Hive by Dan Abnett

[Nagashsnee]

11 hours ago, Scribe said:

 

As evidenced with The End and the Death, Abnett likes to use a lot of words.

The Hives have stopped....truly this IS the upper Hive AND the lower hive. The Hives have stopped. 

[DukeLeto69]

12 hours ago, Gydrael said:

 

He confirmed at his Waterstones event earlier this year it hadn't been written yet and it was on hold until GW asked him to write it (due to not being clear how amazon deal would go with stories).

Urm I heard he had written it but it was on hold and nay need some rewrites to ensure all the lore aligns across the TT game and Amazon slate.

[DukeLeto69]

12 hours ago, Scribe said:

 

Yeah, wake me up for that one.

Tutankhamen had a nap waiting for Black Legion 3 and look what happened to him! 

[Mmmmm Napalm]

4 hours ago, MARK0SIAN said:

I kind of have a semi boycott of BL for precisely this reason. I now refuse to buy anything that’s meant to be a series until all the parts of it are released. I feel like I’ve been burned too many times by BL starting a series then essentially abandoning it. They did it with the Sandy Mitchell dark heresy books, the Black Legion series by ADB and now the Bequin trilogy by Abnett. Those last two are by their A-tier writers too so nothing is safe from abandonment 

 

 

Woah I didn't know mitchell did DH tie in novels. I love DH's setting so i'll have to check it out, even if it is unfinished.

[Lexington]

Hey, there was almost a full decade between the release of Pariah and Penitent, so we’re still very much on schedule for Pandemonium. 

Edited March 14 by Lexington

[grailkeeper]

What the man himself has to say

[MARK0SIAN]

3 hours ago, Mmmmm Napalm said:

Woah I didn't know mitchell did DH tie in novels. I love DH's setting so i'll have to check it out, even if it is unfinished.

Yeah, they’re pretty good but fair warning, it leaves it on a bit of a cliffhanger that they have never resolved. 

[DukeLeto69]

47 minutes ago, MARK0SIAN said:

Yeah, they’re pretty good but fair warning, it leaves it on a bit of a cliffhanger that they have never resolved. 

The two DH tie in books are excellent but as you say…yet another example of an incomplete BL series!

[Inquisitor_Lensoven]

3 hours ago, grailkeeper said:

What the man himself has to say

Like i said boycott BL or at least abnett books until we get pandemonium 

[Ripper.McGuirl]

Nothing was abandoned as hard as the Ynnari series lol. Maybe it wasn’t the longest ago (a mere 8 years), but they dropped it so hard that not only did they not finish the series, they have all but written the faction out of the game, let alone the novels. To the point where characters in other novels legit abandon them and Yriel’s new lore who is supposed to have a Ynnari blade doesnt even mention it.

Edited March 14 by Ripper.McGuirl

[Son of Rawl]

4 hours ago, grailkeeper said:

What the man himself has to say

So we need another Beheading to get Pandemonium.

[Laurence]

On 3/13/2026 at 10:00 PM, grailkeeper said:

Any idea why this book is in two parts?

My presumption is that it's the same events from different perspectives, upper hivers vs. the slum-scummers.  If that were to be the case, I'd prefer it to be in flip-book format.

[DukeLeto69]

17 minutes ago, Laurence said:

My presumption is that it's the same events from different perspectives, upper hivers vs. the slum-scummers.  If that were to be the case, I'd prefer it to be in flip-book format.

Or it’s just a two part / duology they are releasing together? 

[grailkeeper]

29 minutes ago, Laurence said:

My presumption is that it's the same events from different perspectives, upper hivers vs. the slum-scummers.  If that were to be the case, I'd prefer it to be in flip-book format.

That would be cool.

 

Physically they can make a book large enough to include both parts, and I think both parts are sold together. So your guess is the only one that makes sense to me so far.

[irlLordy]

Interesting that this book has the actual Arbites patrolling the streets, they've gone back and forth a few times on whether the Arbites are like regular planetary law enforcement or just interested in "high level crimes".

[LemartesTheLost]

On 3/13/2026 at 9:10 AM, Inquisitor_Lensoven said:

Gotta say I’m really unimpressed we keep getting new abnett books without even a hint of a release date for pandemonium 

 

They've made it clear that Pandaemonium will have massive implications for the IP, think "WHFB End Times". That being the case, I hope Pandaemonium never comes out, as I hope the AOS-ification of 40k never comes to fruition. All of the people crying about the release date are just GW's useful fools IMHO. Enjoy the setting for what it is before Abnett drives it off the cliff. Remember, Dan can do no wrong since he was the one who wrote Horus Rising, so we must kowtow to the Abnettverse because Dan knows what is best!!!

Frankly, if Abnett was completely relegated to writing The Scouring and Sabbat Worlds, I would be all in, singing his praises to the heavens, even. But his ego is too large, and GW is too greedy to just allow him to release a final trilogy installment without fundamentally altering the setting. I hope the hard drives it's stored on get fried and he has to restart. Call me a salt miner, I don't care at this point.

[Inquisitor_Lensoven]

27 minutes ago, LemartesTheLost said:

 

They've made it clear that Pandaemonium will have massive implications for the IP, think "WHFB End Times". That being the case, I hope Pandaemonium never comes out, as I hope the AOS-ification of 40k never comes to fruition. All of the people crying about the release date are just GW's useful fools IMHO. Enjoy the setting for what it is before Abnett drives it off the cliff. Remember, Dan can do no wrong since he was the one who wrote Horus Rising, so we must kowtow to the Abnettverse because Dan knows what is best!!!

