Another year’s Black Library Advent Calendar series is over, after nearly a month’s worth of brand new short stories, audio dramas and digital-only novels. As is now tradition, I’ve been writing daily reviews for each story as they’re released (excluding the novels – I don’t read that quickly), and you can find all of the links for those reviews right here. In this article, however, I’m taking a look back at the series as a whole to reflect on what’s been released, and talk about how individual stories connect to existing series…and maybe suggest what might be coming in the future.
It’s worth noting that I’m going to concentrate on the short stories/audios here rather than the novels, seeing as I haven’t read Armageddon Saint or The Oubliette yet.
There’s been a bit of a different feel to this year’s Advent series, compared to previous years, and I think that’s mostly down to the inclusion of three multipart audio dramas which simultaneously slowed down the pace of the series and expanded its scope. Don’t get me wrong, I love audio dramas and I had a blast with all of the multi-part audios this year – they changed the feel of the series, that’s all. In fact, sticking with the audio theme this year’s series had the greatest number of audios in any Advent series so far! Fully half of the main series (excluding the two novels) were audios, which is another example of how much BL are committing to this format.
In previous years the Advent series have sometimes been quite clearly themed (such as 2015’s ‘Call of Chaos’) but if there was a theme this year then it was variety. Counting each of the 3-part audios as a single story, only one author was featured twice – David Guymer – while in total 17 different authors contributed to the series. Of those, there were relatively few of the ‘big name’ BL authors (such as McNeill and Werner), but plenty who are becoming better known as well as lots of relatively new authors (from reasonably established, like Danie Ware, to very new, like Marc Collins), including one (Nicholas Kaufmann) making their Black Library debut.
Let’s take a quick look at how that variety played out via the different settings, in numbers:
- 7 Age of Sigmar stories (or 5, if you count Heirs of Grimnir as 1)
- Of which 1 was a Warhammer Horror story
- 12 40k stories (8, counting Augur of Despair and Broken Saints as 1 each), of which:
- 3 were Blackstone Fortress stories (Augur of Despair)
- 1 was a Warhammer Horror story
- 3 Horus Heresy stories
- 2 Necromunda stories
So lots of variety then, which in my opinion is very much a good thing! I’ll break things down by setting now, talking a little bit about the stories from each one and whether there’s anything I can spot which connects them to existing – or future – BL stories.
Age of Sigmar
Of this year’s five (seven, if you count all three instalments of Heirs of Grimnir) Age of Sigmar stories, two are definitely continuations of existing characters and stories, one looks like it might be the introduction to a new series, and two look to be standalones. I’m not sure they tell us too much about what to expect in 2020 and beyond for this setting, but I’ll take a look for connections where I can.
Starting off with David Guymer’s contributions, The Age of Enlightenment is a typically entertaining and amusing Hamilcar short story which takes place after the events of the novel Champion of the Gods and definitely rewards the reader who’s already familiar with the character and his series so far. This probably tells us the most about what’s coming next, showing as it does the way Hamilcar’s changed nature is starting to impact on others around him, and reintroducing a character from earlier in his adventures. It may not end up being a direct prequel to whatever comes next, but it certainly could be. As for Heirs of Grimnir (which is tremendous fun), it’s labelled as being ‘a Realmslayer audio drama’ but it works fine as a standalone too. I could definitely see more stories like this being released, but I wouldn’t say it was a definite thing.
If you haven’t already, make sure you check out my interview with David – and actor Steve Conlin – about Heirs of Grimnir (and much more).
CL Werner’s Reflections in Steel is billed as a ‘Kravoth’s Reavers’ short story, which to my mind suggests that there will be more such stories – as far as I’m aware, this is definitely the first one. Looking beyond the cover, however, I didn’t really get the sense that this was setting things up for more to come, and while it was entertaining enough I’m not sure I would be all that excited about a follow-up. Michael R. Fletcher’s Strong Bones, on the other hand, was fantastic – one of the highlights of the series for me – but as far as I’m aware it’s not connected to anything else. From comments on Twitter I gather it’s one of three standalone Ossiarch Bonereaper stories that Fletcher has written, so with A Tithe of Bone already being available it looks like there’s one more still to come…but that they’re not connected. I’d love to read more from Fletcher though, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed for that.
