Upcoming BL Stuff 2025

[wecanhaveallthree]

No McNeill in the lineup is actually criminal. I'll be reporting this directly to my member of Parliament.

 

Seeing this CONFIRMED BUT FOR ACTUAL REAL gives me a very vague feeling of dread. I'm still not quite over the bollocks that was TEATD in the Heresy era, I think. It's going to take the Iron Cage and Caliban to bring me back to 30K (or Taranis/Narek/Horus Primarch book, but those appear to have vanished into the ether). I might also be a bit annoyed that this collection is being published now featuring stories set within the Siege rather than during the main run of the Siege itself. Mixing mid- and post-Siege stories feels a bit naff. I've probably shouted enough that a lot of fat could have been cut and put in an anthology (or novellas!), and it just doesn't have a good mouthfeel to get a hodge-podge rather than a clear thematic line drawn between the Siege and the Scouring. One wonders how long some of these were sat on to ultimately end up in this collection. 

 

I'll sniff out the lore bits but unless there's a real banger vetted by the fraterhood, I can't say I'm particularly interested in reading more of the Siege. 

 

E: If I see Basilio Fo mentioned EVEN ONCE I will take this all the way to the Prime Minister.

Edited January 22 by wecanhaveallthree
we will leave the commonwealth

[Ubiquitous1984]

Is the Night Lords character from the inside picture new or existing?

[System Sound]

Its finally revealed huh? I do like the cover though.

[skylerboodie]

14 minutes ago, wecanhaveallthree said:

a hodge-podge rather than a clear thematic line drawn between the Siege and the Scouring.

 

Maybe this is the bridge between closing the Siege series and starting the Scouring series, as if all the stories were post-Siege, it wouldn't be part of the Siege. #copium

[Tolmeus]

90% of the community are rather exhausted/burned by the last book "The End and the Death Vol. III". 
The reveal wasn't something to be surprised about since we got the leak months before.
I guess I am happy about getting stories of my favourite authors who finish loose ends, but I am definitely not satisfied that we do even need that book in the first place.
I also do not waste any more words on the matter, since we already got this whole discussion countless times in the "Siege" threat.

[Scribe]

Ebook for me, read a few of the key authors, and deleted. I've soured on the Siege and HH so hard, I really just want to read the ADB entry and move on.

[darkhorse0607]

3 hours ago, wecanhaveallthree said:

I might also be a bit annoyed that this collection is being published now featuring stories set within the Siege rather than during the main run of the Siege itself.

 

 

Still better than publishing Garro Knight of Grey (still worst title for a Warhammer novel) after Warhawk had already released

 

3 hours ago, Ubiquitous1984 said:

Is the Night Lords character from the inside picture new or existing?

 

What Night Lords character? I might have missed it but there's a Blood Angel and some other character from a temple

 

2 hours ago, skylerboodie said:

 

Maybe this is the bridge between closing the Siege series and starting the Scouring series, as if all the stories were post-Siege, it wouldn't be part of the Siege. #copium

 

I feel like the announcement needs to come soon. I know I can hear half of the people collectively grown at the thought of another series, but BL is in a weird spot. They DoF is wrapping up and didn't grab most people. The Heresy is either a) done and people have moved on or b) the folks that loved the Heresy felt burned by End and the Death and are ready to move on anyway but maybe not back to 40k.

 

Either they need to announce the Scouring, or branch out somewhere else to grab that subset of Heresy folks, do Badab, Age of Apostasy, something not in the current timeline

[Preliminary Bombardment]

I have the LEs for the main Siege series. After the farce with TEATD 3 this LE can get in the bin 

[grailkeeper]

9 hours ago, skylerboodie said:

It scares me that they say "the next Siege of Terra book from Black Library is" rather than the final book...

 

 

[DarkChaplain]

I can't believe how long this thing took to be announced, how much longer it'll take to be out, and how many of those stories likely ought to have been released halfway through the Siege...

[Felix Antipodes]

Have to admit, the “next book SoT book from BL is” line sent a shiver up my spine.  I’m hoping that they are just acknowledging that the Horus Primarch book is still to come and that’s it.  Imho the powers that be at GW/BL aren’t sure where to go next, wanting to try to hang on to the HH followers but not sure how.

