DarkChaplain

Who in the Warp is Aestred Thurga and why is she getting a character novel? We have so many characters still waiting for one of those, and they've almost dropped the release rate to zero. Heck, last was Leontus, wasn't it? And Ghost Legion being without the Renegades tag is so funnily pathetic, yet typical for BL. Imagine putting a series label on two individual novels and then dropping it by the time the sequel to one comes around, without ever having a third book with it.

So why the hell didn't they show this off at the preview show ten days ago? They whipped up a teaser for things to come, hinting at the IW, and then they bring it out just like this, before even the first thing from the preview was scheduled for release? I just don't get GW, at all. The upgrades are cool, just surprised it's only one hammer and powerfist.

Here's hoping Apostle ends up like a bigger, more horror-themed version of Annandale's The Unburdened. Death of Integrity is, to me, the quintessential Space Hulk novel. It's the first and imo only time you actually see the whole topic approached from a "realistic" angle, not just some Movie Marines being dispatched to a Space Hulk without any sort of logistics behind them. That it manages to balance two very distinct Chapters that are well-fleshed out in their character and culture on top of that is one of the reasons why I've held Haley in such high regard since way back when he started writing for BL.

Not directly, but it's clearly connected to Abnett's Bequin trilogy.

The Siege of Terra, particularly The End and the Death, showcases those stasis Alpha Legion. There's an activation phrase, or rather, multiple, depending on which side they are supposed to join. Yes, chances are, those AL would have turned the tide decisively, especially with where they'd be infiltrating from. As for the Lion Sword, it's actually pretty nice that it's not directly related to Cypher on Caliban, but instead is now being carried by Holguin, who is supposedly planning to reforge it. This actually adds more mystery to Cypher's identity, because Holguin as carrier of the broken sword ends up a candidate for the job now, or the sword needs to go from him to one of the other likely candidates. It also puts a different spin on the Lion's shame, by way of what happened in Imperium Secundus.

I'm still furious about the Morghast books for Warhammer Horror. Seriously, four books and they cancel WITHOUT EVEN A SINGLE WORD SAID after book 3, after a second book that was already somewhat divorced from the supposed plot while having some contradictions, and then seemingly didn't even get acknowledged when book 3 followed up on the first book? BL really messed up the bed there. Also, I'd argue The End Times counts. Josh Reynolds opens and ends it, but other than that, it's a 4-author 5-book series. What it doesn't land is down to the lore books by GW proper.

"Betrayal at Calth" enters the thread....

