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.
