Black Library 2017 News/Rumours Thread : Xmas Advent

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**Mymearan**

That's a great bundle! Reasonable price too. Would definitely be getting it if it weren't for the fact that I've read almost all of it

**reds8n**

http://www.blacklibrary.com/horus-heresy/hh-novs/deliverance-lost-ebook.html

Now also available in hardback.

Can only be a couple of them not in that format now.

**ADarke**

The Primarchs and Shadows of Treachery are the only two left to release in hardcover. If they continue at this rate, they will be finished in September.

**BrookM**

Deathfire will also soon be available in legacy format, or whatever it's called.

**farmersboy**

They call it 'legacy', because that used to be the only format it was available in, the rest of the publishing world call it MMPB, mass market paper back...and I wish they'd pull their bloody fingers out!

**VeteranNoob**

farmersboy wrote:
They call it 'legacy', because that used to be the only format it was available in, the rest of the publishing world call it MMPB, mass market paper back...and I wish they'd pull their bloody fingers out!

I'm not getting this last line (out of ears, asses?) but BL has said their publishers/printers don't want to do MMPB, only trade and that BL has fought to demand MMPB still because its fanbase really really wants it. I miss the days of $7-$9 MMPB but, alas...

**farmersboy**

VeteranNoob wrote:
farmersboy wrote:
They call it 'legacy', because that used to be the only format it was available in, the rest of the publishing world call it MMPB, mass market paper back...and I wish they'd pull their bloody fingers out!

I'm not getting this last line (out of ears, asses?) but BL has said their publishers/printers don't want to do MMPB, only trade and that BL has fought to demand MMPB still because its fanbase really really wants it. I miss the days of $7-$9 MMPB but, alas...

Pulling your finger out, getting your ass in gear, getting a move on...I'm still waiting for novel 32, Deathfire, to come out in MMPB, it's months late.

I don't understand the Trade format at all - why make the books bigger, with slightly larger typeface? The paper isn't a better quality, why didn't they just increase the price of MMPBs? Utterly pointless except from a money-making view.

**BrookM**

According to the Book Depository Deathfire should be out in 13 days.

**MajorWesJanson**

BrookM wrote:
Deathfire will also soon be available in legacy format, or whatever it's called.

"The Proper Format"

**Kid_Kyoto**

Has it been a year already? Funny it feels like less somehow yet at the same times feels like an eternity.

In that time have they published anything set in the old WHFB world?

**reds8n**

Only reprints and collections.

Old World is, quite literally, history.

**Pacific**

Tell that to the millions of people who are playing the Total War game

I picked up a copy of White Scars from a charity shop a few weeks ago, thoroughly enjoyed it. The first HH book I have read in probably a couple of years (completely out the loop after the small paperback releases stopped) but picked up Vulkan Lives at the same time as well so looking forward to reading that.

Are there any other 'key' books that are recommended? The last I read before this was Fear to Tread.

BrookM wrote:
After Mark of Calth and Path to Heaven I decided to try and get back into the whole novel business by getting Angel Exterminatus and Betrayer, reading through the first one now.

Halfway through and I can't help but shake the feeling that this is one of those filler stories that has a lot of build up, but ultimately no pay off.

If you replace the names of the Primarchs in Angel Exterminatus with Goku and Vegeta it pretty much recreates the showdown from the end of Dragonball Z series 1. There are even mind bullets in there, just needed to throw in a bit of a character screaming in Japanese and TOEI would have been issuing a copyright infringement notice.

BrookM wrote:
He has a certain way of presenting his main characters though, they all fall into the same template to varying degrees, all having one or more mortals as friends / slaves / person of interest tagging along, plus sometimes being something of an outsider.

Argal Tal is BFF's with that blind saint girl, the Grey Knight is BFF's with that Fenrisian Inquisitor and her retinue, the Soul Hunter has his numbered servants, even the Prince of Crows has an odd relationship with a mortal pilot serving in the fleet.

I love his stuff, but it's becoming quite a recurring theme, getting right up there with Sandy Mitchell reusing the same plot and one-liners for each and every one of his Cain novels.

I wonder if part of the problem with this is that Marines (perhaps less so the 30k counterparts) are inherently dull characters. In essence brain-washed killing machines, always though ADB used the human characters as a way of helping the reader to relate to something that is essentially alien. Certainly, I find his marine-centric novels a hell of a lot more engaging than a lot of his contemporaries.

**farmersboy**

BrookM wrote:
According to the Book Depository Deathfire should be out in 13 days.

The hardback was published in June last year I believe, which means the MMPB version should have followed 9 months later. March became June, which has now become the end of July. How long are we going to have to wait for all the others?

