Black Library Weekly – W/C 14/08/17

Hello and welcome to another instalment of Black Library Weekly, my regular look at what’s been happening in the world of Black Library. There’s been a slightly surprising amount of interesting things to talk about this week, so I’ll crack straight on…

Monday
This week’s Digital Monday short story was Hidden Treasures by Cavan Scott (£2.49 in ebook as usual), a not-quite-micro-short story set away from the usual battlefields of the 41st millennium. It’s an enjoyable little vignette of a story, which was apparently released in an event-only anthology at some point before this week’s digital release – I can’t find it in any of the anthologies I have, but let me know if you know which one it was originally included in! You can find my review here.

Midweek
We’re two weeks into the month and I was wondering whether we’d see any Black Library-related news this week at all…so I was pleasantly surprised to see not one but two interesting things show up. First was the Black Library Reader’s Choice, in which we – Black Library fans and readers – have the chance to help determine which two classic Black Library novels get reprinted in early 2018. There’s going to be one 40k novel and one old-school Warhammer novel reprinted – here’s the list to choose from:

40k:

• Brothers of the Snake by Dan Abnett
• Lord of the Night by Simon Spurrier
• 13th Legion by Gav Thorpe
• Soul Drinker by Ben Counter
• Space Marine by Ian Watson
• The Emperor’s Gift by Aaron Dembski-Bowden

Warhammer:

• Riders of the Dead by Dan Abnett
• Zavant by Gordon Rennie
• Masters of Magic by Chris Wraight
• The Burning Shore by Robert Earl
• Defenders of Ulthuan by Graham McNeill
• Drachenfels by Jack Yeovil

Voting closes on the 22nd August, so you’ve only got two days left to vote if you haven’t already. Click here to go to the Warhammer Community page where you can vote! I went for 13th Legion and Zavant – let me know in the comments below what you voted for…

The second point of interest for the week was the confirmation of loads more information about the Black Library Weekender in November, including more guests and some more books to buy. With the addition of John French, Aaron Dembski-Bowden, Guy Haley, Phil Kelly, Nick Kyme and CL Werner the list of attending authors is now up to thirteen (plus voice actor Toby Longworth) – there are still a few absent faces that I’d perhaps expect to be in attendance (Gav Thorpe, Josh Reynolds etc.) but it’s looking like a great lineup so far! As for new books, joining already announced titles The Warmaster (Dan Abnett) and The Last Hunt (Robbie MacNiven) will be Guy Haley’s new novel The Devastation of Baal and book 47 (I think) in the Horus Heresy, Nick Kyme’s Old Earth, both available in advance of their full publication dates. Here’s the cover if you fancy taking a look:

That’s not going to be it for new books – on the Warhammer Community website there’s information about an event-exclusive anthology which will be available at the Weekender as well. There are no details yet on its title or price, or the titles of the stories it includes, other than that there will be six short stories – two 40k, two Heresy and two Age of Sigmar. Lastly, a few details have emerged about some of the seminars:

• In the wake of the Storm: a discussion around the cultures in Age of Sigmar, and how the authors are developing them.
• All hail the Warmaster: Dan Abnett discussing his latest Gaunt’s Ghosts novel.
• The Road to Terra: Horus Heresy authors discussing key titles in the series so far.

I’ve been to all of the Black Library Weekenders so far, and after the slight disappointment of the last one this is looking like an impressive return to form. The proof will be in the execution and delivery of the seminars on the weekend, of course, but I’m feeling confident. If you haven’t bought a ticket yet, I really would recommend it – and if you’ve already got your ticket, make sure to let me know and come say hi!

Weekend
Onto the big releases of the week, both for 40k – one audio drama and one novel. Let’s start with the novel – Lucius: The Faultless Blade by Ian St. Martin, which is available in ebook (£9.99) or hardback (£18) – sadly no audiobook for this one. If you haven’t already, you might want to check out Ian’s excellent audio drama The Embrace of Pain before reading this, as it introduces some of the characters from the novel; based on the audio, I know I’m excited to see Lucius get his first solo novel outing! Keep an eye on Track of Words for a review in the not too distant future.

The second new release was John French’s audio drama Agent of the Throne: Blood and Lies, which you can pick up in MP3 (£9.99) or CD (£12) formats. I recently interviewed John and he talked about how this is the first in a series of audio dramas featuring Ianthe, who was introduced in the short story The Purity of Ignorance – the idea is for Agent of the Throne to run alongside The Horusian Wars, showing the sort of Inquisitorial actions that perhaps aren’t quite important enough for Covenant to take on directly, but still require a trusted, steady hand to see through. You can find my review here – suffice to say it’s another brilliant audio drama from John, who really seems to understand how to get the best out of this medium.

Thoughts on the week
I’ve really enjoyed this week, from a Black Library perspective – with interesting news and good new releases, it’s the sort of week I’d be happy to have every time! To me, pretty much everything that’s happened this week is a sign of how far the pendulum has swung back towards the good old days of Black Library before the low period of endless tie-ins struck. Let’s take a quick look:

• Stories set away from the battlefield (Hidden Treasures and Blood and Lies).
• An Inquisition audio drama.
• A full-length novel about a well-known Chaos Space Marine character doing weird shit.
• Black Library ASKING US which books we’d like reprinting.
• Not just the return of the Weekender, but also pre-release books and really interesting-looking seminars.

If those aren’t good omens then I don’t know what would be. It’s also worth pointing out that the Reader’s Choice stuff is going to tie in with a celebration of ‘all things Black Library’ in early 2018, which sounds fun to me!

Coming up…
From what I can see, next weekend is going to be another one of those where we get either a surprise release or one or more reprints. I think we’re due the final Ravenor book (Ravenor Rogue) in paperback soon, as well as the Time of Legends omnibus for Graham McNeill’s The Legend of Sigmar, so perhaps those will see the light of day at the weekend. Time will tell!

As always, if you’ve got any thoughts or comments on the week’s news and releases please do get in touch via the comments section below or on Facebook or Twitter.