Black Library Weekly: What Would Yogi Say?

Art by Misha Savier

If your mind went right to picnic baskets with that title, I won’t blame you, but today’s theme has more to do with baseball than Jellystone Park¹. For the many of us who braved the topsy-turvy weekend in the Wild West that is the Games Workshop preordering bonanza, the wit of famed New York Yankees catcher Yogi Berra that best summed it up.

“It’s like déjà vu, all over again.”

Once more, website issues reportedly made chasing this week’s most sought-after prize, the Special Edition of Steve Parker’s Deathwatch, an experience as soothing and tranquil as a caress from the butcher’s nails. Here’s a sampling from the Preorder Megathread over on the Black Library subreddit:

Image credit: u/Rapcon97

And finally, in the “laugh to keep from crying” department:

Déjà Vu about Déjà Vu?

Given the reported errors, it was clear that this went beyond just the usual frustration of demand well outstripping supply. It reminded me of what happened last June, when it seemed a website functionality upgrade (the addition of a ‘carousel’ to suggest additional products at check-out) ended up breaking the site altogether.

I can’t say for certain, but I also believe that the checkout screens looked different this week. Instead of one checkout screen for all the information (payment, shipping), I was first taken to a shipping screen and then to another to tender payment. The move between the two was instantaneous- clicking through to pay instantly loaded my pay details, it wasn’t having to pause for another data load- but it’s hard to attribute to coincidence when website functionality is changed and a large segment of users report issues.

My favorite meme of all time, I couldn’t resist using it here again.

Once again, by the time the preorder window arrived at our charmed shores here in the US, the issues appeared to have been worked out. I had no problems ordering Deathwatch at 11:57pm², then once that order completed I went back and ordered a copy of the Illustrated and Annotated Edition of Prophet of the Waaagh!, by Nate Crowley³.

And then, once that one was all done on a lark I went back and put in an order for a second copy of Deathwatch. I’ve wondered for a long time whether or not Games Workshop polices quantity ordering. It doesn’t seem they do, since we often see scalpers with seemingly absurd quantities of chase items on eBay, but then I’ve also heard stories of people’s orders being canceled. I’m not sure what possessed me to roll the dice on Deathwatch, but roll them I did⁴.

KLight, who for the past couple weeks has been my “eyes on the ground” for ordering over in Europe, reported some improvement this week from the one before. “So today is 22nd of August and I’m here to inform you that on the preorder day for Deathwatch Special Edition, the site stopped working again. It’s two weeks back-to-back. After 23 minutes, things seem to be working again. At least I got my order and I'm seeing people saying they are getting theirs.”

Here’s how he described last week’s struggle⁵, when the Premium Edition of Galaxy in Flames was on offer:

As usual, I logged into the store five minutes before, then Galaxy in Flames appears on the Black Library preorder page and immediately the entirety of the stores in all of EU countries lock down. You can’t add anything to your cart, it’s just stuck- and I do mean anything. Some people were able to get things into the cart but the majority couldn’t. And even those who can put things into cart couldn’t proceed.

And this lasted for two damned hours, and no communication throughout it. Most fascinating thing to me was it was ALL the stores in EU that had the error.

I was able to get the novel but I felt very heartbroken seeing people not able to get it.

As I noted last week, the best we can do in the now is hope for a fix. There’s still plenty of the Horus Heresy Saga to go, and if you think that’s crazy wait ‘til Abnett gets to release the third novel in the Bequin trilogy.

Now that will be pandaemonium!

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Quick on the Trigger

Ever wish you had a personal bounty hunter working to help you build your Black Library collection?

When I was in heavy active acquisition mode, I quickly learned that eBay’s alerts were fairly useless for things you were aggressively chasing. By the time it got around to letting you know that a copy of the Night Lords Boxed Set had gone up for sale, chances are (if the price was good) that it was already long gone. You snooze, you lose pal!

There are other services and apps that can give you more timely alerts, and for awhile I used one called eFerret. It was definitely better for notifications than eBay, but as I recall it maxxed you out at five active searches (you could set more, but you’d get notified at the end of the day for those).

This week on Reddit a user named u/Jamiemufu shared a project he’d been working on called Shelfkeepr. “This is not AI slop,” he made sure to note, “I am software engineer with 12 years experience, got made redundant⁶ - so I’m working on this while looking for my next job.”

Shelfkeepr acts as that personal bounty hunter on eBay. You tell it what you’re after and what the most you’re willing to pay for it, and it will alert you as soon as it detects a copy. It’s still in beta, so don’t expect everything to be completely polished yet, but it seems quite promising!

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Turning Over a New Leak?

