Black Library Advent Calendar 2018 – Recap

We’ve reached the very end of 2018, and now that the Black Library Advent Calendar has finished for another year, I’m taking my usual look back at what the series contained and whether there’s anything we can extrapolate from what’s been included. As with previous years I’m not going to go into too much detail about each story in this article, as you can check out links to all of my reviews by clicking here. Instead I’m going to have a look at each of the different settings in turn, and think about things as a whole.

In case you’ve no idea what I’m talking about, each year Black Library releases a new* short story or audio drama every day from the 1st to the 24th December. You can either pick these up individually, or go for a subscription option which requires you to pay up front (but offering a cost saving) and adds each day’s story into your account in the morning. Sometimes the Advent stories are standalone tales, while other times they either tie into existing series or offer hints at what’s to come in the next year or so, and each year I read/listen to the whole lot, post reviews, and then do a roundup post like this.

*Usually all 24 stories are brand new, however this year that wasn’t quite the case. I gather there were some scheduling issues, so rather than leave gaps in the Advent series, BL included five stories which had previously been published in an event-only (i.e. limited run) anthology. More on this later on.

Advent by numbers
I always enjoy a good statistic or two, so let’s start off by having a look at some numbers relating to this year’s Advent series. First off, the authors and who contributed to which settings; this year there were 17 authors in total, which made for a great mixture of styles!

• David Annandale (3 – Age of Sigmar, Horus Heresy and Primarchs)
• Aaron Dembski-Bowden (1 – Horus Heresy)
• Evan Dicken (1 – Age of Sigmar)
• John French (1 – 40k)
• LJ Goulding (1 – Horus Heresy)
• David Guymer (3 – Age of Sigmar x2 and Primarchs)
• Guy Haley (2 – Age of Sigmar and Blackstone Fortress)
• Rachel Harrison (1 – 40k)
• Justin D. Hill (1 – Necromunda)
• Matt Keefe (1 – Necromunda)
• Phil Kelly (1 – 40k)
• Nick Kyme (1 – Necromunda)
• Peter McLean (1 – 40k)
• Graham McNeill (1 – Horus Heresy)
• Josh Reynolds (2 – Age of Sigmar and Necromunda)
• Gav Thorpe (2 – Age of Sigmar and Blackstone Fortress)
• CL Werner (1 – Age of Sigmar)

Next let’s have a look at the splits for the different settings, and how they break down by medium:

• Age of Sigmar: 5 short stories and 3 audio dramas
• Blackstone Fortress: 3 short stories
• Horus Heresy: 4 short stories
• Necromunda: 3 audio dramas
• The Primarchs: 2 short stories
• Warhammer 40,000: 4 short stories

And, very quickly, the cost breakdown of buying these stories individually rather than picking up the subscription:

• 6 audio dramas at £3.99 each = £23.94
• 18 short stories at £2.49 each (up from £1.99 in 2017) = £44.82
• Total individual cost = £68.76 (bizarrely, exactly £1 more than in 2017)
• Cost of collection = £46 (£3.85 less than in 2017)

So that’s a saving of £22.76 if you buy the full subscription rather than getting the stories individually – as always, that’s an impressive saving. For me, the subscription is always the sensible option as I’m interested in reading/listening to all of the stories, but I do recognise that for fans who are only interested in certain characters, factions or settings, it might well be better value to pick up just the individual stories you want.

Now that we’ve taken a look at the stats, let’s have a look at each of the settings and what was covered in this year’s Advent stories. I’ll go in alphabetical order, just so that there’s an order of some sort…!

Age of Sigmar
As you can see from the stats section earlier, Age of Sigmar made up a full third of this year’s Advent stories, broken down into three audio dramas and five short stories. Personally I think it’s great to see such a lot of AoS content, as in the past it’s often been overshadowed a little by 40k and the Horus Heresy, whereas this year it feels like Black Library have really concentrated on delivering some great content.

