Black Library Weekly: Auspex Scans Clear...For Now

Last Friday we were treated to Warhammer New Year Preview Show, and a number of folks online were scratching their heads at the complete lack of any Black Library content. Where was Apostle? Why no new tease of the next installment of The Scouring, following on the heels of Chris Wraight's Ashes of the Imperium? It only repeated itself yesterday when a very thin Sunday Preview arrived, with not a book in sight.

Those of us with (otherwise-unused) history degrees will delight in the old chestnut, that those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. There was almost no chance whatsoever we'd be seeing anything book-related given that the Black Library Celebration is right around the corner and Games Workshop is sensibly keeping its powder dry. ANd of course, those new to the hobby this year will not have had much experience with the Celebrations, so here's a pocket history of what we can expect.

Get your wallets ready, folks, because it'll be coming in hotter than a phallic boarding ship brimming with Space Marines on a Tyranid hive-ship sphincter₁.

Image credit: Games Workshop

2025

Last year's Celebration took place mid-February, with the Sunday Preview on 16 FEB containing all of the new goodies up for order, including:

Hell's Last by Justin D. Hill, in both regular and Special Edition
A five-piece miniature box for Hell's Last featuring Minka Lesk and retinue
Shade of Khaine by Evan Dicken, in both regular and Special Edition (review)
A new Malaneth Witchblade miniature
The Black Library Celebration 2025 Anthology featuring a quartet of previously-released short stories, available at Warhammer stores and in eBook format.
An art book, Black Library: The Art of Warhammer 40,000
Blood of the Imperium, an anthology of short stories (review)
The 20th Anniversary Edition of Fifteen Hours, by Mitchel Scanlon
Gotrek and Maleneth: The Omnibus, by Darius Hinks and Robbie MacNiven
The two Reader's Choice reprints, Dan Abnett's Titanicus and Grey Seer by C. L. Werner
An eShort subscription week of short stories (review)

Image credit: Games Workshop

2024

The Black Library Celebration came out a little earlier the year before, with the Preview going up on 04 FEB. Interestingly, GW also had a Black Library Preview Online show on 09 DEC 2023, which teased a number of the 2024's reveals.

Also notably, on 26 JAN the Black Library announced that the two deluxe editions slated for release for the Celebration (Da Big Dakka, Morvenn Vahl) where both delayed until later in the year, no reason given.

This year's Celebration gave us:

Da Big Dakka, by Mike Brooks in both regular and Special Edition
A new Ufthak Blackhawk miniature
Morvenn Vahl, Spear of Faith by Jude Reid in a Mega Limited Edition box.
The Black Library Celebration 2024 Anthology featuring a quintet of previously-released short stories, available at Warhammer stores and in eBook format.
An art book, The Art of the Horus Heresy
The 20th Anniversary Edition of Deus Encarmine, by James Swallow
The Ghosts of Barak-Minoz, by Guy Haley, in regular edition hardcover
The two Reader's Choice reprints, Simon Spurrier's Lords of the Night and Riders of the Dead by Dan Abnett
Ghazghkull Thraka: Prophet of the Waaagh!, by Nate Crowley, getting a paperback release
An eShort subscription week of short stories (review)

Image credit: Games Workshop

2023

The Black Library Celebration was in mid-February. Interestingly, a search for Black Library Celebration articles on Warhammer-Community shows that in 2022 and 2023, there was a big increase in content supporting the Celebration. In 2021 there were just three dedicated articles, blossoming to seven in 2022 and 2023 before cooling off to a total of seven in 2024 and 2025.

The Celebration included:

A giveaway for ten signed art prints for the Siege of Terra
A new White Consuls Captain Vitrian Messinius miniature
The Iron Kingdom by Nick Kyme, releasing in regular paperback as well as a Special Edition
Dan Abnett's The End and the Death, Vol. I, in regular hardcover as well as a SPecial Edition
Bad Loon Rising, by Andy Clark, in standard hardcover
The Black Library Celebration 2023 Anthology featuring a quintet of previously-released short stories, available at Warhammer stores and in eBook format.
A coffee-table art and lore book, First Founding
The two Reader's Choice reprints, Guy Haley's Skarsnik and Angel of Fire by William King
A print-on-demand offering for the first trio of Gaunt's Ghosts books by Dan Abnett (I talked a bit about this recently here)
The 20th Anniversary Edition of Angels of Darkness, by Gav Thorpe
An eShort subscription week of short stories

So enjoy the calm before the storm, folks, because the next Celebration will be upon us before you know it!

ICYMI

The big news this week here on the ol' Goon was the launch of the first-annual Goonhammer Book Awards. This celebrates the year that was in the style of the Oscars, Emmies, and other creative industry awards. We've got seven categories of "Goonies," and it's up to you- the reading public- to anoint our winners!

Best Age of Sigmar Novel
Best Warhammer 30K/40K Novel
Best Black Library Deluxe Edition
Best Black Library Debutant
Best Black Library Writer
Black Library Lifetime Achievement
Best IP Tie-In Novel (Non-GW)

Voting runs through this coming Saturday, 24 JAN, so if you haven't voted yet make sure to get over there and have your voice counted!

In other coverage, Saelfe reviewed Evan Dicken's politics-and-intrigue-filled novel Lioness of the Parch. While we don't have a release date yet we know a sequel, First Marshal, is right around the corner, so what better time to get acquainted?

