The Black Library Weekender 2019 – How to Prepare and Avoid Spoilers

The 2019 Black Library Weekender is fast approaching, and looking at the schedule there’s an impressive range of seminars lined up for the weekend, covering multiple settings and series, writing skills, audio dramas…there’s a lot of variety. With so many topics on offer, not only are there going to be some tricky decisions to make regarding which sessions to attend, but it’s not going to be easy to make sure you’re up to speed on all of the books being discussed. In this article I’m going to go through the schedule and talk a bit about how to prepare for each of the sessions – i.e. which books to try and make sure you’ve read beforehand so that you know what’s being discussed and can avoid spoilers.

If you haven’t already downloaded the schedule, the first thing I’d suggest you do is click here and get hold of it right away. Once that’s done, it’s time to take a look at the sessions. I’m primarily looking at what’s taking place in the Audience Chamber and Briefing Chamber, as the Strategium is largely (but not exclusively) given over to writing-related seminars which aren’t likely to be referring to specific books. I’ve split things up by day, and gone through each of the main sessions one at a time suggesting what to read in order to be up to speed and avoid spoilers. I may not have remembered absolutely everything, so do let me know if you think of something else, but this should cover most things. Sadly there’s no way to attend all of these seminars (unless you’ve developed cloning / can time travel / have a time turner) but whichever you go for, you should be able to prepare accordingly!

Saturday

This is the main body of the event, with six time slots across the day for seminars, signings etc. All six sessions in the Strategium are non book-specific, so I’m just looking at the two main rooms.

Heroes of the Dark Imperium with Guy Haley and Nick Kyme
Judging by the authors and what they’ve written recently, I’m assuming the main focus is going to be on the Ultramarines and the Blood Angels – specifically Guilliman and Dante from Guy, and Sicarius from Nick. There may be others, but you’ve got plenty to read with those characters so let’s go through what’s available.

Dante: with Guy’s new novel Darkness in the Blood available in limited edition hardback at the event, to be fully caught up I’d primarily suggest reading the novels Dante and The Devastation of Baal. As added bonuses you could also go for Guy’s short story Redeemer, and Darius Hinks’ Mephiston novels.

Guilliman: the two main books you’ll want to have read are Guy’s Dark Imperium and Dark Imperium: Plague War. If you want to be super thorough you could read the short story The Armour of Fate, and as an extension to Guilliman’s arc you could try Guy’s Belisarius Cawl stories – the short story To Speak As One and the novel The Great Work.

Sicarius: Nick has written quite a lot about Sicarius over the years, culminating in a recent novel. If I remember right, the full set of stories includes the novella Assault on Black Reach, Damnos which features the novel The Fall of Damnos and novella Spear of Macragge, Veil of Darkness (which you can check out either as an audio drama or prose short story), and the new novel Knights of Macragge. I think there’s also a VERY short story called Cato Sicarius: Master of the Watch if you want to catch absolutely everything.

Into the Darkness with David Annandale and CL Werner
I’m guessing this is going to be a Warhammer Horror seminar, as both Clint and David have horror novels coming out very soon (as I write this). I don’t suppose there’s much to prepare for really, but if you want to get into the horror mood you could check out the short story anthology Maledictions (in which both authors have a story) and/or The Wicked and the Damned, which features a novella by David.

In terms of the new novels, BL haven’t been clear about a release date for David’s The House of Night and Chain, although I’ve a feeling it’ll go up for pre-order on the 19th October (or thereabouts), while Clint’s Castle of Blood is due for pre-orders on the 2nd November. You might struggle to get Castle of Blood read by the Weekender, but The House of Night and Chain might be doable.

Siege of Terra: The First Wall with Gav Thorpe
Gav’s new Horus Heresy novel, the third book in the Siege of Terra miniseries, is due to be available to buy in limited edition hardback at the Weekender. Unless the general pre-order happens before that and this book is available to read before the seminar (unlikely), I’d suggest the main thing to do in preparation is to just make sure you’ve read as much of the Heresy as possible, along with The Solar War and The Lost and the Damned.

