Warhammer Wednesday: Best Black Library sales

Today I received my latest royalty statement from Games Workshop. It may be a while since I last wrote for Black Library but I still get a few pounds and pence in royalties each year from sales of my novels and short stories, thanks to the prevalence of eBooks.

I thought it might be interesting to share the best-selling titles, based on earnings. So, here we go...

1) Iron Hands

2) The Relic - published in the Warhammer 40,000 anthology Legends of the Space Marines.

3) But Dust in the Wind

4) Journey of the Magi

5) Paradise - published in the Necromunda anthology Uprising.

Warhammer Wednesday: Journey of the Magi

Now that Christmas is over and we are approaching Twelfth Night, it seemed like the perfect time to plug my Warhammer 40,000 short story Journey of the Magi, in which three wise men follow a star...

On an artificial world far from the light of any sun, three sorcerers of the Thousand Sons emerge from a portal. Together, this trio will face ancient horrors – but the prize that awaits them is worth any danger. Long have these three sought the Godstar, piecing together its location from scattered scraps of knowledge. The immortal guardians of the place sleep, but it is not undefended, and the children of Prospero will pay a heavy price for that which they seek as they delve deep into the ancient mysteries of the necrons. 

You can buy Journey of the Magi here, and you can read more about the story here.

Warhammer Wednesday: Inferno! Warhammer 40,000 Collection

The tech-adepts at Black Library have released a new eBundle of Warhammer 40,000 short stories, that first appeared in the pages of Inferno! 

Included in the collection is my not-at-all-festive-honest Journey of the Magi.

Three sorcerers converge on an ancient necron structure in the hopes of retrieving something of great value to all three of them. But they will find that though dormant, the necrons do not give up their treasures easily…

On an artificial world far from the light of any son, three sorcerers of the Thousand Sons emerge from a portal, Together, this trio will face ancient horrors – but the prize that awaits them is worth any danger, Long have these three sought the Godstar, piecing together its location from scattered scraps of knowledge. The immortal guardians of the place sleep, but it is not undefended, and the children of Prospero will pay a heavy price for that which they seek as they delve deep into the ancient mysteries of the necrons.

If you haven't read it already, why not download Inferno! A Warhammer 40,000 Collection today?

The 12 Days of Christmas - Day 4: Journey of the Magi

Not my most overtly Christmassy tale perhaps, but in my Warhammer 40,000 short story Journey of the Magi, three wise men follow a star...

On an artificial world far from the light of any sun, three sorcerers of the Thousand Sons emerge from a portal. Together, this trio will face ancient horrors – but the prize that awaits them is worth any danger. Long have these three sought the Godstar, piecing together its location from scattered scraps of knowledge. The immortal guardians of the place sleep, but it is not undefended, and the children of Prospero will pay a heavy price for that which they seek as they delve deep into the ancient mysteries of the necrons. 

You can buy Journey of the Magi here, and you can read more about the story here.

Warhammer Wednesday: Angels of Death

Back in the day, circa 1995, I contributed colour text to Codex: Angels of Death, the Blood Angels and Dark Angels Codex for Warhammer 40K Second Edition. I also wrote the background section for the Dark Angels that appeared in the book.

I began my day today by downloading the original soundtrack to the new Angels of Death animated series, created by Warhammer Storyforge, and coming out later this year. You can find out more about the soundtrack and its composer, Jonathan Hartman, as well as how to download it yourself, here.

Strangely, I have not written any fully-fledged short stories featuring either Dark Angels or Blood Angels. The animated series may be about Blood Angels battling the Tyranids, but the Angels of Death OST is the perfect accompaniment to my Warhammer 40K Quick Read Journey of the Magi, which you can download here.

Journey of the Magi

On an artificial world far from the light of any sun, three sorcerers of the Thousand Sons emerge from a portal, Together, this trio will face ancient horrors – but the prize that awaits them is worth any danger.

Long have these three sought the Godstar, piecing together its location from scattered scraps of knowledge. The immortal guardians of the place sleep, but it is not undefended, and the children of Prospero will pay a heavy price for that which they seek as they delve deep into the ancient mysteries of the necrons.

If you've not seen it yet, here's the latest trailer for the Angels of Death animated series.

