Pursued by vengeful eldar, Magos Kotov’s Explorator armada heads into a newly revealed area of space in pursuit of ancient secrets. As the Adeptus Mechanicus forces and Black Templars Space Marines tackle the twin threats of the aliens and insurrection aboard the fleet, a greater danger reveals itself...

Winter approaches, and Orion leads the wild hunt one last time before he returns to his slumber. But a dark power is rising in the groves of Athel Loren, corrupting beasts and elves alike. As Orion’s servants hunt for a new host for the forest king’s spirit, the daemon Alkhor’s plan comes to fruition, threatening not only the wood elves but the forest itself.

After pursuing an insidious genestealer cult across the sector for years, Chapter Master Caedis of the Blood Drinkers stands ready to destroy the original source of the infection - the vast and mysterious space hulk designated Death of Integrity. However, immediately coming into conflict with both their brothers in the Novamarines Chapter and the priesthood of the Adeptus Mechanicus, the Blood Drinkers must reign in their more aggressive instincts and accept the possibility that the hulk itself may be of value to the Imperium...

January will see the release of the 'trade' paperback (a larger format) and then the 'mass-market' paperback will be out 6 months later.

 Just Dave wrote:
Wait... So there's going to be 3 different releases of books now, and I have to wait 9 months after the 1st release/hardback to get the usual format?

If that's what you're saying, then damn.

People ask me, at least a dozen times a week, what armies I play. It’s one of the Top Ten questions I get, along with “When will you do more about Sevatar?” and “When is Betrayer released?”

I’ll answer those two now, so I have something to link to.

1. I don’t know. Soon by my standards, but not soon by publishing (or the public’s) standards. The second half of 2013 will likely be dedicated to writing my next Horus Heresy novel, but because of timelines and schedules, it’s looking to be more likely it won’t be a Night Lords novel. The Night Lords have had a lot written about them now, and there’s a risk of sustained violence to dead horses being done. They’ve been in several short stories and novellas, and have had more said about their primarch’s backstory in the series than anyone else, in Shadows of Treachery. So they’re not in any urgent need of attention. Since the gang have a habit of saying what their next book(s) are gonna be even a bajillion years ahead of schedule, I’ll throw you a bone in the same way. My next Horus Heresy novel is likely to be called The Master of Mankind. No points for guessing what that’ll be about. Even the title gives me goosebumps.

Don’t ask me if the Emperor is going to be a point-of-view character. I’m not an idiot.

ETRAYER - Aaron Dembski-Bowden - Jan 2013
Angron and Lorgar smash up Ultramar. Not a sequel to Calth, so much as a parallel storyline. "Big unknown event" takes place during this novel.


MARK OF CALTH - ed. Laurie Goulding - Apr 2013
Anthology featuring stories from the Ultramar side of the war, for years after Calth. Confirmed are:

1) 'Calth That Was' (Graham McNeill) novella which links Remus Ventanus to the 40k Ultramarines continuity, along with Maloq Kartho before he becomes a daemon prince.
2) 'The Shards of Erebus' (Guy Haley) showing how Erebus learned to do his warp-travel thing, and where he got his athame dagger.
3) 'Unmarked' (Dan Abnett) following Oll Persson as he leaves Calth.
4) 'The Underworld War' (Aaron Dembski-Bowden) showing the expansion of the Gal Vorbak, and how they realise they've been left for dead by their Legion.
5) 'Athame' (John French) which is apparently a very "odd" story, following a particular knife. All we said was that it's not Erebus's knife.

Also confirmed are Rob Sanders, Anthony Reynolds and David Annandale.


HONOUR TO THE DEAD - Gav Thorpe - Apr 2013
Audio drama set during the invasion of Calth. Two Titan legions fight for control of a city, wiping out whole regiments of Army troopers and civilians almost by accident. Contains continuity links to "other new 40k projects".


