Category Archives: Article

Writing for Black Library – Open Submissions 2018 Recap

Back in early 2018, Black Library announced an open submissions window – a fixed period of time during which the public was actively encouraged to submit pitches for stories set in the various worlds of Warhammer. BL don’t generally accept submissions outside one of these specific windows, and this one proved VERY popular! Ever since it closed there’s been speculation from fans about when the next such opportunity would arise…and now we know that it’s going to run between the 26th August and 23rd September 2019.

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The Best Black Library Anthologies of 2019: January to June

For my fourth and final article looking back at the best Black Library releases from the first half of 2019 – after looking at novels, audio dramas and short stories – this time I’m picking out my favourite anthologies published between January and June. While some of the other categories have been pretty tricky, this one was less of a tough choice, simply because there hasn’t been anywhere near as many anthologies released in 2019 as novels. I’m a huge fan of short story anthologies, however, so I think it’s definitely worth looking at a few of the best of these as well – if nothing else, they help demonstrate the sheer breadth of storytelling available to Black Library fans!

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The Best Black Library Short Stories of 2019: January to June

I’ve already written articles about the best Black Library novels, audio dramas and anthologies of 2019 so far, so this time around I’m picking out my personal favourite short stories released from January to June. For me personally the first couple of months of 2019 were a bit disappointing from the perspective of BL’s Digital Monday short stories, as the vast majority of them were pulled from older anthologies rather than being brand new stories. That changed as the year moved on, however, and looking back now there have been some fantastic tales released over the first half of the year.

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The Best Black Library Audio Dramas of 2019: January to June

The first half of 2019 brought with it a LOT of new content for Black Library fans to enjoy, with almost forty new books or audio dramas released between January and June, not to mention an impressive number reprints and digital-only short stories. In other articles I’ve run through my personal choices for the best BL novels, short stories and anthologies released so far, and in this article I’m going to do the same thing but for audio dramas. In recent years Black Library have invested heavily in this particular storytelling medium, and so far 2019 has – in my opinion – continued to show the benefits of that investment with some genuinely fantastic new releases.

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The Best Black Library Novels of 2019: January to June

2019 so far has been a busy year for Black Library, whose punishing release schedule continues to churn out new books, audio dramas and short stories at a phenomenal rate. Over the six months from January to June BL released somewhere in the region of FORTY new books or audio dramas, as well as a similar number of reprints (i.e. paperback editions, or reprinted hardbacks) and almost as many short stories. In this article I’m taking a look back at the first half of 2019 to highlight what I personally think have been the best new novels to have been released.

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Black Library Monthly – June 2019

Welcome to Black Library Monthly for June 2019, my usual monthly roundup of all things Black Library. This time around there’s loads of new and upcoming releases to talk about, some cool new information about future books in the Warhammer Horror range, and a few other bits and pieces on the news front. I’ve been reading a lot of short stories in June, so I’ve got links out to all of my reviews for those as well as a few thoughts about the latest Black Library short story anthology, as well as all of my other reviews, interviews and blog posts as usual. To begin with though, let’s take a quick look through the news…

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Coming Soon via Black Library Live (June 2019)

Saturday the 1st June saw 2019’s Black Library Live event take place at Warhammer World in Nottingham, and I was there to enjoy a day of seminars, signings, chatting to authors and editors and generally just hanging out with and other Black Library fans. In the end I only went to two of the seminars (plus the final one), and I didn’t find time to visit the Editors’ Corner section, as I was busy talking to authors and having fun catching up with friends – but for me half the fun of these events is getting to spend time with other people who are as enthusiastic about Black Library as I am!

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Black Library Monthly – May 2019

Welcome to Black Library Monthly for May 2019, in which I’m going to take a look over the key pieces of Black Library-related news which arose over the last month, as well as talk about the month’s new releases and what I’ve been reviewing. As always there’s been lots to talk about, even though it feels like Black Library have been a little quieter than usual in terms of the news and information they’ve been providing. Still, with lots of new releases – including loads of new short stories – there’s no shortage of interesting topics to look at. As usual, I’ll kick off by taking a look at the month’s general BL-related news before moving onto a couple of more specific topics and then the month’s releases.

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Black Library: Spotlight on Ian St. Martin

With the general release of Angron: Slave of Nuceria, as I went back over my review I realised that I had read and reviewed every single Ian St. Martin story that’s currently available from Black Library (the only exception being the short story Better Angels, which is at present only available in the event-exclusive Scions of the Emperor anthology). With that in mind I thought it was only appropriate to pull all of those reviews – as well as several interviews – together into a single post. Whether you’re thinking about picking up the new Angron novel and fancy finding out a bit more about Ian and his style, or you’ve read Angron and are keen to check out more of Ian’s Black Library stories, this is the place to come!

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Black Library Monthly – April 2019

Welcome to Black Library Monthly for April 2019, in which I’m going to take a look over the key pieces of Black Library-related news which arose over the last month, as well as talk about the month’s new releases and what I’ve been reviewing. In some respects it’s felt like quite a quiet month on the BL front, but looking back there’s actually still been a decent amount to talk about as well as a fair few new releases – including a rare brand-new Digital Monday short story. As usual, I’ll kick off by taking a look at the month’s general BL-related news before moving onto a couple of more specific topics and then the month’s releases.

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