Black Library Advent 2021

[byrd9999]

Surprised it wasn't announced yesterday, but it's here now :)

 

https://www.blacklibrary.com/all-products/black-library-advent-2021-eshort-subscription-eng.html

 

an interesting line-up, all e-shorts as expected.

 

I won't buy the whole thing because I don't like e-literature, BUT I am willing to make an exception for Mike Brooks' and Nate Crowley's Ork stories! I am very much looking forward to more Ufthak Blackhawk.

 

(I might also get CL Werner's story as it's likely a Cursed City tie-in)

 

And hilarious to see Guy Haley's name spelled incorreclty twice, in two different ways! Festive lols.

 

 

[Ubiquitous1984]

Didn’t this use to be a daily release, with cool audio stories also included?  Or has Covid wrecked my memory of the glory days?

[Commander Dawnstar]

Yup, the current model is carrying on from last year only.

• 2020 - 12 short stories
• 2019 - 12 short stories, 12 short audio dramas (technically six, with three of them three-parters)
• 2018 - 18 short stories, 6 short audio dramas

You're not getting less written content than there's been for the last two years but the lack of audio dramas leaves things feeling rather sparse.

[Akylas]

Would really like to get these but not able to spare the money right now. Definitely curious about any ork related stories, or anything by C L Werner (favorite of mine since I first read his Warhammer Fantasy books).

[Marshal Loss]

Ooo, something for EC? Don't mind if I do.

[Taliesin]

Wonder what this is about:

 

Day 10: Beasts: The Road of the Hollow King by John French

[Malkydel]

Wonder what this is about:

 

Day 10: Beasts: The Road of the Hollow King by John French

The logo looks like Vampires more than anything else. Be interesting to see John doing AoS.

[Chaeron]

Excited to pick this up as ever and discussing with you all!

[Carach]

Eater of Dreams might be tempting - someone read that yet? 

[DarkChaplain]

I thought we'd heard all we needed about Fel Zharost's recruitment into the Knights Errant waaaaaay back when (holy hell, it was 2014) with Child of Night, but I suppose getting the actual recruitment talk from Malcador would be beneficial.

Edited December 6, 2021 by DarkChaplain

[Ubiquitous1984]

I thought we'd heard all we needed about Fel Zharost's recruitment into the Knights Errant waaaaaay back when (holy hell, it was 2014) with Child of Night, but I suppose getting the actual recruitment talk from Malcador would be beneficial.

As ever your knowledge of BL is unsurpassed - thanks for the heads up about the previous short story.  I've dug out my copy of CoN to refresh my memory before tackling this exciting new short story.

 

When was the last 30k release that we had?  Other than SoT.  Feels like a long time ago so great to have this to now read.

[Chaeron]

Eater of Dreams might be tempting - someone read that yet?

Just now!

 

Everything so far has been really good: Road Ragewas fun and a bit different - which is always positive in my book. Eater of Dreams has some excellent eminently quotable lines in, and is just an archetypal Heresy story which I love.

 

A strong start from my perspective!

[DarkChaplain]

I thought that Eater of Dreams started out pretty well... and then fell off hard. The first part was solid, giving some nice development, but then faded to black, skipping what I was most interested in seeing explored, to something that was also still interesting... and then slipped into something that was supposed to feel meaningful, but ended up being just a little action set-piece.

 

It seemed like giving answers to questions that hadn't been asked in the first place, while refusing to answer more relevant ones... and then it just ended.

 

Honestly, I was hoping for more. Re-reading Child of Night, I had more of an impression of who Fel Zharost was, his conflicts and so forth. Eater of Dreams obviously builds on it, but at the same time, I stopped just shy of creating something more meaningful.

Considering that we're led to believe that Fel Zharost becomes Khyron by The Buried Dagger, this story basically provides an extended prologue to follow Child of Night (which is ancient content now), instead of serving as a middle or end of the character before assuming his new identity and speaking exactly one word in TBD.

 

In conclusion, I think Eater of Dreams would've been a pretty good entry much earlier into the series, when the Knights Errant were originally being introduced. It suffers from Child of Night already existing, and comes off as unambitious as a result. It's competent overall, but redundant as far as its actual narrative is concerned at this stage. Unless Marc has another Fel Zharost story or two coming in the near future, I just don't know why it was commissioned or pitched as it is.

 

----

 

Today's The Buried Beast Dark Angels story, which I haven't read yet but was eyeing, has made me realize for the first time that GW studio actually killed off Captain Balthasar of the 5th Company and replaced him with a Firstborn->Primaris so they could release his model.

 

You know, Christian Dunn's Balthasar from Dark Vengeance (the starter set protagonist captain; that set also stuck around for two editions!), the audio drama The Ascension of Balthasar and some Deathwatch appearances. A character with actual background material who was being groomed as one of the next generation. Apparently they killed him off in a single paragraph and replaced his 5th company leadership with Lazarus, who went Primaris in a contrived way ("dreadnought won't save him, let's go for the Rubicon instead!") after the Rift opened. Amazing.

 

Now I'm miffed and what I read of the studio fluff today while exploring this has sapped my interest in the story. I liked Balthasar. I had been hoping that Dunn, or whoever else, might one day return to him.

