Shadow King

May 8th, 2011

Shadow King is the second book in The Sundering series from the Time of Legends category by Black Library. In short the series tells the tragic story about how the blissful elven empire on Ulthuan is torn apart from within. “Where once there was harmony, there came discord. Where once peace had prevailed, now came bitter war. “, the preface says.

Alith Anar is son of Eothlir Anar and grandson of Eloran Anar, who were the first Phoenix King’s standard bearer. His childhood and youth was spend on the family lands in Nagarythe  hunting in the forests and mountains untill the Dark Elves, the druchii, led by Morathi started an uprising that would send the whole isle of Ulthuan in war and disarray. Struggling with the loss of friends, family and loved ones, Alith is forced to find refuge in hated and vengence against the druchii.

The book starts off with an introduction to the Anars and how Alith does and does not fit into the family tradition of politics, war and great hunts. After this several confrontations with the druchii and the suspicions they rise in every other elves starts to appear. This results in a few minor confrontations and several larger battles to spice up the dragging and at times tedious story. Severe conspirational actions results in a tragic accident, that sends all of Ulthuan in chock and suddenly the druchii have the upper hand. Alith looses everything he held dear and now despite his, for an elf, relative young age takes up the lead of an army of shadow warriors. Through guerilla style warfare the shadows warriors harass the druchii army to a point were Morathi sets in the best part of her army on the hunt for the self proclaimed Shadow King.

The structure of the plot is very elf-like, I guess. There is no rush and every cultural and political event takes up a lot of space in the book, while the action is described in a brisk and effective pace. This is in my opinion interesting but maybe done a bit too much on the heavy  side – at least for my taste.

Gave Thorpe has written quite a few books in the Warhammer series for Black Library. He is an expert in the dwarfish society and after reading the first two books in The Sundering series, I am  convinced that he is also getting the grip on Elves as well.

The writing and language of this book is fairly approachable, but for some reason I was never caught in the flow of it that leaves you suddenly realising that you just went through 100 pages and skipped right through lunch.

In general this is an interesting book on Elves and their background history. It is a bit of a heavy read, but once you have gotten trough it, it still leaves you excited to read the next one in the series.

This review was sponsored by The David Gemmel Legend Awards.

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Zombieslayer

January 30th, 2011

ZombieslayerPicking up where the previous instalment in the Slayer series Gotrek and Felix along with their friends Rudi, Snorri and Kat as well as part of a constantly diminishing Imperial Army of spearmen, handgunners and knights are sent running for safety at Castle Reikguard. They are being chased by an equally constantly growing army of undead lead by the necromancer Heinrich Kemmler and his champion Krell. Upon reaching the castle, they discover that their want for safety is not fully answered and a long and taxing siege is laid on the weary soldiers.

This book picks up right where Shamanslayer left – no time for rest, food or drink, just hard boiled battle against zombie versions of friends and foes alike who died only minutes before. I was hooked right from the first few pages and the high pace really excited me.
After the first frantic flight from the Zombies and reaching Castle Reikguard, the pace sort of slowed down, but never became stagnating or dull. Instead it followed the hectic and horrific constant attacks from the undead horde. This to a point where not only the besieged but also I became weary of the monotony of it. I think this was done on purpose to underline the unyielding horror of fighting the undead. Having that said, the plots in between the nightly zombie and ghoul raids are sprinkled with sinister and unnerving twists to the story, which helps you get through it.

Besides the short flight at the start of the book, I think this is the most stationary Gotrek and Felix novel we have seen. It plays on two major factors; one being the horror of fighting the undead and the other being the inter-character relationship. The relationship between the three Dwarf Slayers becomes more and more tense, Felix and Kat become more and more romantically involved  and finally Nathan Long starts experimenting with the bond between Gotrek and Felix. This is something new in the Gotrek and Felix novels, and I find it very interesting.

The language used for this novel is light, lively and easy to read which, combined with an exciting plot, keeps you reading until you are soaked in the cold sweat of paranoia.

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The Founding

December 16th, 2010

The FoundingThis is the first omnibus in a long series about Ibram Gaunt and his Tanith first-and-only. It contains three books; First and Only, Ghostmaker and Necropolis.

As the title might disclose, this omnibus describes how Gaunt and his Tanith soldiers are founded into the Imperial Guard to become Gaunt’s Ghost.

The first book, First and Only, describes how the Ghosts became the the first and why the became the only. Warmaster Macaroth is occupied at the fronts of the Sabbat War which has left local guards behind the lines stretched to the breaking point. Never sleeping Chaos has found a weak spot and are breaking through by the billions, capturing world after world behind the Imperial lines. Among those are the world of Tanith. On the day of the founding, the world is swarmed by Chaos, and Gaunt is only regiment leader able to save a scant crew before the whole world is destroyed. Tanith is no more, his men are living Ghosts and they are the First and the Only Tanith regiment. In the first novel the regiment faces their first challenges against an external enemy and in-fighting against another Imperial regiment. It is now Gaunts responsibility to work this rag-tag regiment into into shape.

The second book, Ghostmaker, is a series of short stories that describes all the major persona so far. A few examples would be how Major Rawne gets to owe Gaunt his life, how Milo is accused of being an untamed psyker and how Bragg is a bit more clever than a big hunk of muscles. I have always enjoyed little stories that lets you look into the characters backgrounds, and this part really did it for me.

The third and final book, Necropolis, is about a Chaos invasion in the hive city of Vervenhive on Verghast. It describes all aspects on the invasion within the hive in very high detail. You get an overwhelming sense of hopelessness combined with a strong sense of defiance.