KNOW NO FEAR - hardback collector's edition - Apr 2013


CENSURE - Nick Kyme - ???
Audio drama featuring Aeonid Thiel, set after the battle for Calth.


VISIONS OF HERESY - Alan Merrett etc - "mid-2013"
This is not so much a reissue of Collected Visions as a complete reworking. Loads of new artwork, all corrected background material and loads of new text from Alan himself. All of the Neil Roberts covers will be included, as well as new concept art and close-ups. This also covers almost all of the Horus Heresy novels so far, as opposed to just the old edition canon.

The format will be A5 hardback to match the HH series. It will be released simultaneously alongside a limited edition, which matches the larger Forgeworld books exactly.


VULKAN LIVES - Nick Kyme - ???
The clue is in the title! Although left for dead, Vulkan has survived Isstvan V, and this story explains where he has been and why he hasn't been found earlier.


UNREMEMBERED EMPIRE - Dan Abnett - ???
This is the "Imperium Secundus" that has been hinted at so far. Ultramar is fortified as a second Imperium, because Guilliman honestly believes that the Emperor is dead. Sanguinius is to be crowned as the new Emperor, which doesn't sit well with all present. There will be a "massive superhero style battle" which Dan never expected to see in the Heresy.

This is the first book in a wider arc, as part of the Age of Darkness.


MACRAGGE'S HONOUR - Dan Abnett/Neil Roberts - Nov 2013
Full colour, 100-page graphic novel, hardback to match the rest of the HH series perfectly. This will NOT be available in partwork, nor split into comics, and is being produced SOLELY by Black Library. It follows the naval duel mentioned in 'Know No Fear', between Marius Gage and Kor Phaeron.

This will be available in time-limited edition with extra content, as well as non-limited edition later.


VENGEFUL SPIRIT - Graham McNeill - ???
Novel.


WOLF HUNT - Graham McNeill - ???
Audio drama which explains the rather abrupt ending of 'The Outcast Dead', and the supposed timeline "error" which everyone thought they had spotted. Severian is hunted down by Nagasena in the Petitioner's City, as he tries to follow the original plan to escape Terra.


THE SIGILLITE - Chris Wraight - ???
Audio drama which hints at who Malcador actually is, and what his role is supposed to be in the Emperor's grand plans. Also laying the foundations for the Webway War.


CYBERNETICA - Rob Sanders - ???
Limited edition novella, which shows what is currently happening on Mars. Techno-heretics are released from imprisonment by loyalist forces fighting a rebellion war on the surface against Kelbor Hal.


UNNAMED CORAX NOVELLA - Gav Thorpe - ???
Literally, what Corax did after 'Deliverance Lost', attacking a forge world which had begun producing daemon engines. Also described is a "battle" between two floating cities which "broadside" each other for weeks while assault troops jump back and forth between them.


UNNAMED WHITE SCARS NOVEL - Chris Wraight - ???
Following on from 'Brotherhood of the Storm', Jaghatai Khan makes up his own mind what to do in the Horus Heresy after Chondax - it's not the answer everyone is expecting. Also links to 'Garro: Sword of Truth' and explains why there were traitor White Scars near Terra.


Two more anthologies have been announced, titled 'SHATTERED LEGIONS' and 'THE SILENT WAR'. Laurie Goulding is announced as editing both of them.


Also, it was announced there at Christmas there will be THREE Horus Heresy mini audio dramas released through the website. These will not be available physically available on CD for the foreseeable future.

