Black Library Monthly – March 2019

Welcome to Black Library Monthly for March 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. March has been an interesting month for Black Library fans with some interesting news, a few major releases, and a little controversy, so there’s lots to talk about this time around. For the first time in 2019 I’ve actually got this roundup ready for the end of the month itself, rather than partway into the following month, so hopefully there’s plenty of interesting, relevant info to digest.

As usual, I’ll kick off by taking a look at the month’s general BL-related news.

General news

I spotted quite a few interesting snippets over the course of the month, but I want to start by mentioning the Horus Heresy 2019 Humble Bundle which ran until the 20th March. I talked about this in last month’s roundup but it’s worth quickly mentioning here just to reiterate how good it is to see Black Library getting involved in charity promotions like this. From a customer’s perspective for a little over a tenner the deal gave you almost £250 worth of content – so even if you’ve got most of those stories it’s worth it just for the digital versions – while it’s also a great way to contribute to good causes. The link no longer shows all the goodies that the bundle offered, but it does show that 23,726 bundles were sold! That’s a lot of books, and hopefully a lot of money going to charity. I really, really hope BL continue to run these promotions in future.

Moving on to bits and pieces that I spotted online, let’s start with a new Necromunda novel which showed up in the book trade this month – Terminal Overkill by Justin D. Hill. As far as I can see there’s no cover yet for this one, but here’s the synopsis:

In the polluted, sprawling hive cities of Necromunda, life is short. From the decadent heights of the Spire to the murderous deeps of the Underhive, those on the climb must be bold and brutal, or face a violent end

When the barbarous Fettnir, Goliath overlord of the Chemfall Butchers, turns his attention to Escher territory, the result is nothing short of a massacre. Brielle of the Wild Hydras, escapes the slaughter and is cast into the deepest levels of the Underhive. Determined to avenge her family, Brielle vows that she will end those responsible, but to reach Fettnir and the bounty hunter who murdered her mother, she must first survive… and the darkness is full of horrors.

That sounds cool, right? And what an awesome title for a Necromunda novel! Justin has confirmed that it’s written and he’s been going through proofs, so fingers crossed we’ll see this hit the shelves reasonably soon. I’m going out on a limb with a guess here, but I’m wondering if maybe this might skip the hardback release and go straight to paperback…in which case it could be released as soon as August. Just speculation, though…

Loosely continuing with the Necromunda theme, last month I mentioned that a new Necromunda omnibus had showed up online but without a cover. The cover has now appeared as well, for Underhive as well as a 40k Imperial Guard omnibus called Shield of the Emperor – which someone pointed out to me is likely to be a reprint of the classic Imperial Guard Omnibus: Volume 1 which was published way back in 2008. Here’s the cover for Underhive:

And here’s the cover for Shield of the Emperor:

Next up in terms of upcoming releases is a tweet from Graham McNeill showing the cover and interior plate of a new version of The Imperial Infantryman’s Handbook (previously known as The Imperial Infantryman’s Uplifting Primer), which it looks like Graham has been involved in writing. Here are the pictures from that tweet, if you’re not a Twitter fan – the front cover:

And the interior:

As far as I’m aware there hasn’t been any official information (release date etc.) about this new release, although if anyone’s spotted something that I’ve missed then please do let me know! Time will tell as to when this is released and whether it’s a standalone release or accompanying something else from BL and/or GW.

A couple more brief snippets from Twitter, in the shape of confirmations from two established science fiction authors – Sean Grigsby and Justin Woolley – that they’re currently writing 40k stories for Black Library. I’ve not read anything by either of these chaps so I can’t really comment on this beyond a general sense of excitement at yet more authors getting stuck into the IP. I would imagine we’re looking at short stories to begin with, so perhaps we’ll see these two names showing up in future volumes of Inferno! – that would be great!

