Upcoming BL Stuff - 2023

[Taliesin]

Yup. Its become notably harder the last 2 years to still order BL books from this country's biggest Warhammer retailer due to GW/Bl policy. Though to they do actually charge 5 EUR shipping costs within the country as well.

[Felix Antipodes]

On 9/18/2023 at 1:36 AM, theSpirea said:

I do like For The Emperor SE but it feels weird getting only one book out of the series. Is BL going to do the full series? Do they plan to do Print on Demand regular hardbacks for the whole series?

Not knowing the answer I'm afraid I'm going to skip this one

 

 

You’ve got your wish.  They have just announced on WarComm a MTO of the first three Cain novels.  No release date yet but definitely on the way.

[theSpirea]

Thanks for the info. I'm a bit confused, it's going to be regular hardbacks so not matching the upcoming SE? I imagine something similar to the current Gaunt's Ghosts.

If that's the case, it's a bit weird doing one-off SE for the first book and soon also MTO. Plus the old covers are dated, ugly, and not matching in style. I guess it's too much to expect any extra work from BL to commission new covers in matching style.

[Ubiquitous1984]

6 hours ago, theSpirea said:

Thanks for the info. I'm a bit confused, it's going to be regular hardbacks so not matching the upcoming SE? I imagine something similar to the current Gaunt's Ghosts.

If that's the case, it's a bit weird doing one-off SE for the first book and soon also MTO. Plus the old covers are dated, ugly, and not matching in style. I guess it's too much to expect any extra work from BL to commission new covers in matching style.

I’m going to give BL the benefit of the doubt here and believe they’ve commissioned the SE to throw a bone to a long-time author who has never had the SE treatment before (save for the small 500 print run copy released about a decade ago).  I’m sure it’ll be a welcome financial boost, especially as it’s a larger than normal run (2000 copies).

[Krelious]

Is "For the Emperor" worth buying as a limited edition? I have lots of books on my backlog and im rather on the fence in terms of buying new books unless they are real page turners. 

 

I mean for example I pounded through the new edition of Dark Apostle as I loved that series for a variety of reasons and now that I am older I find myself enjoying it from a new perspective and greater understanding. 

[DarkChaplain]

2 hours ago, Krelious said:

Is "For the Emperor" worth buying as a limited edition? I have lots of books on my backlog and im rather on the fence in terms of buying new books unless they are real page turners. 

 

I mean for example I pounded through the new edition of Dark Apostle as I loved that series for a variety of reasons and now that I am older I find myself enjoying it from a new perspective and greater understanding. 

 

If you have never read Ciaphas Cain, then you have some serious catching up to do. For the Emperor is the place to start.

[Nagashsnee]

8 minutes ago, DarkChaplain said:

 

If you have never read Ciaphas Cain, then you have some serious catching up to do. For the Emperor is the place to start.

 

This! But get the omnibus to save yourself some cash unless you specifically want the covers. 

[Sothalor]

9 hours ago, Krelious said:

Is "For the Emperor" worth buying as a limited edition? I have lots of books on my backlog and im rather on the fence in terms of buying new books unless they are real page turners. 

 

I mean for example I pounded through the new edition of Dark Apostle as I loved that series for a variety of reasons and now that I am older I find myself enjoying it from a new perspective and greater understanding. 

 

Honestly, I wouldn't bother with a limited edition of For The Emperor - especially if you want to do anything like maintain consistency of format/cover style.

 

Cain is a long-running series, up to 11 novels and an anthology now. Having the one novel in a fancy limited format whilst everything else lingers in the expired print run oubliette is kinda jarring to me.

 

*

 

Also, if I'm being real honest here, I think the Cain series is... I don't want to say overrated, or aged poorly - let's go with "settled into comfortable complacency early on." The books are well-written enough in terms of prose and adventure, but get real formulaic with story structures, descriptions, character tics, tone, etc., and never really seem to try pushing themselves beyond. As @Nagashsnee suggests, if you want to read them, get the omnibii.

 

I would further caveat that you may well want to stagger your reads of them; do one Cain novel, read something else, then come back for the next. They get monotonous quite quickly otherwise.

[darkhorse0607]

Are there any that are essential reading for the series? I'm halfway through For The Emperor right now and I'm enjoying it but I'm not sure I'm ready to sign up for 10 more books of this

[Roomsky]

3 hours ago, darkhorse0607 said:

Are there any that are essential reading for the series? I'm halfway through For The Emperor right now and I'm enjoying it but I'm not sure I'm ready to sign up for 10 more books of this

 

The series is essentially 10+ more books of exactly that. For the Emperor is the only one I actually own because they don't develop meaningfully over time, it's the same jokes, character beats, and twists on repeat with a hint of development here and there.