The three audio dramas were real highlights of the whole Advent series for me, each of them clearly connected to ongoing series while delivering interesting, unusual stories in their own right. In case you’re not aware, here’s how the three audios connect to their respective series:

• The Palace of Memory by David Guymer: a Hamilcar Bear-Eater story, this joins a variety of short stories featuring the least humble of all Stormcast Eternals. It doesn’t look like it directly ties in with the upcoming novel Champion of the Gods, but it certainly does a good job of reminding us how much fun this character is.
• Black Atonement by David Annandale: a Neferata story, which by all accounts is a prequel to David’s next novel in the series, entitled The Dominion of Bones. I wouldn’t say you need to have read Mortarch of Blood to enjoy this, although one of the (few) supporting characters in the audio is featured in the novel.
• Hungerfiend by Guy Haley: a story of Prince Maesa and Shattercap, and the second audio drama in the series after last year’s Advent audio The Autumn Prince. Interestingly, this actually takes place after At the Sign of the Brazen Claw Part Two: The Merchant’s Story which is featured in Inferno! Volume 2, although there’s no particular need to worry about continuity.

As for the five short stories, there’s plenty more really interesting tales to be found amongst these, with another big-name character turning up alongside some new faces. In terms of continuity I would say that three of them are apparently standalone tales (although in time that may change) while two loosely link in with other series.

David Guymer’s One, Untended is a Gotrek Gurnisson story, and I would definitely suggest that you listen to Realmslayer before reading this one, although it’s up to you whether you read Robbie MacNiven’s novella The Bone Desert beforehand or afterwards. Either way, if you enjoyed the old Gotrek and Felix stories then this is probably going to be right up your street. Meanwhile Josh Reynolds’ A Dirge of Dust and Steel is part of his ongoing Hallowed Knights series and introduces the character of Sathphren Swiftblade who features in the novel Black Pyramid. Even though the novel was published earlier, if you haven’t yet read it I would suggest you go for this short story first.

As for the other three, I would suggest that Evan Dicken’s Acts of Sacrifice is likely to be a standalone story given that it’s set during the Age of Chaos, and we’re probably not going to get a whole series set during that time just yet. The other two – Blood Gold by Gav Thorpe and The Deeper Shade by CL Werner – both feature brand new characters, and it’s entirely possible that one or both of Gav and Clint are working on further stories featuring the same names. I do know that both of them are currently or soon to be working on Age of Sigmar novels, so count these as maybes for now.

Blackstone Fortress
It was a real surprise to me – albeit a pleasant one – to find out that there would be not just one but THREE Blackstone Fortress stories in the Advent series. Darius Hinks’ novel Blackstone Fortress was released to accompany the boxed game of the same name, and I know Darius has talked about how much he’d like to see more stories told in this setting, but I didn’t really expect BL to release anything else so soon. Bear in mind it was months after the release of the new Necromunda game that we saw any new fiction!

As I said, though, it was very much a pleasant surprise – the novel was great fun, and Darius is absolutely right in that there’s SO MUCH scope for further stories to be set in this weird and wonderful corner of the 40k universe. The three stories included here – Man of Iron by Guy Haley, Motherlode by Nick Kyme and Purity is a Lie by Gav Thorpe – do a grand job of expanding on the game’s background, characters and locations, each one tackling a different character (or set of characters) from the game. None of them tie in with the novel, and in fact Purity is a Lie directly contradicts the novel (which is a bit of a shame, and I can’t help thinking has slipped through the editorial net), but that really doesn’t matter as there’s clearly much more to the setting than just one story arc.

Crucially, all of the Blackstone Fortress stories so far have been a lot of fun, and I get the feeling that this setting could well provide a particularly enjoyable sandbox for authors to go for something a bit different to the usual 40k tone and style. I would love to read more about some of the characters from the game – particularly the ‘Imperial Robot’ UR-025 and Amallyn Shadowguide, who I’d REALLY like to see Gav tackle – but I can see so many opportunities for brand new characters, and exploration of new locations on and around the Fortress. I really, really hope BL continue to support this setting!

