DukeLeto69

*sigh* but then as long as we buy them then they will make them! GW/BL know a significant chunk of their customer base are “collectors” so releasing a series almost guarantees a certain level of sales.

So they are doing this as a “sequential” series not a setting! Shame! Could have been a sandbox and let authors cover events that interested them. There is a roman numeral “I” on the spine and this looks similar in design to Siege of Terra.

I agree. BL have had 20 years to figure out how to execute long running multi-author series, you know PLAN IT OUT WITH A ROADMAP AND SPECIFIC PLOT POINTS TO HIT but no, just go mess around in the sandpit pretending it is a coherent series. BL (and GW) do settings, pretty well. So a HH setting and a 40k setting in a BIG galaxy, works fine! I truly hope if they ever do decide to do the Age of Apostasy that it is a setting rather than an attempt at a sequential series!

THIS makes me very SAD! I too thought this was going to be an epilogue and also wrap up some unfinished plots. I hoped it was also a springboard to a The Scouring series. So another BL fail goddamit! My standard hardback is on order because, as BL know, we like to have our neat collections. After taking over a year out from BL fiction after tEatD books 1-73 (apart from the brilliant Interceptor City) I had hoped this might rekindle some interest. Not looking forward to this now. SAD!

I agree. I would rather have had the entire HH series than not. Within that mammoth bloated series is a paired down amazing series (but what that contains will forever be subjective). I personally think the HH should have been a setting rather than a series.

The number of novels was overblown, but the Siege of Terra was not “one battle”!!! It was a planet wide war with multiple concurrent battles. Just saying.

I would bet that Abnett wrote 2 and a bit novels for tEatD and instead of editing it down to 2 books GW/BL said “can you expand it to 3 books” so they all (inc Abnett, made more bank. It was not envisaged as 3 books. That came later with all those “fragments”

Aha makes sense, didn’t even think of looking being honest! Good news = I would expect the lore to improve and have better internal consistency. Bad news = as we have see this will/is badly impact on his novel writing output. Guess with a growing family a steady salary is preferable to freelancing and relying on advances and royalties!

How do you fraters KNOW that ADB was appointed as GW Head of Narrative?

Succinct but yes it was. Had potential as an idea. Personally I was keen to see where all the Imperium Secundus stuff would go but they badly fumbled it starting with TUE. So ended up as more useless bloat.

TBH I always assumed TUE was a contract filler by Abnett. I think he had lost his BL mojo and I believe this book coincided with all the BL/Studio changes.

Yep, and I say this as a big fan of Abnett’s work for BL in general as my joint fav BL author with Fehervari, it really is subjective! IMO TUE is Abnett’s weakest HH entry. Partly the not meeting expectations set (ie seeing Imperium Secundus properly set up) but mainly for me, this feels like Abnett’s superhero comic book work broke through the wall and for a while he forgot which IP he was writing for. Large chunks of this book you could just swap the names of the primarchs for [insert superhero name]. And as someone who has never liked DC or Marvel type stuff, this book really was yeeeuucchhhhh! For me a real test of how good I think a book is will be “will I / did I ever read it again?” I gave re-read the GG books and related Sabbat books as well as the Inquisitor books multiple times. They mostly stand up to revisiting and remain enjoyable. I know I will never re TUE again. Although as I type that I do realise I have never revisited ANY HH novel by any author…. Hmmm?

For me the “golden era” was approx 2006-2012ish A time when the HH was new and we didn’t quite have the bloat. Books were celebrated for being NYT Best Sellers. BL appeared to actually want to complete trilogies. Exciting new authors like ADB started joining the established roster of authors like Abnett & McNeil. Books actually got promoted. You could walk into a bookstore like Waterstones and see a pretty good Warhammer selection. You could buy MMPB and get in on the fan discussions from the books release without having to try and land a special edition with a mortgage. BL had forums so we could chat. Authors were actively engaging with the fanbase. We had an idea of what was coming soon and could discuss and get excited! Heady days!!!!

Don’t agree on the pacing or the slow build. Too many times we are forced to rush in. This took its time and felt all the better for it. Also think the subplot was well signposted so came to a head at the right point in the book. But maybe just me!

To add to @DarkChaplain excellent post, the contents and characters in all Black Library books are protected by copyright. It says it right there on one of the first pages in the book. Note too that it is Games Workshop that owns the copyright not the author.