Black Library Weekly – W/C 12/11/18

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. We haven’t had any brand new releases this week, but despite that it’s actually been quite busy from a BL perspective. As always, let’s start from the top and have a look at what’s been happening.

Monday
For this week’s Digital Monday story Black Library dug into the pages of Inferno! Volume 1, and gave the e-short treatment to The Enemy of My Enemy by Nate Crowley, one of three BL debuts featured in that anthology. It’s safe to say that this is an unusual story, focused as it is on an unlikely alliance between the Imperial Guard and the orks that they had previously been locked in battle against – caused by the appearance of a tyranid hive fleet – but it’s also tremendous fun. Crowley brings a fresh voice to Black Library, and I’ve a feeling he might just be one to watch. You can have a read of my review here.

Midweek
This week I’ve got quite a lot to cover in the midweek period, from a little bit of self promotion regarding a recent blog post, to a couple of interesting snippets I found via Twitter, plus the usual Warhammer Community info. I’ll start with a quick plug for an article I published earlier in the week, entitled Black Library Upcoming Titles (as of November 2018) in which I trawled the interwebs looking for details of as many BL releases as I could find for the end of this year and next year. I’m certain it won’t be an exhaustive list, but it’s still pretty long, so if you fancy looking a bit further ahead than what’s shown on the Black Library website, do check it out! I’m particularly looking forward to Rachel Harrison’s Honourbound, Peter Fehervari’s Requiem Infernal, and Alec Worley’s Perdition’s Flame. Oh, and the start of the Siege of Terra as well!

This Wednesday saw not just the one usual Warhammer Community post covering Black Library, but two! First up was a reminder of the current Humble Bundle that I talked about last week, and which provides the opportunity to get over twenty audio titles (including full, unabridged audiobooks as well as audio dramas of various lengths) for a bargain price, and contribute to a charitable cause at the same time. It’s a limited time offer, so don’t dawdle! The second article is a quick interview with Darius Hinks about his new novel Blackstone Fortress, which sounds like an absolute blast. I’m very much looking forward to reading this one, but if you’re on the fence then have a look at the article. You can check out my own quick Rapid Fire interview with Darius by clicking here or on the banner below.

That’s not all for the midweek period, either. During my usual regular trawlings of the internet I stumbled across a couple of interesting tweets from Black Library authors, each offering a tantalising glimpse of what we can expect to read in the future. First up is David Annandale confirming that he’s handed in the final draft of his next Neferata novel, ominously entitled The Dominion of Bones, which I imagine will be out sometime towards the end of 2019. The next story he’s working on sounds like it could be something for the Warhammer Horror line, considering the title – The House of Night and Chain – and the fact that David was sitting down to rewatch The Woman in Black as preparation for his writing!

Next up it was the turn of new-ish Black Library author Mike Brooks, whose 40k and Necromunda stories have been brilliant so far. I spotted a quick interview with Mike over on the Tabletop Test site, which included confirmation of Mike’s upcoming BL novel – Rites of Passage, a book about Navigators! Apparently this was first revealed at the Weekender, although I missed that snippet, but I’m VERY excited to read a full Navigator novel, especially as the main character has already appeared in one of Mike’s short stories, and is already an intriguing character. I’ve no idea when we’ll see Rites of Passage, but I think it’s going to be worth looking out for.

Weekend
Despite there not being a single brand new release this weekend, it’s actually been pretty busy with no fewer than five print on demand titles (including a bundle deal), two paperback omnibuses, one paperback novel and one old-school Warhammer novel in audiobook. Let’s start with the print on demand stuff…

Prior to 2012’s Angel Exterminatus, all of the Horus Heresy books had been released as mass market paperbacks, but that all changed in 2012 as the new hardback editions were introduced – everything from Angel Exterminatus onwards has been released in hardback first, while BL started with the opening trilogy and slowly re-released the first 22 books in hardback as well. Fast forward to 2018 and there’s a vigorous secondary market for Horus Heresy hardbacks as many of them have sold out with BL, forcing desperate fans to pay extortionate second hand prices to complete their collections. Happily, starting this weekend Black Library are re-issuing the Heresy hardbacks as print on demand titles!

