Prospero Burns Delayed Until Jan 2011

Spack · by **Spack** » Wed Jan 27, 2010 7:45 am

Prospero Burns, the Horus Heresy novel by Dan Abnett forming the second part of the Space Wolves v Thousands Sons story, will now not be published until January next year due to Dan Abnett's recent medical issues. Here's the post from the Black Library blog about this:

Due to author Dan Abnett’s health issues, the Horus Heresy novel Prospero Burns will now be published in Jan 2011. This novel chronicles the epic story of the Space Wolves and their dire battle with the Thousand Sons. It provides a counterpoint to A Thousand Sons, which tells the story from the Traitor Legion’s perspective and is published in March 2010.

The Horus Heresy series continues to go from strength-to-strength throughout 2010, with three major new novels and three original audio dramas. For a full list of 2010 titles please visit the Black Library website at www.blacklibrary.com.

Statement from Dan Abnett:

“As some of you will know, I became ill in the latter part of last year. The problem was eventually identified as epilepsy, which I am now managing, but it took several rather troubling months to reach that diagnosis. As a consequence, Prospero Burns did not meet its deadline, and the decision’s been made to push back its release. I’d like to say two things: thank you for all the messages of support, and sorry there’s going to be a delay. I’ll do everything I can to make sure that Prospero Burns is worth the wait.”

estarriol · by **estarriol** » Wed Jan 27, 2010 9:33 am

Damn and I thought it was because Black Library actually wanted someone who could write?

lostandthedamned · by **lostandthedamned** » Wed Jan 27, 2010 3:15 pm

To be fair I Think Mr Abnett can show more writng skill than he has displayed recently. I recently picked up his first non GW novel "Triumff: Her Majesty's Hero" which is a sort of steampunk Victorian version of Flashman which was very freshly written and much more fluid than Blood Pact

Because his primary talents are writing for comic books his prose tends to to be very different from other authors and works best when he can take full control over the creative elements.
GW seem to have been shepherding his novels too much and making him write within a set framework.
Compare the early Gaunts ghost too the later ones which have obvious links to the guard releases rather than just making up his own mythos, eg the Sabbat War

Spack · by **Spack** » Wed Jan 27, 2010 4:52 pm

Personally I like Dan Abnett's writing, his BL books are amongst my favourites.

WolflordHavoc · by **WolflordHavoc** » Wed Jan 27, 2010 5:33 pm

Well lets hope his Space Wolves are better than Bill king's and Lee Lightner's.

And lets hope that it is a better effort than the Snakes coughmoviemarinescough one!

To be fair to DA his writing of the Pre heresy Lunar Wolves/Sons of Horus was very good IMO. Smart idea having Rememberencers (sp?) as the catalyst between the reader and the "superhuman merciless xenophobic homicidel killer's in powered plate" otherwise it would be much less realistic.

Herne · by **Herne** » Wed Jan 27, 2010 6:32 pm

Dan Anbett I regard as one of the best writers in the GW stable at the moment. His work far surpasses many of the writers on the payroll. The aforementioned text at the start of the Heresy series was of a calibre I have found lacking in the series since. I mean - what would you rather have - Gav Thorpe? :roll:

(Cue scuffle!........ :twisted:

)

Baragash · by **Baragash** » Wed Jan 27, 2010 10:43 pm

I've read 3 Gav Thorpe novels so far and thought they were all very good (The first two Sundering novels and Angels of Darkness).

Herne · by **Herne** » Thu Jan 28, 2010 3:45 pm

Read Angels of Darkness, which is admittedly the exception that proves the rules. The last chancers however - the reason there are rules ;-)

Socaddict · by **Socaddict** » Thu Jan 28, 2010 5:02 pm

My current fave author in the GW stable is Sandy Mitchell (the Ciaphas Cain books and some recent =][= related ones). Yes I know his real name is Alex Stewart.

Henry Zou is also very good.

I really enjoyed Eisenhorn, but didn't think that much of Ravenor. Got a bit too far fetched for my liking, that did.

WolflordHavoc · by **WolflordHavoc** » Thu Jan 28, 2010 7:30 pm

Henry Zou's (he's a soldier in the aussie army and this knowledge shows in his writing) effort was excellent - the best of the rest imo.

Ravenor was less epic in scope than Eisenhorn (which covered Eisenhorns career basically) and instead focused in on a single abeit convoluted investigation by a single Inquisition cell.

I reread them all last year and quite enjoyed them.