January 20th, 2010
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.
Tags: Beastman, Chaos, Gotrek and Felix, Nathan Long, Shaman, Slayer
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January 3rd, 2010
On 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.
Tags: Chaos, James Wallis, Karl Hoche, Khorne, Knights Panthers, Mutation, Untersuchung, Witch Hunter
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November 2nd, 2009
Within the Medina Corridor, a highly potent relic called The Old Kings has been long lost and forgotten by the native population… but not the Archenemy. As planet after planet fall into the clutches of Chaos, Inquisitor Obodiah Roth is summoned, to unravel the mystery behind the sudden invasion on this seemingly strategic insignificant system. This proves to be a very hard and costly assignment indeed.
The plot is fairly simple, yet it still guards what is going to happen on the next page. Only on rare occasions, were I able to predict what was going to happen later in the book. This makes the book a great read, in my opinion, as you get captivated by slowly solving the next challenge and then the next. Unfortunately it also makes the book last shorter, as you just have to read one more chapter before putting it down.
Being as simple a plot, as it is, it did not impress me in any way regarding the complexity, but I think the good story compensates for this. The amount of references to other novels were minimal, if existing at all, which also goes for explaining the world of Warhammer 40.000. In general you could say that the focus i mainly on the story and action, while the world is used as a background setting and the plot is linear.
The book i written in third person, and it follows either Inquisitor Roth, his henchman the hunter Silverstein or his superior Inquisitor Gurion. The time line between them is mostly parallel, but at times it breaks up and jumps back and forth a bit. This is not used to its full potential, but it still works pretty well.
The character’s actions are described in simple words, but the description of the scenery, clothing and architecture has a very high level of detail. Almost to the point of excess, in my opinion. This puts you in the mood for how the setting would look and feel like, but it also puts a higher focus on lower level of detail on the actions, despite it still being written in a quite acceptable way.
The language is fairly light and easy to read. It has a nice flow, which enables you to read chapter after chapter without threatening to put you to sleep.
In general a good book, which is straightforward to read and quite entertaining. I have a feeling that we haven’t heard the last of Obodiah Roth
Tags: Bastion Wars, Chaos, Henry Zou, Imperial Guard, Inquisition, Obodiah Roth
Posted in Warhammer 40.000 | 1 Comment »
October 20th, 2009
The Ambassador Chronicles is a gathering of two books on the Imperial ambassador in Kislev called General Caspar von Velten; The Ambassador and Ursun’s Teeth.
Von Velten is an elderly man believed to have served the Empire to a level where he deserves his retirement in the form of an ambassador position. Unfortunately, it was the cold Kislev he was sent to, and the task becomes significantly more demanding than expected.
During the first chapter, it is feared to be dragged through the 464 pages with stories about an old and worn man, but as you burn through the pages you will be constantly impressed by the enormous complexity of plot and the fantastic portrayal of the book’s characters. Von Velten is not as unsuitable as first thought and his lively temper only makes the book even more funny and captivating. There are passages where you think the plot is a little too obviously, but then you turn a page and become shocked at how much they were mistaken.
That the book is made up of two books is definitely an advantage. It is nice to be able to continue with the same story for a long time and I could not imagine reading the first it first and then having a pause before reading the next.
There are several small situations which could easily be transferred to role play, and I have already scheduled several of them with my group of players. There is no need for much modification in order to transfer sections of the book to small plot detours from the main campaign.
All in all a good book with many surprises and an amazing plot.
Tags: Graham McNeill, Kislev
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October 19th, 2009
Genevieve is a young girl turned vampire many yeas ago. We follow her through different periods of time in the Empire, and experience her relations wither different prominent characters as they progress through a lifetime for men, but a single night for a vampire. When you read the book you will have to abstract from the fact, that vampires live side by side with humans in the Empire, which threw me off a bit. I know of a group of adventures, that would have attacked the bloodsucker right on the spot, and have thier butts kicked, if they met a vampire during night in Altdorf.
The book has an exciting mix of plots, an quite a few very good ideas. Disappointingly, though, it is quite poorly written. It took me many long nights to get through this book (but what matters time for a vampire, right?), which actually had the potential to be something special, but just did not do it for me. It was like the stories never came to life (yet another vampire joke, sorry), and I repeatedly lost interest in it. More than once I considered giving up and start reading another book.
Overall a disappointment, in my opinion, despite the brilliant and intriguing composition and some hint of reference to Anne Rice’s narrative style. I have seen af other reviews, that disapproves of the novel, but somehow it is still quite popular. My guess for the reason behind this, it the facts that it features a young, blond and lusty vampire girl as its main character.
Tags: Altdorf, Detlef Sierck, Jack Yeovil, Vampire
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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.