Warhammer Wednesday: #New40K

In case you haven't heard already, the big announcement from Games Workshop at the weekend was that a new edition* of Warhammer 40,000 is on the way. The news broke with this rather wonderful cinematic trailer.

What I personally found quite exciting about this is that the Necrons** are front and centre, which gives me the perfect excuse to plug two of my short stories that are available as digital downloads from the Black Library, seeing as how they both feature the ancient Necrontyr.

On an artificial world far from the light of any son, three sorcerers of the Thousand Sons emerge from a portal, Together, this trio will face ancient horrors – but the prize that awaits them is worth any danger, Long have these three sought the Godstar, piecing together its location from scattered scraps of knowledge. The immortal guardians of the place sleep, but it is not undefended, and the children of Prospero will pay a heavy price for that which they seek as they delve deep into the ancient mysteries of the necrons.

Investigating a distress signal from an ice-shrouded mining colony, Space Marines of the Imperial Fists find themselves outnumbered and surrounded by the soulless necrons. Facing impossible odds, the Imperial Fists struggle desperately to find a way to survive.

* The ninth!

** Or 'murder-robots' as I saw them described on the Warhammer Community website.

Warhammer Wednesday: Inferno! Volume 4 Review

During to the Coronavirus lockdown, a lot of people have been catching up on their reading, and that includes The Sci-Fi and Fantasy Reviewer. The latest review to go up is of Inferno! Volume 4, which features my own Thousand Sons short story Journey of the Magi, and it makes for very pleasant reading*.

"I was both surprised and delighted to see Jonathan Green’s name in the Table of Contents, because he was one of the first Black Library authors I ever read; The Dead and the Damned remains perhaps my favourite Warhammer Fantasy (now Warhammer Chronicles, I suppose) novels of all time. So I was curious to see what Journey of the Magi would deliver, and was intrigued to find a slow-paced, atmospheric and multi-layered tale revolving around three sorcerors from the Thousand Sons Legion landing on a seemingly-abandoned planetoid in search of a prize buried in the depths of a strange temple. While the trio breach its external defences easily enough, they soon find that the metallic, undying defenders inside have no intention of allowing them an easy journey. I appreciated the old-school feel of the story, with some detailed descriptions of the three sorcerers, their powers and the complex relationship between them, but also the way in which Green deftly brought the plot up to date with the latest lore and canon. It’s a striking story written with a narrative richness I think is unique to Green, as is the ending which deploys twist after twist to create a complex yet deeply rewarding story that immediately bears fruit from re-reading after finishing."

Click on the covers below to download eBook editions direct from Black Library.

     

* Especially when I am currently busy writing another new short story.

Short Story Saturday: In the grim darkness of the future there are only eBooks

I was slightly surprised to open an email from Games Workshop yesterday to discover, under the Black Library banner, the cover of my second Warhammer novel Magestorm staring back at me. It's a story from the World-That-Was and it was first published 16 years ago, in 2004.

As it turned out, the reason for the appearance of this title is that in this time of lockdown, like many publishers, Black Library are promoting their digital products, and Magestorm is one of the eBooks you can download direct from www.BlackLibrary.com. There are several short stories of mine also available as eBook downloads, including two that feature the ancient alien Necrons; my most recent Warhammer 40K story Journey of the Magi, and But Dust in the Wind, first published in 2010.

So why not click the image above and check out what's on offer?

The future's dark. The future's grim...

Short Story Saturday: Black Library Fiction

With Journey of the Magi being featured on the Black Library website this week, I thought it timely to focus on the short stories of mine that are still available from Games Workshop's publishing division.

Journey of the Magi
A Warhammer 40,000 story

On an artificial world far from the light of any sun, three sorcerers of the Thousand Sons emerge from a portal, Together, this trio will face ancient horrors – but the prize that awaits them is worth any danger, Long have these three sought the Godstar, piecing together its location from scattered scraps of knowledge. The immortal guardians of the place sleep, but it is not undefended, and the children of Prospero will pay a heavy price for that which they seek as they delve deep into the ancient mysteries of the necrons.


But Dust in the Wind
A Warhammer 40,000 story

Investigating a distress signal from an ice-shrouded mining colony, Space Marines of the Imperial Fists find themselves outnumbered and surrounded by the soulless necrons. Facing impossible odds, the Imperial Fists struggle desperately to find a way to survive.

