Upcoming BL Stuff 2024

[Ubiquitous1984]

It just feels like a managed decline.  

[theSpirea]

BL is, has been, and always will be secondary to GW. It exists to sell plastic crack. They don't operate as a regular publishing house. Books are mainly commissioned to promote miniatures, and with it comes release schedules. We know there were titles in the past sitting in a warehouse for months and months because GW even announced them, simply because it didn't fit into their miniature business side of the schedule.

As much as we love Fehervari and Crime getting amazing feedback everywhere, the sales might simply not be there. Often I see on other forums/social media people commenting they are not going to read this and that author because it's not Abnett/ADB or because it's not about the XZ/GG faction they play. This is a sad reality of being mainly a BL fan and not really caring about the miniature side of the hobby.

I was baffled at how many people had never even heard of Fehervari when BL announced the recent limited box set. Mind you, these people were often members of BL dedicated Facebook/social media groups, so at least to some degree familiar with their product.

 

I'm also not a big fan of long series and the need for each novel to bring new lore, new revelations, etc. Give me Flesh Made Steel, Crime/Horror, Witchbringer, Godeater's Son, etc. over any DoF installment, more than half the HH books, or even anything recent by Abnett, and him shrinking the setting because everything needs to be interconnected.

 

 

[Nagashsnee]

5 hours ago, LemartestheLost said:

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! 

 

Its more about free time/hobby money for me. If i only have the time/money to do 1 BL book and there are 3 BL books how do i decide? Could just pick at random but the feeling of wasted/cheated time when i get when i read trash will then put me off BL for ages.   And while i take risks once i a while i just want to enjoy my limited BL reading time with a good book...and then argue about it online of course. 

 

So authors who consistently put out what for me are good books will always win out over unknows.  And authors who have burned me repeatedly get put on the Kyme list of never buys.  Sure they may one day turn it around, but i have wasted enough time and money already and wont risk more. 

Edited March 6 by Nagashsnee

[cheywood]

3 minutes ago, Nagashsnee said:

 

Its more about free time/hobby money for me. If i only have the time/money to do 1 BL book and there are 3 BL books how do i decide? Could just pick at random but the feeling of wasted/cheated time when i get when i read trash will then put me off BL for ages.   And while i take risks once i a while i just want to enjoy my limited BL reading time with a good book...and then argue about it online of course. 

 

So authors who consistently put out what for me are good books will always win out over unknows.  And authors who have burned me repeatedly get put on the Kyme list of never buys.  Sure they may one day turn it around, but i have wasted enough time and money already and wont risk more. 

When I’m not sure if a new author is worth reading or not I typically check out the reviews on here or Reddit. If most people on here like it there’s a good chance I will. I feel like it is possible to make an informed decision about trying a new author instead of having to pick at random, though BL doesn’t exactly make it easy. 
 

I wish track of words were doing more promo interviews and reviews for BL novels these days, but he seems to be semi-retired from book blogging in general. BL rarely seemed to want to engage with him despite his being a major source of free advertising and coverage for the books.

[darkhorse0607]

1 hour ago, theSpirea said:

Often I see on other forums/social media people commenting they are not going to read this and that author because it's not Abnett/ADB or because it's not about the XZ/GG faction they play. This is a sad reality of being mainly a BL fan and not really caring about the miniature side of the hobby.

 

 

I was watching Valrak's stream last night as I worked on some painting projects, and while I can appreciate why some might not like him, I kind of like the fact that he's always so fired up about things.

 

Anyway, he mentioned the new Lazarus book, and how he wasn't going to get it because "The Lion wasn't in it, we already know what happens with Azrael (not sure why Azrael was brought up at all) and it doesn't move the plot"

 

And that just generally made me a bit sad. Even as someone who is in this hobby for probably 50/50 painting/lore it's a little frustrating when I hear "Oh it's not this big massive thing so I'm not getting it" or "No Primarch no deal" because I feel like that is going to reinforce BL not putting out these side stories anymore because they don't do as well, and just commissioning "Primarch Royal Rumble 23." 

 

Not to mention it makes me feel bad for the author

Edited March 6 by darkhorse0607

[Never_born]

1 hour ago, cheywood said:

When I’m not sure if a new author is worth reading or not I typically check out the reviews on here or Reddit. If most people on here like it there’s a good chance I will. I feel like it is possible to make an informed decision about trying a new author instead of having to pick at random, though BL doesn’t exactly make it easy. 
 