Warhammer Horror
Unless you’ve been hiding beneath a rock for the last few weeks you’re probably already aware that the new Warhammer Horror range/series/imprint has officially launched, with the release of Maledictions, The Wicked and the Damned and Perdition’s Flame. In the run up to these new releases being available, the Black Library email newsletter included short excerpts from all three titles, which I thought was a nice little touch. It would have been even better if there had also been quick author interviews or something similar which gave a real insight into each title, to really add some extra value to newsletter subscribers – I’d love to see more of that from BL.

To be fair there were three separate Community articles talking about the new releases, but personally I didn’t think that they gave enough detail beyond a general sense of ‘we can’t say much but we still want you to think these sound cool’. If you didn’t spot those articles, here are the links:

• Warhammer Horror: Maledictions (this one did also include the titles of three upcoming novels due later in the year)
• Warhammer Horror: The Wicked and the Damned
• Warhammer Horror: Perdition’s Flame

There have actually been quite a few Community articles about Warhammer Horror over the last few months, so I wrote up an article of my own in which I pulled some of the most interesting bits of information into one place. In that article I talked about what the aims of the range appear to be, and what’s coming next, so it’s worth checking out if you fancy knowing a little bit more (including the titles of the upcoming novels). I’ve also reviewed the short story anthology Maledictions, if you’d like to check that out, and run a quick author interview with Alec Worley about his audio drama Perdition’s Flame.

The Siege of Terra
Probably the biggest news of the month all involved the Siege of Terra, the long-awaited culmination of the Horus Heresy series. We’d known for a while that the first book in the Siege mini-series (John French’s The Solar War) was due to be released as a limited edition hardback fairly soon, but Black Library had been very quiet about when that was coming…right up until Friday 15th March when a Community post showed up telling us that it was due to be released the next day! On the one hand, great news – super exciting that the first book was about to be released! On the other hand, one day’s notice? That’s not a lot of time to prepare – to put money aside, to clear calendars so that the Saturday morning was free, and so on.

I’m not going to go into much detail here about what happened when The Solar War went on sale on the Saturday, but let’s just say it didn’t quite go to plan. You can read my thoughts about the whole process in this article, in which I discuss BL’s communication, the difficulties inherent in large on-sales like this, the way in which BL (eventually) responded and the changes they’re making in preparation for the next book going on sale. It really wasn’t a great way for the Siege of Terra to start, but now that the book is out there in fans’ hands (some fans, at least) it seems to be generating some great excitement, which is exactly as it should be!

It wasn’t just me who commented on what happened, however. Credit should absolutely go to Black Library for mentioning it in a Community post the following Wednesday, along with a few details of which authors are involved in writing the Siege of Terra books, and even the title and author of book two in the series – The Lost and the Damned by Guy Haley. At risk of sounding like a broken record I still think leaving it until 4 days later to even acknowledge that there had been issues on the Saturday wasn’t right, and I’d have liked to have seen a more thorough explanation of what happened…but putting that to one side it’s actually a pretty damn cool article. It’s worth it for the author photos alone!

One last Siege of Terra-related item, from Twitter again. Legendary BL author and all round great guy Gav Thorpe hit 10,000 Twitter followers during March, and to celebrate he posted an unedited snippet from the first draft of his Siege of Terra novel. There are some big names in that small snippet, so it looks like Gav’s novel is going to be pretty action-packed!

The Coming Soon page
I mentioned earlier that there was a little controversy in March, and the website fun when The Solar War going on sale wasn’t the only cause of that. The other interesting topic which I can’t avoid talking about is the disappearance of the Coming Soon section on both the Black Library and Games Workshop websites. I think it’s safe to say that BL have had an interesting relationship with the concept of pre-orders and letting their customers know what’s coming in advance, and over the years they’ve taken various approaches ranging from providing no information at all, to having regularly-updated website pages listing pretty much exactly what’s coming several months in advance.

