The year 1994 stands not only as a major turning point in the history of the Glasgow Celtic football club, but also a rare and triumphant example of how ‘people power’ can change the way beloved companies operate.
It was, admittedly, a pretty lousy time to be a Celtic fan. Crosstown archrivals Rangers were in the midst of a nine-in-a-row championship run, and the White and Kelly families that had controlled Celtic for nearly a century seemed unwilling both to invest in the club financially or adapt to the changing face of modern football. Celtic was falling further and further behind Rangers both on and off the pitch, and there didn’t seem to be any ambition or urgency to restore the days of past glory.
Eventually, fan misgivings and complaints turned to direct action. Fans banded together in organizations like Celts for Change and Save Our Celts, boycotted matches, protested at games, and even picketed Celtic’s bank. The board splintered, and cast into financial crisis were forced to sell the club to Fergus McCann, Scottish-Canadian businessman and lifelong Celtic fan. McCann had promised to pump money back into Celtic, and had the backing of the fans on his side.
“The game is over,” board member Brian Dempsey famously noted on the steps of Celtic Park on the day of the sale, “the rebels have won.”
There was similar rejoicing around the Black Library community this week as the latest developments in the Hive saga unfolded. I covered much of the twists and turns the story has taken last week, with readers facing the grim prospect of having to find a participating Warhammer store location to get the Special Edition of Dan Abnett’s magnum opus.
But there was one more twist, dropping on Wednesday.
“We’ve received a lot of feedback about the special edition only being available in select Warhammer stores,” Games Workshop noted in an update on Warhammer Community, “and know many of you were worried that you would miss out on getting a copy.”
And then the words so many had been hoping for…
We’ve heard your concerns, and have decided to cancel the in-store release of the special edition this weekend. Instead, we’ll be making two versions of the book available on a print-on-demand basis.
And there it was. No online mad dash to beat the scalpers. No quantity-limited, in-store fight to get them. Instead, a wide-open, print-on-demand reissue. And if anyone thought a 180-day wait was too steep a price to pay, I haven’t heard a peep.
As I noted last week, “I think eventually we’ll look back at this period of time and see a Games Workshop that was struggling to find a distribution model for its deluxe edition Black Library offerings that could satisfy everyone.”
If this week has shown anything, it’s that while Games Workshop may not get things right every time, they are at least willing to listen.
Under McCann’s ownership, Celtic’s change of course bore fruit in 1998 when they stopped Rangers from winning ten championships in a row. Indeed, from then until now they’ve won 21 titles, with Rangers only managing eight1. While a similar renaissance for us Black Library readers is unlikely, this is certainly a step in the right direction.
Not For The Faint of Heart
So if we’ve moved to a print-on-demand model for Hive’s Special Edition, one without numbering or Dan Abnett’s autograph, what’s to become of the original print run? You know, the ones that were shipped to all the stores?
It’s been famously noted of Magic: the Gathering players that if you handed them a hundred-dollar bill, they’d complain about how it was folded2. There was an element of that this week in the wake of the Hive news, with a few complaints about the released copies not being available for Saturday purchase.
I mean, c’mon, we just got handed a big concession from Games Workshop, right?
But on the other, they’re probably right. I don’t think there would have been a lot of ill-will if GW had gone ahead and done both. Made the original print run available in-store as they’d prepared to do, and offer the POD window for anyone else unable or unwilling to trek to their closest Warhammer store.
As a bibliophile, the idea of pulping books is painful. Sure, sometimes it’s a matter of legality, as with the story of Dark Hunters: Umbra Sumus, but if you don’t have to, why do it?
Arrivals & Departures
While previously I’d focused more on what was right around the corner with Up for Preorder, the new Arrivals & Departures section will also serve as a reminder to what’s been released this past weekend.
Arrivals
It’s here! The latest from Jude Reid (Fulgim: The Perfect Son, Morvenn Vahl: Spear of Faith) is the tie-in book for the launch of Warhammer 40,000’s 11th Edition. Armageddon: Season of Fire will be up for preordering this coming Saturday. To my surprise, though, it will only be offered in standard hardcover- no Special or Limited Editions in sight.
Longtime readers may recall I did a pocket history of the previous editions’ tie-in novels here, as well.
Departures
No new books dropped onto store shelves this week, so the runway is clear!
Sharing a Six-Pack With… Justin Woolley!
