Games Workshop is offering eight full Warhammer 40k, Horus Heresy, Age of Sigmar, and Old World books - in audiobook and ebook form - for free right now. What's the catch? Only that you'll have to download the new Black Library app and link your Warhammer account to get 'em.
None of this costs any money, and eight full audiobooks and their ebook versions (to download and keep) is a very tasty reward for just downloading a new app. The titles on offer don't include anything brand new, of course, but they're not obscure, take it or leave it books either. There's a decent spread of old and new material, covering different Warhammer 40k factions and classic Warhammer The Old World characters.
Here's what you'll get if you download and log into the app before 10am UK time on Monday, April 20:
- Avenging Son - frontline modern 40k narrative, following Roboute Guilliman's Indomitus Crusade.
- Mark of Faith - a pretty dark, slow burning novel showcasing how the Sisters of Battle fit into the modern 40k storyline.
- Sanguinius: The Great Angel - an essential deep dive into Blood Angels primarch Sanguinius, beloved by all.
- Dominion - the companion novel to Age of Sigmar's Third Edition, pitting Stormcast Eternals against Orruks.
- Ciaphas Cain: The Anthology - Sandy Mitchell's essential series about a guilt ridden, accidental hero of the Imperial Guard.
- Darkoath - A modern Age of Sigmar novel delving into the complicated Chaos aligned human factions.
- The Return of Nagash - The first of the End Times novels that preceded Age of Sigmar's arrival in 2015, covering the Lord of Death.
- Realmslayer: A Gotrek Gurnisson Series - Beloved Warhammer Fantasy dwarf Gotrek (of Gotrek and Felix fame) is reborn in AoS.
The new Black Library app launched on Google Play store and the Apple Store on Wednesday. It's a combined store, audiobook player, and e-reader where you can buy Warhammer books as ebooks, audiobooks, or both and, for the first time, read or listen to them on the same platform.
Previously, Black Library (GW's book publishing arm) had its literary eggs split between two baskets: an audiobooks-only app where you could buy and listen to Black Library novels, and the Black Library web store, where you can buy the ebook versions and download them to your devices in ePub or Mobi format. Both are currently still available.
In GW's Wednesday announcement of the app launch, via the Warhammer Community site, the firm says any previous ebook purchases on your BlackLibrary.com account will be transferred over to the new app as long as you link the accounts before August 31, 2026.
But it's not clear whether you'll retain the ability to download those ebooks outside the app. From our testing, the new app only allows you to access books via its own e-reader function.
The move to a unified 'Warhammer Book App' isn't surprising, and forms part of a broader drive by Games Workshop to consolidate and spruce up its online sales platforms. It famously spent around $6 million on developing the new Warhammer webstore it launched in 2023.
Warhammer ebooks and audiobooks are normally a relatively quietly marketed corner of GW's transmedia empire, compared with big budget licencing deals on Warhammer 40k videogames, or the much vaunted Henry Cavill Warhammer Amazon series. This app launch is the biggest shift we've seen here in years, and seems to signal Geedubs' Eye of Sauron is on the area.
But many Black Library audiobooks are also available on Amazon's Audible app, and can be downloaded to keep using your one monthly credit, if you have the $15 per month Premium Plus subscription. That's cheaper than the new app right now, where all the audiobooks appear to have a blanket price of £23.99 ($32).
It's possible the Black Library app will introduce its own cut-price monthly subscription model, presumably rolled into the Warhammer Plus ecosystem somehow, and if it does I will be right at the front of the line. But WarCom's Wednesday announcement doesn't mention Black Library's Audible range, or make any comment on pricing.
According to my Audible library, I've listened to over 100 Warhammer audiobooks. I'm currently barrelling through Dan Abnett's Gaunt's Ghosts series for the third time, and I'd estimate the chances of me using my next monthly credit on another Black Library novel at 100%.
That said, I'll be watching closely to see what GW does with this new app; all my Warhammer reads and listens in one app at a good price would be a helluva drug. For now, it's just a free way to get at a handful of books I haven't read - Sanguinius: The Great Angel is one of the few highly rated Horus Heresy books I've not hit yet, and The Return of Nagash will go great with the 200 Tomb Kings I've still got to edge highlight.
Which free book are you going to devour first? Or do you have a hot take on where GW is going with all this digital retail jiggery pokery? Could it have something to do with the "Free Warhammer 40k rules" debate? Come join the free Wargamer Discord community and share your thoughts!