Upcoming BL Stuff 2024

[theSpirea]

I still refuse to believe 6500 copies were all available online and all sold out. I bet/hope plenty of copies will be distributed via retailers, and people are only overacting right now.

 

 

 

[grailkeeper]

20 hours ago, DukeLeto69 said:

I sometimes wonder what proportion of GWs revenue BL accounts for? Also, isn’t Warhammer Forge (writers room) a thing that is going to be used to write scripts/treatments for the Amazon deal? Surely these are/can be linked? 

More than might appear on paper. A good book will inspire people to pick up the faction it's about. I wonder how many chaos space marine bits thr night lord trilogy shifted?

[WrathOfTheLion]

18 hours ago, Ubiquitous1984 said:

That said, it doesn't look like many people have actually quit buying physical books in the wake of the volume 3 disaster.  I was shocked that 6500 copies of a pretty mundane artbook sold out so fast.

I personally picked up the art book, as those sorts of things are cool. I also didn't do the Siege of Terra limited edition books, and neither did anyone else I know that ordered the art book, so that probably has a large bearing on it.

 

There are quite a few people that by virtue of not participating in it, were unaffected by the SoT chaos.

Edited February 11 by WrathOfTheLion

[darkhorse0607]

1 hour ago, WrathOfTheLion said:

I personally picked up the art book, as those sorts of things are cool. I also didn't do the Siege of Terra limited edition books, and neither did anyone else I know that ordered the art book, so that probably has a large bearing on it.

 

There are quite a few people that by virtue of not participating in it, were unaffected by the SoT chaos.

 

I also wonder how much of the FOMO is part of it. I feel like, especially with limited book releases, there's more of a "I have to get it immediately or there's no chance of getting it" going on after some of the recent LE adventures whereas before people might have waited and thought it out/perhaps might have gotten it at all

[DarkChaplain]

....not a single preorder coming our way next Saturday. Awesome.

[DukeLeto69]

6 hours ago, grailkeeper said:

More than might appear on paper. A good book will inspire people to pick up the faction it's about. I wonder how many chaos space marine bits thr night lord trilogy shifted?

Oh I get the concept of BL being used for marketing purposes to sell plastic kits but that wasn’t my question. GW’s annual report and accounts are quite opaque. What I wondered was direct revenue generated by BL sales. Because GW treat BL poorly and have repeatedly failed to treat BL as anything other than a sideline when it could be far far more.

[System Sound]

53 minutes ago, DarkChaplain said:

....not a single preorder coming our way next Saturday. Awesome.

A celebration. BL office is closed for this special holiday...

[EverythingIsGreat]

2 hours ago, DukeLeto69 said:

Oh I get the concept of BL being used for marketing purposes to sell plastic kits but that wasn’t my question. GW’s annual report and accounts are quite opaque. What I wondered was direct revenue generated by BL sales. Because GW treat BL poorly and have repeatedly failed to treat BL as anything other than a sideline when it could be far far more.

 

It is on page 16 of GW's half-year report, approved January 2024, in the Segment information section.

 

26 weeks to 26 November 2023

 

Total core external revenue 235.6 million pounds

Black Library 1.2 million pounds (less than 0.5% of total revenue)

 

The latest figures. Similar percentages for previous.

[Krelious]

I dont know what i was thinking or if this is the right place to post this but yesterday someone posted in my city a copy of End of the Death vol 3 limited edtion on ebay for 115$ Cad, I thought to myself that maybe it will fly under the radar or people will wait to bid on it. I look at it today and its up to 430$. It seems the problem with the whole scalping thing is that if say even 10% of people are willing to pay exorbitant prices and dont care then things will always be like this. I'd imagine when it sells its probably going to be about 700-800.

 

I mean 800$ is insane for a single book, I dont know how people could rationalize it and at this stage im just so fed up with this whole debacle that im just going to skip finishing the siege series for a long time as theres no way this 2000 page mess is going to be enjoyable anyways. I dont even care anymore at this point as im just reading other books and enjoying myself. 

 

 

[Felix Antipodes]

CAD $800?  Cheap!  Out of morbid curiosity I have been following the scalpers via eBay.  Gratifyingly there are none up from Oz listers.  The several UK copies (all from what looks like the same person) are AUD $900 - over a grand with postage.  The one US listing I found was over a grand, even before postage.

