Spare a moment’s thought for our friends on the other side of the world. While living in the Land Down Under or Middle Earth certainly has no shortage of benefits including extraordinary wildlife and Aussie Rules Football, they’re also on the bleeding edge of the Games Workshop preorder window.
That means when things go right, the only thing they have to worry about is their traditionally-lean allocation. When things go wrong, well… then they’re the ol’ canary in the coal mine.
This past weekend, things went very wrong indeed.
Saturday, of course, was a big preorder day for the Black Library as the second book in the Horus Heresy Saga, Graham McNeill’s False Gods, went up for preorder in both standard hardback and Premium editions. If you’re relatively new to the Black Library, let’s take a quick detour back to March of 2019 and this bad boy:
The Solar War by John French was the kickoff novel for the Siege of Terra series, each installment of which was released in a beautiful, Limited Edition leatherette treatment with embossed medallion. This series was catnip to collectors- and, naturally, chum in the water for scalpers. It’s difficult to overstate just how frustrating this era was for many, working to complete a collection of books that frequently sold out at near-instant speed.
As a result, we’ve been conditioned to chase these books like they’re front-row seats for a concert. If you’re not in the running the moment the gates open, well, there’s always eBay- and may the Emperor have mercy on your wallet. While it does appear that Games Workshop has taken steps to limit the influence of scalpers (implementing a Captcha and de-limiting the ‘Premium Editions,’ for instance), I think a lot of us go into the experience fearing the worst.
Folks in Australia and New Zealand experienced exactly that.
The Saturday Preorder Megathread on the Black Library subreddit showed story after story, but as the window of opportunity made its way Eastward things did seem to stabilize. Some problems in the UK… and then a very smooth experience for us in the US, with product being still available for longer than many expected.
Unsung Hero Award
It looks like the issues this time around were technical in nature, rather than being a supply problem. It’s unfortunate, but the site hasn’t been invented yet that’s impervious to technical misadventure (go ask our Magic: the Gathering-playing friends how “magical” an experience they have with Secret Lair drops). Being the tip of the global spear means you’re always going to be the guinea pig for high-demand order days, and I wish I could say there’s an upside to that beyond just serving as a warning for others.
But I do want to take a moment to recognize u/PedroDelCaso. Once GW had worked out the bugs and stock for the Oceania region was restored, this guy leapt into action like Paul Revere copying and pasting an alert to everyone and anyone that had been impacted.
Good on you, Pedro! When we look out for one another, that’s when a community truly becomes greater than the sum of its parts.
Penny for Your Thoughts (Conclusion)
Last week I asked subscribers to share their thoughts around the structure of the site, and thank you to all who did here, on Reddit, and elsewhere!
The general consensus seemed to be, “give us the tools to customize the notification emails we get from you, and we’ll take it from there!”
So here it is! Black Library content will be divided into two Sections.
Black Library Weekly will get you just the Monday column.
Black Library Features will get you everything else. That’s typically the Wednesday featurette (Audio Impressions, Show and Tell, Black Library Bibliophiles, etc.) as well as The Hall Monitor every other week.
And of course, there’s:
Role-Playing Games will get you all RPG content, from the weekly column on Fridays to anything else.
Again, this is just concerning email notifications for subscribers in an effort to make sure I’m not flooding people’s inboxes. If you need a refresher on how to add or remove what you’re subscribed too, I have a walkthrough here.
And with that, this should be the last site-based content you’ll have to sit through for awhile. Thank you to everyone helping to make the Warhammer Wordforge the best it can be!
Now, it’s a big week for new stuff, so I hope you’ve been saving up!
Arrivals & Departures
In this section I look at what’s coming up around the corner (Arrivals) and what’s landing on bookstore shelves (Departures).
Arrivals
Hooboy! It’s been quiet in the Black Library for a bit, so I guess we can’t be too surprised that we’ve just hit the first “Bonanza Week” we’ve had in awhile. There’s a crazy amount of goodies up for grabs this Saturday, including the Illustrated and Annotated Edition of Sandy Mitchell’s For the Emperor.
No product in recent times has gotten me more excited than the Illustrated and Annotated Editions. As I talked about in my review of Chris Wraight’s The Lords of Silence, these are simply an incredible value for dollar. Not only do you get a classic Warhammer story with some nice illustrations throughout, but the author’s additional commentary is absolute gold. Ciaphas Cain has left a huge mark on the Black Library, and being able to get into Mitchell’s head for a guided tour of the first book of the series is an opportunity you really shouldn’t miss.
As a reminder, unlike other deluxe editions these are distributed through Warhammer retailers in addition to being available online. If you’re worried about being able to obtain one when the preorder window opens on Saturday, check in with your friendly neighborhood Warhammer store or FLGS.
