What, you thought you were going to get a little time to recover after the Saints of the Imperium Boxed Set dropped? Ha! We’re fully in the Season of the Box right now, with the fourth set of the year coming up for preorder this weekend.
This set comes to us entirely from the pen of author David Annandale. It includes two Commissar Yarrick novels- Imperial Creed (2013) and The Pyres of Armageddon (2015)- as well as the 2013 novella Chains of Golgotha and a collection of short stories.
It’s a beautiful set and I’ll be trying my hand at obtaining one, but I do lament that we haven’t seen a single Mega Edition release this year.
Aside from that, though, it’s otherwise quiet unless you’re part of the market for either French or German. Deutsch speakers can grab Fulgrim, Der Perfekte Sohn by Jude Reid (review here, auf Englisch) and a new Siege of Terra omnibus. For our Francophones, Marc Collins’ Eidolon, Le Marteau Aurique alongside a new collection of Horus Heresy novels.
ICYMI
We had a real treat this past week as Jonathan D. Beer (Tomb World, The King of the Spoil) sat down with Goonhammer and pulled back the curtain a bit on what it’s like to write for Warhammer in general, and Dominion Genesis in particular. His latest is Tomb World, which went up for preorder this past weekend.
If not getting a book review was too high a price to pay, however, Kenny Boulder’s got your back with a dive into Chris Wraight’s Leman Russ: The Great Wolf.
Rob “Chirurgeon” Jones also was back with another Lore Explainer piece, this time focusing on the Chaos Dwarfs in Warhammer Fantasy’s Old World.
Over at Warhammer Community, the kickoff of the Grand Narrative 2025 offered up some more flash fiction. Strange things are afoot at Mordian… If you’re not sure who these characters are (or what the Grand Narrative is), here’s a bit more on it all.
Finally, Mira Manga got a chance to chat with Dan Abnett about everything Interceptor City and Double Eagle! At just over an hour, it’s a very deep dive with one of the Black Library’s true masters.
Sharing a Six-Pack With…Josh Reynolds!
No, it’s not ales, it’s- what else- books! A new occasional feature for the Black Library Weekly, we bend the ear of Black Library authors to get a half-dozen book recommendations. Last week we debuted with Adrian Tchaikovsky, and this week we’re joined by Josh Reynolds!
Josh has been a tremendously prolific writer for the Black Library, the pen behind books from the Old World (The Return of Nagash, The Serpent Queen), Age of Sigmar (Black Pyramid, Nagash, the Undying King), 40K (Lukas the Trickster, the Fabius Bile Trilogy) and beyond (Fulgrim: The Palatine Phoenix, Kal Jerico: Sinner’s Bounty). Further showing his creative range, he’s written novels for Arkham Horror, Zombicide, and Legend of the Five Rings (including my current read, Poison River, the first Daidoji Shin book).
Three Black Library Books He’d Recommend…
- Beasts in Velvet, by Jack Yeovil/Kim Newman. “I think this one best captures the anarchic spirit of early Warhammer Fantasy. It’s a grim mélange of tropes – Pratchett by way of Moorcock, with a dash of Harrison for spice. Everything feels at once bigger and yet somehow more intimate than later novels.”
- Skavenslayer, by William King. “This is actually the first Warhammer Fantasy novel I ever read. First Warhammer novel period. It’s grungy and funny and bitter and everyone should read it.”
- Wrath of Iron, by Chris Wraight. “I don’t like space marines. But I dislike them less when they’re being written by Chris. I think this one is the archetypal space marine book…maybe the archetypal Warhammer 40,000 book. It’s grimdark nastiness at its finest.”
Two Non-Black Library Books He’d Recommend…
4. The Valley So Low, by Manly Wade Wellman. “A collection of Wellman’s later Appalachian short stories. This is the collection that made me a writer, if anything did. I must have checked it out of the local library twice a month for a few years.”
5. A Night in the Lonesome October, by Roger Zelazny. “I love this book. You’ve probably heard of it. If you’ve read it, you probably love it as well. It’s that type of book.”
