Upcoming BL Stuff 2024

[theSpirea]

BL dropping multiple books at the same time again...

I'm happy they are pumping out more novels. However, I'm still angry about their scheduling and the extremely limited print runs of even regular hardbacks.

I'm slowly transitioning to paperbacks and not giving in to the FOMO. At least paperbacks stay available for a few months, and I can try to read the e-book version first to decide whether I even want to buy the physical copy or not.

[DukeLeto69]

14 hours ago, byrd9999 said:

I might be alone in that I really enjoyed the Siege, and especially Dan Abnett's books.

 

Gav Thorpe and John French really raised their game (tho Mortis was a slog). Haley was solid as always. ADB and Chris Wraight were excellent, and Dan Abnett gives me my favourite literary Warhammer vibes that I don't quite get from any other author.

 

I saved the last 3 books until I could read them one after the other, and I loved the length of it. I felt a sense of relief when it ended, but in the best ways. I wouldn't have cut anything. The psychic and metaphysical duel between E and Horus? It blew my mind. No one else could have written it better.

 

I'm not sure why everyone has such a jones for a Scouring series. It doesn't sound like anyone here actually likes any series BL has ever put out. Hypothetically, sure it could be the best thing since sliced bread. Realistically, we'd get a Heresy II, or a Beast Arises II, or Dawn of Fire II, or A Siege II, and this board would be full of posts about how BL/editors/Haley/Abnett/Thorpe/favourite bugbear have messed it up yet again and everyone can't sell their Ltd editions (which will be poor quality, or website issues, or eBay scalpers.... ) fast enough.

Overall I enjoyed the HH and the SoT. Some of tue books were truly excellent and amongst the best things written in the IP. I think it lacked some focus and BL/GW really needed to decide whether it was a series or a setting (I would have preferred the latter). 
 

Specifically on tEatD. I really enjoyed it but I do think there was padding and repetition. I think it didn’t need the three volumes. I think there is an excellent two volume book in there and an absolutely brilliant single volume (which would have needed to be supported with a short story anthology to give closure, where appropriate, on the many plotlines/characters).

 

I think multi-author series can ONLY work if there is VERY tight editorial control and they are working to a blueprint. We were told we were getting that with SoT snd then with DoF but both are somewhat misses. 

[grailkeeper]

5hinking about the scouring. I'm reading Battle for the Fang at the minute. Hadn't read it before. 

 

I wonder why no other novels are set in the Millenia between 30 and 40k? It's just it and the Beast series. Authors would be way less constrained by continuity etc and would have a lot more freedom.

[cheywood]

Just now, grailkeeper said:

5hinking about the scouring. I'm reading Battle for the Fang at the minute. Hadn't read it before. 

 

I wonder why no other novels are set in the Millenia between 30 and 40k? It's just it and the Beast series. Authors would be way less constrained by continuity etc and would have a lot more freedom.

There are other novels set between 30k and 40k. ADB’s Black Legion series and French’s Ahriman series are two prominent examples. I agree that BL should commission more though.

[grailkeeper]

45 minutes ago, cheywood said:

There are other novels set between 30k and 40k. ADB’s Black Legion series and French’s Ahriman series are two prominent examples. I agree that BL should commission more though.

I'd forgotten about the Black Legion and didnt realise with Ahriman.

 

Still though an author would have a lot more freedom. There'd be no plot armour for characters for example. They wouldnt be limited from killing off characters the way they are now.

[DarkChaplain]

There's also the Flesh Tearers limited edition novellas from back in the day. There was a limited short story with one of them featuring Guilliman, iirc. The breaking of the Legions is still fresh and Amit and his new Chapter find a new home, and deal with the curse. There are some notes in there about Amit arguing with the other survivors, like Azkaellon and Raldoron, too.

 

Ahriman and Fabius both have the weird time-in-the-eye situation going on, so it hasn't been that long for the cast, it's been long enough for the Imperium in places.

[byrd9999]

5 hours ago, grailkeeper said:

I'd forgotten about the Black Legion and didnt realise with Ahriman.

 

Still though an author would have a lot more freedom. There'd be no plot armour for characters for example. They wouldnt be limited from killing off characters the way they are now.

Ahriman and Abaddon have the ultimate plot armour! We know nothing can kill them in their series because they are still alive in the current setting.

 

If you're talking about the author creating new characters, what's stopping them from killing them off in the current setting... ?

[cheywood]

46 minutes ago, byrd9999 said:

Ahriman and Abaddon have the ultimate plot armour! We know nothing can kill them in their series because they are still alive in the current setting.

