Black Library Monthly – February 2019

Welcome to Black Library Monthly for February 2019, the latest in this series of articles where I take a look back at all the Black Library-related news and releases of the preceding month, as well as talk a little about what I’ve been reading and reviewing. After quite a quiet January I got myself back in the reading and writing saddle for February, although I’m still deliberately putting out less content on Track of Words than the one-a-day posts I produced for large parts of 2018! With lots of reviews and blog posts to mention, as well as a decent number of new releases – bolstered by the second annual Black Library Celebration (although more on this in a separate article to come), there’s plenty to talk about in this month’s roundup.

I’m a little late getting this article written – we’re a few days into March already – so I’ll include the news which has landed in the first few days of the month too. There might be a few areas of overlap throughout this article for things I mentioned in last month’s post (which I also published a few days into February) but which is worth talking about again here. I was expecting to include a section in here about June’s upcoming releases, but at the time of writing this they haven’t yet been announced.

As with last month’s post I’ll start off with the general BL-related news that I spotted during February.

General news

I can’t talk about February without at least mentioning the Horus Heresy Weekender which took place in (well, near) Nottingham over the weekend of the 2nd and 3rd February. It wasn’t particularly focused on the Black Library side of the Heresy, but nevertheless it featured seminars and signings with two BL authors – James Swallow and Ian St. Martin – along with the chance to buy advance copies of their new books. You can read my full roundup of the event here if you’re interested, and my review of the event-only anthology Scions of the Emperor here.

As far as ad-hoc Black Library news goes I spotted a couple of interesting snippets on the interwebs which might be of interest – although we’re unlikely to see the outcomes of these updates for some time. Firstly, Heresy fans rejoice as Graham McNeill has completed a new Horus Heresy novella (presumably set during the Siege) – in that tweet there’s even an evocative little snippet of text which hints at the tone of the story. In a similar vein, but for a different setting, David Annandale has completed the first draft for a new novel entitled The House of Night and Chain – this is for the new Warhammer Horror range. More on that in a bit…

Continuing the unofficial news about new books theme, two upcoming anthologies have shown up online in the book trade (i.e. on Amazon and other book retailers), both of which sound like good fun (but sadly don’t have covers yet). First off there’s Underhive, a Necromunda anthology featuring Mike Brooks’ brilliant novella Wanted: Dead and nine short stories. I can think of seven already-published Necromunda short stories – Mike Brooks’ A Common Ground plus the six e-shorts released in February 2018. Whether or not the extra two will be prose versions of some of the Advent audios or brand new stories remains to be seen (it could also be that A Common Ground is excluded, and all three audios get prose versions), but I’m looking forward to finding out!

The second of the anthologies is Shield of the Emperor, the latest Imperial Guard/Astra Militarum anthology. This one features three novels – Fifteen Hours by Mitchel Scanlon, Death World by Steven Lyons and Rebel Winter by Steve Parker – each one accompanied by what’s described as “its own associated short story”. I’m not sure what those short stories are going to be, as I can’t think of anything directly related to the novels, but it should be interesting to see what they are.

Next up I’ll take a quick look through the BL-related Warhammer Community articles which have popped up over the last few weeks. Rather than talk about them in huge amounts detail – which seems a bit daft seeing as you could easily just read the articles (they’re not long) I’ll quickly break down what’s in them here and include links to each article.

The Buried Dagger
The first post in February was a teaser for the new Heresy novel, including the dramatis personae that you’ll find at the front of the book. If you haven’t read The Buried Dagger yet (you should – it’s good) then this is still worth taking a look at, to get a glimpse of who you can expect to show up.

Warhammer Fest
This post wasn’t specifically BL-related but did mention that Warhammer Fest will feature “Black Library author Q&As” and “a huge range” of BL books to buy. I was pretty disappointed with the BL offering at last year’s Warhammer Fest, so I’m not going into this year’s event with high hopes…but a couple of author seminars wouldn’t go amiss!

