Upcoming BL Stuff 2025

[Nagashsnee]

5 hours ago, theSpirea said:

Haley+Kyme fully failed to manage DoF.

Can you fail at something that clearly was never attempted? 

[Nagashsnee]

14 hours ago, wecanhaveallthree said:

Dare we dream that McNeill will do the eventual liberation of Mars, full-circling Mechanicum?

 

The problem is we never got a HH dark mech book, we have never seen traitor mars, we dont know any dark mech characters (and no throwing some names around is not knowing characters), we dont know what they did, we barely saw anything. 

 

Its the indomitus crusade problem, if you skip the fall and the occupation then going straight to the liberation and reclamation loses the majority of its weight.  The books would be mars civil war (we leave it ongoing with traitors nearing victory)- mars is liberated.  There is a clear MISSING third book there.  The logical thing to do would be a dark mech evacuation book, or a liberation book told from the dark mech perspective, that starts pre siege, lives the death of horus and then at about the halfway point we to the actual liberation. And even that may not be enough page space once you factor a probable marine character tax. A pair of books mechanicus-dark mech would be my solution. Book 1 builds up traitor mars and actually introduces dark mech characters, and book 2 is the fight/flight from mars.  

[lansalt]

3 hours ago, Nagashsnee said:

we dont know any dark mech characters

We got Sota-Nul, who appeared in half a dozen books as the face of the Dark Mechanicum. The HH2 Martian Civil War campaign book was trash, though

[Nagashsnee]

1 hour ago, lansalt said:

We got Sota-Nul, who appeared in half a dozen books as the face of the Dark Mechanicum. The HH2 Martian Civil War campaign book was trash, though

Awesome, half a dozen books they MUST have done some character work on them. Tell me about them. The character. Not rank or titles or they were in Wolfs Bane where they gave the loyalists mech horus terms. Or knelt before Kelbor Hal (who also has a name and makes appearances). 

 

If the Dark mech book opens with Sota Nul front and centre what do we know about them. Other then name, rank, and some stuff they were present for.   

 

Cause if say we had Arkhan Land in the book opening i could write a great deal on his character.  Poor Zagreus Kane, has some minor character.  Ambasador Vethorel yeap, not much but i got some (The Binary Succession be praised).  Lexicanum has lots of names for the Mechanicum, but very few of them are characters.  Cawl got more 30k character work then the entire dark mech put together, and he is a 40k character haha. Sota Nul is a plot element/device not a character. Tho they could become one.

 

I dont mean this as coming at you, but as a general point. The Dark Mech needed a book. They needed these names to become characters. With pathos, traits, quirks, beliefs. And the loaylists got by on scraps, but the dark mech did not even get scraps. 

 

[Tolmeus]

15 minutes ago, Nagashsnee said:

he Dark Mech needed a book. They needed these names to become characters. With pathos, traits, quirks, beliefs

I would have thought it was not unlikely that Kelbor Hal would get a story in the Horus Heresy Character series. At least it would fit. The last book of the series was Eidolon, which was released a year ago. 

[Taliesin]

Just bought hardcovers of Ashes of the Imperium and Steel Tread, a book I have always been interested in.

Plus Arcane journal Razing of the Westerlands.

Edited November 22 by Taliesin

[Taliesin]

Also received today, a beautiful illustrated edition of Hereticus, 300 pages in HC with an afterword by Abnett written in Nov 2024.

The artwork is excellent, though I wish there was a lot more of it.

Edited November 22 by Taliesin

[Krelious]

Well I managed to secure a limited Edition of Ashes, kinda panicked because the website took about an extra minute to update.

 

edit: seems there isnt very much high demand for this book as nearly an hour later its still not sold out.  Might be bad news for the Scalpers.

Edited November 22 by Krelious

[darkhorse0607]

Keeble is narrating Ashes of the Imperium

 

praise be

[Casual Heresy]

I managed to nab a standard edition of Ashes. Weirdly I've been more excited about the prospect of a Scouring serise than the siege.

 

Also decided to grab an LE of Master of Rites, which gives a full LE collection of Dawn of Fire and Dark Imperium and most of the peripherally associated books.