Next up we’ve got a new printing of Dan Abnett’s Sabbat Worlds Crusade. This has been offered before, including as part of a Limited Edition boxed set, but much like the iterations of the Imperial Infantryman’s Handbook it’s nice to see them periodically return for a new generation of readers and collectors.
A new Special Edition of Rynn’s World by Steve Parker was teased awhile back, and we’ve been waiting to see when it was gonna drop. Well, the wait is over! Originally part of the Space Marine Battles series and published in 2010, it sees the Crimson Fists fighting off an Ork invasion of their homeworld.
For those like me who take as much enjoyment from decorating their library (or museum) as stocking it, the new miniature of Ciaphas Cain (and his faithful sidekick Jurgen) are hitting the store shelves. You get a choice of bases, able to build them separately (as shown above) or together as a diorama.
I’ll admit I find the distinguished gentlemen unsettlingly simian in appearance here, but the ability to have a Cain diorama makes this a no-brainer all the same.
Finally, Valhallan enjoyers will have the opportunity to add a regimental banner to their displays. I’m a sucker for this kind of stuff, curios that bring bookshelves to vibrant life, and this one’s going right into my cart as well.
Three Black Library novels are arriving in paperback as well, and this is an awfully stacked lineup. I know, because I’ve reviewed them all! Mark Collins wrote Krakenblood like pure poetry, Vagabond Squadron’s Warhammer-meets-the-Vietnam-War flyboy tale was one of Robbie MacNiven’s finest novels to date, and I can’t rave enough about Adrian Tchaikovsky’s Starseer’s Ruin, the 2025 Goonhammer Award Winner for Best Age of Sigmar Novel. It’s a superb point of entry for anyone wanting to explore AoS fiction but just not sure where to start, and I had an enjoyable interview with the author as well.
I know I risk sounding like a shill here, but I genuinely enjoyed all three of these and recommend them.
Finally, some books are on the menu for the French and German audiences. I find it interesting that they’re releasing the translations of Abnett’s Hive separately, forcing those folks to have to wait for the conclusion of the story rather than just going full-tilt into it like us English-speakers enjoyed (my review here).
Fair play to the Germans here, though- that distressed cover of Verteideger des Imperiums is fire.
Departures
Just one this week, Jude Reid’s 11th Edition tie-in Armageddon: Season of Fire. Note that this is just he standard edition hardcover; the Special Edition was offered one week later and won’t be in our hands until the end of this week.
Any Tacticus players? As a Warhammer+ subscriber we occasionally get some extra goodies in our inbox, and this month there’s a code for Mataneo of the Blood Angels: 000T5KMGPJKG9VMKH
It’s all yours to the first person who claims it! All I ask in return is that you leave a comment below that you have, so that other folks won’t waste their time trying to input a claimed code.
Enjoy!
ICYMI
Here’s what’s been going on this week for Warhammer content!
Warhammer Wordforge
This week’s featurette was a review of Prospero Burns, by Dan Abnett, for my audiobook series Audio Impressions. I didn’t love this one, but it does have a truly fascinating history that I cover in some depth.
For you RPG players out there, Cubicle 7 Games also teased the upcoming Sylvania Setting Guide which I discussed in Friday’s Warhammer RPG Weekly.
Tabletop Battles
The next installment of my Heroes of the Black Library series dropped on TTB, and this week we talked about the Beast of Armageddon himself: Ghazghkull Thraka!
Not enough? I also reviewed World Ablaze, the latest 40K anthology filled with new stories from some of the Black Library’s most veteran talents. Spoiler: it’s damn good.
And now for something completely different… If you read one thing this week, make it this piece by Lenoon. It’s part of his Warlord Titan series, but never have I seen a Warhammer model so infused with a sense of time and place. This is actual art masquerading as a wargame, and it’s absolutely sublime.
Warhammer Community
I’m not sure why it annoys me so much that Warhammer Community runs its short fiction as uncredited, but when they have such terrifically creative pieces on there like the Hedonites of Slaanesh story they ran this week for the Chronicles of Ruin series, it comes right to the fore. C’mon, GW, put a name on it and give credit where credit’s due!
This week’s Pages from the Black Books offering covers the Betrayal at Chondax, with the White Scars ahunt amongst the greenskins.
WarhammerTV (paywalled)
The trailer for the third installment of WarhammerTV’s latest animated series, Aeronautica Imperialis, dropped this week over on WARCOM. The episode arrives on Friday, so look for my full Show and Tell review the following Wednesday!