As of the 23rd March the Coming Soon page (on both sites) is no more, and we’ve had very little information from Black Library as to why that’s the case or what’s going to replace it (if anything). Rather than going into lots of detail here I think I’ll write a separate post about this topic, so keep an eye out for that. Suffice to say what little information we’ve had suggests that there isn’t a single direct replacement, but rather that BL will provide details (of some sort) via a range of channels including the Warhammer Community site, social media, and their email newsletter. It’s not been a particularly popular decision, and I can see why people are a bit upset about it – it’s certainly going to make my life more difficult when it comes to Track of Words, and without a good replacement it may well mean I’m not going to be able to put out as much content as I do at the moment.

I’m not jumping to any conclusions just yet, but I’m definitely a bit disappointed in how BL have handled this so far. I’m interested to see if they decide to give us any more information or not…so I’ll be keeping my eyes peeled for that!

Black Library Live

I was delighted to see a recent Warhammer Community post confirming that Black Library Live! will be returning in 2019. While I love the Weekenders most of all, I’m nonetheless a big fan of this single-day event, so it’s good to see it officially on the calendar now – even if it might have been nice to get a bit more notice. This year it’s taking place on the 1st June (at Warhammer World, as usual), so we’ve got just over two months’ notice – that’s fine for me as I don’t live all that far away, but might make it tricky for anyone hoping to attend from further afield than London! That being said, the Community post did include a few bits of useful information including:

• The on-sale date: tickets will be available from Saturday 6th April.
• The initial guest list (potentially with more to come), featuring:
  • Nate Crowley
  • John French
  • Guy Haley
  • Rachel Harrison
  • Darius Hinks
  • Paul Kane
  • Matt Keefe
  • Phil Kelly
  • William King
  • Graeme Lyon
  • Gav Thorpe
  • Alec Worley
  • Chris Wraight
• An interesting new activity – the chance to get “direct access to members of Black Library’s expert editorial team for one on one advice on how to write the kind of stories Black Library want.

It’s not clear yet whether the guest list will be expanded or not, but that’s not a bad bunch of authors to hang out with and hear speak. There’s a real mix there, from the Warhammer legend that is William King (presumably suggesting he’s got more BL stories coming out!) to new-to-BL names like Nate Crowley and Paul Kane, so it sounds pretty good to me. As for the chance to talk to the editorial team, while we don’t have much in the way of concrete information (is it going to be ticketed? How long will you get? How much of a writing sample can you take?) it certainly sounds intriguing. I ran a quick Twitter poll to ask what people thought, and here’s the result:

It’s not exactly the most comprehensive of surveys but I think it definitely shows that there’s plenty of interest among BL fans. Hopefully we’ll get more information very soon, so that anyone who fancies getting involved can start making plans! Perhaps we’ll know more when the tickets go on sale, on the 6th April.

Digital Mondays

Moving on from news to releases, let’s take a very quick look at the four Digital Monday short stories that came out in March. All four continued the 2019 trend of being existing stories repurposed as standalone e-shorts, although I was a little surprised to see where some of them were drawn from. Here’s the list of what was released:

• The Abyssal Edge by Aaron Dembski-Bowden
• Mercy of the Dragon by Nick Kyme
• The Wrath of Khârn by William King
• Snares and Delusions by Matthew Farrer

The first two stories are both pulled from the Sons of the Emperor anthology in the Primarchs series, which was itself released in hardback and ebook in March. As with previous months, it’s undoubtedly a little odd to see so many stories pulled out of anthologies when those anthologies are still available to buy and offer so much better value for money, but hey – if you’re only interested in Night Lords or Salamanders, these are the Heresy stories for you.

The other two stories are much, much older – William King’s The Wrath of Khârn was first published in White Dwarf way back in 1999, while Matt Farrer’s Snares and Delusions was originally released in Inferno! Magazine around the same sort of time. It’s probably safe to assume that these two were chosen for March to tie in with the new Chaos Space Marine releases for Warhammer 40,000 (and very nice minis they are), although if you’re a hardcore Chaos fan but weren’t around back in the 90s/early 2000s then just a word of warning – these stories are quite different to the current style of BL storytelling. They’re good fun, but just…of their time.