Horus Heresy
With the Siege of Terra looming ever closer (can you believe the first novel is due in just a few months?) it was no surprise to see that all of the main (i.e. not Primarchs) Horus Heresy stories were very much focused on setting up characters in preparation for what’s to come next. Sticking with the four main Heresy stories, three of them feature well-known characters from elsewhere in the series – Alivia Sureka, Malcador the Sigillite and Lotarra Sarrin – and are easy enough to place into the ongoing timeline. While there’s no way of knowing what’s coming for these characters (beyond WILD speculation), here’s a very quick rundown of how they connect to what’s gone before:

• Old Wounds, New Scars by Graham McNeill: Alivia Sureka first appeared (I think) in Vengeful Spirit, and then the short story Wolf Mother, and there’s a direct line through those stories and into this one.
• The Last Council by LJ Goulding: Malcador has popped up in all sorts of Heresy stories, and there’s no obvious through-line which connects his appearances. Instead, I’d suggest listening to First Lord of the Imperium for a story with a similar tone, and maybe The Binary Succession for a slightly abstract connection. To be honest, though, this one’s best enjoyed if you’re fully up to date with everything that’s gone before.
• A Rose Watered with Blood by Aaron Dembski-Bowden: Lotarra Sarrin has featured in most of the World Eaters stories so far, beginning with either Betrayer or Butcher’s Nails (I can’t remember which one came first). This particular story is a direct sequel, however, to LJ Goulding’s Prince of Blood, which is featured in the Sons of the Emperor anthology.

The fourth story – David Annandale’s Abyssal – is a little different in that its protagonist hasn’t (as far as I’m aware) featured in the series before. It’s hard to know quite how this is going to connect to what’s to come in the Siege, but it certainly feels as though the events of this story will somehow prove to be significant. It would be odd if that doesn’t end up being the case, at least.

Much like the Heresy stories in last year’s Advent Calendar, it feels like Black Library are trying hard to set the tone for the Siege of Terra. There’s very little light amongst these stories, as you might expect, and while they don’t quite have the breathless sense of anticipation that stories like Duty Waits or Now Peals Midnight did (at least partially because they’re mostly set away from Terra this time around) they definitely do contribute to an overarching sense of anticipation. We obviously know that Malcador is going to have a big part to play during the Siege, but it’s cool to see characters like Alivia and Lotarra getting some screen time as well.

Speaking of Malcador, there’s no question that The Last Council has proven to be the most controversial of all of this year’s Advent Calendar stories – much like First Lord of the Imperium did last year. I’m not going to spoil the reasons behind this, in case you haven’t read it yet, but suffice to say there are definitely a couple of big talking points in this story. Personally I rather like the way they were handled in context of what else takes place, and I’m always a fan of different authors highlighting different aspects of the same character’s personality. If you focus more on the story itself and less on perceptions of how characters ‘should’ or ‘shouldn’t’ act, I think there’s an awful lot to enjoy in this one.

As well as those four Heresy stories, there were also two Primarchs short stories – A Lesson in Iron by David Guymer and The Atonement in Fire by David Annandale. Of the two, David Guymer’s Iron Hands story is definitely suited to the Primarchs label, as it’s set during the Great Crusade and doesn’t tie in with any other Heresy stories. In contrast, Annandale’s The Atonement in Fire follows on almost directly from his novel Ruinstorm, and works nicely as a link between that book and the novella Spear of Ultramar. They’re both interesting stories, although I can’t help thinking that A Lesson in Iron isn’t quite as good as it could be, but neither are what you’d necessarily call essential reading. Of course, if you’re an Iron Hands fan then you’re definitely going to want to read this simply because there are so few Ferrus Manus stories available!

Necromunda
I’ve been a huge Necromunda fan for a long time, and I’d been ever so slightly disappointed that Black Library had published so few new stories since the updated game was released. As such, I’m very pleased to see not just new Necromunda stories, but the first ever (as far as I’m aware) Necromunda audio dramas! I also enjoyed the way in which these stories were themed, with all of them featuring bounty hunters – character archetypes which are fundamental to the feel of Necromunda as a setting.

In fact, all three of these stories do a fantastic job of bringing the underhive to life, and illustrating exactly that – the feel of Necromunda, and the way in which it’s part of the 40k universe, but absolutely its own separate thing. I think a lot of Black Library fans enjoy stories set away from the big battlefields and featuring characters who aren’t necessarily ultra-powerful soldiers, and Necromunda provides a perfect opportunity for exactly that. These three audios offer tantalising little glimpses into the day to day grind of underhivers struggling to survive, featuring not just bounty hunters but regular, ordinary citizens as well.

