Upcoming BL Stuff 2025

[darkhorse0607]

Interested to see the time jump between Outer Dark and Void Exile. The description on German Amazon also is a little different than the one on WHC, which gives some more insight

 

Amazon DE:
"These Space Marines are the outcast protectors of the Imperium, merciless raiders who hunt the enemies of humanity on the fringes of the galaxy. But there are times when they must leave their isolation behind and emerge from the depths. Such a duty now lies before Bail Sharr and the Third Company of the Carcharodons. The remote forge world of Diamantus faces a threat of apocalyptic proportions: a twisted and mutated Space Hulk, infected by the forces of Chaos and commanded by the monstrous datagnostic Voldire, a disciple of the terrible demigod Vashtorr the Arkifan. The battle-weary Carcharodons stand side by side with the Adeptus Mechanicus against their foes. As terrors and nightmares descend around them, the Space Marines must reconsider their place in this new Empire and destroy the Hulk before Diamantus is lost"

 

WHC:

"When Chaos forces led by Datagnost Voldire, a dread disciple of Vashtorr the Arkifane, attacks the forge world of Daiamantus, Bail Sharr and the Carcharodons’ Third Company must come in from the cold and take up arms with the Adeptus Mechancius to drive back the heretics."

 

Given the Amazon description, it sounds like this is set during the Arks of Omen campaign or shortly afterwards

 

The hardback cover on Amazon DE also features a Primaris Carcharadon which I assume is Sharr, so I'll be interested to see how/if they touch on that process given the chapter's tithe system.

 

Reddit post with the German translation and cover image below

 

https://www.reddit.com/r/Blacklibrary/comments/1jwv22n/upcoming_bl_novels/

[theSpirea]

On 5/13/2025 at 1:04 PM, cheywood said:

It depends how you count it. Two of those came out last year as LEs, while Grotsnik isn’t available for anyone for a couple weeks. For me that’s three books. 
 

edit: also I believe you’re missing Grombrindal: Ancestor’s Burden on the AOS side of things. 

So you don't count two because they came out as LE last year but at the same time you also don't count the current LE because it isn't available for everyone for a couple weeks?

[cheywood]

14 minutes ago, theSpirea said:

So you don't count two because they came out as LE last year but at the same time you also don't count the current LE because it isn't available for everyone for a couple weeks?

Uh, I’ll count it in couple weeks. I think of a book as ‘released’ when it’s actually in people’s hands. I don’t think that’s a particularly unreasonable policy. If you want to consider it released that’s fine too. Either way how you count Grotsnik doesn’t really change my overall point that’s its been a barren year for 40k so far.

[DarkChaplain]

....hurray, two more old books as special editions with two further ones re-announced that we've known about and seen moooonths ago and with one of them KNOW for a fact that it's been delayed for whatever reasons and already got put out into the wilds in a different language.

 

"later this year", they say. "Cool", I say....

[System Sound]

2 hours ago, OpossumStrong said:

New LE's on the way

Annnnnd consider me whelmed... At least the lack of interesting titles gives me time to finish Ghots Victory pt.2 and tackle the behemoth that is Malazan...

[Felix Antipodes]

A LE of The Great Work was almost inevitable and, as @DarkChaplain pointed out, we have known about two of these for months.  To me, the interesting release is the William King box set.  King is beloved of fans of the early Boxtree/BL era but I’m not sure he is so well known amongst the modern readership.  This was probably signed off as something to accompany the new SW models (imho) but why this instead of something in a more recent BL style?

It will sell - it’s a BL LE after all - and I hope it encourages a series of trilogy box sets from the early days of BL.

[wecanhaveallthree]

Quote

I’m not sure he is so well known amongst the modern readership.  

 

Today I will remind them.

 

It is actually quite interesting that I'd genuinely say Watson is probably the more recognised name if only for 'meme lore' or what-have-you. King's probably best known for his work in Fantasy with the foundational Gotrek and Felix, and while I'd argue his Space Wolf books are - or should be - equally as foundational as, say, Abnett's Guard and Inquisition novels, they don't get the same hype as, say, Ventris or Night Lords. Which is fine, we're obviously spoilt for choice on that front, but... BILLY KING! He's the king, damn it! 

 

Oh well. I'm sure some of us will get around to reading the Macharius trilogy soomsky. Not naming any laggards, of course.

 

E: HE ALSO WROTE THAT GREAT ILLIDAN BOOK, I ALWAYS FORGET THAT.

Edited May 16 by wecanhaveallthree
I AM MY EDITS

[Felix Antipodes]

Wasn’t casting rocks at King Billy.  I’ve read all his works for GW/BL and have few complaints with his output.  Just pointing out that in today’s “yeah, but what has he done lately” world he may no longer be a name on everyone’s lips.  

God help me, I had a recent conversation online where this very argument was used wrt ADB and Wraight of all people 

[Jareddm]

Despite how the series meandered, I loved how they did the DoF LE covers.

[skylerboodie]

Not sure I've seen this before, but Era of Ruin standard edition cover and Amazon release date of 19th June:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Era-Ruin-Horus-Heresy-Siege/dp/1800261802/

 

It looks very likely will be released same time as Heresy 3.0 box launch

[grailkeeper]

Presumably there's going to be a leather bound special edition like the leaked one.

[LemartesTheLost]

21 hours ago, Felix Antipodes said:

God help me, I had a recent conversation online where this very argument was used wrt ADB and Wraight of all people 

 

Only Echoes (which was the highlight of the Siege IMO) and Sea of Souls (the closest thing we've had to true WH horror in years at this point), respectively. Both within three years of the current date

 

Once again, unserious people on the interwebs prove that they are, in fact, unserious 

[Taliesin]

Void Exile LE looks good though, I like that style.

