Hello and welcome to another instalment of Black Library Weekly, where I take a look at the Black Library-related news from the week just gone – announcements, pre-orders and new releases.
The quietest week we’ve had for a while in terms of both releases and news, this week hasn’t provided a great deal of excitement but it has however given us the twelfth and final book in The Beast Arises series.
Monday
Back to short stories this week after an unexpected audio drama last week, and back to the re-release trend with The Burden of Angels, a Salamanders short story that previously saw the light in the limited-run Honour of the Space Marines anthology. To be fair to Black Library, the number of people who got their hands on that anthology must be pretty damn small, so this is to all extents and purposes a new story for most readers. At £2.49 it’s priced at a pretty standard rate, and while it’s not what you’d call an essential read it’s thoroughly enjoyable.
Midweek
While in previous weeks a small set of releases has been supplemented by some exciting news, this week it’s been…quiet. The cover art from both of the calendars that were released last week has shown up on the Black Library Facebook page, and lovely art it is, with a few never-before-seen pieces on display, and we’ve had confirmation that the upcoming novel Lucius: The Faultless Blade is being written by Ian St. Martin, which comes as no surprise given Ian’s short story In Wolves’ Clothing.
Aside from those little pieces of news, the only real item of interest has been the teasing of a brand new Warhammer Community website, which we’re promised will be the place to go for Games Workshop-related content of all kinds. Nothing more has been revealed other than the announcement, so keep your eyes open next week for more information on that – there’s been a lot of talk on the internet about it including some sort of forum, but as far as I can see that’s pure speculation at this point. I can see things like the Black Library newsfeed and the Games Workshop webstore blog being consolidated into a single channel, but beyond that we’ll have to wait and see.
Weekend
Unlike the last couple of weeks, the main novel release came on Saturday this week, with the expected release of the final book in The Beast Arises – Guy Haley’s The Beheading. I’ll get my review up as soon as I can, but suffice to say it’s an exciting read with plenty of surprises on offer! Pricing wise it’s the usual story for this series, coming in ebook (£9.99), hardback (£12.99) and audiobook (£19.99) formats.
As far as I can see, that’s it for the week for Black Library. Not the biggest set of releases, that’s for sure. Thankfully Saturday did also see the brand new version of Blood Bowl go up for preorder – if you’re a Games Workshop veteran then you’ll probably remember Blood Bowl from its previous editions, but if not then you’re in for a treat as it’s easily one of the best games ever released by Games Workshop. The new models look fantastic, and word is that the rules haven’t changed much from their heyday – that’s good news. Blood Bowl is available to preorder now, and is released on the 25th November.
Thoughts on the week
I don’t think there can be much doubt, this has been a quiet week for Black Library. As fans we’ve been getting used to seeing multiple releases each week, even if some of those are ‘just’ paperback versions of older titles, or interesting ebook collections, but not this week – combined with a paucity of really exciting news that’s led to the week feeling (to me at least) a little flat. Obviously the release of the final The Beast Arises book is a pretty big moment for Black Library and its fans, but still…it’s not been the most inspiring of weeks overall.
Looking ahead to next week, there doesn’t seem to be an obvious choice for the Digital Monday short story so it remains to be seen whether that’s going to be one of the stories we’ve previously been promised or something else unexpected. As for the weekend, a quick glance at the Coming Soon section on the Black Library website shows that Gav Thorpe’s new Horus Heresy audio drama The Thirteenth Wolf is due for release on Saturday – which means you’ll be able to download it on Saturday, while the CD version will start to be dispatched the following Monday.
Of course perhaps the most exciting thing taking place next week is Black Library Live! 2016, where there will be a stack of new and pre-release titles available, along with hopefully plenty of juicy news. Keep you eyes peeled for an update on what happens!
As always, if you’ve got any thoughts, comments or questions – just let me know.