Are You Annoyed By Black Library’s Splintered Book?

by | Apr 2, 2013

I am an avid reader of Black Library books. These days, I probably read more Warhammer 40K novels from Black Library than I play Warhammer 40K.

Like the products for Warhammer 40K the game by the Games Workshop studio, Black Library…

  • made a strong move towards pricier premium products – mainly hardcovers, limited editions and premium formats and
  • started experimenting more with digital releases and e-book formats

Unfortunately, someone at Black Library seems to think they ought to cross-promote their various and growing number of formats by splintering up their stories between them.

It’s an idea that seems very much at cross-purposes the having more formats to choose from. I find it annoying to be forced to chase down different, often limited releases for a “complete story”.

#1 – Example 1 – UK Games Day Anthology

My first encounter with Black Library’s fractured story-telling was inconspicuous enough.

At last years UK Games Day I picked up Black Library’s exclusive, limited Games Day Anthology.

Not cheap, true.

However, I was in the mood for some Warhammer 40K fiction, so a collection of mainly 40K short stories sounded like fun (and it was.. good book for the most part).

Turns out, two stories at least weren’t “just” short stories written for the Anthology.

  1. Extinction by Aaron Dembski-Bowden barely makes any sense at all on its own. Apparently it’s meant to be a “written trailer” for a future Black Legion series by ADB.
  2. Perihelion by Dan Abnett isn’t self-contained either and a taster for his latest Inquisition-trilogy, starting with Pariah.

If you want to read “all” of either series, you’ll have to chase down these short-stories. At least Black Library made Perihelion available as download when Pariah was released.

Hopefully they will do the same with Extinction.

#2 – Example 2 – Firecaste

As I have a soft spot for the Tau, I picked up both Black Library’s Shadowsun and Firecaste surrounding the current re-launch of Warhammer 40K’s favourite blue-skinned Xenos.

The latter opens with an advert for Peter Fehevari’s Out Caste and ends with a plug for his A Sanctuary of Wyrms.

A Sanctuary of Wyrms, previously published in Xenos Hunters, appears to be set on the same swamp-jungle planet setting.

I don’t really have a good e-Reader and would’ve greatly preferred to have these printed in the book with Firecaste. Still, they are cheap downloads. If I do feel I miss something reading “only” Firecaste, I could probably spare the extra pound or two.

#3 – Example 3 – Horus Heresy Raven Guard

If Black Library is milking something, it’s the Horus Heresy stuff.

Now… imagine for a second you’re into the Horus Heresy thing. Imagine, also, youhave a soft spot for the Raven Guard and the fate of their Primarch Corax.

If that is the case, Black Library (with the help of Gav Thorpe) will rob you blind.

  • There is Deliverance Lost, arguably the main novel here. Actually still available on dead trees for £7.99.
  • There is Raven’s Flight, a Horus Heresy Audio Drama to complement it. £8.50 for a download.
  • There is The Face of Treachery from Age of Darkness, also available as download for £1.50.
  • Finally, there is no Corax: Soulforge, available for a limited time only for £30.00.

The Black Library trailer for Corax: Soulforge even makes it a point to show all the tie-ins with other Raven Guard books.

And that’s not even considering the scheme they pushed on Raven Guard fans last year with The Unkindness of Ravens (and its associate by-products).

#4 – Give Me Options To Chose From!

I like having more options.

If Black Library publishes hardcovers and softcovers, collector’s editions and mass-paperbacks, digital and print-books, audio-dramas and scriptbooks, I would generally welcome this as giving me – the reader – more choice.

The entire thing is perverted, however, if I am forced to purchase more or less all these options, those I like and those I like less, just to get a story I care for.

That is the opposite of choice. It’s pointlessly harassing readers to jump formats only to follow a story. The story becomes a tool to sell the various snazzy book-formats the marketing-department came up with.

For a (sub-)company publishing fiction (!), that strikes me as a remarkably stupid thing to do.

Z.