Black library news and rumours (including Horus Heresy stuff)...

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**Lint**

I'm really impressed with his integration of the Raptor cult into the legion. It makes sense, and the raptors themselvesare interesting little guys.

**reds8n**

~~having nothing better to do~~ .. err... being a busy chap Mr. Demski-Bowden has also done an interview relating to his books, which you can watch on his blog .

Some slight spoilers there so.. etc etc.

Oh and some slightly bad language. Nothing too bad though, worry not.

..."mini Dan Abnett"...

man, I'm going to remember that one for the future.

Automatically Appended Next Post:
nice little teaser/taster for The Outcast Dead .

"Sounds" most promising indeed.

**reds8n**

Mr. Swallow also did an interview at Salute as you can see here : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oyOfDoa8qME

**Pacific**

reds8n wrote:~~having nothing better to do~~ .. err... being a busy chap Mr. Demski-Bowden has also done an interview relating to his books, which you can watch on his blog .

Some slight spoilers there so.. etc etc.

Oh and some slightly bad language. Nothing too bad though, worry not.

..."mini Dan Abnett"... man, I'm going to remember that one for the future.

Automatically Appended Next Post:
nice little teaser/taster for The Outcast Dead .

"Sounds" most promising indeed.

Great, thanks for that!

I thought it was going to be a unification-era story going by the marine's armour on the cover, although it doesn't look like that will be the case.

**reds8n**

From the BL site today

Promethean fun

The first copies of Promethean Sun, the first Horus Heresy novella, is back from the printers. We’re ridiculously excited by the sample copies and wanted to share our excitement with you.

We talked in previous blog posts about the unique faux-Salamander hide binding on this gorgeous hardback tome, and we’re delighted at how it turned out. As you can see above, it looks absolutely brilliant, and the gold title box works superbly stamped on the dark green cover.

Speaking of stamping, have you ever wondered how 3,000 books get individually numbered?

We bet that Nick Kyme, the book’s author, wishes he could have stamped his signature on every copy rather than individually signing each one. By the time he was finished, he couldn’t feel his hand any more...how we laughed (when he wasn’t looking).

And here is the finished product. Promethean Sun will be shipping over the next couple of weeks, so it won’t be long until you have it in your eager hands. In the meantime, why not check out “Forgotten Sons”, Nick’s short story in Age of Darkness, featuring a character who also appears in Promethean Sun.

Age of Darkness is available as an eBook or audiobook as well as a mass-market paperback, and the eBook and audiobook of “Forgotten Sons” is also available individually.

You may remember that in the days following Promethean Sun’s launch, our systems went a little haywire as they tried to cope with the demand. Well, now that the stock-servitors have been rebooted, we have found that of the 3,000 copies of Promethean Sun that have been printed, we have 400 remaining.

These copies will not be made available through the website, but will instead be sold at events and shows in the near future, giving people who might not have been able to purchase through the website one last chance at getting this fantastic volume.

We will announce which events, and how many copies will be available at them, on Monday. See you then.

Good news for those not blessed to live in the land of eternal weather and tea. Perhaps.

I wonder if "The Aurelian" will sell as quickly as/when that one comes out ?

Certainly looks nice anyway, looking forwards to getting my grubby mitts on my copy.

**BrookM**

Here's hoping they start shipping soon.

**reds8n**

IIRC they start shipping this weekend.

**reds8n**

http://fourthdayuniverse.com/reports/2011/04/first-annual-fourth-day-universe-awards-literature-edition-media-tie-in-category/

A few BL novels have been put forwards for awards here. Choose wisely !

Whilst I enjoyed them all, of those I have to vote for The First Heretic.

**BrookM**

First Heretic hands down, the others are no-go except for that Cain novel, still need to read it.

**Just Dave**

Yeah, I had to go for the First Heretic too, great novel. I've just started re-reading it whilst I wait for Age of Darkness to show up... *grumble*

**dantay_xv**

Age of Darkness is quite good, just finished the Story of Little Horus.....

Rebirth is very good..... a little teaser at the end methinks ..... although it is quite blatant as to be false.