And Finally, One of His Own Books He’d Recommend…
6. The Flower Path. “The third book in my Daidoji Shin Mysteries series. Why the third book and not the first? Because it’s the one where I got to write a proper locked room murder mystery. A large cast of suspects, a murderer hiding in plain sight, a time crunch. That’s the stuff. I want to write another one. Or maybe a dozen.”
Thanks so much for sharing, Josh!
The Accidental Plagiarist
While it’s inarguably more fun and interesting to spend my column inches talking about writing the Black Library rather than talking about talking about writing the Black Library, every now and then it’s useful to pull back the curtain a bit and talk about some element of the creative process. Today, I’d like to share the horrifying moment a few weeks ago when I realized I was about to commit the heresy of plagiarism.
Whenever I write a book review, I try to find what my ‘in’ is. What’s the theme I’d like to explore through the lens of that particular book? I was several paragraphs into my review of Evan Dicken’s Shade of Khaine and the words were tumbling out, examining the difference between books that tried to explore the deep and meaningful versus books that were simply fun and delightful rides of the mind.
This dichotomy was perhaps best (and most hilariously) notably summed up by feyd_rautha_apologist:
There are two kinds of 40k books: “Space Man Shoot Bad Guys With Big Gun” and “Meditations on the dehumanizing nature of war and the futility of mutual kindness in the face of suffocating oppression and prejudice by Askaurazoth the Child Flenser”
As I wrote that into my review, I decided that it would be nice to footnote it and give a friendly shoutout to the person responsible for alerting me to its existence, the wonderful Aasa Timonen1. I dutifully went back to her site to find where she’d mentioned it so I could link to it, and was dumbstruck to realize that it was in a book review.
Of Shade of Khaine.
That highlighted the idea of the ‘fun’ Warhammer book.
My jaw dropped. Naturally, I nuked my first draft from orbit and started again from scratch (focusing instead on the idea of the approachability factor for new readers of books in a series). But it gave me a long pause for thought. Up until that point I’d always considered plagiarism to be at worst a deliberate act of pilferage, and at best one of carelessness. That instead it could even result through genuine good-faith creation was a revelation- and a cautionary tale.
I’d read Aasa’s thoughtful review back in April when she’d posted it. Over time, it apparently had sunken down into my subconsciousness and lay dormant, and by the time it came back into the frame it had lost every identifying marker that indicated it wasn’t a completely original thought. I shudder to think of what would have happened had I not decided to throw a footnote in there and instead just completed the review and had it published.
Interestingly, Danie Ware (The Triumph of Saint Katherine, Devouring Void) shared some thoughts this week around the idea of originality in the storytelling field.
No idea is truly original. Indeed, popular literary belief tells us that there are only seven basic plots. What’s original is you, what you do with them. It’s your vibe, your riff and interpretation, your take and emotional reaction.
I found this point fascinating. I don’t think there will ever be a perfectly clear line of distinction between when something is original versus when it is idea-laundered. There’s a reason, after all, that these kinds of cases in the music world typically get adjudicated in the courts2. But it certainly bears thinking about.
RPG Corner
We’ve been keeping an eye on the upcoming Champions of Chaos standalone expansion for Cubicle 7 Games’ Age of Sigmar: Soulbound RPG. Well, the wait is over! The Collector’s Edition cover (pictured above) is gorgeous, once again pitting my aesthetic side against my frugal side as it’s double the price of the standard edition.
Speaking of Collector’s Editions, they also showed off the cover this week for the upcoming Wrath and Glory Space Wolves supplement, Sons of Russ.
Finally, Cubicle 7 has a stunner of a deal up right now with the Humble Warhammer RPG Starter Bundle. Twenty-nine PDF’s encompassing the full range of Warhammer Fantasy and 40,000 RPG’s- all for just $25? The offer expires in less than two weeks, so don’t wait if this is something you’d like to check out.
Quick Hits
- Cavan Scott (Attack of the Necron, Logan Grimnar: Defender of Honour) has been keeping busy! No sooner has he wrapped up his run with Marvel’s Gweenpool but he’s now got a story for DC’s The Demon, Splitting Heirs, appearing in the this week’s Zatannic Panic!.