The plot is strong is all three books, as it is in most of Dan Abnett’s work. In Fist and Only, you are sort of thrown into the thicket along with a group of Tanith, that you really do not know. It is a challenge, but with a bit of patience and curiosity, I managed to pull through. In Ghostmaker you are helped by the fact that the stories are quite short. This leaves very little for an exciting plot, but as you get to know all the characters, you are drawn much more into the stories. In Necropolis the introduction is dreadfully long. You wait and wait for something to happen, or just for a sliver of recognition, but got a very long while nothing happens at all. That almost took the wind out of me, but suddenly Chaos attacks and you grip your seat and read on. After a lot of shelling and political intrigues, the Imperial Guard, including Gaunt’s Ghosts of cause,  finally arrives and now the real plot can begin. That part is also stretched quite far and then it all suddenly ends. I guess that is classic Black Library action, but with a build up like that, I had expected more.

All books are told by a third person narrator. Normally Dan Abnett has a high complexity in both plot and language, but as these are his first Warhammer 40.000 novels, my opinion is, that he had not fully developed the talents that he so surely has now. It is still pretty good, but I am not as impressed, as I were reading e.g. Ravenor.

In general a good but, which is a bit on the slow and heavy side. The plot is there, but not fully utilized. I have bough the two following omnibuses, but it will be a while before I start reading them. I am sure that Gaunt and his Ghosts have a great lot of challenges ahead of them, and I look forward to reading about them.

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Shamanslayer

January 20th, 2010

Shamanslayer

The Dwarf Trollslayer Gotrek and his human fellow traveler and poet Felix Jaeger is on yet another mighty quest for finding a spectacular doom for the Slayer. In this installment of the popular series, the pair travels north in search of the remainder of a knightly order. On their way, they meet new as well as old friends and once they arrive, only to discover that evil plots of Chaos are amiss, they will need all the friends they can get.

The plot starts off easy going, tying up a few loose ends from the former book in the series, Elfslayer, and then takes of as a classic slow travel novel – they walk, they walk, they walk etc. Once they finally arrive the plot suddenly changes pace as the characters are caught in one gridlock after another and you get hooked right until the end. This results in a slow flow at first, but soon takes of and hits a crescendo approximately 25 pages before the end of the book. This is where the book really gets creepy!

The style of the plot and build-up in the story is not something new and highly innovative, but it plays on nodes that are well known and works well. This makes the novel a solid and maybe a bit safe hit. What gives this novel an edge, is the twist in the end. You might have suspected that something was wrong, but this is horrible! What is to become of out favorite duo?

Nathan Long is an expert at writing tie-in fiction, and Shamanslayer is no exception to this. If you like the Warhammer world, there is definitely something in there that will interest you. One of my favorite parts is the subtle reference to the second installment in the epic WFRP campaign The Enemy Within. It is not blunt or too obvious, but you still catch yourself thinking “Wait a minute! I’ve been there once!”

When our heroes are not killing beastmen by the hundreds, Felix spends a melancholic moment contemplating the link between the evil that men do and the power of Chaos. Through the poet, Nathan Long delivers a profounding subject in an otherwise lightweight action-packed novel about a Dwarf and a man killing monsters in large numbers. It takes serious skills to pull this off, and Nathan Long strikes home in this novel. It made me put down the book and consider the world situation of a brief moment. Impressive!

As always the book is told from the eyes of Felix Jaeger as sort of a re-caption of his travels with the Slayer. This works well, as you, with a little imagination, get the sensation of being told the story by someone who was actually there. The actions, especially the parts concerning combat, are described very lively and though he does not do it that often, Nathan Long is quite good at describing the surrounding milieu where the plot is set.
The language is lightweight and very well structured, which makes this a light and comfortable read you are able to chew through in a satisfying high pace late at night.

All in all a great Slayer novel from the hand of Nathan Long, that once you spot the beatsman horde keeps you reading untill you are drenched in equal amounts of sweat and gore.

This review was sponsored by The David Gemmel Legend Awards.

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Mark of Damnation

January 3rd, 2010

Mark of DamnationOn a hot and sleepless summer night Karl Hoche, heroic army officer of the 5th Reiklanders, follows a hunch that something is amiss in the army camp. This leads to a fatal discovery of the remains of a horrific Chaos ritual performed by an inner part of the Reiksguard. Following up on his discoveries, Karl Hoche is soon entangled in a web half truths and carefully spun lies, and is drafted by an undercover agency called the Untersuchung. Hoche is constantly thrown into situations, that can only be solved by using his head, his heart, his sword or if all else fails his faith in Sigmar.

The book follows Hoche through almost a year and is divided into chapter each describing the shift in his life, status, environment and mindset. It is quite amazing to follow the changes that man goes through during these few months and the way the book is sectioned only supports this. You are often left with a short breathing space to digest the how comprehensive these changes would be to a man. This is necessary as you are otherwise occupied with the captivating story and at the same time highly impressed by the extensive complexity of the plot. I have read this book twice now, and during the second read, I was still amazed by discovering new twists and turns and details, that I had overlooked the first time.

James Wallis has a classic approach to secret agencies, deep undercover agents and double agents we would know from any secret agent or super spy book, but the way he has adopted this seamlessly into the Warhammer world is where his creative talents and skills as a writer really shows. I like to think of myself as quite familiar with the executive powers in the Warhammer world, but reading this I was easily convinced that several secrete agencies exists right under our noses. That is impressive.

The book mainly describes the actions of Hoche in classic third person style. The usage of the language is strong, captivating and yet still very light reading. The major strengths of James Wallis is his abilities to let the language dance lightly around the otherwise highly complex plot. That is absolutely no small feat!

Overall this is a fantastic book. The plot is complex and the description of the changes in the simple soldier’s life for Karl Hoche is thorough and highly atmospheric. A highly recommendable book.

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