Pop quiz for all you readers with green thumbs. What does Age of Sigmar and plants like hostas, hellebores, and ferns have in common?
They all thrive in the shade!
If you needed any further proof that that the Fantasy side of the Black Library tends to play second fiddle to the 40K side, you needn’t have looked further than the public voting for the Black Library Book of the Year, where every title in the Top 10 was from 40K/Horus Heresy. But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t produce some delightful music of its own.
The Black Library released eight novels in the Fantasy settings this year, down slightly from the previous two years but still a historically healthy quantity. This represents about a quarter of the Black Library novel/novella content, with the rest comprised of 40K and the Horus Heresy. Today we’ll look back at highlights from the year that was for Warhammer’s fantasy properties.
Skaventide Ushers in New Edition of the Game
This past July Age of Sigmar welcomed its 4th Edition, and Gary Kloster was tapped to pen the kickoff novel of the same name. Kloster has been a reliable pen for the Black Library since 2020, and Skaventide was one of his two titles released last year- the other being Lazarus: Enmity’s Edge for 40K.
Our reviewer noted that “ultimately, the core of the novel was a pretty formulaic starter-box accompaniment novel in much the same vein as Soul Wars and Dominion, but the flourishes around the portrayal of the Skaven and the Ruination Chamber definitely makes this book well worth reading.”
McNeill Takes us Back to the Old World
Graham McNeill’s Lords of the Lance was a welcome return to the Old World, and particularly the World of Legend that preceded The End Times. Released in both a special edition as well as standard-issue hardcover, the story is a tale of rescue with bitter enemies teaming up to venture into the Land of the Dead.
“The Old World has always held a special place in my heart,” McNeill noted in an interview, “and I loved telling stories set in its grim and perilous landscapes. I’d always held out hope that I might one day go back there, so to write this inaugural novel of the setting’s return is pretty special.
“I love the Old World as a setting for stories, and I’d love to do more novels. Lords of the Lance is potentially just the beginning of what some of these characters might have to face in their immediate future, and, yeah, there are loads of places I’d love to visit in future novels.”
Six Other Novels Added to the Library
Readers had another half dozen stories set in Age of Sigmar to enjoy over the course of 2024, with a variety of themes to choose from. Like intrigue in Hammerhal? Evan Dicken gave us a tale of its politics in Lioness of the Parch, while David Annandale’s Callis & Toll take a more crime-story approach.
More into grim anti-heroes? Take your pick from Soulblight vampire Cado Ezechiar in John French’s The Dead Kingdom or Slave to Darkness Gunnar Brand in Chris Thursten’s Darkoath.
Or finally if you had a taste for the more heroic, there’s the Stormcast Eternals-focused Anvils of the Heldenhammer: The Ancients by Dale Lucas, or the latest Drekki Flint novel Ghosts of Barak-Minoz by Guy Haley, the sequel to 2022’s The Arknaut’s Oath.
The Hollow King Gets the Special Edition Treatment
With The Dead Kingdom carrying Cado Ezechiar’s story forward last April, the Black Library re-released the vampire’s 2022 full-length debut in a special edition format.
The Hollow King joins Skaventide and Lords of the Lance as the Fantasy side’s three special edition releases for the year. The 40K/Horus Heresy side had nearly a score of them, from special editions to Mega Collectors bundles. From a budgetary perspective, scoreboard Sigmar!
The Black Library Celebration Had a Few Treats
While most of last year’s celebration was dominated by 40K/Horus Heresy as expected, there were some things in there for fans of Warhammer’s Fantasy lines. First up was a reprint of Dan Abnett’s Riders of the Dead, which had been crowned in Reader’s Choice voting from the year previous. A venerable classic, this one had first seen print way back in 2003!
For Age of Sigmar fans, Games Workshop announced the release of the aforementioned The Ghosts of Barak-Minoz by Guy Haley. Meanwhile, Gary Kloster carried the Age of Sigmar banner for the short-story anthology mini-book given out for free at Black Library retailers with The Waste, The Worm And The Witch. This short centers around Soulblight vampire Nyssa Volari in a quest to rid herself of her burden of guilt.
Age of Sigmar had a further two short stories in the digital eShorts Celebration subscription, with Cannibal Gate: The Road of the Hollow King by John French and a Gotrek story by David Guymer, The Beast Of Grey Gardens.
Anthologies Keep The End Times Stories Alive…
A little over a decade ago Games Workshop kicked off The End Times, a narrative arc that would ultimately see Warhammer Fantasy eclipsed by Age of Sigmar. In addition to the lore-rich gamebooks, there was also a core five-novel series by Josh Reynolds, Chris Wraight, Gav Thorpe, and Guy Haley that chronicled the world’s descent into oblivion.
The Black Library released two anthologies in 2024 that collected the full core story arc, as well as some other short stories and the novella Sigmar’s Blood by Phil Kelly. The End Times: Fall of Empires collects the first two of the five novels, with the follow-on Doom of the Old World concluding the series. It’s not every day you get to see an IP get a sledgehammer taken to it, so this makes for some compelling reading for the morbidly curious!
…While One Brings in the New
Cities of Sigmar readers had some joy last year with the On the Shoulders of Giants and Other Stories anthology. Taking its name from the included novella from Adrian Tchaikovsky, it also includes contributions from Noah Van Nguyen (Godeater’s Son), Liane Merciel (Blacktalon), and Nick Horth (The Silver Shard).
Those who enjoy their Age of Sigmar fiction in the smaller doses weren’t just limited to the anthology, either.
Digital eShorts Abounded
There was a bit more parity in the property distribution with the digital short stories as Age of Sigmar got its own theme subscription, Wanderers of the Realms eShorts Week in June. This week was used to give some new talent a chance to shine, with contributions from relative newcomers Jeremy Lambert, Hal Wilson, and Christopher Allen alongside debuts from Sarah J Daley and Alexander Dan Vilhjalmsson. Seeing new authors get published is like opening up rookie cards in your baseball pack; it’s always exciting to see where they go from here.
While I mentioned the two stories Age of Sigmar had featured in the Black Library Celebration earlier, there were a few more treasures tucked away in the Advent Calendar eShort Subscription at the end of the year as well as four of the twelve were in the fantasy setting. We had another rookie debut, this one from R S Moule (Shallow Pockets, Deep Waters), stories from freshmen Adrian Southin and Ian Green, and one from veteran Adrian Tchaikovsky (the absolutely outstanding Written in Stars).
Warhammer Community Concludes the Dawnbreaker Chronicles
The second half of the 30-episode serial fiction Dawnbreaker Chronicles ran on the Warhammer Community site, concluding in June. The long-running series focused on the efforts of Sigmar’s faithful to drive out the forces of Chaos, Death, and Destruction.
If you haven’t read these yet but are keen to start, here’s the first chapter. There’s no hub page I’m aware of, but you can use the search feature to find the whole run.
And that’s it! Not a bad year for Age of Sigmar and The Old World, and we’re off to the races for 2025 with the first Special Edition offering of the year with Ushoran: Mortarch of Delusion getting ready to preorder.
What were your highlights of 2024? Have a favorite book or story you can’t stop raving about? Let us know in the comments below!
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