Upcoming BL Stuff 2025

[Lord Marshal]

Please James, just one novel where the Death Guard don't violently job to Loyalist Marines, please James just one.

 

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

[grailkeeper]

A Ferren Arios Novel?

 

Two questions?

 

1. Who is Ferren Arios

 

2. Why are so many novels now "A Main Character" novel. Every book will have a protaganist- some might have a few. Soul Hunter wasnt "A Talos Valcoran" novel. 

 

3 hours ago, Lord Marshal said:

Please James, just one novel where the Death Guard don't violently job to Loyalist Marines, please James just one.

 

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

I think the Word Bearers are bigger jobbers, but neither has been covered in Glory lately.

[LemartesTheLost]

2 hours ago, grailkeeper said:

A Ferren Arios Novel?

 

Two questions?

 

1. Who is Ferren Arios

 

2. Why are so many novels now "A Main Character" novel. Every book will have a protaganist- some might have a few. Soul Hunter wasnt "A Talos Valcoran" novel. 

 

I think the Word Bearers are bigger jobbers, but neither has been covered in Glory lately.

 

1. Random Ultramarine Lieutenant created by Kyme in order to kill off Epathus, Captain of the 6th Company during the Dawn of Fire series, so that he could be promoted

 

2. I believe the thought process was to delineate between Dawn of Fire/other potential series, and standalone novels covering characters that might reappear/pop-up in the lore somewhat often. Even so, I don't think that it was ever really an issue. Corporate is going to corporate though, so I'm not really surprised.

Edited Wednesday at 09:07 PM by LemartesTheLost
Added context

[cheywood]

It’s likely a BL commissioned novel, they want character-led series as easy entry points to the setting (the WC article even mentions you don’t need to read DoF to read this). I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s a model for Areios soonish and a plan to commission more novels. In a way Ferren’s a great character for this. He’s established in the setting but, thanks to his minimal character development, you can treat him as a tabula rasa. 
 

I’m curious to see how Rob Young does on this. Longshot was quite good, even great at times, but Leontus was largely dissatisfying both in conception and execution. It’s possible publisher mandates and length issues were to blame for the latter. Remains to be seen what he’s truly capable of I think, but I have hope that this will be a little more interesting than the pitch suggests. 

[OpossumStrong]

6 hours ago, LemartesTheLost said:

Random Ultramarine Lieutenant created by Kyme

TBH he isn't that random, he was created by Guy Haley with first appearance in the Avenging Son.

 

I'm a big Ultramarines fan, but I'll probably skip this book, I'm tired of DG vs UM arc, also he isn't the most interesting character(at least for me).

 

I would like to see a book about Decimus Felix, especially after The Great Work and because of the title he holds.

Edited yesterday at 03:54 AM by OpossumStrong

[wecanhaveallthree]

How many 'Ultramarine Primaris find their place in the world while battling the nefarious Death Guard' books are there now? Like, what, six? Eight? How exactly does this character differ - what interesting narrative or character do they explore that wasn't covered by - say, Felix? I don't... understand? There must be an internal document we're not privy to, some memo from the sales department that says Ultramarines and Death Guard sell like hotcakes.

 

The fact we're getting Dawn of Fire spin-offs before Raine even gets a sequel is GALLING. 

[darkhorse0607]

9 hours ago, OpossumStrong said:

I'm a big Ultramarines fan, but I'll probably skip this book, I'm tired of DG vs UM arc, also he isn't the most interesting character(at least for me).

 

I would like to see a book about Decimus Felix, especially after The Great Work and because of the title he holds.

 

Right, so I don't want to sound like the ungrateful UM fan who has more books than most people but is complaining

 

but I will complain

 

I'm not opposed to new characters and I could be wrong about what this book is trying to do (which I assume is going to be straightforward, and not give something like Blood of Iax, where that at least went through the effort to flesh out the Reiver culture)

 

but

 

There are UM that we haven't seen in years. Felix could be one. But how about Cassius? We are supposed to be in the greatest Tyranid invasion ever, and this guy is the one who founded the Tyrannic War Veterans that we haven't seen in years. How about Agemman who's been floating in the background for years but never got anything substantial. You could even argue that even keeping with the UM/DG plot, this would be a great situation for Telion to pop back up while the rest of the chapter is busy and get some attention as he's very much like Agemman who's been there for years but hasn't gotten much focus

 

 

[LemartesTheLost]

9 hours ago, OpossumStrong said:

TBH he isn't that random, he was created by Guy Haley with first appearance in the Avenging Son.

 

I'm a big Ultramarines fan, but I'll probably skip this book, I'm tired of DG vs UM arc, also he isn't the most interesting character(at least for me).

 

I would like to see a book about Decimus Felix, especially after The Great Work and because of the title he holds.

 

Completely blanked that Haley actually wrote him first, silly me.

