Warhammer Horror (v2)

[DarkChaplain]

Since the old thread got locked after odd squabbles between users, here's another one, as BL/WHC are starting up the marketing engines for Warhammer Horror's rollout towards the end of the month. There are things to talk about.

 

 

First off, we got some more insights into Maledictions, the anthology spreading both universes, via Warhammer Community.

 

Maledictions will feature 11 stories, including David Annandale, C.L.Werner, Graham McNeill, Josh Reynolds and some (relative) newcomers to BL, including Peter McLean, J.C.Stearns, Richard Strachan, Alec Worley, Cassandra Khaw (who has a couple of horror outings under her belt, mostly published under Tor.com), Paul Kane and Lora Gray.

 

 

All have delved into the shadowy recesses of their imaginations to bring you flesh-creeping tales of the weird and uncanny. Their stories will expose nightmares, detail the macabre and possess the minds of hapless victims. They feature creatures whose baleful malevolence will freeze the blood in your veins. This collection sets the sinister tone of Warhammer Horror and displays the full diversity of dread experienced by those who suffer the 41st Millennium and endure the Mortal Realms.

From Gothic tales of grief and tragedy and harrowing accounts of psychological torment to murderous hauntings and bizarre, cosmic horrors, we’re taken on a terrifying and emotional journey to discover the wakeful terror of life in the Warhammer universes.

 

That does sound awesome to me, at least. It's what I wanted out of Horror to begin with, and here's confirmation that we're getting that. Maledictions goes up for preorder on the 23rd,

 

The same article also goes to detail Kim Newman's contributions (for now, just reprints with added forewords) of the Vampire Genevieve classics, though hopefully he'll end up writing more for BL in the future - the man's got a thing with weird tales. Either way, the covers teased on Amazon and confirmed on WHC so far have been stunning to the point where I'm likely rebuying the books despite having the omnibus shelved...

 

Next off, there's a "portmanteau novel" coming, build on three stories by David Annandale, Josh Reynolds and Phil Kelly, titled The Wicked and the Damned. This one's confirmed for audiobook coverage as well, read by Doug Bradley.

This should follow a week later, I believe, seeing how Amazon lists them close together.

 

The third of the launch lineup is an audio drama by Alec Worley, titled Perdition's Flame. It won't be the only audio drama to appear this year, as confirmed today on WHC.

 

We already had tricklings of authors like David Annandale tweeting about their work on further WHH novels, but this info here is neat and consolidates what we know:

 

 

Later in 2019, when the nights start to draw in and darkness falls, Warhammer Horror will rise once again from the grave for a season of chilling adventures, with three novels delving into the darkest depths of the Warhammer universes. Josh Reynolds will detail the Dark Harvest, David Annandale will open the doors to The House of Night and Chain, and C L Werner will venture into the Castle of Blood. In addition to these, a new short story anthology and more audio dramas will ensure that you have plenty of terrifying tales to keep you huddled under the bedsheets with a book all winter long.

 

Whether these will be 40k or AoS novels isn't confirmed, though I think we could make educated guesses based on titles and the authors' previous works. Sadly, there's nothing to glean from Amazon just yet.

 

Either way, this is starting to look really damn promising, especially if you straddle the setting divide and can look forward to all of it.

 

Oh, and before I forget, there's been an extract of Paul Kane's 40k story "Triggers" from Maledictions via WHC!

[DukeLeto69]

Personally I am annoyed they are mixing settings as i have no interest in fantasy but...will buy Maledictions and fingers crossed it will be good as I want WHH to succeed.

[Panzer]

I just hope they'll release those stories on audible as well. ^^

[Felix Antipodes]

I will be getting the first outings from the WHH line to see where there are taking this. There are many types of styles out there under the horror label and I'm not a fan of them all.

Only thing annoying me so far is the Kim Newman rereleases look to be in PB format. I would have much preferred them to come in HB.

[DarkChaplain]

I'm quite happy they're trade paperbacks. Re-purchasing the entire series in hardbacks would've bumped up the price just enough to not want to bother on my end and buy stuff I didn't own before instead. They'd definitely be a good deal prettier in hardback, of course, but it's a good compromise. They already commissioned stellar new art for them, after all!

 

@sfPanzer The Wicked and the Damned and Perdition's Flame will most certainly be on Audible as well. Too bad Maledictions isn't getting an audiobook, though.

