Hello and welcome to another instalment of Black Library Weekly, my regular look at what’s been happening in the world of Black Library. Let’s take a closer look at what’s been going on this week, starting with…
Monday
Another new Blood Bowl short story! Graeme Lyon’s Mazlocke’s Cantrip of Superior Substitution makes it TEN new stories, each at a bargain £2.49 in electronic format. Word on the (digital) street is that Black Library don’t have plans to publish these stories in physical format…which seems such a shame, considering how much fun they are. Guys, if you’re reading – I’d DEFINITELY buy a copy, so that’s one pre-sold already…!
Anyway, Mazlocke’s… is brilliant, chock full of everything that makes Blood Bowl fun but also proving unexpectedly subtle and thought-provoking at times. It’s up there with the best of these new stories…well worth checking out.
Midweek
Another very quiet midweek – at the moment there doesn’t seem to be a lot happening during the weeks, other than once a month when new titles are announced. This week two (small) interesting things occurred – firstly, Black Library made a push to get people voting in the Gemmell Awards, in which two BL books are shortlisted (Warbeast by Gav Thorpe, and Black Rift by Josh Reynolds…or at least it’s cover). I’m rather pleased by this – I think they should make as much noise as possible, and be open about asking people to vote. There’s nothing wrong with it, and any award nomination like this should be celebrated. If you’re not sure what the Gemmell Awards are, or if you haven’t voted, click on the image below…
The other point of interest was the confirmation of a few pre-release titles that will be available to pick up at Warhammer Fest, for anyone who’s making the trip to Coventry next weekend. Here’s the list, as it stands:
- The Crimson King by Graham McNeill*
- Plague Garden by Josh Reynolds
- Dark Compliance by John French
- Agents of the Throne: Blood and Lies by John French*
- Champions of the Eternal War by David Guymer, Ian St. Martin and Josh Reynolds*
* Titles marked with an asterisk showed up on a Black Library email as being available, although strangely they weren’t mentioned in the Warhammer Community post about the same topic.
If you’re wondering what Champions of the Eternal War is, I’m pretty confident that it’s an audio CD combining the three non-Heresy short audios from the 2016 Advent Calendar – The Calculus of Battle (Guymer), The Embrace of Pain (St. Martin) and The Art of Provocation (Reynolds).
Weekend
Nothing huge this weekend, but two interesting releases anyway – one novel and one audio drama collection. Starting with the novel, we have Eye of Medusa by David Guymer, his first non-Beast Arises 40k novel. No limited edition or audiobook for this one, so it’s just hardback (£18) and ebook (£9.99) if you fancy some Iron Hands action. If you haven’t already checked it out, you can also listen to David Guymer tackle this chapter in the short audio drama The Calculus of Battle (that I mentioned just above).
Secondly we have Echoes of Revelation, a Horus Heresy audio drama collection which combines together the three Heresy short audios from the Advent Calendar…are you seeing a theme here? Featuring Perpetual by Dan Abnett, Valerius by Gav Thorpe and The Soul, Severed by Chris Wraight, it’s available in the usual CD (£12) and MP3 (£9.99) formats, which compared to £3.99 each for the individual audios in MP3 is pretty good. I wouldn’t say any of these stories are ABSOLUTELY essential, but they’re all really interesting.
Thoughts on the week
Not a bad week by any stretch of the imagination…but also not a SUPER exciting one. Somewhere in the middle, I’d say. Another Blood Bowl story is great for anyone who, like me, loves these daft little stories, but could potentially be slightly frustrating for people who prefer Digital Mondays to focus on the main ranges. Meanwhile Eye of Medusa and Echoes of Revelation are both cool releases, but probably not the sort of things that set the internet on fire with speculation or excitement.
Personally, I enjoyed all three of the individual audio dramas, and I’ve liked what I’ve read (and listened to) so far from Guymer in his early forays into 40k. Eye of Medusa sounds fun, so I’m looking forward to getting my hands on that.
Coming up…
Honestly, I’ve no idea! From what I can tell there’s a gap in the published release schedule with nothing slated for next weekend, which suggests one of two things. Either it’s going to be a weekend of paperbacks/standard hardbacks (although I can’t off the top of my head think of anything that’s due a non-limited hardback release), or there’s something lined up that Black Library/Games Workshop haven’t wanted to publicise. I’m hoping for the latter, that’s for sure! Looking forward to finding out either way…
(22/05/17) EDIT: Actually, I wonder if it might be Sons of the Forge, by Nick Kyme…
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!
Why won’t they push people to vote for Warhammer 40K books for Gemmell Awards?
It’s just those two books that have been nominated, so there are no others to vote for. Also, I think they’re exclusively fantasy awards, so sci-fi books wouldn’t qualify.