Crazy stuff… 

 

No pre-orders this week, in the second week of the “BL Celebration”, is mind boggling.  Guess we know when those delayed LE were on the schedule.  A week of eshorts just doesn’t cut it imho.

[cheywood]

Callis and Toll is out March 23rd, preorder March 9th: https://www.fnac.com/livre-numerique/a19685227/David-Annandale-Callis-and-Toll#omnsearchpos=6

 

For all that I am somewhat worried about the overall direction of BL going forward (less communication and publicity, fewer short stories, increasing emphasis on scarcity) they’re keeping up largely the same schedule as previous years for new releases. They’re on pace to release 28 new novels this year even with the Red Sea shipping delays (or whatever’s prevented the release of Reid’s Morvenn Vahl novel). Something to be said for the consistency of the core product (new fiction) despite all the issues surrounding it. 

[darkhorse0607]

New Dawn of Fire novel "Hand of Abbadon" by Nick Kyme. States that it is the penultimate one, so I guess there really will only be 9 after all

 

https://www.warhammer-community.com/2024/02/14/the-hand-of-abaddon-makes-a-move-in-the-penultimate-dawn-of-fire-novel/

 

LE coming as expected, with a short story and an appendix on the Indomitus Crusade

 

 

Seems like something they could have revealed at another time. During a special week for Black Library. A celebration you might call it

[System Sound]

New DoF? Yey. Nick Kyme... Groan.

[Roomsky]

Very much enjoyed Iron Kingdom, quite excited for this. Heresy, I know.

 

I think Kyme's editorial experience is a positive influence on his plotting; he's good at picking up the slack others have left hanging, IMO. Also, there's a bloody Votann on the cover.

Edited February 14 by Roomsky

[Kelborn]

More than halfway through Volpones Glory and I really really enjoy it thus far.

 

Been a while since I had that. Iron Kingdom sounds interesting enough for me, so colour me intrigued by this one.

 

Haven't read the DoF series except Avenging Son but from what I read in here, the hasn't been a cohesive story thread regarding the Hand throughout the series, right?

 

Also

 

VOTAAAAAAANN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Roomsky]

The Hand of Abaddon plotline has really only been a throughline in books 1, 2, and 4. Though I imagine there'll be significant follow-up to Iron Kingdom in this book as well.

[Ubiquitous1984]

12 minutes ago, Roomsky said:

 Also, there's a bloody Votann on the cover.

I completely missed that when reading the article.  My cursory glance thought "generic Ultramarine" and then moved on.

 

Interesting!

[Lord Nord in Gravis Armour]

I look forward to not having to read it twice.

[DarkChaplain]

15 minutes ago, Roomsky said:

The Hand of Abaddon plotline has really only been a throughline in books 1, 2, and 4. Though I imagine there'll be significant follow-up to Iron Kingdom in this book as well.

 

The description directly references characters from The Iron Kingdom, including Kesh, who was in Gate of Bones already and is now on the cover.

 

It seems like a pretty big follow-up to everything we've had so far, in a way. Rostov's investigation (Avenging Son + Throne of Light in particular) is coming to a head. Kesh's potential sainthood is put to the question. The artifacts the Hand of Abaddon/Abaddon himself have been seeking are all collected, so things there can proceed. The Death Guard on the cover might draw on the so far comparatively unconnected Martyr's Tomb. Sea of Souls also did its thing by the end, which will play into it.

 

And that Ultramarine on the cover? He's Ferren Areios, the Primaris PoV character from Avenging Son and Throne of Light, who served under Messinius. Same bloke as was on the first book's cover. We've seen him from the moment of his awakening by Cawl, we saw him struggle to reconcile his new nature and abandonment of who he was, and saw him get overwhelmed by a chaos-juiced Word Bearer. There's continuity here, a character I'm glad we're getting back to.

 

I assume the Count Orlock on the cover is actually supposed to be Tenebrus this time, huh? I like that look.

 

 

  

20 minutes ago, Kelborn said:

More than halfway through Volpones Glory and I really really enjoy it thus far.

 

Been a while since I had that. Iron Kingdom sounds interesting enough for me, so colour me intrigued by this one.

 

Haven't read the DoF series except Avenging Son but from what I read in here, the hasn't been a cohesive story thread regarding the Hand throughout the series, right?

