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 the week after the Black Library Weekender so I’ve been trying to get myself back to normality, while there’s been some great stuff happening in terms of BL-related news and releases. Let’s have a look at what’s been going on.
Monday
This week we got the last of the four promised ‘commuter audios’, with the 20-ish minute Hallowed Knights: The Denied by Josh Reynolds (£3.99 in MP3). It’s quite unlike the rest of the Hallowed Knights stories, being very much an odd-couple tale with a single, rather grumpy Stormcast paired up with a slippery, sly aelven corsair…plus added daemons. It’s great fun, and you sense that it was as entertaining for Josh to write as it is for us to listen to. Have a read of my review here.
Midweek
Somewhat out of the blue, Wednesday’s BL-related Warhammer Community post focused on some rather exciting news – confirmation that not only will the upcoming Warhammer Adventures books (for younger readers) get audiobook releases as well, but that Black Library have recruited some big names as narrators. Cavan Scott’s Warped Galaxies series, beginning with Attack of the Necron, is going to be voiced by David Tennant, while Tom Huddleston’s Realm Quest series will be narrated by Billie Piper, starting with City of Lifestone.
That’s pretty big news, coming hot on the heels of not just Brian Blessed in Realmslayer, but also confirmation that Catherine Tate is going to be playing Inquisitor Greyfax in Gav Thorpe’s upcoming Our Martyred Lady. If you fancy getting a sneak peek of what the first two Warhammer Adventures audiobooks are going to be like, you can listen to short excerpts from both of them. It’s sort of strange to hear Warhammer stories narrated by someone other than the usual set of gravelly-voiced actors who do the main range, but I think it’s going to work really well as yet another way to encourage younger readers to check these out. I really can’t wait for them!
It’s very cool to see Black Library recruiting big names to contribute to the various audio releases, and I hope this is just the start of an exciting new trend! I think it goes beyond just having ‘celebrities’ involved, though. It feels to me as though BL are really pushing their audio productions, going for bigger and longer stories, moving away from narration more and more, putting out a wider range of audio stories…it all feels like there’s a lot of resources being pumped into them, and in return they’re getting a lot of interest from both the fans but also the wider industry. Even just a few years ago, would actors like Brian, Catherine, David or Billie have been interested in working on these productions? Would BL have been able to encourage or even afford them? It’s exciting times, and I can’t wait to see what happens next!
Continuing the audio theme, the same Community post included the news that there’s currently a Humble Audiobook Bundle entitled Voices from the Worlds of Warhammer. If you’ve not come across Humble Bundles before, they’re digital ‘pay what you can’ bundles – variously ebooks, audiobooks, games etc. – for charitable purposes, where the more you pay the more you get. In this case you can pick up a whole host of BL audio titles from as little as $1 (about 75p) – the first level gives you a full-length audiobook plus an audio sampler and five audio dramas of various lengths, while if you pay more than $15 (£11.50 ish) you’ll get a total of three full audio books, the sampler, and 21 audio dramas. Even if you’ve got quite a lot of these, it’s an incredibly good value of picking up a few more audios when you consider a single audiobook is usually £29.99 RRP! It’s only available for a short time, however, so if you’re interested make sure you pick it up quickly!
Lastly in this section, on Wednesday I posted my roundup of the Black Library Weekender, in which I talk about my experience with the event overall, and pick out some highlights of what went on. I had an absolute blast and enjoyed every minute of the weekend, and if you’ve ever fancied coming to one of the Weekenders but haven’t been sure of what to expect, or whether you’d like it, please do take a look at that article. If you were at the Weekender as well, I’d love to hear how you got on too!
Weekend
As if all that audio fun wasn’t enough, it was a busy Saturday with three brand new releases and two slightly delayed audiobook editions, as well as confirmation of all of the exciting new books and audios that are going to be coming our way in February. I’ll take a look at the weekend’s pre-orders first, before moving on to February’s releases.
For anyone who’s a gamer as well as a BL fan, the weekend has probably been dominated by the release of the new Warhammer Quest: Blackstone Fortress boxed game, which looks AMAZING! To coincide with the game, Black Library have released a novel of the same name, Blackstone Fortress by Darius Hinks, which is available in hardback (£18), ebook (£9.99) and special edition hardback (£40) formats. It promises to be a fun story, complete with Rogue Traders, xenos adventurers and even a Man of Iron (!), and as usual the special edition hardback is a real thing of beauty. Unusually, there’s a two week pre-order period for this book, as per the game, so we won’t be able to read it for a while, but there’s an extract available on the BL site if you fancy a taste of what to expect.
In Age of Sigmar this weekend, we got two brand new releases from Josh Reynolds, each a continuation of one of Josh’s existing series. First up there’s Hallowed Knights: Black Pyramid, which is theoretically available in hardback (£18) and ebook (£9.99) formats, although at the time of writing this the ebook doesn’t seem to be available. I’m sure it will turn up soon. There’s also Eight Lamentations: War-Claw, an audio drama available as a CD (£15) or MP3 (£12.99) – the slightly higher than usual price is because it comes with bonus features in the form of cast and author interviews. Both of these titles promise to be great additions to the range, and you can check out Rapid Fire interviews for each of them by clicking on the banners below.
