Upcoming BL Stuff 2024

[LemartestheLost]

4 hours ago, Nagashsnee said:

 

Most of the popular series or over (HH, Vaults of Terra, etc) or ending, and the ones that are not (Black Legion, Custodes trilogy, spears of the Emperor) have no news.  The 'popular' authors are also largely slumbering.   Random books and Dawn of Yawns book X do not excitement make.

 

I agree with everything you said here except for "random books". Personally, I am a bit tired of everything having to be in a series or trilogy. I find there's something to be enjoyed about a standalone novel that creates/explores a new character for the sake of it. That's why I'm so pumped for Lazarus to show up on my doorstep, along with the fact that Dark Angels not written by Gav Thorpe or Phil Kelly might actually be great?

[DukeLeto69]

5 hours ago, Nagashsnee said:

 

Most of the popular series or over (HH, Vaults of Terra, etc) or ending, and the ones that are not (Black Legion, Custodes trilogy, spears of the Emperor) have no news.  The 'popular' authors are also largely slumbering.   Random books and Dawn of Yawns book X do not excitement make.  Plus since this a no AOS forum that also limits things futher.

 

As others have said, there is a whole world of books to go thru, BL isnt making a effort so why should we?

 

Personally TeatD I-II-III really put the final nail in 30k fiction for me. And the current 40k 'plot' also leaves me cold. So unless its by someone i truest or a story that can lure me in (or both Hello Sea of Souls) they are not putting out anything i want to read never mind talk about. 

Would announcing:

 

- Watchers of the Throne 3

- Black Legion 3

- Spears of the Emperor 2

- Pandaemonium

- Interceptor City

 

change that for you?

[Scribe]

54 minutes ago, DukeLeto69 said:

- Black Legion 3

 

Pretty much only this.

 

I'd love to get a lifeline from ADB, but now that the HH is over I'm not really invested in the direction 40K is going.

[darkhorse0607]

1 hour ago, DukeLeto69 said:

Would announcing:

 

- Watchers of the Throne 3

- Black Legion 3

- Spears of the Emperor 2

- Pandaemonium

- Interceptor City

 

change that for you?

 

I mean yes, but I feel like that's a temporary thing. As Lemartes said, I am on board with things not being part of a series, Lazarus is exciting for me in that regard. Just give me stories that aren't some massive plot going over multiple books (or lack thereof if we are talking about certain recent series that kind of have an ongoing arc but kind of not) but I feel like part of it is the lack of variety

 

If I want Tau books (which I do) I get Phil Kelly and his mind-controlling Ethereals. That's it. There are only so many times I can go back to space marine-centered novels just to get tidbits of Tau stuff that aren't his

 

Chaos has gotten some stuff, mostly around Fabius but also Angrons novel, but nothing for the other legions in a long time, or again, other than Angron, nothing that isn't part of a series. The biggest draw here is the Black Legion series, but as you and others have mentioned, who knows what happened to that or if it'll ever be finished. There are things like the Iron Warriors series, Night Lords, and gems like Lords of Silence, but nothing in that vein for a while. You get Fabius and you will like it or you basically don't get anything for extended periods.

 

Inquisitor stuff you have a sprinkling here and there, but mainly you're setting up camp with Abnett, which is good or bad depending on your view

 

I can't remember the last time any of the Eldar got anything, but I don't follow them closely so I can't say for certain there.

 

Necrons got Twice Dead King and Infinite and the Divine which were both great, but nothing with the Silent King, as big as GW wanted to make his return

 

Votann have nothing which I am personally fine with but it's a gap

 

Grey Knights got a bit of story in Angron but that's it for how long? Years at least other than their small appearance in The Emperor's Legion

 

Orks have Brooks now apparently so that's good

 

Imperial Guard I'd say are also doing ok unless you want something other than Cadians or Krieg, in which case you're mostly out of luck unless you can settle for side appearances in other books

 

We did get gems like Assassinorum Kingmaker and ones and twos in other places but those seem to be few and far between

 

I dunno, I guess my point is that not only are releases slowing down, but we also aren't getting much variety with what we do get anymore. I don't blame anyone specifically (except BL, I do blame the organization not the authors because they're leading this circus), but if you aren't all in on Space Marines or Cadians there isn't a lot to get hyped about

 

Maybe I'm just salty because I'm losing hope on Black Legion 3. Idk. It's also hard to get hyped about things if you don't know what's going on, not to beat that horse again, but could you imagine if mainline GW announced products like BL does? It'd be a disaster

 

[Felix Antipodes]

19 hours ago, RikuEru said:

Sidenote/Observation:

Black Library Celebration hasn't been over for long aaaand... instead of delving into vivid discussions about newly announced books new or small this sub-forum was dead quiet (apart from 8 posts in this main thread) over the whole weekend.

