Upcoming BL Stuff 2024

[Scribe]

Man, I don't even AoS, but this path they are on just isn't it. I'm done.

[darkhorse0607]

3 hours ago, The Scorpion said:

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

 

In the nuking model lines thread in Amicus Aedes, someone asked the GW community team that (there's a screenshot) and they didn't have an answer. It's nice that they are well-prepared when they axe so many models.

 

I don't AoS so I am not going to pretend like I'm as grief-stricken as I know some are (rightly so), having lived through the 2016-18 LCTB massacre that they did to Forgeworld and the Heresy I can understand. It really is a bad situation and the promise of new things (probably not even covering everything they killed) that you have to rebuy, paint, and invest your time into is not really a consolation. And then it does make one stop and consider how safe your models actually are from GW, or if in a years time you'll even be able to get more if you want to

 

Kind of feel the same way with parts of the lore now though to circle back to BL. It is not the easiest thing to get invested in some of these characters through one or multiple novels just to have BL decide they aren't the important ones anymore and they either get killed off without a thought (or off-screen in a WHC article in some cases) or you never hear from them again. It doesn't remove your time with them, but it still isn't great. Maybe that's why I can't get super invested in BL right now. There's too much uncertainty, both with releases and what they randomly decide to do to established characters and lore to fit the business decisions

Edited April 4 by darkhorse0607

[grailkeeper]

6 hours ago, DarkChaplain said:

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.

 

I find myself in a similar position. The last few novels I've read I havent really enjoyed. Some have been poor and some .. not to my taste. I feel a bit like I'm coming across like a hater here. I would much prefer to be posting about how blown away I've been by new authors. 

 

I once posted about how one author was not to my taste and he visited my profile here a day or two later. I feel a bit guilty about that. I dont want to be a troll but I imagine I wouldnt feel great if I saw someone post something like that about something I'd written.

[DukeLeto69]

2 hours ago, grailkeeper said:

 

I once posted about how one author was not to my taste and he visited my profile here a day or two later. I feel a bit guilty about that. I dont want to be a troll but I imagine I wouldnt feel great if I saw someone post something like that about something I'd written.

Obviously don’t know what you said but I see criticism of authors a lot in here and some of it is blatant hate posting. I think people could intelligently talk about why an author or particular work by an author was not to their taste for…reasons. But to literally slate an author and get personal is not on. 

[Ubiquitous1984]

19 hours ago, grailkeeper said:

 

 

I once posted about how one author was not to my taste and he visited my profile here a day or two later. I feel a bit guilty about that. I dont want to be a troll but I imagine I wouldnt feel great if I saw someone post something like that about something I'd written.

Imagine how often Dan Abnett would be visiting Scribe’s profile if he lurked here 

[Never_born]

If you fancy something to discuss re. an upcoming novel, today I published an interview with Victoria Hayward talking about Deathworlder (just in time for it to go up for pre-order tomorrow - almost like we planned it that way...!).

 

It's pretty in-depth, with lots about Victoria's approach to writing Catachans (including, but not limited to, mention of original settlers, oral traditions and Catachan poetry), setting a story during the end stages of a Tyranid invasion, world building in context of 40k, and lots more. Massive kudos to Victoria for going into this sort of detail - for me, I always love this sort of interview! Really keen to read Deathworlder now, for sure...

 

https://www.trackofwords.com/2024/04/05/rapid-fire-victoria-hayward-talks-deathworlder/

[darkhorse0607]

Fantastic interview, thank you for putting that together. I wasn't originally super interested in the novel based on WHC's blurb about it but reading her description of it and how she approached everything really changed my opinion. Looking forwards to it

 

Just for emphasis, this is WHC's description from the announcement article back in November:

 

"Among these death worlds, the planet of Catachan is famous for the hard-as-nails regiments it supplies to the Astra Militarum, soldiers for whom the dangers of a 41st Millennium battlefield are like a holiday camp when compared to their homeworld. Yet even they struggle against the monstrous onslaught of the Tyranids, and one squad is facing the fight of their lives in the latest upcoming Astra Militarum novel from Black Library – Deathworlder.

 

...

 

Their resolve to fight and die where they stand is unshakeable, but an unexpected mission to recover vital archeotech places the fate of the entire Lazulai system in their hands, and Khan’s resolve will be sorely tested against an endless and inimical xenos jungle where even her hard-nosed troops have second thoughts."

