List of unfinished/cancelled series

[SvenIronhand]

On 7/21/2023 at 12:20 PM, wecanhaveallthree said:

How long did it take Thorpe to delete that post he wrote showing he was working on a Votann novel? About half a picosecond?

Bet you feel silly now that High Kahl’s Oath is out.

[wecanhaveallthree]

And it was so okay that I've seen Volpone Glory mentioned more than the newest faction's only book! (it's fine (Volpone Glory rules))

 

I was more commenting on how James Workshop didn't want even a sniff of what anyone was working on getting out and Thorpe was immediately taken for reeducation. Because natural hype-building or any kind of organic advertising, particularly through an excited fanbase, is doubleplusungood.

[LSM]

While poking around for Emperor's Children stuff I came across a 2017 interview with Ian St. Martin in the lead up to Lucius: The Faultless Blade which includes:

 

ToW: Do you have plans to continue any aspects of this story, or is it a standalone piece?

ISM: The plan is that Faultless Blade is book one in a trilogy, and I certainly wrote the ending with more in mind. I would also like to thread short stories between the novels, to give individual characters a bit of a spotlight. Whether that comes to pass all depends on how this book resonates with the audience and how it sells. If it does well and the powers that be feel that a sequel and more make sense, the series continues.

 

I guess it didn't resonate, and I believe St. Martin has left GW (and hasn't written anything for BL since 2019). It did, however, get a fancy Special Edition released alongside the Emperor's Children in 2025; I'd love to see it picked back up.

 

//

 

(I used to have conversations about Lucius' character, where folks would point to aspects of the novel which I felt were story setups rather than fixed aspects of who he was. Primarily the notion that he's tormented by the souls trapped in his armour, rather than the at-the-time Codex lore that he loved tormenting the souls trapped in his armour. Of course, the 2025 Codex: EC lore then changed him to indeed be the tormented, rather than the tormentor... sigh. I wonder if the Codex writers changed him to be in line with this BL depiction, even though I think it was sequel bait.)

 

//

 

For that matter, Lucius could also do with a HH Character novel. He leaves off at the end of The Crimson King (with a brief, one paragraph cameo in Slaves to Darkness) and then... just never appears in the Siege of Terra. He got the call. 

 

Edited April 12 by LSM

[Felix Antipodes]

To be fair, I think nearly everything put out by BL is with one eye on expansion into something longer (duology, trilogy, series) if it resonates with their audience.  I just don’t know how they could tell if that happened.  Due to their practice of low print runs that (almost always) sell out how would they know if they struck gold?  So who green/red lights any potential series?

[wecanhaveallthree]

Timely you mention that. I always thought that as well. I recently yelled at established Shadowrun and Battletech author (recently come to 40K with the anthology entries Seven Ships and Resounding), Russel Zimmerman about them not writing my ideal 40K novel, and their reply was really insightful on the subject:

 

Quote

I appreciate the feedback! I'm sorry to hear you didn't dig it, but I can totally get exposition feeling jarring to read (fwiw it's often just as jarring to write). When I'm tackling book two or three of a trilogy, I've got a bit more room to assume readers are caught up on the story, and when I'm working with the same editor for ten years, I've got a bit more control of the gas pedal. Writing short fiction...? And my second piece or a new IP? A little less so.
 

Different editors (by which I mean different editors within BL, too) have different feelings re: exposition, and I think it shows from story to story (I've got several more in the pipeline). I've been guided to err on the side of including it, front-loading a story a little, a few times, instead of making assumptions about readers. And this is certainly not unique to BL, either, to be clear.
 

I think -- purely my own guesstimate, not any sort of peek behind the curtain -- they're hunger for heavy exposition is often related to how much editorial wants stories to be publishable as a stand-alone, or maybe even not being sure where it'll be published at the time.
 

The only piece of fic in a magazine (and therefore not being able to assume a certain layer of knowledge from readers) is going to want to have more top-heavy lore dumps as opposed to a story that's part of an all-one-faction anthology (where, yeah, most readers are already engaged fans of the Astra Militarum, already have an idea of the various ranks and responsibilities, know the equipment they can expect, regimental tropes, etc, etc).
 

If the desk's not AS sure where a story's going to wind up, I think they're leaning into heavier exposition, just to play it safe. Again, just my own vague observation of broad tendencies, not saying that's for sure the decision that was made in the case of 'Resounding.'
 

I'm sorry the results (in this case) were uneven enough you found it jarring and it took away from your enjoyment. I hope you dug it otherwise (and I hope you enjoyed the rest of the anthology), and I hope you'll enjoy some of my other stuff more, when the time comes. Thanks for the thoughtful post, either way, and for taking the time out of your weekend to write it up.

 

That aligns with my thoughts and what I think we've seen out of BL. I'd use Honourbound as a really good example of this: the opening and ending both could be pretty neatly chopped out and published in an anthology without much work at all, and considering Raine began life in short story format, I wouldn't think twice if you told me BL liked what they saw in one of these shorter pieces and said 'yo write us a book o dat'. 

