Upcoming BL Stuff 2024

[darkhorse0607]

29 minutes ago, theSpirea said:

Funny the article says "Discover how they fare in hardback, eBook and MP3 audiobook formats." but it's getting paperback only. They can't even get that right.

 

I believe it's all three, typically the symbols to the right of the book cover represent the formats it's getting released in

[theSpirea]

It's part of the Astra Militarum series, the previous 4 books were paperbacks only, all retailers have this one listed as paperback as well, and the price tag suggests it is a paperback. Highly doubt they would suddenly switch to hardback for this one.

 

I'm not questioning whether ebook/audio is coming out but the article stating it's hardback instead of paperback.

[skylerboodie]

Yes I hope Deathworlder is actually in paperback to match the others in the Astra Militarum series (even though generally HBs are preferable)

[darkhorse0607]

6 minutes ago, theSpirea said:

I'm not questioning whether ebook/audio is coming out but the article stating it's hardback instead of paperback.

 

My mistake,  misunderstood the statement

[The Scorpion]

On 3/31/2024 at 11:04 AM, darkhorse0607 said:

 

 

A selection of Space Marine short story ebooks

A selection of SUCCESSOR Space Marine short stories. This alone makes more interested than if I were to read "First Founding bolterporn story #233".

At least here we will know what bolterporn looks like from the Red Talons perspective. Let's go!

[System Sound]

I think these are BL Submissions from last year. Will definitely be reading the Raptors short.

[grailkeeper]

9 hours ago, System Sound said:

I think these are BL Submissions from last year. Will definitely be reading the Raptors short.

 

If so I'll be reading them. Reading and seething.

 

Especially if there's a courtroom drama about the Marines Malevolent.

[The Scorpion]

9 hours ago, System Sound said:

I think these are BL Submissions from last year. Will definitely be reading the Raptors short.

They are. I wonder how many people on this forum threw their hat in the ring.
I got cold feet in the last moment, or at the very least I got discouraged by the fact that it had to be set during Era Indomnitus.

[wecanhaveallthree]

Quote

Especially if there's a courtroom drama about the Marines Malevolent.

 

There's gotta be a story behind your specificity here, and inquiring minds want to know!

[grailkeeper]

1 hour ago, wecanhaveallthree said:

 

There's gotta be a story behind your specificity here, and inquiring minds want to know!

 

 

Write what you know!

 

I picked Marines Malevolent as they don't have pyskers.  Hard to have a court room drama if one of the characters can read minds. Also they're a chapter where it's possible to see them up in court (for murder).

 

[DukeLeto69]

Feels like such a dull time to be a Black Library fan. We are in April and there has been nothing to get excited over. The level of chat in this forum has seemingly fallen off a cliff. Never known it as bad as this in the almost two decades I have been avidly buying BL books. Dull dull dull. Or is it just me?

Edited April 3 by DukeLeto69

[Felix Antipodes]

Definitely you 

Seriously, it has been quiet around here of late but that is mainly because we haven’t had a lot to talk about.  While releases may match the numbers of previous years (as has been discussed several times before) a fair whack of them are AoS, which are off limits on this forum.  Add to that GW’s clamp on upcoming release info - the very reason this thread exists - killing the buzz which sustains interest amongst the faithful.  I would also add the general “end of an era” slump that the rapping up of the HH storyline engendered (it seems to me) at both BL and its fans.  I also wonder if the current Suez shipping issues are causing delays as well since the HBs at least are still being printed in China.

 

Things will pick up again.  We will have the Deathworlder book to read and critique, as well as the Successor Chapter eshorts.  Hopefully, things have picked up after that.

[theSpirea]

I think that's a bit of an extreme take. As we discussed recently, the number of novels in 2024 isn't much lower than in previous years. Plus, we know there are issues related to LEs, very likely postponing some releases. Also as Felix mentioned, AoS is off limits.

BL has never been particularly good at advertising, and even the previously half-a*ed 'Coming Soon' section wasn't that great. Honestly, unless it's by Abnett/ADB and involves crazy lore reveals, books don't attract that much discussion.

 

Perfect time to read up on the existing BL books, there are still plenty of good reads from the past 20+ years. I'm actually enjoying my time with BL this year, no LE stress, no "pressure" to read the newest books so I don't have to worry about spoilers. Revisiting Shira Calpurnia, older Wraight's stuff, etc and having a blast.