I wish track of words were doing more promo interviews and reviews for BL novels these days, but he seems to be semi-retired from book blogging in general. BL rarely seemed to want to engage with him despite his being a major source of free advertising and coverage for the books.

 

Semi-retired is a good description, yep. After a decade of reviewing, I just don't have the mental energy for it these days. I'm still working on bits and pieces, but mostly interviews and author guest posts, and it is hard to get BL to sign off anything like that. Not impossible - I've got one BL-related author interview in the works - but really difficult, so mostly I just focus on other publishers who actually want to work with bloggers/reviewers.

 

Reading through this thread, I agree with a lot of what's being said about enthusiasm dropping as a direct result of BL making life so difficult for us as readers. I don't want to be too negative, as I've got a lot of time for the authors and the editors, but let's just say that the way BL/GW (i.e. sales and marketing) treat reviewers - and have done over the years - feels very similar. I tried...I really tried to build a relationship with BL and WarCom, but they were so obviously never interested. So these days, when I do put out anything BL-related it's come from the author and me talking, and trying to get BL to sign stuff off. And I'm not super motivated to be going out there and proactively trying to organise things.

 

If there are books (when anything new is finally announced) that you guys are super keen to find out more about, feel free to tag me into the conversations - if I've got the time and energy, I'll see what I can do. Just bear in mind that for every author interview I manage to get off the ground, there's another one that falls by the wayside as BL either block it or just plain ignore it.

[cheywood]

28 minutes ago, Never_born said:

 

Semi-retired is a good description, yep. After a decade of reviewing, I just don't have the mental energy for it these days. I'm still working on bits and pieces, but mostly interviews and author guest posts, and it is hard to get BL to sign off anything like that. Not impossible - I've got one BL-related author interview in the works - but really difficult, so mostly I just focus on other publishers who actually want to work with bloggers/reviewers.

 

Reading through this thread, I agree with a lot of what's being said about enthusiasm dropping as a direct result of BL making life so difficult for us as readers. I don't want to be too negative, as I've got a lot of time for the authors and the editors, but let's just say that the way BL/GW (i.e. sales and marketing) treat reviewers - and have done over the years - feels very similar. I tried...I really tried to build a relationship with BL and WarCom, but they were so obviously never interested. So these days, when I do put out anything BL-related it's come from the author and me talking, and trying to get BL to sign stuff off. And I'm not super motivated to be going out there and proactively trying to organise things.

 

If there are books (when anything new is finally announced) that you guys are super keen to find out more about, feel free to tag me into the conversations - if I've got the time and energy, I'll see what I can do. Just bear in mind that for every author interview I manage to get off the ground, there's another one that falls by the wayside as BL either block it or just plain ignore it.

It’s disappointing as ever to hear about BL’s indifference towards those who give so much of their time and effort. Thanks so much for all you’ve done for the community! Your blog has been an invaluable resource for many of us!

[DarkChaplain]

I still remember the olden days of the Founding Fields and such, and the Bolthole, when BL went out of their way to act like any decent publisher and provided review copies to hobby voices. They just ceased doing that rather abruptly around the big power shift, if I remember correctly, and that was that.

 

And on that note: Have you seen their Netgalley page? Jesus, it's just sad. Their review copies also used to be way late, past the street date most of the time.

https://www.netgalley.co.uk/catalog/publisher/83099

[Never_born]

Yeah I gave up paying attention to BL's Netgalley page a long time ago. Right from the off I think they fundamentally misunderstood how best to use Netgalley - they genuinely had good intentions at the time, but even if they'd kept it up to date the selection of books wouldn't have been right. 

 

Funnily enough though, they're actually quite good at the moment with manually providing digital review copies if authors ask for them to be sent out. (Last year, when I was still up for writing reviews, I had better luck getting digital copies than getting BL to sign off on interviews). So any reviewers out there, if you want to put the work in to build relationships with authors and write reviews, I'd encourage you to do so! But it's not a centralised thing, and it seems to be a case by case basis as and when individual authors go out of their way to ask about it.

