Warhammer Wednesday: The Emperor's Champion

This Saturday, 8th October 2022, is Warhammer Day, and is focused on celebrating 35 years of the tabletop miniatures game Warhammer 40,000.

To mark this occasion, Games Workshop is releasing a new Emperor's Champion miniature/diorama. Although it's entitled Bayard’s Revenge, the model of an Emperor’s Champion triumphing over a mighty Ork Nob, reminded by of my Warhammer 40K novel Crusade for Armageddon, which just happens to features an Emperor's Champion of the Black Templars Chapter triumphing over multiple Ork Nobs.

Although Crusade for Armageddon is no longer in print, and not available as an eBook either, my popular short story The Relic, that features many of the same characters from that particular novel, is available in both Legends of the Space Marines and War for Armageddon: The Omnibus.

Warhammer Wednesday: Space Marines - The Omnibus

Black Library recently updated their Coming Soon pages which led to them making this public.

Space Marines: The Omnibus collects together the stories from the Heroes, Legends and Victories of the Space Marines anthologies, plus three long out of print Space Marine comic strips (apparently).

As long-time readers of this blog will already know, I had stories in both Legends and Victories (not to mention Treacheries), so I shall look forward to receiving my contributor copy of this publication in due course.

Meanwhile, you can pre-order your copy here.

More JG ebook releases from Black Library

Black Library are continuing to make more and more of their products available as ebooks and that includes short stories as well as novels.

The first of my Black Library short stories made available in this way (as far as I'm aware) was But Dust in the Wind, from the Victories of the Space Marines collection. Now The Relic, my Black Templars tale from Legends of the Space Marines, it also available, either on its own, or as part of the complete anthology.

Oh, and don't forget I've also got a new Warhammer short story out now in Hammer & Bolter Issue 9.

More love for Legends

The Black Library's Warhammer 40K anthology Legends of the Space Marines continues to receive good reviews. And even those who don't rave over the book are still enjoying my Black Templars short story The Relic - which is nice.

Highlights of the book include The Relic by Jonathan Green, The Returned by James Swallow and At Gaius Point by Aaron Dembski-Bowden.

However, one reviewer was disappointed by the lack of soulless alien robot-forms in the collection.

My only gripe is that we dont hear enough about the "necrons" who (in my humble estimation) are the deadliest "mothers" in the universe therefore making them arguably the most interesting...

Well, that particular reviewer should make sure he picks up Victories of the Space Marines when it comes out, as that contains my Imperial Fists vs Necrons short But Dust in the Wind, which should make him one happy bunny.

You can buy your own copy of Legends of the Space Marines here, and pre-order Victories of the Space Marines (which also contains a story by me) here.

Victories of the Space Marines... Incoming!

According to some sources there's now less than a month to go before the latest Black Library Space Marines anthology is unleashed upon the world.

In case you didn't know, Victories of the Space Marines includes a story by me - not about the Black Templars this time but the Imperial Fists.

Anyway, just to build the anticipation even further, here's what one kind person had to say about my story in Legends of the Space Marines:

Kyme's, Scanlon's, Goto's, Swallows's, Green's and Bowden's stories were beyond a question wonderfully composed. Mister Green's plethora of unique story twists were wonderful...

You can pre-order Victories of the Space Marines here.

Legends of the Space Marines - review round-up

They've been a few nice reviews going up of late concerning the Black Library's Warhammer 40K anthology Legends of the Space Marines. And a few even mention me or my Black Templars short story The Relic in particular. Here are just a couple of them:

**** Four Stars! Author Jonathan Green writes his story from the grand view point of a Dreadnought. I found it to be enlightening to say the least. ****

Kyme's, Scanlon's, Goto's, Swallows's, Green's and Bowden's stories were beyond a question wonderfully composed. Mister Green's plethora of unique story twists were wonderful...

You can buy your own copy of Legends of the Space Marines here, why the forthcoming Victories of the Space Marines (which also contains a story by me) can be pre-ordered here.

UK Games Day OK!

So, Sunday was Games Day UK and I woke early, excited at the prospect of catching up with old friends, enjoying all the news things GW has to offer and generally thrilling at the thought of immersing myself in the worlds of Warhammer and 40K for a few hours.

I arrived at the NEC before 9am, fully prepared to queue for a goodly while and then - wonder of wonders bumped into Mark of My Favourite Books. He ushered me along to join him and his wife Liz at the very front of the queue* which also happened to be in site of the Black Library stands.

At 9.40am, we were actually let in early and so I hurried with Mark to the BL sales stand, picking up a signed copy of Jim Swallow's Bloodline**. while I was there I picked up Clint Werner's latest, Wulfrik***, and Darius Hinks' Warrior Priest, along with two new audio dramas, Jim's Garro: Oath of Moment and Waiting Death by Steve Lyons.

I spent a while chatting with Christian Dunn and the Black Library Digital stand and saw my short story The Relic presented as part of an eBook on an iPad. I also caught up on all the news with Head of BL George Mann. I then dropped by the author signing stands and met Chris Wraight (author of the excellent Iron Company) for the first time but missed editor/author Nick Kyme, who was busy being interviewed at the time. I waved at Dan Abnett (which is not unusual at these things) and got to admire Xhalax's Titan Crew costume posse firsthand.

Other highlights of the day were catching the new trailer of the CGI Ultramarines movie (scripted by Dan Abnett) and seeing a tantalising sculpture on the Forgeworld stand of a Necron Tomb Stalker. The new Dark Eldar Codex looked pretty tasty too. I also had to fight to resist parting with a shed load of cash for the new Deathwatch book from Fantasy Flight Games and Forgeworld's Imperial Armour Volume IX - The Badab War Part 1.