In terms of connectivity, there’s nothing linking any of these stories to each other or to the previous Necromunda stories – at least not as far as I can tell. While I would happily listen to or read more stories about the Deserter (Justin D. Hill’s aptly named The Deserter), Arturos (Expectatio by Matt Keefe) or Gor Half-Horn (Josh Reynolds’ Half-Horn), I’ve a feeling that these are probably all going to be one-off stories. I’d love to be wrong, and I certainly hope that there are more Necromunda stories in the pipeline.

Warhammer 40,000
It’s interesting, in hindsight, that of the four 40k short stories featured in this year’s Advent Calendar there wasn’t a single one about Space Marines! Instead, we got two Imperial Guard stories, one T’au Empire story, and one Inquisition story; I would argue that Space Marines and Chaos (in all of its infinite variety) are probably the most popular factions in 40k, so it’s kinda brave for BL to not focus on either of them. That being said, in my opinion at least that bravery has been rewarded with some really interesting stories.

The two Imperial Guard stories come from two of my favourite up and coming Black Library authors – Rachel Harrison (with Fire and Thunder) and Peter McLean (with Sand Lords). If you haven’t read anything by these two yet, I really (REALLY) can’t recommend them enough, and you could do worse than start by reading these stories. For Peter McLean in particular, this would be a perfectly good place to start as it’s not connected to any of his previous stories in narrative terms – although in tone and themes it feels very similar. If you want to start at the beginning with Rachel’s Severina Raine stories then go for Execution first; that gives the best introduction to the characters, and then you should be fine to read the other stories in any order. Keep an eye out for the upcoming novel Honourbound in February – it promises to be a beauty!

John French’s The Son of Sorrows is part of his ongoing Horusian Wars series, this time featuring the specialist Koleg. Each of the short stories in this series has focused on a different member of Inquisitor Covenant’s warband, and while they’re not essential to be able to enjoy the novels, they’re absolutely worth reading. You don’t need to tackle them in any particular order, although I’d probably suggest reading at least the first novel (Resurrection) before this one. To be honest, I’d suggest you start with that novel and then binge read everything else – they’re so damn good!

The last of the four 40k stories is Phil Kelly’s The Battle of Blackthunder Mesa, which is part of Phil’s ongoing exploration of Commander Farsight. It’s an interesting one, this story. Perhaps more than any of the others in the Advent series, this really does benefit from the reader having a decent knowledge of the current 40k background – specifically the latest T’au Empire lore. The first time I read it (which was in 2017 sometime – see the section below on the Events Anthology) I wasn’t very well up on the T’au, and I didn’t really understand what Phil was getting at. Fast forward to this year, and having brushed up on my T’au background (and also realised how closely it connected to a previous story) I re-read it and it made WAY more sense. I haven’t yet read Phil’s two Farsight books (Farsight and Crisis of Faith) but I imagine this links in with those, and it definitely acts as a sequel to the Space Marine Battles novel Blades of Damocles.

Events Anthology
As I mentioned earlier, five of this year’s Advent Calendar stories had previously been published before – in The Black Library Events Anthology 2017/18, which was a short story anthology only available (as the title suggests) at official BL/GW events. Those five stories are:

• The Son of Sorrows by John French
• A Lesson in Iron by David Guymer
• A Dirge of Dust and Steel by Josh Reynolds
• The Battle of Blackthunder Mesa by Phil Kelly
• The Atonement in Fire by David Annandale

I’ve talked a bit about this elsewhere on Track of Words, but it’s worth mentioning it again. As a hardcore Black Library fan who picks up pretty much everything they put out, it’s hard not to feel a little disappointed that this year’s Advent Calendar didn’t contain 24 completely brand new stories. After all, I picked up this anthology over a year ago, and the maths for working out whether the subscription is good value has to be changed to consider the fact that I’ve already read five of the stories. As it happens, the subscription was still worth going for, which is reassuring.

