Hello and welcome to the latest instalment of Black Library Weekly, my regular look at what’s been happening in the world of Black Library. Once again it’s been a pretty quiet week on the BL release front – a very quiet week in fact – but some intriguing news has provided an unexpected burst of interest nonetheless. As always, from the top…
Monday’s release
The week started as expected, with the Digital Monday release of the latest Age of Sigmar short story – Sands of Blood by Josh Reynolds (£2.49 in ebook). This one follows on from Prisoner of the Black Sun in being the prose version of a story that was originally released as an audio drama before subsequently being bundled together into a Realmgate Wars novel – as such it’s not the best in terms of value for money, so if you fancy reading about Tarsus and his Bull-Hearts searching for Nagash alongside Mannfred von Carstein you’d be better off buying the paperback (if you can find it) or ebook version of Mortarch of Night rather than this. If you’re just after a single short story then go for it, but it’s very much part of a wider narrative and is best read in context of the rest of the story.
Monday’s news
I’m going with a slightly different structure for this article, as this week the Black Library-related news dropped on the Monday, rather than the usual Wednesday. Time will tell whether that’s a sign of a changed Warhammer Community schedule (perhaps in keeping with each month’s new releases being announced on Saturdays now, and not Wednesdays) or whether it’s a one-off – it doesn’t really matter either way, but announcing this particular news on Monday has meant there’s been LOADS of time during the week for us all to dwell on it.
What was the news? In case you’re just checking in for the first time this week, 2019 is going to see the release of two new series under the Warhammer Adventures label – Warhammer stories for readers aged 8 to 12. You can read about this on the Warhammer Community post from Monday, or my own article about it from Wednesday – if you want to really go down that rabbit hole you can also check out the Black Library Facebook page or have a cursory search on one of the many GW-related forums and threads online.
Why the rabbit hole reference? Well, as with many online fandoms populated by lots of very calm, rational people and a small number of…others…there’s been quite a reaction to this news. I’m not going to reiterate too much of what I’ve already said elsewhere, but suffice to say my personal reaction was that this is a GREAT IDEA, because anything that gets youngsters into the hobby is a good thing. In contrast, some responses have focused on the idea that these books are going to ‘dumb down’ or ‘sanitise’ 40k (not many people are complaining about the Age of Sigmar equivalent…) and somehow ruin it for all of us.
I’ll let you make up your own mind on the subject; there’s nothing wrong with not being keen on the idea of Warhammer books for kids, and likewise being excited about these. Ultimately, however, the proof will be – as it is with all books – in the reading. Hopefully we’ll gradually see more information arrive about Warhammer Adventures, and in due course we’ll be able to read these books and see for ourselves. It should be interesting, one way or another!
Weekend
As I mentioned right at the start, it’s been a really quiet week in terms of releases – for the first weekend in what certainly feels like a REALLY long time there were no new Black Library books of any kind. No fiction books, at least – the one release this weekend was the Black Library Horus Heresy Journal, available for £13 (no ebook version of this one, unsurprisingly!) – this one was first released at the Horus Heresy and Necromunda Weekender back in February, so it’s nice to see it being made available more widely now as well.
There’s not really a lot to say about it, however – it’s quite a nice journal with a debossed (I had to look it up, too) cover that’s reminiscent of the LE hardbacks for The Talon of Horus and Black Legion and a timeline of interesting Great Crusade and Heresy dates running across the bottom of the pages. Beyond that…it’s a journal. Cool if you like that sort of thing, but probably of relatively limited interest to a lot of people.
Thoughts on the week
It has, without a doubt, been a weird week on the Black Library front. In short, the releases have been about as low key as I’ve ever seen, while the news has been as contentious and discussion-provoking as I think it’s ever been! I’d love to know if it was intentional for this particular piece of news to drop during what would otherwise have been a SUPER quiet week, or if that was just coincidence…
Either way, it’s made for an unusual week. In terms of releases I can’t think too many people have been massively excited – an existing story (and not a complete story, either) and an item of merchandise don’t exactly make for an enthralling set of releases. I don’t want to sound too negative here, however – BL’s release schedule is punishing for both my wallet and my ability to keep up, so I really don’t mind a few quiet weeks here and there. Sure, I’d probably have preferred at least one brand new story, but ultimately I’m not too bothered.
As for the news? It seems to have calmed down a bit now, although the idea of Warhammer for younger readers has been percolating in my head all week and resulted in an article on where I think might be good places to start as of right now. To be honest I hope it does all calm down, so we can get back to a rather more civil atmosphere amongst fans online, but at the same time I know I’m looking forward to learning more from Cavan and Tom about what’s coming next for these new books.
I suspect next week’s Black Library-related Warhammer Community post won’t have quite the impact as this week – unless it’s to announce the opposite end of the spectrum, and a BL imprint focusing on REALLY dark and violent stories purely for adults! I’ve actually seen quite a few people online talking about this, but while I’d be open to it in principle, my gut feeling is that it’s not something we’re likely to see. Maybe I’ll write a separate article about that, if I find the time and the inspiration…
As usual, here’s a list of what else I’ve posted this week. It’s been another quiet week on the Track of Words front, although I’ve a feeling this might become more like the norm for me for at least a while.
- Overlords of the Iron Dragon by CL Werner
- Warhammer Adventures: What’s All the Fuss About?
- Black Library: Where to Start for Younger Readers
Coming up…
It looks like next week will be another week without any brand new books, as the main release appears to be Mathias Thulmann: Witch Hunter by CL Werner – the latest Warhammer Chronicles omnibus. That being said, I’ve been expecting an audio week for a while now, so who knows – maybe that will happen next week as well. Time will tell!
Oh, and also – it’s June next week, which means we might see the next batch of Coming Soon titles confirmed on Saturday. That would take us up to September!
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.