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. This week it felt pretty quiet for most of the week, but things picked up on Saturday with no fewer than five releases. Let’s have a quick look at what happened…
Monday
I’ve been writing these weekly posts for a little over eighteen months now, and in order to keep track of what’s going on with releases I’ve become deeply uncool and maintained a spreadsheet. Sue me, I like to be organised! Anyway, the reason I mention this is that in the time I’ve been keeping records of BL releases I’m pretty confident there has been a Digital Monday short story every single Monday – the only exceptions being during Advent Calendars or other similar promotions. Every. Single. Week. Until now.
That’s right, this week there was no Digital Monday, no short story available to read at the start of the week. On the one hand I was strangely sad about that, as I genuinely look forward to these short stories – even if I’ve read them before in previous physical releases, I’ll almost always go back and reread them, while every brand new short story is, for me, an opportunity to explore something different in the worlds of Warhammer. As such, my first reaction was disappointment when I realised we weren’t getting a story this week.
On the other hand, the absence of a Digital Monday release this week reminded me just how AMAZING it is that BL manage to release a short story (almost) every single week, (almost) without fail. I dread the think the amount of work that goes into making sure that so many e-shorts are ready for release, on top of all the other novels, novellas, anthologies, audio dramas and omnibuses that BL make available week in, week out. So yeah, it’s a shame that we didn’t get anything this week…but I think we can forgive BL for that, right? Now I’m just really looking forward to the next one!
Midweek
Over the last few months we’ve seen a few short stories released which have been written by authors new to BL, and in each of the weeks when that happened the Warhammer Community team published a quick interview with the respective author, introducing them to those of us who haven’t read any of their other work. Last week we saw a short story from new-to-BL author Jaine Fenn but not the interview (I assume because its place was taken by the Warhammer Horror piece), but better late than never – it showed up on Tuesday of this week. You can have a read of that here, to learn a little about Jaine Fenn and her background.
The next day another Black Library-related article appeared on the Community site, this time something I’ve not seen before – a Black Library ‘Staff Picks’ article, in which a few of the Community team talk about what they’ve recently read. It’s nice to see this sort of content, in which BL and GW staff talk about the things they enjoy, although I’m sure when I first read it the article mentioned each staff member’s job role, which was kinda interesting. Despite that, it’s worth checking out; the first section is a bit spoiler-heavy if you’ve not read Callis & Toll: The Silver Shard, so be warned – although it’s lovely to see such enthusiasm – but the others are a little shorter and much less spoilerific. It’s also interesting to note that four of the six recommendations are for Age of Sigmar stories!
The last bit of midweek news to mention came via the BL Facebook page, where it was announced that there’s going to be an interview with Black Library author and all-round lovely bloke John French on Warhammer TV on the 19th July at 4pm (BST). I’m sure that’s going to cover his upcoming Horusian Wars novel amongst other things, and if you’re going to be around (or are a Warhammer TV subscriber on Twitch) then it should be worth checking out. It’s ALWAYS fascinating to hear John talk.
Weekend
The week might have been a little quiet (the news, as I’m sure you spotted, was interesting but not massively exciting), things picked up with the FIVE releases on Saturday, including two Primarchs novels, a reprint of a classic omnibus, and a couple of 40k paperbacks. I’ve got new Rapid Fire interviews relating to two of the releases, plus a reminder of a previously-published Rapid Fire interview for another, and reviews in the archive for two more, so read on to get a bit more info on everything that’s coming out!
The only brand new release of the weekend was the limited edition hardback of Vulkan: Lord of Drakes by David Annandale, which is available a few months ahead of the standard release as usual (that’s due out in October). Book nine in the Primarchs series, it’s another lovely looking book and will set you back the princely sum of £40 if you fancy picking it up in this edition. There are still LE hardbacks of the previous two Primarchs novels available, so I wouldn’t worry about rushing to buy this if you’re not sure whether to plump for the LE – but it does sound like an interesting story. Check out my Rapid Fire interview with David by clicking here or on the banner below.
One of those Primarchs books still available in LE hardback is Chris Wraight’s Jaghatai Khan: Warhawk of Chogoris, which as of Saturday is now also available to order in standard formats – so that’s hardback (£12.99), ebook (£9.99) and MP3 audio (£19.99). So now you’ve got all the options you could possibly want! Keep an eye out early next week for a review of this – spoiler: I really, really enjoyed it – but until then if you’re after a little insight into what to expect you might want to have a read of the Rapid Fire interview I did with Chris for when the LE hardback first came out. Here’s the link, or alternatively click on the banner below.
Matthew Farrer’s Shira Calpurnia trilogy has long been considered something of a classic, especially by anyone particularly interested in what’s colloquially known as ‘domestic 40k’. An omnibus was released in paperback some years ago, and I’m pretty sure it’s been available in ebook ever since, but it’s now been reprinted and is once again available as a physical book – you can pick it up in paperback for £15 or ebook for £14.99. I spoke to Matthew for another Rapid Fire interview, and his answers were absolutely fascinating, shedding some really interesting light on this excellent series – have a read by clicking here or (as usual) on the banner below.
The final two releases for the week were new paperback editions, each available for the usual £8.99 – Castellan by David Annandale and Sons of the Hydra by Rob Sanders. Castellan is the second book in David’s Grey Knights series featuring Castellan Crowe and the Black Blade of Antwyr – you can have a read of my review by clicking here. Sons of the Hydra is an Alpha Legion novel which was first released in ebook for Christmas 2017, before the hardback came out in early 2018. Click here to check out my review.
Thoughts on the week
It’s been something of a strange week, with the most interesting goings on weighted very much towards the end of the week. I don’t really think there’s a whole lot more to talk about, however, as I’ve pretty much covered it all already. I’m certainly hoping that we’ll see a new Digital Monday short story next week (got to scratch that short story itch, after all), but I feel like having a gap has given me a useful bit of perspective with regards to the pace and volume of BL’s output. Likewise with no fewer than five weekend releases – sure, only one of those was brand new, but I’m sure there’s still work involved in getting everything ready for the re-releases. I’m grateful for all the work that goes into BL’s output, and I think it’s worth occasionally sitting back and reminding ourselves of that! Thanks BL 🙂
One last thing – as you can see from the weekend section above, I’m cracking on apace with the Rapid Fire author interviews. I’ve got plenty more planned in as well, for the coming weeks. If you’ve got any comments or suggestions on those interviews then I’d really love to hear them, to help me make sure they remain useful and interesting. I’ve got plans to go back and take a look at some of the previous Warhammer Chronicles releases, and hopefully continue to cover omnibuses like this week’s Enforcer, but please do let me know if there’s anything you’d particularly like to see – or equally that you don’t want to see! It’s all useful…
Here’s the usual roundup of what else I’ve been posting this week:
- Soul Wars by Josh Reynolds
- War of Secrets by Phil Kelly
- RAPID FIRE: David Annandale Talks Vulkan: Lord of Drakes
- RAPID FIRE: Matthew Farrer Talks Enforcer: The Shira Calpurnia Omnibus
Coming up…
According to the BL website, next week we should see pre-orders for The Horusian Wars: Incarnation by John French and Hunger by Andy Smillie. I picked up both of those releases at BL Live in June, so keep an eye out for some more content about both of those coming up in the not too distant future!
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.