The Holy Ordos with Dan Abnett, Mike Brooks and John French
This panel has a great set of authors, and if you’re a real fan of the Inquisition then you’re not going to want to miss it. Neither Dan nor John have had a new Inquisition-based novel out for a while (although John’s Horusian Wars short story anthology has just gone on sale), while Mike hasn’t yet written too much for this faction – but I’m confident he’ll have lots to contribute – so if you’re already a fan then chances are you’ll be at least reasonably up to date. Still, this could get quite in-depth, so here’s a quick run-down of the key series if you want to make sure you’re on top of it all.

Dan Abnett: there’s a lot to enjoy in Dan’s Inquisitor novels. Both Eisenhorn and Ravenor are trilogies (plus The Magos), while Pariah kicks off the as-yet-unfinished Bequin arc. For full immersion, that’s eight novels and LOTS of short stories (check out The Magos for a recommended reading order).

Mike Brooks: as far as I know, Mike’s two stories featuring/involving the Inquisition are his short story The Path Unclear and his novel Rites of Passage.

John French: John’s Horusian Wars series is ongoing; there’s the novels Resurrection and Incarnation and the short story anthology Divination, plus three Agents of the Throne audio dramas – Blood and Lies, Truth and Dreams, and Ashes and Oaths.

Saints and Martyrs with Rachel Harrison
Rachel has a new Sisters of Battle novel (Mark of Faith) due out soon, with at least the special edition hardback due to be available at the Weekender. I’m assuming that’s going to be the subject of this seminar, and seeing as it isn’t available beforehand it doesn’t look like there’s much preparation to do. For full dedication, there’s no harm being familiar with Rachel’s existing BL stories, with the main ones being the Blood Angels novella Blood Rite and the various Severina Raine stories including the novel Honourbound. I’m pretty sure Rachel’s going to be talking about the Raine/Antari stories in a separate seminar, however.

Vaults of Obsidian with David Annandale, Guy Haley, Nick Kyme and Gav Thorpe
This sounds like a Blackstone Fortress seminar judging by the title (which matches an upcoming anthology), and the fact that three of the four authors have had digital short stories published for this setting. I doubt there’s going to be much in the way of spoiler risk, but in terms of preparation it looks like you’ll want to have read at least Darius Hinks’ novel Blackstone Fortress, and as many of the already-published e-shorts as possible along with Darius’ audio drama The Beast Inside.

Those short stories are: Man of Iron by Guy Haley, Motherlode by Nick Kyme, Purity is a Lie by Gav Thorpe and The Warp’s Curse by Michael J. Hollows.

The Hammer of the Emperor with Dan Abnett, Justin D. Hill and Rachel Harrison
This one sounds like an Imperial Guard/Astra Militarum seminar to me, featuring three authors who have written excellent Guard novels (a great many in Dan’s case). As with the Inquisition seminar there’s a lot to read if you want to have covered everything, but I’d suggest that as long as you’re at least reasonably familiar with all of the following series then you should be fine:

Dan Abnett: Dan’s Gaunt’s Ghosts saga is undoubtedly the most well-known Guard series, consisting of 15 novels and two short story anthology (thus far). The Warmaster and Anarch are the latest two novels, so the greatest spoiler risk will be if you haven’t read those two.

Rachel Harrison: Severina Raine has featured in five (I think) short stories and a novel so far – Execution, A Company of Shadows, Fire and Thunder, Trials, The Darkling Hours and Honourbound (novel). I wouldn’t have thought Rachel’s likely to drop any spoilers for these, and you don’t necessarily need to have read the short stories to enjoy the novel.

Justin D. Hill: Justin has written a few excellent Ursarkar E. Creed short stories – Last Step Backwards, Lost Hope and The Battle of Tyrok Fields – plus two Minka Lensk novels – Cadia Stands and Cadian Honour. I doubt there would be any spoilers for the Creed stories, but the two novels take place during and after the Fall of Cadia so bear that in mind if you haven’t read them yet.