**BrassScorpion**

Black Library is now reprinting Iron Hands on demand. I looked at reviews on Amazon and they are hilarious in talking about how bad the book is. Apparently, this book does for 40K novels what the Beast Of Yucca Flats did for SF/horror movies.
http://www.blacklibrary.com/Exclusive-Products/Print-on-Demand/iron-hands.html

Darkblade is also back in print, on demand.

**BrookM**

Green isn't an author fondly remembered, though I did like his first Armageddon novel. Never did get to read the second one. However, he is not Goto or Soulban bad.

**Temujin**

My copy of Promethean Sun has been dispatched

**reds8n**

Hmm, indeed. My account lists it as "fully shipped" as well.

Good, good.

**Alpharius**

Yes.

Good For You.

:(

**BrookM**

Mine is still listed as acknowledged, so I'm going to pout as well.

**Padre**

dantay_xv wrote:Age of Darkness is quite good, just finished the Story of Little Horus.....

Rebirth is very good..... a little teaser at the end methinks ..... although it is quite blatant as to be false.

I didn't actually "get" the teaser... what did it refer to? I presume you mean

Spoiler:

Padre^.

**dantay_xv**

Yes and

Spoiler:

Just my semi heretical ramblings.

**BrookM**

My expensive and painful purchase has been marked as shipped, slightly less pouty now.

**Balance**

I thought a big hint of a Thousand Suns/Blood Ravens was

Spoiler:

...But I would be amazed if I was the only one to notice this.

**Temujin**

It doesn't really bring us closer to knowing how they were founded though.

Spoiler:

**Kanluwen**

And as has been debunked multiple multiple times: there's no other similarities between the Thousand Sons and Blood Ravens. Two of the Thousand Sons cults were named for bird types. The Raptora and Corvidae.

That doesn't mean that the Thousand Sons are responsible for the Raptor Chapter, now does it?

**dantay_xv**

True, was just putting a thought out there. Blood Ravens having the Thousand Sun prehersy colours, the link with the last survivor being a raven, and the quote at the end of the story being 'knowledge is power', which is a Blood Raven phrase. Could it be possible that the thousand son becomes a grey knight?
All chapters submit geneseed for testing, i do not know if that is a result of the heresy, or a practice which began at the outset of the astartes creation. This could be used to create a new chapter. Also it is possible that he underwent great trials to prove his genes are pure enough to be used. The main stumbling block is that the blood ravens appear several millenia after the heresy.. However the 1000 son geneseed could have been used and replicated in gene vats during this time to make it viable.
There is also a hint in rebirth that his ship was part of a fleet, could they have been troops Magnus felt were disloyal to him? Could they also aid in the creation of another chapter if found pure enough?

This may all have debunked or be a bit Goto-ish, but i am just curious to know where this story may lead.

**Kanluwen**

Traitor Geneseed was locked away in a vault only the Emperor can open.

So...that's not it.
The Blood Ravens colors also aren't the same as the Thousand Sons.
Thousand Sons used a darker red closer to the Word Bearers, Blood Ravens use a color closer to the Red Hunters or Blood Angels(which they're also not related to by any measure).

Best guess is they're an Imperial Fists Successor. The whole 'many psyker' thing is because they actively sought out to recruit psykers.

**odmiller**

Kanluwen wrote:Traitor Geneseed was locked away in a vault only the Emperor can open.

So...that's not it.
The Blood Ravens colors also aren't the same as the Thousand Sons.
Thousand Sons used a darker red closer to the Word Bearers, Blood Ravens use a color closer to the Red Hunters or Blood Angels(which they're also not related to by any measure).

Best guess is they're an Imperial Fists Successor. The whole 'many psyker' thing is because they actively sought out to recruit psykers.

Actually, the theory hasn't been debunked at all. Some people just don't like it because' "it would never happen."

However, the Black Library, through the Dawn of War series, beat you over the head with evidence for the Thousand Sons origin. It's almost overwhelming. And then A Thousand Sons caps it all off. I don't blame you if you've decided not to read the Dawn of War stuff, but you'd be incredibly hard pressed come away with any other conclusion if you did. And Imperial Fists are definitely right out for reasons explained below. Basically, whether you like it or not, the Black Library, and therefore GW, have decided the Blood Ravens are decended from the Thousand Sons.