The Six-Pack is an occasional Black Library Weekly tradition, with a Black Library author past or present sharing some of their personal book recommendations. The ask is simple: three books from the Black Library. Two books that aren’t. And then one book of their own!
If your tastes run to the greenskin persuasion, a return to Armageddon has been a real banquet. New models, a new edition of the game featuring your faction- and plenty of Ork action in the Black Library including the latest book from Justin Woolley!
Woolley, whose previous works for Warhammer have included Catachan Devil, Prisoners of Waaagh!, and Long Live Da Red Gobbo, joined us this week for some of his personal recommendations!
Three Black Library Books He’d Recommend…
The Infinite and the Divine by Robert Rath. “I mean, this one probably doesn’t need a recommendation because the community has well and truly embraced how terrific it is. Rob Rath’s dueling necron maniacs are like if Itchy and Scratchy were astronomically intelligent ancient creatures whose cartoon battle lasted millennia and stretched across the galaxy. It is funny, smart, epic in scope and still perfectly captures the universe of Warhammer 40k.”
Brutal Kunnin’ by Mike Brooks. “Almost all of my Black Library work has been about orks. I came into Black Library from writing science fiction comedy and I love the orks as the faction that allows us to produce a lighter side to the grim darkness while maintaining them as an utterly brutal and terrifying enemy. I have to credit Mike Brooks with laying the foundation for an increasing desire and foundation for orks to take centre stage in Black Library fiction. Brutal Kunnin’ is, to my mind, where great ork novels really started in Black Library. So I recommend this. Standin’ on da shoulders of giants and all dat.”
For the Emperor by Sandy Mitchell. “Among the first Black Library books I ever read many years ago and the first that showed me that Warhammer 40k could be funny. For me, even in the darkest of settings contrast is important. Humour is rife in war. Laughter and dark humour have long been a tool humans have used to endure hard times and build psychological resilience. For a setting born from satire sometimes leaning into the more comedic aspects makes for the most memorable characters and, for me, Ciaphas Cain is one of the settings very best.”
Two Non-Black Library Books He’d Recommend…
The City & the City by China Miéville. “Always one of my go to recommendations when people ask because it combines several things I love in fiction. A police procedural. Meticulous world-building. Highly imaginative fantasy. I won’t reveal too much but this is a special book. A detective novel set in a place where two cities overlap in the same dimensional space and two detective must solve a murder that crosses that boundary. One of my all time favourites.”
Night Watch by Terry Pratchett. “I mean, Pratchett is the GOAT of comedic genre fiction and this is, in my opinion, his best book. If you are a fantasy or science fiction reader and you have never delved into the Discworld then you are missing some of the true masterpieces in SFF. The man who inspired me to write and my favourite author of all time.”
And Finally, One of His Own Books He’d Recommend…
Da Freebooterz Code. “My newest work for Black Library and one that I really feel I hit my orky stride on. I loved writing the adventure of Kaptin Skeeg Horntoof and hope I managed to achieve what I set out to do, a comedic adventure that still feels at home within the 40k universe. Bonus sneaky second plug, if you like my comedic 40k work you might also like Shakedowners, my comedic science-fiction series.”
Thanks, Justin! And if- like me- you’re curious about Shakedowners, here’s the book’s premise:
After graduating bottom of his class at Space Command Academy Iridius Franklin hasn’t had the glamorous career he envisioned, instead he hauls cargo ships full of mining waste, alien land whale dung, and artificially intelligent toy dogs across the stars.
Iridius does have talent though - he is exceptionally good at breaking starships. So, when not hauling freight, he is captain of a shakedown crew, a skeleton crew used to test newly constructed ships for faults before the real crew takes over.
While on a routine shakedown mission aboard the FSC Gallaway, soon to be pride of the Federation Fleet, Earth is attacked by an unknown alien life-form. With the galaxy in chaos, Captain Iridius B. Franklin finds himself, unqualified, understaffed and completely unprepared, in command of the most advanced starship in the galaxy.
Now, he just needs to not break it.
Oh, and he’s got signed copies available at his website, too!
June’s Black Library Weekly Giveaway
Some were fortunate to grab a copy of the standard, hardcover edition of Abnett’s Hive when it hit the store shelves. Others will be happy to wait the 180 days to get theirs through the new print-on-demand offering.
But one lucky reader will get to split the difference, winning a copy for the Dispatch’s June Black Library Giveaway!
Here’s how to enter:
Make sure you’re a Subscriber to the Black Library Dispatch.