In all seriousness, though, I've been staying out of this one deliberately, because on one hand I expected things to devolve into a lot of Thorpe bashing (as is tradition) and because I had enough other things going on this week to want to add arguing extensively about the matter on top of it :') I almost went in to push back about The Wolftime, though. That being said, I'm not sure how I'd fairly divorce Thorpe "earning" the book through his work history from all the elements and themes that'll inevitably have to be handled in the Destruction of Caliban book which either originated or were transported and developed by Thorpe over the years. Still, without getting into things too deeply, since it was brought up as kinda meh here already, Purging of Kadillus is a weird book. It's more loosely connected to Angels of Darkness and the Legacy of Caliban trilogy, but primarily, it was a Space Marine Battles novel. Those put action first, with few exceptions - even ADB's Helsreach is a massive lineup of spectacle moments and setpieces, which is carried hugely by the first-person Grimaldus PoV. If it wasn't for the introspection, it'd be all-out action for long stretches, and it still benefits from only really showing a limited, rather isolated view of Armageddon 3rd, with other stories and novels dealing with things elsewhere (look up how many shorts and novellas even under the SMB banner actually deal with Armageddon, and there's other stuff, too). Kadillus could never live up to Angels of Darkness by design, because it's scope and purpose are vastly different. It's light on introspection whereas AoD is basically all about that. Additionally, The Purging of Kadillus was based on existing fluff, going back to the Storm of Vengeance 2nd edition supplement from 1997, which Gav co-authored back in the day, alongside Jervis Johnson and Andy Chambers. It's crazy old stuff that is clearly from a different, simpler time. Funnily enough, the same thing also got adapted into a god-awful lane defense mobile game cash grab (that was also on Steam), basically a reskin of the developer's other, more successful game. I believe it released back in 2014, or at least I last played it that summer according to my Steam library. It's been delisted like many other games from that period, due to GW being real geniuses and renting out the 40k license only for a limited timeframe and making it prohibitively expensive to extend, which saw multiple games shut down around the same time, including the turn-based Space Hulk adaptations. So the battle for Piscina IV was already mostly set in stone, and it wasn't exactly the most complex thing, just busy. The book only barely mentions Astelan by name once, in the single Boreas chapter it had, and wasn't really concerned with propelling the "meta plot" forward. Piscina IV plays a role again in Ravenwing, but all things considered, Purging of Kadillus is more of a commissioned battle novel with nods to what came before and would follow later than anything else. It's the odd one out. Everything else, though, has been consistently working towards this confluence at Caliban, though. That plot Merir Astelan and even Typhus wove, that Cypher may or may not be involved in, depending on who he actually is at this point and whether or not GW will ever allow it to be what it ought to be (I still would not be surprised if we got something akin to Moriana-Kat's situation happening with Zahariel al Zurias and Holguin; Holguin should be the current keeper of the Lionsword as per Angels of Caliban, unless I forgot something, and Zahariel is the Cypher on Caliban, although John French muddied the waters with Grey Angel where he was clearly involved and helping the Knights Errant to escape from Luther, implying Loken knew the bloke, while also never revealing the identity before Samus happened in TEATD), runs through both Heresy and almost-contemporary 40k. I may not be happy with the Lion just up and punching Nemiel's head off, but Gav clearly took the reins and put down the blocks. The problems for me arose with Forgeworld, which rejigged the Legion in big ways - and even retconned Luther and co's exile to Caliban to no longer happen immediately, something that had to be accounted for in other books again, including Luther: First of the Fallen, and the way Dan Abnett just completely ditched the Lion's anger at Guilliman, set up in the novella set just before he gets to Macragge, and made him act like a fool in The Unremembered Empire. My big question at this point, though, is how much of Gav's planning over the past 15 years is still going to be viable now that GW has brought Caliban back via Vashtorr and the Lion woke up. Maybe this whole M42 plot development is currently on hold in part because of the Scouring and this book being not too far off, and needing to be done first. Or GW started meddling and threw things out of whack. We'll have to see one way or another. Also, for long years have I been one of the seemingly few proponents of the original Descent of Angels novel by Mitchell Scanlon. I loved pre-Imperium Caliban and the way it set up the disillusionment with the new regime as Caliban gets deforested in favor of cancerous industry at the cost of the Calibanite people. But damn did people hate that book because... it didn't have enough to do with the Horus Heresy, being the first book that didn't directly tie into the fall of Horus or Isstvan or the likes. It was a setup novel to a Legion, something we'd get plenty more of, but as book #6, it got hammered quite a lot within the community. But it did so much to set up the Dark Angels as what they would later become, the Lion's need for more, the feeling of him being a caged beast on his own world, the way Luther's resentment grows, particularly after seeing what happened to Caliban and so forth. It made Caliban a homeworld that I could visualize pretty clearly even in those early Heresy days, being the first book to actually do so. And through that it drove home the loss of it and what "joining the Imperium" actually means even when you're on the winning side, not the side bringing "compliance" to a random backwater world. But that ain't a Thorpe novel. Thorpe did, however, build on it over the years, and looking at Luther and Angels of Caliban, as well as some of the short stories, I feel he's done so well. Would I have liked to see more Prime-Luther doing knightly things? Yes, definitely. But I doubt there'd have been room for it anywhere with BL/GW, unless as a sideshow to current events, and Luther: First of the Fallen with its various vignettes, whether truthful or not, kinda stepped on those toes by now. And damn am I glad that book exists...