[DarkChaplain]

There's a new extract for The Wicked and the Damned, specifically from Josh Reynolds "The Beast in the Trenches"!

This one was sent out via the BL newsletter today. I'll probably pass on reading it now, since I preordered the whole book anyway, but I love that they're pushing extracts like this again.

[Roomsky]

Definitely plan on picking up Maledictions now that they've landed. Wicked and the Damned seems pretty "meh" based on the extract and the author lineup, but we'll see.

 

Anyone going for all 3?

[DarkChaplain]

Definitely going for all three. Picking up the audio drama on Audible (though they won't let me preorder on .de, since they only ever list English releases when they're out on there...), and the paperbacks for Maledictions and The Wicked and the Damned are preordered via Amazon.

 

Will definitely struggle with Maledictions, seeing how crappy I am at sticking to anthologies all the way through, but I'll try my best.

Btw, looking at Amazon right now, I found that the other Kim Newman/Jack Yeovil novels have covers now. They're ace!

Edited March 23, 2019 by DarkChaplain

[Felix Antipodes]

Already ordered all three and will get into them once they arrive. Will be interesting how the "new" authors handle the setting.

[DarkChaplain]

My copies of Maledictions and The Wicked and the Damned will be arriving tomorrow (Amazon actually dispatched the day before their stated release day, for a change!), and I picked up the TWatD audiobook and Perdition's Flame on Audible already, though I've only listened to the first ~15 minutes of the latter and none of the former.

Didn't feel right listening in broad daylight (and there's been a lot of that today...), but first impressions of Perdition's Flame are very positive. It manages to build a rather thick atmosphere with its voice acting and sound design, and the mystery has potential.

 

Planning to dig into the full drama in a bit, seeing how night has fallen now, and start on TWatD tomorrow with my paperback+audio combo.

[caladancid]

The Wicked and the Damned is no exaggeration one of the best 40k novels I’ve read and I’m only one third done.

 

I had no idea Josh Reynolds had that kind of story in him. The Beast in the Trenches (his contribution) is magnificent. Slow burning and horrifying in the best old school way possible. Not over the top but way freakier for it. I just finished it so I’m probably going to write more later. If the other two are even close to as good this is a winner for BL.

[DarkChaplain]

Josh's been writing A LOT in the realm of supernatural, occult detective fiction. He is well-read in those areas, and his stories play on a lot of classic authors' works and characters. While his Royal Occultist stories (some of which are free to download from his site, btw) are often rather humorous in tone, the man's got a great grasp on the macabre. It's cool to see him getting to let it out for Black Library like this. While I'll uphold him as Black Library's biggest jokester, that's hardly his only talent.

[caladancid]

The Woman in the Walls (Phil Kelly) is NOT like the first story. It is straight up a do not read at night kind of story. I am so impressed with these guys so far.

[DarkChaplain]

Holy carp, I just got mine and these books are stunning to look at. Warhammer Horror has the first Black Library novels I remember ever having sticky pages (though I don't buy big bad limited editions, which may have done this stuff before):

They colored the page edges dark grey and red for The Wicked and the Damned & Maledictions respectively. Considering they come at the regular paperback price, straight to the B-Format without any hardback shenanigans, this is as unexpected as it is amazing. If they do the same for the Kim Newman reissues, I'll feel over the moon despite rebuying books I already own in an omnibus...

 

Adding a potato camera photo, taken in haste before the battery gave out:

 

Edited April 2, 2019 by DarkChaplain

[AgentOrange]

I'm two-thirds through the audiobook of Wicked and the Damned. I can see the big tie together twist coming, but it's so obvious that I'm not even sure it's meant to be a twist. Really enjoying the book so far. I don't particularly feel frightened by it, but the quality is there and it is very atmospheric. And even if I'm not scared by it, it's certainly very GrimdDark so anyone feeling that's been lacking can look here.

[caladancid]

Alright book complete. My original thought, that it is one of the best 40k novels I’ve read, is still what I’m left thinking believing.

 

David Annandale’s contribution was my least favorite, but it was still quite good. I think I liked it less because it was more traditional 40k horror (very similar to his other chaos writing), not because it was less well written.

 

The ending to the overall story of how the three narrators were related was fine. Nothing special but it made sense.

 

Overall I can’t recommend this enough. It belongs on the shelf of anyone who reads 40k stories, or just horror stories in general.

[Kilofix]

The “bloody tree” cover of the Apple ebook version of Maledictions is animated and there’s screaming in the background.

