Category Archives: Black Library

Ahriman: Eternal – John French

Seven years after Ahriman: Unchanged brought the first trilogy to an end, John French returns with Ahriman: Eternal, a new novel detailing the great sorcerer’s ongoing attempts to undo the damage he’s unwittingly caused to his Legion. In the aftermath of the Second Rubric, Ahriman and his Exiles find themselves pursued by the Pyrodomon, a force released by the Rubric which reaches out from the warp to consume the Thousand Sons, sorcerers and Rubricae alike. With cracks widening in the alliance of his followers and the Pyrodomon on their heels, Ahriman looks to techno-arcane xenos abilities – via a captured Necron called Setekh – for the power to control time itself. As the Exiles seek out this power, the Harlequins intervene in their unique fashion, determined to shape events to their own ends and avoid a tragedy only they can foresee.

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Opinions: Black Library Limited Editions – Options, Not FOMO

In this fascinating blog post about his monstrously successful Kickstarter, SFF author Brandon Sanderson makes a great point about the importance of giving readers a choice of formats and price points. It’s something I’ve been thinking about for a while regarding Black Library’s ‘Limited Edition’ books, but I hadn’t been able to put my finger on exactly what I wanted to say until I read this blog post. You see, I fundamentally think that premium editions of books are a good thing, as they provide choice – which is always worth having. The problem I have is with BL’s bizarrely inconsistent approach to how and when to release premium editions. So let’s talk about how the point of limited editions should be to provide options to suit customers’ wants and needs, not to encourage FOMO or penalise readers who can’t afford high prices.

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A Few Thoughts On The Successors – Black Library Anthology

A collection of 13 short stories from 10 different authors, Black Library’s Warhammer 40,000 anthology The Successors looks beyond the usual First Founding Chapters of Space Marines and sets out to explore some of the Chapters who haven’t been seen as often in 40k fiction. It does actually feature some Chapters who have had plenty of their own stories before (Crimson Fists, Flesh Tearers, Soul Drinkers), but the majority of the stories focus on Chapters from the semi-familiar (Angels Penitent, Black Dragons, Carcharadons, Emperor’s Spears, Mortifactors) to the new or much more obscure (Consecrators, Iron Lords, Wolfspear). There’s even a rare Exorcists story, and most – although not all – of the stories take place in the ‘current’, post-Great Rift era of 40k.

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QUICK REVIEW: The Sins of My Brothers – Peter Fehervari

Available in Black Library’s The Successors anthology, The Sins of My Brothers is the 11th short story in Peter Fehervari’s Dark Coil series, and serves as both a fascinating companion to his novel The Reverie and a revelatory extension of his short story The Crown of Thorns. High up on the walls of Kanvolis, the ancient fortress of the Angels Resplendent – now the Angels Penitent – a warrior walks alone, and recounts his story of betrayal, grief and determined purpose. Through his recollections he confesses the part he had to play in his Chapter’s fall, and reveals more of the truth behind this bleak tragedy.

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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.

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Warhammer Horror – The Range So Far

Since its launch in 2019, Black Library’s Warhammer Horror imprint has grown in fits and starts into quite a considerable range spanning novels (and one novella), audio dramas and short stories across both the Warhammer 40,000 and Warhammer Age of Sigmar settings. Having already published something similar for Warhammer Crime, I thought it was about time I put together an article gathering all of the Warhammer Horror range in one place with the publisher’s synopsis for each title along with links to my reviews and author interviews where available. As the range continues to grow, I’ll try to keep this updated so that it remains an accurate and useful hub for anyone interested in Black Library’s horror-focused offering.

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Black Library: What’s Next After the Horus Heresy?

Black Library’s epic, ridiculously huge Horus Heresy series has proven incredibly popular, and for a lot of fans it’s the ‘premium’ BL range, the series that takes top billing and gets readers most excited. For all that it started small and exploded into something utterly massive, as readers we’ve always known that it has a definitive end point, and for almost as long as there’s been the Heresy range there’s been speculation over what Black Library will do once the series has finished – what ‘the next Heresy’ will be. With the Siege of Terra mini-series drawing to a close – at the time of writing there are just two books remaining of the planned eight – and heralding the long-awaited end of the Heresy, that question of what might come next seems more pertinent than ever.

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Day of Ascension – Adrian Tchaikovsky

Prolific, award-winning science fiction author Adrian Tchaikovsky makes his long-form Black Library debut with Day of Ascension, a Warhammer 40,000 novel which pits the cold, academic machine logic of the Adeptus Mechanicus against the insidious alien threat of a Genestealer Cult. Genetor Gammat Triskellian is an ambitious man, but the organic focus of his work is out of favour with the priestly hierarchy of the forge world Morod, and Triskellian is frustrated at every turn by his superiors. When he stumbles across evidence of a xenos taint lurking amongst the poorest inhabitants of Morod he sees an opportunity to further his own goals and undermine his rivals. To the downtrodden members of the Congregation of the Divine Union though, Triskellian is merely another oppressor to be endured and overthrown on the path to their destiny.

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RAPID FIRE: Justin D. Hill Talks The Bookkeeper’s Skull

Hello and welcome to this Rapid Fire author interview, where today I’m delighted to welcome Justin D. Hill back to Track of Words to discuss his new Warhammer Horror novel The Bookkeeper’s Skull. Alongside his excellent historical fiction (written under Justin Hill, without the D), many Black Library fans will be familiar with Justin for the excellent work he’s done tackling the Cadians (three novels, several short stories and counting), but The Bookkeeper’s Skull is in fact his fifth BL novel, and his first in the Warhammer Horror range. It’s available to buy right now in hardback, ebook and audiobook formats, so if you’re keen to explore the darker side of Warhammer 40,000 and life in the Imperium, then read on to find out more about this intriguing new novel!

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Volpone Glory – Nick Kyme

One of only a handful of non-Dan Abnett novels in Black Library’s Sabbat Worlds series (or is it maybe a setting now?), Nick Kyme’s Volpone Glory more than holds its own in this much-loved range – a gritty, powerful page-turner of a book that delves into the complex character of the Royal Volpone regiment of Imperial Guard. Set in 791.M41, so roughly the same time as The Warmaster, it sees the 50th Royal Volpone on Gnostes, bogged down in a protracted campaign attempting to push the Blood Pact out of an entrenched island chain, their vaunted pride dented by their lack of progress. As the prospect of victory hangs in the balance even while the archenemy develops its own devious plans for the war, politics within the ranks of the Volpone lead to division, mistrust and increasingly desperate tactics. Hope springs from an unexpected source, but will it be enough?

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