Black Library News & Rumour thread. Annotated Eisenhorn: Malleus. p.135.

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**Lord Damocles**

Lord Damocles wrote:
I guess Leonatos is 3rd Company now then.

So... I checked, and I'm pretty sure that the 3rd Company is the least likely candidate which could have been chosen.

Leonatos and his Company have a single blood drop on their right pauldron, which would make them 2nd, 3rd, 4th, or 5th Company.

At the beginning of the first book the Commander of the Watch is referenced as separate to Leonatos, so that rules out the 2nd.

The artwork consistently shows the Marines under his command as having a black drop on white background. Obviously since the artwork is black and white this can't give us a definitive answer, however, since the 3rd have a white drop, you wouldn't expect that to be rendered as black. The 4th (green) or 5th (black) are obviously far more likely based on the actual artwork.

But, no, Tycho's banner is recognisable, right, so lets just go with that. Whatever.

**Kanluwen**

Gav Thorpe's "First of the Fallen" coming in October

**reds8n**

nice.

coming soon now until October

Gargants audio is certainly an interesting idea -- possibly ideally suited for the format FX wise.

Maybe.

**BrookM**

Oh gak, Inferno! #5 is pushed back all the way to the 24th of October!

I wonder what happened there.

Also made my way through both the first Crime novel and the accompanying audio drama, both get a thumbs up from me. Nice bit of world building with the novel, a lot of seeds planted for future hooks and arcs, even comes with a short glossary in the back for some of the slang, local car brands, types of food and whatnot. The audio drama is a bit more comedic in nature, with some nice intermission broadcasts a-la "Go to church, support the war effort and smoke our cigarettes, they're good for you!" type of propaganda-commercial stuff straight out of the 30's - 50's.

Overall a nice cyberpunk - noir setting in 40k.

**Overread**

The Inferno reprints are over 4 months now after ordering which is pretty much longer than before. Chances are BL is in a bit of a release mess. Heck I've not seen any Chronicles of Old World stuff coming out by them and until Corona they were releasing one a month or so of them .

Also in typical "student did it" design styles they appear to have removed the Old World listing form the BL page! Now its under "Series" a few tabs down and they've lumped it all into one big listing https://www.blacklibrary.com/series/warhammer-chronicles-series

So freakishly messy and all for them having a phobia of having 2 lines of main menu tabs along the top. Sometimes I really do have to scratch my head and wonder just who is in charge of the BL digital back end and why they make some utterly daft choices .

**CragHack**

Luther is one of my favorite HH characters. Can't wait for the release

**Mr Morden**

ImAGeek wrote:
BrookM wrote:
Time to vote once more: https://www.warhammer-community.com/2020/08/05/readers-choice-returns/

Lord of the Night and Riders of the Dead were my personal picks.

Same as mine, although Fire Caste was a very close second. I own that though, and haven’t read Lord of the Night yet.

Same - Fire Caste is good - Lord of the Night was really good.

**Overread**

Inferno Classic print on demand are now shipping!! And to think I was only commenting the other day that it was getting near to the estimated time period!

**BrookM**

Hoping to get my own shipping notice soon then, running low on fresh reading materials with this effing ongoing heatwave.

**BrookM**

Got my shipping notice just now, that's indeed a lot faster than expected, noice!

**Alpharius**

If I want to start the Horusian Wars series...where do I start?

Anyone have a good reading order to follow?

**BrookM**

Resurrection is the first book in the series, followed by Incarnation. The third book is as of yet not announced, but there is also Divination, which is a collection of short stories that give insights into the members of the retinue and can be read whenever you like. There are also three audio dramas that serve as a spin-off to the main series, following one of the characters introduced in Divinations. Their order is Blood & Lies, Truth & Dreams and Ashes & Oaths.

**Alpharius**

Thanks for that!

For some reason, I couldn't quite suss it out.

And I've never been a big fan of audio dramas - am I missing much of importance there by skipping these?

**BrookM**

Not really, it's an action themed spin-off based around a former Guard officer now working under Covenant. They deal with peripheral threats that Covenant doesn't want to deal with himself.

The character is featured in one of the short stories in Divination as a prequel to the audio dramas and that's it really.

**Knockagh**

Alpharius wrote:
If I want to start the Horusian Wars series...where do I start?

Anyone have a good reading order to follow?

Start with Divination definitely. It’s all the short stories but introduces the characters brilliantly. It really is a superb collection and probabaly the best of all the books so far. After that it’s the novels in their order. Book one is the weakest in my opinion, but not bad. Hopefully book three will be along soon.

**BrookM**

From AD-B's Facebook feed:

One of things with the Black Legion Series is what to show, what to reveal, and what to leave as a mystery. Especially in the opening trilogy.

One fan's "Finally, now we know X!" is another fan's "I liked it better when it could've been A or B."

I think about this a lot.

As a general rule, I try to add more mystery to the setting when it comes to my solo work. I think it's the possibility/mystery that grabs most of us in our grabbable regions.

But you have to balance that with the fact that, depending on the subject, some people want answers.

Anyone saying this is easy to juggle is lying. There's no consensus; "the fandom" isn't an amorphous blob that agrees on anything. The writers have different takes, too.

You have to go with your gut. What you feel serves the story & setting best. What you think makes 40K better.

Historical fiction is my touchstone for 40K.

In the best HF you're outside the mind of the Famous Person, not always seeing the Famous Moments laid bare.

You see the fallout from those moments, the impact on the ground level, framed through the eyes of people living through it.

The best King Arthur story never shows him getting Excalibur. The best story about the Spartans has the main character (not even a Spartan soldier) never fighting properly in the phalanx.

You get glimpses, allusions, flashes of insight: grounded, real, and sometimes terrifying.