If I put that disappointment to one side, it’s only fair to point out that while I (and a relatively small number of others) have already read these five stories, the VAST majority of other BL fans won’t have. Most people won’t have picked up the anthology, seeing as it wasn’t widely available, so I imagine that for the majority of fans this year’s Advent Calendar was indeed 100% brand new content. Is it a shame for those of us who did get the anthology? Sure. Is it really an issue in the grand scheme of things? Nah.

Not only that, but it’s become clear that this wasn’t a planned decision by Black Library – it wasn’t a case of not being bothered to commission five new stories. Instead, for whatever reason, I assume that five stories which had originally been commissioned didn’t end up ready for publishing – and so rather than release an Advent series with only 19 stories, BL did the sensible thing and found a way to make it work. I don’t know about you, but I think I’d have been much more disappointed (and, frankly, confused) if there had only been 19 stories! So yeah – overall I’d say it was a good decision.

Subscription
I’ve talked a bit about the subscription already, but I’d like to quickly discuss something which has been problematic in previous years – the delivery mechanism. I’ll be honest and say that I don’t really like the way Black Library do subscriptions, and I never really have. It works by adding each new story into a zipped folder that you have to re-download every day, which means that by the 24th December this year you’ve downloaded the ePub or Mobi folder 18 times and the MP3 folder 6 times. It just seems like a faff to have to keep downloading the same folder, rather than having each story added into your account individually, and makes things tricky if you’re working off mobile internet or a slow wifi connection.

That’s not the problem, though – ultimately it is what it is, and so you just have to accept it. The problem has previously been that files haven’t been added to those zipped folders, meaning subscribers have had to wait in frustration to be able to get to the stories, even though non-subscribers have been able to buy and download them. That’s just been plain annoying, and before this year I’m pretty sure I’d had to contact BL’s customer support team to grumble about delays every time I’d bought a subscription. If they weren’t so cost-effective I’d have given up long ago!

Anyway, that’s what had always happened in the past. This year? Not a sign of that problem whatsoever! I checked the Black Library website each morning and saw the new story available to order bright and early (usually by 8am GMT, which is amazing!), and each time I logged into my account I was able to re-download the zipped folder and find the new file waiting for me to open. It’s the small things which are often the most annoying or the most satisfying, so I’d like to say a massive thanks to the person at BL who made sure us subscribers were able to get hold of each day’s story bright and early every day. Thank you!

In summary
So there you have it – after 24 Black Library stories, including 18 short stories and 6 audio dramas, another year’s Advent Calendar is done and dusted. I always look forward to the Advent series each year, partially because I bloomin’ love BL short stories and partly because it’s just so much fun to read or listen to something brand new EVERY DAY for over three weeks. Of course it’s pretty knackering getting the stories consumed and my reviews written and published by the following morning…but it’s worth it for me, and I hope you’ve enjoyed the reviews too.

Thinking about this year’s Advent Calendar as a whole, I’m happy to say that the overall standard of these stories has been really good. I always try to be positive and look for things to enjoy in what I read and listen to, but to be honest it’s been easy to find positives in the vast majority of these stories. For me personally there were maybe just two short stories which I didn’t feel quite delivered what I’d hoped for (read the reviews and you’ll quickly figure out which two I’m referring to), but out of 24 that’s not bad. In terms of the stories I’ve enjoyed the most, I would say that this year it’s been the audios which have been consistently impressive, and that’s testament to not just the authors but also the actors and the clever, creative folks who produce, engineer and mix the audios.

Thinking back to previous years’ Advent collections, I would maybe say that this year’s has been full of good stories, but hasn’t had quite as many great stories as I’ve seen in the past. A few have really stood out to me, and those were Fire and Thunder, Sand Lords, The Palace of Memory, Man of Iron and The Last Council. If you were looking to cherry pick just a few stories from the collection then those would probably be the ones I’d recommend; that’s not to say the others aren’t good, because they very much are…but where some previous Advent Calendars have blown me away with genuinely brilliant story after genuinely brilliant story, this year hasn’t quite hit the same heights. Of course, this is only my personal opinion – you may well disagree!

If you’d like to have a read of all of my individual reviews, you can find them here.

If you’ve got any comments, questions or feedback, please do leave a comment below or get in touch via Facebook or Twitter. I’d love to hear what your favourite Advent stories were, so please do let me know!