- While you’re grabbing Zatannic Panic!, keep an eye out for Catwoman #79. It’s not only the start of a new story arc, but it’s penned by Torunn Grønbekk (Sisters of Battle). Or you could snare Spider-Girl #3, which she also wrote. Better yet, grab ’em both! If you’re in the Baltimore area, you can even get them signed as she’ll be in attendance this year for the Baltimore ComicCon (October 17-19).
- If that’s still not enough Grønbekk for you, check out Battle Action #3. An anthology of action stories in the classic British style, Grønbekk is part of an all-star cast including Dan Abnett (The End and the Death, Interceptor City). (And Garth Ennis (Preacher, Hitman), just had to throw that in there.)
- Cameron Johnston (Faith in Iron) has a new book coming up, and was delighted to reveal the cover this week. First Mage on the Moon– a wizardly vision of the space race- will arrive in bookstores next April.
Coming Attractions
Here’s a list of the date-set upcoming releases from the Black Library based on the available preorder information we have. As always, take all of this with a grain of salt unless it’s Games Workshop-confirmed.
Going forward, this section will be updated weekly in this column. Any titles that are announced but without a date will be added once a date is assigned it, and anything highlighted in green is something just added (or updated) this week.
Upcoming but Undated
- Master of Rites, by Rob Young
- Dropsite Massacre, by John French
- Krakenblood, by Marc Collins
- Yarrick, the Box Set, by David Annandale
- The Relentless Dead, by Steve Lyons (hardcover and Special)
- Steel Tread, by Andy Clark (hardcover and Special)
- Demolisher, by Andy Clark (hardcover and Special)
- Vagabond Squadron, by Robbie MacNiven (hardcover and Special)
Upcoming in 2025
- The Remnant Blade, by Mike Vincent (hardcover, 10/4)
- Voidscarred, by Mike Brooks (hardcover and Special Edition, 10/4)
- Darkness Eternal: Stories from the 41st Millennium, by various. (paperback, 10/4)
- Elemental Council, by Noah Van Nguyen (paperback, 10/4) (review)
- Warhammer 40,000 Character Encyclopedia, by Wade Pryce (hardcover, 10/7)
- Warhammer 40,000 Words of War: The Miniature Book of Space Marines Quotes (hardcover, 10/7)
- Tomb World, by Jonthan D. Beer (hardcover and Special Edition) 10/11
- Morvenn Vahl: Spear of Faith, by Jude Reid (paperback, 10/11)
- Ashes of the Imperium: The Scouring, by Chris Wraight (hardcover, 11/4)
- Double Eagle, by Dan Abnett (paperback, 11/18)
- Death and Duty: An Anthology, by various (paperback, 11/18)
- Interceptor City, by Dan Abnett (paperback, 11/18) (review)
- The Art of Warhammer Video Games, by Andy Hall (hardcover, 11/25)
- The Twice-Dead King: The Omnibus, by Nate Crowley (paperback, 12/2)
- Hell’s Last, by Justin D. Hill (paperback, 12/16)
- The Rise of Nagash, by Mike Lee (paperback, 12/16)
Upcoming in 2026
- Farsight: Blade of Truth, by Phil Kelly (paperback, 1/27)
- Fulgrim: The Perfect Son, by Jude Reid (paperback, 1/27) (review)
- Siege of Terra: The Shattered and the Soulless, by Graham McNeill (paperback, 1/27)
- Vaults of Terra: The Omnibus, by Chris Wraight (paperback, 1/27)
- Huron Blackheart: Master of the Maelstrom, by Mike Brooks (paperback, 3/10)
- Carcharodons: Void Exile, by Robbie MacNiven (paperback, 3/10)
- The Green Tide, by Mike Brooks, Nate Crowley, and Justin Woolley (paperback 3/24)
- Carnage Unending, by Dan Abnett (paperback, 4/21)
Footnotes
- Aasa’s passion for Warhammer goes well beyond that of the hobbyist and into the realm of the academic. Her doctoral dissertation involves worldbuilding in Warhammer and she was a panelist at this year’s Warhammer Conference.
- One of the most famous disputes actually ended getting settled before it made its way before a judge. Here’s noted deep thinker Vanilla Ice on how a slight difference can make something an entirely new creation. Apparently.
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