 

Wonder what might have caused that drop in enthusiasm for BL books... surely not the draught of releases and the shameful way they're dealing with the Special Edition Sales.

 

To me, it is a two prong issue.  Just not the obvious ones you hint at.  Sure, we were all bummed out by the barbarian (scalper) raids on our secret island of BL.  The real issue though is the lack of new releases and, almost as important, the lack of variety within those releases.

This is a BL problem as they are the ones that commission the stories.  While an author might front with a fully formed pitch, or have a preference for a particular part of the setting, only BL gets to say “go or no”.

As several others have pointed out above, where are the stories about anything other than (what appears to be) the current favourites.  Even the perennial SM seems to be having a bit of a lull, with only every third novel released being associated with them .

[cheywood]

The Heresy and Siege finally ending definitely feels like the closing of an era. We need another major announcement to get that excitement back, something that will generate prolonged interest beyond just a novel or a trilogy. More clarity on what the future holds in general would also be appreciated. There’s also clearly some delay with limited editions going on that is keeping books from being published. The pace for novel releases would be about the same as last year, were it not for the delayed LE and SEs. 
 

That said, I generally disagree when fraters say there’s a lack of variety compared to past years. BL always have and likely always will publish too many Space Marine novels, but I think its still generally much more varied than it was say 5-6 years ago. There have been 14 books released/announced for this year, 9 for 30k/40k. Of those 3 are primarily about Space Marines and 2 about Chaos Space marines. So Space Marines make up about 1/3rd of BL’s release schedule. By my count that’s roughly consistent with 2023 (1/3rd of releases), a little bit more than 2022 (1/4th of releases) and similar to 2021 (also roughly 1/3rd). I don’t have data going back beyond that, but I’d be surprised if the numbers ever dropped much below 1/4th. 

 

[Nagashsnee]

11 hours ago, DukeLeto69 said:

Would announcing:

 

- Watchers of the Throne 3

- Black Legion 3

- Spears of the Emperor 2

- Pandaemonium

- Interceptor City

 

change that for you?

 

First 3 yes but, its pre existing excitement, its just more of what i know i like and will very likely keep liking. Its not a fresh new restaurant or type of cuisine, its just another course on a meal i am already enjoying by the chef i come to cause I already know i like.  A huge part of the reason i liked them in the first place was BECAUSE they were fresh new areas to explore. Founding of the black legion with new and unique characters? Sold. A exploration of modern Custodes and how they view the imperium and their role in it with fresh new characters? Sold!  FINALLY a look at the dark imperium and day to day life in it not tired around named characters and rule book! WITH FRESH NEW CHARACTERS???? SOLD!!!!!

 

The 4th i am dreading as the personification of 40k becoming star wars small universe tied around X named characters, quick travel! interconnected everything! No one ever dies! Buy all 13 books scattered in 3 series  to understand the whole story! Someone did die? Clone them!/Pararel universe twin/etc.  Letting a author tie so much of the Key heresy moments into a 40k book is not something i agree with. Retroactively shoving these links in far too many heresy books to forge said links is also not my cup of tea.  10k years of history and events and yet almost everything in 30k ties directly into 40k. And modern GW  keep doubling down on this.  

 

The last one i honestly wont even think about. No interest in it and nothing either for or against it. 

 

Honestly tho i am happy enough with BL, they put out enough of what i call side books (books that take part around 'main events' but not directly in them allowing freedom of story and characters) to keep me happy.  Vaults of Terra have been some of the best things BL has ever sold me, the Fehevaris of the world give me a treat every now and again, and even the straight forward main plot/marine polishing books contain the occasional gem, so as long as they keep a steady trickle of them i will be happy.