One thing I know is that I won’t be lining up for the LE.  Will be watching on the side with popcorn to enjoy the :cuss:fight though…

[System Sound]

12 hours ago, DarkChaplain said:

I can't believe how long this thing took to be announced, how much longer it'll take to be out, and how many of those stories likely ought to have been released halfway through the Siege...

I wonder if it took so long because of the fiasco that the TEatD 1-3 preorders were and the divisive reception to the books themselves were.

[Taliesin]

It could be they are deliberately slow rolling it because of end of the Siege being a huge event with a lot of backlash and they want to let it breathe a bit before they bring out this and the Scouring.

 

Valrak expecting announcements about the Scouring at the BL celebration, though of course that part is ( informed) speculation.

[Ubiquitous1984]

41 minutes ago, Taliesin said:

It could be they are deliberately slow rolling it because of end of the Siege being a huge event with a lot of backlash and they want to let it breathe a bit before they bring out this and the Scouring.

 

Valrak expecting announcements about the Scouring at the BL celebration, though of course that part is ( informed) speculation.

There may have been a lot of backlash on here and Reddit about TEATD, but the Amazon reviews are some of the highest rated of the whole HH.  Volume III has a 4.7/5 with over 1000 reviews.  

[darkhorse0607]

1 hour ago, Ubiquitous1984 said:

There may have been a lot of backlash on here and Reddit about TEATD, but the Amazon reviews are some of the highest rated of the whole HH.  Volume III has a 4.7/5 with over 1000 reviews.  

 

To be fair though Amazon reviews are almost always high when it comes to books. To the point where I use a 4/5 or below as a sign that it's probably not a good one

 

Even the Battle for the Abyss has a 4.4 with over 1000 reviews, and, albeit with far less reviews, the Dawn of War books by CS Goto which are widely regarded to be trash are still 4+ stars

 

I'm not saying either way how it did according to GW because they don't publish that information, but we know they have their cyber-tendrils in the social media space, and whether that be here, Reddit, or the cesspools that are Twitter and Facebook, you didn't really see the universal acclaim that some of the highest highs of the series got (Saturnine, Warhawk, etc, barring the main series). If you combine that with the general negativity around the LE situation then the other Fraters could be right that they want to give it some breathing room

 

Or not

 

Who knows

[Scribe]

23 minutes ago, darkhorse0607 said:

I'm not saying either way how it did according to GW because they don't publish that information, but we know they have their cyber-tendrils in the social media space, and whether that be here, Reddit, or the cesspools that are Twitter and Facebook, you didn't really see the universal acclaim that some of the highest highs of the series got (Saturnine, Warhawk, etc, barring the main series). If you combine that with the general negativity around the LE situation then the other Fraters could be right that they want to give it some breathing room

 

I refuse to believe that TEATD as a whole, is thought to have been received well by GW/BL. The authors see these things, I highly doubt the uproar was self contained on the various platforms.

[DarkChaplain]

I concur. They know about the backlash. The real question is: Do they care? Because the thing sold very well, to the point they might just consider the criticisms irrelevant, because they made bank anyway.

[skylerboodie]

If that's what they're judging it on (the money), then they probably do care, as all the limited editions they were producing during the Siege period started selling out immediately as well(scalpers or otherwise), whereas post TEATD, they've largely dropped off demand-wise, and no longer a sure thing of selling out everytime. Most still do, after a while, but not all have.

[darkhorse0607]

I think they care, because at the end of the day they want to make sure they have the hype behind products to continue to bring in money

 

But do I think they care as much as they do about a botched model launch (those rocket launcher primaris for example)? No, probably not

 

While it's nice for them to continue to rake in money off of Black Library, it's kind of a one-time investment for them. For a model, you have to do the design process, invest in the mould and then continue to maintain it/use it, which all costs. For books, LE or otherwise, they do a one-time print/recording and that's it. It's not like the days of yore where they'd continually print stuff. If it flops, then at least it's a one-time thing

 

I think them investing into the author interview show on WH+ (which I haven't watched, someone please let me know if it's worthwhile), still doing things like the Black Library celebration (pending that being a disaster), means they still do care about it/want it to be a source of income. Their care is just limited because it's not that much of an earner.