As I mentioned earlier this week, the cover for The Death of Integrity was revealed on Amazon a while back. Here it is, and very nice I think it is too. The warrior in the Terminator Armour is none other than Chapter Master Caedis of the Blood Drinkers, and yes, he’s chopping up a Genestealer.
The Death of Integrity is a Space Marines Battles book from the Black Library. It’ll be out next September (more or less), and features both the Novamarines and the Blood Drinkers. In the story, the two chapters scour a space hulk named, you guessed it, The Death of Integrity, so it’s kind of an unofficial Space Hulk book too. Cool eh? There’s plenty of goodies in there for Space Marine fans, not least the detailing of two whole chapters, low-g combat, and some other exciting elements that it would be a shame to reveal right now (and my lords and masters would send a Callidus assassin disguised as my dog to kill me). Still, ask yourself why Caedis is not wearing red. It’s not as straightforward as you might think…

The book’s currently with the editors, so it’s close to being locked and loaded to be shot out of the big publishing lascannon for the end of next summer. It’s a long time away, no? Clever-clogs might realise that my Blood Drinkers short story, ‘The Rite of Holos’, is a prequel to the novel, so if you fancy reading about these lesser-known scions of Sanguinius taking apart a Genestealer cult in the meantime, it’s in Hammer and Bolter 24.

Sometimes a character’s journey ends in a single story and leaves you wanting more. That’s how L J Goulding felt about Angeloi of the Scythes of the Emperor. He took this opportunity to share his story with us:

[u]With a Scythes of the Emperor novel on the way,[/u] I've been waist-deep in continuity research of late, making sure that I don't contradict anything that's gone before. Richard Williams wrote about Sergeant Angeloi in the excellent Orphans of the Kraken - this guy (Angeloi, not Richard) was a dedicated, loyal Scythe who survived the tyranids' attack only to see his Chapter humbled by the play-it-safe actions of Chapter Master Thracian. For speaking out, he was sent off to join the Deathwatch.

And that's where his story ended. Except it didn't.

I love Deathwatch stories - Space Marine special forces, sticking it to the xenos foes of the Imperium (with varying degrees of success) is always a recipe for an exciting tale. One thing I wanted to look at here is the differences between the warriors themselves, all being from different Chapters and having their own traditions and so forth.

Angeloi's not the star of the show, but he certainly makes his point. He didn't ask for this posting, and he's being as polite as possible about going for an early bath. Will we hear from him again? Who knows... the galaxy is a big place.

We've just hit a whopping 35,000 likes on Facebook! Here's a sneak preview of the cover for the forthcoming Horus Heresy title, 'Unremembered Empire'.

 Alpharius wrote:

I haven't listened to the Garro audio dramas (!), but... don't we already know what Garro is going to do, following the Heresy?

Black Library
Quote of the Day:

'I was Yarrick, who had sent the orks fleeing from Hades. I was Yarrick, who killed with an evil eye.'

The Black Library - Yarrick: Chains of Golgotha
www.blacklibrary.com
Pre-order this hardback novella today, exclusively available from blacklibrary.com and Games Workshop.

THE STORY
From the ashes of the Second War of Armageddon a hero of the Imperium emerged. War-torn and bloody, Commissar Yarrick swore vengeance on the beast that escaped his righteous wrath, the despoiler of Armageddon - Ghazghkull Thraka. Tracking down the ork warlord to the desolate world of Golgotha, Yarrick leads an armoured company to destroy the beast but does not reckon on Thraka's cunning. Ambushed, his army all-but destroyed, Yarrick is captured and awakes to find himself aboard the beast's space hulk facing a fate worse than death...

ABOUT THE BOOK
Yarrick: Chains of Golgotha is presented in a premium hardback format and includes full-colour map.

Before we go, we’d just like to share this video of David Annandale’s next release, the Limited Time Edition Mephiston: Lord of Death. You can set a reminder here to make sure you don’t miss out on this fantastic title.

We’ve just reached 36,000 likes on Facebook!

That puts us a mere stone’s throw away from our arbitrary, but thematically pleasing, target of 40,000.
To celebrate, we’re giving you an exclusive downloadable wallpaper for your laptop, mobile device, PC, auspex or communications relay (only compatible with Adeptus Mechanics approved technology).

The artwork is of the rather stunning new Mephiston: Lord of Death, the Limited-Time Edition novella, set to be released in a mere seven days. (Set a reminder)

Having given it a week or so, I figured it was about time I posted some answers to all the questions posed to me as a result of the previous posting. Nosy lot, aren’t you? Ha, ha – just kidding. Thanks for the great response, and I shall do my best to answer everything asked as fully as I can.