But for me Games Day is all about the Black Library and this year's (my fifthteenth!) was awesome. So roll on Games Day 2011!

You can read more about other people's experiences of the day here, at Dan's blog, and here, courtesy of Liz of My Favourite Books.

* It's all about who you know!

** An exclusive chapbook produced especially for the day.

*** Anything by Clint is a must for me - especially if it's one of his Bad Guy Books.

The Black Templars duology

With a new Black Templars story out now in the 40K anthology Legends of the Space Marines and with talk of Crusade for Armageddon and Conquest of Armageddon appearing as part of the Black Library's Print on Demand range next year, I thought you might like to see this...

Legends of the Space Marines - The Relic

Legends of the Space Marines (the latest 40K anthology from Black Library) is barely out and yet the reviews are already starting to come in. Selfishly, I'm most interested in what people have to say about my newest Solemnus Crusade story The Relic.

Long-time Black Library fan Xhalax has not always been my keenest supporter, to the point where when I met her at Games Day once I didn't dare introduce myself. (Sad, I know.) But since then I've got to know her a little and the other day she sent me this missive via Facebook:

Well Mr. Green, I've just finished The Relic in Legends of the Space Marines and I really enjoyed it. I've always had a soft spot for Dreadnoughts, so the outcome of the story definitely made me smile....as did the general Dreadnoughty goodness of the whole thing.

That meant a lot to me. And then I came across this on Amazon:

THE RELIC (Black Templars) by Jonathan Green

Brother Jarold of the Black Templars well remembers the moment he witnessed a mech-enhanced greenskin warboss, Morkrull Grimskar, teleport away with the unconscious form of Emperor's Champion Ansgar as his prisoner. Within his Dreadnought body-shell, Brother Jarold has vowed to locate Brother Ansgar and either bring him back in triumph or that they may lay his body to rest. Then while battling the orks in the desolate ice fields on Armageddon, a long lost brother is found underneath the ice.

**** Four Stars! Author Jonathan Green writes his story from the grand view point of a Dreadnought. I found it to be enlightening to say the least. ****

In passing, yesterday Legends of the Space Marines was ranked #413 in Books and #9 in Science Fiction. Result.

Legends of the Space Marines

This arrived in the post today...

The reason I mention this here is because third in the list of contents of Legends of the Space Marines is a story called The Relic - a brand new Black Templars story by yours truly.

This is the first piece of work I have had published by the Black Library since 2005 and concerns characters that first featured in the novels Crusade for Armageddon and Conquest of Armageddon (the last book of mine BL put out).

I'm personally looking forward to reading Nick Kyme's and Aaron Dembski-Bowden's contributions.

If you like what you see in The Relic you may be interested to know that I have just finished another space marine story, this time featuring the Imperial Fists, for a future anthology. The story is tentatively titled But Dust in the Wind. But more about that another time...

Legends of the Space Marines

I am very pleased to be able to tell you that Legends of the Space Marines - which features my brand new Black Templars short story The Relic - is now available to pre-order, over at the Black Library's shiny new website.

Franchise fiction vs original fiction - the debate continues

Came across this today over at Jeff Vandermeer’s Ecstatic Days blog. It's a conversation between Dan Abnett and fantasy author Mark Charan Newton (who also happens to work for Games Workshop’s Black Library range of tie-in novels). Dan has how had over three dozen novels published but, amazingly, Triumff: Her Majesty’s Hero is his first non tie-in book.

Mark and Dan talk about the frustrations and advantages of writing tie-in work versus the advantages and frustrations of working in your own universe. It's a cracking read and seems all the more timely to me as my latest piece of tie-in work dropped through my letterbox yesterday to be proofed. You can read The Relic in the forthcoming Legends of the Space Marines Warhammer 40K anthology.

Black Library

My work for the Black Library includes six novels and numerous short stories. I wrote the Warhammer novels The Dead and the Damned (2002), Magestorm (2004) and (2005), and the Warhammer 40,000 novels NecromancerCrusade for Armageddon (2003), Iron Hands (2004) and Conquest of Armageddon (2005).


My most recent work for the Black Library is a short story entitled The Relic and will appear in the new short story collection Legends of the Space Marines (published April 2010).

Legends of the Space Marines - The Templars Return

Now that commissioning forms have been signed and sealed I can reveal that I am contributing a short story to the Warhammer 40,000 anthology Legends of the Space Marines, due to be published in May 2010.

My story is called The Relic and features the Black Templars of the Solemnus Crusade (specifically dreadnought Brother Jarold, which I know will please some people) who appeared in the Armageddon duology Crusade for Armageddon and Conquest of Armageddon.

It's been great to get back to the 40K milieu but it's also taken a while to re-discover my 40K mojo having not written for the Black Library for over four years!

The anthology features current Black Library authors, such as James Swallow and Richard Williams, returning writers like myself and C S Goto, as well as some first-time scribes.

The Space Marine chapters who will be appearing are as listed below, with their assigned authors alongside.


Black Templars - Aaron Dembski-Bowden & Jonathan Green

Dark Hunters - Paul Kearney

Doom Eagles - James Swallow

Mantis Warriors - C S Goto

Raven Guard - George Mann

Salamanders - Nick Kyme

Scythes of the Emperor - Richard Williams

Space Wolves - Ben Counter

White Scars - Mitchel Scanlon


I for one can't wait for next May!