 

That all being said, I'm sure they realize that book sales often lead to model sales so they don't want to risk that. For example, I doubt the Heresy community would be as big as it is if it wasn't for the book series. If the rumors are true and they plan to expand that game/model set into the Scouring, I'm sure they don't want to botch the book series

[Krelious]

I'd largely suspect however that GW/BL doesnt really care all that much, they know they cant stop scalping as its a complex issue to deal with and I dont think they want to expend the resources to deal with a heavily scalped limited edition novel that comes out once every 6 months or so. I'd suspect that its likely GW slowed down releases of certain things after TEATD limited edition debacle and are basically hoping people dont have a good memory, its likely we will just go through the same thing with the Era of Ruin launch. People will complain, GW will have a half assed reaction to it and a stern letter that means nothing, people will then forget it ever happened. 

 

The thing is also it benefits GW to not solve the scalping problem as any publicity is good publicity sort of deal as people who arent into WH40k will likely get wind of it by complaints on Social Media which always pop up, and the people will wonder, well if the limited edition is getting scalped then maybe this is a good product I should get into since the demand is so high. So there's a double edged blade motivating GW to do nothing as they know their fans are stockholm simps who will keep coming back and they know scalping will generate buzz for them to get more customers in the door.  

 

The only way to actually stop the scalping issue is if a mass of social media influencers  constantly made videos about it non-stop for months on end and refusing to make other content, it would have to take all the big names to do this as a concentrated effort that GW would actually panick and realize its actually a serious issue but its rather the social media people dont really care either and are looking to make money off whats topical while feigning any sort of immediate viewpoint that people might want to hear about, like a politician. 

 

 

[Nagashsnee]

On 1/23/2025 at 9:48 PM, DarkChaplain said:

I concur. They know about the backlash. The real question is: Do they care? Because the thing sold very well, to the point they might just consider the criticisms irrelevant, because they made bank anyway.

It was the finale to the HH series, Sales were never in question. It leaving a positive impression for future offers/series/sales and a positive impression to sale reprints/future le/other hh merch/books  was the prize to win or lose. 

 

The finale to their biggest ever success was guaranteed sales ( unless they went with a truly HUGE print number).  But my personal experience from myself and my circle of BL readers, it burned allot of bridges, and harmed future purchases.  Not just TeatD itself, but the whole 1-2-3 books, LE sale, marketing bs debacles. 

 

And now they want me to buy another book that is the TRUE ending (maybe) to the series that already asked me to buy books 9-10 of the 8 book series. Yeah no, hard borrow on this one, 

 

 

It reminds me of Disney and Star wars, sure the sequel films made money, but they also harmed the brand. And now a few years latter they stopped doing star wars film, cut back all the tv series and are desperately trying to figure out how the 1-2 things that do keep selling work to replicate them. 

Edited January 27 by Nagashsnee

[byrd9999]

I want more Heresy and Siege stories, so I'm excited to read this.

 

I never went in for the collector mentality so I never had the anxiety of the 10am website queue.

 

I just get to buy my books and enjoy them.

[Petitioner's City]

I'm sorry, but I don't mean to pop any sense of fraters' self importance - but what backlash beyond micro online communities? I don't think this matters too much when you look at larger metrics - sales (which I must admit I'm not privy to) and large sites' overwhelmingly positive review data.

 

 

 

 

 

Yes some fans posted online they didn't like them, often in smaller arenas - but in terms of reviews on larger, more visible, sites, the books did well. 

 

There's a world of difference between a few dozen or few hundred complaints on specialist sub-sites like here, reddit sub-forums or discords, and the data that very positive Amazon and Goodreads reviews suggest.

 

Honestly go read the reviews for each of these volumes on Amazon and Goodreads. Thousands of reviews, and the majority highly positive.  There are great criticisms too and well-written negative reviews too - but these are a minority amongst a widespread positivity. And that positivity is definitely something I've seen echoed in my own heresy community.

Edited January 27 by Petitioner's City

[cheywood]

Places like B&C are filled with devoted fans dissecting the Heresy. Most of us probably had very developed expectations of what the final book was going to be. Abnett took those expectations and threw them in the bin. What he created was strange, original and largely inconsiderate of what came before. In that context it makes sense that the broader community appreciates it more than B&C.

[DukeLeto69]

Have to say the Era of Ruin epilogue anthology IS something I want to read but the inclusion of:

 

Fragments (All We Have Left) by Dan Abnett

 

Just made me chuckle at the sheer masochistic horror…ie “you mean there were still more fragments left!!!!!!!”