Okay then without further ado, here goes:

Q. When does the first book in the Circle of Fire trilogy get released? Does it have a title yet?

It’s still to be confirmed, especially as I’ve been slated to write two novels and a novella beforehand, but I plan to start writing Circle of Fire end of 2013/beginning of 2014 so that could be a late 2014 or early-mid 2015 release. Also yet to be confirmed, but my working title for book one is ‘Rebirth’.

Q. Vulkan Lives. Other than the obvious, what can we expect from this?
Without giving the story away, it’s a two pronged narrative in which a double storyline interweaves with the other. It features several primarchs, most prominently Vulkan and Konrad Kurze, and as such the story examines the relationship between these two characters, chipping away at the psyche of both. There’s the return of some classic characters from the series (not all mine, it has to be said) and very little of the story itself is set on Isstvan V, although the resonance of what happened there does inform e narrative to a large degree. ‘Vulkan Lives’, ‘Scorched Earth’ and ‘Promethean Sun’ all connect. And my final little reveal is that this novel leads in to Dan’s ‘Unremebered Empire’, which directly follows it on the schedule and sets up a major story thread in that book.
Q. Have you given any thought to some sort of a sequel to Fall of Damnos? Any chance of returning to Sicarius and Co?
That’s a definite. Although ‘Fall of Damnos’ was the story I wanted to tell and fulfilled its remit as describing a Space Marine Battle, it always niggled me a bit that there was no time or room to describe the desperate evacuation of the planet and the sacrifices the Second Company had to make when they did so. A return to Damnos is on the cards for the near future.
Q. After The Great Betrayal, what’s your next fantasy project?
That’s an easy one. For my next Warhammer novel, I’ll be returning to the War of Vengeance and following hot on the heels of ‘Master of Dragons’ by Chris Wraight with the third book in the series, currently titled ‘Elfdoom’.

Q. How do you come up with the names for your characters in the Tome of Fire trilogy? As which languages are the source?
I guessed asked this one quite a lot. The simple answer is: I just make them up. Basically, when I was about to write ‘Salamander’ I wanted to find a base I could build the culture around. As the Salamanders and the Nocturneans they live alongside are a tribal culture, I opted for an African naming convention and simply applied my search engine to the task. Knowing the lead characters in advance (I also researched African actors so I could put names to faces and still have their head shots on my old PC to remind me), I went down a massive alphabetical list and selected names that evoked the sense of the character then I 40k’d them up a bit by adding -ON or -EN or -US etc as a suffix to the name. I also plundered Ancient Greek and Roman names, anything from the Classical World, reasoning that the Salamanders Legion originated on Terra and as such they would still have Terran names in some instances. This is where I got characters such as Elysius and Iagon from (although the latter is simply a corruption of the character Iago from ‘Othello’ and was a deliberate homage). Use hard consonants is another technique that gave me some good, strong sounding names like the hard G in Tsu’gan or the hard K in Ba’ken. These characters wouldn’t have had the same resonance, I think, if I’d have opted for lighter consonants or combinations of consonants like TH or S. To my mind, it makes these characters more grounded and earthy, which is precisely what I was going for.
Q. How do you balance between being an editor and a writer? As in when you’re writing does the editor part of you come into the writing process with a greater authority than other writers who are not editors?
It’s that old answer of perfecting the art of wearing two hats. Although, I’d argue that most writers (if not all) have an editor in them, so it’s all part of the same beast. I think the challenge comes when you’re writing that you don’t self edit too soon or too often. I know a lot of writers who get hung up on every little detail, every word and sentence as they are writing and can’t move on to the next one until it’s perfect. This is a good way to drive yourself around the bend and miss deadlines because you’re over obsessing and allowing your internal editor to drive the writer. Best practice for me is to get the words down, the ideas out of my head and committed to the screen and then, when I start the next writing session, read my previous work and do a little editing. I know that I might revisit this passage or chapter several times throughout the writing of the book but that in tackling the edits this way I am still making progress and finessing as I go.

