At the recent Black Library Weekender, the final session included a rundown of some of the titles coming soon from Black Library. Editor Nick Kyme and audio producer Matt Renshaw talked us through a whole host of new books and audio dramas, some of which had covers and some didn’t – I’ve gathered everything together here, with photos where I have them and a few snippets of info for the titles without covers. Keep reading…
Welcome to this instalment of Rapid Fire, my ongoing series of quick interviews with Black Library authors talking about their releases. These are short and sweet interviews, with the idea being that each author will answer (more or less) the same questions – by the end of each interview I hope you will have a good idea of what the new book (or audio drama) is about, what inspired it and why you might want to read it.
In this instalment I spoke to CL Werner about his new Age of Sigmar novel Overlords of the Iron Dragon, the first novel to feature the Kharadron Overlords, which is available to buy right now.
In the first part of my interview with prolific, dark-humoured author Josh Reynolds we discussed his early career, and looked at his work for Black Library in the Age of Sigmar setting as well as a little bit about old-school Warhammer. If you haven’t yet checked that out, click here to go back and have a read of part one.
In this, the second part of the interview, Josh talks about his Warhammer 40,000 and Horus Heresy writing, including Fabius Bile, Lukas the Trickster and the primarch of the Emperor’s Children – Fulgrim. If you’ve read any of his Fabius stories then you’ll know just how good they are, and hopefully this will provide a little extra insight, but if you haven’t…firstly, what are you waiting for?! Read on to learn what influenced Fabius’ tone of voice, and get a bit of a sense of what you might be able to expect.
Robbie MacNiven’s first Age of Sigmar short story, Heartwood is a tale of the sylvaneth exploring one branch (sorry) of their arboreal kingdom, and the role branchwyches play in their society. When Nellas the Harvester is wounded defending the Wyldwood from invading Rotbringers, she returns to the heart of her domain bearing with her the lifeseeds of fallen sylvaneth to be planted and born anew. The question remains, however, whether she also bears with her a taint that might yet spell doom for the Wyldwood and her household.
From his early work in the Old World through the End Times and beyond, and onto more recent work on Age of Sigmar, Fabius Bile and even the Horus Heresy, Josh Reynolds has for a long time been one of the most prolific Black Library authors. If you’re a Black Library fan, chances are you’ve read at least a few of Josh’s stories.
I’ve been following Josh’s career for a few years now, mostly through his Black Library work but also with a couple of other publishers, so I was delighted when he agreed to an interview. Rather than focusing in on one specific book or series, I wanted to cover quite a wide range of topics so we bounce from Josh’s early short stories to his most recent work, by way of music (including the soundtrack to Fabius Bile), invasive plants, Cryptids, the question of faith in Warhammer, and Space Wolf ‘knock knock’ jokes.
As the title suggests, Josh Reynolds’ Age of Sigmar novel Skaven Pestilens – available as a standalone novel or within the Legends of the Age of Sigmar omnibus – focuses on the disease-ridden skaven of the Clans Pestilens. Taking place in the realm of Ghur, the plot revolves around the machinations of Verminlord Skuralanx, who manipulates two rival plague priests into attacking Shu’gohl the Crawling City in order to retrieve one of the Thirteen Great Plagues on his behalf. Standing in their way are Zephacleas Beast-bane and his Astral Templars, and the natural skaven inclination to treachery and deceit.
Every once in a while a whole bunch of information about upcoming Black Library books shows up online, sometimes just titles, other times along with synopses and covers. Quite a lot has showed up recently, so I thought it might be good to pull together everything I can find about these books. Of what I’ve included below, some have been kicking around online for a while so you might be familiar with those, but others have only just showed up.
Book eight of Black Library’s Realmgate Wars series for Age of Sigmar, Bladestorm is immediately notable for two things – first that it was originally serialised as seven individual short stories, and second that its author, Matt Westbrook, is in fact a pen name. It’s the continuation of Thostos Bladestorm’s story, picking up where we last saw the Lord Celestant in Ghal Maraz, a changed man after his reforging. He and Lord Celestant Mykos Argellon lead their chambers to destroy a Chaos-held fortress and reclaim a vital realmgate, a mission which must succeed for the next stages of Sigmar’s plan to proceed.
From games design and White Dwarf to freelance Black Library author, Gav Thorpe has had a huge impact on Games Workshop and its intellectual properties over the years. September 2017 marks the twenty year anniversary of Gav’s first Black Library short story – Birth of a Legend – while 2017 has also seen Gav receive a prestigious Gemmell Award for his Age of Sigmar novel Warbeast.
With both of those milestones firmly in mind, I spoke to Gav about his twenty-year career as a Black Library author and how that fitted in with his time at Games Workshop, along the way discussing his first two Black Library stories, his work in the audio medium, and loads more.
First published within the Fyreslayers anthology before getting the standalone ebook treatment, Guy Haley’s Age of Sigmar short story The Volturung Road has one foot in the Mortal Realms and the other back in the World That Was. As the Slaanesh-worshippers’ siege of his family’s hold approaches its one hundred and first year, runeson Ulgathern grows increasingly concerned, fearing that a prophecy deemed unreliable by most is coming to fruition. When tragedy strikes and his personal circumstances change, he sets out towards the Volturung lodge to reach his people’s ancestral home and escape the fate he sees approaching.