[darkhorse0607]

Son of the Forrest was voted book of the year.

 

Color me surprised that it beat End and the Death

 

https://www.warhammer-community.com/2024/03/07/black-library-book-of-the-year-the-son-of-the-forest/

[theSpirea]

These ridiculous results reflect what I mentioned in my previous post. I consider Brooks one of the worst BL authors; his prose is unreadable. Lion was one of his better books, but it was still a painful experience. Oh well, we have Primarch back; of course, the book is going to be the most popular one.

 

Feel free to downvote (or whatever is available here), but no sane person can objectively consider that book to be the best one in 2023. The Crime didn't even make it, Cain reprint short stories made it but no Sea of Souls? And nothing from AoS?

Edited March 7 by theSpirea

[Allart01]

https://www.warhammer-community.com/2024/03/07/black-library-book-of-the-year-the-son-of-the-forest/

 

The results are in. 

Despite voting for the Lion myself, I am honestly surprised at it winning over The End and the Death.

[Nagashsnee]

Sea of Souls not even in top 10? What the dawn of fire kryptonite did to that books sales is a crime. 

[Noserenda]

Hilariously it seems splitting E&TD into three cannibalised its votes enough to not win it, if the vote meant anything itd be painful :D 

Son of the Forest was a great book but im not sure about book of the year? Mind you it was always going to be some form of Space marine/Primarch book wasnt it? 

[grailkeeper]

14 minutes ago, theSpirea said:

These ridiculous results reflect what I mentioned in my previous post. I consider Brooks one of the worst BL authors; his prose is unreadable. Lion was one of his better books, but it was still a painful experience. Oh well, we have Primarch back; of course, the book is going to be the most popular one.

He' very hit or miss. Usually miss.  Alpharius was good. Otherwise I agree with your points.

[Kelborn]

Colour me surprised:

 

Rank 10: Cypher

Rank 9: Genefather

Rank 8: Vainglorious

Rank 7: The End Part One

Rank 6: Fall of Cadia

Rank 5: Warboss

Rank 4: Cain Anthology

Rank 3: The End Part Two

Rank 2: The End Part Three

Rank 1: Son of the Forest

 

Although I've voted for it myself, I didn't expect the Lion to toplle the End trilogy. It's even funnier that parts 2 and 3 are rated higher than 1 when considering the backlash 2 received here but well.

 

An anthology on rank 4 is a joke. I love Cain but that shouldn't have been amongst the candidates in the first place. I half-expected Storm of Iron to be in the list, as well. :D Also no AoS anywhere. What a surprise...(sarcasm)

 

"...and an Ork Warboss who killed a Warlord Titan with a flying car..."

Ehm...that was in Brutal Kunnin' and not in Warboss but sure, you do you, I guess.

 

If I'd started with Fall of Cadia prior to the vote, I'd have voted for it instead of the Lion. About 3 hours in and it's so damn good. Worldbuilding, characters, plot. *chef's kiss*
Rath is surely becoming one of my top BL authors by now but I digress. It is what it is. Could've been "better", could've been "worse". *shrugs*

[cheywood]

Surprising. Son of the Forest was a fun read, but there are at least 10 novels I’d put above it last year.  I always forget how much ‘oooh there’s a primarch on the cover’ does for the fanbase at large. 

[grailkeeper]

7 minutes ago, Kelborn said:

 

An anthology on rank 4 is a joke. I love Cain but that shouldn't have been amongst the candidates in the first place.

 

 

It probably was one of the best books released this year, which is an indictment of the most recent releases.

 

 

7 minutes ago, Kelborn said:

If I'd started with Fall of Cadia prior to the vote, I'd have voted for it instead of the Lion. About 3 hours in and it's so damn good. Worldbuilding, characters, plot. *chef's kiss*
Rath is surely becoming one of my top BL authors by now but I digress. It is what it is. Could've been "better", could've been "worse". *shrugs*

 

 

Rath is BLs top author for me. Three books are 10 out of 10 as are his shorts. Infinite and Divine is his best work and fall is his weakest but his weakest rivals any other author's best. He could write the phonebook and I'd queue to buy a copy.

Edited March 7 by grailkeeper

[Kelborn]

3 minutes ago, grailkeeper said:

It probably was one of the best books released this year, which is an indictment of the most recent releases.

