Black Library Weekender

[Tymell]

What exactly is Eagles Talon? Novel, novella, anthology? Also, what is on the cover, Titans?

The Eagle's Talon is an audio drama, to be paired with Iron Corpses.

[Prodigal Son of Magnus]

Any info about when The Crimson King will come out?

[Balthamal]

Crimson King is next on the list from Graham so some point next year maybe. He said Magnus goes to some pretty dark places and how the rest of the legion reacts to that. Sounds very very good.

 

Master of Mankind is...complicated. probably better coming from ADB

[Chaeron]

Is Seventh Serpent a Limited Edition? Or just available at Live events?

[Marshal Rohr]

What's wrong with Master of Mankind? Has writing about the Emperor caused A DB to commune with him and transcend the mortal plane (hence his lack of posts)?

[A D-B]

What's wrong with Master of Mankind? Has writing about the Emperor caused A DB to commune with him and transcend the mortal plane (hence his lack of posts)?

 

Nothing major. It's a 50/50 spread between scheduling and the fact I'm not really feeling the Heresy at the moment. Preferring to focus on other ideas right now, and write other stuff. When it came time to choose what my next book was going to be, I decided to go with The Black Legion instead of Master of Mankind.

[Conn Eremon]

I can't adequately express how much I loathe names like "Deathfire".

 

So much of the old lore has been left by the wayside in the name of common sense, taste, better ideas, etc. Why the practice of throwing nouns together to come up with "intimidating" names hasn't been done away with (and the products of said practice with it) is beyond me.

 

Deathfire is old lore.

[Phoebus]

Yes, I am well aware of that. Hence my comment about how a lot of older lore has been dropped by the wayside over the years, and that I naming conventions that lead to DEATHFIRE, etc., would suffer a similar fate.

[Conn Eremon]

Ah, it honestly read to me like you were saying the old lore was better, and this naming convention proves it by being worse.

[Phoebus]

I may have to go back and edit my post, then!

[Marshal Rohr]

 

 

What's wrong with Master of Mankind? Has writing about the Emperor caused A DB to commune with him and transcend the mortal plane (hence his lack of posts)?

Nothing major. It's a 50/50 spread between scheduling and the fact I'm not really feeling the Heresy at the moment. Preferring to focus on other ideas right now, and write other stuff. When it came time to choose what my next book was going to be, I decided to go with The Black Legion instead of Master of Mankind.

Understandable, the Heresy stuff doesn't feel focused at the moment. If rather read some stuff you love writing.

 

Edit: I think the FW books have sapped some of the enthusiasm for the Heresy. Not because people don't like it, but it took the Heresy out of the hands of Black Library and gave it to the players, for all the good and bad baggage that brings with it.

[Phoebus]

Speaking only for myself, the Forge World books only increased my interest in the Heresy.  My bigger issue with the series is that, like you said, it seems as if it's lacking focus right now.  While "good" and "bad" are subjective opinions where the quality of the tales is concerned, I think a lot of us could agree that many of them lack relevance to the overall storyline.  I get that the Horus Heresy was a conflict of galactic proportions, but the stories being told about it sometimes feel more like, e.g., an Iron Hands story that happens to be set in the chronological timeframe of the Horus Heresy.

[HaSY]

Dan Abnett will do Lion in Imperium Secundus.

 

Gav Thorpe will write about Corswain and Luther.

 

From what I heard from those that went at weekender:

 

Guilliman builds an empire but Horus builds the Imperium.

 

ADB : There is a good reason for Ultramarines not around at siege of Terra and it will blow your mind

 

Dan Abnett: Sanguinius is not just for show, you know that right? And also the major impacts of Ruinstorm will be profoundly explained.

 

At least 2-3 books to cover Imperium Secundus.

[Death Nikorps]

Hi everyone.

Here my full summary of the Weekender:

https://twitter.com/blacklibrarium/status/532232972951650305

(too long to paste here)

You can click on the US/UK flag to translate into english.

