Time of Legends - why the change?

The time of legends series has been going on for a while now and started out with the Rise of Sigmar in 'Heldenhammer' by Graham Mcneil. This along with the Rise of Nagash and The scouring series have continously produced excellent stories set during the past of current Warhammer fiction. The next set of trilogies focus on other major events that have shaped not just the Empire but also the state of the Warhammer World today.

It should be noted that after 'Neferata' by Josh Reynolds was published Black Library came to the decision to change the format of the books from mass paper back to trade paper back. This not only raised a few eye brows of concern for current readers such as myself, not because they cost a bit more (a whole £1) but what about the first books at the start of the new trilogies and how they would look next to the new trade paper back versions? Black library answered this concern by re publishing these first books in the trilogy along side the release of the next book and thus your collection does not look all that skewed.

In my eyes this was a good move for two reasons; the first being that the Time of Legends books have an identity all their own and thus do not look too similar to those produced for the Horus Heresy. The second reason is that when the Omnibus editons for the first three trilogies came out the mass paperback versions of the new books looked not remotely related and thus looked out of place. Whether Black Library did this for money that a lot of people say on the forum's I sincerely doubt for now the Time of Legends series has an identity all to its self as well as looking good on your shelf next to the omnibus collections of the first three triolgies.



(Above) Dead winter by CL Werner cover art by Jon Sullivan, first published by Black Library 2012.
(Below) Dead Winter by CL Werner cover art by Fares Maese, published by Black Library 2013.

 

 

There is in fact a third reason that I like the fact they have reprinted them in  trade paperback and thats the new fantasic cover artwork that has been done for them, don't get me wrong I enjoyed Jon Sullivans work but I must say that i really prefer Fares Maese's version more because I prefer his style more so than Jon's digital style and his style just seems to fit more for the setting.

My next two posts will be reviews of CL Werners entires into the Time of Legends series both 'Dead Winter' released in 2012 and the most recent entry in the Time of Legends series 'Blighted Empire'.