[aa.logan]

I’ll echo the consensus that the repetitive nature of Cain makes it a series to dip in and out of rather than  plough through which makes the omnibuses especially good- the shorts within are possibly more interesting reading than the novels after your first because of the slight variety in them. It’s not even really worth picking out the antagonists for who to read as little page time is given to them.

 

That said, I *love* the Cain books and heartily recommend them. I’ve read most of them at least twice and am currently working may way through a listen to the audiobooks as palette cleansers every few months or so- in this format they really shine.

[cheywood]

A few updates courtesy of Fnac: https://www.fnac.com/e65968/Black-Library?SFilt=1!34

 

Haley’s Genefather is now releasing on the 14th. Unless I’m mistaken (which is entirely plausible) I believe they changed that date in the past couple of weeks - it was originally due for the 7th. The coming soon page still lists it for September.

 

There’s an AOS short story collection coming the first week of October.

 

Still no sign of Fall of Cadia, which is odd since it’s supposed to be a September release. We’ll see what happens tomorrow but my guess is BL’s delayed the release. Or the coming soon page was updated in error. Wouldn’t be the first time WarCom botched the simplest of things.

[theSpirea]

Ciaphas SE is still up. Makes me happy the fomo and all those newcomers to the hobby are slowing down.

[skylerboodie]

21 minutes ago, theSpirea said:

Ciaphas SE is still up. Makes me happy the fomo and all those newcomers to the hobby are slowing down.

Yes hopefully enough non-hobby scalpers trying to make a quick profit got burned on recent less popular releases and have exited now. 

[darkhorse0607]

I like that the LE has a weathered effect on the cover. That way when it shows up cracked or with bookmark indentations like normal it'll blend right in

[Noserenda]

Cain is generally more of the same stuff, and often presented non linearly  but there is a meta thread running through a bunch of the books which pays off quite nicely having blazed through a bunch of the audiobooks last year.

Worth noting the Audiobooks are probably BLs best and they really suit the format, unlike the footnotes in the ebooks! 

[grailkeeper]

About half way through Ashes of Cadia and really enjoying it. The author is a doctor and there's a lot of gross anatomical descriptions which are pretty cool.

 

[grailkeeper]

Also there are a few references to Csin in Ashes. One of the characters briefly praises Jennit Sulla's writing for example.

[DarkChaplain]

13 hours ago, grailkeeper said:

Also there are a few references to Csin in Ashes. One of the characters briefly praises Jennit Sulla's writing for example.

 

....that character must be rather unhinged, right? Right?

 

Love it. I'll probably have to read it sooner rather than later now.

[grailkeeper]

I mean we only have one FAMOUSLY unreliable source telling us Sulla is bad...

 

Wonder what the library forums in the 40k universe think of her?

[Colman]

7 minutes ago, grailkeeper said:

I mean we only have one FAMOUSLY unreliable source telling us Sulla is bad...

 

I'm pretty sure calling Inquisitor Vail "unreliable" is some form of heresy - Cain shows no sign of knowing Sulla has ever written a word and makes only oblique references to her later career.

 

The Cain books are very much pulp comfort food, which is great when that's what you're in the mood for, and I think that the audiobooks, which are very well produced, might be their best format. 

 

 

14 hours ago, grailkeeper said:

Also there are a few references to Csin in Ashes.

Setting things up nicely for Cain's return from the death Amberly clears thinks he's undergone, leading Creed and some other Imperial heroes from Trazyn's museum. :-)

[Noserenda]

Im sure ive read some other positive references to Sulla's writing elsewhere in the BL but dont recall where. I suspect at least half the point is that Vail dislikes her personally and it colours her opinion though? 

[grailkeeper]

What if Cain really is a hero all along and Vail is the unreliable one? She could have been slipping in all those Flashmanesque bits for all we know?

 

 

 

I miss when Cain was more like Flashman. Flashman was a great character.

 

[grailkeeper]

There is also Volpone character in Ashes. He's an utter snob who wants to execute one of the protagonists, but basically a nice guy by Volpone standards.

[Krelious]

21 hours ago, skylerboodie said:

Yes hopefully enough non-hobby scalpers trying to make a quick profit got burned on recent less popular releases and have exited now. 

I cant wait to buy 5 copies of the end and the death volume 2 limited edition for my friends of course... I wonder what the map will be.