 

Hot take, i want more Beast Arises type things, it had many many many problems, but it was despite them all, fresh, daring and trying to do what BL should do, explore and expand the Universe of Warhammer.  It was not too long or too short and honestly i really enjoyed it in its totality.  I would rather they fail at being daring then succeed at being boring.  

 

 

[Nagashsnee]

13 hours ago, LemartestheLost said:

 

I agree with everything you said here except for "random books". Personally, I am a bit tired of everything having to be in a series or trilogy. I find there's something to be enjoyed about a standalone novel that creates/explores a new character for the sake of it. That's why I'm so pumped for Lazarus to show up on my doorstep, along with the fact that Dark Angels not written by Gav Thorpe or Phil Kelly might actually be great?

 

Missed this so accidental double post.

 

I think i failed to express myself correctly. I have nothing against random books, most of the series above started as random books. But unless they are by an author or on a subject (like Dark Angels seem to do for you) that i like, they don't generate excitement. Curiosity maybe. 

 

So if GW tomorrow said ' new Author Writes a book about Tau'. I would not be excited, now if the books drops and reviews come back that say its great, it explores XYZ of the lore in a well thought out fashion, or it is a well written character study for X character or sub faction then i would get excited for the book. But BL history has show it is more likely another Tau pew pew robots cool imperials bad hatchet job.  So most random books dont excite me when they get previewed, not because they are doomed to be bad, but because UNLESS they are good its just another mediocre 40k book that i will probably ignore/read on a flight if i borrow it or something. 

 

To give examples, the recent Flesh Tearers book was by a fresh author, had a unique and fun sounding story with non named characters and slotted into my BA and sons area of interest. And it was absolute crushing disappointment.  On the other hand the 40k Angron book was a sleeper hit, proving a fun and focussed look onto the 'modern' world eaters, khorne worship and even Angron that i had mostly written off when i first heard of it.  So i mostly just ignore randos until AFTER i get a feel for them, i got excited for too many dubs and ignored too many gems over the years and learned my lesson.

 

[Kelborn]

On 3/4/2024 at 7:43 AM, RikuEru said:

Sidenote/Observation:

Black Library Celebration hasn't been over for long aaaand... instead of delving into vivid discussions about newly announced books new or small this sub-forum was dead quiet (apart from 8 posts in this main thread) over the whole weekend.

 

Wonder what might have caused that drop in enthusiasm for BL books... surely not the draught of releases and the shameful way they're dealing with the Special Edition Sales.

 

What shall we even discuss?

 

Here's the official list from Warhammer Community: https://www.warhammer-community.com/2024/02/10/saturday-pre-orders-welcome-to-the-black-library-celebration/

 

- Da Big Dakka: Great to have a new Ork novel by Brooks. He really nails it for me. Can't have enough of his Orky weirdness! We know it'll be good but theres nothing to theorize or predict about. A blank slate if you want. Anticipated but nothing breathtakingly unexpected here.

- The Art of the Horus Heresy: *shrugs* Yeah, alright. That's a thing.

- Deus Encarmine: An anniversary edition of an old book. Hurray...

- The Ghosts of Barak-Minoz: Age of Sigmar -> forbidden (although, it's honestly the one which really got me hyped)

- Riders of the Dead: Old World -> forbidden

- Lord of the Night: A reprint...again...didn't have that in a long time *cough* Storm of Iron *cough*

- The rest is just the regular announcement of French and German releases, etc.

 

All in all: There's nothing noteworthy to talk about. Just a single new 40K novel and that's it. Already the last years were kind of lacking. Don't know if it still the repercussions of COVID which naturally shook things up and changed a lot.

 

Compare this with 2020: https://www.warhammer-community.com/2020/02/05/what-you-can-get-at-the-black-library-celebrationgw-homepage-post-3fw-homepage-post-3/

 

You had way more stuff happening back then. Pins, Various announcements of new books, hardbacks, translations and even merchandise like the dice set or pins.

 

So yeah, not a surprise that this years Celebration passed by so quickly.

