Opinions: On the Black Library Celebration 2022

Another year, another mildly disappointing Black Library Celebration, an annual event which should provide an opportunity to get existing BL readers hyped and encourage new fans to try out some great storytelling, and which should celebrate Black Library fiction as something valuable and enjoyable in its own right. Instead, it inevitably ends up as a safe exercise in box-ticking that does the bare minimum but really only serves to remind readers like me – who aren’t especially interested in the miniatures or the games – that we’re not an audience segment which Games Workshop really cares about. Ok, that’s a bit melodramatic – but if you look at what was available to buy this year and what the coverage of the Celebration entailed…it’s also kinda true.

Last year I wrote about my 3 Wishes for the Black Library Celebration 2022 – I wonder how many of those came true? TL;DR: one did…sort of.

To be fair, there were a few interesting tidbits in this year’s Warhammer Community coverage:

• Wade Price’s attempt to distill the events of the Siege of Terra so far into a 60-second video was good fun (complete with cheeky little teaser at the end).
• David Guymer’s video interview discussing the long-delayed Kragnos novel was pretty interesting (and surprisingly open about the delay).
• Even the article about Dan Abnett’s illustrated/annotated Xenos was alright, albeit a bit light on detail.

Where were the teasers or reveals though? Where was John French talking about Sigismund or Guy Haley discussing Astorath, or the editor of The Successors talking about the themes running through that anthology? For that matter, where was the broader insight from authors, editors and all the other folks who work hard to make BL books as good as possible, that might have actually surprised and delighted readers? Where was the online community engagement, where were the author signings or BL-themed quizzes/painting competitions in stores? We saw none of that, and as always I think it’s a missed opportunity.

Let’s look at this year’s Celebration releases, next. Firstly, three books in ‘regular’ hardback:

• Kragnos: Avatar of Destruction by David Guymer
• The Successors anthology (which, to be fair, I’m excited for as it contains a new Peter Fehervari short story)
• Guy Haley’s Astorath: Angel of Mercy (which while not technically ‘new’ does feel like it, coming a whopping 15 months after its original Limited Edition release!)

Then there were the expensive Limited Editions:

• One brand new book – Sigismund: The Eternal Crusader by John French (£40)
• The latest Siege of Terra map (£40)
• The is-it-actually-a-limited-edition-or-not illustrated Xenos by Dan Abnett (£25, which isn’t too bad)

Plus three paperbacks:

• Dan Abnett’s Saturnine (finally out in small paperback 23 months after its LE release)
• Cadian Blood by Aaron Dembski-Bowden (Reader’s Choice winner)
• Witch Hunter by CL Werner (also a Reader’s Choice winner)

Plus the all-important Eisenhorn bookmark, of course (an eye-watering £12.50).

Oh, and did anyone know that Marc Collins’ Grim Repast and William King’s Vampireslayer were going to come out as audiobooks too? It’s genuinely great to see them, but it baffles me that they weren’t mentioned in any preview articles.

And then there are the new minis, bringing Fafnir Rann and Zephon to the tabletop for Horus Heresy players and collectors. They’re nice minis too, but the WarCom articles about them were pretty bare bones AND that was two out of five articles which really weren’t about BL books. It’s just…I know I’ve said this before, but I don’t think miniatures should be the focus of the Black Library Celebration – books should! Cool new books, which don’t all cost an arm and a leg!

This year the average Black Library fan – who probably can’t justify forking out £40 for a 200-page book or a map – had three new books to choose from…compared to four non-book items. Ok, some folks might like to pick up Cadian Blood and/or Witch Hunter (despite that being book one of three…and the others won’t get paperback reprints), but they’re not exactly full of mainstream appeal. At least there was one AoS novel, I suppose – the first ever to feature in a BL Celebration (which has been a thing since 2018)! Oh, and the short story anthology that comes free with any purchase has a pretty great selection of stories, so that’s quite cool.

Let’s not forget the new short stories, even though I’m not sure why they’re being released the week after the Celebration, rather than the week leading up to it. I used to genuinely look forward to a new short story every week, but the dearth of e-shorts over the last few years has left me strangely wary of forking out £2 for a short story when I could get a whole anthology for £6.49. Still, I’d actually say these new e-shorts get a thumbs up overall, compared to the longer Celebration releases.

To sum up, the Black Library Celebration has always felt to me like an interesting concept that’s never been properly explored. That’s been the case since 2018. As far as I’m concerned, it just isn’t really a celebration of BL…and it never really was. But that doesn’t really surprise me. Sure, we all know that BL exists as a way of selling miniatures, but it could be so much more than that if only BL/GW – by which I mean the sales and marketing aspect of the company – was prepared to make a bit more of an effort.

Look…in some respects I’m just grumbling for the sake of it. Several of this year’s new releases sold out quickly, and I imagine a large proportion of BL readers were delighted by the new minis as they’re gamers first and readers second. For me it’s just frustrating, partly because I feel like the Celebration should be something I can really get behind but in fact is never really aimed at me, and partly because I just feel like BL should do better. It wouldn’t take much effort, but I wonder what impact a Celebration could have if it actually celebrated Black Library properly?

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