What would be your ideal Black Library book?

[grailkeeper]

Doesnt seem like there's anything big coming up on the Black Library horizon any time soon, or much of anything really.

 

So that means time for some shameless wishlisting. 

 

What would be your ideal, as yet unwritten, Black Library book? Any theme, any team, any author.

 

Go!

[Roomsky]

Plausible:

BADAB WAR SERIES

One author please, preferably a good one, I think it's important that Huron doesn't have 4 different personalities throughout an account of those events. As a more tangible example, Badab War trilogy by Wraight - it's an event borne of characters with the best intentions and Wraight is excellent at having 40k characters be on-brand AND reasonable.

 

Unlikely:

A Reign of Blood novel, either from Vandire's perspective or the perspective of one of his aides. Black Library has a bad habit of stretching events into far greater page counts than needed, a good 500 pages without unnecessary combat filler could easily give us a satisfying version of the Reign of Blood, and a good treatise on the Imperium's dysfunction as well. Give it to Abnett perhaps?

 

Somewhat similar, an account of the Heresy from a non-combatant's POV, from an in-universe historical perspective - something like the fluff in the Heresy Black Books (for that matter, give us a fluff compilation from the Black Books.) Have it be some scribe from the palace who's pieced together events from personal experience and incoming missives from the warfront. I'm reading I, Claudius right now, and I'd kill for a similarly-styled book, but 40k (or GRRM's Fire and Blood for a more contemporary example.) I'd take it from any of my faves, TBH.

 

Edited June 18 by Roomsky

[calgar101]

21 minutes ago, Roomsky said:

Plausible:

BADAB WAR SERIES

One author please, preferably a good one, I think it's important that Huron doesn't have 4 different personalities throughout an account of those events. As a more tangible example, Badab War trilogy by Wraight - it's an event borne of characters with the best intentions and Wraight is excellent at having 40k characters be on-brand AND reasonable.

 

Unlikely:

A Reign of Blood novel, either from Vandire's perspective or the perspective of one of his aides. Black Library has a bad habit of stretching events into far greater page counts than needed, a good 500 pages without unnecessary combat filler could easily give us a satisfying version of the Reign of Blood, and a good treatise on the Imperium's dysfunction as well. Give it to Abnett perhaps?

 

Somewhat similar, an account of the Heresy from a non-combatant's POV, from an in-universe historical perspective - somewhat similar to the fluff in the Heresy Black Books. Have it be some scribe from the palace who's pieced together events from personal experience and incoming missives from the warfront. I'm reading I, Claudius right now, and I'd kill for a similarly-styled book, but 40k (or GRRM's Fire and Blood for a more contemporary example.) I'd take it from any of my faves, TBH.

 

Definitely a Badab war series! If done right, it could be a similar success to the Horus Heresy series. For me, the Badab War is one of the most interesting bits of lore; only the Great Crusade, Heresy and Scouring beat it. It definitely has to be written by the top tier author's mind and planned out, no new lore ala the Perpetual vein.

 

Edit: Just to add, exploring the Fourth Quadrant rebellion as a tie in with the Badab series would also be neat.

Edited June 18 by calgar101

[darkhorse0607]

Count me as another vote for Badab, I'd prefer Wraight to do it because he does pretty well with fleshing out chapters/legions in his novels which I think would be essential

 

Also, I've said this before but I'd like a book/books about the founding of the Grey Knights

 

Book 1) the arrival of the Knights Errant to Titan. How they go about starting the foundations, what they think the edicts of the chapter should be, learning new weapons,  how did they go from relatively new to fighting warp entities to the quintessential demon hunters, and most of all how they deal with the fact that they're sidelined for the Siege

 

Book 2) the chapters emergence from Titan post Heresy, them coming to grips with the new Imperium and their first deployment

[calgar101]

Chris Wraight is an auto include for any series, for the reasons you mentioned. We need it all fleshed out without unnecessary additions. I would also add ADB to the team too and leave it at two authors.

I could get on board with  Grey Knight founding series, that would be very interesting, I personally enjoy when lore is explored.

 

I'd like a Gothic war series too, I think it would be epic.

[Felix Antipodes]

I’d take any of the series/books described above if they came to pass, and add a trilogy on the Nova Terra Interregnum period as well.  I’ve always wanted a trilogy/series based on the Abyssal Crusade.  Not fussed WRT authors.  That nearly always ends up as a popularity contest and I’ve been surprised often enough by “lesser” authors in the past to happpily take whoever BL assigns.