[cheywood]

 

I think a lot of the lack of excitement is simply because we don’t know what’s coming. With BL’s move away from structured trilogies and towards more standalone novels we’re not awaiting sequels the way we were 3-4 years ago. Plus the Heresy has ended and DoF is two books away from finishing. There’s just not much to anticipate even if the novels are continuing to release at a similar pace to past years. We know Wraight, and Haley, and Rath, and Crowley, and Van Nguyen are all still writing for BL, but we have little idea what they’re writing. It’s hard to anticipate something when you don’t know what it is. Speaks to BL’s increasing inability to market and promote their products effectively. 

 

[grailkeeper]

The authors are less involved with social media than rhey used to be. ADBs posts about his up coming books always had me excited to read them.

 

[The Scorpion]

2 hours ago, cheywood said:

 

I think a lot of the lack of excitement is simply because we don’t know what’s coming. With BL’s move away from structured trilogies and towards more standalone novels we’re not awaiting sequels the way we were 3-4 years ago. Plus the Heresy has ended and DoF is two books away from finishing. There’s just not much to anticipate even if the novels are continuing to release at a similar pace to past years. We know Wraight, and Haley, and Rath, and Crowley, and Van Nguyen are all still writing for BL, but we have little idea what they’re writing. It’s hard to anticipate something when you don’t know what it is. Speaks to BL’s increasing inability to market and promote their products effectively. 

 

They seem to take the same approach for books as for minis: big reveals meant to create hype a week before release

[cheywood]

24 minutes ago, The Scorpion said:

They seem to take the same approach for books as for minis: big reveals meant to create hype a week before release

They do? I don’t think that BL does much in the way of big reveals, or even has a promotional strategy. They have one preview a year that shows titles coming in the next year, be that January or November, and then they randomly drop WarCom articles for titles that might be out in a few weeks or 6 months. A lot of titles are leaked to retailers because the book industry in general is much less opaque about upcoming releases and BL’s caught between the book world and GW’s manufactured hype-sphere. 

[Sothalor]

Can only speak for myself, but personal changes in life over the last year have altered how I spend my leisure time.

 

On one level, it is affecting how much BL stuff I'm actively reading - yet I've discovered that isn't so much a factor of loss of total reading time availability.

 

 

A big part for me now is how difficult it is to get my hands on new publications. It's a soul-sucking chore.

 

BL doesn't really market releases in such a way where I can plan things out further ahead.

 

Their distribution system is non-existent; I'm basically forced to rely exclusively on the abominable GW website to try to purchase new novels.

 

Stock levels are a joke; if you aren't online waiting to try to nab a copy during a very specific window of time on the weekend, forget about it.

 

 

I could do all that. Or I could spend that time on other things - other people - I find way more fulfilling. 

[Felix Antipodes]

 

14 hours ago, theSpirea said:

I think that's a bit of an extreme take. As we discussed recently, the number of novels in 2024 isn't much lower than in previous years. Plus, we know there are issues related to LEs, very likely postponing some releases. Also as Felix mentioned, AoS is off limits.

BL has never been particularly good at advertising, and even the previously half-a*ed 'Coming Soon' section wasn't that great. Honestly, unless it's by Abnett/ADB and involves crazy lore reveals, books don't attract that much discussion.

 

Perfect time to read up on the existing BL books, there are still plenty of good reads from the past 20+ years. I'm actually enjoying my time with BL this year, no LE stress, no "pressure" to read the newest books so I don't have to worry about spoilers. Revisiting Shira Calpurnia, older Wraight's stuff, etc and having a blast.

 

The problem is that BL hasn’t always been bad at PR and creating buzz.  When the imprint was first created, and for the first 5 to 10 years, the Coming Soon link gave details on upcoming stuff for the next six months.  We knew what was coming, by whom, and when.  They also had their own forum where they could hype their product.  That was the level of information flow we were used to, and why what we get now rankles so much.

Still, I think we agree more than disagree overall.  I am also filling in my time rereading older stuff.  I’ve even delved into some of the forbidden lore of AoS (a setting I’ve never been able to get into for some reason).  Gosh, next I will be pulling out some WFB stuff at this rate. 

 

[Scribe]

On 3/21/2024 at 12:44 PM, EverythingIsGreat said:

Isn't it all a tie-in? The lore, especially new renditions of it should ideally be in sync at least in broad terms. I would think it wiser to make sure that elements of Pandaemonium or Black Legion 3 don't blatantly contradict the new edition before the novels are published.

The flaw of the metaplot made manifest. 

[DukeLeto69]

6 hours ago, Felix Antipodes said:

 

 

The problem is that BL hasn’t always been bad at PR and creating buzz.  When the imprint was first created, and for the first 5 to 10 years, the Coming Soon link gave details on upcoming stuff for the next six months.  We knew what was coming, by whom, and when.  They also had their own forum where they could hype their product.  That was the level of information flow we were used to, and why what we get now rankles so much.