Q. How do you log an idea for yourself? I’m not a writer but often find my mind wondering and get an idea for a cool story, I think about how I should get that down somehow and then quite often I forget and then the idea passes and is lost… I assume this would happen even more for a writer!
Several ways. I have multiple note books of varying degrees of size that I jot ideas, synopses, even entire chapter breakdowns in as sometimes ‘going old skool’ is more conducive to creativity. I also use notes and notepad a lot on my iPad, which has the added advantage that I can email them, and cut and paste my notes directly into Pages or Word to form the basis on a synopsis or pitch etc. My advice: keep a pen and notepad on you at all times!
Q. Are you able to switch off the editor inside and enjoy reading? Are you reading anything for yourself at the moment?
Definitely. I actually don’t find the transition that hard as what I tend to read for pleasure is quite different from what I edit/read for my job (athough that is also a pleasure, just in a different way). Subconsciously, I am always analysing I think. I’m not sure any writer can read without doing this, logging the really nice turns of phrase or trying to figure out what a writer did to create a certain mood or emotional reaction, the way they structured their most memorable and striking characters etc. But, yes, I still enjoy reading. Very much. I’m reading John Connolly’s latest thriller at the moment, ‘Wrath of Angels’, which is excellent (if you scroll down to the bottom of the blog in the Culture Shocks section, I regularly update what I’m reading, gaming, writing, listening to etc). I’ve also got Scott Synder’s ‘Vodoo Heart’ and Danie Ware’s ‘Ecko Rising’ on my read next list/pile.
Q. Do you have a favourite Non-Superhero related comicbook series that you have read?
I don’t actually. All the comic book stuff I read is super hero-based. I am loving Scott Synder’s run on Batman and have been picking up that, the Death of the Family tie-ins and Geoff Johns run on Aquaman, as well as Justice League. I’ve got a few Marvel Now titles, including X-Men and Avengers but have yet to read them, they’re just on my iPad. I ‘enjoyed’ Preacher a few years back, which I suppose is non-super hero (though there are forces and beings in that which have powers not unlike super heroes) and I’ve read a bit of ‘The Boys’, which subverts (and perverts in some instances) the super hero genre. Any recommendations?
Q. Any news of a Salamander Omnibus and perhaps with maps and extra stuff?
An omnibus is on the cards. I’m keen for it not to include everything I’ve done thus far, but it will have the three novels and the stories that tie in directly to the Tome of Fire, so there’ll be some hold-overs from ‘Tome of Fire’, the anthology (but not all) and I want to write a long short story that pre-figures ‘Fires of War’ too. Current working title in my head for that is ‘Dragonborn’. I’d also like to include a Nocturne map and a glossary of names and terms, perhaps even a timeline that shows where the events sit in the 40k chronology.
Q. Vulkan lives : As the author can you choose, or decide what will be on the cover? (I hope of an official draw of Vulkan , even if I think he’s the more diffcult to be done.)
For the ‘Vulkan Lives’ cover I was very lucky in that Black Library has an incredible artist in the form of Neil Roberts who does all the cover work. Like with ‘Scorched Earth’, Neil and I discussed what should be on the cover, what scene it would depict and how it would interact with ‘Scorched Earth’ too, which is really a companion piece to the novel. There will be an illustration of Vulkan (the first ever, I believe). In fact, it’s already done and can say that it’s amazing.
Q. Can you talk about working with other author and using their stuff in your story? In the same way what’s your feelings when they use your material? Have you ever told to a collegue that he has a wrong viewpoint on your stuff?
As the Horus Heresy and, to a lesser extent, the 40k setting is a shared universe there are a lot of occasions when authors will be using the same characters, running with ideas set up by someone else in order to keep the story going. Until recently, I’ve not used characters created by other authors before, but I have written stories about Chapters (Ultramarines, spring to mind). In the case of characters, there’s an inherent pressure that you don’t want to undermine what another author has written and stay true to how they have potrayed a certain character, but you also don’t want to feel so inhibited that you can’t develop them and add to them. Research and the right amount of respect is important here, as well as regular communication and full disclosure to the other writer. Ultimately, it’s the call of the publisher who does what, with whom and when, but good working relationships and professionalism is predicated on courtesy I think. It’s certainly a fun challenge, but I think, ultimately, I prefer to use my own characters and work with the strands and story threads that I’ve developed personally. Fortunately, I work with an extremely talented and professional group of writers, so I’ve never needed to query why another author has developed one of my ideas in a way that I didn’t agree with.