A new episode of the Black Library author interview show Scribes & Scriveners lands tomorrow, and this time they’re talking to Denny Flowers (Ghazghkull Thraka: Warlord of Warlords, Outgunned)!
Around the Webway
Cinderfall Gaming did a review of Aaron Dembski-Bowden’s Black Legion. I enjoy their reviews in particular because they typically consume the books in the audio format, making this a video equivalent to my Audio Impressions series.
It’s been a hot minute since we’ve had one, but the Fluffenhammer Podscast is back with their series walking through the pages of Warhammer Monthly one issue at a time! This week they dove into issue #27 (from February 2000), with Darkblade, Bloodquest, Pariah, and more on offer. Welcome back, fellas!
Finally, over at Arbitor Ian’s Precinct House he’s got the latest installment of the Warhammer Book Club with Mira Manga. This time they’re giving a look at the 26th book of the Horus Heresy, Vulkan Lives by Nick Kyme.
Cold Open Stories
This week’s featured story, Embalmed by Lincoln Addington, is a real rarity: a story about the necrontyr. “Before 40k, before the Emperor, there were the Necrontyr. A powerful yet tragic race, they were a product of their environment and circumstance, as all are in the grim darkness of the Galaxy, even in the forgotten eon. They were possessed wisdom and arrogance in equal measure, but in the end, only one would win out.”
Quick Hits
u/BriarFox13 shared what a great time she had at a recent book signing with Dan Abnett. “He's so lovely and kind as always,” she noted. “Had great fun chatting about his books and upcoming projects.” According to her, those ‘upcoming projects’ include writing the third book in the Double Eagle series, and he’s keen to write a new arc for Gaunt’s Ghosts should his schedule permit down the road. Exciting stuff!
Gareth Hanrahan (Castle of the Exile, Rites of Binding) has a “cozy fantasy mystery RPG” crowdfunding campaign coming up soon with the Merryshire Detective Club. The pre-launch page is up if you’d like to check it out. Also, if you’ve got an RPG-focused blog or podcast, he’d love to connect!
Tim Waggoner (Skin Man) wrote a piece this week on AI from an author’s perspective, and- in particular- what authors can (and should) do to avoid having their work accused of being AI-generated.
John French (Dropsite Massacre, The Hollow King), meanwhile, offered some indispensable writing advice on crafting deep characters that readers will respond to.
Josh Reynolds (Fulgrim: The Palatine Phoenix, Clonelord) dropped a new Baron Vordenburg short story, A Thousand Iron Teeth. If you’re unfamiliar with the ongoing saga, the are “the adventures of Baron Palman Vordenburg, latest and last scion of a family of infamous Styrian monster-hunters. As the world reels in the wake of the Great War, Vordenburg continues his family tradition, hunting the horrors that haunt the shadows of Europe and beyond.”
Coming Attractions
Here’s a list of the known 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.
This section will be updated weekly in this column, and anything in bold has been added (or updated) this week.
Upcoming but Undated
Ghazghkull Thraka: Prophet of the Waaagh! (Illustrated and Annotated Edition), by Nate Crowley
Current PODs in Production
Hive, by Dan Abnett (Special Edition)
Upcoming in 2026
Armageddon: Season of Fire, by Jude Reid (Special Edition, 6/27)
Tomb World, by Jonathan Beer (paperback, 6/27)
The Remnant Blade, by Mike Vincent (paperback, 6/27)
Voidscarred, by Mike Brooks (paperback, 6/27)
False Gods, by Graham McNeill (hardcover and Premium, 7/4)
Horus Rising, by Dan Abnett (Saga edition paperback, 7/4)
Gloomspite, by Andy Clark (hardcover, 7/4)
Rynn’s World, by Steve Parker (Special Edition, 7/11)
For the Emperor (Illustrated and Annotated Edition), by Sandy Mitchell (7/11)
The Sabbat Worlds Crusade, by Dan Abnett (hardcover, 7/11)
Krakenblood, by Marc Collins (paperback, 7/11)
Vagabond Squadron, by Robbie MacNiven (paperback, 7/11)
Starseer’s Ruin, by Adrian Tchaikovsky (paperback, 7/11)
Siege of Terra: Flames of Betrayal, by various (paperback, 7/28)
Warhammer Age of Sigmar: The Ultimate Guide (hardcover, 8/11)
Archmagos, by Guy Haley (paperback, 8/11)
The Relentless Dead, by Steve Lyons (paperback, 8/11)
Words of Waaagh!, by DK Books (hardcover, 10/6)
The Sundering, by Gav Thorpe (paperback, 10/6)
Thanks again for joining me for all the going’s on in the Black Library, and see you next week!
Thank you for the Tacticus code!