Hello and welcome to another instalment of Black Library Weekly, my regular look at what’s been happening in the world of Black Library. It’s April already (how did that happen?), which means this is the fourteenth instalment of Black Library Weekly so far in 2017! As weeks go, it’s been a pretty interesting one, so let’s start at the beginning as usual and have a look at what’s been happening…
Monday
The week started off with a very short story – Terminal Velocity by LJ Goulding, which is available for the standard 99p that you’d expect for a micro-short. It looks like this is going to tie in pretty closely with the upcoming Scythes of the Emperor audio drama Daedalus, which makes sense – Daedalus is going to be focused on assault marines, while Terminal Velocity takes a quick look at what happens when a Space Marine flyer is destroyed mid-air. It’s a great fun story, and very satisfying!
Midweek
I’ve got into the habit of expecting something to happen every Wednesday – some sort of news, whether it’s an announcement, a teaser, confirmation of new titles, something like that. This week that didn’t happen…but instead we got probably the week’s biggest news on Thursday – the next round of upcoming releases, this time for July. Most of these made a very brief appearance last week, but they’re now confirmed. Here’s the lowdown, in brief:
- Lorgar: Bearer of the Word by Gav Thorpe: the fifth book in the Horus Heresy Primarchs series. Available as usual in posh limited edition hardback first.
- Perturabo: Hammer of Olympia by Guy Haley: the fourth Primarchs book, in standard hardback/ebook formats (the LE hardback is due out later in April).
- Dark Compliance by John French: the next Horus Heresy audio drama
- The Horusian Wars: Resurrection by John French: an Inquisition novel, featuring Inquisitor Covenant from the old Inquisitor rulebook. Available in standard and limited edition versions.
- Farsight: Crisis of Faith by Phil Kelly: the latest book to feature Commander Farsight, this time featuring his younger version fresh from victory on Arkunasha.
Interestingly, another book was briefly available but then disappeared again. Entitled Shroud of Night and written by Andy Clark, it’s got a cool cover (see below) and looks to be a Chaos vs Chaos novel with added Khârn the Betrayer. It sounds awesome – hopefully it’ll reappear sooner rather than later.
As usual when a new month’s releases are listed, the next month’s books went up for pre-order. That means May’s titles can now be ordered, including (but not limited to) the beautiful limited edition hardbacks of Chris Wraight’s Vaults of Terra: The Carrion Throne and Gav Thorpe’s next Phoenix Lords book, Jain Zar: Storm of Silence.
Weekend
Two brand new titles this weekend – one which has been available to pre-order for a while, and another that’s been talked about for a while but hadn’t previously had a release date. First up was CL Werner’s Cult of the Warmason, which is available in hardback (£18) and ebook (£9.99) formats, but sadly not in MP3. Featuring Genestealer Cults AND Sisters of Battle, it looks like being quite a crowd-pleaser – as only Werner’s second 40k novel, it’s going to be very interesting to see what this one is like.
Next up was Dawn of War III by Robbie MacNiven, which is a novelisation of the story from the latest instalment in the Dawn of War computer game series. This one is available in paperback (£8.99) and ebook (only £6.99 this time) formats, but once again not in MP3. It’s been a while since we’ve had any overt tie-in fiction, and even longer since the last Dawn of War novel, so this should be interesting too. Speaking of the old Dawn of War books, the weekend also saw a new ebook bundle released which combines together all three of CS Goto’s earlier novels featuring the Blood Ravens, as well as an additional short story. Goto has become something of a Black Library punching bag among certain sections of the fanbase, but I imagine there will be plenty of people interested in checking these out – £14.99 for three novels and a short story isn’t bad value, either.
Lastly, book 34 in the Horus Heresy series – Guy Haley’s Pharos – is now available in mass market paperback format, for a bargain £7.99. This is excellent news for anyone who’s patiently waiting for the original paperback format of each Heresy title, as Pharos is a fantastic book – read it and enjoy!
Thoughts on the week
Last week was a bit of a weird one, with the updated website dominating proceedings, but this week has felt much more like it in my opinion. I always enjoy seeing new titles being released that don’t fit into the big series – i.e. books other than Heresy, Space Marine Battles etc. Whether or not a computer game tie-in floats your boat is entirely up to you – I’m a fan of Robbie’s writing so far, so I’ll look forward to checking that one out. As for Cult of the Warmason, it’s fantastic to see CL Werner coming out with another 40k novel, especially one which features Genestealer Cults – of all the 40k factions, these feel like they’re perhaps best suited to his style.
Releases aside, this week certainly didn’t conform to the recent pattern of news coming out on Wednesdays. Whether or not that’s an oddity or a sign of things to come will I’m sure become clear in due course – to be honest though it doesn’t really matter. As long as upcoming titles continue to be released in advance, the section of the fanbase desperate to know what’s coming up will carry on being pleased!
Coming up…
I’m not going to try and anticipate what Monday’s short story is going to be – I’m usually way off the mark, so I’m just going to say that I hope it’s as good as all the recent stories have been! As for next weekend’s releases, the big news looks like being the next book in the Horus Heresy numbered series – book 43, Shattered Legions. If you’re not already aware, this one is another anthology, containing all of the stories from Meduson as well as Graham McNeill’s The Seventh Serpent. The Heresy carries on rolling on, although we’ll have to wait until June for the next full novel in the series.
As always, if you’ve got any thoughts on the week’s news and releases please do give me a shout to let me know!