Q. Finally what about working with your translator in foreign language? Especially the French translator.
I actually don’t get to interact with my translators much, which is a shame, as most of this is handled by Black Library’s French editor. I was fortunate enough to meet my translators recently at French GD and we were able to chat a little bit about their work, but contact is usually confined to the odd emailed question about a particular term or ocassionally my intent in a certain sentence or passage of text.
Q. Have you thought of doing a story ( or short ) on bray’arth ashmantle? He is a 1 of a kind dreadnaught, who got lost for 9 days…I think that’s more than enough time for stuff to go down and some really sick action to occur.
He’d be a great character to write about. I did pen a synopsis for a story involving Bray’arth but decided to shelve it for later, so I might revisit it at some point in the future.
Q. Are you wanting the new Rocksteady Batman game to be a prequel (like they’ve rumored) or are you itching for something bigger and better ?
Ha, ha – if it’s as good as the previous two games, I honestly don’t mind. Although, something like ‘Arkham Underworld’ would be cool that incorporates the entire Gotham City.
Q. Nick, i want to ask a question. Do you plan to write and publish new story about Primarch Vulkan? Prometean Sun was excellent, and can’t wait for new Vulkan stories
I sure do. Check out the first answer regards ‘Vulkan Lives’… (I’ve also already written another novella called ‘Scorched Earth’ too – Vulkan’s not it, but he’s an important presense in the story).
Q. Recently, I reread The Burning. And I wondered if N’Bel is ‘Vulkan’s N’Bel’ or just a guy named that way. And, is the Metalshaper in that story Vulkan? I could never decide.
Ah, ‘The Burning’. Well, this is of course a story about Dak’ir’s vision quest, his trial to see if he can control his newfound psychic powers, so a lot of what he sees and experiences is impression and the product of his subconscious mind. I can say that N’bel is Vulkan’s N’bel, his father but that the identity of the metal-shaper shall remain a mystery. What do you think? I take it you figured out the drygnirr was Pyriel?

Q. In your HH writing, will we ever see Vulkan wielding/planning/making/thinking about his relics? Or the Tome of Fire?
Possibly and yes.
Q. Can you tell us about Vulkan Lives a wee bit more please?
See above…
Q. Any idea when the first Circle of Fire novel will be out?
Same with this one…
Q. What is Ignea? Where is it? In what way are the Igneans different from the ‘normal’ Nocturneans? It seems Dak’ir is lighter skinned than the inhabitants of the Sanctuary Cities, is that because the Igneans are ethnically different?
Ignea is an underground realm of caves that runs throughout much of Nocturne. Given the planet’s volatile nature, areas of this vast cave system are periodically uninhabitable, hence the nomadic nature of Igneans. Dak’ir’s skin is lighter because he is not exposed to the sun like the Nocturneans that live above ground in the Sanctuary Cities, and, yes, Igneans are ethnically different, just as Nocturneans from the various Sanctuary Cities are too.
Q. I’ve been wondering about that for really long: what’s with the apostrophes in some of the Nocturnean names? Do they signify a sound like a glottal stop, or… (I’m probably over-thinking that.)
Also, more importantly, is Dak’ir Sailor Nocturne?
It’s partly affectation and because a lot of African root names have apostrophe’s in them so it helped convey the sense of tribal culture I was aiming for. The apostrophe’s are also intended to show where the emphasis of certain letters are in the Salamander’s names (but aren’t intended as a glottal stop). For instance, ‘Dak’ir’ is pronounced, ‘Dak-eer’ with a hard letter K and ‘Ba’ken’, ‘Ba-ken’ with a short A and a hard K. ‘Tsu’gan’ is ‘Soo-gan’ with a silent T, long U and a hard G. The apostrophes are really there to reinforce and aid with pronunciation.
As for the sailor thing… huh?