Thanks everyone for the support on Twitter and here, I hope you enjoyed the Live, my pics and the news.

[Iron Hands Fanatic]

Huh, funny to see Graham McNeill saying Ferrus was one of the most powerful Primarchs & that everyone wanted him on their side, considering how he was portrayed in Fulgrim

[Volt]

Nick Kyme in new Salamanders novel shocker.

 

I have nothing against him or his work, but it would be nice for another author to be given a go at the fiery lizard men.  

While I love the Sallies, this needs to happen. Or somebody needs to smack some sense into Kyme. Kyme has a habit of writing excellent and interesting supporting characters and boring main characters. I want the next M41 Salamanders books to focus more on Argos, Fugis, and Elysius- not the Super Sayain Librarian and his frenemy the emo Salamander.

[Phoebus]

Death Nikorps,

 

Merci pour l'information, monsieur!

[Marshal Rohr]

It would be cool if someone did a salamanders story that focused on their internal struggle between brutality and ritual repression of their tendencies.

[SteelPaladin]

Hi everyone.

Here my full summary of the Weekender:

https://twitter.com/blacklibrarium/status/532232972951650305

(too long to paste here)

You can click on the US/UK flag to translate into english.

Thanks everyone for the support on Twitter and here, I hope you enjoyed the Live, my pics and the news.

Thanks so much for this! Some very interesting info there.

And Cybernetica is done!?!? Hurry up and release it BL, the Heresy needs more Rob Sanders.

[Inquisitor Kravin]

 

What's wrong with Master of Mankind? Has writing about the Emperor caused A DB to commune with him and transcend the mortal plane (hence his lack of posts)?

 

Nothing major. It's a 50/50 spread between scheduling and the fact I'm not really feeling the Heresy at the moment. Preferring to focus on other ideas right now, and write other stuff. When it came time to choose what my next book was going to be, I decided to go with The Black Legion instead of Master of Mankind.

 

 

That's a pity. We had not one but two really good conversations about it at the Heresy Weekender in May and you seemed really fired up for it. I may have caught you at a bad moment on Sunday but when I asked about it and mentioned BolterAndChainsword you just muttered something that sounded like "I'm mostly ..... video game ...... at the moment" and pretty much shut down the conversation. After the previous Weekender this left me disappointed.

 

I did love The Long Night - listened to it on the drive home and loved every moment. The scripting and performance meshed perfectly into a spine tingling psychological tale. I do think that by now the Dark Angels ought to have simply executed Sevatar but I guess that's them holding to their knightly traditions. 

 

The Dark King made me empathise with Night Haunter and see him as an anti-hero but as discussed in the final seminar he's since gone full blown psychotic nihilist and become an outright monster. The Long Night shows that Sevatar still has a sense of justice and maybe even a chance to reconnect with his humanity. I won't say more here for the sake of those who haven't heard it yet.

[A D-B]

 

 

What's wrong with Master of Mankind? Has writing about the Emperor caused A DB to commune with him and transcend the mortal plane (hence his lack of posts)?

 

Nothing major. It's a 50/50 spread between scheduling and the fact I'm not really feeling the Heresy at the moment. Preferring to focus on other ideas right now, and write other stuff. When it came time to choose what my next book was going to be, I decided to go with The Black Legion instead of Master of Mankind.

 

 

That's a pity. We had not one but two really good conversations about it at the Heresy Weekender in May and you seemed really fired up for it. 

 

I can't think what I mentioned regarding video games (I've not even played that many lately beyond some Civ: BE and TIE Fighter) and any mention of the B&C always cheers me up, so I don't know what happened there. I was definitely keener on MoM way earlier in the year, but many moons have risen and set since then. Just to dispel any possible illusions, it's essentially a case of going with what I'm more psyched to write. The Black Legion requires way more research and is, dare I admit, harder, but I want the series to have a regular slot on the schedule, I want to get 'my' series up and running, and to be entirely honest I'm just much more in a 40K kind of mood, lately. It sometimes feels like the Horus Heresy has all the flashy rules and toys and pretty books (and lovely they all are, too) but it's nice to remind myself about 40K's actual scale and magnitude. I mean, there's a reason Chaos is so much more pervasive, dangerous, and 'present' in 40K. It's cool to start showing one of the main reasons why.