I muse over this with the Black Legion Series - and I'll be honest, I go to a lot of authors, editors, and designers for their takes.

What's too much? What's a mystery worth keeping? What's a mystery better dispelled? What are people expecting? Does that matter?

Why?

Why not?

There are a lot of answers. Most are narrative. Some are about expectations, a double-edged sword in IP work.

Sometimes it even comes down to lore that wasn't viewed as optimally presented at the time, now open for a polish or rewrite. That's its own rare but fascinating avenue.

I'm coming very close to the end of Black Legion III now, and - as usual - it's not the book I thought it would be.

Please Note: They never are. Ever. Not even once. I've never been able to even remotely predict how a novel will go.

Just like always, I'm at the point of looking at the questions a book answers, the answers it carefully avoids giving, and the new questions it sets up for the future.

BL3 has a lot of expectation, just like The Talon of Horus (BL1) did. You can't predict how these things'll go.

I don't like talking about this element of writing; I worry it comes over as self-indulgent and/or boring, but thinking about it is part of the craft.

The Siege of Terra is now past the halfway point, and BL3 is basically done, so these thoughts are more relevant than ever.

Anyway, those are my 5:30am thoughts while I take myself too seriously writing about toy soldiers fighting scary space wars.

Please enjoy the rest of your Tuesday, or indeed the final grimy dregs of your Monday.

: )

**BobtheInquisitor**

Having read about his take on Abaddon in the 40k background forum, I’m looking forward to this. Never thought I’d get excited for a Black Legion book before.

**BrookM**

It's a great look into the early days of the Black Legion and what it's like to be a traitor marine trying to survive inside the Eye of Terror. It also nicely shows them as vulnerable and not as nigh unstoppable as the fluff likes to show them off, but as raiders low on everything and quite worried about what lies outside the Eye. In their case, the Black Templars.

Been looking forward to the third book for some time now, which I think will, or will not, deal with Abaddon getting his daemon sword, but could be wrong.

Still don't like the main character, but others more than make up for it.

**Danny76**

Just logged into audible, my entire BL part of wish list is currently half price.

£12 each basically.

Automatically Appended Next Post:
On for 2 weeks, and it’s pretty much everything I’m looking through and all sale..

**BrianDavion**

So finished reading Dawn of Fire: Avenging son, fantastic read. the little details in it and referances to other books etc is great

**Mr Morden**

Picked up a few more paperbacks

Mephiston is...well....awful
Souless Fury was not bad - although some wierd interactrions with the blank and lacked something,
Road to Redemption was good.

**Shadow Walker**

Avenging Son - I would like to know if there are some important fluff pieces, and if yes, please post spoilers about them. Thanks!

**ImAGeek**

Black Library open submission is back in October, this time for Warhammer Horror. Themes are Survival, Psychological, Gothic and Cosmic. The window will be open from Monday 19th October, to Saturday 31st October.

https://www.warhammer-community.com/2020/08/19/we-want-your-tales-of-darkness/

**BrookM**

So, an average day set anywhere in 40k really?

Also, with regards to the Avenging Son request above, USE SPOILER TAGS please, have started the book myself and would really like to work my way through it spoiler free.

**BrookM**

An early peek at the stories of the upcoming No Good Men:

Spoiler:

**The Phazer**

Bill King's Space Wolf omnibus, Forges of Mars, Honourbound and a bunch of the Primarchs books (including Valdor) are on sale for £1.99 on Amazon this month.

A few of the books that have been on sale previously are back available too.

**BobtheInquisitor**

Are those actual books or just kindle files?

**Overread**

So if anyone is looking for a good read I just finished reading both the Eisenhorn Trilogy and the Ravenor Trilogy. Both great reads and well worth picking up. Ravenor picks up after the first three Eisenhorn books.

They give you a very different look at the Imperium. You get to see a lot more of the life of real citizens from the near bottom to the top of society and all in between. These are not war-books so instead of grand campaigns you're instead in the dirty mud of hunting out the demonic incursions and influences within the Imperium and how Inquisitors operate in the shadows in an attempt to purge and protect the Imperium.

There's a fantastic wealth of characters and whilst they focus on Imperial worlds there's a good few Xenos appearing here and there too, though predominantly its Imperial focused. This isn't far flung battles on the edge, this is the core of the Imperium, worlds that should be safe and far from the front lines; or at least for now far from the front lines.

It's also set in an older age of the Imperium, still the current millennium for the setting, but before races like the Tyranids or Tau have appeared.

Eisenhorn is made up of Xenos, Malleus, Hereticus
Ravenor is made up of Ravenor, Ravenor Returned, Ravenor Rogue

If you're new get the omnibus editions of both trilogies, a bit more than a single book in cost, but a big saving over getting all three on their own.
Note there's a 4th book for Eisenhorn - Magus - which is a new story but also collects a selection of short stories as well. This book is, as of right now, on Amazon kindle for only £2

**BrookM**

Actually, the T'au are already around at the time of Ravenor, the Imperial Guard sniper in the intro of the first novel uses a pulse rifle.

And here we are still waiting for the next Bequin book, dagnabbit.

**Overread**

BrookM wrote:
Actually, the T'au are already around at the time of Ravenor, the Imperial Guard sniper in the intro of the first novel uses a pulse rifle.

And here we are still waiting for the next Bequin book, dagnabbit.

Darn it you're right! Which is very confusing because Tyranids are very much not known later in the series. Which either means Ravenor has no understanding of the Great Devourer (which for an Inquisitor would be abnormal even with the size of the universe) or that the Tau weapon is a very rare item thrown in as a bone since Tau were certainly around lore-wise long before they appear game-wise.