Hello and welcome to another instalment of Black Library Weekly, my regular look at what’s been happening in the world of Black Library. This week there’s been a lot of talk about what’s happening with the new edition of Warhammer 40,000, but less about what’s going on in Black Library. That being said, we’ve had some nice new releases – so let’s kick things off by taking a look at the first of those…
Monday
After the surprise of Audio Week 2017, Digital Mondays are back to the usual short stories this week – but it’s another one from Gav Thorpe, who’s clearly been busy! Scrape to Victory (which may be familiar to anyone who subscribes to Gav’s newsletter, as the name has been sat on his WIP list for a while now, out of context) is the latest Blood Bowl story, available as an e-short for the usual £2.49, and is as daft, action-packed and enjoyable as you might expect. I’m LOVING all these new Blood Bowl stories, so this was a fantastic way to start the week, in my opinion!
Midweek
With all the excitement about 8th edition 40k, Black Library seemed to be keeping pretty quiet during the week. There was a bit of hype for the weekend’s big release, with references to the Vaults of Terra opening (more on this in a bit), and a little mention for the new Dawn of War computer game, but that was really it. Very quiet, right up until the weekend.
If you’ll permit me a moment’s self-promotion however, one thing that did see the light of day during the week was the second part of my interview with Dan Abnett, in which we talked about various elements of his work with Black Library. If you fancy taking a look, you can check it out here!
Weekend
Even with the quiet midweek, it’s safe to say this week overall has been awesome…because we’ve got a new Chris Wraight novel! Vaults of Terra: The Carrion Throne is an Inquisition novel…set on Terra…written by Chris Wraight…so I think it’s safe to say it’ll be brilliant! As is the norm these days, it’s available in various formats, starting with the £40 limited edition hardback that was ‘released’ on Friday (although has been available to pre-order for some time). This is limited to 1,000 copies, of which fewer than 150 are available as I write this, and production-wise it’s the same style as a few of the recent limited editions – curved spine, lovely leather(ette?) cover featuring the Inquisition logo, that sort of thing. It also includes an exclusive short story, which is very exciting.
If you can’t stretch to or don’t fancy the limited edition, Saturday saw the standard hardback (£18), ebook (£9.99) and MP3 audio (£29.99) editions go on sale, with the 10+ hour audiobook narrated by the excellent John Banks. Whichever version you choose, I have a strong suspicion this is going to be one of those books that gets a lot of people very excited! I’m pretty sure I remember reading a comment from John French saying it’s his favourite Black Library book of the year…
Happily, the fun doesn’t stop there! Three – count ‘em – new paperbacks are now available, with quite an interesting mix of stories between them. First up is Ahriman: The Omnibus by John French, which features the three Ahriman novels – Exile, Sorcerer, and Unchanged, although sadly not the accompanying short stories. At £15 in paperback or £14.99 in ebook (that penny makes all the difference) it’s quite the bargain, for three EXCELLENT novels, although if you’re an ebook fan then you might be better off plumping for the £19.99 Ahriman Collection which also includes all the short stories from Ahriman: Exodus. If you haven’t read these books, I simply can’t recommend them enough – go buy them. Now!
The other two paperbacks (both £8.99) were for single titles, beginning with Ravenor by Dan Abnett. The opening book of Dan’s second Inquisition trilogy, it’s been a while since this has been available to buy as a physical copy. It’s another excellent book, although once again if you’re happy with ebooks then you might be better off picking up Ravenor: The Omnibus for £14.99 instead.
Lastly we’ve got Black Rift by Josh Reynolds, which was originally released as eight digital short stories before its hardback/ebook release last year (I think). Overall I think this is an enjoyable read, but it was rather stymied by its weird serialised release which meant it didn’t quite flow as well as it could have done. Still, worth a read – everything Josh Reynolds writes is good!
As always, new paperback releases make me happy! More like this please Black Library, and keep up the good work promoting paperbacks on the website, on Facebook and in emails!
Thoughts on the week
A bit of a weird one with the gap in the middle, which was a bit dull compared to Monday and the weekend, but with some really great releases we mustn’t grumble! I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: more Blood Bowl = a very good thing! I was pleased to see Gav turn his hand to this sort of story so well, so that the standard continues to be high, but also to see that we’re not just getting the same story rehashed! Each of these new Blood Bowl stories has been different, and enjoyable for different reasons, which is fantastic to see!
Skipping straight over the boring middle of the week, it’s been an excellent weekend! The Carrion Throne is VERY exciting, not just because it’s a new book from Chris but because it’s a) an Inquisition story and b) set on Terra – that’s an amazing combination and I can’t wait to get stuck in. I don’t think I need to say much more about the paperbacks, other than it’s great to see increased accessibility for some great stories. I also like how the paperbacks appear unannounced – I know it’s nice to see what’s coming for the big releases, but I always enjoy a surprise!
Coming up…
Honestly? I’ve no idea what’s coming next week. The next book listed on Black Library’s Coming Soon section is Gav Thorpe’s Jain Zar: The Storm of Silence (which I’m also super excited about, considering how good Asurmen: Hand of Asuryan was), but that doesn’t appear to be released until the following weekend. So who knows?! It’ll be fun to find out, though…
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!
Have you seen that they’re releasing a Blood Bowl comic?
Yes! Very much looking forward to that – I think the first issue is due out this month, which is great!