Black Library Weekly: Xenos, Heretics, and Darkness Ahead

Credit: Games Workshop

Welcome to another exciting week in the Black Library, with a slew of titles up for preorder including the last of the trio of Special Editions recently teased on Warhammer Community!

That would be Voidscarred by Mike Brooks, which will be available both in its Special Edition as well as standard hardback at the same time. Longtime readers will remember that Brooks signaled for us that there should be an author's introduction included in the book (a detail omitted when it was announced), and I'm delighted to see that his recollection was true.

Next up is The Remnant Blade, by Mike Vincent. The Night Lord in me was desperately hoping that we'd see a Limited Edition to this one first, but alas it's a standard hardcover release. Still, it will be great to see Dalchian Rassaq get the full novel treatment after debuting in short-story form as part of Heretic Astartes Week last April in Blades of Atrocity (review here).

Finally, there's a new anthology with Darkness Eternal: Stories from the 41st Millennium! No word yet on what the full contents are, but it will be a baker's dozen of short stories from Justin D. Hill, Peter Fehervari, Nate Crowley and more.

UPDATE 9/15

Eagle-eyed u/Hasvik212 managed to find a list of the contents and shared them on Reddit, and here's what it's looking like:

One Million Years, by Nate Crowley
Altar of Maws, by Peter Fehervari
The Light of the Emperor, by Darius Hinks
The Devouring Void, by Danie Ware
Own Worst Enemy, by Denny Flowers
Arcady Pride, by Justin D. Hill
Nightsider Imperialis, by Victoria Hayward
A Forbidden Meal, by Carrie Harris
Eradicant, by R. S. Wilt
The Convocation, by Tammy Nicholls
Stealing Orpheon, by Richard Ford
Lessons of Rorphax, by Callum Davis
Devilhunter, by Nicholas Wolf

For new printings, Elemental Council by Noah Van Nguyen drops in paperback form. It's a terrific book (I reviewed it here), and I'll be delighted to see it get into more hands as a result of coming to softcover.

Of course, the Sunday Preview wasn't the only thing getting folks worked up this weekend...

Image credit: Games Workshop

Out Came the Wolves

There was lots of excitement too around the new Saints of the Imperium boxed set- and I'm sad to say little of it was good. If this is the first you've seen of the set, in short it collects the novels Celestine: The Living Saint (2019) by Andy Clark, David Annandale's Ephrael Stern: The Heretic Saint (2020), and The Triumph of Saint Katherine (2022) by Danie Ware, alongside Clark’s short story Celestine: Revelation from 2020.

While it's effectively just a reprint of last year's Saints and Martyrs: An Adepta Sororitas Omnibus, the deluxe treatment and enduring popularity of Sororitas-inspired Limited and Special Editions all but guaranteed that the scalpers would be swarming- and swarming they were.

After managing to secure my own copy at 12:56PM EST₁, I took a look at eBay just to get the measure of the market, and already there were dozens of preorder listings posted- some offering multiple copies. The game was well afoot!

It's not hard to see why people scalp. At time of writing (Sunday morning) more than three dozen punters have paid the scalper's premium to secure their copy, with markups as high as 71%.₂

Predictably, the online gathering spaces for Black Library readers were filled with complaints, laments that Games Workshop doesn't do more to ensure a fairer distribution, and calls for others to boycott the scalpers. Scalpers scalping and collectors paying are two sides of the coin of human nature, so you're not likely to find much success in trying to change those inputs. That means that any relief will need to come from Games Workshop- but is there a will?

That seems less clear. To be fair Games Workshop has appeared to step up some of its vigilance, with the recent introduction of captcha security checks to thwart the bots. Last June when the Limited Edition of The Era of Ruin went up on special preorder, GW ended up shutting the whole thing down when it detected overwhelming bot activity that threatened to derail the whole thing (covered more extensively by us here).

The Era of Ruin LE has remained something of a mystery. Games Workshop set up a special email alert to let folks know what they decided on how to re-launch the book, but to date it hasn't resulted in any updates or alerts. With the new series on The Scouring on the horizon, we can only hope they'd like to close the chapter on The Siege of Terra soon.