Meanwhile on Vinted, a sharp-eyed u/korvenus spotted something rather unusual that had sold for the princely sum of… three pounds?

If appearances are to be believed, it seems an unreleased paperback copy of James Swallow’s Flight of the Eisenstein (Horus Heresy Saga edition) has somehow made its way into the world. As we all know, the warp plays havoc with time, and this one hasn’t even been announced yet, let alone released.

The art is certainly interesting, because it’s not anything that appears to have been used before. That means we should know soon whether this was a cunning forgery⁷ or the real deal once Flight’s upcoming release is announced. Given that the paperback of Ben Counter’s Galaxy in Flames hasn’t even been offered yet puts this potential early copy out with quite the head start.

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Let’s Make a Deal

So from bargain hunting on eBay to a bargain from the future on Vinted, we’ve got one more from Reddit to spotlight. A redditor named u/mr_mango has created a subreddit dedicated to finding bargains on Warhammer. Called r/DealHammer, he simply posts regular links to on-sale minis he’s found online. That’s it, the whole thing. Reddit threads with links to sales.

Hey, it’s an expensive hobby, and I’m a huge proponent of ‘decorating paper with plastic’ in the home library or museum. If you can save a few bucks here and there, why not, right?

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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

Another Wednesday, (yet) another new Black Library teaser⁸. The mothership posted a short interview with Mike Vincent (The Remnant Blade, Blades of Atrocity) this week, teasing his upcoming novel Helbrecht: Sin of Hope. I thought it was interesting how much the Black Library was spotlighting Helbrecht when talking to Marc Collins on WarhammerTV’s Scribes and Scriveners last week, and while it might just be coincidence ‘top of mind awareness’ is a thing.

Meanwhile, Raldoron: Revenant finally will be up for preorder this Saturday, in both a lovely Special Edition as well as standard hardcover. The latest from Guy Haley, this sees Raldoron of the Blood Angels playing drill sergeant for a group of untested inductees!

Departures

Leaving to land on our bookshelves this week was the Special Edition of Bjorn the Fell-Handed, the latest from Justin D. Hill. The standard hardcover isn’t far behind, but this week it was just the one.

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ICYMI

Here’s what’s been going on this week for Warhammer content!

Warhammer Wordforge

• As a Black Library Readers’ Hall of Fame weekend, in addition to the announcement of the latest class of inductees there was also a new installment of The Hall Monitor. The “behind-the-scenes director’s commentary” of the whole project, this time I talked about the possible role of novellas, anthologies, and short stories in the Hall.

• For the Wednesday feature, Audio Impressions was back with a review of the audiobook for Graham McNeill’s The Outcast Dead, narrated by Jonathan Keeble.

• Finally, for Warhammer RPG Weekly (basically the same as this article each week, but for role-playing games), I looked at concerns around the health of the hobby segment, and Warhammer’s RPG presence.

Tabletop Battles

• Four novels were inducted this week into the Black Library Readers’ Hall of Fame, and it’s always a little extra exciting when authors get in for the first time. This week we had two new faces- and both named David!

• If you’ve ever wondered what Black Library writers get up to when they aren’t playing in the Warhammer sandbox, then my occasional series Beyond the Black Library is for you! This week I reviewed the new, original fantasy novel from John Sollitto (Rok Crackers, The Redoubt).

• Not Warhammer related, but robosquidd wrote a love letter to Netrunner, one of my favorite TCG’s of all time. Well worth a read!

Warhammer Community

• The mothership did a useful piece on what’s inside the new, 11th Edition Codexes, starting with the Orks. For me, the lower price point (thanks to the softcover printing) and expanded lore content makes these day-one buys for the first time since… ever?

• The Pages from the Black Books series seems to be flying under the radar for many, and it shouldn’t. It’s terrific content that’s long been difficult to get, and now we’re getting chunks for free each week. This time around it’s the Warp Cults during the Age of Darkness, make sure to check it out!

WarhammerTV (paywalled)

• The Black Library Book Club returns this week, with a discussion on Chris Wraight’s Ashes of the Imperium. Hopefully a new Scouring announcement soon…?

Around the Webway

• The Fluffenhammer gang has been reviewing the old Warhammer Monthly comics one issue at a time, and this week they looked at #31 in the episode “Gordon Rennie MVP.”

• Cinderfall Gaming, meanwhile, has been working through the catalogue of Warhammer Adventures, the book series aimed at younger readers (but surprisingly readable for us grown-ups). This week he reviewed Tom Huddleston’s Battle for the Soulspring.

• At Boundary’s Edge reviewed Chem Dogs, by Callum Davis, awarding it four out of five stars!