 

I echo the sentiment about a Felix novel, though. I think he's actually a better candidate to be the protagonist for a book with this premise. Like you said, his title (ya know, Tetrarch of Ultramar) makes him the obvious choice to defend Ultramar, not some random UM Captain who should be following in Guilliman's wake during the Crusade.

[Lord Nord in Gravis Armour]

I echo the sentiment that Felix would have been a better candidate for a standalone novel or series (The Great Work was practically halfway there after his already-notable appearances in the Dark Imperium books).

 

In fact, I would go even further and bet that the original plans for the Dawn of Fire series were for him to be the featured son of Guilliman, a place likewise eventually occupied by Ferren Areios. Essentially, the Haley-authored DoF books would have brought us through Felix's career up to the point where we met him in Dark Imperium.

 

But why would they ever make such a change?

 

Gee, it's almost like there's something completely surface-level about Felix that was unacceptable to those of a certain mindset.

 

Like the folks currently in charge of GW and Black Library in particular.

 

Nah, couldn't be. I mean, we can't be right about EVERYTHING.

[Roomsky]

People really out here pretending Felix is the slightest bit interesting huh?

[DarkChaplain]

I don't know if I understand correctly what you're implying re: Felix/Ferren and GW/BL's reasoning, Nord, but if I do, I really don't like it. Don't open up that can of worms, please.

[Sothalor]

One of the first in a new generation of Space Marines who was whisked away from a past era, slipping in and out of stasis and isolation, who has a difficult relationship with his "creator" who inflicted traumatic procedures on him but also sees him as a son-figure, then was awoken and dumped into an absolute dumpster fire of a war-torn, reality-broken galaxy ten-thousand years removed from everything he's ever known, and then continuously appointed to higher and higher positions and authorities by a revived demigod and trying to cope with it all?

 

Yeah, I think he's pretty interesting.

[Tolmeus]

9 minutes ago, Roomsky said:

People really out here pretending Felix is the slightest bit interesting huh?

 

I would argue that he is more interesting than Ferren Areios.
A novel about him as the sole protagonist could give him the much needed depth (after the groundwork was laid in the "Dark Imperium" triology and "The Great Work").
Also, he is a tetrach, who has or should have a wider perspective than "just" a captain.

 

Nevertheless, I do agree that Felix is still a rather plain character. 

[Roomsky]

2 minutes ago, Tolmeus said:

 

I would argue that he is more interesting than Ferren Areios.
A novel about him as the sole protagonist could give him the much needed depth (after the groundwork was laid in the "Dark Imperium" triology and "The Great Work").
Also, he is a tetrach, who has or should have a wider perspective than "just" a captain.

 

Nevertheless, I do agree that Felix is still a rather plain character. 

 

I'll concede he's got a unique thing going on with Cawl, and that he's more interesting than Ferren (in that he's a 2/10 instead of a 1/10,) but a Haley Ultramarine is a Haley Ultramarine is a Haley Ultramarine. Him taking Ferren's place in DoF would have done nothing to improve that series from my POV. If anything I'd have liked more pagetime for Lucerne.

 

I'll grant that choosing Ferren to headline a solo novel is baffling, but this doesn't strike me as anything other than the usual amount of thought BL puts into a release (which is to say none.) Anything short of a Sicarius novel would get the same response from me, personally.

 

 

[darkhorse0607]

I would actually be super ok with another Sicarius novel. He's gone through more of a character arc than the rest of the chapter put together.

 

Seeing how he's adjusting to his new role and watching the 2nd go to war without him would be interesting

[Lord Nord in Gravis Armour]

7 hours ago, DarkChaplain said:

I don't know if I understand correctly what you're implying re: Felix/Ferren and GW/BL's reasoning, Nord, but if I do, I really don't like it. Don't open up that can of worms, please.

 

Don't worry, I'm fully aware that I'm not allowed to notice certain things.

[cheywood]

We tend to find what we’re looking for, even when it’s not really there. I think that’s an important lesson when applying motivation to things without first hand knowledge. 

[wecanhaveallthree]

Quote

Don't worry, I'm fully aware that I'm not allowed to notice certain things.

 

Fear not, brother. I, too, couldn't help but notice Ferren's tiny, tiny hands - particularly in comparison to Felix's massive meat-hooks. I've always assumed seniority in the Chapter was granted based entirely on how easily one could wield the Gauntlets of Ultramar, which is why Marneus 'Ham Hocks' Calgar has served as Chapter Master for so long.

 

I'd like another Sicarius novel too, please and thank you. That recent short by Kyme mirroring Consequences was dooope. 

[OpossumStrong]

5 hours ago, darkhorse0607 said:

I would actually be super ok with another Sicarius novel. He's gone through more of a character arc than the rest of the chapter put together.

I was sure we will get something related to him being primarised(base on the art we saw long time ago), but then I remembered 9th edition box, I thought the chaplain in there would be Cassius.
Eventually it was a random chaplain that was mentioned in the Indomitus book, so now I assume that the art with "Cato" is basically just an art