Black Library Weekly: The View from Everest

Head in the Clouds Edition

Big news this week for the ol’ Black Library Dispatch as we crossed 100 subscribers. I’ll be candid, I had no idea how this thing was gonna go over when it came time to decouple the Black Library Weekly from Tabletop Battles (formerly Goonhammer). If you’d told me I’d have half this number of subscribers in twice the time I’d have considered that a terrific start.

So let’s start this week’s column with a huge thank you to those reading this and another to those who have subscribed. It’s gratifying to see so much interest in having regular, steady coverage of the Black Library, its books and its authors past and present. Let’s keep the momentum going and, if you’re of a mind to, help keep it going by sharing things you’ve enjoyed here with others who may as well!

Okay, so maaaybe ‘the view from Everest’ is getting ahead of myself. This is perhaps more like The Englishman to Walked Up a Hill and Came Down a Mountain, a muh smaller- but deeply meaningful- goal that was achieved by everyone getting together.

I’ll take it either way!

Up for Preorder

Not a blessed thing this week for the Black Library, it’s another Wallet Appreciation Week! And after last week’s mini-Celebration, I’m all for it.

I do, however, love these Journal Tactica supplements purely from a lore-accumulation perspective (I’ve never played the game), and I’ll be ordering this one. Those Ogryns looked pretty sweet, too.

UPDATE 4/27: They’ve done it again! Another stealth-edit of the Sunday Preview. Last time you’ll recall they did a “takeback” on offering the Hive Limited Edition, and now this time they inserted the Hive (Standard Edition) at some point after publication yesterday. Trying to make me look silly, eh James Workshop? God beat you to it, pal! 😉

Kindness Matters

Danie Ware (The Rose in Darkness, The Triumph of St. Katherine) shared a thoughtful piece on her blog this weekend about authors and book events that really resonated with me, and I wanted to make sure to highlight it here.

I have been to very few book events in my life- Anne Rice and Irvine Welsh come to mind- but the memories I have of them tend to be packed with people. Long lines for short encounters. “Authors don’t show it – they’re professionals – but this stuff is exhausting,” writes Ware. “A really big book signing can have a queue of hundreds, and every fan, every reader, will be greeted the same. Authors do their absolute best, but sometimes, the whole thing really will turn into a big ol’ wave of sensory overload.”

I’ll admit I’ve never given the far side of the table much thought since I’m not a writer (yet), but hearing Ware’s experience gave me pause. My wife is an incredible extrovert; she walks into a room of strangers and leaves behind a room full of new friends. Me, I’d prefer not to set foot in the room at all. On days at work where I have to engage with other people a lot, she knows I’ll need a lot of ‘me time’ that evening to ‘recharge my batteries’.

If I had to sit down at a table and chat up even a few dozen strangers in succession, I’d truly enjoy it- but I’d be utterly spent at the end of it (and probably well before).

Give the whole thing a read, it’s always a treat when we get to pull the curtain back and get a peek of the writer’s life¹- even the less rosy bits. The books we love don’t write themselves, and behind every word we read is a human hand holding a pen².

And speaking of author events, if you find yourself anywhere near the Warhammer Store in Maidstone, Kent this Saturday (02 May), make sure to stop in and tell Dan Abnett we all say hello! He’ll be doing a book signing there that day.

Maybe Not Getting A Review…

I’m not convinced there was a human hand holding a pen for this one, but it gave me a good laugh and thought I’d share. And by ‘it’ I mean this screenshot:

I’ve covered the AI fakery industry before, and in fairness to Amazon it does seem like it’s a lot less prevalent than it was a year ago. This one, at least, tried to fill the longstanding demand for Warhammer romance. Or something.

ICYMI

It’s been another exciting week here on the new Substack, with the 40K History of the Black Library rising from the dead! This was the feature that got me the gig at Tabletop Battles back at the end of 2024, and while it ultimately fell out of alignment the direction of the site it was easily the series I was most asked about. But while Tabletop Battles is still my home for the review and other lore content I’ve been steadily producing, the Black Library Dispatch is where I can do my own thing. As a result, you all get the best of both!

This latest installment of the 40K History picked right up where I’d left off, using the same format. If you’ve been following along all this time, it’ll feel like catching up with an old friend.

And while not directly Black Library related, my other weekly column here, the Warhammer RPG SITREP, looked at the new, limited-edition maps that Cubicle 7 Games is releasing for Warhammer Fantasy, 40K, and Age of Sigmar.

Over at Tabletop Battles, there was a ton on offer there this week as well. I reviewed the newest book from Denny Flowers, Ghazghkull Thraka: Warlord of Warlords, and found it might just have made an Ork convert of me. Seriously, I haven’t laughed that much at a Black Library book since my first readings of Commissar Cain.

Then there was the kickoff of my newest occasional series, Heroes of the Black Library. Each installment we’ll take a deep dive on one of the incredible characters that appear in the books we love, tracking their “book biography,” their appearances in plastic on the tabletop, and a look at deluxe editions and other collectibles they’re featured in to beautify your library. We’ve opened with Minka Lesk, hero of Justin D. Hill’s Cadia series, and our next one will take us to the Mortal Realms!

Finally, the Lore Explainer deep dive series on the Ultramarines finished up this week with a review of how Ultramarine lore has changed over the years. The whole series has been terrific, with a look at the Chapter, its history, and a look at some of its most prominent sons.

