Happy Monday, folks! I hope everyone had a terrific Easter Sunday, or at least for those who don’t celebrate, a nice and relaxing day with a good book. These days with all the work I’m doing as your humble Lore Correspondent my reading list is fairly pre-determined, but I managed to sneak Dan Abnett’s Legion in and it was an absolute gem of a story.
Like a lot of folks, Abnett was sort of my “gateway drug” into the Warhammer 40K universe of stories and tales. Eisenhorn and Gaunt’s Ghosts planted the hook firmly in mouth after another guy on my Aussie Rules team let me borrow his way back when.
It’s been long enough since I read any of his stuff that he’d sort of passed into the realm of myth, so it was a delight to get reacquainted. Now, on with the show!
Preorder Preview
We knew it was coming, and here it is: Legends of the Wolf: The Omnibus is up for preorder this week. It’s been a hot minute since Chris Wraight’s last novel for the Black Library, with Dawn of Fire: Sea of Souls releasing in 2023. Collecting a trio of novels and a short story from Wraight’s Space Wolves series of the mid-2010’s, Legends of the Wolf follows the exploits of the Járnhamar Pack as they battle the forces of Chaos- wherever they’re found. (Well, mostly, as the inclusion of the short story Kraken is a bit of a misfit.)
Spare a thought as well for anyone collecting the special editions of the Chaos codices. Each of the four has a portion of a magnetic Chaos medallion, and anyone budgeting to assemble them all just saw not one, but two of them land on the preorder list today (for the World Eaters and Death Guard).
They’re premium products with a pricetag to match ($250), so I’d have wagered they’d be spread out a little more charitably. Chaos gonna Chaos, I guess.
New Release
Dale Lucas’s latest novel, Ushoran: Mortarch of Deception has been unleashed upon the world. A story of madness and obsession, it’s the author’s fourth for the Black Library and was released in Limited Edition alone. A hardcover release will not be long in coming, but for now if you wanted to get your hands on it you were getting the deluxe treatment.
While that meant coughing up $65 at the preorder, it’s a gorgeous tome. There’s also an afterword from the author which I’m looking forward to reading, but only after finishing the book first. I always find the choice of a foreword or afterword interesting. The former lets them set some context around the genesis of the character or story, as forwards for John French (Ahriman: The Omnibus) and Sandy Mitchell (Hero of the Imperium) attest. Afterwords, however, let the author pull back the curtain a little more since they’re freed from worry of spoiling the plot.
Of course, with me chronicling the history of the Black Library (start here if you’re new), that means any limited edition with bonus author content is a required purchase.
A Reid in the Wind
Jude Reid is absolutely having a moment right now. The imminent release of Fulgrim- The Perfect Son. A short story kicking off Heretic Astartes Week. Interviews on both Warhammer Community and the official Warhammer YouTube channel.
And- lo and behold- her newest short story Vexation in the latest issue of White Dwarf, which hit newsstands this past Saturday.
In media res is the storytelling device that starts a story off in the middle of the action, and Reid absolutely cooks with it here. Forced to translate into realspace after hitting a warp storm, the crew of the Vexation find themselves trapped between Scylla and Charybdis as they appear smack dab in the middle of a battle between the forces of Chaos.
As boarding torpedoes from the Death Guard slam into one part of the ship, and ones from the Emperor’s Children spill into another, the surviving crew face increasingly desperate choices as they run for their lives.
Superb stuff.
ICYMI This Week
It was a pretty lore-tastic week on The Goon as we concluded our dive into the Sanctus Reach era. Here’s everything, all in one place:
- The Sanctus Reach Novella Trilogy: The Goonhammer Review
- Warhammer 40000: Sanctus Reach — The Goonhammer Review
- The Lore Explainer: Sanctus Reach, Part 1: The Red Waaagh!
- The Lore Explainer: Sanctus Reach, Part 2: Stormclaw and Hour of the Wolf
Guard fans rejoice! We also did a review of the Minka Lesk Omnibus.
Finally, I debuted a new occasional feature called Lore & More, where I take a look at Warhammer tabletop books from a lore and role-playing perspective. This past week I cracked into the recent Crusade: Nachmund Gauntlet release. If you’re not a tabletop wargame player you probably gave this one a pass, but turns out it’s actually a system-agnostic campaign sourcebook in disguise. There’s maps, NPC’s, stories galore, and I even added a number of adventure hooks for GM’s to get the campaign going through each phase of the war.
Here’s one reader looking for more content for their Wrath & Glory and Imperium Maledictum campaigns, exactly what Lore & More is aiming to do.
Thanks, Egg!
The next Lore & More will be looking at Crusade: Pariah Nexus, and I’m already looking forward to the release of Crusade: Armageddon later this year.
Quick Hits
- Maria Haskins, whose Astra Militarum story The Jagged Edge appeared in the Only War: Stories from the 41st Millennium anthology, has a new short story. Entitled Highway 1, Past Hope, it appears in The Deadlands, a quarterly speculative fiction magazine whose themes are death, the “journey we all take.”
- “Si” Spurrier is the author of Lord of the Night, the Reader’s Choice reprint of 2024, as well as the Warhammer comics Plaguebringer and Daemonifuge. He’s just announced a limited series from Image Comics called The Voice Said Kill. Set in the bayou of Louisiana, it’s a four-part crime thriller.
- Warhammer Community published the latest installment of their introductory series on playing various factions in Warhammer. Covering the Astra Militarum, they make sure to pull in the Black Library with some reading recommendations. If you’re looking for your next read, this might be just the inspiration you need.
- Finally, there’s one day left to get John French’s The Hollow King on audiobook at 75% off as the Audiobook of the Month on the Black Library site.
Writers Are Fans, Too (Necromunda Edition)
Richard Swan’s most recent story, the terrific Blood Harvest, was part of the recent Blood of the Imperium anthology.
In addition to being the pen behind The Hollow King, John French has also written the Ahriman series of stories. His latest, Ahriman Undying, just released in softcover earlier this month.
And that’s all for this week! And remember, if you go raiding leftover jelly beans out of your kids’ Easter baskets, always blame the Tooth Fairy.
Or the Raven Guard. That works too.
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