[DarkChaplain]

They've been doing the animation thing for a while, I believe. Too bad that kind of thing wouldn't work on a Kindle (to my knowledge), it's cool. Though it also bloats the ebook with megabytes of video content...

[DarkChaplain]

There's been another Warhammer Horror article, albeit focused on Kim Newman and Drachenfels, including a 24 minute video interview with the man. The video also shows that Drachenfels will feature those red-painted page edges. It's a neat look into the distant past of how things used to be writing for the Warhammer settings, before Black Library even came around. 30 years, damn me....

 

I've started reading Maledictions in the meantime. The collection opens up with Cassandra Khaw's Nepenthe. It's about two brothers in an explorator fleet trying to investigate something in a dark age of technology space hulk, despite opposition. This one's extremely dense on descriptions and atmosphere so far. Looking at the terminology used, it feels like Cass's style both fits the AdMech characters involved, while also being relatively unusual in the range, and it supports the unsettling atmosphere rather well. It's evocative at the very least.

[aa.logan]

Holy carp, I just got mine and these books are stunning to look at. Warhammer Horror has the first Black Library novels I remember ever having sticky pages (though I don't buy big bad limited editions, which may have done this stuff before):

They colored the page edges dark grey and red for The Wicked and the Damned & Maledictions respectively. Considering they come at the regular paperback price, straight to the B-Format without any hardback shenanigans, this is as unexpected as it is amazing. If they do the same for the Kim Newman reissues, I'll feel over the moon despite rebuying books I already own in an omnibus...

 

Adding a potato camera photo, taken in haste before the battery gave out:

 

I’m a sucker for a limited edition, anddespite my attempted move towards solely ebooks and audios, still buy some physical books.

 

I’m going to get The Wicked and the Dammned in one for,at or another, would you say that the physical is worth making shelf space for?

[Khornflakes]

Halfway through the Wicked and the Damned. really enjoying it. the second tale - Woman in the Walls -was very good. bloody...reminded me of a more gory version of The Woman in Black. i think i can see how it's going to end, but hope to be pleasantly wrong

 

finished Perdition's Flame as well. good tale right up to the very ending. didn't like it..but the voice acting is absolute quality 

 

having the main character just talking to himself in a cave was a let down after the whole build up. i was expecting the scout he mentioned to kill him, call back to say 'target eliminated' or some such and then the tale to end. 

 

The inclusion of the Legion of the Damned Legionnaire was very very good. all clicked with the Ordos Chronos being there. would be interested in seeing how the inquisition managed to capture one of them

 

i'm really looking forward to the next ones in the horror run

Edited April 3, 2019 by Munkey_40

[DarkChaplain]

 

I’m a sucker for a limited edition, anddespite my attempted move towards solely ebooks and audios, still buy some physical books.

 

I’m going to get The Wicked and the Dammned in one for,at or another, would you say that the physical is worth making shelf space for?

 

 

Most definitely! All of these WHH books so far are straight to paperback, so they're barely a buck more expensive in print than digitally. Looking at their presentation, with the painted edges and generally sturdy format, I'd say it's very much worth it, and will look great on a shelf (even though the edges aren't gonna be that visible until you pull it out). They're very pretty and don't even feature any of the usual Warhammer logos, solely the one Warhammer Horror icon on the bottom of the spine. Design-wise, I got no complaints (well, besides the MAL-EDI-CTI-ONS title arrangement on the front cover).

 

If this is the general level of quality they'll be maintaining throughout the Horror imprint, I'll be picking up every release without a doubt.

[DarkChaplain]

I'm about 70% through The Beast in the Trenches from Maledictions, and I'll echo what folks have been saying. Josh nailed this story. It is tense and unsettling with just the right amount of creeping madness. The first person perspective is on point and lends itself extremely well to speculation and questioning the reliability of the protagonist.

[Roomsky]

Wasn't terribly impressed with Nepenthe. It's a competent AdMech story but beyond a bit of good atmosphere and the ending, it was way too focused on generic 40k action to build any kind of tension. Khaw seems a decent writer though, would like to see some long-form work from her in the regular setting.

Edited April 6, 2019 by Roomsky

[Kilofix]

First story from Wicked and the Damned was ok. I didn’t really get a “horror” vibe from it. Second was better. I’m just starting the third, maybe it will pull it together.

 

Edit - Trope ending. Maybe I was expecting too much

Edited April 8, 2019 by Kilofix