....I once more have to criticize the lack of Crying emoji reaction

Starting strong into the new year with not a single new story getting published until the 31st at the earliest, IF they preview something new next Sunday. If not, that's a dire January.... Last new thing was actually Demolisher, and that was previewed ages ago, too. Oh well, at least the Vaults of Terra Omnibus is confirmed to include the short stories from the limited editions of the novels. I don't get why this has to be surprising, but it is, considering all the omnibuses that ditch the limited stories...

They'll have Dark Hunters: Umbra Sumus on the preorder previews any Sunday now, and it'll finally free up their release queue. Any day now...

Those terms are industry standards. The other Trade Paperbacks you have from other publishers are a different type of Trade Paperback. Black Library is using what is basically the standard anyway - the B-Format TPB, normed at 129mm x 198mm (or 5+1⁄8 in x 7+3⁄4 in for non-metric xenos folks). "regular", non B-format Trades are normally the same as a previous hardback, same page format, numbering etc, but in a different, softcover binding. Both B-format but especially non-B use higher quality paper than Mass Market Paperbacks - which are flimsy and often have ink bleeding issues as well. The exact dimensions of full-on TPBs differ between markets (UK has them slightly larger than B-formats at 135mm x 216mm, for instance (which is why I have to double-check whenever I order UK editions because they generally have better, more distinct cover art and also often less marketing junk on the cover). Technically you'd also refer to comic trades as TPBs, but they're a different matter yet again. Black Library made the switch from MMPB to B-Format Trades back when they were still publishing Time of Legends set 2 and Warhammer Heroes. I believe the first Horus Heresy book to switch to the trade format - notably the larger British format, not B-format! - was Angel Exterminatus, which was also the first Hardback release for the series; the trade was, as explained above, basically identical to the hardback as a regular Trade Paperback would be. 6-9 months later, the book got the Mass Market Paperback release, skipping over the in-between B-Format that every other non-hardback BL release would switch to (often mid-series at the time, which my shelf has never forgiven them for). tl;dr BL does B-Format TPBs, which are the perfect compromise between compactness, sturdiness and pricing compared to "full-size" trades succeeding a hardcover release, which are often noticeably more expensive than Bs. Unlike MMPBs, B-format spines are much harder to destroy, too, rather than just being something that happens while reading and has to be lived with.

Just FYI, Omnibuses are NEVER in the Mass-Market Paperback format. That was completely ditched by Black Library a decade ago, with the sole exception being for Horus Heresy releases, often a year after their original release. Omnibuses are TRADE paperbacks, in the standard format. Yes, the font size is often reduced compared to novels, but that depends on how much content they need to squeeze in there with the 600-900 pages they got before the thing falls apart. I'm also not aware of BL ever putting out an omnibus in hardback; even when they do trilogy hardbacks, it's usually box sets with each book being bound separately.

I laughed when I saw that WarCom's slate of 2025 wrapups had the three top-listened to audiobooks.... and it's literally the HH Opening Trilogy, in order.

I want Thorpe to do Caliban, and it's the one thing I genuinely am excited for at this point (what with Eskrador probably being wasted and not be about how Omegon hands Guilliman/Cawl the untainted Primarch Project material to lead into the Primaris project, as we already had Sons of the Selenar foreshadowing the project and nobody seems to even remember that Alpharius/Omegon had the gene-tech anymore anyway). I want Thorpe to go hard on the fall of Caliban and pay off all the buildup from Angels of Darkness up to Luther. He's obviously sketched plans and moved pieces here and there, including with the Typhus rivalry. Caliban is the event that it all revolves around and it's somewhat return via Vashtorr in M42 might have been in the talks for ages before we ever heard rumors about it. There's been so much setup and so many pieces added to the puzzle, I want Thorpe to be the one to pull them together and deliver. This is basically his career's work writing for 40k/HH, and it'd be a suitably piss-poor decision for GW/BL to not have him work on it, what with their lack of respect to the authors and axing multiple series of Thorpe's due to lack of sales for anything not Space Marines in the day. But he put the legwork in, and he should be the one to make it work, not somebody else.