Edited March 5 by Kelborn
typos

[cheywood]

The next Renegades book, Rich McCormick’s Lord of Excess, is up for preorder on the 23rd. Releases on the 6th of April. FNAC dates haven’t been quite as reliable lately with all the various delays, so I’ll update this post if it changes. Hopefully this being just a regular edition means there won’t be any issues with the release.

[cheywood]

3 hours ago, Kelborn said:

 

Compare this with 2020: https://www.warhammer-community.com/2020/02/05/what-you-can-get-at-the-black-library-celebrationgw-homepage-post-3fw-homepage-post-3/

 

You had way more stuff happening back then. Pins, Various announcements of new books, hardbacks, translations and even merchandise like the dice set or pins.

 

So yeah, not a surprise that this years Celebration passed by so quickly.

 
this is a big part of the lack of excitement I think. Along with the lack of info on future releases, all the extra little things have been removed/pared back. Part of generating hype, as a company, is treating your products as though they’re exciting (at least when it comes to entertainment). If the seller isn’t excited then why would we as consumers be excited? It’s always notable when an actor publicly derides their own work for instance. When you take away the short stories and the audio dramas and the various knickknacks then the core business (novels) remains relatively unaffected while audience enthusiasm wanes a bit.

[Kelborn]

Speaking about excitement.

I'm sorry but the BL presentations are a disaster. No compassion. They treat every story/ book as if they're learning about 40K for the first time. No preparation in advance.

No mise en place.

 

How do they intend to hook us and get us hyped if they're seating seemingly bored employees in front of us???

[darkhorse0607]

21 minutes ago, Kelborn said:

Speaking about excitement.

I'm sorry but the BL presentations are a disaster. No compassion. They treat every story/ book as if they're learning about 40K for the first time. No preparation in advance.

No mise en place.

 

How do they intend to hook us and get us hyped if they're seating seemingly bored employees in front of us???

 

Agreed, although I'll say that's been a running trend in anything that isn't AoS or 40k. I remember when the Heresy was getting ready to relaunch or there were small releases in 2020/21 etc, they were awful. Very clearly did not know anything about it and/or didn't care

 

It's just a really interesting thing in itself. GW marketing is literally centered around hype. They do it for the models. They semi do it with the animations. They do it with games. They do it for literally everything but the books. I wonder why the discrepancy, I'd love to be a fly on the wall in there and see what the issue is

[cheywood]

50 minutes ago, darkhorse0607 said:

 

Agreed, although I'll say that's been a running trend in anything that isn't AoS or 40k. I remember when the Heresy was getting ready to relaunch or there were small releases in 2020/21 etc, they were awful. Very clearly did not know anything about it and/or didn't care

 

It's just a really interesting thing in itself. GW marketing is literally centered around hype. They do it for the models. They semi do it with the animations. They do it with games. They do it for literally everything but the books. I wonder why the discrepancy, I'd love to be a fly on the wall in there and see what the issue is

Does GW really do much to hype up the animations and games? It feels like they just get the same lackluster community articles that BL gets, but the games benefit from having their own publishers with their own marketing teams. To me there’s a clear line between models and everything else. GW seems to very intentionally limit everything else from taking center stage for very long, if at all. 

[DarkChaplain]

Speaking of Video Games... Age of Sigmar: Realms of Ruin is featured in the new Humble Choice subscription bundle which dropped half an hour ago. Ten bucks, 8 games, and Realms of Ruin's got the Ultimate Edition to boot. In case anybody's interested in picking it up.

Installing it myself at the moment, which should tide me over until I can spray prime those Stormcast and swamp ork miniatures I've been piling up lately.

 

As for "fresh characters", I think we have little reason to complain. If anything, they're doing TOO MANY "A XX Novel" series, trilogies, or rather more frequently one-offs. Heck, Warhammer Crime is entirely one-offs with some shorts so far. Basically every new thing in AoS has been a named character novel, as if they're trying to keep the door open, just in case they want to release a model down the line (or immediately, like they did with Drekki and Cado). With 40k it is a little less pronounced, but there, too, we have Lucille, Guard characters and so forth.