Image credit: u/badvoodoo68

Binders Full of Heresy

Longtime readers may remember Redditor u/badvoodoo68, whose wonderful rebinding work has been featured in this column before. This past week he shared his most recent project, the first three books of the Horus Heresy. His versions of Horus Rising by Dan Abnett, Graham McNeill's False Gods, and Galaxy in Flames by Ben Counter are magnificent.

Image credit: u/badvoodoo68

Image credit: u/badvoodoo68

Having the logos on the front and back 'evolve' with each successive title is a terrific touch, becoming increasingly more sinister as the heresy deepens. Superb!

ICYMI

This week on Goonhammer we reviewed the recently-released Illustrated and Annotated Edition of The Lords of Silence by Chris Wraight. Going into the book I wasn't disappointed to see how much the extra content added to the work- but was a little surprised to find how it detracted a touch, too.

In addition to the story, readers also appreciated the extra content and value. "The illustrations and annotations are so well done and the quality of the pages and production in general are excellent," commented u/RyanAcro in the Black Library subreddit. "I’ll definitely be keeping an eye out for more editions like this, $40 is very reasonable."

Meanwhile, over on the Fluffenhammer Podcast, William King's Skavenslayer gets a deep dive while Arbiter Ian and Mira Manga focused on the Horus Heresy for their most recent Book Club discussion (The Primarchs anthology, book #20 in the series).

Even more short fiction popped up this week at Warhammer Community as the next Chronicles of Ruin tale arrived featuring the Helsmiths of Hashut. Not only that, but a new "Starting an Army..." piece dropped featuring the Black Templars. This occasional WarCom series is aimed at players new to the game or a faction and gives some basic lore, army information, and suggested Black Library reading. For the Templars they suggested Steven B. Fischer's Broken Crusade (reviewed here) as well as Helbrecht: Knight of the Throne by Marc Collins.

Finally, WarhammerTV launched the newest animated series for Age of Sigmar with Sigmar's Toll. This series stands apart for having a more realistic, less cartoony style similar to many of the 40K offerings. You can see the trailer here." frameborder="0">

Image Credit: Cubicle 7 Games

RPG Corner

The Imperium Maledictum RPG from Cubicle 7 Games hasn't made a ton of noise since it's debut in March of 2023, but a trove of releases is looking to change that. First up is the dual physical-copy release of the Inquisition Player's Guide and Inquisition GM's Guide, which will open up a raft of new perils, adventures, and resources to players all focused on that most enigmatic of organizations.

Next up, a PDF-only free update called Halikarn's Cache. The Cache is intended to supplement the Imperium Maledictum Starter Set, including more resource sheets and content intended for use in the introductory adventure (and beyond).

Finally, Voll Adventures has gone up for preorder. This book includes a series of five adventures set on the grimy, acid-drenched world of Voll, with physical publication slated for Q1 2026.

For those whose flavor of grimdark role-playing favors the more heroic-themed Wrath & Glory system, Cubicle 7 teased that a new Space Wolves expansion, Sons of Russ, is on the horizon!

Image credit: Pan Macmillan

Quick Hits

If you're anywhere near the Waterstones bookstore in Maidstone on the evening of October 4th, you'll have the chance to see Dan Abnett give a talk about his craft. Entitled "Alien Worlds and How to Visit Them," this is part of Maidstone's LitFest 2025 and will include a Q&A and booksigning. In a world where even our animals get loads of screen time, I struggle to understand why so many of these ticketed author events don't include a virtual version. I mean, I know I'd pay full ticket price to see them from a few thousand miles away, but what do I know?
Nicholas Kaufmann (A Child Foretold) has been sharing a number of his concerns with generative AI with his readers- a subject near to the hearts of a number of Black Library writers. In his most recent piece, Kaufmann shares a bit of good news in a class-action lawsuit.
Adrian Tchaikovsky (On the Shoulders of Giants, Day of Ascension) revealed the cover this week for his upcoming Children of Strife, the next chapter in his original science-fiction saga that began with the (extraordinary) Children of Time.
Continuing the theme of 'books as works of art' we looked at earlier with those custom-bound Horus Heresy books, The Broken Binding is a company that specializes in producing exquisite, limited-edition versions of speculative fiction, horror, and history books. Their most recent offering is a breathtaking edition of the just-released Daughter of the Otherworld by Shauna Lawless (The Last Psyker). Like any good Black Library LE it's signed and numbered, and limited to a thousand copies.
And speaking of art, Owlcat Games- the studio behind the superb Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader CRPG₃- dropped a full folder of all the currently-released art for its upcoming Dark Heresy game. Make sure to check out the most recent developer diary too if you happened to miss it as well.
Finally, there's a new audiobook promotion at the Black Library website, but you'll need to act fast. C. L. Werner's Lady of Sorrows. "In Shyish, twin towns face horror – the spectral hordes of Lady Olynder will soon rise and devour their souls," says the site. "One hero must stand against them – but can he face the Lady of Sorrows?" It's narrated by Richard Reed and is 75% off the usual $40 price, but only until tomorrow (Tuesday).

