DarkChaplain

First time in ages that I feel a slight bit tempted to actually buy Space Marine kits, rather than stick to books and AoS... All of these just feel correct and on point

I don't get the Chris Wraight Space Wolves Omnibus. They only put in Kraken, despite there being a bunch of Jarnhamar short stories, including Cargo from the Helwinter Gate limited edition, Hunt-Sense and even Onyx, which uses a Codex artwork of Arjac Rockfist.... WHICH WAS USED AS THE OMNIBUS COVER, TOO

The thing with Cato Sicarius at this point is a bit tricky, I think, because of his change in status. He's no longer a company captain, but one of Guilliman's chosen guards. So any Sicarius-focused novel is most assuredly going to also be a Guilliman novel, unless he gets ordered to do something else which then would fail to capitalize narratively on the changes he's gone through and had to make for himself, and be another "Captain Sicarius on a mission" tale. A new Sicarius novel needs to be focused on him, but automatically stands under the shadow of Guilliman. Cato goes where Guilliman goes, and that's Imperium Nihilus post-Dark Imperium. I somehow can't see Kyme writing another Sicarius novel before Dawn of Fire is properly wrapped up and they're making plans for the Crusade into Nihilus, at least. And I'm definitely hoping that's where we're headed, with a series akin to Dawn of Fire that carries on from Dark Imperium and bridges the gaps of Nihilus-based novels we've had before the time-rejigging, including Devastation of Baal.

I don't know if I understand correctly what you're implying re: Felix/Ferren and GW/BL's reasoning, Nord, but if I do, I really don't like it. Don't open up that can of worms, please.

The Chapterhouse case had nothing to do with Black Library, or fluff namedrops, but with GW providing actual rules for models they did not provide. They established something as existing and being legal to use in the game, tournament legal even, but didn't sell any model for it - not even old ones. For a time there, GW actually believed they didn't need to sell models for their rules, because people should and would just convert them up with their kits instead. And then Chapterhouse and others stepped in to provide spare parts and entire models that did the job for much cheaper and more consistent quality than most people would do with green stuff and bits, and.... sell them as the thing. And suddenly those models were showing up in GW's turf and made it obvious to more players that, hey, alternative markets exist and are decent. GW lost on the face of selling rules for things they did not produce themselves. Their first reaction was to axe a lot of datasheets for special characters (RIP Dark Eldar in particular) instead of producing those missing models (which is a multi-year production cycle anyway). This has nothing to do with the novels, however, and not made any impact on them in the past, either. Heck, those axed characters were still featured in stories anyway. There is nothing forcing the authors to use pre-existing characters, and if there were, we would have to axe easily 95% of any novel's cast or references. And those Celebration Characters being from the books? That was a thing from the start. They slept on that for well over a decade, but it's neither new nor indicative of some sort of IP law. They just decided to have certain books comissioned, or picked up from popular stock, to tie tabletop and BL "marketing" closer together. Drekki Flynt and the Hollow King launched with their respective novels and received sequels, while the Blacktalon model existed in AoS as a generic hero with a special character datasheet option before the first novel was published, then they "rebooted" her for Warhammer+, and redid the whole crew. It's a tie-in thing to a very popular series of theirs, a flagship series, even. Minka Lesk, too, is a popular series that's now, what, 4 novels in, on top of Cadia Stands, which introduced her to the setting as one of multiple PoV characters for a novel that accompanies a campaign supplement in a way? They've become the pop culture Cadian survivors, hence Hell's Last Nothing at all compelled them to create these models and write rules for them, aside from their popularity within the community or the experiment to build up new special characters for factions that didn't have any modern ones running around (I think including event exclusive minis, Kharadron now have 3 or maaaybe 4 if you include Warhammer Underworlds' Legends warscrolls, including Drekki, for instance.... and Imperial Guard had a lot of their dudes die off). They didn't have to make a model for Uriel Ventris - but they did, because there was demand for him, the novels are still popular and fondly regarded by the wider community, and the author returned after a decade+ absence to continue his story, so what better way to cross-promote? Similar thing to how they released Titus to cross-market Space Marine 2. They have no obligation to do any of this.... but it's just good business to do it anyway.

I still feel like I missed something regarding Magnus and the Shai-Tan of Morningstar. I expected something big from that Primarchs novel / audio short angle for Magnus during the Siege, but... eh

Is it even confirmed that McNeill wrote or is writing a third book? Because it wouldn't be the first book of his that got dropped

Has to be. As you said, not the first time this happens; they even spoiled an unannounced release with the ads inside their ebooks before. Mike is also the only author aside from Jude Reid in this batch who has previously published works. Reid's story is a straight tie-in to her Fulgrim novel (the protagonist is the first character showing up in the novel extract, which is up now!). Doesn't surprise me that the non-debut authors have shorts setting up for their upcoming novels; that's a staple for these weekly releases at this point anyway.