Navigating the Dark Millennium with Mike Brooks, Guy Haley and John French
This is an interesting one, because as far as I’m aware there’s only ever been one novel about the Navigator Houses – Mike’s Rites of Passage. That’s definitely worth reading beforehand, although as it’s still so new I doubt Mike’s likely to go into too many details and risk spoilers. I can’t bring to mind many specific instances of Navigators turning up in Guy’s work, although John has featured them in Incarnation and Black Oculus  – but they’re both very knowledgeable about 40k so I’m sure they’ll have lots to talk about anyway.

Siege of Terra: The Beginning of the End with John French, Guy Haley, Neil Roberts and Gav Thorpe
Unlike Gav’s solo seminar earlier, it looks like this one is going to be about the Siege as a whole – or at least what’s happened so far. As I mentioned earlier, you’re probably best off just reading as much of the Heresy as you can (certainly novels like Slaves to Darkness, Wolfsbane and The Buried Dagger) as well as the first two Siege of Terra novels – The Solar War and The Lost and the Damned. It seems unlikely that BL will give much away regarding The First Wall or what’s to come in the Siege, but you never know!

Invocations with David Annandale, Ray Cluley, Justin D. Hill, Nick Kyme, Jake Ozga and Richard Strachan
This looks like another Warhammer Horror seminar, focused this time on the upcoming short story anthology Invocations – which isn’t due up for pre-order until the 30th November. As such, there’s not a huge amount to do in terms of preparation, although you could get in the spirit of the seminar by reading Maledictions beforehand. That being said, I believe that Nick Kyme’s short story Stitches is going to be included in this anthology, alongside He Feasts Forever by Lora Gray and Blood Sacrifice by Peter McLean (neither of whom are on the panel, sadly) so they’re all available as e-shorts if you wanted to check them out in advance.

Valdor: Birth of the Imperium with Chris Wraight
While Constantin Valdor has appeared briefly at various points during the Heresy, he’s not been the focus of too many stories. We don’t yet know when Chris’ new novel Birth of the Imperium is going to be released, or indeed whether it’ll be available at the Weekender (hopefully it will), but if you’re really keen to know as much about Valdor as possible then there are two short stories which spring to mind: Magisterium and Two Metaphysical Blades, both by Chris.

Gods and Mortals with David Annandale, Guy Haley, Nick Kyme and CL Werner
I’m not entirely sure what this seminar is going to be about, but I’d hazard a guess that it’s something Age of Sigmar related – not least because there’s an AoS short story anthology called Gods & Mortals. Without knowing any more about the specific seminar topic it’s hard to know what to suggest other than reading that anthology, although all four of the authors have written varying amounts of AoS stories so you could always check some of those out. For David I’d suggest the Neferata stories, for Guy I’d recommend his Prince Maesa stories, Nick’s audio drama The Imprecations of Daemons is in my opinion his best AoS story so far, while Clint’s Overlords of the Iron Dragon novel is excellent.

Sunday

There are fewer seminars on Sunday, with only two time slots plus a meet and greet in the morning and the Coming Soon session at the end. There is, however, a seminar in the Stategium which isn’t writing-related, so that gives us five to look at here.

Darkness in the Blood with Guy Haley and Darius Hinks
While I assume Saturday’s Heroes of the Dark Imperium session will include at least some discussion of Commander Dante, I’d imagine this one – which is named after the title of Guy’s new Dante novel – will feature him pretty heavily. With Darius in attendance it looks as though Mephiston will be under discussion too, which is unsurprising as I understand he features in Darkness in the Blood as well.

You can check out the list earlier for the various Dante-related stories to read up on, while for Mephiston there’s Darius’ two novels (so far) – Blood of Sanguinius and Revenant Crusade – in preparation for the third novel City of Light. You could also try David Annandale’s Eclipse of Hope (short story) and Lord of Death (novella).