Still, I think we agree more than disagree overall.  I am also filling in my time rereading older stuff.  I’ve even delved into some of the forbidden lore of AoS (a setting I’ve never been able to get into for some reason).  Gosh, next I will be pulling out some WFB stuff at this rate. 

 

Agreed. I have often revisited favourite books and series from BL. But generally that has been with the knowledge/backdrop that the next in the series is “coming soon”.

 

I have no interest in AoS. None!

 

GW/BL did used to be far better at marketing BL releases. They knew the fanbase enjoyed a bit of speculation and discussion.

 

I cannot help but think there’s been some personnel changes because whoever is the current Marketing Director sucks!

Edited April 4 by DukeLeto69

[DarkChaplain]

I'm probably just repeating myself, but I'm having a really difficult time even opening up a BL novel in recent months.

 

I think this is indeed somewhat down to the one-off novel situation we're finding ourselves in. Before, you could basically bank on books being prospective trilogies. They might start with a fairly contained pilot novel, but the author and editors were clearly leaving room for a full trilogy if the book didn't tank, or had the sequel commissioned by the time the first book hit the printers.

 

There was an implicit trust in the author to make something good that'd move copies and have merit across multiple books.

There was room for both the immediate plot as well as an overarching story & character arc, which would get people to come back for more.

 

But now it's mostly one-offs, with sequels sometimes not even being written by the same author anymore, or third volumes being axed, or the authors going to visit greener pastures. There is very little trust on display, both towards the authors to be able to handle a longer-term commitment and the readers for staying interested for ~3 years.

 

So they do single deployments over and over, but that results in a fire & forget situation, where you'll likely never see an actual follow-up. Crime is the perfect embodiment of this - it's ALL uncertainty, with near-zero commitment from BL remaining. And with that lack of long-term commitment to storytelling? It's so bloody easy to ignore books entirely unless you hear/read rave reviews of them, because what's out is going to be all you're getting anyway. There's no lock-in effect, no anticipation, and worse, actual frustration of something you enjoy from an author you like never living up to its full potential due to being crammed into another short novel format.

 

The amount of novels released may measure up, but the level of commitment, the way they can maintain expectations and excitement? That's down in the dumps also as a result of that fire & forget publishing scheme.

 

 

Edit: Jesus, I just read today's WarCom article about the great squatting in AoS 4.0 and my desire to continue collecting and building up armies for the game has just been greatly reduced. My willingness to put up with BL/GW bs has thus once again diminished.

Edited April 4 by DarkChaplain

[The Scorpion]

2 hours ago, DarkChaplain said:

Edit: Jesus, I just read today's WarCom article about the great squatting in AoS 4.0 and my desire to continue collecting and building up armies for the game has just been greatly reduced. My willingness to put up with BL/GW bs has thus once again diminished.

Old Stormcast are getting squatted holy :cuss:! Some of these are less than a decade old!

The only saving grace of this is that if the AoS whales buy into it, then GeeDubs may attempt another shameless refresh with the Space Marine whales and give us back the iconic mouthgrill that Primaris took from us.

[DarkChaplain]

They squatted the entire 2nd edition range - those were in starter boxes until three years ago. Models that were at most 6 years old. And then Beasts of Chaos entirely gone because they want to rebox them for the Old World and don't want to let you play two systems with one army.

 

What guts me, though, is that my spinoff game warbands will not see proper full support anymore, and those are the most fun I've had painting GW models in a decade. I've been buying and planning purchases based around those warbands because I had fun painting them. Joke's on me, I guess. Also, all the stuff they listed is apparently not even getting restocked anymore, what's gone is gone, even if they may still be technically be legal to play til summer 2025.

 

Seriously, it's so difficult to stay invested in what GW/BL put out, with how they keep pulling off stuff like that, particularly the FOMO.

[The Scorpion]

44 minutes ago, DarkChaplain said:

 

 

What guts me, though, is that my spinoff game warbands will not see proper full support anymore, and those are the most fun I've had painting GW models in a decade. I've been buying and planning purchases based around those warbands because I had fun painting them. Joke's on me, I guess. Also, all the stuff they listed is apparently not even getting restocked anymore, what's gone is gone, even if they may still be technically be legal to play til summer 2025.

 

Are old Warcry/Underworlds warbands not being supported after a while? Even in the games they belong to?

Edited April 4 by The Scorpion