We’ve decided to post an extra blog today, as this marks our 600th blog on blacklibrary.com.

We wanted to share something truly titanic to mark this special occasion. We think this fits the bill nicely:

This is Neil Roberts’s latest piece of Horus Heresy art and will grace the cover of a forthcoming audio drama called Honour to the Dead, written by Gav Thorpe.

We’re sure that you’ll agree that Neil Roberts has created another modern masterpiece. We particularly like how palpable the impact is of the massive power fist smashing the titan’s face, and the genuine look of fear as the citizens run screaming from the battle.

While we try to remain informative and professional in our daily blog posts, you may have noticed that we like to have a little fun now and again. Often, this involves a terrible pun in the title. Here’s a list of our top ten:

10. Comic Con-gratulations – On Nathan Long winning a Scribe award at San Diego Comic Con.

09. Warning! Contains Scenes of Graphic Violence – On the announcement of Horus Heresy graphic novels.

08. Happ Ebirthday – Celebrating two years of Hammer and Bolter

07. The Die is Caste – A preview of the Fire Caste artwork

06. The Book Everyone’s ‘Been Raven’ About – Talking about the release of The Unkindness of Ravens

05. A ‘Kraken’ Blog Post – Chris Wraight talking about his short story Kraken.

04. Day ‘Elven’ – On the eleventh day of our birthday celebrations, our story was Gilead’s Craft by Nik Vincent.

03. Extra, Extra, The New York Times Knows No Fear! – Announcing Know No Fear becoming a New York Times bestseller.

02. Green Is The New Black – On the release of Gav Thorpe’s Ravenwing.

01. We’ve Ben Counter-ing Down The Days Till This Release – On the release of Phalanx by Ben Counter.

We hope you’ve enjoyed our posts over the last few years and that you will continue to do so. We definitely will, and we’re already thinking up new and increasingly awful puns for the titles...

We’ll have another blog for you later today as David Annandale talks about Mephiston: Lord of Death, our next Limited-Time Edition novella, which goes on sale tomorrow.

Posted by The Black Library Team

Rick_1138 wrote:
Looking forward to ordering the mephiston book, im a sucker for fancy editions

Here's another picture of 'Mephiston: Lord of Death', this time showing the fold out art section, one side of which shows the cover art in all it's glorious detail, while the other side shows a selection of Mephiston's wargear.

NEW TITLES AVAILABLE TO PRE-ORDER

We’ve got a quick afternoon update for you today before it’s all hands to the pump for the launch of ‘Mephiston: Lord of Death’ this evening.

Our February releases are now available to pre-order and we’ve got some great titles this month, even if we do say so ourselves.

irst up, there’s David Annandale’s Space Marine Battles novel, The Death of Antagonis. This sees the sinister Black Dragons Space Marine Chapter go to war against the victims of a plague of undeath that is sweeping the planet of Antagonis. Assisted by the Sisters of Battle and Inquisitor Werner Lettinger, these champions of humanity are all that stands in the way of the Dark Gods’ victory.

In our next title, we return to the shadowy realm of Commorragh with the second book in Andy Chambers’s dark eldar path series, Path of the Incubus. The dark city reels in the face of a cataclysmic Dysjunction, with only a disgraced incubus warrior standing in the way of its total annihilation.