[darkhorse0607]

A few things this week:

 

The LE of The Great Work

 

Valedor as an audiobook

 

French/German Chris Wraight Space Wolves Omnibus

 

Question for those that have read Valedor, do you think it'd be fine for someone who's never read an Eldar based novel? I know very surface level stuff about the Eldar but I've been thinking about grabbing one of their novels to dive more into. Would Valedor be fine for that/is it a good one in general?

 

https://www.warhammer-community.com/en-gb/articles/z7xgw4fb/sunday-preview-let-slip-the-wolves-of-war/

[DarkChaplain]

You'll be fine with Valedor. Haley put a lot of work in there. The only thing you may or may not want to read before is the prequel novella The Last Days of Ector, which isn't really too Eldar-focused, but sets the stage for the full-scale Tyranid invasion.

 

There's a reason why Valedor is often considered the best Eldar novel out there, and a great one to dig into them for the first time.

Edited May 19 by DarkChaplain

[DarkChaplain]

Looks like there actually isn't a novel or anthology to go with this new edition of Horus Heresy, huh? We got one last time. Instead, they just linked to Horus Rising on WarCom and a sub-2 minute video. Good joke.

[cheywood]

49 minutes ago, DarkChaplain said:

Looks like there actually isn't a novel or anthology to go with this new edition of Horus Heresy, huh? We got one last time. Instead, they just linked to Horus Rising on WarCom and a sub-2 minute video. Good joke.

Era of Ruin’s almost certainly launching alongside the new edition. They’re just too incompetent to mention it.

[DarkChaplain]

Oh you mean that anthology that has been making the rounds since fething 2024, obviously printed and stockpiled even as a limited edition for the past year, just artificially held back for this special occasion?

 

Eh, I'm still not sure we'll see that dropping this year. Unless they forget to tell retail to postpone it, like with other books :^)

[Scribe]

On 4/23/2025 at 7:56 AM, Lord Marshal said:

I know we got Lords of Silence but that was almost ten years ago.

 

oof that hurts to read.

[Nagashsnee]

10 hours ago, DarkChaplain said:

Looks like there actually isn't a novel or anthology to go with this new edition of Horus Heresy, huh? We got one last time. Instead, they just linked to Horus Rising on WarCom and a sub-2 minute video. Good joke.

Even for BL, releasing a book focussed on Istvaan after skipping it for the entire horus heresy series and only drip feeding snippets would be too stupid.

 

HEY guys! We know you wanted to see this EPIC and MYTHICAL battle, so after Iron Hands on dino planet, forgotten new character #14, the Unremembered Empire we forgot to show, those iron battle guys and iron finger dudes who never got any focus, not showing the Solar Auxillia in the Solar war, Dark Mechwhatwhat?  and COMPLETING THE WHOLE SERIES, we are putting out a Istvaan V book.

 

You know for the fans. 

 

Best case its another edition launch horrible unreadable mess. Worse case its a well written book that introduces fresh and interesting characters proving that this book should have been released a decade ago. 

 

So i guess Kyme would be the safe choice here. 

 

 

[skylerboodie]

Isstvan V was in Book V: Fulgrim?

[lansalt]

13 minutes ago, skylerboodie said:

Isstvan V was in Book V: Fulgrim?

part of it, like the Fulgrim vs Ferrus duel. But there's no actual dedicated BL book like Galaxy in Flames is about Isstvan III.
The events of Isstvan V are mostly described in brief chapters and flashbacks across many books and short stories. Only the 2nd FW Black Book was fully focused on it.

[Nagashsnee]

1 hour ago, skylerboodie said:

Isstvan V was in Book V: Fulgrim?

And the first heretic, and the corax book, and a night lords short story, and some iron hand stories, and...

 

And even reading all of them, you never actual get a start-end story, what happened to the loyalist fleets? The Gloriannas of 3 legions ( tho i think the Raven Guard one is confirmed dead),  Like if tomorrow the Salamanders/Iron Hands in 40k showed up with their Glorianna and said ' yeah it fought its way out of istvaan and it got better now,' no one could even say its a retcon.  Did the Iron Hand one even make the battle or was it still under repair? We know their vessels were still arriving in bits and pieces late into the massacre.  There was real meat on the story bones here for BOTH sides. 

 

Isstvan V has been covered in bits and pieces, we know the general gist of what happened, and at this point its been covered enough to not warant a book on it. But IT SHOULD have gotten one. Its one of the most crucial battles of the Heresy and it covered legions that never got real spotlight. How the Salamanders got 3 books and Istvaan got diddle squat is a head scratcher.  And seeing some of the stories that they did go with makes it a real head scratcher. 

 

 

Edited May 24 by Nagashsnee

[darkhorse0607]

19 hours ago, DarkChaplain said:

Looks like there actually isn't a novel or anthology to go with this new edition of Horus Heresy, huh? We got one last time. Instead, they just linked to Horus Rising on WarCom and a sub-2 minute video. Good joke.

 

I mean there's more than that which is kind of iffy about it. No tie-in novel, the fact that it's going backwards in the setting (the last campaign book was the war on Mars, before that was Cthonia, now back to Istvaan, I expect the next campaign book will go forward again)

 

There's also the fact that according to the stream yesterday, Saturnine was around during the Crusade, then Vulkan gave it out to all of the other legions after engineering it, even though in the last rulebook (released only 3 years ago) the chart lists Saturnine armor as launching during the Heresy itself, so that doesn't make any sense.

 

It feels as though the setting of Istvaan was more of a choice of name recognition/convenience with launching MK2 rather than a deliberate choice. Which, to be fair, is basically all box sets, but still

[grailkeeper]

I haven't read any of the novels that tie in with edition releases. Have any of them been good? I've a general impression they're mid, but open to finding something I've overlooked.