Black Library Live- Nov 19th

[Marshal Rohr]

Someone wanna run a tally so we can quantitatively see which legion got the most coverage and which got the least?

[Ranwulf]

So if ADB doesn't get Sang at the Eternity Gate...who does? Swallow?!

Andy Smillie? He wrote some good Flesh Tearers stories.

[Scribe]

I feel like the shattered legions easily got the most, between RG and Sally.

[1ncarnadine]

Someone wanna run a tally so we can quantitatively see which legion got the most coverage and which got the least?

 

Hard to run a tally, though. The Thousand Sons would technically only be in like 3 books (A Thousand Sons, Prospero Burns, soon A Crimson King) but would you count Scars and Path of Heaven for the trip to Prospero, Arvida and the related Thousand Sons lore? What about anthologies? Outcast Dead technically has a bunch of Legions... kind of. Does that count? What does & doesn't?

 

Still, it'd be interesting. Off the top of my head, the Shattered Legions, Ultramarines, and Word Bearers probably have by far the most presence in the series so far, though. On the other end of the spectrum, I know the Death Guard have not had a focus novel since Flight of the Eisenstein, with the exception of Mortarion bits in scattered novels. And the Blood Angels only have Fear to Tread and their Imperium Secundus bits. I think the Night Lords have also been very sparse; no such thing as a full focus novel for them at all, with appearances in short stories, and their role in Pharos. We have seen a ton of Kurze, though. 

[b1soul]

I was never one of those blokes who wanted to rush to the Siege...though I do think there's been some drag

 

I just hope BL doesn't mess up by going to the opposite extreme: rush the most climactic segment of the HH

[Silent Observant]

Let's see book 47 + what they haven't announced should get us over 50, then the three books that haven't been created, and then however many during the siege, so I'm still saying 55+ books

[hopkins]

So if ADB doesn't get Sang at the Eternity Gate...who does? Swallow?!

 

ADB wants it

Malice above the Palace

[b1soul]

Imagine Sang at the Eternity Gate...written by Swallow or Thorpe or Kyme

 

DEBACLE

[Taliesin]

Some more news from Track of Words blog, reporting from BLL

 

Horus Heresy

 

Echoes of Revelation – an audio drama collection featuring Gav Thorpe, Chris Wraight and Dan Abnett.

Dark Compliance – an audio drama by John French.

Ruinstorm – book 45 in the numbered series, by David Annandale.

Old Earth – book 47 in the numbered series, by Nick Kyme

 

Warhammer 40,000

 

Farsight: Crisis of Faith by Phil Kelly – a tau novel, unsurprisingly.

Cult of the Warmason by CL Werner – a genestealer cults novel.

Calgar’s Fury by Paul Kearney – another Ultramarines novel from Paul.

Scythes of the Emperor: Daedalus by LJ Goulding – an audio drama.

Jain Zar: The Storm of Silence by Gav Thorpe – the second Phoenix Lords book.

The Last Hunt by Robbie MacNiven – a White Scars novel.

 

Warhammer Age of Sigmar

 

Hallowed Knights: Plague Garden by Josh Reynolds.

The Eight Lamentations by Josh Reynolds.

[DarkChaplain]

For feth's sake, they put Phil Kelly on ANOTHER Farsight novel? Bloody hell, no. Just no.

 

Glad to see Jain Zar officially confirmed, and another Genestealer Cults novel (though I doubt it'll be as good as Fehervari's).

Josh Reynolds seems to be the only one writing AoS novels in the foreseeable future, huh?

[Jareddm]

I'm excited for more Robbie Macniven. Redblade was one of the best of the Deathwatch short stories and A Song for the Lost was great. Plus I know he's working on a Carcharodon novel at the moment.

[Black Cohort]

Are they planning on doing books about the scouring one they are done the siege?

[Mellow]

Josh Reynolds seems to be the only one writing AoS novels in the foreseeable future, huh?

It's a little difficult to write lore when the lore doesn't make any sense and none of the writers know it very well.

[DarkChaplain]

Well, Josh recently answered plenty of AoS-related questions on twitter (regarding his work and liking for the setting). From the looks of it, he likes it especially because he gets to invest crazy stuff without having to worry about what's after, or opening a big can of worms through it.

[Apothecary Vaddon]

For feth's sake, they put Phil Kelly on ANOTHER Farsight novel? Bloody hell, no. Just no.

 

Glad to see Jain Zar officially confirmed, and another Genestealer Cults novel (though I doubt it'll be as good as Fehervari's).