 

EDIT: I should add, that's absolutely natural because of how both eras are written. The Heresy is written as a unified series about one war and shared characters, whereas 40K is written as disparate authors telling personal stories within a vast, vast expanse. Dan, for example, writes about several entire Legions and their primarchs in one place during the Heresy, while his 40K work is about a single Inquisition warband, or an Imperial Guard regiment in a specific conflict in a specific place in time. The same goes for everyone else: the HH is about the galactic conflict, and 40K is about the more personal-level interaction with the setting. Where the Black Legion Series is concerned, I can sort of have my cake and eat it by doing both, but whatever.

 

On a general level, the vibe I get leads me to separate them on these terms: the HH is "This is a story about what happened back then", and 40K is "This is what it's like to live in Warhammer 40,000". The difference between writing for a storyline and writing within a setting.

 

I've got nothing but love for the Heresy, though. I devour every word Alan / Forge World send out. Sometimes it's fun to be in a band, sometimes it's fun to do solo stuff.

 

As for Sev, there's definitely an argument for his execution. I think one or two of the other Legions would've done just that, but it'd be a bit like capturing Goering or the Red Baron right at the start of their respective wars and then killing them almost at once. You need them for information, leverage, and probable torture.

[Loesh]

 

 

 

What's wrong with Master of Mankind? Has writing about the Emperor caused A DB to commune with him and transcend the mortal plane (hence his lack of posts)?

 

Nothing major. It's a 50/50 spread between scheduling and the fact I'm not really feeling the Heresy at the moment. Preferring to focus on other ideas right now, and write other stuff. When it came time to choose what my next book was going to be, I decided to go with The Black Legion instead of Master of Mankind.

 

 

That's a pity. We had not one but two really good conversations about it at the Heresy Weekender in May and you seemed really fired up for it. 

 

I can't think what I mentioned regarding video games (I've not even played that many lately beyond some Civ: BE and TIE Fighter) and any mention of the B&C always cheers me up, so I don't know what happened there. I was definitely keener on MoM way earlier in the year, but many moons have risen and set since then. Just to dispel any possible illusions, it's essentially a case of going with what I'm more psyched to write. The Black Legion requires way more research and is, dare I admit, harder, but I want the series to have a regular slot on the schedule, I want to get 'my' series up and running, and to be entirely honest I'm just much more in a 40K kind of mood, lately. It sometimes feels like the Horus Heresy has all the flashy rules and toys and pretty books (and lovely they all are, too) but it's nice to remind myself about 40K's actual scale and magnitude. I mean, there's a reason Chaos is so much more pervasive, dangerous, and 'present' in 40K. It's cool to start showing one of the main reasons why.

 

 

Completely, completely off topic but since you mentioned video games: Do you think you'll be giving Warhammer Eternal Crusade a shot when it comes out?

 

I know Black Legion players have yet to have someone step up as a  guild leader... :p

[A D-B]

What's wrong with Master of Mankind? Has writing about the Emperor caused A DB to commune with him and transcend the mortal plane (hence his lack of posts)?

Nothing major. It's a 50/50 spread between scheduling and the fact I'm not really feeling the Heresy at the moment. Preferring to focus on other ideas right now, and write other stuff. When it came time to choose what my next book was going to be, I decided to go with The Black Legion instead of Master of Mankind.

That's a pity. We had not one but two really good conversations about it at the Heresy Weekender in May and you seemed really fired up for it.