 

If I was running GW/BL though I would have them push out a new Warhammer Battles series that would cover all of the above and more, but not limited to just SM.

[LemartestheLost]

I'd have to vote for another Blood Angels novel from Guy Haley that explores their plans/attempts to secure a pocket in Nihilus now that The Lion is in the picture. The man just gets the chapter. 

[Rob P]

* Votann books but not set at the end times

* Standalone stories that are significant in respect of their subject matter whether it be an important event or a philosophical insight (for both an example would be the Sons of Medusa split from the Iron Hands)

* Guard novels with utterley insane one-off alien foes

* More unexpected allies of convenience stories

* New lore hooks that can be introduced and concluded - books that focus on lore questions that they can't answer just don't work well for me

* Something with Lorgar but only if handled ultra well and to my specific expectations on what Lorgar's end story is (haha)

 

 

[calgar101]

An expanded Battle series would be great as well, and I second dong a series on the Nova Terra Interregnum, that could be very interesting. I would like an expansion to the White Panther blurb that featured in a side box in the 3rd ed Space Marine codex. That always captured my imagination and I always wanted to read more about that battle.

 

Edit: I'd prefer less current events books and more filling in the history, but that is just me.

Edited June 19 by calgar101
Forgot something

[Denny]

Adeptus Administratum
 

Nothing more grimdark than endless paperwork. 

[Casual Heresy]

As other have said I'd love a Badab serise but I'm happy with it being a handful of authors, preferably a mix of vets and new talent. A six to nine book serise covering the build up to the war and the immediate aftermath would be great.

 

I'd love more lore books in the same vein as Xenologis and First Founding. I'd really love a successor themed version of first founding going into a lot of the fan favourite successors with new material on a few that have just been colour schemes until now, and one that is dedicated to the Ultima Founding.

[theSpirea]

Introducing "Author's Pick," a new series/imprint reserved for veteran writers when launching. The concept behind this imprint is to allow authors to write the books they truly want to write while still adhering to the established canon and lore. This could be a platform for pitches that were previously rejected  due to reasons such as "the idea didn't fit in the publishing schedule" and other similar bs that authors often encounter. The inspiration for this idea came from Josh Reynolds' tweet, in which he mentioned that many of his excellent ideas were not accepted.

[calgar101]

33 minutes ago, theSpirea said:

Introducing "Author's Pick," a new series/imprint reserved for veteran writers when launching. The concept behind this imprint is to allow authors to write the books they truly want to write while still adhering to the established canon and lore. This could be a platform for pitches that were previously rejected  due to reasons such as "the idea didn't fit in the publishing schedule" and other similar bs that authors often encounter. The inspiration for this idea came from Josh Reynolds' tweet, in which he mentioned that many of his excellent ideas were not accepted.

That is a great and interesting idea and would most likely lead to better quality noels I'd say.

[Wormwoods]

Necropolis has already been released, so. 

[Felix Antipodes]

4 hours ago, calgar101 said:

An expanded Battle series would be great as well, and I second dong a series on the Nova Terra Interregnum, that could be very interesting. I would like an expansion to the White Panther blurb that featured in a side box in the 3rd ed Space Marine codex. That always captured my imagination and I always wanted to read more about that battle.

 

Edit: I'd prefer less current events books and more filling in the history, but that is just me.

 

After thinking about it a bit, I wouldn’t package them as WH Battles II as this isn’t the direction I want to give the buyers.  More like a ‘Tales from the Adeptus Historicus’ (or whatever Guilliman’s group is called) purportedly being their recovered lost stories.

 

[Lord Marshal]

A sequel to Fire Caste. I know it works as a standalone novel along with Vanguard and Fire & Ice wrapping up most dangling threads, but damnit ever since I read a post claiming Fehervari had ideas - and I don't know how true it is - for a folllow-up it planted the seed of hope in my head.

 

Failing that, I'd love to see him take a crack at a full-length Tau novel. 

 

[calgar101]

1 hour ago, Felix Antipodes said:

 

After thinking about it a bit, I wouldn’t package them as WH Battles II as this isn’t the direction I want to give the buyers.  More like a ‘Tales from the Adeptus Historicus’ (or whatever Guilliman’s group is called) purportedly being their recovered lost stories.

 

That is a really good idea and concept!