Edited December 18, 2021 by DarkChaplain

[Angel of Solitude]

 

Today's The Buried Beast Dark Angels story, which I haven't read yet but was eyeing, has made me realize for the first time that GW studio actually killed off Captain Balthasar of the 5th Company and replaced him with a Firstborn->Primaris so they could release his model.

Being the Dark Angels fan that I am, I always appreciate any Black Library release that covers the activities of this chapter, and equally anticipate being disappointed by the cliched portrayal that many authors seem to enjoy.

 

I haven't come across Gary Kloster's work before, but I'm glad that another author has been invited to write about the Dark Angels. I'm happy to say that I quite enjoyed The Buried Beast. Gary seemed occassionally uncomfortable with the Space Marine universe and somewhat short on the Dark Angels lore, as demonstrated by referring to the 5th Company "Captain" and also to a chaplain in dark green armour. However, what was really pleasing to me is that Gary avoided characterising the Dark Angels as being forever obsessed by hunting the Fallen, and instead sought to build on the knightly Orders of old Caliban.

 

Hopefully Gary will be given the opportunity to write more about the Dark Angels, because I think there's a good opportunity to really explore Lazarus's character and the non-Fallen aspect of Dark Angels.

[Taliesin]

Seems like some interersting stories being released the last few days, the one by French, an Eidolon story by an unknown author, a Space Wolves Heresy story by another unknown ( to me) and a Nate Crowley story set after Ghazgull Thraka.

[DarkChaplain]

The Eidolon story is set not long after his resurrection and the events of Angel Exterminatus. It deals with Eidolon's imperfect revival, his body not able to keep up with his mind and skill. Nerves misfiring, muscles spasming, you name it. He's miffed that Lucius got killed and resurrected without any troubles, while he himself got shafted.

Funnily, Fabius seems to take credit for Lucius (while passing it off as no big deal), when I seem to recall even him being surprised at how that went in AE.

 

The story then also reconnects back to pre-Heresy Fabius lore, the Blight and what not. It's pretty decent and fills in some much-needed characterization for Eidolon.

 

The Bloodhowl story also links into the Thirteenth Great Company of the Wolves, with characters that we've seen in a few other shorts and an audio drama before. Seems like we're finally at the stage of the Heresy where authors, even newcomers, are allowed to fill in the blanks left throughout the series' history, addressing plot holes and missing character development. Good, it's been about time. I hope this trend continues, because damn, the setting needs the additional work to smooth out the early progression in particular.

[DarkChaplain]

So... no e-Premiere this year, I suppose?

[Chaeron]

So... no e-Premiere this year, I suppose?

Looks like it - but I’ll hold out hope for New Year’s Day (or around then!).

 

Last story to go and I’ll post up my brief review of the collection. Another solid Advent all-told from my perspective!

[Chaeron]

So, having commented on Road Rage and Eater of Dreams already, I’ve now had time to reflect on the rest of the series. I have thus penned some brief thoughts about the rest of the Advent collection in what should be the order of release:

• The Moon Mines of Sciara Lone – This was really well done in terms of developing an eerie – and very different – setting to the norm. Oddly, it felt the ending came far too quickly: I’d actually rather have read more about the locale and the characters for longer than we were allowed to! The set-up generally was gripping – and whilst you had the readerly inkling of what was to come, it didn’t detract from the story despite that knowledge. Thoroughly enjoyed – and I’m hoping this won’t be the last we see of the Moon Mines and the conventional citizenry of the 41st Millennium.
• The Place of Pain and Healing – Another personal favourite from the Advent collection: I’ve not read the other Lesk works yet ("I recognise my failing and will be sure to correct it"), but the style works really well for this. Gripping and totally suited to a short.
• Bloodhowl – Another solid Heresy short: I think this particularly effectively captures the split of loyalties in relation to duty for the average legionaries post-Prospero. Some nice introspection and again, good action – to weave into the Heresy’s tapestry. These short asides work so well within that sandbox.
• The Buried Beast – Although the choice of the name Lazarus for the protagonist initially felt somewhat clichéd given the nature of the story, I can naturally see why this was chosen as it is so appropriate! I thought the action was almost cinematic in quality in the descriptions in the narrative, which made it exciting to read. I’m sure there’s more to look forward to here! This definitely captured the setting for me – reminiscent of the classic work by Thorpe etc.
• Amor Fati – A truly great short about Eidolon coming to grips with his new form. I often say this, but for me the writing is ‘archetypal Heresy’, which just totally captures and evokes the setting perfectly – and I can never get enough of. This fleshes out (no pun intended) some more backstory really effectively, so was one of my favourites.
• Mad Dok – The Ork perspective again that’s currently in vogue, and one I really like! Good humour throughout and continues to add to the Ghazghkull myth, whilst being different in scope too – it’ll inevitably be interesting to see where this leads…

All-in-all – another great Advent collection! I do look forward to this year-on-year, and will continue to do so for 2022. Naturally, whilst I’d also enjoy the additions of Crime or Horror, or indeed Necromunda, to the collection, I think many of these stories drew on the elements I like within those ‘imprints’ anyway - so would be purely greedy on my part to want anything more. I also enjoyed just reading these every other day – a real treat! I hope others enjoyed reading these as much as I did.

Edited January 6, 2022 by Chaeron