Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Are you talking about book stores? This isn't a book store that's why it's weird. My comic book guy said BL probably just sees it as a way of promoting their products in different places.

i really enjoyed every aspect of The Emperor's Gift...
the history of the First War for Armageddon...
a more in depth look at Titan, and the inner workings of the Grey Knights...
the Inquisitors, and their squabbles...
the best part for me, though, was AD-B writing Space Wolves...
that's what had me excited for the book, and i was not let down...
the big reveal was awesome, to me, as is the most classic line to come out of the book...

AD-B is definitely my favorite BL author at the moment...
i jumped directly to his story in Mark of Calth last night...
it's a good read so far...
on to Abnett's story next...

cheers
jah

 DA's Forever wrote:
Thats great to hear, and also quite sad. I used to be so much more excited about BL. But.. I don't want to dig up that old horse again.

So currently on my List are: Emporers Gift, Macharius Books, and the Mechanicum books.

Maybe my words seem harsh, but the space wolves are the only good bits in the book. It's Grey Knights Astartes, everything dies, the kind of main character as the lamest reveal/spoiler than ME3's ending.

I love ADB's other works, but this one just did nothing for me, I admit, it's the almost Mary Sue like levels the main guy gets to, that bugs me the most, or possibly the subject matter of the Grey Knights themselves?!

I've read pretty much every none Limited/Ebook only stuff from black library and I've enjoyed most of them, this one included in it's own ways, so my taste is by most considered quite poor , but it does get it's place in one of the worst BL books I've read.

Didnt really like the Betrayer book, it was like they took logic and threw it out the window in that one. I like how they describe the characters but the way they try and describe how some things are happening and making it believable is were they fail badly to the point of stupidity.
Right now i only want to know how they are going to portray the end fight that the Emperor nearly lost to Horus and get it over with.
There has always been a little bit of stupidity in the HH series but the amount facepalming seams to be steadily increasing from book to book with Betrayer being the worst of them.

Out of interest how do they portray the berserker implants as working in Betrayer?

The Corax limited edition book is at the printers, as of last week... so not long now then !

Fifty Shades of Geek have conducted an interview with Mr. Abnett , mainly about his Ghosts series.

Which you can listen to here : http://www.fiftyshadesofgeek.org/3/post/2013/05/the-daniview-gaunts-ghosts-part-1.html

Mr. Abnett is always worth listening to, well worth seeing or get a scribble off of if you get a chance.

Curiously, it turns out that the "Daenyathos" limited edition novella will not be in the second Soul Drinkers omnibus.

.. which really is an odd omission indeed.


http://www.blacklibrary.com/Blog/Art_and_Soul.html
http://www.blacklibrary.com/warhammer-40000/soul-drinkers-redemption.html
http://www.blacklibrary.com/warhammer-40000/soul-drinkers-annihilation.html

and from the BL site

This week, we’ve scoured the darkest recesses of the Black Library vault and unearthed some classic short stories which have been lovingly recreated as eBooks. This new semi-regular series has been dubbed Tales From the Archive and does exactly what it says on the tin.

And today you can also download

http://www.blacklibrary.com/horus-heresy/honour-to-the-dead-mp3.html

THE STORY
As Calth burns, the Battle Titans of the Fire Masters legion take to the streets of the city of Ithraca, ready to massacre the fleeing civilian population in the name of their new, dark masters. But the remaining loyalist engines of the Legio Praesagius - the True Messengers - still stand ready to defend the Imperium, even in the face of almost certain death. With the nearby Ultramarines forces scattered and lost, the people of Ithraca must fend for themselves as gigantic war machines unleash apocalyptic weaponry across the ravaged skyline...

ABOUT THE AUDIO
A Horus Heresy audio drama by Gav Thorpe. Produced by Black Library and Heavy Entertainment. Performed by Gareth Armstrong, Jane Collingwood, Jonathan Keeble and Luke Thompson. Narrated by David Timson. Music specifically composed by Simon Slater. Running time approximately 75 minutes.

CD version is out in August.

Just received an email from Amazon telling me that my order for the mass market version of Angel Exterminatus has been cancelled.

At this moment in time, I'm hoping its just some sort of SKU adjustment, but if its down to BL either cancelling this version or withholding it from sale through third parties, they are going to be on the receiving end of a tactical nuclear email, and I will officially be done with anything GW under its current regime.

We regret to inform you that we have been unable to source the following item:

Graham McNeill "Angel Exterminatus (Horus Heresy)"
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1849704201

Our supplier has informed us that this item is no longer available. This item has now been cancelled from your order #202-2228154-1515509 and we can confirm that you have not been charged for it.