The last remaining AoS story is Skull Throne by Jake Ozga, which is another of my personal highlights. While it’s absolutely fantastic, I would say that it’s unlikely to be linked to anything else or continued – even though it does contain a brief reference to Murghast, like many AoS-set Warhammer Horror stories. You could, however, check out Jake’s short story Supplication in the Invocations anthology for another Warhammer Horror short story from Ozga which, while not connected, takes a similar approach to storytelling.
40k
In terms of 40k stories this time around, there’s only one which feels like a conclusive ending. Of the rest, two are clearly prequels (or equivalents) in existing series, one continues an ongoing series (moving from prose to audio), one ties in with an existing setting, if not directly with other stories, and a few more have varying degrees of hints at what might come next.
Danie Ware’s The Crystal Cathedral is a Sister Augusta story, similar to Forsaken in that it follows a younger Augusta than the main strand of the series. It’s really very good, and I’d say could be read at any point in the series. If you’re going in chronological order then try Forsaken, followed by this one, followed by Mercy, and then jump into the novellas. Similarly, Mike Brooks’ Serpents of Ardemis features a (slightly) younger Chetta than the one which appears in the novel Rites of Passage. I’d suggest reading this after the novel, as a nice little bit of extra detail – you could read it first, but I wouldn’t go for that myself. Neither of these stories obviously suggest anything coming in the future; I’m pretty sure there are more Augusta stories to come anyway, and I’m keeping my fingers crossed for more Chetta stories!
Alec Worley’s Sisters of Battle audio drama Broken Saints continues his Sister Adamanthea series, which started with the short story Whispers before looking back to a younger Adamanthea in Repentia, Martyr’s End and then Broken Saints. That’s the order in which I would read/listen to them, although you should be able to pick up the gist of things if you jumped straight into the audio. I wouldn’t say there are any obvious conclusions to draw about where Alec might take the character next, but I definitely hope he’s got more stories in the pipeline! Check out my interview with Alec about Broken Saints and Sisters of Battle in general.
Continuing the audio theme, Chris Dows’ Blackstone Fortress audio Augur of Despair has a few loose links with Darius Hinks’ BSF stories (Blackstone Fortress and The Beast Inside), but more in terms of the setting and characters than an ongoing narrative. There’s definitely scope for more stories – probably in audio – about Neyam Shai Murad and Gotfred de Montbard, so again while there’s nothing concrete set up, I’m hoping we’ll see more at some point. Check out my interview with Chris about Augur of Despair, writing for audio dramas and loads more.
Of the four remaining short stories, I would suggest that Divine Sanction by Robert Rath definitely feels like part of a bigger story, so I’m hoping to see more Officio Assassinorum stories at some point in 2020/2021. According to Robert’s Twitter account he has both a novel and a novella due for release at some point, so fingers crossed one of those will continue this story! That’s the only story which stood out for me as suggesting a future connection; following on from The Test of Faith I’d be very happy to read more from Thomas Parrott about the Dark Angels in action on Muz, or from Marc Collins about Emperor’s Champion Cenric and his Adepta Sororitas allies after Champions, All, but whether there will be more remains to be seen.
As with the AoS stories, the one short story which feels absolutely cut and dried is the Warhammer Horror story – Nicholas Kaufmann’s The Child Foretold. Now I’ve said that it will probably prove me wrong, but in my eyes this felt pretty conclusive.
Horus Heresy
Pretty much by definition, the three Horus Heresy audios are inevitably connected to other stories in the series. Illyrium links in nicely with Darius’ short story The Sinew of War, featured in Scions of the Emperor, although it’s not essential to have read that (which is good seeing as Scions hasn’t had a general release yet). David Annandale’s The Revelation of the Word is one of those stories which connects thematically with pretty much everything Lorgar has featured in – particularly Know No Fear and Betrayer as they take place at a similar time, during the Shadow Crusade.
Graham McNeill’s Morningstar is the only one of the three which takes place reasonably close to the ‘now’ of the Heresy – i.e. the Siege of Terra. I would definitely suggest reading Graham’s novels Magnus the Red: Master of Prospero and The Crimson King before listening to this if you can, while it offers some hints as to what’s to come when Magnus, Ahriman and the Thousand Sons properly commit to the Siege.