I can't think what I mentioned regarding video games (I've not even played that many lately beyond some Civ: BE and TIE Fighter) and any mention of the B&C always cheers me up, so I don't know what happened there. I was definitely keener on MoM way earlier in the year, but many moons have risen and set since then. Just to dispel any possible illusions, it's essentially a case of going with what I'm more psyched to write. The Black Legion requires way more research and is, dare I admit, harder, but I want the series to have a regular slot on the schedule, I want to get 'my' series up and running, and to be entirely honest I'm just much more in a 40K kind of mood, lately. It sometimes feels like the Horus Heresy has all the flashy rules and toys and pretty books (and lovely they all are, too) but it's nice to remind myself about 40K's actual scale and magnitude. I mean, there's a reason Chaos is so much more pervasive, dangerous, and 'present' in 40K. It's cool to start showing one of the main reasons why.

Completely, completely off topic but since you mentioned video games: Do you think you'll be giving Warhammer Eternal Crusade a shot when it comes out?

I know Black Legion players have yet to have someone step up as a guild leader...

Initially, I thought "Yeah, totally." I was even in the running to write it before I got too busy to keep up a correspondence with the fine folks working on it.

Now, I'm not all that sure. As much as I love casual PvP in WoW, I'm much more of a co-op player and I've got a lot of roots sunk deep into Azeroth, with a lot of friends that won't be shifting to EC any time soon. It looks very PvP-tastic which will rock for a lot of people, but PvP is the kind of thing I go for as spice rather than flavour. Added to that, it's not going to appeal to a lot of my friends as something for regular roleplaying, which is 75% of why my gang plays the MMOs that we do play. (WoW, TOR, etc.)

I'll almost definitely try it, though.

[Loesh]

 

 

 

Initially, I thought "Yeah, totally." I was even in the running to write it before I got too busy to keep up a correspondence with the fine folks working on it.

 

Now, I'm not all that sure. As much as I love casual PvP in WoW, I'm much more of a co-op player and I've got a lot of roots sunk deep into Azeroth, with a lot of friends that won't be shifting to EC any time soon. It looks very PvP-tastic which will rock for a lot of people, but PvP is the kind of thing I go for as spice rather than flavour. Added to that, it's not going to appeal to a lot of my friends as something for regular roleplaying, which is 75% of why my gang plays the MMOs that we do play. (WoW, TOR, etc.)

 

I'll almost definitely try it, though. 

 

 

Fair enough, and I understand the problems with roleplaying. Me and a ladyfriend are working on building up a Emperors Children(Though it's quickly becoming a hodgepodge of Flawless Host, Angels of Ecstesy, and so forth as well) Strike Force(Which sadly won't really be super representable until post launch when they add more sub-factions.) and we're still puzzling out exactly how we're going to do proper roleplaying, as anytime roleplaying isn't time spent capturing an objective.

 

The closest I can figure is setting aside a meeting during sometime of day, and otherwise just roleplaying as we fight...which is easier said then done in a high stress situation that a Planetside 2-esque like game will provide eventually.

[Inquisitor Kravin]

@A D-B Thanks for the detailed response. I do recognise that at an event like the Weekender you get bombarded with questions and must have to field the same ones time and again. We all remember the one conversation we had with you but you have a hundred conversations with us. I'm glad that Sev hasn't been executed, I just think it's unusually generous of the Angels not to after everything he's done. Perhaps they're confident he can't escape (fools!) and think confinement is a better punishment than death.

In one of the seminars Dan and Graham talked about the difference between Heresy and 40k. As Dan said, he could have a warp rift or doomsday weapon obliterate the entire Sabbat Worlds cluster and at most characters in Graham's novels might look into the sky, see a bright flash, shrug and carry on. In Heresy even the smallest individual story can impact everyone's future work - I think one of your short stories was mentioned as having had repercussions beyond what anyone originally anticipated. Dan's introduction of the Cabal and Perpetuals is probably another example.

@Anyone who loves Eisenhorn - I took my first edition Xenos for Dan to sign and he said that there is a video game of it coming out next year. Not based on the setting, the direct story. He said it was amazing to see the 3d model of the guncutter.