ll see the release of the next Warhammer Chronicles omnibus – War of Vengeance.
As always, if you’ve got any thoughts or comments on the week’s news and releases please do get in touch via the comments section below or on Facebook or Twitter.
I agree re: lack of the new at Fest and limited edition only release; yes, The Primarchs three months heads up is more helpful, but still I think it would be better overall to offer all formats at same time, otherwise it isn’t very nice for people with more limited budgets – or perhaps better willpower!
I feel it’s similar with digital only releases; okay, I accept you can’t release physical copies of short stories one at a time, but there are still tons of eshorts going back 6 years that still haven’t been made available to people who like physical books. It wouldn’t be that hard to collect them in an anthology at the end of each year!
Hopefully BL Live next month will be better. I’m not surprised if tickets not selling well yet, as there’s barely any info about it; they should at least announce the start/finish times, as anyone needing public transport to get there is going to struggle to be able to plan their attendance beforehand.
Let’s hope so! That’s a good point about the schedule – hopefully that will be confirmed soon, to help with travel plans.
Hi Michael. Understand your comments. I was definately hoping for a bit more on the advance release front. I attended both Black Library Seminars and picked up 2 things I think I didn’t know before . Robbie McNiven doing a new AOS book and Phil Kelly doing a new Space Marine book. Other than that it was still good to listen to the guys but a little bit of a let down on the news front.
I also attended the forge world seminar which I felt was very poor. They basically showed slides for 10 minutes then opened it to questions. When I compare this to seeing Dan and Chris at the weekender waxing lyrical about Terra, there’s just no comparison in value for me.
One bonus surprise was that I attended the seminar with two of the GW background writers , one of whom I think was Nick Horth of Black Library as well. This was a brilliant session with the guys really talking in an engaging manner about their process and how this all links with the miniatures , the rules and Black Library .
Just checked – background writers were Nick Horth and Alex Tuxford . Probably the highlight of my day.
Last comment 😁. Alex Tuxford said that he’d love to see more Drukhari fiction in Black Library and mentioned an idea for a ” hard boiled crime novel set in Commarragh ” …. it was just question and answer stuff but doesn’t that sound awesome !
Great comments David, thanks for the info! That does sound great – maybe Alex will get to write that story himself 🙂