Necromunda
The last setting to talk about is Necromunda, with two stories taking place in and around the underhive (both of which were also up there with my personal favourites in the series). Denny Flowers’ A Question of Taste is loosely linked to another of his short stories – Salvation’s Crucible – which is (sadly) currently only available in the Black Library Events Anthology 2019/20. You don’t need to have read that first, as this works perfectly on its own, but it just adds a nice little connection; I’m not sure if Denny is writing more Necromunda stories, but I can certainly see the scope for this (very) loose series to continue. In contrast, Justin D. Hill’s The Sanguinalia Day Massacre feels very much like a standalone story; in theory it could be extended, but I’d be surprised if it was. For more of Justin’s Necromunda writing, try the audio drama The Deserter (from last year’s Advent Calendar), or the novel Terminal Overkill.
In summary
I like to end these recap posts with a few final thoughts on the Advent series as a whole, and as with last year, I’m pleased to be able to look back at a selection of stories that I enjoyed very much. I’m not going to say that I liked all of these stories equally; there are a couple which I didn’t think were quite of the same standard as the rest, but even those were still enjoyable (in my opinion) and entertaining. With so many authors involved in the series, ranging from well-established to absolutely brand new, it offers an amazing array of styles, settings, characters and tones of voice, and is a pretty great representation of the impressive range that Black Library stories offer.
That sense of variety is the joy of this sort of series, and as I pointed out earlier it’s a real theme this year, which means that pretty much whatever you’re interested in as a Black Library fan, you’re likely to find something to enjoy here. If your interests lie in specific settings, factions or characters then you can pick and choose which stories to get if you don’t want to read everything, but if you’re like me and are interested in Black Library stories in general then you can go for the Advent subscription to save a bit of money and grab the lot! That’s unquestionably the best value, although I appreciate that not everyone is interested in the whole set.
In terms of format, that variety shows up in the even spread of prose short stories and short audios, and also the mixture of individual audios and three-part stories. I thought it was interesting to see the differences there – the three multi-part stories were all fantastic (and I simply can’t pick a favourite from them), but if I’m being honest I wonder if maybe the single-shot audios suit the Advent series a bit better. I love the depth you can get in an hour-long audio (which the multi-part stories effectively become), but I feel like the Advent series is best when it gives you a totally different story every day. I hope BL continue to release full-length audios, and I’m ok with them being split up if that works, but I also really enjoy standalone 20-minute audios as well. Next year, I’d love to see 12 short stories and 12 individual audios! I’m obvious being picky here, though – mostly I’m just happy to have listened to so many great audio dramas.
The last area to look at in terms of variety is that mixture of new and old authors that I mentioned earlier. In some years the Advent Calendar series has highlighted what you might think of as the core of BL’s author base, with loads of stories from the big names like Abnett, Dembski-Bowden, Haley etc. and sometimes multiple stories from several authors, but this year it’s felt like a deliberate move towards broadening things out. With only one author contributing more than one story, and many of the featured authors being relatively unfamiliar to at least some readers, there’s definitely a sense that this Advent series offers a sample of what BL is going to look like in the future. While there might not be that many hints in amongst these stories regarding future books, I would suggest the hints are more in the authors who are going to shape the face of BL in the coming years!
So there you have it, my thoughts on another year’s Advent Calendar and another set of wildly varying Black Library stories. I’ve already mentioned some of my favourites, but if I was to pick out a few in particular – bearing in mind that there’s some seriously stiff competition here – I would probably say (and this might change if you ask me on a different day) that they were Strong Bones by Michael R. Fletcher, Skull Throne by Jake Ozga, The Crystal Cathedral by Danie Ware, Serpents of Ardemis by Mike Brooks, and The Sanguinalia Day Massacre by Justin D. Hill. I’ve also got to say that I thought every single one of the audio dramas were fantastic, so well done to the audio team (Matt Renshaw and all the actors and sound designers) for those!
If you’d like to have a read of all of my individual reviews, you can find them here (or keep scrolling to see reviews of previous years’ Advent stories).
If you’ve got any thoughts, questions or feedback, please do leave a comment below or get in touch on Twitter. I’d love to hear what your favourite Advent stories were, so please do let me know!