**BrookM**

I think it would be safe to say, a year or so from the hardback release.

I'm not too bothered myself, but that's just me and not the opinion of others, as right now I've got such a massive backlog to work through it'll be some time before I reach the pauldron saga.

**farmersboy**

Well, originally when they started this whole Trade paperback nonsense, the hardback came first, then the Trade version 3 months after that, and the MMPB version six months after that. They stuck to that for quite a while, but now it seems to be slipping and slipping.

**Skerr**

We shall see

**VeteranNoob**

farmersboy wrote:
VeteranNoob wrote:
farmersboy wrote:
They call it 'legacy', because that used to be the only format it was available in, the rest of the publishing world call it MMPB, mass market paper back...and I wish they'd pull their bloody fingers out!

I'm not getting this last line (out of ears, asses?) but BL has said their publishers/printers don't want to do MMPB, only trade and that BL has fought to demand MMPB still because its fanbase really really wants it. I miss the days of $7-$9 MMPB but, alas...

Pulling your finger out, getting your ass in gear, getting a move on...I'm still waiting for novel 32, Deathfire, to come out in MMPB, it's months late.

I don't understand the Trade format at all - why make the books bigger, with slightly larger typeface? The paper isn't a better quality, why didn't they just increase the price of MMPBs? Utterly pointless except from a money-making view.

Nick called Deathfire MMPB 1-2 weeks from now. Other poster found 13 day. Close enough, but that 9+ month wait does feel like an eternity.
Personally, I really liked the look and feel of trade when they switched...at least for a short while. Then I really wished MMPB stayed a thing with its pricing attached. Oh well.

**reds8n**

I do actually think the "new" sized softbacks are a bit easier to read/handle.

But they're a wee bit more pricey.

I'm happy to buy softbacks when they do appear -- picked up the softback collection of Mr Sander's Ad. Mech stuff and enjoyed it very much.

But i find their hardback/novella pricing a bit OTT.

Really tempted by the recent http://www.blacklibrary.com/warhammer-40000/40k-novs/medusan-wings-ebook.html

but it's £15 in dead tree format, for not all that many pages -- so it's a pass for me, least at this price anyway.

Which is a shame as I'd like to read it -- much like that Stracken book that kind of limped out a while back, seemed a cool idea/character/setting .... but I don't know anyone who got it.

Whereas if that'd been in a softback format then , one suspects, more people wouldv'e picked it up and there might have been a bit more "buzz" about it on the boards.

.. ah well.... plenty of other stuff out there.

Mr Haley has a follow up out :

https://www.amazon.com/Ghoul-King-Story-Dreaming-Cities/dp/0765390256

and I did thoroughly enjoy Mr. Swallow's "Nomad" spy book

In other news :

https://regimental-standard.com/2016/07/13/common-myths-about-the-horus-heresy/

fair play

**Haighus**

reds8n wrote:
In other news :

https://regimental-standard.com/2016/07/13/common-myths-about-the-horus-heresy/

fair play

**reds8n**

https://trackofwords.wordpress.com/2016/07/14/the-horus-heresy-tallarn-series-interview-with-john-french/

Nice interview with Mr French with regards to his Tallarn stuff especially.

**BrookM**

The Regimental Standard posts are advertisements for new products, but damned funny ones at that.

And cheers for the John French interview, I love me some Tallarn.

**ImAGeek**

I hope they release all the Tallarn stuff as an anthology.

**Haighus**

I enjoyed reading the Tallarn books, even if they did feel a bit short.

**BrookM**

Halfway through Betrayer now and while I feel that the World Eaters are a lot like the Night Lords, just as snarky and deadpan, not having a great relationship with their dad, but just like them they have interesting mortals around..

watch the language in images you post please.
ta. Reds8n

You know she's going to fit right in when she talks to Angron while slumped in her command throne, feet kicked up over the arm rest not giving a damn, or shoots a World Eater captain in the face with a laspistol to show how pissed off she is with him.

I do get the feeling that this novel is working towards the same ending as Angel Exterminatus, meaning we still have at least two of these novels to go dealing with the Death Guard and the Thousand Sons and their awakening.

**ImAGeek**

Lotara Sarrin is awesome. Probably my favourite mortal character.

**BrookM**

And that's Betrayer done. I quite like this recurring theme of Erebus getting smacked around like the bitch he is, despite being warned time and again not to pursue such and such, despite whatever song he hears.

Also, the Legion Audax taking down an Imperator titan with just Warhounds was pretty neat.

**Nova_Impero**

That was a cool scene in the book.

**jah-joshua**

BrookM wrote:
And that's Betrayer done. I quite like this recurring theme of Erebus getting smacked around like the bitch he is, despite being warned time and again not to pursue such and such, despite whatever song he hears.