The Black Library Celebration
There was a series of articles during the week of the Black Library Celebration, each one featuring a little bit of info (usually in a one-paragraph author interview) about the latest short story plus a somewhat arbitrary selection of suggestions for where to start with the various BL ranges. I liked the snippets from the authors, but wasn’t too keen on the additional info as it felt a bit disjointed and unfocused. The one which worked best was probably this one, featuring a Severina Raine short story and some suggestions (based around the new Raine miniature) for how to draw inspiration from BL stories in your gaming.

I’m not going to talk much about the Celebration in this article, as I’ve got a separate post planned for it – keep an eye out for that coming soon.

Warhammer Horror
There were two posts on this topic, the first of which gave an overview of the first few books in this new range and included an intriguing snippet from one of the audiobook editions – narrated by the actor who played Pinhead in Hellraiser! The other focused on Maledictions, the upcoming short story anthology, including the thoughts of editor Hannah Hughes. It all sounds really interesting, but perhaps the best bit of the article was the brief mention right at the end of three new novels coming for the Warhammer Horror range – The Dark Harvest by Josh Reynolds, the aforementioned The House of Night and Chain by David Annandale, and Castle of Blood by CL Werner.

It sounds like the Horror range is going to be launching in March and then refreshing a few months later, with those three novels plus “a new short story anthology and more audio dramas”. If you’re anything like me I’m guessing you can’t wait to check them out – in the meantime if you’ve subscribed to the Black Library mailing list you should have received an email including an extract from Maledictions. I’m not sure if new subscribers will get that as well, but it’s worth giving it a shot! Apparently there will be more extracts to come…

Humble Bundle
The last bit of news to cover is the latest Humble Bundle offer, which this time focuses purely on the Horus Heresy. If you’re not familiar with what a Humble Bundle is, it’s a collection of digital content – in this case ebooks and audio dramas – which is sold using a ‘pay what you want’ model where sales contribute to charitable causes as well as the content creators. Each bundle is available for a limited time period – in this case you can order until the 20th March

The ‘pay what you want’ model means that you can literally pay however much you think is appropriate (from a minimum of $1) – the basic package contains the ebooks of the original trilogy (Horus Rising, False Gods and Galaxy in Flames) plus the Guilliman Primarchs novel, an e-short and an audio drama, plus a BL sampler. As you increase the amount you want to pay – first to $8 and then to $15 you get increasingly more content, with the total value apparently being $319 – getting on for £250 for UK fans. You’re getting that for a little over £10 – although you can choose to pay more if you’d like to give more to charity.

I won’t list all of the included titles here, as it’s easy enough to check them out on the Humble site, but suffice to say there’s an awful lot of great stories available. There’s a slightly odd mix of titles from across the range of the Heresy, with mostly early-to-mid series novels, a few Primarchs novels and several short stories set just before the Siege of Terra, while the audios are pretty much mid-series. It doesn’t quite feel like a full-on ‘introduction to the Heresy’ bundle then, but nevertheless whether you fancy getting hold of some great-value ebook versions or just want to give to a good cause, this does seem like a great way to do it. It’s good to see BL continuing with Humble Bundles – let’s hope there will be more to come in future.

Warhammer Adventures

I’ll look in a little more detail about the first two books in the new Warhammer Adventures range later on, but I want to talk just a little first about the range as a whole now that it’s finally been launched. There’s been a gradual increase in marketing and PR about this over the last few weeks, building up to the release of the first instalment of each of the series – the Age of Sigmar-set Realm Quest by Tom Huddleston and Warped Galaxies by Cavan Scott for 40k. February saw the launch of City of Lifestone and Attack of the Necron, in various formats – ebook, paperback, MP3 and CD, with the audiobooks narrated by Billie Piper and David Tennant respectively.

The concept of Warhammer books for younger readers has generated a considerable amount of discussion, and I’ve had my own say on it in my original blog post back in May 2018 as well as a new post which I wrote and published in February. Whatever you think about the idea, one thing is clear – this range is getting lots of support, and GW/BL are really giving it a go. There’s been an article in White Dwarf, various articles and interviews in the press and online, and even the start of a series of short animated videos, not to mention the dedicated website which has been up and running for several months now.