[LSM]

8 hours ago, Felix Antipodes said:

To be fair, I think nearly everything put out by BL is with one eye on expansion into something longer (duology, trilogy, series) if it resonates with their audience...

 

True. I had just felt (after reading Lucius: The Faultless Blade) that there were some pretty overt future-story hooks.

 

Like... Die Hard 2 picks up after Die Hard, but Die Hard wasn't laying any ground for Die Hard 2. The movie was just a big hit, so they made more. Whereas The Two Towers picks up after The Fellowship of the Ring with our heroes continuing on their paths; having overcome the story's climax (Frodo deciding he needs to go alone, and Sam going with him) but with much unfinished business. (Far from a perfect example, but hopefully I'm getting my thoughts across.)

 

Seeing an interview with the author where they outright say (before release) "the plan is it's book one of three" was a treat for me, as it confirmed that I hadn't been reading too much into it. (And then I saw this thread bumped.)

[Krelious]

I'd imagine that Black Legion 3 wont come out until the Scouring series is finished because it has to get Abbadon from the Siege to the Eye of Terror and likely foreshadow events in that book somehow which id imagine is him getting Drachnyen.

[The Scorpion]

I'm still hoping for Steve Parker to somehow come up with a metal chair and slap Deathwatch 3 all over the Black Library website.

[DarkChaplain]

2 hours ago, The Scorpion said:

I'm still hoping for Steve Parker to somehow come up with a metal chair and slap Deathwatch 3 all over the Black Library website.

 

I got bad news for you there. The Black Library website is going the way of the dodo =/

[darkhorse0607]

8 hours ago, Krelious said:

I'd imagine that Black Legion 3 wont come out until the Scouring series is finished because it has to get Abbadon from the Siege to the Eye of Terror and likely foreshadow events in that book somehow which id imagine is him getting Drachnyen.

 

I mean the goal post keeps moving on that.

 

First it was "oh we won't see it until x,y,z happens in 40k"

 

Then

 

"Oh we won't see it until after the siege"

 

Then "oh we won't see it until after Pandemonium" 

 

Now, possibly not until after the Scouring.

 

We can just admit its not coming. Then the healing can begin

[The Praetorian of Inwit]

It is depressing seeing how many series were just left. That's even before Crime & Horror were just hung out to dry. 

 

I really don't think Black Legion 3 is coming (though I'd love to be proven wrong). 

[Fedor]

On 4/12/2026 at 8:11 AM, wecanhaveallthree said:

And it was so okay that I've seen Volpone Glory mentioned more than the newest faction's only book! (it's fine (Volpone Glory rules))

 

I was more commenting on how James Workshop didn't want even a sniff of what anyone was working on getting out and Thorpe was immediately taken for reeducation. Because natural hype-building or any kind of organic advertising, particularly through an excited fanbase, is doubleplusungood.

 

Sounds like it got PoNeD

[Bobss]

Black Legion 3/End of Empires probably isn't coming out for reasons relating to ADB himself I suspect. Some of the above reasons strike me as pure copium. It might be released, one day, but it now exists in the same void as The Winds of Winter and The Doors of Stone i.e. if it drops, it drops, and if it doesn't, it doesn't. It's a shame, but after a certain point a spade must be called spade.

[DarkChaplain]

This discussion just made me look up if Scott Lynch's "Thorn of Emberlain" had actually released while I wasn't paying attention, since it was rumored/"confirmed" over and over since 2024 again. Nah, placeholder date of December 31st, 2026. Go figure. Book 4 of 7 and stuck on a major bloody cliffhanger since 2013....

 

Anyhow, wasn't Spears 2 supposedly almost done, too, and likely to be released before the Drach'nyen Black Legion novel anyway? Not seeing that one releasing anytime soon, either...

[grailkeeper]

On 4/13/2026 at 4:53 PM, Krelious said:

I'd imagine that Black Legion 3 wont come out until the Scouring series is finished because it has to get Abbadon from the Siege to the Eye of Terror and likely foreshadow events in that book somehow which id imagine is him getting Drachnyen.

Book 1 has him in the eye.

 

From comments made on his Facebook ADB had originally planned to do I think 17 Black Legion books bringing the legion from its inception to present. It was clear thr protagonist hated drachneyen. It was recovered in the first Black crusade, which we would have seen in book 3 (or possibly even 4). We might have seen Saint Gerstahl then, whose tomb gets obliterated in the 3rd black crusade.

[Fedor]

Yeah, Black Legion was supposed to be an extensive ongoing series and I can only imagine the first two were plotted with that in mind.

 

It's gone. We're not getting it as was intended anymore, that ship sailed long ago. releasing a third that is hastily reworked to wrap things up would be a mistake, imo.

[Tymell]

On the core topic of unfinished series', unless I missed something, wouldn't the Primarchs series count, since we still haven't had the last one covering Horus?

[The Praetorian of Inwit]

Good point.

 

Honestly I'd be surprised if it came out at all now. 

[darkhorse0607]

39 minutes ago, The Praetorian of Inwit said:

Honestly I'd be surprised if it came out at all now. 

 

I am more surprised that @wecanhaveallthree passed on the free Horus primarch novel mention and the ability to yell about McNeill