reds8n wrote:
Bought and read it last night.

A nice enough little tale indeed.

Sort of bridges the events between "Scars" and "Vengeful Spirit", at least with regards to Mortarion.

Certainly sets him in a certain direction anyway.

 Looky Likey wrote:

 reds8n wrote:
Bought and read it last night.

A nice enough little tale indeed.

Sort of bridges the events between "Scars" and "Vengeful Spirit", at least with regards to Mortarion.

Certainly sets him in a certain direction anyway.

I read it last night, interesting look at him, but my mind was blown by

Spoiler:

that the big e and Malcador planned Nikaea nearly seventy years before it happened, makes me wonder what exactly of the Heresy they knew and planned

Spoiler:

they knew it all ahead of time and are playing the long game. They knew of the aliens trying to sabotage the human race and created the twins to counter that. They are lulling the demons into thinking they've won, only for the big E to get off his throne and slap them back into the warp where he will seal them off permenantly. But he also knew of the coming tyranids and necrons, the tyranids were. Part of the plan to get rid of those foul stunties, and the necron's were needed to thin the ranks a bit more. The tau he waited a bit too long on and his pet goldfish evolved and began their own civilization. In the end he's in charge with no primarchs to try and usurp him and he's risen from the dead to emulate Jesus

Sabbat Crusade is a new anthology, edited by Gaunt’s Ghost author Dan Abnett. The stories within take place during the legendary Sabbat War, made famous by the heroic exploits of Commissar Gaunt and the Tanith First and Only.


ABOUT THIS EDITION
The First Edition of Sabbat Crusade is presented in a large format premium hardback contained within a camouflaged slipcase with Tanith iconography. The hardback itself features stunning new artwork from award winning artist Raymond Swanland, and the pages of the book are black-edged with a matching satin marker ribbon. Inside, the book also features a unique, internal colour section depicting characters from the anthology.

 reds8n wrote:
http://www.blacklibrary.com/exclusive-products/sabbat-crusade-first-edition.html


Looks lovely but too steep for me.

Still least the regular release can't be too far way then.

 reds8n wrote:
http://www.blacklibrary.com/exclusive-products/sabbat-crusade-first-edition.html

Sabbat Crusade is a new anthology, edited by Gaunt’s Ghost author Dan Abnett. The stories within take place during the legendary Sabbat War, made famous by the heroic exploits of Commissar Gaunt and the Tanith First and Only.


ABOUT THIS EDITION
The First Edition of Sabbat Crusade is presented in a large format premium hardback contained within a camouflaged slipcase with Tanith iconography. The hardback itself features stunning new artwork from award winning artist Raymond Swanland, and the pages of the book are black-edged with a matching satin marker ribbon. Inside, the book also features a unique, internal colour section depicting characters from the anthology.

Looks lovely but too steep for me.

Still least the regular release can't be too far way then.

Hey readers,
With the release of the glorious new First Edition Sabbat Crusade now less than 48 hours away, we caught up with Gaunt's Ghosts author Dan Abnett, to hear what he had to say about the new anthology.

BL: For anyone new to the series, what can you tell us about Gaunt's Ghosts and the Sabbat Worlds?



Dan: Gaunt's Ghosts is a series of novels about an Imperial Guard regiment commanded by Ibram Gaunt. As a small, 'unimportant' regiment, they often find themselves at the hard end of things. The Sabbat Worlds is the region of space they are fighting in, a vast area that's the site of a massive Imperial Crusade of liberation against occupying Chaos forces.

Where does this book sit in the chronology of the Gaunt's Ghost series?

It runs directly after the most recent book, Salvation's Reach, with a lot of important, in-continuity elements to the story, but it's also wide-ranging and reveals more of the face of the enemy, and is a great taster for the kinds of stories, both action and character-based, that the series delivers. Oh, and there's a ton of background material on the crusade too!

As well as the Ghosts, do we see the return of any other familiar faces in the anthology?

Yes, some very unfriendly faces! We also get to revisit another Guard regiment that's appeared several times before, the Bluebloods, a sort of 'rival' to the Ghosts, as well as recurring Adeptus Mechanicus characters.

There are almost a dozen new stories in the book from various authors. Did you have a favourite?

I love all the stories in the book, so it would be cruel to pick just one out, but Aaron's archenemy tale is gripping, Matt's Mechanicus epic is... epic, John's is downright scary, and Nik's is chilling and very strong on characters. It's had a very powerful reaction from readers so far – she's the first person apart from me to handle Ghost characters, and she's done a great job.

Now that you've seen the First Edition in the flesh, what do you think of the book itself?

It's gorgeous! One of the best looking books I've seen BL produce. Gorgeous art, a wonderful edition.

Thanks, Dan.





You can order the First Edition of Sabbat Crusade this Friday from 1PM GMT.
Copies are limited and we're expecting them to sell out fast, so to give yourself the best chance to order one, set your email reminder now or sign up to Comm-Feed – our Limited Edition Text Reminder Service.

That's all for today.
Thanks for reading.

 reds8n wrote:
I think we'll see a regular hardback release first of all -- just like the Abaddon and salamanders' ones -- in a couple of weeks.

The in 3-6 months a softback release.

 jonolikespie wrote:
Wait multiple hardbacks?

Seriously, that's a thing?

 Looky Likey wrote:
After hardback there is usually the trade paper back then the small format paper back?

