Black Library Weekly – W/C 28/05/18

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. After the contention of last week things have calmed down a bit on the Black Library front, but despite only a single brand new release it’s actually been quite a busy week. With a seriously dark short story, a couple of author interviews, a bunch of paperbacks, a surprise audiobook and another month’s worth of upcoming releases…there’s plenty to look at.

Monday’s release
After three weeks of recycled short stories, this week brought with it a brand new story from a brand new Black Library author – Baphomet By Night by Peter McLean (£2.49 in ebook). I’ve already talked quite a lot about this in my review, in my latest Monthly Highlights post and on Twitter, so I’ll keep it brief here – this is SUPER dark, with an unusual setup and a really grim plot, and it’s a genuinely impressive debut. If McLean goes on to write more like this then I suspect he’s going to be very popular indeed with anyone who likes their 40k to be very much on the dark side.

News
Once again I’m tearing up my usual structure for these posts, and going with what fits – which this week means combining the various bits of news all in one place. I’ll start with the Warhammer Community site, which posted two Black Library-related articles this week, the first of which being an introduction to Peter McLean on Monday. We’ve seen similar posts this year following debut short stories from Evan Dicken and Danie Ware, and once again it’s a nice way of getting a little bit of insight into a new BL author.

Next up, dropping on Wednesday, was an author interview with Guy Haley, who answered questions posed to him by fans on the BL Facebook page. It’s nice to see the Community site running interviews, and I hope this isn’t the last we see – some of the questions are more interesting than others, but Guy comes up with some good answers, including confirmation that he’s finishing (probably finished, by now) the first draft of Titan Death, his next Heresy novel. Looking forward to that! There’s plenty more to check out, so do have a read of that interview.

Moving on to Saturday, and as expected Black Library revealed all of the upcoming releases for September – all TEN of them! This is a serious haul of books and audios, the majority of which are brand new rather than reprints, so September is looking like being a great – albeit expensive – month for BL fans. Here’s what’s coming:

Blacktalon: First Mark by Andy Clark
I’ve been looking forward to this for a while now, a novel about Neave Blacktalon who was introduced in the Blight War box set. It’s great to see Andy Clark coming out with a full-length Age of Sigmar story, and I’m expecting this to be great fun as always. Oh, and yeah – it’s always good to see a female-fronted BL book.

Shadespire: The Mirrored City by Josh Reynolds
Another Age of Sigmar book, and the first full-length story set in Shadespire – and it’s another non-Stormcast protagonist! Everything bodes very well for this, especially considering how much Josh is contributing to the depth of Age of Sigmar.

Choose Your Enemies by Sandy Mitchell
Now this…this is top of my list for books I’m excited about reading this year. It’s been SO LONG since we last had a new Ciaphas Cain novel – so long that I’d given up hoping for another one until this was confirmed at the BL Weekender last year. From the smirk on Cain’s face on the cover, to the reference in the synopsis to ‘allies and enemies old and new’, everything about this is filling me with happiness. Can’t wait!

Blood of Iax by Robbie MacNiven
Following on from the short story A Brother’s Confession, this is a post-Dark Imperium Ultramarines story featuring twin brothers and a conflict between Primaris Marines and orks. There’s also a rather nice looking special edition hardback, complete with the usual things like an extra short story, marker ribbons and so on.

Of Honour and Iron by Ian St. Martin
A second Ultramarines novel, this is the fourth in the Space Marine Conquests series, and will therefore be coming out in paperback rather than hardback – which I think is a good thing, actually. It looks like it’s going to be set during the Indomitus Crusade, which should be interesting. I know some people aren’t keen on Ultramarines, but I’m very happy to read more about Guilliman and his sons in the early days of this new age of 40k.Taker of Heads by Ian St. Martin
Not content with one release, Ian has also written a Mortifactors audio drama which sounds great fun – especially as Ian has referenced both Predator and Apocalypse Now when talking about this online.Key of Infinity and Other Stories
During the 2017 Advent Calendar BL released four 40k audio dramas, which are collected here into a single release. Those four were Ahriman: Key of Infinity by John French, The Assassination of Gabriel Seth by Andy Smillie, Heart of Decay by Ben Counter and The Rage of Asmodai by CZ Dunn. If you didn’t pick these up last year, this looks like a cost-effective option.

Ciaphas Cain: Saviour of the Imperium by Sandy Mitchell
To coincide with the release of Know Your Enemies, the third Ciaphas Cain omnibus is also being published – containing three novels (The Emperor’s Finest, The Greater Good and The Last Ditch) plus a novella and three short stories. I’ve seen a few people grumbling online about these not being bundled up into an omnibus – it’s almost like BL had a plan and were waiting for a good time to release it!

Masters of Stone and Steel by Gav Thorpe and Nick Kyme
Last, but not least, is another Warhammer Chronicles omnibus, which features four novels and two short stories all about the Old World dwarfs. I’m not that familiar with these stories, but unlike other Warhammer Chronicles omnibuses I don’t think these are all connected – but rather it’s a collection of similar stories that just fit together nicely in one place.