• Meanwhile here on Substack, Thomas Rawlins of Exploring Warhammer wrote a terrific piece examining the parallels between Dark Future and Rogue Trader. For you Warhammer history nerds like me, this was a real treat!

Cold Open Stories

• This week’s featured story is Home Sickness, by friend of the Wordforge, Joyce Chng. “Lethia has a new pet. It is an odd thing, not like a normal pet. But its hers, and in the hive, where life is harsh and grinding, happiness has to be taken where it is found. But when danger comes to the hive, even that small slice of normality is threatened”

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Quick Hits

• The latest novel from Amanda' Bridgeman (Paragon of Faith, Reconsecration) arrived this week. A near-future sci-fi thriller of a tale, The Survivalist is the third installment in her Salvation series!

• James Swallow (Nemesis, Fear to Tread) may be a Black Library Readers’ Hall of Famer, but did you know he’s also done some video game work? He was part of the writing team for the Deus Ex franchise, and in a blog post written this week he looks back at that experience.

• Paul Kane (Triggers) has a new anthology he’s co-edited with Marie O’Regan, Land of Oz, that’s now up for preorder. With two of the contributors being Black Library writers, Adrian Tchaikovsky (Day of Ascension, Starseer’s Ruin) and Stark Holborn (Nightfall on Stygies), you can find it here on Amazon⁹.

• Speaking of Tchaikovsky, he’s got a new book coming up called The Eighth Face. It’s just had a cover reveal, and he describes it as having “creepy clone monks living in a crashed-spaceship monastery, horrible things from the sea, a past revealed in things cast up by the tide...”

• Coming from Ignition Press this November is a “hallucinogenic and brutal retelling of the oldest Arthurian tale of all,” Rampant Swine. Written by Si Spurrier (Lord of the Night, Fire Warrior), and you can find a preview of it here.

• Finally, congratulations to Gareth Hanrahan (Castle of the Exile, Grit in the Wheels), whose latest project, the cozy fantasy mystery RPG the Merryshire Detective Club, finished its crowdfunding run at double the target goal!

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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

• Blackheart: Claws of the Maelstrom, by Marc Collins

• Voice of Command, by Richard Swan

• Helbrecht: Sin of Hope, by Mike Vincent

Current PODs in Production

• Hive, by Dan Abnett (Special Edition)

Upcoming in 2026

• Galaxy In Flames, by Ben Counter (Premium Edition, hardcover, 8/29)

• False Gods, by Graham McNeill (paperback, 8/29)

• Blood of the Godeater, by Noah Van Nguyen (hardcover, 8/29)

• Witch Hunters: The Omnibus, by Nick Horth and Richard Strachan (paperback, 8/29)

• Deathwatch, by Steve Parker (Special Edition, 9/5)

• Ghazghkull Thraka: Prophet of the Waaagh! (Illustrated and Annotated Edition), by Nate Crowley (9/5)

• Bjorn, the Fell-handed, by Justin D. Hill (hardcover, 9/5)

• Demolisher, by Andy Clark (paperback, 9/5)

• Raldoron: Revenant, by Guy Haley (hardcover, Special Edition, 9/12)

• Words of Waaagh!, by DK Books (hardcover, 10/6)

• The Sundering, by Gav Thorpe (paperback, 10/6)

• Dropsite Massacre, by John French (paperback, 10/20)

• Apostle, by David Annandale (paperback, 10/20)

• Master of Rites, by Rob Young (paperback, 10/20)

• Death Rider, by Rhuairidh James (paperback, 11/19)

• Ghost Legion, by Mike Brooks (paperback, 11/19)

• Chem Dog, by Callum Davis (paperback, 12/17)

• Ghazghkull Thraka: Warlord of Warlords, by Denny Flowers (paperback, 12/17)

• Ashes of the Imperium, by Chris Wraight (paperback, 12/17)

Thanks again for joining me for all the going’s on in the Black Library, and see you next week!

1. Both references, mind, that were old even when I was young.

2. Houston time, since I’m back here with my wife for another round of therapies.

3. I always order these from my FLGS, but this was an insurance copy just in case something fell through.

4. I’m not sure what I’m going to do with the second copy yet, though I have a few ideas (assuming it goes through). I can tell you I will not be selling it for more than MSRP regardless. And if someone wants to swap for a copy of Rynn’s World, let’s talk.

5. Lightly edited for brevity.

6. Can totally empathize, I did too at the end of last month.

7. Which would be a lot of work for three pounds, sheesh!

8. This is NOT a complaint, mind.

9. But as always, I recommend ordering through your local, independent bookseller first.