Whether you like it or not (and I definitely do like it, personally) it looks like this range is here to stay – at least for a while, with books two and three in each of the series due for release in May and August respectively. I’ve read both of the books so far and had LOADS of fun with them, so I’d really urge anyone to go into them with an open mind and give them a go. Who knows, you might like them!

Digital Mondays etc.

With the exception of the Black Library Celebration week, February’s Digital Monday stories continued the trend started in January of looking back to older anthologies rather than providing brand new content. There’s a little bit of overlap from last month’s article, but here’s the list of e-shorts released in February (and sneaking into March):

• Tempest by Nick Kyme
• Arnogaur by Aaron Dembski-Bowden
• The Inheritor King by Matthew Farrer
• Bringer of Sorrow by Aaron Dembski-Bowden (BL Celebration)
• The Mistress of Threads by John French (BL Celebration)
• Lantern’s Light by James Swallow (BL Celebration)
• Trials by Rachel Harrison (BL Celebration)
• Ghost of Nuceria by Ian St. Martin (BL Celebration)
• Redeemer by Guy Haley (BL Celebration)
• The Passing of Angels by John French
• The Abyssal Edge by Aaron Dembski-Bowden

The first few of those stories were originally published in the Sabbat Crusade anthology, as with all of January’s releases. That anthology has now been fully released in e-short format for anyone who’s only interested in particular stories – although (and sorry for sounding like a broken record) I really don’t think it makes much sense to buy these separately. The full anthology is a much more sensible, cost-effective option. See last month’s article for more of my thoughts on that topic.

The BL Celebration stories – all six of them – were really interesting, and it felt great to be getting brand new short story content for the duration of that week. There’s something about being able to dip into small snippets of new stuff on a regular basis that helps keep me enthused and engaged with BL and the 40k/AoS settings, and while I understand the reasons for BL pulling back on the new content and focusing it on special events like the Celebration I can’t help but miss it when it’s not there, and be extra happy when it does appear! I thought there was a nice mix of stories across these six, although once again it’s a shame that Age of Sigmar wasn’t featured at all.

The final two Digital Monday stories on that list are both Primarchs stories pulled from the Sons of the Emperor anthology, which was originally released as an event-only anthology at the 2018 Horus Heresy & Necromunda Weekender. BL have made a slightly half-hearted stab at making that clear – at the time of writing the product page for The Abyssal Edge mentions the anthology, but The Passing of Angels doesn’t. It’s a bit weird to see these getting the e-short treatment just as the anthology is getting a full release, but unlike Sabbat Crusade I think there’s probably more people who’ll only want to read about one or two of these characters, so fair enough. Still…the anthology is better value – it’s the equivalent of buying four and half of the e-shorts.

Weekend releases

Next I’ll quickly run through February’s big releases, starting with the main ‘new’ releases before moving onto paperbacks – again there’s a little overlap from last month’s article. I’ve listed these in the order in which they were published:

Corax: Lord of Shadows by Guy Haley
A little over three months after coming out in Limited Edition hardback, the standard editions – hardback (£12.99), ebook (£9.99) and audiobook (£19.99) landed in early February. This is Guy’s second Primarchs novel – check out a Rapid Fire interview with Guy and my review.

Hamilcar: Champion of the Gods by David Guymer
Available in ebook (£9.99) and hardback (£18) editions, this is the the first novel-length story to feature Hamilcar, after several short stories and audio dramas. Check out a Rapid Fire interview with David and my review (short version: it’s SO MUCH FUN).

Realm Quest: City of Lifestone by Tom Huddleston
The first book in the Age of Sigmar series for Warhammer Adventures, this is available in paperback (£6.99), ebook (£6.99), MP3 (£9.99) and CD (£9.99) formats. Check out my review here.

Warped Galaxies: Attack of Necron by Cavan Scott
This one is the first book in the 40k Warhammer Adventures series, and is available in the same formats – paperback (£6.99), ebook (£6.99), MP3 (£9.99) and CD (£9.99). Once again check out my review here.

Anarch by Dan Abnett
When this was first released in January it was sans audiobook, but that was rectified a few weeks later – the audio costs the usual £29.99 and is available on the BL site or via Audible (remember you can get it free if you start a free trial!). If you’ve not read/listened this yet, check out a Rapid Fire interview with Dan here or my review here.