Over on Warhammer Community, this week’s Pages from the Black Books lore download is all about the Alpha Legion during the Heresy. Stepping into the current timeline, WARCOM continued to set the stage for a return to Armageddon later this year with a look at Ghazghkull Thraka’s plans with his latest Waaagh!, while Age of Sigmar fans were treated to another mini-story in the Chronicles of Ruin series, The Nature of Light.

Then around the webway, Filmdeg Miniatures shared a conversation with Kev Walker about Warhammer art. Walker’s stuff is terrific, and he’s drawn some of my favorite art in Magic: the Gathering as well, so this one’s a must-see for me.

Meanwhile, The Fluffenhammer guys continued their issue-by-issue stroll through the classic Warhammer Monthly comic-zines, dialing in on issue #26 (and Wayne England) this week. Arbitor Ian then took a deep lore dive into the Heretics of the moment, the Iron Warriors, before teaming up with Mira Manga to deliver a review of John French’s Dropsite Massacre.

Quick Hits

• Hey, remember when Winnie the Pooh entered the public domain a few years ago and right away someone had turned it into a horror movie? Jonathan Green (Magestorm, Conquest of Armageddon) certainly does, and his next Kickstarter for Ace Gamebooks is 100 Aker Wood. Pooh: Blood & Honey was a slasher, and this interactive gamebook promises a much more subtle and sinister affair, evoking Pet Sematary and dealing with themes of loss and grief.

• “One old biker, a fuckload of psychotropics, and a derelict fantasy world.” Danie Ware shared that her passion-project novel, Lugan Vision Quest, is getting a hardcopy, paperback release!

• A new Legend of the Five Rings novel by Josh Reynolds (Fabius Bile, Blackshields Omnibus) just released this week. Entitled White Feathers, Crimson Leaves, it’s a new story that weaves in folk horror into Rokugan’s lush setting. I enjoyed the first book in his Daidoji Shin L5R series, Poison River, and will definitely be picking this one up. He’s also been wonderfully prolific with stories about Baron Palman Vordenburg, a Styrian monster hunter. His latest, A Last Dance in Paris, sees the Baron in Paris pursuing a ‘scalp-stealing countess.’

• I had a brief but illuminating exchange with Nathan R. Long (Zombieslayer, The Broken Lance) on Bluesky, after he noted that he’d written his Warhammer novels each within a 90-day period. We don’t often get to see the craft of our Black Library authors, so when I asked what that looked like day-to-day he noted he looked to do 3,000 words a day and his workload resembled a 40-hour work week. Now that’s quite a pace!

• Paul Kane (Triggers) and Marie O’Regan continue to put together some terrific short story anthologies, with the next one, Land of Oz: Tales from the Wonderful World of L. Frank Baum, due this September. Featuring tales of dark fantasy set in and inspired by Oz, amongst its contributors are Adrian Tchaikovsky (Day of Ascension, Starseer’s Ruin) and Stark Holborn (Nightfall on Stygies).

• Cameron Johnston (Faith in Iron) held an AMA on Reddit this week as his latest novel, First Mage on the Moon, his bookshelves. Lots of terific questions, these are always a joy to read as it gives us a close look at writers and the craft itself!

• Cavan Scott (Tomb of the Necron, Plague of the Nerglings) announced that he’ll be contributing his pen to a new, upcoming Masters of the Universe comic for Dark Horse, entitled Masters of the Universe: Genesis. For more check out this by /Film.

• Torunn Grønbekk (Sisters of Battle) announced that she’s working on an upcoming What If? story for Marvel Comics. Entitled What If Thor Got Spider-Man’s Symbiote Suit, it will be part of the book’s 50th anniversary later this year. And hey, while you’re here make sure to stop by her Substack as well!

• Apropos of nothing, John French (Dropsite Massacre, Ahriman: Eternal) has one too.

• Finally, talk about a “get!” Trench Crusade announced this week that they’ve secured the services of none other than Marc Gascoigne! Marc was absolutely foundational to the founding and success of the Black Library itself, so one has to wonder if we’re going to be seeing some Trench Crusade fiction ramping up soon?

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

• Hive, by Dan Abnett (hardcover, Limited Edition)

• 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

• Era of Ruin, by various (POD Special Edition, window end 12/24)

• Anarch, by Dan Abnett (POD hardcover, window end 1/12)

• Blood Pact, by Dan Abnett (POD hardcover, window end 1/12)

• Salvation’s Reach, by Dan Abnett (POD hardcover, window end 1/12)

• The Warmaster, by Dan Abnett (POD hardcover, window end 1/12)

Upcoming in 2026

• Da Freebooterz Code, by Justin Woolley (Special, hardcover, 5/9)

• Death World (20th Anniversary Edition), by Steve Lyons (hardcover, 5/9)

• Veterans of the Fall, by William Crowe (paperback, 5/9)

• World Ablaze, by various (hardcover, 5/9)

• Legends of the Waaagh!, by various (paperback, 5/9)

• Yarrick: The Omnibus, by David Annandale (paperback, 5/9)

• Horus Rising, by Dan Abnett (paperback, 6/2)

• 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 in the new digs, and see you next week!

1. For more on Danie, check out Lenoon’s interview with her from awhile back. And sign up for her newsletter while you’re over on Ghost, too!

2. At least until our AI overlords take over.