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

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**Just Dave**

Agreed, I admit E-reader's are more practice, but I simply prefer a book; just the feel and 'image'. It's relaxing to me.

**BrookM**

As do I prefer dead trees and ground down animals over bits and bytes, but I am weak. So weak.

**Pyriel-**

You do realize that the clades are not that old as of then yes yes? So no, they aren't like they are in 40k YET.

A very good point that I actually didnt thought of. My hat of to you sir.

However, even after considering this I am not entirely swayed.
lets talk logics here:

The Imperium, even pre heresy, wasnt known for caving in to human rights and such things, any super assassin training would be of the most brutal kind imagined, this was inforced in the book by at least one of the assassins being "recruited" as a child and trained from there.

Spoiler:

**reds8n**

one is wasted killing of small crime war lords in a bordello etc etc.

err.. it's a bit more than that if you read it again.

The symbols in the graffiti yes ?

**Flachzange**

reds8n wrote:
one is wasted killing of small crime war lords in a bordello etc etc.

err.. it's a bit more than that if you read it again.

The symbols in the graffiti yes ?

that and the uuhh, unsanctioned psyker bodyguard

You need some influence for that Id assume.
That guy wasnt as harmless as one might presume him to be.

**reds8n**

Cross wires here I think..

Spoiler:

**Alpharius**

Plus one of these yahoos was responsible for

Spoiler:

**Pyriel-**

There was already a well established specialist organisation for warfare and handling of unsanctioned psychers called the Sisters of Silence!
No need to waste a culexus on a little rouge psycher. Alpha grade I would understand but this?

**Flachzange**

Pyriel- wrote:There was already a well established specialist organisation for warfare and handling of unsanctioned psychers called the Sisters of Silence!
No need to waste a culexus on a little rouge psycher. Alpha grade I would understand but this?

She wasnt sent for the psycher, but the psycher employer

**Alpharius**

OK, so I'm a bit behind in some of my BL reading, but I just finished reading "Legends of the Space Marines", a short story collection about, well...
Anyway, for the most part, OK.

Really liked some, some were just 'meh'.

Aaron Dembski-Bowden's story was good and it made me realize a few things:

1) I don't think he really likes Loyalist Marines. Traitor Marines, yes. Loyal, no.

2) I have a new found respect for the Flesh Tearers Chapter after being reminded of their actions on Armageddon/Gaius Point, and thereafter. I was going to resist the urge to do a BA army when they received a new codex, but now I am seriously considering doing up a FT force.

3) A hope A D-B gets to write something from a Loyalist point of view in the HH series. I think he could do really good work when set free of the shackles of the Traitor Legions pre and especially post-heresy, who really are a whiny bunch, all things considered.

**Just Dave**

Alpharius wrote:3) A hope A D-B gets to write something in the HH series. And something from a Loyalist point of view too. I think he could do really good work when set free of the shackles of the Traitor Legions post-heresy, who really are a whiny bunch, all things considered.

He's writing The First Heretic but obviously thats from a traitor PoV...

**Alpharius**

I fixed my post before you replied, because I remembered about THE FIRST HERETIC.

Which, by the way, is all about the freakin' poster boy of Whiny Primarchs and how he and he's freakin' legion screwed it up for everyone!

Still, I know it will be a good read!

**reds8n**

..he writes a fight scene between Corax and Lorgar in the book apparently :

And there he stood at the heart of the killing fields, winged and haloed by amorphous contrails of psychic fire, shouting his brother's name into the storm.

Corax answered with a shriek of his own – the call of the betrayer, the cry of the betrayed – and the raven met the heretic in a clash of crozius and claw.

One of his short stories..in the next HH anthology IIRC, is a DA vs. NL tale.

**Alpharius**

reds8n wrote:..he writes a fight scene between Corax and Lorgar in the book apparently :

And there he stood at the heart of the killing fields, winged and haloed by amorphous contrails of psychic fire, shouting his brother's name into the storm.

Corax answered with a shriek of his own – the call of the betrayer, the cry of the betrayed – and the raven met the heretic in a clash of crozius and claw.

One of his short stories..in the next HH anthology IIRC, is a DA vs. NL tale.

Um, awesome!

Of course, given A D-B's heretical leanings, I'm guessing Corax will get the short end of the stick here too, but whatever, at least it is some fact time for RG, finally!