The first batch of these features books one to five in the series – Horus Rising, False Gods, Galaxy in Flames, The Flight of the Eisenstein and Fulgrim – with each one available for the usual £20. These are print on demand titles, however, and not permanent releases, so they’re only available to order for two week, starting Saturday 17th November and ending at 5pm GMT on Saturday 1st December. As far as I can tell they’re being printed in exactly the same format as the original hardbacks, so they should match the rest of the collection nicely. There’s even a bundle deal for all five of the books for £95, saving a fiver – any discount is good! I haven’t seen any details online yet, but at the Weekender it was confirmed that BL will be gradually going through the full series as print on demand titles, so keep you eyes peeled for books six to ten at some point.

Moving on from hardbacks to paperbacks, we’ve got two new omnibus editions available – The Beast Arises Volume 2 (£14.99 in ebook or £15 in paperback) and Dan Abnett’s Gaunt’s Ghosts: The Victory Part 1 (currently only listed in paperback for £12.99). Both of these are great value compared to buying the individual stories, with the Beast Arises omnibus especially good seeing as it contains four novels – Throneworld, Echoes of the Lost War, The Hunt for Vulkan and The Beast Must Die – which would otherwise cost £9.99 each! The Victory omnibus is still good value, containing two novels (Blood Pact and Salvation’s Reach) plus four short stories, but it might be worth waiting a year or so and getting the complete omnibus once Anarch has been out for a while.

Speaking of the Gaunt’s Ghosts series, with Anarch due out in January it’s about time we saw The Warmaster in paperback – it’s now available in the standard paperback edition for £8.99, although that might be a little disappointing for anyone who’s been collecting the whole series as all the rest of them were originally released as mass market paperbacks. If you haven’t yet picked this one up, you can read my review here (hint: it’s brilliant!) or have a read of a quick Rapid Fire interview with Dan Abnett by clicking here or on the banner below.

The last of the weekend’s releases is David Guymer’s Old World Warhammer novel Kinslayer in audiobook format, available as an MP3 for £29.99. Book one in The Doom of Gotrek Gurnisson, it was the second to last Gotrek and Felix novel and started the story arc which tied those characters in with the End Times – given the recent release of Realmslayer, it seems only appropriate for these to get the audiobook treatment. It’s going to be interesting to see if it’s just the final two – this one plus Slayer – or if BL will go back to Trollslayer and eventually release the whole series in audio! As always with audiobooks, don’t forget that you’re not tied into buying them through the BL website. If you’re an Audible user you can pick this up for one credit, but if you’re not yet subscribed to Audible you can even grab this as part of a free trial, and listen for nothing!

Thoughts on the week
As you can see from how much I’ve written in the Weekend section, despite there being no brand new releases whatsoever it’s still been a pretty busy week. I quite like these weeks, where we get lots of interesting little bits and pieces released, from weird little short stories (The Enemy of My Enemy is great, but definitely weird) to print on demand titles, and unexpected audiobooks as well. This week’s releases are definitely for the non-completists, i.e people who (unlike me) don’t necessarily go out and get everything in hardback straight away, and I’d say these releases should prove to be pretty good rewards for those people’s patience.

On the news front it was a surprise to see two BL-related Community posts, and on the same day too. I’d REALLY love to see the Community site provide more Black Library coverage, and while I don’t imagine this week was necessarily a sign of that happening, I can at least keep my fingers crossed. What this week has done, however, is prove once again how much interesting information is out there if you have the time to go look for it. It was pure chance that I stumbled across those tweets from David and Mike, but I’m glad I did! I’ll keep doing my best to flag things like that, but if you see anything interesting please do let me know as well.

Here’s what I’ve been talking about this week:

• Realmslayer by David Guymer.
• Upcoming Black Library Titles (as of November 2018).
• QUICK REVIEW: The Firstborn Daughter by Filip Wiltgren.
• QUICK REVIEW: At the Sign of the Brazen Claw by Guy Haley.
• Steel Daemon by Ian St. Martin.
• RAPID FIRE: Darius Hinks Talks Blackstone Fortress.

Coming up…
I’m not sure what’s coming up, actually. The BL website currently has Inferno! Volume 2 showing up under November in the Coming Soon section so possibly that, although it’s listed on the GW website as being due the 29th December. If not Inferno!, then perhaps the LE hardback of Aaron Dembski-Bowden’s Spear of the Emperor? We know it’s coming sometime soon, just not when…

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.