Here is the trail of evidence:

Spoiler:

It's a lot more than a Raven name and red armor. I haven't read the short story collection yet, but I think at this point the Black Library has made it very clear where the origins of the Blood Ravens lie.

**Kanluwen**

I, like pretty much all of the Black Library authors at this point, ignore the Dawn of War novels.

C.S. Goto is a hack and was making crap up as he was going along. Towards the end, it seemed like he was trying to slip in as much as he could just to irk 40k fans.

Want to know another Legion that has a high number of Librarians and a thirst for knowledge?

The Dark Angels.
What do the Dark Angels have? The Ravenwing.

MIND BLOWN.

Part of the problem is that people think that "high numbers of psykers"="high numbers of librarians".
Not every psyker is Librarian grade. Just because an individual is somewhat psychically aware doesn't mean that they're actually able to use it, and the Blood Ravens have further been elaborated as actually having recruited from a psychically charged world at one point. That's what led to them having a large amount of Librarians at one point.
Prospero was far from unique in being a 'world of psykers'. The issue is that worlds like that rarely end well.

Furthermore:
If the Blood Ravens were part of the Thousand Sons, then they wouldn't exist right now. They'd have been affected by the Rubric of Ahriman and would be nothing more than animated suits of armor.

And that quote has really been blown out of proportion. It could be related to anything, not just "Thousand Sons=Blood Ravens!".

**odmiller**

Kanluwen wrote:I, like pretty much all of the Black Library authors at this point, ignore the Dawn of War novels.

C.S. Goto is a hack and was making crap up as he was going along. Towards the end, it seemed like he was trying to slip in as much as he could just to irk 40k fans.

Want to know another Legion that has a high number of Librarians and a thirst for knowledge?

The Dark Angels.
What do the Dark Angels have? The Ravenwing.

MIND BLOWN.

Part of the problem is that people think that "high numbers of psykers"="high numbers of librarians".
Not every psyker is Librarian grade. Just because an individual is somewhat psychically aware doesn't mean that they're actually able to use it, and the Blood Ravens have further been elaborated as actually having recruited from a psychically charged world at one point. That's what led to them having a large amount of Librarians at one point.
Prospero was far from unique in being a 'world of psykers'. The issue is that worlds like that rarely end well.

Furthermore:
If the Blood Ravens were part of the Thousand Sons, then they wouldn't exist right now. They'd have been affected by the Rubric of Ahriman and would be nothing more than animated suits of armor.

And that quote has really been blown out of proportion. It could be related to anything, not just "Thousand Sons=Blood Ravens!".

Well, just because you ignore the Dawn of War novels, doesn't mean they weren't produced, edited, and vetted through the Black Library. If all you take out of those novels is that Goto was trying to say the Blood Ravens were decended from the Thousand Sons, then it's a huge stretch to say that the references in A Thousand Sons are mere coincidence. In fact, the three major points of evidence (see previous post for spoilers) in A Thousand Sons were all written in for a reason. None of them advanced the story being told. None of them were key to the novel. All of them were written in for a different reason, as the "aha" moments we find in all the HH novels.

You could take them as meaningless if A Thousand Sons stood alone, but given the storyline entire trilogy of Dawn of War novels, and given that the BL Authors at least know of what has come before, it's very hard to believe they were just dropped in the story for no apparent reason.

**Kanluwen**

Except they weren't 'vetted' by Black Library.

They are the reason for the current vetting of novels.

Automatically Appended Next Post:
I should also point out that the author of "A Thousand Sons" dropped the hints purposefully and made a huge note that "Prophecies about something aren't always told to someone just because they're involved".

You've still to refute the whole "If they were related to the Thousand Sons, why are they not spirits trapped in armor" bit though.

**1hadhq**

Kanluwen wrote:

The Blood Ravens colors also aren't the same as the Thousand Sons.

Best guess is they're an Imperial Fists Successor. The whole 'many psyker' thing is because they actively sought out to recruit psykers.

Hint: Age of Darkness / Rebirth

The Sgt that fled was a T-Son and he wasn't in the same realm as the T-sons who were affected by the rubric.
Maybe he wasn't the only one to survive......