Weekend releases

As usual I’ll quickly take a look through March’s new releases, starting with what you might think of as the ‘main’ releases before moving onto the paperback re-issues. I’ve listed these in the order in which they were published, and there’s just one little bit of overlap with February’s roundup.

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, except with gilt edging on the spine rather than a matt-effect gold) 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.

Macragge’s Honour by Dan Abnett and Neil Roberts
Technically this is a re-release, but it’s still an awesome book! The one and only Horus Heresy graphic novel, written by Abnett and illustrated by Roberts, I think it’s probably been available as an ebook (£9.99) ever since its first release but it’s now back on sale in hardback (£20) as well. Totally worth getting if you don’t already have a copy on your shelf.

The Solar War by John French
This is undoubtedly the biggest release of the month – the very first novel in the Siege of Terra mini-series, available first in a limited edition hardback (£50) which sold out very quickly indeed, although there will apparently be a few copies available when the standard hardback drops in May. It’s a genuinely lovely edition, and word is the book is excellent.

Cadian Honour by Justin D. Hill
This was released over Christmas 2018 as an ebook, but is now available in hardback (£18) as well. While it follows on from Justin’s novel Cadia Stands, it appears to be labelled by BL as book one in a new trilogy focused on Minka Lesk (who’s featured on the gorgeous cover art). Check out my Rapid Fire interview with Justin here.

Scourge of Fate by Robbie MacNiven
Another book to get the ebook treatment over Christmas, Robbie’s first Age of Sigmar novel is also now available in hardback (£18). By all accounts it’s a bit of a must-read for hardcore Chaos fans – have a read of my Rapid Fire interview with Robbie here to find out more.

Maledictions
The first Warhammer Horror short story anthology, this is available in paperback (£8.99) and ebook (£7.99) formats and features eleven stories by a range of authors – some of whom are familiar BL names while others are new to BL. You can read my review right here, and yep – there are both 40k and Age of Sigmar stories in this anthology.

The Wicked and the Damned by David Annandale, Phil Kelly and Josh Reynolds
A 40k portmanteau novel (essentially three interlinked novellas) in the Warhammer Horror range, this is a really interesting release – portmanteaus not exactly being common in the BL range! It’s available in paperback (£8.99), ebook (£7.99) and audiobook (£29.99) formats, and I’m really looking forward to seeing what this is like. Horror film fans take note, as well – one of the narrators for the audiobook is Doug Bradley, who played Pinhead in Hellraiser!

Perdition’s Flame by Alec Worley
A Warhammer Horror audio drama – and Worley’s first audio for BL – this is a tale of a disgraced Vostroyan Firstborn and the horrors he’s been through. You can pick it up as a CD (£12) or download it as an MP3 (£9.99), and if you’d like more information about it you can check out my Rapid Fire interview with Alec right here.

The Horus Heresy Print on Demand – Books 6-10
The first five books in the Heresy series were released as print on demand hardbacks back in November last year, and after perhaps a longer wait than many people expected the next five are now available to order as well. We’re talking Descent of Angels, Legion, Battle for the Abyss, Mechanicum and Tales of Heresy, available for £20 each or as a 5-book bundle for £95 (although for some reason the bundle costs £100 on the GW site, so don’t get caught out by that). They’re only available to order for 2 weeks (until 6pm GMT on Saturday 13th April 2019) so get your order in quickly if you’re after any of these – and be aware that they won’t be dispatched for a while.

Shadespire: The Mirrored City by Josh Reynolds
Released in hardback edition back in September 2018, Josh’s Shadespire-set Age of of Sigmar novel is now available in paperback (£8.99) as well – although the hardback (£18) and ebook (£9.99) editions are still available. Check out my Rapid Fire interview with Josh here.

Warhammer Chronicles: Knights of the Empire by Dan Abnett, Josh Reynolds, Nik Vincent, James Wallis and Richard Williams
Another month, another very welcome Warhammer Chronicles omnibus – this time featuring three classic Warhammer novels (Hammers of Ulric, Reiksguard and Knight of the Blazing Sun) plus a bunch of short stories (all by Josh). It’s available as usual in paperback (£15) and ebook (£13.99) formats.