**Pyriel-**

1) I don't think he really likes Loyalist Marines. Traitor Marines, yes. Loyal, no.

So true, he kills of dozens of loyalists for every traitor while the traitors themselves take down titans one for one. Made me quite frankly disgusted after a while for all the obvious lack of balance since it is a breaking of a basic rule of good story writing and the guy is supposed to be a professional writer. He has lots to learn from the likes of Kyme.

But the person really taking the bias price is A. Reynolds.

**BrookM**

Traitors have about ten millennia of experience, I like to think that weighs in their favour a wee bit. Plus the fight against the Warhound was nice.

A D-B did do a short about Crimson Fists, but it was kinda bleh IMHO because they were still very young (in their early 20's) and already full-fledged Astartes, one even a Chaplain!

**Pyriel-**

Traitors have about ten millennia of experience, I like to think that weighs in their favour a wee bit. Plus the fight against the Warhound was nice.

Bummer but it was explained in the very same biased book as having been in-reality a hundred years just so that one doesnt fly.

**BrookM**

Right, if it bothers you so much, stop reading them then?

**Pyriel-**

Yes right, unfortunately it cannot be explained away by the traitors having 10k years experience since the book clearly stated that for them (night lords) it has just gone 100 years.
Making them veterans according to SM standards.

And no, unfortunately I cant and wont stop reading since I´m always on the lookout for good fluff and a good read (and I cant tell if its good unless I read it) and secondly I´m a fluff junkie

**ThirdUltra**

Traitors have about ten millennia of experience, I like to think that weighs in their favour a wee bit.

And that's very debatable considering that being in the warp only affects the passage of time within it, meaning time passes more slowly than in the material plane.
Just because a thousand years pass in the Imperium, it does not equate the same to the warp-based legions; it could be a hundred years to them or less.

Thus, their 'experience' is very negligible....

However, back OT; regardless of the embedded loyalist-hate with ADB, I sure like his Night lord stuff.....very fitting for them!

**reds8n**

Not BL as such, but still of interest..

http://angryrobotbooks.com/2010/08/the-crown-of-the-blood-out-next-thursday/

**Bloodthirster**

I just read Nemesis and thought it was pretty good. It showed us about the Imperium that time, and proved that while Horus was ruthless he wasn't yet entirely evil. Oh and anoter thing;

Valdor = Heretic

I'am sure of it! He egged on Russ to slaughter Magnus and noe all this sneaking about with the assasin clade. Hmmm heretic me thinks, oh and another thing I think he was the one who did what everyone else seems to think Dorn did if you catch my drift.

**warboss**

Bloodthirster wrote: It showed us about the Imperium that time, and proved that while Horus was ruthless he wasn't yet entirely evil YET. Oh and anoter thing;

i fixed your post. i'm pretty sure by the time he psychically and physically tried to inflict as much pain as possible on his favorite brother from the litter, sanguinius, before killing him he was pretty much entirely evil.

proving that the imperium has evil within it working FOR the emperor doesn't make chaos any more noble or less evil.

**Bloodfrenzy187**

I cant wait to see a BA HH book. I wonder how long that will take?

**Bloodthirster**

warboss wrote:
Bloodthirster wrote: It showed us about the Imperium that time, and proved that while Horus was ruthless he wasn't yet entirely evil YET. Oh and anoter thing;

i fixed your post. i'm pretty sure by the time he psychically and physically tried to inflict as much pain as possible on his favorite brother from the litter, sanguinius, before killing him he was pretty much entirely evil. proving that the imperium has evil within it working FOR the emperor doesn't make chaos any more noble or less evil.

Thankyou kind sir.

**BrookM**

Upcoming Print on Demand title for September will be WAR UNENDING, a anthology of "the best Warhammer Fantasy stories from the past decade, including a new Mordheim story by Darius Hinks." Thirteen quid.

**Dead Blue Clown**

I've lurked here for ages, but was reluctant to add it to the list of forums I already post on. However, Pyriel annoyed me enough to break that trend.

But first!

Alpharius wrote:Aaron Dembski-Bowden's story was good and it made me realize a few things:

1) I don't think he really likes Loyalist Marines. Traitor Marines, yes. Loyal, no.

Negatory. I like them equally. I mean, I wrote Helsreach and a Flesh Tearers story. I want to do a Grey Knights series, too. There's a difference between exploring the interesting flaws and downsides of something, and not liking it at all. My favourite Legion/Chapter is the Flesh Tearers. But that doesn't affect what I write, really.