 

They're obviously trying to catch lightning in a bottle again, and get the new Gotrek & Felix, Ciaphas Cain or Eisenhorn, in my mind. The problem is, they don't really take the plunge, and don't do so in a reasonable timeframe. The "Renegades" series is a prime example of that: It took them how long to get from Harrowmaster (which also didn't get an audio, nor a statement, for ages) to the new one coming up next month? I'm honestly amazed we already got a second Drekki Flynt novel, when most of their named character series get stuck in limbo. Heck, remember that Gav Thorpe once was supposed to write a trilogy about Khorgos Khul, the big Khorne guy from when AoS launched? They even called it Book One of the Khul and then they axed the thing.

 

That's my big fear for Crime in particular. Those books were generally among the best 40k stuff in the past 5 years, easily. And they seemingly dropped any effort to keep it going, dialing it down during the crucial formative stages, where you build a reliable schedule and thus keep engagement high. Horror is doing even worse - they have an AoS quadrilogy going, which was advertised as THE big thing, with Murghast and all, and.... book 4 is nowhere to be seen. Worse, book 3 barely even acknowledges book 2 happened. At this point, I'd be happy to get that fourth, concluding book at all, but it looks more and more like Horror is just straight up dead otherwise. No new novel all winter.

 

And that's the thing: Sustainability is utterly lacking with BL. You can't hype worth when you can't be certain that promised series, trilogies, character cycles are actually being followed up on in a reasonable timeframe. It's the Gentleman Bastard Sequence in worse - no communication, and on a publisher scale. And it's not like Black Library as a corporate entity is suffering from debilitating mental health issues like the author of that series, which sabotage his plans. They're just quite simply inept.

 

Delays happen. Problems on the authors' ends happen. Cancellations happen, too. But when they happen, you owe it to your audience to be transparent about it instead of leaving them hanging, not daring to hope for the promised continuation of a thing they enjoyed, while never being told what's going on. Especially now with social media thumbscrews being in place and preventing authors to actually being open to their audiences about things like that.

Edited March 5 by DarkChaplain

[DukeLeto69]

If they discontinue Crime and we never get Bloodlines 2 or Flesh & Steel 2 or Grim Repast 2 I will be gutted. 

[SkimaskMohawk]

1 hour ago, DukeLeto69 said:

If they discontinue Crime and we never get Bloodlines 2 or Flesh & Steel 2 or Grim Repast 2 I will be gutted. 

 

Ya, Crime has been the single most enjoyable BL series/setting/collection/thing that I've read from them in a long time. Every book was a hit and fun to explore.

 

Feels like they just sold terribly compared to siege of terra stuff though, or the authors all just got better deals with other publishers who actually appreciate their talent.

[Roomsky]

Quote

Warhammer Crime

 

 

*Gestures pointedly at total lack of discussion about King of the Spoil*

Edited March 5 by Roomsky

[DarkChaplain]

Again a moment when I wish I had a crying reaction. I'll get to it soon. Promise.

[Noserenda]

Yeah I agree its not a lack of characters, we get reams of characters, its just most of them suck (or die) and we never give them another thought. Or... If they do catch the eye, Black library ignores them and we never hear from them again anyway. 

Harrowmaster is another great example actually, like it feels really obvious to be the main character of that book exists as a plastic character mini out there in prototype land, from the way he is described and set up to be a new Alpha Legion character for 40k and especially the end of the novel where he gets a bit of a kit upgrade that feels like the end of an intro arc.  Then we get almost nothing to back that up, not even a full release of book formats!

I tend to follow authors more than characters anyway, take Robert Rath as an example who has been superb both with his own creations in Kingmaker and breathed new life into tired meme characters in Infinite and the Divine. Then did both at the same time in Fall of Cadia (Seriously Kell was so great throughout and then got some of the best final words in 40k as did several new characters)  but similarly others authors have taken great compelling characters and driven them into the dirt (Many times but im not here to point fingers) even when apparently working hand in hand with their prior authors.

And its stuff like that that is really turning me off of ongoing series, they are never consistent (Not just a GW problem) and even the most even series has dips into hubris and meander... Then at the worst you have War of the Beast that simultaneously has some of the best world building/characters in 40k and some of the most absolutely shambolic writing and pacing, not being hyperbolic, one book in particular was near CS Goto quality with the worst ever 40k space battle, Deus Ork machinas and the opening or one of the series sillier subplots.

(And now baby needs me but i think i covered everything!) 