The Relic
A Warhammer 40,000 story

As Ghazghkull Thraka's second invasion engulfs Armageddon, Dreadnought Brother Jarold leads warriors from the Black Templars Chapter in battle against the greenskins in the frozen Dead Lands. Following a distress beacon, they find another Dreadnought in the ice, buried for half a century. When the orks attack en masse, the two Dreadnoughts make a last stand against the bestial invaders.



Sticks and Stones
A Warhammer story

War against orcs and goblins is never easy for the soldiers of the Empire. Their foes and savage and brutal and revel in battle. and never more so than when a mighty idol of their gods marches to war alongside them, fuelled by magic and the power of the Waaagh! In the midst of battle, it falls to Rutger Erlang and his pistolier comrades to deal with the manifestation of Gork (or is it Mork?) and prevent the total destruction of the Empire army.

Warhammer Wednesday: Journey of the Magi

I am delighted to be able to report that my Thousand Sons short story, Journey of the Magi, is this week's digital eShort release on BlackLibrary.com.

I love what the graphic designer has done with the cover. Very clever.

When I first submitted the outline for the story, I dreamed that it might become a Digital Monday release, but then it was commissioned for Inferno! Volume 4 instead. And yet here we are, some xx months later, and my dream has come true. Such are the twisty-turny ways of Tzeentch.

In case you don't already know what they tale is about, here's the blurb from the Black Library website:

On an artificial world far from the light of any sun, three sorcerers of the Thousand Sons emerge from a portal. Together, this trio will face ancient horrors – but the prize that awaits them is worth any danger. Long have these three sought the Godstar, piecing together its location from scattered scraps of knowledge. The immortal guardians of the place sleep, but it is not undefended, and the children of Prospero will pay a heavy price for that which they seek as they delve deep into the ancient mysteries of the necrons.

You can buy Journey of the Magi here, and you can read more about the story here.

Warhammer Wednesday: Journey of the Magi

A review of my new Warhammer 40,000 story, Journey of the Magi, appeared on Track of Words this week. In summary:

"Come for the sorcerous action, stay for the enjoyably bleak sense of satisfaction."

You can read the full review here, and you can buy Inferno! Volume 4, in which the story appears, here.

Warhammer Wednesday: Inferno! Volume 4

Inferno! Volume 4 is published tomorrow, on 31st October.

Volume 4 is the biggest yet and contains 12 tales in total, include my own Thousand Sons story, Journey of the Magi.

Warhammer Wednesday: Old Inferno! Reprints

The Black Library are offering reprints of some of the original Inferno! magazines, which some of my short stories first appeared in.

On offer this time around are issues 16-25, but if you want to order one you'd better hurry - they're only available for the next two weeks.

The stories of mine, from the turn of the millennium, that you'll find in the issues are one Badenov's Band tale, called The Plague Pit, and a pair of Nathan Creed Necromunda stories - Mama's Boys and Boyz in the Hive.

And don't forget, as reported last week, Inferno! Volume 4 is published at the end of the month, and includes a brand new Warhammer 40,000 story by me called Journey of the Magi.

Warhammer Wednesday: Inferno! Volume 4

So this arrived in the post today...

I have a long history with Inferno! - I had a short story published in Issue Zero as well as pieces in Issues #1, #2 and #3, all of which came out 22 years ago, in 1997 - but this is the first time I've had a story published in its modern, paperback anthology format. And it's nice that the editors have included an introduction to both myself and my story*.

Journey of the Magi is another of my sort-of-Christmas-themed stories, but what I am most proud about is that it is my first Thousand Sons story, and yet the word 'Chaos' doesn't appear in it once. It also features one of the races I have returned to again and again over the years - the Necrons.

Inferno! Volume 4 is a hefty beast - the biggest yet - and contains 12 stories in total, which include George Mann's Inferno! debut, and a tale by Guy Haley, who contributed to the Shakespeare Vs Cthulhu anthology that I put together.

Inferno! Volume 4 goes on general release on 31st October 2019.

 Inferno! Volume 4 alongside the other anthologies I've been published in this year.

* Even if they have got the year wrong. ;-)