Around the horn, Cinderfall Gaming has posted a couple quick-hit reviews this week. I enjoy these because they're not only bite-sized, but he typically consumes them in audiobook form (the better to paint miniatures by, he says, a level of focused multitasking I can only envy) so you get to hear what the audio experience was like as well. Covered were ">Hammers of Ulric by Dan Abnett, Nik Vincent, and James Wallis, as well as Aaron Dembski-Bowden's ">The Talon of Horus.

Arbitor Ian and Mira Manga have been busy on the vidcasts as well! They check in on the Horus Heresy with ">a dive into Mitchel Scanlon's Descent of Angels, then ">pivot to The Emperor's Legion by Chris Wraight.

Image credit: Victoria Hayward

Writers Are Fans, Too

While I’ll never scorn an author making an honest living selling the fruits of their imagination, I take an extra degree of satisfaction knowing how many of the writers whose stories and words populate the shelves of the Black Library are genuine Warhammer fans first, and Black Library writers second. Here’s a few who shared that love recently.

Many of us here in the States were excited about the recent announcement of a Warhammer World opening in the DC area next year, but given the size of our nation and degree of author representation in the Black Library I have to imagine our chances of running into one there are, sadly, a bit diminished when compared to Nottingham.

Still, one never knows when you might, for instance, bump into Victoria Hayward (Deathworlder, The Feast of St. Luthera) picking up a new read (Andy Clark's Demolisher, above) on a recent visit. I'm truly hoping that Games Workshop brings in some of our favorite writers for the DC location's Grand Opening, and I'll almost certainly make sure to be there.

Image credit: Justin D. Hill

Image credit: Justin D. Hill

Meanwhile, Justin D. Hill's (The Bookkeeper's Skull, Hell's Last) been looking to improve his Templar Brethren army by gifting them with a mighty Mastodon. He shared his current work-in-progress pics, and it's coming along nicely!

Image credit: Sarah Cawkwell

Finally, Sarah Cawkwell (The Gildar Rift, Valkia the Bloody) shared a personally commissioned art piece depicting a scene from her book Silver Skulls: Portents. Amazing!

Quick Hits

Take a moment to appreciate just how incredible a success story Warhammer has been, as highlighted in an article yesterday in The Guardian. Putting that into context, its gaming is a larger industry than the UK's fishing and steel industries (per Nicholas Whyte, here). The part of me that was a young kid playing D&D in the early 80's has never stopped marveling about how my niche hobby- once derided as "Satanic" and the exclusive realm of nerds, geeks, and assorted degenerates- has exploded in my lifetime. The same kind of surreal that overtakes me when I hear, say, an Ozzy song playing over the speakers in the grocery store.
On the other hand, David Guymer (Lion El'Jonson: Lord of the First, Verminslayer) notes, "I swear the Guardian republishes this exact article every year." It's an interesting discussion!
When I noted at the outset that this week's Sunday Preview had nary a book in sight, that wasn't entirely correct. None to buy, sure, but it did tease a new, upcoming episode of Scribes & Scriveners featuring Jude Reid (Fulgrim: The Perfect Son, Daemonbreaker).
Noah Van Nguyen (Godeater's Son, Broken City) wrote the terrific Elemental Council (review), and the T'au clearly have left an impression. He's amidst an impressively multi-part T'au fan fiction project, and part five just dropped last week!
Grimdark Magazine has announced they'll be publishing a new novella, The Anguished Earth, by Richard Swan (Blood Harvest, Tears of Raphaela).
John French (Dropsite Massacre, Ahriman: Exile) sent a free short story out, The Palace of Crows, to his email newsletter subscribers. It's part of his Letters from an Unknown Land series. Not on the list? There's a fix for that!

Image credit: Games Workshop

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. Any titles that are announced but without a date will be added once a date is assigned it, and anything highlighted in green is something just added (or updated) this week. Books that are underlined are previously unpublished titles.

Upcoming but Undated

Apostle, by David Annandale
Death Rider, by Rhuairidh James
First Marshal, by Evan Dicken

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

Farsight: Blade of Truth, by Phil Kelly (paperback, 1/24)
Vaults of Terra: The Omnibus, by Chris Wraight (paperback, 1/24)
Fulgrim: The Perfect Son, by Jude Reid (paperback, 1/24) (review)
Siege of Terra: The Shattered and the Soulless, by Graham McNeill (paperback, 1/24)
Huron Blackheart: Master of the Maelstrom, by Mike Brooks (paperback, 3/10)
The Green Tide, by various (paperback 4/7)
Carcharodons: Void Exile, by Robbie MacNiven (paperback, 4/7) (review)
The Ghost Legion: The Pillar of Dreams, by Mike Brooks (title translated from German) (4/7)
Carnage Unending, by various (paperback, 4/21)
Legends of the Waaagh!, by various (paperback, 5/19)
Yarrick: The Omnibus, by David Annandale (paperback, 5/19)
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 James Swallow (paperback, 7/28)
Archmagos, by Guy Haley (paperback, 8/11)

Footnotes

My annual gratuitous Ian Watson reference. Good to get these things out of the way early rather than have then hang about over the year.

Have any questions or feedback? Drop us a note in the comments below or email us at contact@goonhammer.com. Want articles like this linked in your inbox every Monday morning? Sign up for our newsletter. And don't forget that you can support us on Patreon for backer rewards like early video content, Administratum access, an ad-free experience on our website and more.

Tags: black library | black library weekly