 

[wecanhaveallthree]

Quote

great characters who never got another look-in

 

I'm sure that second Raine book is coming any day now! And Guymer's certainly almost finished that third Iron Hands book, ah ha ha!

[Felix Antipodes]

I feel a lot of the ongoing excitement and cues for discussion were curtailed when BL cut back their upcoming releases page from the previous (approx) six month listing to just a single, usually inaccurate, next month listing.  It didn’t help that they moved it off the BL website and buried it within WarComm either.  Now that they have dropped it completely, we are totally in the dark wrt future releases.

In the past we would discuss the merits of the next book coming in a series, speculate over whether a new writer appearing on the list would be up to standard, or brace for the plethora of “How does XX keep getting commissions, I hate their stuff” posts, followed by impassioned defences from their fans.  (Unless it was Goto, there wasn’t much defending going on there for some reason  ).  We also had a couple of the authors as fellow fraters here, who provided occasional insights on both the creative and behind the scenes aspects.

 

What do we have now?  Even the irregular coming next month list is gone.  We are figuratively sitting in a dark room waiting for the occasional, brief, spark of light to illuminate our darkness via WarComm’s seemingly bored and uninterested staff or the hard work of our fellow fraters. (Thank you @cheywood for your FNAC updates!).

You can’t even purchase their product in a non-GW bookstore nowadays (brick & mortar or online) because of the minuscule print runs.

So now we sit around in the dark, worrying about whether we will ever see the next book in a series, or whether a beloved imprint (Crime, Horror, etc) has been smothered in its sleep by the powers that be.  No wonder there isn’t much to say and everything feels depressed of late.

 

There, rant over!  Feel much better!  Who’s looking forward to reading Lazarus when it hits the wild from this weekend? 

[DukeLeto69]

7 hours ago, Roomsky said:

 

*Gestures pointedly at total lack of discussion about King of the Spoil*

It’s on my shelf waiting to be read but I have a backlog due to my SoT binge.

[LemartestheLost]

On 3/5/2024 at 2:16 AM, Nagashsnee said:

So if GW toorrow said ' new Author Writes a book about Tau'. I would not be excited, now if the books drops and reviews come back that say its great, it explores XYZ of the lore in a well thought out fashion, or it is a well written character study for X character or sub faction then i would get excited for the book. But BL history has show it is more likely another Tau pew pew robots cool imperials bad hatchet job.  So most random books dont excite me when they get previewed, not because they are doomed to be bad, but because UNLESS they are good its just another mediocre 40k book that i will probably ignore/read on a flight if i borrow it or something. 

 

To give examples, the recent Flesh Tearers book was by a fresh author, had a unique and fun sounding story with non named characters and slotted into my BA and sons area of interest. And it was absolute crushing disappointment.  On the other hand the 40k Angron book was a sleeper hit, proving a fun and focussed look onto the 'modern' world eaters, khorne worship and even Angron that i had mostly written off when i first heard of it.  So i mostly just ignore randos until AFTER i get a feel for them, i got excited for too many dubs and ignored too many gems over the years and learned my lesson.

 

 

As to the second paragraph quoted here, I completely concur that Wrath of the Lost was a bit of a swing and miss and Angron was a grand book that I WILL reread down the line. At the end of the day, we just have different perspectives. Not to age anyone here, but maybe I'm just young and naive (I'm in my 20's), who knows? I just try to maintain an overtly positive attitude when it comes to new releases (books in all genres I'm invested in) because I never know what/which/who might excite me on a particular day. Don't get me wrong, I have my favorites and I love when folks throw recommendations my way, but there's something refreshing about finding something new that I can delve into blind without anyone else's input to color my initial approach/reception to the book! 

[DarkChaplain]

By the by, did we truly not hear anything about a new 40k Characters novel since Cypher, which was also originally going to be an audio drama box set years prior, so not even commissioned as a Characters book until the rework? Cypher is a year old now.

 

This is what I mean: BL don't follow through, are inconsistent and nobody knows if they actually axed a series, imprint or author, or if stuff is actually in the pipeline. Heck, they never even made an official statement about Space Marine Conquests, of all things, they just killed it after they canceled the Parrott Raven Guard novel.