 

and from last weekends preview article

 

"The famed Catachan Jungle Fighters are never happier than when they’re in the midst of deadly battle in an inhospitable environment with little chance of victory. The Catachan 903rd will be ecstatic, then, in Victoria Hayward’s new Warhammer 40,000 novel, as they’re sent to recover a piece of vital archeotech from an alien jungle infested with Tyranids. Discover how they fare in paperback, eBook and MP3 audiobook formats."

 

Versus the author's description from the interview:

 

"Deathworlder pitches Catachans against Tyranids during the end-stages of the consumption phase. We are mere days away from this world being a barren rock with no seas and no atmosphere – with even the most fragmentary speck of life having been broken down and consumed.

Our squad has been under siege, watching as the skies writhe with the nightmare forms of the orbiting hive fleet. They are given one last chance to make a difference, one last chance to do something meaningful – but it means crossing a world in the throes of destruction.

So – readers can expect some gnarly scenes of socking it to the xenos, a LOT of Tyranids (in terms of both volume and variety), some insights into Catachan culture, a Baneblade being jump-started, a few Sly Marbo jokes, plus love, loss and tiny Tyranids. I hope very much it includes everything that you might want to see against a backdrop of the cosmic horror of a world being dismantled."

 

How is WHC/BL so bad at talking about their books?

Edited April 5 by darkhorse0607
edit for ranting

[Felix Antipodes]

Oh joy, the queue is back… but relatively painless this time round.  Not sure what they thought the rush would be for though.

Edited April 6 by Felix Antipodes

[grailkeeper]

Catachan Poetry?

 

Poetry is not very 80s action movie. I can't see Arnie or Stallone giving a sonnet whilst they're machinegunning baddies. 

 

Not saying poetry cant be manly- there are warrior epics after all. But given the 80s action vibe of Catachan I cant see much beyond "Whatcha gonna do, when 10,000 catamaniacs run wild on you, brother" in the way of poetry.

[lansalt]

17 minutes ago, grailkeeper said:

Catachan Poetry?

Poetry is not very 80s action movie

You'd be surprised:

Spoiler

 

 

[cheywood]

48 minutes ago, grailkeeper said:

Catachan Poetry?

 

Poetry is not very 80s action movie. I can't see Arnie or Stallone giving a sonnet whilst they're machinegunning baddies. 

 

Not saying poetry cant be manly- there are warrior epics after all. But given the 80s action vibe of Catachan I cant see much beyond "Whatcha gonna do, when 10,000 catamaniacs run wild on you, brother" in the way of poetry.

I don’t know about that. It’s certainly non-traditional, but 80s action heroes spouting Tennyson and Shakespeare while murdering xenos feels like a pretty perfect encapsulation of the 40k vibe. 

Edited April 6 by cheywood

[skylerboodie]

11 hours ago, Felix Antipodes said:

Oh joy, the queue is back… but relatively painless this time round.  Not sure what they thought the rush would be for though.

Presumably the Kill Team: Nightmare box, which sold out (not returning), or even Blood Bowl gnomes team, which is now temporarily out of stock. 

[theSpirea]

Might interest some of you, AMA with Noah Nguyen

https://www.reddit.com/r/Blacklibrary/s/elFP5aMgqb

[Never_born]

On 4/5/2024 at 5:43 PM, darkhorse0607 said:

Fantastic interview, thank you for putting that together. I wasn't originally super interested in the novel based on WHC's blurb about it but reading her description of it and how she approached everything really changed my opinion. Looking forwards to it

 

Really glad you enjoyed it! All the credit obviously goes to Victoria for the brilliant answers :) She really sold the concept of the book, didn't she?!

[aa.logan]

Big Dakka Le up next week against all the Ork and Custodes boxes. I’m not exactly confident 

[theSpirea]

Big Dakka is damn ugly, cheap looking LE.

Excited for Cado

[skylerboodie]

19 minutes ago, aa.logan said:

Big Dakka Le up next week against all the Ork and Custodes boxes. I’m not exactly confident 

Ugliest limited edition I can remember, plus already been released in hardback for those that wanted to secure a copy for reading, so I don't expect it to sell out quickly.

 

I feel like this is another 'test case' (after the AoS one recently) before they start releasing ones they expect could be heavily scalped (Ahriman, Vahl mega edition).

[darkhorse0607]

Hurray? I'm glad Brooks is getting attention with an LE book... months after the regular edition.. that's just slime green. And not great looking

[grailkeeper]

I've never read any of Noah Nguyens work but it seems to get universal praise. He was a real life marine so it would be cool to get a 40k novel out of someone with that background.

