Black Library Weekly – W/C 03/09/18

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. It’s been a pretty interesting week on the Black Library front, with plenty of releases – albeit nothing brand new – and some really interesting news, including lots of new additions to the roster of titles coming soon. Let’s have a look at what’s been going on (It’s quite a long article this week…).

Monday
Carrying on from last Monday, this week’s Digital Monday short story was the prose version of The Bridge of Seven Sorrows by Josh Reynolds (£2.39 in ebook), which completes the set of four Age of Sigmar audio dramas by Josh (making up The Hunt for Nagash) that are now available as standalone e-shorts. That just leaves David Guymer’s four audios (Knights of Vengeance) still needing the individual treatment, out of the eight instalments which are also bundled up into the Realmgate Wars book Mortarch of Night. There’s always something to enjoy in Josh’s Age of Sigmar writing, and this story sees the Bull-Hearts finally making contact with Nagash himself, so do check it out if you’ve been following the overall arc. As before, however, from a purely financial perspective you’d be better off picking up the £6.99 ebook of Mortarch of Night if you want all of the stories.

Midweek
I came across two interesting items during the week, beginning with an author signing event for CL Werner popping up on the Black Library Facebook page. If you live in Texas and make it down to the Warhammer Citadel (which sounds awesome) on the 27th or 28th October then you’ll be able to meet Clint as part of something called the ‘New Hobbyist Expo’, and get hold of copies of his new book. The reason this is particularly interesting whether you’re in Texas or not is that the new book is called Sacrosanct, and does in fact appear to be an anthology similar to Hammerhal & Other Stories – so I’m assuming Clint’s Sacrosanct will be a novella, which will sit alongside a range of other short stories and/or excerpts.

I was really impressed with Hammerhal as a novella and the anthology overall as a great place for new readers to start getting into Age of Sigmar, and at £4.99 it’s an absolute bargain. Hopefully Sacrosanct will be the same price and offer the same standard of stories, and I’m assuming it’s going to act as a good way for all of us (new reader or otherwise) to learn a bit more about the Sacrosanct Chambers of Stormcast Eternals. Personally I live a LONG way from Texas so won’t be able to make it to the event, but I’m looking forward to getting my hands on a copy of the new book.

Next up, the usual Wednesday post on the Warhammer Community site provided a welcome reminder that a month or so back we all had the chance to vote for the next Reader’s Choice books, two classic titles which will be re-released in paperback at some point in the future. The results are in, and the two winners are Storm of Iron by Graham McNeill and Gotrek & Felix: City of the Damned by David Guymer. Not what I voted for, but also not really a surprise – certainly I think I wasn’t along in expecting Storm of Iron to be the 40k choice. To be fair, I voted for Guy Haley’s Valedor simply because it was the only option that I don’t have a physical copy of, and I can’t argue with the sense of making Storm of Iron available in paperback once again.

It’s an absolute classic, and fully deserves that status, so it’s only right that new readers get the chance to pick up physical copies of it. I have a feeling there will be a good few more seasoned readers who will jump at the chance, as well! As for City of the Damned, if I’m honest it’s not one of my favourite Gotrek & Felix books, or arguably even my favourite of them written by David Guymer, but there’s no arguing with the enduring popularity of the series as a whole. I voted for Zavant by Gordon Rennie because why wouldn’t you want to read detective stories in the Warhammer World – but maybe I’ll just have to suck it up and find a copy on eBay! Still, you can’t go wrong with a bit of Gotrek & Felix, and if you remember the game Mordheim you’ll enjoy City of the Damned for the setting alone.

Lastly, just a quick note to say that if you’re in Germany – or close enough to be able to find your way to Essen, it looks like BL are running a stand at Spiel, which for those not in the know is an ‘International Game Day’ running from October 25th to 28th. I’ve never been myself, but it looks like a fun games expo-style event and it’s nice to see BL having a presence there. If you’re reading this and you do make it to Spiel, let me know how you get on and whether there’s anything exciting available on the BL stand!

Weekend
Despite there not being any brand new titles (i.e. nothing that hasn’t been seen before in one format or another), the weekend has actually been pretty darn busy with four releases – two omnibuses, one audiobook and one paperback edition – plus an absolute load of newly-announced titles for November and December.

After the release last week of the new Ciaphas Cain novel – Choose Your Enemies – it’s great to see a load more Cain releases this weekend, bringing existing stories back out in new formats. First of all there’s Ciaphas Cain: For the Emperor, the first of Mitchell’s Cain novels, in audiobook (£29.99 in MP3), which as far as I’m aware is the first time one of these books has been available as an audio (not including the two specific audio dramas). It’s narrated by Stephen Perring, and you can hear from the extract available on the BL site – or the video above (via the BL Facebook page) – that he’s done a grand job of capturing the characteristic blend of pomposity and slight self-deprecation of the character. Very tempting to pick that up and revisit this one.