We apologise for the length of time it has taken us to reach this conclusion. Until recently, we had still hoped to obtain this item for you.

 Just Dave wrote:
Emperor's Gift is a great book, thoroughly recommend it.

I also enjoyed it. I thought the second half was more interesting than the first.

Can GW really be that stupid? (I know, ask a silly question...)

It's one thing to be annoying and randomly add in 2 new formats. But to withdraw the mmpb from amazon? Do they think that every science fiction fan the New York Times Bestseller list is going to walk into their local GW to pick up the latest Horus Heresy novel and start a space marine army while they're there?

Well, obviously the answer is yes.

I need that double Picard Facepalm, STAT!

I can't imagine they're actually dropping the MMPB to be honest, as much as I want to hate GW.

Well, they've said they won't. So it's not that I'm concerned about.

Making the mmpd a "Black Library" or "Games Workshop store" exclusive on the other hand.

That's the exact kind of stupid I can see them doing.

 Compel wrote:
Well, they've said they won't. So it's not that I'm concerned about.

Making the mmpd a "Black Library" or "Games Workshop store" exclusive on the other hand.

That's the exact kind of stupid I can see them doing.

That's my chief concern.

I don't 'boycott' GW products, as frankly it would be cutting off my nose to spite my face, but I do go out of my way to buy alternatives or from third parties whenever possible to minimise the amount of cash that ultimately reaches their coffers.

I will have to think long and hard about buying these direct if that is going to be the case, but if I decide against, it will be a much easier decision thanks to this ludicrous delay between HH books. So, BL may well have lost a customer, who 12 months ago regularly went on Amazon and auto preordered all the HH unquestioningly and often threw in a few more titles as well.

Well, it fits with all the other silent product range cancellations this week: Specialist Games (GW and FW), Collector Range, Edge Paints.
Also fits that BL cancelled the licence for all German 40k/Fantasy mmpb while only releasing a handfull of new books under their own label since January.
Also fits the general trend: Closing manufacturing plants in China and North America, practically dropping support for the Hobbit/LOTR, not being able to deliver if anything is actually popular (Tau release), confirming serious infrastructure problems behind it.
Also fits the predictions, that selling about 10% less products each year for 7 years now can't be good for the company.
Also fits the unexpected change in shareholder ownership in January plus the unexpected exit of the CEO.

So it wouldn't surprise me at all, if BL quit the mmpb market. We are talking about GW here, that ragequit facebook. Ragequitting Amazon and the internet is not beyond them.

I got the same message (admittedly I'd noticed it was "no longer available to order" a few weeks ago), but rather than being a sign of the sky falling in, I think they've just changed the product code.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1849704198/ref=s9_simh_gw_p14_d0_i1?pf_rd_m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_r=107035Z0H92BWGWQJ4CS&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=358549767&pf_rd_i=468294

Is sized the same as the regular, non large format paperbacks.

 Kroothawk wrote:

So it wouldn't surprise me at all, if BL quit the mmpb market. We are talking about GW here, that ragequit facebook. Ragequitting Amazon and the internet is not beyond them.

You forget they ragequit Twitter as well.

xowainx wrote:
I got the same message (admittedly I'd noticed it was "no longer available to order" a few weeks ago), but rather than being a sign of the sky falling in, I think they've just changed the product code.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1849704198/ref=s9_simh_gw_p14_d0_i1?pf_rd_m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_r=107035Z0H92BWGWQJ4CS&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=358549767&pf_rd_i=468294

Is sized the same as the regular, non large format paperbacks.

Phew!

As I said, I did hope that was the case. Weird that didn't show up when I searched for it though, but then they've just updated their IOS app with bug fixes, so perhaps it wasn't showing all possible results.

Just listened to Red & Black. I thought it was quite good. Took a classic sci-fi conundrum and added and 40k spin to it. I like stories like that. Poor Imperium just can't ever have anything nice.

 Kroothawk wrote:

So it wouldn't surprise me at all, if BL quit the mmpb market. We are talking about GW here, that ragequit facebook. Ragequitting Amazon and the internet is not beyond them.

Why do they need the internet, it's just a fad for nerds to talk about Star Trek right?

People will just buy WD then go on down to the GW shop or call mail order.

Haven't checked this thread in a while, disappointed to see no new relevant books have been released. Just new versions of old material or new limited edition BS. I miss the BL of even a year ago.