Titandeath by Guy Haley
As with Anarch, this audiobook version (also £29.99) comes a little after the hardback/ebook release – a little over two months later, this time. It’s likewise available by BL or Audible, and once again you can check out a Rapid Fire interview with Guy or my review.

The Buried Dagger by James Swallow
Book 54 in the Horus Heresy series, and the final book before the Siege of Terra! If you like Garro and/or the Death Guard, this is the book for you – and as usual for the Heresy it’s available first in hardback (£20) and ebook (£9.99) formats, and this time the audiobook is also available too (for the usual £29.99). Check out a Rapid Fire interview with James or my review.

Angron: Slave of Nuceria by Ian St. Martin
The 11th novel in the Primarchs series, this is released first as the usual Limited Edition hardback (for £40), which looks rather lovely too. In my opinion it’s one of the best in the series – I absolutely loved it! Check out a Rapid Fire interview with Ian or my review.

Honourbound by Rachel Harrison
The latest Imperial Guard novel, this carries on the story from the (excellent) Severina Raine short stories which have been released over the last year or so. It’s available in hardback (£18) and ebook (£9.99) formats, although it looks like the hardback might have sold out via BL already! Check out a Rapid Fire interview with Rachel right here – I’m hoping to have a review ready fairly soon.

Our Martyred Lady by Gav Thorpe
The second audio drama boxed set from BL (after 2018’s Realmslayer), this is a 4+ hour story featuring Saint Celestine and Inquisitor Greyfax, featuring a phenomenal voice cast. It’s available in CD (£35) or MP3 (£29.99) formats, and is well worth checking out. Have a read of a Rapid Fire interview with Gav or my review.

Sons of the Emperor
First released as an event-exclusive back in February 2018, this Primarchs anthology – featuring eight new short stories – is now available (in exactly the same format, fact fans) for everyone to get hold of. It’s available in hardback (£15) or ebook (£11.99) formats, and you can check out my original review from last year right here.

And now the re-releases in paperback:

Tallarn by John French (£7.99)
Book 45 in the Horus Heresy series, this is now available in the smaller (mass market) paperback format – although it’s still available in hardback, ebook or MP3 audio if you’d prefer.

The Tainted Heart by CL Werner (£8.99)
Clint Werner’s 2018 novel about Witch Hunters in the Age of Sigmar is now available in paperback. If you’ve not read it yet, check out a Rapid Fire interview with Clint or my review.

Gotrek & Felix: The Second Omnibus by William King (£15)
The latest Warhammer Chronicles omnibus (also available in ebook for £13.99), this contains three of Bill King’s classic novels – Dragonslayer, Beastslayer and Vampireslayer – plus five short stories by various authors.

Horus Rising by Dan Abnett (£7.99)
The very first novel in the Horus Heresy series, re-released in none-more-black ‘Celebration Edition’ complete with an introduction by Dan and the additional short story Misbegotten (from Sons of the Emperor). Looks like this one might already be sold out on the BL site.

False Gods by Graham McNeill (£7.99)
The same ‘Celebration Edition’ as Horus Rising, this one features an introduction from Graham and his short story The Wolf of Ash and Fire (also available as an e-short or in Eye of Terra). At the time of writing this one is still available from BL.

Storm of Iron by Graham McNeill (£7.99)
Graham’s CLASSIC Iron Warriors novel from way back in 2002, this won the Reader’s Choice poll for 40k so is once more available in physical format. Check out my review right here.

Gotrek & Felix: City of the Damned by David Guymer (£8.99)
This one isn’t quite such an oldie – published in 2013 – but it proves the enduring appeal of Gotrek and Felix, this time winning the Warhammer poll in last year’s Reader’s Choice.

