Black Library Weekly – W/C 06/08/18

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 there’s been plenty of interesting stuff happening on the BL front, from another new audio drama on Monday to the chance to vote for some classic novels to be reprinted, so let’s jump straight in and take a look.

Monday
For the second week running we’ve seen release of a 40k audio drama from Guy Haley for Digital Monday – in this case Bozgat’s Big Adventure (£3.99 in MP3). That’s now two of the three audios from Prophets of Waaagh! available as individual audios, after The End of Daze last week. I’ve still not listened to either of these, but having gone back and read the first two of Guy’s Red Sunz stories featuring these characters, and listened to a previous audio drama as well, I’m fully engaged and really looking forward to getting stuck in. All three of the stories I’ve consumed so far have been huge fun, and a nice change of pace from the usual sort of 40k stories we tend to see.

Interestingly, I had a quick listen to the sample audio from The End of Daze to get a feel for what it’s going to be like and compare it with The Klaw of Mork, and the ork voices are noticeably different. I did struggle a bit to pick out the differences between some of the ork characters in The Klaw of Mork, but the cockney-isms adopted by the cast grew on me as the story continued. I’d have been happy for these new audios (bear in mind the four year gap between these and the last one) to continue with the same voices, but even from a quick sample I’m confident enough to say that this time around they’re even better. It never fails to impress me how much the standard of BL audios has increased over the last few years!

Midweek
A few interesting bits and pieces came up during the week via the Warhammer Community site and the BL Facebook page – I’ll start with the bigger of them. You might remember last year that BL offered readers the chance to vote on two books – one 40k and one Warhammer – to be reprinted in paperback early this year. Those books ended up being Brothers of the Snake by Dan Abnett and Drachenfels by Jack Yeovil (a pen name for Kim Newman). Well, now it’s time for round two of the Black Library Reader’s Choice – another chance to vote for another two paperback reprints!

It’s definitely worth getting involved with this, so take a look at the Community article and place your votes! In case you really can’t be bothered reading that article, here are the dates you need to know first:

  • The poll closes on the 2nd September, so lots of time to think about your choices.
  • Results will be published on the 5th September, so not long to wait.
  • The two chosen books will be published ‘early next year’.

Here’s a quick rundown of the options, in case you fancy a bit more info about each book. 40k first:

The Death of Antagonis by David Annandale
One of two Space Marine Battles books that David wrote a good few years ago, this provides a rare sighting of the Black Dragons Chapter of Space Marines – a Salamanders successor Chapter. It also features Canoness-Errant Setheno, a character of David’s who pops up every now and then in a few other of his stories.

Cadian Blood by Aaron Dembski-Bowden
The debut Dembski-Bowden novel, this saw the fan-favourite author finding his 40k feet with a book about (unsurprisingly) Cadian Shock Troops battling plague zombies. It’s perhaps not as developed as his later work, but well worth checking out if you haven’t yet.

Valedor by Guy Haley
First published back in 2004 as an Apocalypse novel, this is a suitably epic tale of the Iyanden eldar taking on the combined tyranid forces of Hive Fleets Leviathan and Kraken. There’s lots going on, with the focus being on Prince Yriel but plenty of interesting eldar-related insights in general. Here’s my review for a bit more info.

Storm of Iron by Graham McNeill
It’s a stone cold classic, and a book which many still credit as among the best that Black Library have ever published. There’s no doubting its longevity – this story of cold, brutal Iron Warriors bulldozing their way through the Imperial defences of Hydra Cordatus is as powerful today as it was in 2002. Have a read of my review here for more info.

Gunheads by Steve Parker
Ever wonder what happened to Commissar Yarrick’s personal baneblade after the Second War for Armageddon? Probably not, but that doesn’t mean this story of determined tankers seeking out the relic/tank isn’t awesome. It’s perhaps a surprise inclusion on the list, but a good shout.

Dark Apostle by Anthony Reynolds
The opening chapter of Reynolds’ Word Bearers trilogy, this introduced us all to Jarulek, Marduk and co. as they go about their Chaos-y business. This whole trilogy remains popular, although in my own humble opinion I think Reynolds went on to write better stories after finishing it. Still, it’s another sensible inclusion.