There’s also Ciaphas Cain: Saviour of the Imperium by Sandy Mitchell, which is the third omnibus of Cain stories – available in ebook (£9.99) or paperback (£15) and containing three novels plus a novella. That’s The Emperor’s Finest, The Last Ditch, The Greater Good and Old Soldiers Never Die. All of these omnibuses (including Defender of the Imperium and Hero of the Imperium) are great value, but if you want to pick up the whole lot there’s also a paperback bundle which is RIDICULOUS value. Snappily titled the Ciaphas Cain Omnibus Collection this just adds all three into your basket, but at a total price of £30 instead of the full combined price of £40.98. Bargain. If you don’t already own the Cain novels, what are you waiting for?

Sticking with 40k, we’ve also got the paperback edition of Carcharadons: Outer Dark by Robbie MacNiven, six months after the hardback was released. The ebook is still available for the usual £9.99, but if you’ve been waiting to get hold of a physical edition then now’s the time to pick up the paperback for a decent £8.99. That’s what I’ll be doing – I really enjoyed Red Tithe, and I’ve been looking forward to picking up the sequel. If you fancy a bit more info, have a look at the Rapid Fire interview I did with Robbie by clicking here or on the banner below.

Last but very much not least in the weekend’s releases is Masters of Stone and Steel by Nick Kyme and Gav Thorpe, the latest Warhammer Chronicles omnibus. Available in ebook (£14.99) or paperback (£15) editions, this collects together four novels and two short stories from Nick and Gav, and while this isn’t a series as such – they’re all standalone stories – it really does look like a good way to delve into the background of the Warhammer dwarfs. Have a read of my latest Rapid Fire interview with both of the authors by clicking here or on the banner below.

So that’s all of the weekend’s releases – plenty to get stuck into. Saturday also saw a bunch of new titles added to the Coming Soon section of the BL website, not just December’s releases but also a few new additions to the tally for November too. At the time of writing these releases are all bundled into the November page on the BL site, but if you check out the GW site you can see which ones are actually due in December. Let’s take a look at the November additions first:Realmslayer by David Guymer
For audio fans, this is going to be a BIG one. Not just because it’s a four-part audio story (running time TBC but I’m expecting four hours or more), and not even because it’s the return of a much-loved character in Gotrek Gurnisson. At the 2017 Black Library Weekender it was hinted that there was going to be some exciting casting, and I think Brian Blessed definitely counts on that front! I simply cannot wait for this – it’s going to be epic.

Hallowed Knights: Black Pyramid by Josh Reynolds
Josh’s exploration of the Mortal Realms continues with another instalment of his excellent Hallowed Knights series, which looks to follow on from Plague Garden but also pick up the thread of his audio drama series The Hunt for Nagash (included in Mortarch of Night). It sounds great fun, and should be another really interesting Age of Sigmar novel.

Rise of the Ynnari: Wild Rider by Gav Thorpe
I’m currently reading book one of this series, and I can confidently say it’s another excellent eldar/aeldari story from Gav, so it’s great to see book two on the horizon. Bringing in the Saim-Hann eldar, and the necrons as antagonists, this promises to be another great book and another opportunity to glean some fascinating insight from the absolute expert in eldar. Can’t wait.

Those three titles join The Beast Arises: Volume 2 omnibus, the Gaunt’s Ghosts: The Victory Part One omnibus, and Josh Reynolds’ Eight Lamentations: War-Claw audio drama, suggesting that November is going to be a pretty good month. Not to mention Blacktalon: First Mark by Andy Clark, which is now listed for November, not October as had previously been the case.

On to December’s titles, with a LOAD of Horus Heresy content plus no fewer than four omnibuses from three settings:

Titandeath by Guy Haley
Book 53 (!) of the main-range Heresy series, this is the book all of the Titan fans have been waiting for. We’ve seen glimpses of and references to Beta Garmon, but here we should get a full-on exploration of this huge warzone, and it promises to be explosive! It’s also, as far as I can tell, the penultimate main-range novel (before James Swallow’s The Buried Dagger) before the Siege of Terra begins!Hubris of Monarchia by Andy Smillie
A Horus Heresy audio drama, this looks to be set pre-Calth, as an Ultramarines captain aims to finish off his current campaign before he joins the muster at Calth. Andy Smillie tends to do really good work with shorter stories and audio dramas, so while I don’t think we’ve seen much (if any) of the Ultramarines from him before, this could be really quite interesting.

