Hello and welcome to the penultimate instalment of Black Library Weekly in 2017, my regular look at what’s been happening in the world of Black Library. This week it’s been Advent all the way, so I’m focusing almost entirely on the seven stories that have been released. I say almost…because there’s at least one other cool thing for me to talk about this week. Let’s crack straight on, though…
Advent
It’s been the final week of the main Advent Calendar, once again covering all of the settings – 40k, the Heresy, the Primarchs, Age of Sigmar and Shadespire. Lots of interesting stuff, so I’ve done a quick rundown below. Instead of linking out to my reviews later on, I’ve embedded links in the images and titles (except for the last one, which I’ll post tomorrow), so click away and check them out!
The Rage of Asmodai by CZ Dunn – audio drama (£3.99)
You can probably guess from the title who the main protagonist is here, although he actually shares that role with a certain Captain of the Relictors, from last week’s Heart of Decay. There’s some cool audio work when it’s just Asmodai and another character, although the rest of the story doesn’t really feel like it’s making best use of the medium. It’s cool, but not one of the better tales in this year’s Advent series.
Eight Lamentations: The Tainted Axe by Josh Reynolds – short story (£1.99)
Don’t worry if you haven’t read Spear of Shadows, there are no major spoilers in this story. Instead it’s just a really entertaining, well put-together quest story with a nicely drawn and enjoyable main character and some typically entertaining Reynolds-esque dialogue. If you fancy a fun Age of Sigmar story which explores another cool little corner of the Mortal Realms, this is definitely worth checking out.
Fireheart by Gav Thorpe – short story (£1.99)
Another short story which follows on from a novel – in this case Ghost Warrior. Again don’t worry about spoilers, but sit back and enjoy a quick but fun look at Craftworld Saim-Hann, along with a named character from back in the day. While this is arguably not the most original or exciting of stories, it’s got that typical Gav sense of exploration to the eldar, which is always enjoyable.
The Dance of the Skulls by David Annandale – short story (£1.99)
This one’s a prequel rather than sequel, offering a short but satisfying hit of scene-setting before Annandale’s full Neferata novel arrives next year. It’s not often we get to see vampires battling it out in ballgowns and sharp words, but that’s exactly what this offers – it’s a bit on the nose in places (really, who thought it was a good idea to name Neferata’s new kingdom Nulahmia?) but it bodes well for the full book.
Curze: A Lesson in Darkness by Ian St. Martin – audio drama (£3.99)
The third and final Primarchs audio drama during Advent, this one is unsurprisingly dark and disgusting…listening to it on a train feeling slightly travel sick is NOT a good idea. While Curze perhaps comes across a little too close to Russ in how he’s voiced (but still cool), overall it’s a clever story that once again shows how much fun authors can have writing for audio, and likewise how satisfying audio dramas are to listen to.
The Board is Set by Gav Thorpe – short story (£1.99)
A cleverly-constructed story and an interesting companion piece to both First Lord of the Imperium and Now Peals Midnight, this sees Gav going all meta as a character from a tabletop game sits down to play…a tabletop game. You might want to give this a couple of reads, and/or sit down with pen and paper to get everything straight…but it’s definitely worth reading. As usual, don’t expect straight answers, mind…
The Autumn Prince by Guy Haley – audio drama (£3.99)
It’s not just The Primarchs with three audio dramas – Shadespire got the same treatment, and this is the third and final instalment. Another narration-free audio drama (like Ben Counter’s 40k audio Heart of Decay) this is the only one of the three to not feature Stormcast Eternals, and it offers probably the best exploration of Shadespire itself and what all the fuss is about shadeglass. It’s a compelling story, and a wonderfully immersive experience to listen to – so check it out!
If you fancy a look back through all of my reviews for the Advent Calendar stories, check out the main Advent Calendar page here.
Thoughts on the week
I’ve stripped this post down even further than last week, because the Advent short stories and audios were the only releases – no new books, ebook bundles or anything else. That’s fair enough, though – it’s the last week before Christmas, and we can’t expect to get new stuff every weekend! I know the Advent stories aren’t to everyone’s tastes, simply because some BL fans prefer not to buy digital content, but for the rest of us we’ve still had plenty of cool new stories even without anything else at the weekend.
Thinking back to the week’s Advent content, I actually think it’s been a more consistent week than last time around. For me, CZ Dunn’s The Rage of Asmodai was a bit of a weird one in that it just didn’t quite seem to fit together properly or really offer much excitement, but that was about the only bit of disappointment across the week. A first read of Gav’s Fireheart left me a touch perplexed, until I started really thinking about how much fun the Saim-Hann were, and how Nuadhu developed over the course of the story – some really nice stuff there.
The Heresy stories were the highlight for me, personally. I found A Lesson in Darkness to be bleak, as expected, but really interesting, while Gav’s second story – The Board is Set – was a slow burner but a really, really clever story. I don’t think it’s going to set the internet on fire quite as much as Laurie’s First Lord… did, but it’s not that dissimilar in the way it offers ideas and suggestions that we, as readers, can choose to believe or not depending on our own opinions and ideas. It also nicely caps off the collection of Heresy stories over Advent, leaving us hanging just before the Siege actually starts.
So yeah, the week was pretty much all about Advent. Except…did you see Warhammer Community on Wednesday? I’m really proud of this – it’s been a little while in the making, but my first Warhammer Community post went live, in which I talked about why I think audio (as in both audiobooks and audio dramas) is awesome. If you haven’t checked it out yet, just click on the image below:
It was interesting writing this, as the audience I was targeting are people who – for whatever reason – haven’t yet embraced the audio format. I was trying to get across just why audio is cool, why it’s a medium which encourages a different type of storytelling, and why it’s really, really worth giving it a go even if you’re always going to prefer reading to listening. I can still remember deciding to buy The Stromark Massacre at a Weekender years ago, still very much unconvinced myself, and being blown away by how much I enjoyed listening while I painted.
If you’re not already an audio fan, I’d urge you to take a look at my article, and give audio a go. If that’s you – let me know how you get on!
Coming up…
Advent is over and done with now, but – like previous years – there’s a little more yet to come. Black Library are going to be releasing a new novel in ebook form on Christmas Day and Boxing Day, so we’ve still got some cool stuff to look forward to. In previous years we’ve had early releases of upcoming novels…so I’m looking forward to what’s coming this year! Also, keep an eye out for the standard hardback of Josh Reynolds’ Fulgrim: The Palatine Phoenix on Saturday as the usual release schedule kicks back in.
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.