Iron Warriors: The Complete Honsou Omnibus by Graham McNeill
A 40k omnibus featuring all of Graham’s Iron Warriors stories, this is available in paperback (£12.99) and ebook (£11.99) formats, and as you can tell from the prices is a little shorter than a lot of the recent BL omnibuses. Nevertheless, with a novel (Storm of Iron), a novella (Iron Warrior) and no fewer than six short stories there’s plenty to get stuck into.

Reviews, interviews and blog posts

I feel like I’ve found a pretty good balance this month in terms of how many articles I’ve posted. I’ve kept myself busy writing all of these, but not so busy that I’m feeling like I’m wearing myself down or burning out! Hopefully there’s been plenty of interesting content – I’m quite happy with the mix of full-length reviews, quick reviews, blog posts and author interviews. Here’s the full list:

• The Buried Dagger by James Swallow
• Our Martyred Lady by Gav Thorpe
• Black Library Monthly – February 2019
• The Black Library Celebration 2019
• QUICK REVIEW: Faith in Thunder by Robert Charles
• QUICK REVIEW: What Wakes in the Dark by Miles A. Drake
• Eight Lamentations: War-Claw by Josh Reynolds
• Warhammer Horror – What We Know So Far (March 2019)
• QUICK REVIEW: Solace by Steve Lyons
• RAPID FIRE: Justin D. Hill Talks Cadian Honour
• QUICK REVIEW: The Wrath of Khârn by William King
• The Solar War On-Sale and What Happened Next
• RAPID FIRE: Robbie MacNiven Talks Scourge of Fate
• RAPID FIRE: Alec Worley Talks Perdition’s Flame
• Maledictions – a Warhammer Horror Anthology
• QUICK REVIEW: Ties of Blood by Jamie Crisalli
• Honourbound by Rachel Harrison

Hand on heart I enjoyed every story I read or listened to in March – some really, really great stories there. If I had to pick a few favourites I would go for these three:

• Maledictions: I absolutely love a short story anthology, and while this was maybe wasn’t as out and out creepy as I expected, I really enjoyed seeing what happens when BL stories stick a little less closely to the war aspect of the settings.
• Honourbound: after reading all of Rachel’s Severina Raine short stories I had high hopes for this novel…and I wasn’t disappointed. It’s everything I want from an Imperial Guard book and more, and I would urge anyone who’s even vaguely interested in the Guard to get hold of a copy. You can thank me later.
• Our Martyred Lady: I’ve said it often, but I’m a big fan of BL’s audio dramas. A four-part story told over more than four hours…with a full cast of excellent actors including none other than Catherine Tate…featuring both Celestine and Greyfax…this is like 40k heaven for me! It’s great fun, and packed with fantastic performances. Loved it!

Coming up…

Luckily, considering the loss of the Coming Soon page, I made a record of what was previously listed as coming out in April. It’s probably not an exhaustive list, but here’s what was showing up:

• The Red Feast by Gav Thorpe – the start of a new pre-Age of Sigmar series.
• Requiem Infernal by Peter Fehervari – a new 40k novel which promises to be super dark, creepy and intense. It’s listed as an Adepta Sororitas novel but I’d imagine that’s accurate only in the loosest sense.
• Lords and Tyrants – a 40k anthology (in hardback) featuring a bunch of short stories which have all been released as e-shorts previously. Loads of great stories in there.
• Shadowbreaker by Steve Parker – the long-awaited new Deathwatch novel…hurrah for more Talon Squad!
• Warlords of Karak Eight Peaks by David Guymer and Guy Haley – the next Warhammer Chronicles omnibus featuring Headtaker, Skarsnik and accompanying stories.

Lots to look forward to there – personally I’m most excited about Requiem Infernal as a new Peter Fehervari novel is always something to look forward to! Can’t wait…

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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.