[Roomsky]

Part 2: XENOS

 

The short version is that I just want more good authors on xenos books. As in, Tau books by someone who's not Kelly, and Eldar books by someone who's not Thorpe. Any upper crust author will do. I also think, while I'm always happy to receive more, Orks and Necrons have both received pretty excellent novels at this point, so they aren't really my focus. Instead, I'm going to do an impossible wishlist with some authors from outside the BL stable:

 

Ann Leckie on Tau, Eldar, or Dark Eldar - Leckie's books are easy to read and put great effort into diplomatic screw-ups due to different cultures holding alien mindsets and values - an excellent fit for the Tau trying to cooperate with their client races. Her willingness to write about advanced concepts of gender could also make some interesting characters in an Eldar novel with groups like the Howling Banshees.

 

R Scott Bakker on Eldar or Dark Eldar - The man's writing is quite poetic and he's done some great work with immortals who know that if they die, only hell awaits them. Some of the antagonists in his fantasy books are basically just Dark Eldar without the PG rating. I'd love for someone like him to tackle what knowing Hell awaits after death would do to a space elf's personality. 

 

Kidnap GRRM or resurrect PTerry to write about the Votann. These guys need some dense worldbuilding for their first novel, and GRRM does a lot with a little. Pratchett wrote my favourite dwarves in all of fiction, turning them from a fantasy race I usually roll my eyes at to a fascinating and multifaceted culture. Really, I just want someone who's gonna spend more time on culture than warfare.

 

And for people I'd take anything from, but xenos would be the double cherry on top: Kim Newman, Michael Kirkbride, Andrjez Sapkowski, Timothy Zahn, S Craig Zahler, Clive Barker, Tamsyn Muir, Ted Chiang.

[Dzirhan]

Outlier on this, but the final books in trilogies that never got done, Annandale's Castellan Crowe, Andy Clark's Knights, David Guymer's Iron Hands, Sandy Mitchell's Inquisition series, Steve Parker's Talon Squad Deathwatch,  French's inquisition series though I presume the most likely to be done might be Clark's Knights and French's inquistion, Mitchell's third book is not going to be done since it was tied to the defunct fantasy flight game RPG

[byrd9999]

Peter Fehervari writing about the Thousand Sons.

 

He has such a good grasp on the nature of Chaos in 40k , and I think Tzeentch would suit his style perfectly.

[DarkChaplain]

22 hours ago, darkhorse0607 said:

Count me as another vote for Badab, I'd prefer Wraight to do it because he does pretty well with fleshing out chapters/legions in his novels which I think would be essential

 

Also, I've said this before but I'd like a book/books about the founding of the Grey Knights

 

Book 1) the arrival of the Knights Errant to Titan. How they go about starting the foundations, what they think the edicts of the chapter should be, learning new weapons,  how did they go from relatively new to fighting warp entities to the quintessential demon hunters, and most of all how they deal with the fact that they're sidelined for the Siege

 

Book 2) the chapters emergence from Titan post Heresy, them coming to grips with the new Imperium and their first deployment

 

Just saying, but we've got THAT WHOLE SETUP around Pythos and the Damnation Cache. Damnation of Pythos and prior to that the Pandorax novel did the legwork there, with Madail and so forth, with a Founding Grey Knight (Epimetheus, of the Dark Angels variety) being stationed in hibernation there to keep things in order, and Abaddon trying to snatch him before the Unforgiven or Grey Knights can. That whole thing was sealed shortly after the Grey Knights returned to real space, one of their first major missions to protect the Imperium. As of the Heresy's end, the stuff happening at Pythos has not been quelled, even though Madail has been banished for a bit in Ruinstorm (and he showed up for the Siege in Horus' listing of names, anyway). So it stands to reason that Pythos is still bleeding daemons into existence.

 

I mean, come on. That's a novel waiting to be written.

[The Scorpion]

On 6/18/2024 at 3:15 PM, Roomsky said:

Plausible:

BADAB WAR SERIES

One author please, preferably a good one, I think it's important that Huron doesn't have 4 different personalities throughout an account of those events. As a more tangible example, Badab War trilogy by Wraight - it's an event borne of characters with the best intentions and Wraight is excellent at having 40k characters be on-brand AND reasonable.

 

Unlikely:

A Reign of Blood novel, either from Vandire's perspective or the perspective of one of his aides. Black Library has a bad habit of stretching events into far greater page counts than needed, a good 500 pages without unnecessary combat filler could easily give us a satisfying version of the Reign of Blood, and a good treatise on the Imperium's dysfunction as well. Give it to Abnett perhaps?