 

Also

 

VOTAAAAAAANN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

I'd say it had more of a thematic throughline than one of plot. It's still serving as the spinal cord of the early Indomitus Era, but elements like the Hand of Abaddon, the Chaos scheme and such were taking a backseat in some books to further illustrate the shifting state of the Imperium and the internal failures (see: Wolftime for the Primaris question being asked, or Iron Empire for how the Imperium is its own worst enemy by way of forcing its authority instead of clever politics). They've been casting a shadow on the series, though. There's something contributed to the whole picture in every book, though not necessarily anything big that'd change the way you think about it, or major revelations.

 

Also, despite the negativity regarding The Iron Kingdom, I'll praise it again here. It really nailed its themes, and despite being a Knight book - something I still struggle with staying interested in, generally - it was a pretty good ride. It's a depressing novel in that it reestablishes that, yes, the Imperium is dysfunctional. Guilliman may be back, but he can't be everywhere at once, and stupid, power hungry people in high positions can and will ruin things in the details. It's the Imperium eating its own face, a tragedy unfolding with victims on both sides, with both being wrong in many ways.

Edited February 14 by DarkChaplain

[cheywood]

Interesting to see them bring the overarching plot elements to a head with one book still to go. This is the kind of plot summary I’d have expected for Haley’s finale (assuming he is in fact writing it). 
 

Kyme’s generally grown on me, but this sort of climactic, large scale story is exactly the type of novel I don’t want him to write. Kyme to me is better at writing stories with an emphasis on human characters and more personal stories. 
 

Also disappointing that BL has started working with talented writers who excel at writing xenos, like Rob Rath, Mike Brooks and  Nate Crowley, but still ends up giving the Votann’s first significant appearances to Nick Kyme and Gav Thorpe.

[DarkChaplain]

I mean, Gav at least is the Dwarf Guy of old who is still left writing for them :')

 

As for Kyme and the human perspective: Definitely agree here. But I don't think we need to worry about that being missing here, either, since Kesh's returning from his last novel, and last we saw her she was in touch with a Historitor. Rostov being involved also adds another couple of humans (and Xenos) to the mix, and the description points at Yheng having a reasonably large role (another holdover from book two and onwards). And Tenebrus is a bit in-between, I'd say.

 

We can't really say much beyond what they told us so far, but going off of previous plotlines involving the characters, it should be possible that Kyme could play to his strengths here instead of Space Marines taking the stage too much. Looking back at the series, I'm actually a little surprised by how well it managed to balance transhuman characters with baseline humans and adjacent so far. The Heresy this has not been, in this regard.

 

I expect this book to be one of revelations and answers to the unanswered questions of the series, with Haley's (inevitable?) finale being the big climax that can jump off of that, with all pieces in place.

 

Tinfoil hat time: I'm wondering if they've been slowing the series down deliberately to let Abnett's The End and the Death run its course. It's well possible that Kyme and Haley will have some references in there, since the Star Child thing was brought up already and we know how Dark Imperium: Godblight has the Emperor sort of making an appearance in the warp.

[Dzirhan]

I'll lean to being a little positive on this, Iron Kingdom was decent enough and Kyme seems to have improved from his HH Salamanders book (which was tedious to read IMO). Interesting to see what comes next after DoF, will BL launch another series or call time on that format and just stick to stand alone books or at most a duology or trilogy. Edit: to add also, since it's Kyme, we'll probably see some Marines Malevolent in it, which is not a bad thing IMO

Edited February 14 by Dzirhan

[DukeLeto69]

Whenever I read “The Hand of Abaddon” it makes me think of “The Mouth of Sauron” and the excellent interpretation by Peter Jackson of that character (one of my favourites) who was literally a large mouth and then I giggle because it makes me visualise someone with a really big hand!

[Kelborn]

That's on purpose.

The hand is literally a possessed being with the head and four arms forming a giant hand.

 

 

Gosh, it'd be so damn hilarious if they'd really do that as some kind of emboss phase. xD

[grailkeeper]

Just read the Long and Hungry Road by Adrian Tchaikovsky.

 

Its a perfect short story. It captures the essence of 'Nids to a T. Really shows how helpless humanity is in the face of such an overwhelming enemy. Its quite like Dan Abnett's short story fall of Malvolion- as they both tell basically the same story.

 

I am a big fan of Tchaikovsky but felt his genestealer novel wasn't his best work. This is incredible. It reminds me of first reading 40k, the grim dark end rather than the funny end. 

 

If someone new to the hobby wants to know who the nids are send them to this story.

 

10/10

 

 

Edited February 14 by grailkeeper