And now for the Warhammer options:

Gotrek & Felix: City of the Damned by David Guymer
Outside of the main ‘nounslayer’ series of Gotrek and Felix novels there are a couple of standalone books, and this one sees Guymer sending the unlikely pair of protagonists to the city of Mordheim…or at least what’s left of it. Probably not my favourite of the G&F novels, but any story featuring this fantastic characters is worth having on the shelf.

Warrior Priest by Darius Hinks
Darius’ first novel for Black Library, this went on to win a Gemmell Award back in 2011. I’m afraid I haven’t read this one, although I do have a copy on the shelf, so I can’t say much about it other than if it’s good enough to win an award like that, it’s got to be pretty good!

Zavant by Gordon Rennie
Another vintage choice from the BL archives, this 2002 novel hasn’t been in print for YEARS. A sort of Warhammer version of Sherlock Holmes, it sees Zavant Konniger, the great sage-detective of Altdorf, investigating mysteries alongside his halfling assistant Vido. Josh Reynolds wrote a couple of short stories featuring these characters later on, but this is where they began.

Neferata by Josh Reynolds
This is another one of these Warhammer novels that I haven’t read, although Josh’s vampire stories tend to be spoken of very highly. It’s quite appropriate considering Neferata’s survival into the Age of Sigmar, so if you fancy learning a little bit about what she was up to in the Old World, this might be a good choice.

The Curse of Khaine by Gav Thorpe
This is an interesting inclusion, given that it’s a middle-series title from the End Times range of books – I’d have expected one of Gav’s Time of Legends novels instead. That being said, there’s lots to enjoy in this book if you’re a fan of the Warhammer elves, with some BIG revelations as the sagas of Tyrion, Teclis, Malekith and co. come to an end. Here’s my review.

Sword of Justice by Chris Wraight
The first of Chris’ two novels featuring Ludwig Schwarzhelm and Kurt Helborg, this is a bona fide Warhammer classic, and a story that’s regularly cited among many fans’ favourites. As with all the other options this would be an excellent choice, although be prepared to immediately go out and hunt down a copy of Sword of Vengeance once you’ve read it!

So there you go – twelve books to choose from, with only two votes. Head over to the Community site and go place your votes!

The second item that popped up during the week was a bit less exciting, but still cool – over on the BL Facebook page there’s the opportunity to win a copy of Chris Wraight’s The Lords of Silence in special edition. Nice! All you need to do is take a look at the excerpt shown on the post and leave a comment with the name of the book it’s from. Given that EVERYBODY else who’s already commented has answered with the same book, it shouldn’t be too hard to figure out the answer…

Lastly, hidden away in a Community post about Warhammer Fest Europe, which takes place in Düsseldorf on the 18th and 19th August, is an interesting snippet of information. It probably won’t come as too much of a surprise to many people, but it now looks to be confirmed that James Swallow has written/is writing a Horus Heresy book about ‘The Doom of the Death Guard’ – seeing as he’s running a seminar on the topic! This appears to tie in nicely with a recent tweet of James’ in which he teased a new Heresy story entitled The Buried Dagger – time will tell whether that’s the title of a novel or something else. I suspect there will be some information on this topic provided by the Community team over that weekend, but I’m sure I’m not the only person wishing they could be in that seminar. It looks like there’s plenty of BL-related entertainment on offer across the weekend, with a couple of BL Q&A sessions, plus a seminar with David Guymer talking about the Iron Hands. If you’re in Düsseldorf that weekend, Warhammer Fest Europe is going to be the place to be!

Weekend
It’s been a weekend of paperback releases, with no fewer than four available to pre-order – a classic 40k novel reprinted with a new cover, a Horus Heresy novel in mass market paperback, and two new omnibus editions. Okay, no brand new stories in there, but still plenty to get stuck into.