Image credit: Games Workshop

Coming Attractions

Here’s a list of the date-set 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.

Going forward, 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.

Upcoming but Undated

Dropsite Massacre, by John French
Krakenblood, by Marc Collins
Tomb World, by Jonathan D. Beer

Upcoming in 2025

Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay Imperium Maledictum: Inquisition Player's Guide (hardcover, 9/17)
Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay Imperium Maledictum: Inquisition GM's Guide (hardcover, 9/17)
Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay Imperium Maledictum: Inquisition Player's Guide (hardcover, 9/17)
Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay Wrath & Glory: Darktide Extraction (hardcover, 9/17)
Ciaphas Cain: The Anthology, by Sandy Mitchell (paperback, 9/23)
The Twice-Dead King: The Omnibus, by Nate Crowley (paperback, 9/23)
The Remnant Blade, by Mike Vincent (hardcover, 10/4)
Voidscarred, by Mike Brooks (hardcover and Special Edition, 10/4)
Darkness Eternal: Stories from the 41st Millennium, by various. (paperback, 10/4)
Elemental Council, by Noah Van Nguyen (paperback, 10/4) (review)
Warhammer 40,000 Character Encyclopedia, by Wade Pryce (hardcover, 10/7)
Warhammer 40,000 Words of War: The Miniature Book of Space Marines Quotes (hardcover, 10/7)
Morvenn Vahl: Spear of Faith, by Jude Reid (paperback, 10/21)
Ashes of the Imperium: The Scouring, by Chris Wraight (hardcover, 11/4)
Double Eagle, by Dan Abnett (paperback, 11/18)
Death and Duty: An Anthology, by various (paperback, 11/18)
Interceptor City, by Dan Abnett (paperback, 11/18) (review)
The Art of Warhammer Video Games, by Andy Hall (hardcover, 11/25)
Hell’s Last, by Justin D. Hill (paperback, 12/16)
The Rise of Nagash, by Mike Lee (paperback, 12/16)

Upcoming in 2026

Farsight: Blade of Truth, by Phil Kelly (paperback, 1/27)
Fulgrim: The Perfect Son, by Jude Reid (paperback, 1/27) (review)
Siege of Terra: The Shattered and the Soulless, by Graham McNeill (paperback, 1/27)
Vaults of Terra: The Omnibus, by Chris Wraight (paperback, 1/27)
Huron Blackheart: Master of the Maelstrom, by Mike Brooks (paperback, 3/10)
Carcharodons: Void Exile, by Robbie MacNiven (paperback, 3/10)
The Green Tide, by Mike Brooks, Nate Crowley, and Justin Woolley (paperback 3/24)
Carnage Unending, by Dan Abnett (paperback, 4/21)

Footnotes

Knowing this one was going to be hotly contested, I used the "voucher method"₄ to ensure a swifter checkout process. This method saves a step at checkout, since you've already loaded up a balance on your account.
The most common markup was around 25%, which represents a profit of about $44. Nice work if you can stomach it, I guess...?
Just this week I completed my second playthrough, this time going full Heretical. Good times, I'm forcing myself to avoid the temptation of a third run to give myself a break.
We're more likely to call them "gift cards" over here, but it's the same thing. You go to the Warhammer site and buy a gift card for yourself, making sure to redeem it to your account so that when you're ready to check out for your preorder, it's right there. No need to loop in PayPal or run your card. It may not save you tons of time overall, but it's one less step when every little helps.

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