Josh Reynolds seems to be the only one writing AoS novels in the foreseeable future, huh?

Is that 'bloody hell' because Phil Kelly can't write novels for :cuss or 'bloody hell' I don't want Tau

[DarkChaplain]

The former. His novella in Damocles was junk, his Sigmar's Blood novella read like a chain of battle reports (though it wasn't as bad as expected) and his Farsight novella & Blades of Damocles didn't seem well received either. I don't like making statements like this, but Kelly is not a good author and I can't stand the direction he's taking Farsight, or Shadowsun, in.

[Apothecary Vaddon]

Couldn't agree more. 

[Kelborn]

Robbie is doing a Scars novel? Cool!

 

And the Scythes get some additional love as well, hm?

It's good that they're doing something different than the big chapters out there.

[DarkChaplain]

To be fair, White Scars are pretty well-represented now, especially in Space Marine Battles (Hunt for Voldorius, Damocles, Storm of Damocles, The Shape of the Hunt, Master of the Hunt (vs Doomrider!), Dante's Canyon..). Couldn't agree more on the Scythes, though.

[Fire Golem]

Little late and a little off topic but I'd rather a heresy TV show ala GoT than a movie.

 

I know they milked the heresy but now we're getting close to the Siege I feel a little bit... not sad, but it's like the end of an era.

 

I'm excited for more Robbie Macniven. Redblade was one of the best of the Deathwatch short stories and A Song for the Lost was great. Plus I know he's working on a Carcharodon novel at the moment.

The Carcharadon book is finished. It's out soon (January I think).

[Tymell]

Someone wanna run a tally so we can quantitatively see which legion got the most coverage and which got the least?

 

I've tried something like that before out of curiousity, the trickiness is in determining exactly what each bit of coverage is worth. A legion might appear in a full novel, but only very briefly, while at another time they might get a full story to themselves, but it's just a short. What about a story where someone from a legion appears, but only one character?

 

Having a quick tally myself (and it's very much open to individual interpretation), Dark Angels, Ultramarines, Salamanders, Word Bearers and Sons of Horus seemed to do best out of it so far, all have 2 novels-worth or more from the main books (Word Bearers had The First Heretic, but also major roles in Battle for the Abyss and Betrayer), often multiple novellas and plenty of short stories. Although most of the SoH stuff comes from the opening trilogy, not quite so much since then.

 

The worst off, so far, seem to be the Blood Angels, Thousand Sons and Death Guard, and The Crimson King should boost the Thousand Sons up out of this "bottom tier" for coverage. The Blood Angels have a novel but hardly anything else, just a handful of shorts, and the Death Guard haven't even had that novel (Eisenstein always feels more like a Garro novel than a Death Guard novel to me).

[ShadowSwordmaster]

Would the Iron Hands be in the middle then? I feel like Fulgrim and Meduson are the only major ones that I could think of.

[Apothecary Vaddon]

Angel Exterminatus, too

[ShadowSwordmaster]

I forgot about that one. 

[Marshal Rohr]

 

 

Someone wanna run a tally so we can quantitatively see which legion got the most coverage and which got the least?

I've tried something like that before out of curiousity, the trickiness is in determining exactly what each bit of coverage is worth. A legion might appear in a full novel, but only very briefly, while at another time they might get a full story to themselves, but it's just a short. What about a story where someone from a legion appears, but only one character?

 

Having a quick tally myself (and it's very much open to individual interpretation), Dark Angels, Ultramarines, Salamanders, Word Bearers and Sons of Horus seemed to do best out of it so far, all have 2 novels-worth or more from the main books (Word Bearers had The First Heretic, but also major roles in Battle for the Abyss and Betrayer), often multiple novellas and plenty of short stories. Although most of the SoH stuff comes from the opening trilogy, not quite so much since then.

 

The worst off, so far, seem to be the Blood Angels, Thousand Sons and Death Guard, and The Crimson King should boost the Thousand Sons up out of this "bottom tier" for coverage. The Blood Angels have a novel but hardly anything else, just a handful of shorts, and the Death Guard haven't even had that novel (Eisenstein always feels more like a Garro novel than a Death Guard novel to me).

If we do a full data analysis of the series so far (now that we can see the end we could begin projections), I'd recommend going from broad to narrow. Begin the analysis with books by protagonist legions, move to antagonist legions, move to sub-character legions (passing mentions). Dig deeper into word count devoted to legion culture, separate that from plot, and we can actually start to quantitatively see which legions were unequally covered in the series.