First up we’ve got a paperback reprint of Titanicus by Dan Abnett, to coincide with pre-orders for the brand new Adeptus Titanicus game from Games Workshop. £8.99 gets you a rather nice-looking paperback with brand new cover art to replace the original, which is still cool but perhaps a bit outdated in terms of what a Warlord Titan looks like these days. Titanicus is an oldie but a goodie, a huge beast of a book to match its subject matter, and if you haven’t read this before then I reckon now is as good a time as any to pick up a copy.

Next up is James Swallow’s Garro – book 42 in the Horus Heresy series – in mass-market (small) paperback, for a measly £7.99. There’s still some debate as to whether this qualifies as a novel or an anthology, as it contains all of the Garro stories – mostly prose versions of audio dramas – bound up in one volume, with additional text added by Swallow to pull everything together. To be honest, I still haven’t gone read this as I originally listened to all of the Garro audios, but even if it was just the audios in prose then I reckon I’d still be happy to have it on the shelf. With a few extra bits and pieces here and there, I think it sounds like an interesting way of revisiting Garro’s tale, so I’m looking forward to getting stuck in eventually.

Servants of the Machine-God is the first of two paperback anthologies available to pre-order, containing eleven short stories and a novella all featuring the Adeptus Mechanicus and/or Adeptus Titanicus, and is available in ebook (£14.99) and paperback (£8.99, strangely) formats. There’s so much content stuffed into this anthology, if you’re a fan of these factions and/or haven’t yet checked some or all of these stories out then what are you waiting for? Here’s a content’s list:

Lastly, The Realmgate Wars: Volume 1 is the first of two omnibus editions which between them will contain all ten of the Realmgate Wars novels plus a handful of associated stories – the second volume is due out in a couple of weeks. Available as you might expect in ebook (£14.99) and paperback (£15) editions, it’s another book packed full of content, and is just the best place to start if you’ve not yet tackled this series. Here’s what’s included (the last one on the list is a short story, FYI).

Thoughts on the week
It’s always good to get a surprise or two, and the chance to vote for the next pair of Reader’s Choice paperbacks definitely qualifies as a surprise! I guess I’d assumed that last year’s vote was a one-off, as I saw another pair of paperbacks – Blood of Asaheim and Skarsnik – appear as Editor’s Choice titles at BL Live, but there was no mention of this anywhere except at the event. It’s great to see another round of reprints that fans can directly influence, and I’d love to see confirmation from BL as to whether this is something we can expect to see on a semi-regular basis from now on. If the technology and resources are there to do these as print on demand, then why not?!

Thinking about the week’s releases, I’m pleased to see Guy Haley’s ork audio dramas continue to get standalone releases, although it’s a shame that the full Prophets of Waaagh! release doesn’t happen for a few months. Knowing that it’ll be cheaper to wait and buy them later makes it a difficult decision – I’m so tempted to buy them and listen straight away, but I’d rather not pay more than I have to! It’s a good problem to have, at least. As for the glut of paperbacks at the weekend, I’m quite impressed actually. There’s a real range of characters, settings and stories across those four books, and while Titanicus is clearly intended to appeal to people getting excited about Adeptus Titanicus, the two anthologies are both really good – and cost-effective – ways to get hold of a LOAD of stories. Can’t argue with that, really.

With Adeptus Titanicus taking up so much attention in the wider Games Workshop fan base, it’s also likely that the absence of a brand new release at the weekend is absolutely intentional. There’s no point trying to push a new BL novel when SO many fans (not all, for sure – but lots) are hyped up about Titans, so it makes sense to hold off until next week and focus this week on reprints, anthologies etc. That works for me, and means there’s less conflict over what to spend money on! So yeah, overall it’s been a pretty good week I reckon. Now it’s time to get some Titan-based reading done in anticipation of opening up all those Adeptus Titanicus goodies next weekend…

As usual, here’s what else I’ve been posting about this week:

Coming up…
Next week there’s a big ‘un coming – The Lords of Silence by Chris Wraight, available in standard and special edition formats. Everyone wants to see Chris tackle the Death Guard as protagonists, right? Can’t wait for this one. According to White Dwarf, we should also see the release of Soulbound by George Mann, although that one doesn’t have a release date listed on either the BL or GW websites. We’ll see, eh?

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.

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