Weekend releases
After the excitement of all those new titles for September, Saturday also brought with it some releases of its own – nothing brand new, but some interesting stuff nonetheless. First up we’ve got the next Warhammer Chronicles omnibus – Matthias Thulmann: Witch Hunter by CL Werner, which is available in ebook (£14.99) and paperback (£15) formats. First published in the early to mid 2000s these are classic Old World novels, and well worth checking out if you fancy a bit of nostalgia and some typical Werner darkness.

Next up are two paperback editions – one 40k and one Heresy – of books which were first published in late 2017. Josh Reynolds’ Fabius Bile: Clonelord is the second in the Fabius Bile series, and is now available in paperback for £8.99 alongside the existing ebook and MP3 audio formats. If you’ve not yet made a start on this series I would strongly urge you to check both books out – start with Primogenitor and then move onto Clonelord, although there are various other stories you might want to check out along the way. You could also have a read of my Rapid Fire interview with Josh about Clonelord.

The second paperback is Old Earth by Nick Kyme, book 47 in the Horus Heresy series – you can order this in trade paperback (the large-format edition) for £12.99 although the hardback, ebook and MP3 editions are all still available as well. Check out my review of Old Earth here, and once again I’ve got a Rapid Fire interview with Nick if you fancy a bit more information.

The last release was a bit of a surprise – an audiobook edition of James Swallow’s classic Sisters of Battle novel Faith and Fire, which is available in MP3 format for the usual £29.99. It’s narrated by Emma Gregory, and there’s an extract on the BL site if you want to try before you buy. Speaking of buying, it’s already available on Audible for those of you who subscribe, while if you don’t already subscribe it’s worth pointing out that you can pick this up for free as part of a trial subscription.
Thoughts on the week
Release-wise I’d say it’s been pretty good this week, considering there was only a single brand new release. Monday’s short story was a real surprise to me, in terms of how gritty and dark it was – I’m not sure I’d want to read stories like that all the time, but it really captured the tone of 40k very well. Last week I saw a lot of people calling for a Vertigo-style imprint of Black Library (in response to the Warhammer Adventures announcement) to allow for darker, more violent stories to be written – while I’m not averse to that idea, I’d suggest that Baphomet By Night ably proves why you don’t need gratuitous violence or copious swearing for a story to be grim and dark.

Saturday’s releases are all very much worth having, and should appeal to a wide range of people – those who prefer paperbacks over hardbacks (or can’t afford £20 per book), anyone who wasn’t a Warhammer fan 10+ years ago and therefore missed out on the Mathias Thulmann books first time around, and audiobook fans looking for something with a bit less testosterone than usual! Sure, it’s always nice to get something brand new for the weekend, but as re-releases go this is a pretty good haul.Which brings us onto September’s upcoming releases, which is as large and exciting a haul of new titles as I’ve seen in a long time. Ten releases in total (including Blood of Iax’s two formats), five brand new novels (including two Age of Sigmar novels), a brand new audio drama and a collection of previously digital-only audios, two omnibuses (including one which has been a long time coming)…it’s a really impressive collection. Not to mention the fact that one of the new books provides the HIGHLY anticipated return of a certain Ciaphas Cain – which I’m so, so, so looking forward to.

One other thing that jumped out at me in terms of these new releases is the posh hardback edition of Blood of Iax, and the fact that it’s listed as a Special Edition. I had a quick look through some of the other £40 hardbacks still available, and it’s noticeable that the newest of them are also listed as Special Editions, while two of the older ones (Jain Zar and Black Legion) are instead listed as Limited Editions. Semantics, you might say, but I think it’s worth noting in light of the frustration I felt at the release of Neferata: Mortarch of Blood recently – which is listed as a Limited Edition.

A quick check of the ‘Product Formats’ page on the BL website provides no real clarity:

It would appear, however – and I’m speculating here – that the term Limited Edition is now being used to describe something like Neferata, or Nagash: The Undying King before it, which is released as a posh, expensive edition on its own before a standard release sometime down the line. In contrast, Special Editions are books where the posh hardback is released at the same time as the standard edition. That would explain what’s happening with Neferata, although it would be nice to see this a) clarified and b) explicitly stated when a book is released. What do you think – does that sound like I’ve got it right?

On a final and rather different note, this week I’ve been enjoying re-reading Graham McNeill’s Horus Heresy novel Mechanicum, nicely coinciding with the awesome new Imperial Knight stuff coming out soon for 40k. It’s been years since I last read this, and it’s great fun so far…

As usual, here’s a list of what else I’ve posted so far this week:

• City of Secrets – Nick Horth
• QUICK REVIEW: Baphomet By Night – Peter McLean
• Ghost – James Swallow
• Monthly Highlights – May 2018

Coming up…
Next weekend it looks like we’ll be getting two releases – The Darkness in the Glass, a collection of the three Shadespire audio dramas from last year’s Advent Calendar, and Born of Fire, which collects together lots of Nick Kyme’s Heresy-era Salamanders stories. Neither of those are technically brand new, but I suspect there will be plenty of people who didn’t pick up these stories individually…

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.