A couple of items have shown on Amazon, under FFG's Aconyte imprint:

https://www.amazon.com/Curse-Honor-Legend-Rings-Novel/dp/1839080175

Curse of Honor

by David Annandale

The reckless pursuit of honor exposes an empire to demonic invasion, in this epic fantasy novel of duty and warfare, set in the extraordinary world of Legend of the Five Rings .

Striking Dawn Castle defends the mountains between the Rokugan empire and the demon-haunted Shadowlands. When a mythical city is discovered in the forbidding peaks, Hida Haru, heir and sore disappointment to his family, seizes the opportunity to prove himself. His rash expedition ends in disaster – just one samurai returns alive, and Haru is lost. Before a power struggle can break out, Striking Dawn’s battle-hardened commander, Ochiba, is dispatched to rescue Haru. She succeeds against supernatural horrors, but Haru is… changed. Now, mysterious deaths and ill fortune plague his family. Something evil is loose and must be stopped, at any cost.

· Series: Legend of the Five Rings

· Paperback: 352 pages

· Publisher: Aconyte; Paperback Original edition (May 5, 2020)

· Language: English

· ISBN-10: 1839080175

· ISBN-13: 978-1839080173

· Product Dimensions: 5.1 x 7.8 inches

https://www.amazon.com/Poison-River-Legend-Daidoji-Mystery/dp/1839080191

Poison River: A Daidoji Shin Mystery

by Josh Reynolds

A charming slacker aristocrat discovers a talent for detection and a web of conspiracies in the Emerald Empire, in this snappy novel set in the fantastical world of Legend of the Five Rings .

Daidoji Shin, unrepentant wastrel with a taste for scandal and dice, coasts through his role as Crane Clan’s trade envoy in the City of the Rich Frog. But when a case of poisoned rice threatens the brittle peace between the competing clans, the Imperial Governor drags Shin from his indolence and orders him to find the culprit. Despite himself, Shin uncovers an intriguing conspiracy involving more than just dead rats. A murder with no body and a missing actress present a distraction that could finally make Shin put in a full day’s work, and maybe even save the city from tearing itself apart.

· Series: Legend of the Five Rings

· Paperback: 352 pages

· Publisher: Aconyte (August 4, 2020)

· Language: English

· ISBN-10: 1839080191

· ISBN-13: 978-1839080197

· Product Dimensions: 5.1 x 7.8 inches

There are also entries for Arkham Horror (2), Keyforge (1), Descent (1) and Pandemic (2).

The authors seem to come mainly from the Games Workshop "stable", as they are regulars from their Warhammer lines. So, on one hand I'm a little wary of authors alien to the setting being brought over. I can only hope there is good editorial management to make sure these novels are 1) in line, canonical stories that don't contradict the setting, but also 2) somehow relevant to the ongoing plot. I can but remember the old WotC novels which (with a few exceptions) were hackwork that either was terrible, or contradicted the established continuity, or were totally irrelevant.... or all three things at once.

On the other hand, I can dream with a line of fiction as vast and alive as the GW's Black Library; hundreds of titles, with several releases every month.

I'm particularly curious about Poison River, that seems the first of a series of "Daidoji Shin mysteries". A Kitsuki magistrate would perhaps make more sense, but I love both L5R and mysteries, so this sounds like a match made in Tengoku.

Also, the first one sounds more like an horror story, which is also a favorite genre of mine. I can't wait for more info!

According to Matt Holland on FB, these novels are separate from the clan novellas.

I'm definitely excited to see additional fiction support for L5R, I'm gonna go out on a limb here though and guess these won't have any direct ties to the main timeline's story for the LCG. Which isn't a bad thing per se, because then there's a lot less to worry about as far as maintaining continuity.

I wouldn't expect to ever see novellas or novels directly tied to the main storyline -- the hassle of trying to keep those things coordinated is way too big. (As Marvel found out the hard way; there's a reason they gave up on keeping the TV shows responsive to what the movies were doing.) They might set up stuff the main timeline can use, e.g. The Eternal Knot explains what Kazue's tattoo does, which I expect will eventually play a role in current events, but you're not going to see something like a novel that delves into the events of the Crane civil war, with Hotaru and Kuwannan in starring roles.

Huh, both of those seem pretty fun!

It does seem interesting that these are not the clan novellas, but that just means more fiction for me!

Just finished rereading the Scorp novella and now rereading the Unicorn one, until Eternal Knot is available on Kindle.

That we are getting more fiction beyond the clan novellas is extremely exciting to me. I was worried that the peripheral fictions would dry up after we got the full cycle of clan novellas.

That one of the announcements is for a Crab book is even better!

Also these are full novels and not novellas which is surprising to me. It seemed FFG was steering away from full novels considering all their LCG tie ins the last couple years were these hard cover novella formats.

10 hours ago, phillos said:

That we are getting more fiction beyond the clan novellas is extremely exciting to me. I was worried that the peripheral fictions would dry up after we got the full cycle of clan novellas.

That one of the announcements is for a Crab book is even better!

Also these are full novels and not novellas which is surprising to me. It seemed FFG was steering away from full novels considering all their LCG tie ins the last couple years were these hard cover novella formats.

In fairness these aren't being produced by FFG but the new book imprint that Asmodee has set up, so different level of resources available.

That's true. I hope there's some buy in from the FFG story team to ensure these novels feel consistent with the current continuity. I think it makes sense that they are using Black Library writers since that's the pool they were sourcing from previously for their older novels (pre-novella days).

The Arkham Horror novels feel a bit underwhelming considering the descriptions don't reference any of the established Arkham Files characters as far as I can tell.

Also I really like the title "Poison River: A Daidoji Shin Mystery". Makes it feel like it's a pulp detective novel.

Big books like this with GW stable authors are quite an investment for a company.

Wonders what it implies for the L5R brand for FFG/Asmodée?

L5R digital games in the air?

As long as it helps maintain the IP and the LCG alive...

The real crime here is no new Android novels announced.

1 hour ago, phillos said:

The real crime here is no new Android novels announced.

Yeah but without as much game support (they have what the Genisys RPG supplement at the moment) it makes less sense to push that. The Books are just a massive promotional tool for the IP's after all.

Of course that makes sense for the business but as a fan I am disappointing. It remains a setting with legs, but it still feels underutilized compared to FFGs other franchises. Though to be fair there's currently more games in the Android universe than some of their other FFG owned IPs like TI or Tannhauser. Just no expandable game to anchor the franchise.

So we have a cover now:

Sir Annadale.......

One of my favorite cards from Warlord. Man I wish someone would bring that game back. 7th Sea and Highlander would be nice too......

Oh yeah sweet art. Can't wait to pick this up and add it to the stack of books that I have no time to read

Currently feeling the coldness of Christmas winter... 😭

I hope there was a novel that starred my 2 favorite action figures to make the holidays spicy...

"Hotaru felt the cold breeze entering the room as she beckoned with her bare arms outside the blanket to Kachiko who slid the shoji door behind her silently...."