Black Library Weekly – W/C 13/11/17

Hello and welcome to another instalment of Black Library Weekly, my regular look at what’s been happening in the world of Black Library. I wrote this week’s post from the Nottingham Belfry and Bugman’s Bar, while at the Black Library Weekender, so bear with me if it’s a bit shorter than usual! With that caveat, let’s have a look at what’s been happening this week…

Monday

Another brand new story for this week’s Digital Monday, in the shape of The Greater Evil by Peter Fehervari – available as always in ebook for £2.49. A new Fehervari story is always something to celebrate, and this one didn’t disappoint, continuing Peter’s ongoing exploration of the dark edges of T’au culture. It’s worth reading regardless, but if you’ve been following Peter’s stories so far then there’s a lot to enjoy. You can read my review here.

Midweek

I feel like I’ve said this a lot recently, but it was pretty quiet during the midweek period once again – perhaps, this week, because of the prep work that was going into the Black Library Weekender. The only snippet I came across was a quick interview on the Warhammer Community site from Black Library editor Kate Hamer, about the new Space Marine Conquests series of novels. It’s worth checking out – you can read it here. It’s interesting to read that the fourth novel in the series, the title of which hasn’t yet been revealed, is being written by Ian St. Martin – excellent news.

Weekend

Two new releases for the week – a brand new novel, as the first instalment of the new Space Marine Conquests series, along with a frankly huge omnibus of novels and short stories. First up, the novel – The Devastation of Baal by Guy Haley, available in paperback for £8.99 and ebook for a bargain £6.99. If you’ve read Guy’s Dante then I suspect you’re going to want to read this – I know I want to read it! I picked a copy up at the Weekender, and while I haven’t read it yet (I mean, I read quickly but not that quickly!) I can at least testify that it’s a chunky old paperback. If you want to take more than my word, however, you can read a quick interview with Guy in my latest RAPID FIRE post.

The omnibus, then, is the succinctly named Deathwatch: The Omnibus, which you can pick up for £15 or save yourself a bit of cash by buying the ebook for £14.99! When I said it’s huge, I mean it – it’s here at the Weekender and it really is massive, which isn’t surprising when you consider that it includes twelve short stories and three – count ‘em! – full novels. Pound for pound, that make this an absolute bargain, especially as there are some incredibly good stories in there! If you like Deathwatch and haven’t yet read any of these, then it’s an absolute must-buy.

That’s it in terms of releases for this week…or at least, unless you’re at the Weekender. Now, I don’t want to brag too much (just a little bit) about how AWESOME this event is, or how many cool new titles I’ve been able to pick up…but suffice to say it’s a definite return to form for Black Library events. I’ll talk more about this at some point in future, but here are a few highlights for me, so far (I wrote this late on Saturday evening, after returning from the hotel bar – I’ll talk more about Sunday in a separate post):

• Listening to actor Toby Longworth and BL audio producer Matt Renshaw talk all things audio.
• John French waxing lyrical about The Horusian Wars – I could listen to John talk about the Inquisition for hours and not get bored!
• Picking up copies of The Warmaster, Old Earth, Fabius Bile: Clonelord, and MANY more titles…so, so much to read!
• Guy Haley’s INCREDIBLE performance as Warboss Gruk in Saturday night’s audience participation audio drama. Just…incredible.
• The most entertaining quiz yet – rapid fire questions, the audience taking on the authors, and a picture round in which I think I got something like 6 or 7 of the answers on my own…much to the bafflement of the authors.
• Spending time in the bar chatting to Chris Dows, Justin Hill, Matt Renshaw, and SO MANY lovely, lovely fans.

As you can probably tell, I’ve been having a whale of a time – if you’ve never been to a Black Library event, I can’t recommend them enough. They’ve always been fun, but this year’s (so far) has been outstanding. Well done to the Black Library team – bravo!

Thoughts on the week

For me it’s been a weird (but great) week because, while the new releases have been awesome, it’s all been building up to the Weekender. I do want to make a point of repeating what I said about Peter Fehervari’s story on Monday – it’s a brilliant story, and I’m always very excited to see new stories from Peter. If you haven’t checked him out yet, I would urge you to do so – he’s a rare talent, and a unique voice within Black Library. He’s that good.

The weekend’s releases have been great too, and I can’t wait to get stuck into The Devastation of Baal. I’m particularly pleased to see that the Space Marine Conquests series is coming out in paperback, which makes it such an appealing price point. With another one out very soon (and also in my possession already), a third confirmed to be coming soon after, and the fourth already being talked about, things are looking very interesting for this series.

I can’t help but talk again (sorry) about the Weekender. I’ll try to keep it brief, don’t worry. Writing this on the Saturday evening, I’m still buzzing from a brilliant day – it’s been pretty long, but from start to finish it’s been filled with great people enjoying the hobby that everyone loves so much. I’ve met a load of lovely people, some of them friends from previous years and others new friends – and to everyone who’s recognised me (although I’ve been amazed anyone did!) or heard me wittering on about this site, and said so many kind words, you’ve all really made my day! It’s days like this that remind me just how much fun this hobby, and this community, can really be – hopefully there will be many more like this!

As usual, I’ll do a quick bit of self-promotion with a list of this week’s posts:

• Ghostmaker – Dan Abnett.
• QUICK REVIEW: The Greater Evil by Peter Fehervari.
• RAPID FIRE: Guy Haley Talks The Devastation of Baal.

Coming up…

It’s a big one next weekend – Old Earth by Nick Kyme, book 47 in the Horus Heresy series. I’ve got my copy right beside me as I write this, so keep an eye out for a review soon!

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.