[Krelious]

14 hours ago, darkhorse0607 said:

Hurray? I'm glad Brooks is getting attention with an LE book... months after the regular edition.. that's just slime green. And not great looking

I think GW is releasing their mediocre on hand LE's while they are looking to solve the scalping issue for releases that are actually in demand.  I think they were highly embarrassed by the whole End and the Death vol 3 thing which is still fresh in everyone's memory.  Its either that or we go back into the cycle of websites crashing due to bots flooding and people just paying the ebay scalpers what they want until some dramatic shift in how the internet is accessed happens. 

[DukeLeto69]

Copying this over from the Rate what you read thread as really belongs here…

 

Credit to @grailkeeper and @JustinDHill for the link…

 

https://youtu.be/ZXAUVYCZJ6Q

 

The first few minutes were great as a teaser. My take away…

 

1. He wrote Pandaemonium last year (he indicated it was not HH but connected which to me signals Pandaemonium even though he did not say that) and he is now checking the manuscript again as it comes out this year. Yay!

 

2. His new editor wanted him to work on something different next and not GG, Eisenhorn, as he can do those any time. The editor suggested something and he thought about it and said “yes if I can approach it like this” and he got the go ahead.

 

Now I think this was in relation to two projects this year (not including Pandaemonium) so I am going to speculate (wishlist):

 

a) WH Crime/WH Horror - because he talked about it focusing on ordinary people not gods and demigods etc.

 

b) Votann because he referenced looking at a very different aspect of the huge 40k universe.

 

I could be totally wrong of course!

Edited April 8 by DukeLeto69
Name who provided link

[Taliesin]

1 hour ago, DukeLeto69 said:

Copying this over from the Rate what you read thread as really belongs here…

 

Credit to @grailkeeper and @JustinDHill for the link…

 

https://youtu.be/ZXAUVYCZJ6Q

 

The first few minutes were great as a teaser. My take away…

 

1. He wrote Pandaemonium last year (he indicated it was not HH but connected which to me signals Pandaemonium even though he did not say that) and he is now checking the manuscript again as it comes out this year. Yay!

 

2. His new editor wanted him to work on something different next and not GG, Eisenhorn, as he can do those any time. The editor suggested something and he thought about it and said “yes if I can approach it like this” and he got the go ahead.

 

Now I think this was in relation to two projects this year (not including Pandaemonium) so I am going to speculate (wishlist):

 

a) WH Crime/WH Horror - because he talked about it focusing on ordinary people not gods and demigods etc.

 

b) Votann because he referenced looking at a very different aspect of the huge 40k universe.

 

I could be totally wrong of course!

 

Hmmm I listened to the interview and its still pretty vague what it is he wrote, but at least he confirms that what he did, comes out this year. Is it "Pandaemonium"?

He says he "deliberately wrote something completely non-Heresy last year". So its not a Primarchs novel, that can be ruled out I would think. But then he also says "its still not a million miles away from it but its not actually Heresy". But then later on he says that after his new project, he may go back to Gaunts or Eisenhorn...

 

 

Edited April 8 by Taliesin

[grailkeeper]

https://www.blacklibrary.com/all-products/subscription-space-marine-successor-chapters-eshort-subscription-2024-eng-2024.html?fbclid=IwAR2ifSUCyRPdtn7xAlJdSM54dn-q1lbkEttjkUhBhrewwGGwgPr9gfRfT_g

 

Eshorts on successor chapters. Someone else suggested it might be the winners of the open subs. I remember Mark Anthony Fenech commenting a lot on ADB's facebook page back when ADB was active there. Don't know any of the others. Perhaps one or two might be regulars here on B & C?

[skylerboodie]

2 hours ago, DukeLeto69 said:

[...]

Now I think this was in relation to two projects this year (not including Pandaemonium) so I am going to speculate (wishlist):

[...]

b) Votann because he referenced looking at a very different aspect of the huge 40k universe.

[...]

 

I really hope its not Votann! Would like to see Dan's take on an Aeldari novel

[DukeLeto69]

38 minutes ago, Taliesin said:

 

Hmmm I listened to the interview and its still pretty vague what it is he wrote, but at least he confirms that what he did, comes out this year. Is it "Pandaemonium"?

He says he "deliberately wrote something completely non-Heresy last year". So its not a Primarchs novel, that can be ruled out I would think. But then he also says "its still not a million miles away from it but its not actually Heresy". But then later on he says that after his new project, he may go back to Gaunts or Eisenhorn...

 

 

There are HH connections into the Bequin books so I took it as him meaning he wrote Pandaemonium last year ready for release this year. He is checking the manuscript. I would say he is checking it to ensure no mistakes or contradictions now that tEatD is all out.