Leave a comment below sharing what your favorite book by Dan Abnett is, and why (and it doesn’t have to be a Black Library title). A line or two is perfectly fine, please don’t feel you need to write a Hive-length explanation unless the spirit truly moves you. And hey, if you haven’t read any yet, that’s okay too- we all start somewhere!
That’s it! Next week I’ll pick a winner at random, and ta-daa, you’re getting Hive-d! As the Black Library is a global community, the contest is open to readers from anywhere on Terra. Sorry tech-priests, we’ll have to wait a bit to unlock Mars delivery.
Creative Uncommons
I always love seeing the incredible creativity and passion of the Black Library bibliophile3 community, such as custom bookbinding for the Horus Heresy, or hand-written transcriptions of Black Library stories onto scrolls.
This latest bit of awesome comes to us by way of Vyas Sundarrajan, one of the amazing residents of the Black Library Nutters Community over on Facebook. Vyas noted he wasn’t thrilled with the flimsy cardstock slipcover the books come with by default, so he designed and 3-D printed one of his own.
Not only does it look fantastic, but Vyas has freely shared the STL files with anyone who’d like to print their own! “I have been unconditionally helped by wonderful people here before,” he noted, “and am sure I will be in their debt in the future too - this is just me passing their good will on.”
Thanks, Vyas!
200 Subscribers!
Just 60 days in to the new Black Library Dispatch and we’ve crossed 30 articles and 200 subscribers! I’m delighted on both counts, but the latter is a little bittersweet as I’m frustrated about the issue with polling.
As I covered in the most recent Hall Monitor, I’d been a little perplexed why voting participation was down since we (temporarily) moved it here while Tabletop Battles gets polling fixed in the backend. Turns out, apparently Substack for whatever reason only allows Subscribers to vote in polls.
Now I’m fine with that being an option (and indeed, there is an option where Substack editors can make it even more restrictive by limiting it to paying Subscribers), but not as the basic default. If a Substack editor like me wants their polling to be open, by Jove, that’s a pretty reasonable functionality to expect! To be clear, I’m delighted when someone feels the content here is worth subscribing to, but I don’t like anyone feeling like they have to in order to participate in voting polls.
I’ve sent off a features request to the dev team, but who knows if/when that’ll happen. In the meantime, I’ll try to find a Plan C for voting for the Readers’ Hall of Fame next time.
ICYMI
Here’s what’s been going on this week for Warhammer content!
Black Library Dispatch
It’s a Black Library Readers’ Hall of Fame week, so that means (at least while Tabletop Battles figures out the polling issues) we’ve got the ballot for 2010 here on the Dispatch. Again, the caveat is that you have to be a Subscriber to vote due to Substack’s design. Kindly bear with us, the show must go on!
That also means we’ve had a new installment of The Hall Monitor, a sort of “behind the scenes” chat around all things BLRHoF. This week I talked a bit about the mystery of the lower poll voting, a mystery that we then appeared to solve.
For review content, I took a look at the audiobook of The Daemon’s Curse, the first book in the Malus Darkblade series by Hall-of-famers Dan Abnett and Mike Lee. You won’t find a better voice for Malus than Andrew James Spooner, and I can’t wait to spin up the next one.
Finally, whether you’re into Warhammer role-playing games or not, this week’s Warhammer RPG SITREP talked about an upcoming book covering the entire history of Warhammer. Exciting!
Tabletop Battles
The main article for the Black Library Readers’ Hall of Fame is always at TTB, of course! We crown the inductees for the Class of 2009!
As part of my new Heroes of the Black Library series, this week I dove into Commissar Sebastian Yarrick. Not only the man, the myth, and the legend- but also the books, the author, his history in miniatures, and on-theme curios to decorate your library.
TTB has kicked off a multi-part Lore Explainer series on Armageddon, beginning with a look at the planet itself. This week, Rob “The Chirurgeon” Jones was back to talk about the oft-overlooked First War of Armageddon.
Meanwhile, Saffgor reviewed the new Mechanicus II video game, with writing by the Black Library’s own Ben Counter (Soul Drinker, Grey Knights)!
Warhammer Community
The Chronicles of Ruin serial mini-anthology for Age of Sigmar dropped a new story this week, The Steel Baron. These unattributed bits of fiction tend to follow the tabletop releases and this one’s no exception, featuring the new Cogforts!