I for one am really quite fond of Bill King's writing. I've only read Angel of Fire (which I actually got for 7€ back on release, in hardcover, due to an error at bookdepository, woop) to date, so I'll instead have to illustrate my perspective with another trilogy of his. His Tyrion & Teclis trilogy for WHFB started out fairly, how to put it, young adult-ish? with a (relatively) "teenage" elven twins, but explored their characters, hangups, doubts and fears rather interestingly. We all know that Tyrion & Teclis were THE heroes - the most amazing mage since Caledor Dragontamer and the most amazing dude since Aenarion himself? They're glorious! They're heroes of legend! They even do great things (with caveats) during the End Times! We've seen them in King's G&F novels, too, being at a point of power and relative comfort. ....but the T&T trilogy dials that back. They are talented and strong, yes, but they're also naive, unsure, insecure, conflicted, and do very juvenile stuff at times. They're new to all this high society stuff. Teclis struggles with his body. Tyrion gets into stupid fights. And then that fool... falls in love with the Everqueen, all while Malekith's forces are invading Ulthuan and trying to kidnap her. He breaks one of the biggest taboos there is in high elf society, all while his twin brother has nightmares of doom, of chaos coming over the world, and gets into the weeds about Chaos and desire for Hoeth's artifacts. And Malekith? He wants his rightful throne! It throws those "young" characters into a lot of turmoil and personal drama while shaping them to what they must become down the line, what we know them to be from armybooks and novel appearances way down the timeline. But it also provides context, conflict, and growth as well as deconstructing their oh-so-glorious legends into something tangible and relatable. The imperfections beneath the legend, the sometimes stumbling into great things, before they're really aware of their own responsibilities. The arrogance, the secrecy, the temptations, the initial social barriers are all on display. They can be jerks at times, even as they aspire to greatness. And Bill King's writing lends itself to that very well, I'd say. I don't think, say, Rob Sanders would have done nearly as good a job at this; comparing this "coming of age" trilogy so to say to one novel Sanders wrote in Archaon: Everchosen, the focus is entirely different even as we see Archaon growing up with turmoil and prophetic force. The prose is just too thick to capture his character in a similar way to how King handles Tyrion or Teclis. It's too "high brow" for that. That being said, Archaon: Everchosen is a far, far more "involved" novel as far as the wider IP is concerned. It requires a greater depth of understanding to fully get the most out of. But I'd have no problems giving the T&T omnibus to whosoever is interested in fantasy novels. They're approachable, easy to digest (especially compared to Sanders! Some parts of Everchosen really felt like a fever dream, exhausting to get through) and makes for a great jumping off point to get deeper into the subject matter later, be it with the Sundering trilogy or the End Times versions of the characters. Or Malus Darkblade, even. It's very much focused on interpersonal drama, over the usual big action setpieces, which the prose supports - and that makes Bill King a very comfortable author to have a good time with. So yes, I concur with wecanhaveallthree - King's barrier to entry is very low. It's why Gotrek & Felix worked so well to begin with. He's approachable and not obviously writing with a thesaurus next to his keyboard. He writes in a straightforward way instead of drowning his works in overly flowery prose. That might seem lazy or boring to some, and is not an actual criticism against books like, again, Sanders', but it makes his books feel grounded and uncomplicated despite their deep roots in lore and generall warhammer craziness. The excitement and stress you feel when reading his books comes from the characters, not the density of the telling - which I appreciate a lot!

First off, don't use Google Translate, it's terrible - use DeepL instead! And not just because DeepL is German... it's actually delivering accurate translations that usually respect context and not just go by dictionary. But the translation is pretty much correct. It's Ferren's humanity that is threatened, probably due to not only the corruption you'd expect from the Death Guard but also because his faith in the Ultramarines as an institution is getting challenged. Which.... makes sense? Ferren Areios is the bloke who got introduced in Avenging Son, right from Cawl's Primaris storage and introduced to a galaxy much changed, and then he got promoted pretty rapidly, to the point of being Captain within the first decade of the Crusade. Ferren is still a Lieutenant by Hand of Abaddon, with Maximus Epathus being his Captain. Epathus dies a couple of years after the novel, at least Ferren comes to Macragge to grieve for him and be elevated to Captain himself, as told in Nick Kyme's short story 'Solemnity'. Which is billed as a Ferren Areios short, and explicitly states it's been a few years since the Hand of Abaddon thing (threat seems removed, but others are not sure about that; Ferren is over it, though). Kyme wrote HoA and also the Sicarius stuff - and he's having a chat with Ferren in the story. Makes sense. I'd have expected him to be tackling Ferren in a novel instead, but am happy enough with somebody else doing it. Either way, right now I'd peg this one to be during the Plague Wars, but it's a tight fit considering how close HoA was supposed to Dark Imperium already. It might be a cleanup action within Ultramar, but the synopsis would probably reference the end of the Plague Wars if that was the case. So this seems like a sidestep, not progression of the Crusade or the Dark Imperium timeline - but further Ferren novels will have to be that!

There's a new Reader's Choice poll going on, and the picks are mindboggling again. Vote Josh Reynolds' Neferata for WHFB. Even if it's just to signal them that Josh is beloved, and that they :cuss:ed up magnificently by axing the Blood of Nagash trilogy that Neferata opened.... Finale didn't happen because the End Times had to instead.

For my part, HH is entirely uninteresting so long as it is so utterly reliant on Forgeworld resin. That's what ruined Blood Bowl for me when they rebooted it. But I guess they might drop another tie-in anthology or novel like with 2nd edition? Still haven't read that one. Other than a proper new edition of Warcry, which they've repeatedly left out of reveal shows over the past year, indicating it is likely dead (despite supposedly being a fantastic game), I can't think of anything besides HH slotting into summer this year, either. ...then again, I really just want to see them unveil more AoS at Adepticon, particularly a new Spearhead board, cards & book with some new thematic Spearheads of armies they don't have slated for quick Battletome rollouts. Which the rumors would indicate right now, at least. What do you mean "you already own 8 Spearheads"? Don't judge me. That number is going up to 12 this year, anyway.

Good news: There is a new release going up for preorder next Saturday, and it's a surprisingly quick turnaround from announcement to release Bad news: It's Phil Kelly's latest Farsight novel....

Where is my Crying-Reaction?!?! I was laughing at "Reconquests" and wanted to weep by Phil Kelly...

There's been NO word about the fourth and final book in the only series (excluding the Genevieve reprints) that Horror had. The whole Morghast thing was ditched despite repeatedly stating it was a 4-book-series during advertisement.