Also, the Legion Audax taking down an Imperator titan with just Warhounds was pretty neat.

i really enjoyed the scenes around the gladiatorial fights...
that was an aspect that i thought really made the World Eaters stand out...
Erebus getting the smack-down just made it even better

Warhounds have always been my favorite Titans, with their feral personalities...
their old Adeptus Titanicus art was the best

cheers
jah

**reds8n**

http://www.blacklibrary.com/all-products/wild-king-eshort.html

part 7 of the wulfen saga

Part 7 of the Legacy of Russ series

The Space Wolves have achieved a small victory, but at what cost? And what of the rest of the Fenris system, and the Imperial forces who stand arrayed to defend it?

THE STORY
The Space Wolves’ battle to reclaim their home system of Fenris from the clutches of Chaos has been costly, but finally a victory is achieved. Aided by the wulfen, the Space Wolves manage to drive the daemons from the surface of Svellgard, and close the warp portals. But their ultimate success is far from certain – the forces of Chaos are still abundant and strong, and despite the arrival of unexpected allies, the Imperium has a hard fight on its hands.

from the author -- spoilered due to...well.. spoilers :

Spoiler:

**reds8n**

http://gavthorpe.co.uk/2016/07/19/art-of-the-beast-interview-with-victor-manuel-leza/

I am very lucky to have many talented artists produce the book covers for my Black Library work, including the art for The Beast Arises series, by Victor Manuel Leza. I particularly like how The Beast Arises has been presented as a series – it’s unlike any other Black Library work I have on my shelves, and really makes an impact when you see them all together.
I asked Victor if he would answer a few questions about his work for Black Library.

You can see more of Victor’s work at his website www.victorleza.com

Gav: The Beast Arises features 12 covers, each with a unique character – can you tell us a little about the commissioning process, did Black Library give you a list of subjects or did you pitch ideas? How has it been working with Black Library’s art and design team?

Black Library became interested in my work and asked me if I was familiar with the world of Warhammer 40K. This would be the first time that I’ve illustrated it, but I’ve followed the Universe since I was a teenager and I’m a great collector of art books and magazines about Warhammer 40K. To have a chance to illustrate it had been a desire in my mind from a long time ago. Black Library proposed the themes of each cover with a profusion of details and visual references as inspiration. They were very accurate in their descriptions; Warhammer 40K characters are filled with an iconography and very specific details. The suggestions they gave really helped my work.

Gav: As well as illustration you also work in graphic and character design and I think that shows in the sharp vignette pieces you’ve done for The Beast Arises. Combined with the minimal cover graphics, they really jump off the shelf. What was it like working on single characters rather than a whole scene?

I guess every type of illustration has its advantages and disadvantages. In an illustration of a massive battle you can feel overwhelmed by hordes of characters but perhaps the central character loses prominence. In a scene with a solitary character, the reader can better focus on the expression, dress and personality that conveys the central character. In each different design you emphasize different things but I think both are compatible and suitable for the world of Warhammer 40K.

Gav: Were you a fan of Warhammer 40,000 before working for Black Library? How did you first encounter the universe?
Since I was 11 years old I bought the magazine White Dwarf and numerous artistic material related to Warhammer: art books, catalogues, books about different miniatures awarded in the Golden Demon Awards… etc. Being part of this now is a great joy.

In the creative process I mix photomontage with digital painting. Photographed family and friends and especially myself to properly capture facial expressions, realistic lighting and body and hands poses. Also commonly I photograph all kinds of clothes, swords or toy guns which can then be digitally adapted to a world of epic fantasy.

Gav: What do you like most about working with the Warhammer 40,000 images?

Visually it is one of the world’s most extensive, varied and epic fantasy settings that exists. They are full off action, passion, violence, fantasy and detail. It’s great to illustrate a world that has been built by different authors over the years with much aesthetic detail. Visually it is rough and savage and I like that.

Gav: Like the story, the covers are spread across a whole range of Imperial Institutions and aliens – from Assassins to Eldar, orks to Adeptus Mechanicus. How has it been, having a whole series to illustrate? Have you got a favourite cover from the series?

I think my favorite is the huge ork Warboss for “The Shadow of Ullanor”. I always wanted to work in a big murderous ork with one of those giant claws! Each cover has had its difficulties. Especially those with characters with faces covered by helmets. I love making faces and facial expressions; but sometimes it is good to alternate with the mystery that comes with a character who has his head covered. I think that variety is good for the whole of the covers.

Thank you very much to Victor for taking the time to answer my questions. You can see more of Victor’s artwork on his website www.victorleza.com,