Next, fans of Gotrek and Felix will be delighted as we add another new adventure to the Slayer’s saga, in the form of David Guymer’s audio drama, Gotrek and Felix: Curse of the Everliving. We’ve also got the new edition of Gotrek and Felix: The Third Omnibus, which features new artwork, an updated Gazetteer and several short stories.

Finally, we have Ben Counter’s first foray into the world of Warhammer with Van Horstmann. This tells the tale of a promising Imperial wizard’s fall from grace as he turns to worshipping the Dark Gods and plans to release a two-headed dragon imprisoned beneath the College of Light.

Pre-order these titles today and be among the first to read them.

The Black Dragons date from the so-called ‘Cursed Founding’ of Space Marines and this has left its mark on these loyal sons of the Emperor. Literally. Twisted horns and vicious bone spikes protrude from their bodies, but these Space Marines have learned to adapt what others may consider heretical mutations into tools for dispensing Imperial justice.

David Annandale’s new Space Marine Battles novel, The Death of Antagonis, highlights the duality of this Chapter. Even as they struggle valiantly to rid a world of an insidious Chaos taint, wading knee-deep in the bodies of fallen cultists and plague victims, they are constantly under the suspicious gaze of the Inquisition and the Adepta Sororitas, desperate to prove that some taint exists among the Chapter.

As with all Space Marine Battles novels, The Death of Antagonis contains a full colour map section and some evocative art pieces. In this particular case, Rhys Pugh has done some fantastic work portraying these fearsome warriors. You can see why there might be some doubt about their loyalty, mind you.
The tattoos and scars on their arms hint at the less than salubrious backgrounds these warriors may have had before their indoctrination into the Adeptus Astartes. The terrifying mutations that their enhancement has wracked on their bodies have become almost a badge of honour for these Space Marines, and they now modify their armour to allow them to use these retractable blades in combat.

A RETURN TO RYNN'S WORLD

With Black Library Live 2013 looming ever closer, we thought we’d reveal one of the exciting new products that will be exclusively available at this and other Black Library events this year. Traitor’s Gorge is a Space Marine Battles story by Mike Lee, and is the first in a new range of event-exclusive novellas that will only be available at Black Library sales stands. That’s right – you won’t even be able to buy Traitor’s Gorge from blacklibrary.com

The book is a hardback novella, complete with hardcover in the colours of the Crimson Fists Chapter, a dustjacket featuring cover artwork by Clint Langley, and a colour section containing everything you’d expect from a Space Marine Battles title, including a campaign map and beautiful character portraits by Sam Lamont. Not only that, but each copy is numbered and we’re only printing 1,000. And with the story being exclusive to this format for at least a year, this is a seriously collectable artefact.

Packed with action, Traitor’s Gorge sheds new light on a piece of lore from Codex: Space Marines. Here’s what it’s about:

It has been half a year since the Crimson Fists were laid low by the invasion of their home world and the loss of their fortress-monastery. In that time, Chapter Master Pedro Kantor has led his battle-brothers in the fight to reclaim their planet from the greenskin menace that plagues them still.

On a mission to wipe a pocket of aliens in the Jaden Mountains, Kantor and his small band of warriors find that the orks have gathered around an influential leader and are greater in number than the beleaguered Space Marines could ever have imagined. Vastly outnumbered and surrounded by the foe, the Crimson Fists prepare to sell their lives dearly in the name of their world, their primarch and their Chapter.

But help is at hand from a most unexpected source…

To secure your copy of Traitor’s Gorge, come along to any of the Black Library events this summer. Check out the events page for details and sign up to our newsletter to make sure you have the most up to date information on where we’ll be.

If you want to be among the first to get your hands on the novella, pick up your ticket for Black Library Live 2013 here.

 jonolikespie wrote:
Wait they are putting artwork in their books now? Are they determined to drop normal novels all together?

The mass-market paperback will be released 6 months after the trade paperback, which means 'Angel Exterminatus' will be out in June this year.