Alpharius wrote:
reds8n wrote:..he writes a fight scene between Corax and Lorgar in the book apparently :

And there he stood at the heart of the killing fields, winged and haloed by amorphous contrails of psychic fire, shouting his brother's name into the storm.

Corax answered with a shriek of his own – the call of the betrayer, the cry of the betrayed – and the raven met the heretic in a clash of crozius and claw.

One of his short stories..in the next HH anthology IIRC, is a DA vs. NL tale.

Um, awesome!

Of course, given A D-B's heretical leanings, I'm guessing Corax will get the short end of the stick here too, but whatever, at least it is some fact time for RG, finally!

Bear in mind my own Night Lords series is about them barely surviving and getting their heads kicked in all the time. I don't really think I have any leanings, one way or the other. It's not about liking something and making them look better than anyone else (which is something I've barely ever seen my stuff accused of, thankfully), it's about covering the angles of the lore. For example, if Corax was a better fighter than Lorgar, then he'd be in it to win it, as far as I'm concerned. It's not me liking Lorgar best and deciding the Raven Guard suck. (Besides, I like the Raven Guard a lot. That's why they're the Chapter with the mention in my first novel.)

See, the issue with this thinking is that a few people can start to see things in bizarre ways. They can assume because you're writing about X, then you love X and despise Y, and suddenly you use a writing career as a way of making Y look bad. But it's sorta nonsense, and leads to situations like this:

Pyriel- wrote:
1) I don't think he really likes Loyalist Marines. Traitor Marines, yes. Loyal, no.

So true, he kills of dozens of loyalists for every traitor...

This is beyond exaggeration and balls-deep into lying, sorry. You're thinking, I assume, of the one time any Night Lords met Blood Angels, in Soul Hunter?

Spoiler:

And that was against half a Tactical Squad and a Dreadnought. So, y'know, get it right, yo. As for them "killing a Titan" it becomes much easier to understand when it's only a Warhound, and they had

Spoiler:

, too.

But by all means, keep making stuff up.

**Kanluwen**

Hooray! We now get Dembski-Bowden shenanigans!

I still want to see "In Midnight Clad", Aaron. *shakes fist*

**Lord of battles**

First Wright, now Dembski-Bowden, this is becoming my favorite thread of all time

Aaron, please continue the excellent work!

**Apostle Pat**

legoburner wrote:I have returned from Gamesfest 04 and attended both of the black library panels there and have a few things of note to share that I have not seen mentioned here before. They had a guy on hand to prevent them leaking spoilers so not too much in the way of juicy info I'm afraid.

Sandy Mitchell is working on a new Commissar Cain novel which is set in a space hulk and will be the first book in another set of 3 hopefully. (Set in a space hulk so he could buy a copy of Space Hulk and claim it back against tax he claims )

James Swallow is writing the next HH book after Thousand Sons/Prospero Burns and it is titled Nemesis and will be about assassins, with very little space marines stuff, in which

Spoiler:

a 'major character' dies.

On the question of how many books there would be, James Swallow said there would be 666 books, then Graham McNeil said there would be around a million. He then joked it would be blogged and on warseer so I thought I'd post this imaginary rumour here on dakka first so we can pip warseer and bols to the post on that one... nyah nyah

It was hinted that a massive ultramarines arc is planned for the HH series written by multiple authors. I think they hinted at 3 books but my memory got fuzzy on the drive home through endless traffic jams.

Thousand sons and Prospero Burns are written to be extremely integrated and many elements of the books go back and forth between the two, linking them extremely closely. From Graham's description it sounds like each one will need to be read twice to get the most out of them which sounds good value considering we have to wait for so long for them!

The Horus Heresy panel also hinted at a MASSIVE twist that will "blow everyone's minds". However they could not comment on it further but were visibly brimming with excitement, stating loads of ideas have been going around, and said it will turn the whole 40k universe around a bit. Begin Internet conjecture....

Finally, when asked their personal opinion if GW will ever release any Warhammer 30k stuff, the general opinion was no as the design studio is very focused on 40k, lotr and WHFB. It was suggested that it would not be too hard for them to do such a thing, but that is was not very likely and even a simple apocalypse add on for it would probably be asking too much (again all this was just opinion as Black Library is a separate entity).

you sir have got me totally pumped for all these books, for that I give you 1 million internetz.