Also with the trilogies don't they usually get bundled together later on with a few linking short stories? So technically five printed editions?

 farmersboy wrote:
Well, as I have nearly every book BL have published, 75% of which are in MMPB format, I shan't be buying any hardback version. Only Mr Pratchett is reserved for such special treatment.

 warboss wrote:
I saw that the Damnation of Pythos arrived in my local book store. I couldn't really drum up much enthusiasm to read it but I did skip to the last 20 or so pages and had a question for those that have read the entire book already. I've spoilered the question below (spoiler alert!) for those that don't want to see it and would appreciate a PM (or spoilered post here) with the answer.

Spoiler:

What was in the message that the astropath sent that was ignored? It said it was one archaic word but I couldn't find out which one from skimming previous pages. Thanks in advance.

I’m not done with the Sabbat Worlds Crusade yet, and nor, apparently, is it done with me. Let’s pick up where the last post left off.

The Archenemy is once again at war for the forge world of Urdesh. That planet has already changed hands multiple times as the balance of power in the Sabbat Worlds has pendulumed back and forth. It’s a lynchpin for the military efforts of both sides, a mineral-rich world equipped with enormous industrial capacity and a highly skilled population which also, unusually for such worlds, is fertile enough to sustain that population and even export sizeable and well-trained military regiments. It’s all output for very little input. Its Imperial defenders are ferociously loyal, its Chaos attackers are deadly determined. The next stage in the great war will be shaped by which way Urdesh falls in this newest war.

That’s where these newest books come in.

ISshoulderpad


“Books”, plural. Dan and I are writing two complementary, interlocking novels covering Warmaster Macaroth’s all-out assault to win back Urdesh once and for all. Dan’s will be Warmaster, the next instalment in the story of Gaunt’s Ghosts. My book, just called Urdesh so far as I know at present, will form part of Black Library’s Space Marine Battles collection. The Space Marines in question are Brother-Captain Priad and four squads of the Iron Snakes of Ithaka, brought to Urdesh to do what they do best. The battles in question, well, we’ll see an awful lot of those as we follow the squads across a broad and complex battlefront, where nothing is quite what it seems to be and especially not…

…but I’d better keep some surprises for the actual book, hey?

A lot of the early work has been in the plotting and worldbuilding, rather than actual manuscript. The casts of the two books are not going to be constantly rubbing shoulders, but they’re in the same strategic theatre on the same world and we don’t want the novels to just sort of float along as though they were literally worlds apart. The world of Urdesh has also been a well-known battleground planet ever since the Ghosts fought beside some of its regiments on Phantine in The Guns of Tanith, and it was important to make it a vivid and memorable world with its own character and sense of place. But so far, the actual writing has been fantastic fun.

The thing is, I’ve written five novels now, and all of them feature protagonists who are consciously designed to not be combat monsters. That doesn’t mean that they’re helpless in a scuffle, but the distinction is there. Sinden Kass in Junktion has a good collection of personal weapons and knows exactly how to handle them, because he lives in a world where you have to, but really he’s a small-town tradesman who just wants to do his job. If he doesn’t have to put his finger on a trigger it’s been a good day. Shira Calpurnia trains hard for combat and gets plenty of chances for that to pay off; she could certainly stomp me in a fight. But I was careful with her fight scenes: she wins by rigging the odds in her favour with strategy, or with smarts or tenacity or by a willingness to fight as nastily as needed to get the job done. She is very deliberately not the kind of action-movie threshing machine who can wipe out ten times her weight in baddies. And Tallie Perrault in Strange Flesh is not a fighter of any kind.

Like I said, it’s a conscious decision. If I create a character who can’t dominate through brute force, it means that in the action scenes that define this part of the genre they can’t prevail simply by wading in with swinging fists or blazing guns. They are forced to find a way around the fight, not through it, and I like what that challenge brings out in the character and the story.

Ironsnakes
I have no idea who the artist is for this, but if I can find out I’ll attribute it. If you know, why not leave it in the comments?



Then, however, we come to the Space Marines. These guys define that all-conquering archetype I described up above – hell, an Astartes who only wipes out ten times his own weight in enemies isn’t trying. (Now, in my head, a couple of Space Marines have started a Pythonesque argument over whether the ten-times-your-weight takes armour and reactor pack into account. This is how I know it’s coming up on my bedtime.) They are intended to be the finest soldiery and the most feared adversaries in the galaxy. Don’t get me wrong, one of the classic challenges to give these guys is a battle to fight that needs more than just brute force. But I think we can agree that you don’t get a Space Marine Battles book to write and then decree that they’re so outclassed that they just won’t get to fight at all.

Space Marine Battles, ladies and gentlemen. Bolter fire, screaming chainswords, knock-down-drag out two-fisted action. This is going to need a change of gear.

Like I said, I’m still early in the actual writing process, but I’m far enough in to find it exhilarating to run along behind the Iron Snakes as they light the Archenemy up, trying to keep up, being carried along by martial excellence and sheer posthuman power. And of course they’ll be blazing this trail right into the heart of the enemy’s forces only to…

…but no. You’ll need to wait for that. Just trust me, I’m doing my level best to make the wait worth it.

That’s all for Urdesh right now. But this isn’t the only thing I’ve got on. I’ve got some other writing I’m way overdue to talk about. I’ll be back to do something about that as soon as I can.

 BrookM wrote:
Dan can always introduce new characters and kill them off before the novel is over.