[Deus_Ex_Machina]

On 11/16/2025 at 10:50 AM, Lord Marshal said:

Looks like a sequel to Harrowmaster's coming. And the site it seemingly leaked from, for 07.04.2026.

 

This must be one of the worst covers I have ever seen on a BL novel. Hard pass.

[Ubiquitous1984]

On 11/22/2025 at 7:43 PM, darkhorse0607 said:

Keeble is narrating Ashes of the Imperium

 

praise be

I’m currently listening to Dropsite Massacre that he’s also narrating.  It’s the best news that he is seemingly going to continue being the de-facto 30k narrator.  He elevates any story he narrates.  

[OpossumStrong]

On 11/16/2025 at 11:50 AM, Lord Marshal said:

Looks like a sequel to Harrowmaster's coming. And the site it seemingly leaked from, for 07.04.2026.

 

Hmmm 

 

 

[Nagashsnee]

Alpha Legion infiltration so good they got all the way to age of sigmar. 

[NTaW]

28 minutes ago, Nagashsnee said:

Alpha Legion infiltration so good they got all the way to age of sigmar. 

 

Are we totally sure they didn't start there? Or maybe perhaps it's a Slaanesh sort of thing where once they came into existence in one time they exist throughout 

 

If there was ever a time for The Office's "it's the same picture" meme, it's upon us.

[theSpirea]

Let's be honest, BL covers are in general trash. It's all lazy "put character(s) in the middle in some wanna-be cool and edgy pose" and call it a day.

[grailkeeper]

The Nemises blade  cover was rubbish too. The font looked terrible.

 

I normally don't like Mike Brooks' writing, but he's very good with Alpha legion.

[Krelious]

On 11/24/2025 at 4:19 PM, Deus_Ex_Machina said:

This must be one of the worst covers I have ever seen on a BL novel. Hard pass.

My dream is that one day we might have Japanese Space Marines and Maori Cultists for true diversity.  

[Tolmeus]

17 hours ago, theSpirea said:

Let's be honest, BL covers are in general trash. It's all lazy "put character(s) in the middle in some wanna-be cool and edgy pose" and call it a day.

I do like the Horus Heresy covers though, generic as they may be regarding the "edgy pose". Neil Roberts does a great job there.

[Nagashsnee]

1 hour ago, Tolmeus said:

I do like the Horus Heresy covers though, generic as they may be regarding the "edgy pose". Neil Roberts does a great job there.

 

Meh, they were better then norm, but nothing truly great. Also slapping cadians everywhere instead of actually trying to show off some imperial 30k army was a crime. 

 

[Ubiquitous1984]

4 hours ago, Tolmeus said:

I do like the Horus Heresy covers though, generic as they may be regarding the "edgy pose". Neil Roberts does a great job there.

The SoT front covers were almost all excellent, too.  I remember the thrill I felt seeing the Golden Throne image revealed for the first time!  Also the Saturnine cover was epic.  

[Deus_Ex_Machina]

On 11/26/2025 at 4:13 PM, theSpirea said:

Let's be honest, BL covers are in general trash. It's all lazy "put character(s) in the middle in some wanna-be cool and edgy pose" and call it a day.

Take a look at the early HH series covers. Those are epic. The one in this thread... not so much.

[Deus_Ex_Machina]

On 11/26/2025 at 8:09 PM, Krelious said:

My dream is that one day we might have Japanese Space Marines and Maori Cultists for true diversity.  

This cover should be used for the sequel of the "Minority Report" movie.  Tom Cruise will play one of the marines in the background. You will never know who cuz he feels too embarrassed to reveal himself as this one will be a cash register poison.

[DukeLeto69]

Back in the day there were some excellent cover artists like Clint Langley. However, in recent years the artwork has generally felt more like “graphic novel” territory.

[Tolmeus]

46 minutes ago, DukeLeto69 said:

However, in recent years the artwork has generally felt more like “graphic novel” territory

 

On that I agree 100%. The books look less and less grimdark and more and more suitable for the younger audience. You can see that most emphasized on the newer Limited Editions. Nobody can argue tell me that they spent a huge effort on the design of these nowadays.