Frankly, if Abnett was completely relegated to writing The Scouring and Sabbat Worlds, I would be all in, singing his praises to the heavens, even. But his ego is too large, and GW is too greedy to just allow him to release a final trilogy installment without fundamentally altering the setting. I hope the hard drives it's stored on get fried and he has to restart. Call me a salt miner, I don't care at this point.

I want to finish my series.

 

funny thing is when I came back to the hobby and learned about the transition from WHFB to AoS  one of, if not the first post I made here upon my return was ‘is 40K going to get AoS’d’

and everyone told me no that will never happen because 40K was popular unlike fantasy.

 

also I don’t understand your rage towards Dan. Any massive universe changing lore that’s in pandemonium is a result corporate coming up with it, and simply tasking Dan to write it up and make it work.

Edited March 15 by Dr_Ruminahui
removed swear dodge

[Ripper.McGuirl]

1 hour ago, irlLordy said:

Interesting that this book has the actual Arbites patrolling the streets, they've gone back and forth a few times on whether the Arbites are like regular planetary law enforcement or just interested in "high level crimes".

It’s true but there are places where it’s expected of them to be there. In the Enforcer trilogy they get up to all kinds of things: street level enforcement, space station garrison, void interdiction, court duty, even distant astromocon relay guard duty.

A new planetary governor could trigger an automatic Arbites presence, for instance. If that’s the setup, there’s a million reasons they could be around.

[Scribe]

2 hours ago, Inquisitor_Lensoven said:

also I don’t understand your rage towards Dan. Any massive universe changing lore that’s in pandemonium is a result corporate coming up with it, and simply tasking Dan to write it up and make it work.

 

I could buy this, if not for what Abnett did to the Siege series.

 

There is no way in hell 'corporate' came up with the abject disaster, that was The End and the Death.

[Laurence]

9 hours ago, DukeLeto69 said:

Or it’s just a two part / duology they are releasing together? 

 

Both books have the same title, just differing covers.  Were it a true duology, I'd expect some distinction beyond altered cover art.

[DukeLeto69]

15 minutes ago, Laurence said:

 

Both books have the same title, just differing covers.  Were it a true duology, I'd expect some distinction beyond altered cover art.

Fair but we will see later this year.

 

I think this is just a case of Abnett writing another doorstopper and marketing realising they can make us buy two books instead of one (much as they did with Farrer’s two part Sabbat Worlds story - which was NOT conceived as two books). This will certainly be a corporate money based decision rather than a creative one (if I am wrong I will come back and do my penance).

 

However, IMHO this is just like tEatD pt I, II, & III. ie one BIG book split.

Edited March 15 by DukeLeto69

[DukeLeto69]

7 hours ago, Inquisitor_Lensoven said:

 

also I don’t understand your rage towards Dan. Any massive universe changing lore that’s in pandemonium is a result corporate coming up with it, and simply tasking Dan to write it up and make it work.

Well we actually know for a fact that several years back Abnett had the idea for the Bequin books and had to get GWs permission before he could proceed. I think initially GW were relatively relaxed as it was just a story in a BL series (and we know BL is nowhere near the core business) but as time went on the ramifications dawned and GW have now embraced it as a direction for the lore. Change IS coming and plenty of seeds have been getting planted in other authors work and lore snippets in game material. 

[Valkia the Bloody]

23 hours ago, DukeLeto69 said:

 

In the 90s I worked for a bit in the film industry. Development timescales are long! But I do wish we soon had something more concrete on the FW/Amazon slate.

Reason for raising that is that we know Pandaemonium cannot be released until they have ensured all the lore lines up for the Amazon slate and (I suppose) the next edition of the TT game. What started out as a fun bit of lore progression in a single book series in the Abnettverse has seemingly been decided to have such ramifications (which GW like and are planning to adopt widely) that it all now needs to align.

 

Shame for us awaiting the novel (for years) but interesting to see what happens.

 

One fear I have is when they eventually do release part 3 it is in a new edition style forcing me to buy a third copy of Pariah and a second copy of Penitent grrrr

 

I totally expect the first Amazon project to be Eisenhorn but that will have tentacles into other spin off series so that it all ties back to what happens in Pandaemonium.

 

So…I will be surprised if there are no easter eggs in HIVE.

I also have seen this.

Pandaemonium is apparently done and waiting for release. It is held back on purpose by GW.

Source: soneone who claims to be a BL insider on Reddit. 

 

As for Hive- I cannot wait. This is the type of book I love from Abnett. I adore all his short stories that are about the small people of the Imperium and also about the crime fighters.

 

[phandaal]

13 hours ago, irlLordy said:

Interesting that this book has the actual Arbites patrolling the streets, they've gone back and forth a few times on whether the Arbites are like regular planetary law enforcement or just interested in "high level crimes".

 

Arbites are just Judges ported over to 40k, so that is how I always view them in my head canon.

 

"Twelve serious crimes reported every minute. Seventeen thousand per day. We can respond to around six percent."

 

They are out on the street "patrolling" all the time, but due to their limited numbers they only pick the big stuff that is worth their time. They might even go off world or or elsewhere in the system for the biggest crises.

 

If they happen to see you in the act of committing a lesser crime though, they can send you to the iso-cubes. If they are feeling lenient. 

[Inquisitor_Lensoven]

10 hours ago, Scribe said:

 

I could buy this, if not for what Abnett did to the Siege series.

 

There is no way in hell 'corporate' came up with the abject disaster, that was The End and the Death.

Based on what?