Novellas of the Dark Imperium with Edoardo Albert, Nate Crowley, Denny Flowers, Steve Lyons and Danie Ware
This seminar looks like it’s going to be all about the upcoming 40k (and Necromunda) novellas, which are due up for pre-order on the 2nd November…so you might get hold of them before the Weekender if you order them straight away, but it’s unlikely. That being said, each of the authors have at least one other story available, while Danie’s novella ties into several existing stories, so here are some suggestions to check out beforehand:

• Edoardo Albert: the short story Born of the Storm features the Fulminators, the subject of his novella Lords of the Storm, while his short story Last Flight is unrelated but an excellent story.
• Nate Crowley: neither The Enemy of My Enemy nor Empra are related to Nate’s novella Severed, but they’re both brilliant!
• Denny Flowers: Inferno! Volume 4 features Denny’s first BL short story – The Hand of Harrow – but I’ve no idea if it’s connected to his novella Low Lives or not!
• Steve Lyons: while Steve’s written loads of short stories and novels, his novella Iron Resolve features the Mordian Iron Guard so your best bet would be to check out his short story Solace from Inferno! Volume 2.
• Danie Ware: before you read Danie’s new novella Wreck and Ruin I’d suggest checking out Mercy (short story), The Bloodied Rose (novella) and Forsaken.

The Sabbat Worlds Crusade with Dan Abnett and Rachel Harrison
This is an easy one, as the seminar is about the new Sabbat Worlds Crusade background book – so once again it’s a case of being as familiar as you can with Dan’s Gaunt’s Ghosts series. As before, I imagine the biggest spoiler risk is for The Warmaster and Anarch, as this new edition of the book features updated info which brings it up to speed with the crusade by the time of the end of Anarch.

Defenders of Mankind with Andy Clark, Neil Roberts and Gav Thorpe
Judging by the panel I’m assuming this seminar is about the Space Marine Conquests series, as Andy’s upcoming novel The Fist of the Imperium is book 6 in the series, and Neil has done all of the covers so far. I’m not sure if Gav’s there because of having contributed to this series or if he’s generally going to be talking about Space Marines off the back of having written LOADS of 40k books over the years. Time will tell, but there’s no harm in reading Ashes of Prospero just in case.

Lords of Sky and Sea with David Guymer, Graeme Lyon and CL Werner
I think it’s safe to say that this seminar is likely to focus on two Age of Sigmar factions – the Kharadron Overlords and the Idoneth Deepkin. David has written an Idoneth novel – The Court of the Blind King, which is due up for pre-order on the 14th December (but available at the Weekender) – along with two short stories, The Sea Taketh and The Learning. If you’re SUPER keen, you could buy The Court of the Blind King on the Saturday and read as much as you can before this seminar…but that’s maybe a bit extreme.

Similarly for the Kharadron, you could pick up Graeme’s novella Code of the Skies (pre-order 2nd November) and try to read it before the seminar, or alternatively check out one or all of Clint’s Kharadron stories – Overlords of the Iron Dragon (novel), Guns of the Black Eagle (audio drama) or Shiprats (short story). Clint’s next novel Profit’s Ruin is due up for pre-order on the 4th January so it’s possible that will be available to buy at the Weekender…but not confirmed.

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So there you go, a quick run-through of all the seminars (apart from those focused on writing skills) and what I’m assuming/expecting/hoping they’re going to cover. Judging by previous Weekenders I wouldn’t worry too much about spoilers if you haven’t read all of the relevant stories for any of the seminars, as the authors and compères are pretty good at keeping an eye on that sort of thing. Still, if you want to be bang up to date then hopefully this article has helped give you some suggestions! As I said earlier, let me know if you’ve spotted anything that I’ve missed, otherwise drop me a line in the comments below – or on Twitter – and let me know which sessions you’re most looking forward to! If you haven’t already, you can also check out my Weekender Survival Guide; I wrote this for 2018’s Weekender, but it’s still relevant for this year’s!