Visions of Heresy
The third edition (if you count the original Collected Visions) of this essential companion piece to the Horus Heresy series, as I understand it this is updated to cover everything up to the Siege of Terra. It’s been worked on by Guy Haley, who’s not just a Heresy author but an experienced journalist and non-fiction writer, so I’ve got every confidence it’s going to be great. Will there be another one by the time the Siege has finished? I don’t know…but yeah, probably.The Horus Heresy Audio Collection: Volume 1
This is a slightly odd one, but great if you’ve not kept up with the Heresy audio dramas. It collects together four full-length (1 hour-ish) and three shorter audio dramas into one great value box set, which by my very rough maths saves you something in the region of £20. There’s some great stories in there – here’s the list:

Death on the Pitch by various authors
It’s back to the gridiron with a Blood Bowl anthology which includes all twelve of the short stories released over the last couple of years, finally available in physical format! I’ve been looking forward to this for ages, even though I’ve read them all in digital form already. There was maybe one out of the twelve that I didn’t particularly enjoy, but otherwise these are all ridiculous but hugely entertaining stories that are well worth reading. Here’s the contents list, including links to my review:

Warhammer Chronicles: The Tyrion & Teclis Omnibus by William King
The latest Warhammer Chronicles omnibus to dig back into the stories of the Old World, this includes all three of William King’s High Elves novels – Blood of Aenarion, Sword of Caledor and Bane of Malekith. It would be interesting to read these and then quickly move onto Gav Thorpe’s End Times novel The Curse of Khaine to see how this overall arc ended. They’re certainly worth investigating if you’re a fan of Warhammer elves, and especially if you’re read Gav’s The Sundering trilogy.

The Beast Arises: Volume 3 by David Annandale, David Guymer, Guy Haley and Rob Sanders
The third and final omnibus for The Beast Arises, this contains books nine to twelve of the series. That’s Watchers in Death by David Annandale, The Last Son of Dorn by David Guymer, Shadow of Ullanor by Rob Sanders, and The Beheading by Guy Haley. Between these three omnibuses you’ve got the whole saga, and twelve books for around £45 isn’t bad value at all.

The Uriel Ventris Chronicles: Volume One by Graham McNeill
Graham McNeill’s Ultramarines series – now apparently known as The Uriel Ventris Chronicles – is something of an evergreen for a lot of fans, and certainly I remember really enjoying them all. It’s great to see them coming back in print, and McNeill has been dropping a few hints of late that maybe we might see Ventris and/or Honsou making a post-Dark Imperium return. Certainly Ventris popped up very briefly in Guy Haley’s Dark Imperium, so we know he’s still kicking around!

That’s the lot for December. I don’t know about you, but I’m going to be picking up LOTS of those titles, and I’m very much looking forward to getting stuck in. One more thing to point out, however, which is that for some reason the French-language editions of the Warhammer Chronicles omnibuses seem to be one ahead of the English-language, which means we can get a sneak peek at what’s coming next. The latest French omnibus is the simply entitled Orion by Darius Hinks, which I assume contains The Vaults of Winter, Tears of Isha and The Council of Beasts. I’ve not read any of those, so I suspect that omnibus will be on my shopping list come January.

Thoughts on the week
Plenty of interesting goings on this week, eh? I don’t think I’ve got a whole lot to add to what I’ve already said, but suffice to say the upcoming titles confirmed for November and December demonstrate that Black Library’s pipeline is showing no signs of slowing down! In fact, this week in general tells me that BL have still got a lot up their sleeves. Let’s take a quick look at that idea…

Firstly, it’s interesting to note that Josh’s The Hunt for Nagash audios have been getting the standalone prose treatment in the run up to Black Pyramid being announced – not a coincidence, I don’t suppose, given that Tarsus Bull-Heart is the clear link between the two. The second set of Age of Sigmar audio dramas, David Guymer’s Knights of Vengeance, introduced us to the character of Hamilcar Bear-Eater, who we know is getting his own novel sometime soon…which suggests that BL might release those as standalone e-shorts in the run-up to that novel coming out. It’s almost like there’s a plan here, right?!

Next, I was a bit surprised to see Sacrosanct by CL Werner as a second ‘getting started’ anthology, but actually it does make sense to release these quite regularly. And if Age of Sigmar’s getting a second one, chances are 40k will do too – so the novellas in those could possibly be linked to all the talk of novellas in the Weekender schedule. Interesting. There’s not been anything confirmed about those novellas yet, so I think we should keep an eye out for some additional information over the next month or two.

Speaking of things without confirmation…you’ll note that Aaron Dembski-Bowden’s Spear of the Emperor isn’t among the list of November or December releases. Not yet, at least. I think there’s a decent chance that BL will want to release it before Christmas – for obvious reasons – so I wouldn’t be surprised to see that drop as a bit of a surprise release at some point maybe a week or two after the Weekender. I’m also expecting some information in the next few weeks about “2019’s Black Library Celebration” as mentioned in the Community article about the Reader’s Choice paperbacks. This year we got The Magos as part of that, so there’s the possibility that Spear of the Emperor might get wrapped up in the 2019 version. Time will tell, eh?

Oh, and I haven’t even mentioned Warhammer Horror yet, have I? I guess what I’m saying is that if this week shows us anything, it’s that there’s lots of great stuff to look forward to from Black Library, not just the Siege of Terra. My wallet perhaps isn’t entirely happy about that, but nevertheless I can’t wait to find out what’s coming…!

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

Coming up…
We should be getting two very cool looking titles next week, in the shame of audio drama Taker of Heads by Ian St. Martin, and Josh Reynolds’ latest novel Shadespire: The Mirrored City. I’m looking forward to both of those, and you should keep an eye on Track of Words for the usual Rapid Fire interviews coming up.

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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