So to all you avid Horus Heresy Novel collectors out there; why haven't you purchased Book 31 Tallarn: Ironclad?
Do you only buy books featuring Legions that interest you? Have you lost love for the HH Stories? Do you only buy novels from a certain author? Is £40 for a Novel too much? Or did you actually buy it?
I ask this because I have my own opinions on the Novel and how it was released.
I purchased a ticket to go to a special event (Horus Heresy Weekender 2015), where new releases and an event only advanced ordered Novella (Seditions gate, Imperial Truth etc).
I was greeted this year by a new Garro Story (part of a complete back edition only purchase), a Novella (Blades of the Traitor) which I already owned 60% of which they made no mention of prior to getting there and a Special edition of Tallarn: Ironclad for £40.
Tallarn: Ironclad was a special edition hardback which did not have the same spine as the other HH Hardbacks (which many people are collectors of) and they had no idea if it was book 31 or just a large Novella.
It is the first time I have been truly disappointed with Black Library and decided to only buy Blades of the Traitor (which further to my fury a week later they released the other 40% of the book as eBooks - same format as the other 60% of the Novella I already owned).
Tallarn: Ironclad has since gone up on sale on the BlackLibrary site and after a few weeks of promoting it they fell silent. . . Roll on to now and according to BL less than 400 copies are still available. Good. It has been this way for a long while too.
I am a massive Iron Warriors fan, and read every HH story including BL live anthologies, currently the only 2 I haven't read is Tallarn Ironclad and Ironfire (the latter because I am convinced they are Blades' of the Traitoring my ass again) which I am obviously upset about.
I really rate John French and for his first huge book to come out with such low sales due to BL making a huge mistake also angers me.
Any way. Can't wait to read it. . . actually at £40 I will . . .
Drake Seta
I did not buy the book because quite simply, I'm not up to it yet lol. But with Blades of the Traitor, I completely understand why you were annoyed as they advertised it as including 5 brand new stories which is clearly not the case. Surly this falls under false advertising?
ReplyDeleteI do not understand why BL are not more transparent. So when there are books available and the state they are event exclusive books, they shouldn't then just release them a few weeks after the event. And also, the staff should be educated a lot more. A prime example of this was when we purchased tickets for the grand opening, we were advised that both days would be different so a couple of us brought tickets for both days, only to be told after that both days are exactly the same and the reason it is spread over 2 days was so more people could attend. Things like these really do make me think that they are just trying to get every penny out of us by keeping us in the dark. But hey, the books are still fantastic and I will continue to buy them :-)
I will be purchasing the event exclusive book at the Grand Opening as Laurie Goulding himself advised us in a seminar that the book will not be available again for a few years but will eventually be released for general sale. If this is not the case then I will not be a happy bunny. But time will tell :-)
DeleteI totally agree that Black Library needs to be far clearer when advertising a book as "limited" or "exclusive" and if it's going to be released on general sale how soon afterwards!!
ReplyDeleteI just mistakenly picked up Corax: Soulforge thinking it was a new novella when I already had it from its original "limited" release!! When I really wanted Blades of the Traitor!!
They also need to be clearer when individual stories appear in collected editions and then elsewhere!!
Completely understand where you're coming from. When it was shown what happened in Blades of the Traitor it was rather annoying to have books that we all have put money into and read separately to then come in an anthology is very irritating. Yes it will be good to have all books in one but after having no (as far as I'm aware) notice of this it disappoints me to see BL go down this route. Please if you see this BL employees don't make this mistake again. But we love your books!!
ReplyDeleteMy problem is that I can't bring myself to pay $65 for a novel, no matter how much I want to read it. If I'm paying that much for a book, it should be written in gold leaf or something, or come with a bunch of extras, and even then I doubt that I'm going to pay that much. I love the Tallarns, I love tank battles, and this story is one that I've wanted to read for quite some time, but at $65? I'm more than willing to wait to see if they release a standard version that's actually reasonably priced.
ReplyDeleteI actually purchased it 2 weeks ago online, at the time of release I didn't think it would be on the shelf for as long as it has been, and in Australia it's hard to pay 80+ for a book when in 2 years it will be released normally.
ReplyDeleteIn the past I've payed ebay hundreds of dollars for other novels that sold out like Aurelian gold copy and promethazine sun and the imperial truth.
If they were to not make these so irritating in buying format like only 1500 copies or order between a and b to get your copy I think it would be more successful.
I'm currently on the verge of paying 120 aus for the purge another great story but once again in Australia we don't have any events to have secured a copy.
I think they need to up there game for the rest of the World not just focus on the UK & USA
I purchased it as I play IW, however I thought it was a let down. Never thought the part focussing on IG be the best part.... Didn't enjoy the SoH and IW part particularly...
ReplyDeleteI agree that BL should be more forth coming with how they release things. While I enjoy the SM perspective I thought the first Tallarn novel (Executioner) was quite good despite my misgivings about the pure IG view point as I bought it thinking I would be getting more IWs. I actually loved Ironclad: The book is beautiful (love the chaos portal reference as the cover) and makes me love the assassin vanus in this book. I thought this class of assassin was lame in the other novel with that assassin group.
ReplyDeleteI bought ironclad but haven't read it yet through time issues as I've been studying.
ReplyDeleteHowever I too bought blades of the traitor and sold it on eBay the moment I got it home! :(
What an utter disappointment from BL.
Anyway, I'll continue to buy the ltd edt novellas as I own all the others. To stop now would be counter productive. I do agree that the cost of some though is somewhat steeper than required. Imperial truth is also now available as separate epubs much to my annoyance.
I'm hoping here will be some decent new releases at the Grand Openenjng next weekend which will at least not be available for 6 months. I also hope the new FW store only model for the WHW FW store will be available :)
This is book up for sale again with 'last few copies' tag.
ReplyDeleteThe problem with this book is entirely down to the pricing, staggered release and description.
-The price is far too high.
-The staggered release removes the eagerness to purchase to discuss with friends (a problem that has existed ever since they brought out the LE novellas and later the hardbacks)
-The description of what the book is is not clear. Is it a novella, novella or what? You have to scour the internet to find out which it is. Some people might pay £40 for a 400-500 novel but not for a 100 page novella.
That being said, I suspect the story is very good and I look forward to reading it.
Glad to see that the Wolf King LE novella will be simultaneously released on ebook.