 

Somewhat similar, an account of the Heresy from a non-combatant's POV, from an in-universe historical perspective - something like the fluff in the Heresy Black Books (for that matter, give us a fluff compilation from the Black Books.) Have it be some scribe from the palace who's pieced together events from personal experience and incoming missives from the warfront. I'm reading I, Claudius right now, and I'd kill for a similarly-styled book, but 40k (or GRRM's Fire and Blood for a more contemporary example.) I'd take it from any of my faves, TBH.

 

I've expressed my frustration with the Tome Keepers stories in this forum before: basically, they have one of the richest themes in 40k, but its wasted.

 

It got me thinking. What would a good story with them would look like?

 

And the perfect time period would be the starting in 975.M35 with the Cataclysm of Souls, and how the Chapter came to be disillusioned with the conflict. Its the end of the Nova Terra interregnum, and a great attempt at turning the Imperium into a theocracy.

 

It'd be a story about the Chapter fighting tooth and nail for unity, yet in the process ending up living to see the Imperium take another irreversible step away from the Emperor's vision.

 

And I imagined Vandire would be on it.

 

Not the Vandire of the reign of blood, but the young Vandire of the Administratum who initially despised the Ecclesiarchy of the Temple of the Saviour Emperor and wanted to curb its power.

 

To keep things interesting, he'd be an allied character, that much like the Tome Keepers wants to prevent or backtrack this historical slide into irrationality, albeit in his own way.

 

He'd be an ally sorta like Vangorich of the Beast Arises books was at first, with only small hints of what he would eventually end up becoming.

[The Scorpion]

9 hours ago, byrd9999 said:

Peter Fehervari writing about the Thousand Sons.

 

He has such a good grasp on the nature of Chaos in 40k , and I think Tzeentch would suit his style perfectly.

Fehervari is goated when it comes to writing Tzeentchian :cuss:

 

He writes a very interesting Nurgle too. But he's one of the authors that can 100% tackle Tzeentch in all its maddening glory

[Nagashsnee]

I love ad mech books, and i like when they explore the more Eastern Roman government style huge areas of the Imperium are modeled after.

 

So what i want is a book with lots of Mech, politics and of course when you mix them two things religion, so honestly there is only 1 place in the lore to go.

 

The Moirae Schism, step right up folks for a classic tale of imperium of man infighting where every one is both the bad and good guy at the same time. 

 

You have it all, exploration of the very nature of the mechanicus as a religious organization, the nature of centralised - decentralised power structure and its relationship to the wider imperium.

 

But then you throw the special sauce into the mix, The Moirae schismatics were canonically on to something, they may not have understood it correctly, they may not have interpretative correctly, the core message may have gotten lost to their Ad mech wired brains. But they went looking into the light for answers and SOMETHING answered, and it dropped some truths on them. 

 

And like any religious fanatic who has seen the face of god they spread the good word, and boi oh boi did it spread. Suddenly you have Astartes, the Church and who knows who else involved. The conservative elements of leadership do what they always do when threatened and choose violence and the whole thing blows up into a hucckle that is as modern 40k still have repercussions.  

 

All the elements are there for a FANTASTIC (tho imperial centric) series ( i think 5 books would do). With a actual mystery at the heart of it that should never be solved. 

 

edit- I wanted to add for me, the dream is to play it straight, no chaos tricks, no it was the eldar all along. No it was the Leadership of Moirae doing some ploy to enact change in the ad mech. They looked into the light and the light answered.  The astronomicon is the source, the real mystery should be around what its actually saying and how the message is created.  And like all religious revelation how its interpreted. Then just have humans characters act like humans do and everything else will go full belly up naturally.  But the key thing is have the messages be real. I am so tired of third act 'it was chaos/ctan/old man withers' all along twists.

Edited June 20 by Nagashsnee

[DarkChaplain]

1 hour ago, The Scorpion said:

Fehervari is goated when it comes to writing Tzeentchian

 

He writes a very interesting Nurgle too. But he's one of the authors that can 100% tackle Tzeentch in all its maddening glory

 

I want him to finally get to write a novel about the Brotherhood of a Thousand, not to be confused with the Thousand Sons. He once mentioned some bits he was playing with conceptually, way back when, and it sounded great, unique and fascinating for a Space Marine Chapter. Sadly, it doesn't look like BL were on board with it, so we didn't get more than the little teaser in The Walker in Fire (iirc), with one of the Deathwatch guys being a Brother.