As for the mmpb, I wouldn't be surprised if GW axed them. They have little idea what they're doing, and don't understand that doing the stuff series like Harry Potter, Hunger Games, or A Song of Ice and Fire gets away with (i.e. releasing large hardcover verisons first and only mmpb months down the line) only works because these are worldwide hit series, and have a level of popularity and fan dedication BL can never expect.

 azreal13 wrote:

 Compel wrote:
Well, they've said they won't. So it's not that I'm concerned about.

Making the mmpd a "Black Library" or "Games Workshop store" exclusive on the other hand.

That's the exact kind of stupid I can see them doing.

That's my chief concern.

I don't 'boycott' GW products, as frankly it would be cutting off my nose to spite my face, but I do go out of my way to buy alternatives or from third parties whenever possible to minimise the amount of cash that ultimately reaches their coffers.

I will have to think long and hard about buying these direct if that is going to be the case, but if I decide against, it will be a much easier decision thanks to this ludicrous delay between HH books. So, BL may well have lost a customer, who 12 months ago regularly went on Amazon and auto preordered all the HH unquestioningly and often threw in a few more titles as well.

What HH delay is this? Are they taking a hiatus on the novels?

Please don't start that again cincydooley.

 Alpharius wrote:
Please don't start that again cincydooley.

I haven't seen a ton about new HH novels and Azrael implied there was a delay?

I figured I was missing something.

 Harriticus wrote:
Haven't checked this thread in a while, disappointed to see no new relevant books have been released. Just new versions of old material or new limited edition BS. I miss the BL of even a year ago.

As for the mmpb, I wouldn't be surprised if GW axed them. They have little idea what they're doing, and don't understand that doing the stuff series like Harry Potter, Hunger Games, or A Song of Ice and Fire gets away with (i.e. releasing large hardcover verisons first and only mmpb months down the line) only works because these are worldwide hit series, and have a level of popularity and fan dedication BL can never expect.

Hardback, then 6-9months to TPB then 6-9 months to MMPB is the pattern of fiction in general in the publishing world, not just big series

(it's only really new authors a publisher is uncertain of that or work they consider throw away just get MMPB and nothing else)

Okay, so two stories into Mark of Calth and I'm moderately happy so far. The Erebus story is..okay. Nothing bad, nothing special. The McNeill story is quite good. He goes for a present tense like Abnett in Know No Fear and it doesn't work quite as well, but his characterization is pretty fantastic.

Anthony Reynolds up next!

Deathwatch by Steve Parker, and Fist of Demetrius by William King, are up on iBooks now...

i have been looking forward to the second Macharius book...
nice to read about a character that was a bit of a mystery until now...

i have enjoyed Deathwatch's Talon Squad in their short story appearances...
let's see if they can keep me entertained through a whole novel...
hopefully we'll get some good insight into a Watch Fortress, and the mysterious Inquisitor who sends Talon on their missions...

edit: just noticed that Headtaker by David Guymer is out, too...
i don't know his work yet, but a Queek novel should be fun...
he has two short stories out as well, Unseen (Deathmaster Snikch) and ATilean's Talisman (Gotrek and Felix vs. Skaven)...
i guess this guy likes rats...

happy reading...

cheers
jah

40k of "likes" on Facebook for BL..

http://www.blacklibrary.com/thank-you-for-40000-likes.html

 jah-joshua wrote:
Deathwatch by Steve Parker,
jah

I'm halfway through this book right now, and am enjoying it. It's not as good as The Emperor's Gift, but it's up there among the non-HH books from the BL that I like. Certainly better than Parker's Rynn's World.

 cincydooley wrote:
Okay, so two stories into Mark of Calth and I'm moderately happy so far. The Erebus story is..okay. Nothing bad, nothing special. The McNeill story is quite good. He goes for a present tense like Abnett in Know No Fear and it doesn't work quite as well, but his characterization is pretty fantastic.

Anthony Reynolds up next!

I'm just a little behind you as I haven't finished, "Calth That Was" but the Erebus story was interesting if nothing more than for the jump in space and time that seemed fluid. I'm really enjoying Calth That Was, Mark of Calth has been a solid read so far (picked it up not even realizing it was a collection of short stories . Not even mad.

Also, did people enjoy Fear to Tread. I could have sworn it got some flak here, but I've been enjoying it for the past 2 weeks.

 reds8n wrote:
40k of "likes" on Facebook for BL..

http://www.blacklibrary.com/thank-you-for-40000-likes.html

I see they are returning to the hyper-fascist roots of the Astartes once more.

The next story - Dark Heart in the Mark of Calth series, seems to be the origin story of Marduk from the Word Bearers trilogy.