After his triumphs at Isstvan, Horus and his armies didn’t sit still. This week’s Pages from the Black Books covers his march of conquest through the Coronid Deeps.
Aside from the Sunday Preview, it’s not every week we get new content but this time they dropped the new Warhammer 40K trailer. Almost four minutes long, if you’re not getting chills or gooseflesh here, what are you even doing?
WarhammerTV (paywalled)
The first episode of the brand-new animated series Aeronautica Imperialis, Ignorance Leads Death, arrived this week. Dogfights between Imperials and Aeldari? Hell yeah.
For more book-oriented far, the latest episode of the Black Library Book Club also was released. As we prepare for Armageddon, the lads were discussing Nate Crowley’s Ghazghkull Thraka: Prophet of the Waaagh!.
Around the Webway
Alex at Wargamer had a humorous rant piece this week talking about why Perturabo is the worst Primarch. Part of his case comes from Guy Haley’s Hammer of Olympia, Perturabo’s entry in the Primarch series, and I found the whole thing an amusing read.
Jen and Keri of the terrific WH40K Book Club tackled Ghazghkull Thraka: Warlord of Warlords by Denny Flowers this week, and just as I did they found it terrific fun!
Then over at the 40K Book Club run by Arbitor Ian and Mira Manga, Mike Brooks’s Voidscarred went under the microscope. Voidscarred was the Goonhammer 40K Book of the Year for 2025 as well as the runner-up for the official Black Library Book of the Year, so I was keen to hear their thoughts on it.
Cold Open Corner
The word “fanfic” tends to get a bad rap (not entirely undeservedly), but Cold Open Stories sets a very high standard of excellence for its Warhammer offerings (although somehow I managed to sneak in, so there’s that). This week they released their latest anthology, Sanctum Librarium vol. 16.
Quick Hits
If you’re around Nottingham towards the end of this month, make sure to check out the Waterstones booksellers on the evening of the 30th. The event features a conversation with Mike Brooks (Lelith Hesperax, The Lion: Son of the Forest) around his new, original novel This is Where the Future Bleeds. And his interviewer? Some guy named John French (Ahriman: Exile, Dropsite Massacre)!
In the meantime, if you’re in Kent on the 13th, Dan Abnett will be in attendance at the 2026 Broadside Games Show at the table of the Monster Merchants.
Crimson Fists Omnibus reprint incoming? One retailer in Germany seems to think so.
The new James Bond video game, 007 First Light, got a glowing review from the Guardian. Congrats to Simon Jowett (Apothecary’s Honour, Xenocide) who was part of the writing team!
Exciting news for Adrian Tchaikovsky (Day of Ascension, Starseer’s Ruin), who shared that one of his book series, The Tyrant Philosophers, is being turned into a tabletop RPG by Handiwork Games!
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
Rynn’s World, by Steve Parker (Special Edition)
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
Horus Rising, by Dan Abnett (paperback, 6/2)
Armageddon: Season of Fire, by Jude Reid (hardcover, 6/20)
Tomb World, by Jonathan Beer (paperback, 6/30)
The Remnant Blade, by Mike Vincent (paperback, 6/30)
Voidscarred, by Mike Brooks (paperback, 6/30)
Krakenblood, by Marc Collins (paperback, 7/14)
Vagabond Squadron, by Robbie MacNiven (paperback, 7/14)
Starseer’s Ruin, by Adrian Tchaikovsky (paperback, 7/14)
Siege of Terra: Flames of Betrayal, by various (paperback, 7/28)
Warhammer Age of Sigmar: The Ultimate Guide (hardcover, 8/4)
Archmagos, by Guy Haley (paperback, 8/11)
The Relentless Dead, by Steve Lyons (paperback, 8/11)
Words of Waaagh!, by DK Books (hardcover, 10/1)
Thanks again for joining me for all the going’s on in the Black Library, and see you next week!
My hill-to-die-on opinion is that the Scottish league is the most entertaining football in the world, and that nothing else even comes close. Notice I did not say best.
As an OG MtG player and onetime owner/operator of an FLGS, I think I’m allowed to say this.
The founding omnibus was my first experience of reading Dan Abnett's work. My collection of his works has mostly ended up in audiobook format now which, for me, means everything I have listened to has been elevated by Toby Longworth's narration. I shall choose First and Only as my favourite as it's where it all began for me.
Traitor General is my fav Dan Abnett! The pacing is exquisite and you get such a great set of deep dives on the Ghosts involved. Loved it even more on second reading