Having spent the last several weeks teasing us with glimpses of things coming down the pipeline, we’re clearly in the delivery half of the timeline. First to fall was Robert Rath’s Special Edition of Assassinorum: Kingmaker a fortnight ago, originally revealed on Warhammer Community in mid-August and dropping for preorder at the end of August.
This coming Saturday we’ll be able to preorder the second of the three promised Special Editions, the Saints of the Imperium boxed set. With the two Space Wolves sets still somewhat in the rearview, it’s a good time to be a fan of things that come in threes.
Saints of the Imperium’s trio of hardcovers contain novels Celestine: The Living Saint (2019) by Andy Clark, Ephrael Stern: The Heretic Saint (2020) by David Annandale, and The Triumph of Saint Katherine (2022) by Danie Ware, alongside Clark’s short story Celestine: Revelation from 2020.
This is, in effect, a special edition not just of the constituent stories, but also of 2024’s Saints and Martyrs: An Adepta Sororitas Omnibus which featured identical contents. Given that recent reprinting, this latest Special Edition really is one more for the collectors than the readers and that may play into demand.
With this release, that leaves only Mike Brooks’ Voidscarred as the remaining title from August’s Special Edition reveal, and my gut tells me I’d expect to see it sometime within the next two to three weeks.
ICYMI
Some books happen to be better than others at the onboarding experience. My first exposure to Age of Sigmar was Gary Kloster’s Skaventide, which I found half entertaining and half bewildering. In fairness to Kloster, that’s much more of a reflection on me than him- I came in cold, steeped in 40K but completely oblivious to Warhammer’s fantasy properties. Still, it’s always worth pointing out when a book scores well on accessibility so it can be recommended to others getting their toes wet in a setting for the first time.
Shade of Khaine, by Evan Dicken, is just such a book, and this past week it got the full Goonhammer review treatment.
Speaking of Age of Sigmar fiction, Warhammer Community offered up a short piece this week with Let us Speak of Hashut, the Father of Darkness. It was a banner week for bite-sized storytelling over there, as 40K fans got a pair of vignettes around two of the newest Space Marine heroes, Darnath Lysander of the Imperial Fists and Aethon Shann of the Raven Guard. These are part of the Heroes of the First Founding series WarCom kicked off last month with The Drake and the Hydra.
Around the webs, the Fluffenhammer Podcast continued its issue-by-issue breakdown of Warhammer Monthly, the old comic book series that ran from 1998-2004. This time it’s issue #11, which included Dan Abnett’s Inquisitor and the regular series Daemonifuge. Well worth checking out!
Finally, the WH40K Book Club with Jen and Keri’s latest episode tackles Guy Haley’s Baneblade, while Arbiter Ian and Mira Manga’s Book Club reviewed Abnett’s The Guns of Tanith, the fifth book in the Gaunt’s Ghosts saga.
Quick Hits
- The worlds of video games and the Black Library overlap more than you might think, and it’s always exciting to see our favorite authors writing scripts and stories for game studios. For instance, Jude Reid (Fulgrim- The Perfect Son, Morvenn Vahl: Spear of Faith), Mark Latham (Kovos Falls, Judgment), and Victoria Hayward (Deathworlder, The Feast of St. Luthera) have all been involved with Darktide, and the recent announcement of Dawn of War IV we’ll get to see what co-writer John French (Ahriman, Tallarn: Ironclad) has cooked up for us!
- For a look at a Black Library author working on a non-Warhammer game property, James Swallow (Garro, The Buried Dagger) has posted a two-part reflection (part one here) on his time working as a script and narrative writer for Disney’s Infinity game, the one that was based on the same tech as Skylanders with collectible minis you could play in-game.
- The latest Sinister Dexter trade paperback, Bulletopia, is now available for preorder. Straight from the pages of 2000AD and written by Dan Abnett, it features the pair of hitmen right up to the timeline in his most recent strip, Azimuth.
- Marvel Comics Gwenpool #5 is preparing to hit comic stands and newsracks (are those still a thing?) as the first story arc comes to a close. Written by Cavan Scott (Plague Harvest, Secrets of the Tau), he recently shared that he’s “incredibly proud of all the hard work the team put into this book. It was a challenging book in a lot of ways, but a great experience.”
- Cold Open Stories has announced a new community judge for the latest 40K Fast Fiction competition, Gabriel of Canada’s Fenris Workshop. The current contest is themed The Enemy Within, and more details can be found here. Longtime readers may recall that my story, A Peaceful Transfer of Power, was an Editor’s Choice in the previous Fast Fiction contest (and the story of that, involving Black Library writer Richard Fox (We Were Brothers) is told here).
- The Black Library eBook of the Month is back, and this time it’s a Gotrek book! Ghoulslayer, by Darius Hinks, is just four bucks but act fast- the deal expires tomorrow (Tuesday).
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
- Dropsite Massacre, by John French
- Krakenblood, by Marc Collins
- The Remnant Blade, by Mike Vincent
- Saints of the Imperium (boxed set), by David Annandale, Any Clark, and Danie Ware
- Tomb World, by Jonathan D. Beer
- Voidscarred (Special Edition), by Mike Brooks
- Voidscarred (regular), by Mike Brooks
Upcoming in 2025
- Ciaphas Cain: The Anthology, by Sandy Mitchell (paperback, 9/23)
- The Twice-Dead King: The Omnibus, by Nate Crowley (paperback, 9/23)
- 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)
- Elemental Council, by Noah Van Nguyen (paperback, 10/7) (review)
- Morvenn Vahl: Spear of Faith, by Jude Reid (paperback, 10/21)
- 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)
- 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)
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