Reviews, interviews and blog posts

In January I didn’t have a huge amount to talk about in this section, as I’d deliberately slowed things down to give myself a bit of relaxation time at the start of the year. In February I picked the pace up a little – I’m not planning on going back to the one-a-day madness of August to December last year, but I managed 20 posts in February…and I’ve thrown in the links to a couple from March as well. These included lots of Rapid Fire author interviews for the BL Celebration titles, several book/audio drama reviews, a few blog posts, and finally some quick reviews. Here’s the full list:

• Corax: Lord of Shadows – Guy Haley
• Black Library Monthly – January 2019
• The Horus Heresy Weekender 2019
• RAPID FIRE: David Guymer Talks Hamilcar: Champion of the Gods
• Realm Quest: City of Lifestone – Tom Huddleston
• Hamilcar: Champion of the Gods – David Guymer
• Warped Galaxies: Attack of the Necron – Cavan Scott
• Scions of the Emperor – a Black Library Anthology
• Warhammer Adventures – the Adventures Begin
• QUICK REVIEW: Bringer of Sorrow – Aaron Dembski-Bowden
• QUICK REVIEW: The Mistress of Threads – John French
• QUICK REVIEW: Lantern’s Light – James Swallow
• QUICK REVIEW: Trials – Rachel Harrison
• RAPID FIRE: Rachel Harrison Talks Honourbound
• RAPID FIRE: James Swallow Talks The Buried Dagger
• RAPID FIRE: Gav Thorpe Talks Our Martyred Lady
• RAPID FIRE: Ian St. Martin Talks Angron: Slave of Nuceria
• Angron: Slave of Nuceria – Ian St. Martin
• QUICK REVIEW: Ghost of Nuceria – Ian St. Martin
• QUICK REVIEW: Redeemer – Guy Haley
• The Buried Dagger – James Swallow
• Our Martyred Lady – Gav Thorpe

Of everything I read in February, a few stood out even amongst so many really, really enjoyable titles. For the Horus Heresy, Ian St. Martin’s Angron: Slave of Nuceria was an absolute revelation, providing SO MUCH extra depth and (dare I say it) emotion to the World Eaters and really making me look at Angron and his legion in a new light. It looks like the LE hardback has sold out already, so if you’ve not yet got a hold of a copy I’d strongly suggest you look out for it when the standard edition goes up for sale in May. I don’t think you’ll regret it.

Another real standout was the latest Age of Sigmar novel – Hamilcar: Champion of the Gods by David Guymer. I’d read (or listened to) and enjoyed the Hamilcar stories that had been released already, but they hadn’t quite prepared me for how much fun I’d have reading about the Lord-Castellant of the Bear-Eaters and all the craziness that he gets up to. There’s so much more than just humour in this book, although the humour is SPOT ON. If you’re wondering whether Stormcast are all dour and series…check this out and you’ll find out just how different they can be! Highly recommended.

Lastly I want to quickly mention the two new Warhammer Adventures books again – City of Lifestone by Tom Huddleston and Attack of the Necron by Cavan Scott. It’s hard to get across just how enjoyable it is to settle down with this sort of fun, exciting adventure story – on the one hand you can easily just kick back and get lost in the stories, but on the other hand there’s a lot to enjoy for a long-time Warhammer fan like me (and I’m sure LOTS of you too) in thinking back to how much I’d have enjoyed these when I was first getting into the hobby. Forget all the negativity – these are tons of fun, and well worth reading whatever your age.

Coming up…

Overall I’d say March is looking a little bare in terms of new releases, although I’ve a feeling we’ll see rather more than what’s showing up on the BL Coming Soon page at the moment. Here’s what’s listed right now:

• The Wicked and the Damned – a Warhammer Horror portmanteau novel by David Annandale, Phil Kelly and Josh Reynolds.
• Perdition’s Flame by Alec Worley – a Warhammer Horror audio drama.
• Warhammer Chronicles: Knights of the Empire.
• Iron Warriors: The Omnibus by Graham McNeill.

We know that there’s going to be more, though – for a start there’s been confirmation via Warhammer Community that Maledictions, the first Warhammer Horror anthology, will go up for pre-order on the 23rd March. That’s the same day as three of the listed releases (everything except Knights of the Empire), so it looks like the 23rd is going to be a busy release day! Look out as well for the Limited Edition hardback of John French’s The Solar War at some point – the first Siege of Terra novel.

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As always, if you’ve got any thoughts or comments on the month’s news and releases – or any reviews I’ve written – please do get in touch via the comments section below or on Facebook or Twitter.