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. As usually at this time of year I’m writing this post from Nottingham – in this case mostly from a table in Bugman’s Bar at Warhammer World – in the run up to the Black Library Weekender, and I’ve spent most of the week getting increasingly hyped for the event! There’s been plenty of interesting Black Library-related goings on during the week so it’s not all been about the Weekender though, so let’s take a look.
Monday
The week kicked off with a Digital Monday short story as usual, this time the prose version of Iron Devil by CL Werner (£2.49 in ebook). This was originally released as an audio drama before this prose edition was released, and unusually if you look on the BL website you’ll see a note saying that “the text presented here in prose has been revised and expanded from the version found in the audio drama.” I’m not sure if that always happens but hasn’t been explicitly stated before, or if it’s uncommon for audio scripts to be expanded when they’re converted into prose, but it’s interesting to see it being mentioned.
Despite being technically an Astra Militarum story, this nonetheless features orks as antagonists and fits in nicely with Orktober taking place, while it’s also billed (by BL) as a ‘haunted house’ story which also ties in with its release in Halloween week. I’m not entirely convinced about that, and in my mind it’s more of a conventional Guard story really, but there are a few horror-ish stylings if you fancy a bit of that. Overall I did enjoy it, although it’s perhaps not one of my favourite BL short stories of recent times. Have a read of my review for a bit more info.
Midweek
It’s been a fairly quiet midweek period (apart from my increasing hype levels in advance of the Weekender), so the main talking point was the usual Wednesday BL-related Warhammer Community post. This week this saw Guy Haley take the reins, talking a little about the THREE new releases of his which came out in October – Corax: Lord of Shadows, Dark Imperium: Plague War and Prophets of Waaagh! If you haven’t read (or listened to) some or all of these yet then this article should give you some useful insight into what you can expect from them, while even if you have read/listened to them it’s fun to see Guy talking about them in his own words.
That was about it during the week, but don’t worry – plenty more to look at for the weekend…
Weekend
First of all let’s take a look at the new releases from Saturday, which included a new 40k novel and a whole host of brand new paperback novellas. I’ll start with the new novel – Rise of the Ynnari: Wild Rider by Gav Thorpe, which is available in the usual hardback (£18) and ebook (£9.99) formats (no audiobook, sadly). This is the second in the series, after last year’s excellent Ghost Warrior, and sees Yvraine and the Ynnari working alongside the craftworld aeldari of Saim-Hann. If it’s anything like Ghost Warrior then it promises to be a really interesting read. You can find out more about it by checking out my quick Rapid Fire interview with Gav – click here, or on the image below.
Next up we’ve got the TEN new paperback novellas included in the Black Library Novella Series 1, each of which is available for the bargain price of £3 (in paperback, or £2.99 in ebook). I’m not going to go into a lot of detail about each one, but suffice to say the series includes two Horus Heresy titles, one Necromunda story, three 40k stories and four Age of Sigmar tales – including a brand new Gotrek novella! I’m so pleased that these are being released in paperback and at such a great price point, as they should be fantastic entry points for new readers, or cost-effective options for established fans. I can’t wait to pick all ten of them up!
If you’re after getting all ten, there are bundles for both the paperback and ebook editions, which even offer a bit of a discount – all ten for £27 (paperback) or £26.91 (ebook). Speaking of novellas, there’s also a further novella which isn’t included in that series – Death Knell by Phil Kelly. This one comes under the Space Marine Heroes banner, presumably to support the wider release of the 40k models of the same name, and as with the novella series is available in paperback for £3 (no ebook for this one, strangely). I’m assuming it’s going to feature the specific characters represented by those models, which should be interesting to read about. Hopefully this is the shape of things to come in terms of more stories in this format and price point!
The final releases are the audiobook version of Sacrosanct & Other Stories (£9.99), which came out in paperback/book a couple of weeks ago, as well as a the Nagash Journal, which joins the existing Horus Heresy and Age of Sigmar journals and is priced at the same £13.
Lastly, just a quick note on the Black Library Weekender which is still taking place as I write this section of the post. I’m going to put together a proper roundup post as soon as I can, so keep an eye out for that, but as such I’m not going to go into a huge amount of detail here. What I will say is that so far (I’m writing this on Saturday evening) it’s been an absolute blast, with a whole host of really interesting and entertaining seminars, TONS of authors, artists and actors in attendance (although Brian Blessed is ill so couldn’t make it, sadly) and many, many new books to buy. I’ve had a blast catching up with old friends and meeting new people, and the overall atmosphere is really positive – if you’ve not been to one of these events before, I can’t recommend it enough!
Thoughts on the week
From a release perspective it’s been quite an eclectic week, with an absolute mass of new novellas alongside Monday’s short story and the new 40k novel from Gav. One of the great things about being a Black Library fan is the variety and range on offer, and that’s really exemplified by this week’s releases. Of course it also means that it’s going to be even harder than usual to stay on top of all the new titles coming out, but then that’s a good problem to have!
Releases notwithstanding, what I’ve been most excited about this week is of course the Weekender, which I’ve been looking forward to for a long time! As I said above, I’m going to write a full roundup of the weekend once it’s all done and dusted, but so far it’s not disappointed me despite all the hype that I’d been building up for it! It’s currently 1.15am on Saturday night/Sunday morning, so I’m going to cut this section short and go to bed – lots more of the Weekender to enjoy in the morning!
Here’s a list of what I’ve been posting about this week:
- Slayer by David Guymer
- QUICK REVIEW: The Enemy of My Enemy by Nate Crowley
- QUICK REVIEW: Iron Devil by CL Werner
- QUICK REVIEW: How Vido Learned the Trick by Josh Reynolds
- Monthly Highlights – October 2018
- RAPID FIRE: Gav Thorpe Talks Rise of the Ynnari: Wild Rider
Coming up…
Next week is going to be a Josh Reynolds week, with two new Age of Sigmar releases – Hallowed Knights: Black Pyramid and Eight Lamentations: War-Claw. Can’t wait for both of those!
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.