I’ve commented in previous Black Library Weekly articles about a couple of recent releases which didn’t get audiobook editions, but happily they’re both now available to pre-order. Both Heralds of the Siege (£29.99) and David Annandale’s Vulkan: Lord of Drakes (£19.99) are now available as MP3 audiobooks – I assume the delays were just down to technical or logistical issues. Considering Black Library’s RIDICULOUSLY busy release schedule I’m actually amazed this doesn’t happen more often, but either way it’s great to see them now available to order for fans who prefer audio.
As I mentioned earlier, Saturday also saw the confirmation of February’s upcoming releases, and it’s looking like another bumper month! Several of these appear to be coming out on the same day, the 23rd February, which I’m guessing is going to be the Black Library Celebration day. Let’s have a look at what’s coming…
The Buried Dagger by James Swallow (23rd Feb)
The 54th main-range Horus Heresy novel, and the final book before the Siege of Terra begins! We’ve been waiting a long time to read about the fall of the Death Guard, so there’s a real weight of expectation upon this one!
Angron: Slave of Nuceria by Ian St. Martin (23rd Feb)
The latest Horus Heresy Primarchs novel (number 11, I think), it looks like this is going to cover the early days of the Legion after Angron is found and ‘reunited’, so expect copious violence and the first introductions of the Butcher’s Nails.
Corax: Lord of Shadows by Guy Haley (2nd Feb)
The limited edition hardback of this has been out for a little while now, so February sees the ‘standard’ release, which means anyone who couldn’t stretch to the LE can at last read about Corax’s involvement in the Carinae campaign.
Honourbound by Rachel Harrison (23rd Feb)
After a few short stories, Commissar Severina Raine gets a full length novel, and I’ve a feeling it’s going to be epic! It’s Rachel Harrison’s debut Black Library novel, and if the shorts are anything to go by it promises to be something very special. Top of my list, this one…
Our Martyred Lady by Gav Thorpe (23rd Feb)
Hot on the heels of the four-part Realmslayer comes another epic, multi-part audio drama, this time featuring Catherine Tate as Inquisitor Greyfax who, along with Saint Celestine, must prevent a new War of Faith. I can’t wait for this!
Red and Black by James Swallow (26th Jan)
An early Black Library audio drama gets a re-release to coincide with a few other recent Sisters of Battle stories (although this is included in the Humble Audio Bundle too).
Hamilcar: Champion of the Gods by David Guymer (9th Feb)
We’ve heard him in the Knights of Vengeance audio dramas, and read about him in a few short stories, but now it’s time for Hamilcar – mightiest of Sigmar’s heroes (if he does say so himself) – to get his own novel. Expect irreverence aplenty from this one!
Gotrek & Felix: The Second Omnibus by William King (9th Feb)
Continuing the regular re-release of classic Warhammer novels in omnibus format, this collects together books 4 to 6 in the ‘nounslayer’ series – William King’s Dragonslayer, Beastslayer and Vampireslayer – plus five Gotrek & Felix short stories from a range of different authors.
Thoughts on the week
For me personally it’s been a week of gradually returning to normality after the excitement and atmosphere of the Black Library Weekender, which was SO MUCH FUN! I’ve spent the week catching up on writing for the various reviews and articles I’ve been posting, as well as tucking into some of the new books and audios I bought at the Weekender. Keep an eye out for reviews coming soon-ish of a couple more of the new novellas, Realmslayer and Inferno! Volume 2, and maybe even a cheeky early review of Titandeath. Suffice it to say I’ve been very, very impressed by everything I’ve read and listened to so far out of my Weekender haul.
As for the week’s news and releases – I’d say it’s been a great week! Whether you’re interested in reading or listening to the Warhammer Adventures books or not, I think it should be clear to anyone that getting big names involved as narrators is a good thing, as it represents yet another positive step forward for Black Library, and Games Workshop as a whole. Personally speaking, I’m definitely going to be reading these new books, and I’m tempted to give the audiobooks a go as well!
I always enjoy a surprise Black Library release, and while Darius’ Blackstone Fortress wasn’t a TOTAL surprise, it was still great to see it make an appearance on Saturday alongside the rest of the weekend’s releases. With two new novels (including a SE hardback) and a new audio drama, plus Monday’s short audio drama, I’d say it’s been a pretty darn good week of new BL titles! We’re certainly not going to be lacking for things to read and listen to. If there’s anything in particular that you’re really excited to get your hands on, I’d love to hear about it!
As usual, here’s what I’ve been posting about so far this week:
- QUICK REVIEW: Hallowed Knights: The Denied by Josh Reynolds.
- Dark Imperium: Plague War by Guy Haley.
- The Black Library Weekender 2018 – Roundup.
- The Bloodied Rose by Danie Ware.
- RAPID FIRE: Josh Reynolds Talks Eight Lamentations: War-Claw.
- RAPID FIRE: Josh Reynolds Talks Hallowed Knights: Black Pyramid.
Coming up…
Unless there’s a surprise release (I’m still expecting Aaron Dembski-Bowden’s Spear of the Emperor to show up at some point) then next week’s titles are a pair of omnibuses – The Beast Arises Volume 2 and Dan Abnett’s Gaunt’s Ghosts: The Victory Part One.
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.