 

If you're talking about the author creating new characters, what's stopping them from killing them off in the current setting... ?

I think what Grailkeeper’s saying makes a lot of sense. Sure you can create characters in 40k, but because we have so many characters armored by plot/model necessities it becomes a more constrained environment. Imagine you want to tell a story about the Ultramarines suffering a tragic loss of their chapter master and multiple companies due to a tactical error. It could be a study in arrogance and how a chapter recovers from disaster. That’s impossible in 40k, but set that story in m36 and suddenly it’s easily doable. Obviously an author could just use an obscure/self-created chapter, but the first/second founding chapters have cachet and lots of backstory. 

[darkhorse0607]

Thorpes Votann novel was finally debuted The High Kahls Oath

 

 

https://www.warhammer-community.com/2024/08/06/the-high-kahls-oath-read-an-exclusive-excerpt-from-the-upcoming-leagues-of-votann-novel/

[System Sound]

About damn time... But good lord that cover is atrocious...

[Lord Marshal]

That is one tacky cover, both the standard and collector's edition.

[skylerboodie]

It's very rare that a Black Library book doesn't pique my interest; this one is a big nope for me though.

[darkhorse0607]

In the Grimdarkness of the 41st Millenium there is no clear style of cover art for Black Library

[grailkeeper]

55 minutes ago, Lord Marshal said:

That is one tacky cover, both the standard and collector's edition.

 

What are you talking about? Between the bright clashing colours, the Kanji thing  and the weird cyberpunk asethetic this could be  from the coolest nightclub of 2003.

[cheywood]

I gotta go against the grain and say I love the covers. They’re unique and give old pulp sci-fi vibes. Makes me feel like I’m about to dive in to an old B movie. 

 

The book itself will hopefully be good enough. Yeah Thorpe rarely knocks it out of the park, but he’s good for a single or double consistently enough. 

[Lord Nord in Gravis Armour]

Nope.

[LemartestheLost]

I want to give this book a chance but after reading the synopsis and looking at the cover I just can’t. The graphic designers at BL did Gav so dirty on this one.

[grailkeeper]

Maybe they're leadning in to the scottish aspect of Dwarfish culture. 

 

[Nagashsnee]

Horrible covers aside the title to me just screams DWARFS IN SPACE.  The High Kings Oath is just so Dwarfy, and no changing the word king to a alternative doesn't hide this fact. Tho i guess it is at least not full on 'Rock and Stone' .

 

Hard pass i just dont care about the faction and the preview failed to change that, 

[theSpirea]

One of the worst BL covers. Goes for the LE as well.

The f* is that font on the regular hardback?

The colors on LE are also completely different from the usual tones BL uses. I don't mind these colors, it's the tone that is completely off and not matching anything.

[wecanhaveallthree]

I got Culture vibes from that excerpt for some reason. Can't put my finger exactly on why - might be something as simple as the ship names. Still, made me sit up and pay attention.

 

Glad to see this wasn't banished to the nether, and - while I'm not beating the floor going AWOOOOGAH - this'll likely be a day one buy for me, because the Leagues deserve a chance and Thorpe, especially, deserves more than the pasting he got over the Ynnari. 

[Roomsky]

Well, I really loved his Rogal Dorn primarchs novel - so if the reviews say nice things I'll probably check it out. He's clearly going absolutely HAM on the "technical" writing, which if combined with minimal action should create something really cool, and if combined with a typical amount of Black Library action will be absolutely unreadable.

[Kelborn]

Finally the promised Votann novel!

 

Gav has been pretty good in world building in Lorgar and Luther. Quite optimistic for this one. Definitely the first 40k novel I'll be getting in quite a while.

Stylewise, the cover is ok, reminds me of the old ones like the GG series. But the composition and what's been featured is lacking and couldve been better. LE cover is fine for me. Votann do features such bright colours and the symbols are those of the respective League the book's about. 

Edited August 7 by Kelborn

[TrevorLoLz]

Gav Thorpe is a great "ideas" guy so I am interested in the new Votaan book.

 

At the very least, we'll get some cool world building that is desperately needed for Votaan.

[Taliesin]

Its pretty weird, there are 3 brand new books coming up for pre-order tomorrow and a new edition of Ravenor, and I have not seen a single bit of news or advertising for it on Warcom this week.

I surely expected some kind of article with an interview with for instance Hinks, McNiven or Reid. 

 

It just raises a lot of questions, first of which is, why? Why spend zero attention on it when you have lots of other fluff articles. Especially the Darius Hinks book that comes aside the Codex they are talking about for weeks.

Edited August 9 by Taliesin