 

Too true. Probably a mix of nostalgia, some giving it a shot for the first time and the (subjectively!) lack of quality content.

 

4 minutes ago, grailkeeper said:

Rath is BLs top author for me. Three books are 10 out of 10 as are his shorts. Infinite and Divine is his best work and fall is his weakest but his weakest rivals any other author's best. He could write the phonebook and I'd queue to buy a copy.

 

Absolutely agreed. Infinite and Devine was already amazing but I loved Assassinorum even more. Cadia is his first "great event" novel. And he nails it. Like you said, his "weakest" work is still top notch and amongst the "top" work of others!

[System Sound]

TEatD winning 3 spots is utterly ridiculous... Especially Vol 2 being so high...

 

 

Son of the Forest was a good book, but not book of the year, when we had Genefather.

[grailkeeper]

Maybe we should vote here for our own favourite books this year. 

[grailkeeper]

Quick and Dirty poll. Vote by hitting the reacts:

 

Son of the Forest: Respectfully Disagree

 

Fall of Cadia: Haha

 

Cypher: Agree

 

Genefather: Love

 

End and the Death(s): Thanks

 

Sea of Souls: Like

 

Edited March 7 by grailkeeper

[Allart01]

22 minutes ago, System Sound said:

TEatD winning 3 spots is utterly ridiculous... Especially Vol 2 being so high...

 Indeed, wasn’it supposed to be read as a single book? :P

[darkhorse0607]

Sorting through this a bit, I'm not mad as some might be that the Lion won because at the end of the day, it's a popularity contest

 

Sea of Souls- Currently getting through this one amongst others, it's good, but you can't deny a lot of folks probably didn't read it due to the Dawn of Fire tag and how hit or miss that series has been

 

Cypher- I didn't love it honestly, of course, that's not reflective of everyone else but I could see why it didn't place that highly.

 

Fall of Cadia- kind of a surprise to me that it didn't place higher but I don't think it had the marketing pull that some of the other books did. It had the big super mega release and while Rath is definitely a top-tier author to me, it didn't tie into anything else. Plus as I mentioned yesterday, sadly a lot of folks don't want a book that doesn't move the plot forward even if it is needed like Fall of Cadia was

 

Genefather- Good, but I think for some the big thing that might have killed its chances is that you really needed to have read the other material first to get the full effect. I've done the other Bile novels but not the Fabius ones and I will say the beginning of it was a lot of "who is this person in his group and why are they the way they are." I'm willing to go digging for background about them but I'd assume some aren't.

 

Cain- I, as Kelborn said, don't think reprints/anthologies should be on the list as they aren't new novels. That being said, if you ever go into a post on somewhere like r/40klore where someone is asking for recommendations that are just getting started, the Cain novels are almost always on there. It's not a stretch to see why it got so many votes if you have all of the people who came into the hobby within the last few years (not being around for the initial releases) discovering them for the first time

 

Warboss- Didn't read it so I can't comment. Generally, I've seen that many love ork books though, and really outside of this thread Brooks is considered to be a good author (using r/40klore, YouTube videos, etc as a metric, he's almost always recommended)

 

End and the Death- Too divisive, and I think you had some that fell off after Parts 1 or 2. We've beat that horse so I'm not going to go into it again

 

Lion- I had problems with it, but after reading the afterwards I can get over them (what the BL mandates were vs the story Brooks wanted). I'm not saying it's the best on the list even though I enjoyed it, but it was an example of how BL can actually do marketing right. It tied in with the Lions model, moved the story, etc. I also think that if you're not a big fan of the novels (i.e. not posting on here or other forums), it is probably an easy one to grab on a one-off. You see primarch model, you see book about the model, you buy book, in large part it's not bad, you vote for book.

 

You could put other factors in here as well, like what is actually displayed at GW stores for people to get, Audible narrators (Fall of Cadias was bad and if you look at the reviews narration is the one thing they bring it down for), etc

Edited March 7 by darkhorse0607

[Nagashsnee]

43 minutes ago, Allart01 said:

 Indeed, wasn’it supposed to be read as a single book? :P

So Abnett said, but since they did not release the 3 parts at the same time (in a slipcase or something) BL clearly disagreed and is being consistent with that aproach here.