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 new 40k week for Games Workshop, but there’s been a few cool releases and bits of Black Library-related news, so let’s have a look at what’s been happening.
Monday
After a good few weeks of new Blood Bowl stories each Monday, it was time for a change. This week’s Digital Monday short story was Allegiance by Chris Wraight, a Horus Heresy short story originally published in Sedition’s Gate and then War Without End, and now available as standalone digital short story for the expected £2.49. It’s a great little story that definitely deserves to be available to as many people as possible – I imagine a good number of fans will have already read it in one of those anthologies so it may not have been the biggest seller, but it continues Black Library’s policy of releasing every story in every format!
Midweek
The biggest news during the week was, as expected, confirmation that tickets for the 2017 Black Library Weekender are now on general sale. I talked a bit last week about the details as we have them so far, so check that out here, but it’s worth repeating just how good it is to have this event back on the calendar. If you’ve not been before, I have a feeling that this might just be a good one to start with. If you have, then you know what to expect. With Warmaster up for sale it’s already got a big draw, and I’m hoping there’s going to be plenty more cool stuff to come.
The only other item of note was the Black Library Hall of Fame getting its latest update with Robbie MacNiven choosing Double Eagle by Dan Abnett.
http://www.blacklibrary.com/hall-of-fame.html
It’s probably not Dan’s most famous book, but it’s one of the books that a LOT of people talk about in glowing terms, and for good reason. If you’ve not read it yet, check out Robbie’s recommendation and then you can pick it up via Black Library or Amazon for a bargain £6.99.
Weekend
It’s the long-awaited New 40k weekend so the focus for Games Workshop is squarely on its flagship product…but happily, Black Library have got some cool new stuff as well. On the New 40k theme, Guy Haley’s Dark Imperium should now be in stores. The posh Limited Edition hardback doesn’t appear to be available any more, which suggests most or all of the 1,000 copies have been sold…but you can still pick up the ebook or standard hardback.
There were two new releases, though, on top of that – beginning with Hallowed Knights: Plague Garden by Josh Reynolds. The latest Age of Sigmar novel, it’s available in hardback (£18) and ebook (£9.99) formats and should go some way towards pleasing people who have been wondering why there hasn’t been a lot of Age of Sigmar releases lately. Secondly, we’ve got Scions of Elysia by Chris Dows – a 40k audio drama featuring Sergeant Zachariah of the Elysian Drop Troops, who will be familiar to anyone who’s read Chris’ previous Imperial Guard stories. It’s a great story, well worth a read – you can check out my review here.
Thoughts on the week
Considering New 40k has been taking so much of the spotlight recently, I’d say it’s actually been a pretty good week for Black Library fans. Sure, we’ve seen busier weeks before, but under the circumstances I think two completely new products, one reissue, and the general sale for the Weekender, all makes for a good week. Obviously we’re all greedy for as much new content as possible so a reissued story on Monday doesn’t fully scratch the itch, and it would have been nice to see a paperback or two at the weekend…but I’m nitpicking here.
I’m assuming that quite a few people who read this will be general Games Workshop fans, so obviously there’s been the small matter of 8th Edition 40k to keep interest up, not to mention the latest issue of a White Dwarf and some cool new releases from Forge World…so I don’t think we can complain!
I know I’m sounding like a broken record here, but the Weekender…it’s just such good news to have it back! I’ve already seen people online talking about which books they’re going to take to get signed, speculating on which other authors might attend, and generally starting to get excited. It can be an expensive weekend if you let it…but there are plenty of ways to keep the costs down, and in this golden age of community involvement for all things Games Workshop, events can be such great opportunities. If you’re on the fence about going…I can heartily recommend it!
Coming up…
I can’t see anything scheduled for next weekend, so whatever happens it looks like it’s going to be a surprise. That sort of weekend tends to go one of two ways – something that’s been kept secret and comes out of the blue, or a focus on reissues and new formats. Either way, should be interesting to see what happens.
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!
Good job, as always! As for the next week, I have a feeling BL could release The Devastation of Baal, the first book in Space Marine Conquests series (SMB relaunched). That is my wishful thinking))
Thanks, and sorry for taking a while to reply. Shame that The Devastation of Baal didn’t make a surprise appearance, but I can’t wait to get hold of that! Let’s hope it sees the light of day sooner rather than later 🙂