The Gotrek & Felix
series was one of the most enduring elements of Warhammer Fantasy, what was once Games Workshop’s primary wargame. The
books would later become the foundation for Black Library as one of its most
successful and longest running ventures. However, Gotrek & Felix’s earliest entries predated the publisher it
would help build, all of them written by prolific Warhammer author William King. The first book in the series, Trollslayer, was published in 1999.
However, every story in the anthology had been published over the course of the
previous decade. They had primarily appeared in rulebooks, as well as the
magazines White Dwarf and Inferno! Trollslayer simply collected
these stories, while future entries would be novel length. Gotrek & Felix came to a conclusion alongside the setting it
was so integral to with 2015’s Warhammer
Fantasy: The End Times. However, Trollslayer
was developed when the wargame was at its peak. Even if it doesn’t always
seem that way.
Trollslayer’s
various stories all follow Felix Jaeger, a university student turned fugitive
after a dueling mishap, and Gotrek, a Dwarf fanatic that has sworn to seek
death in battle. Oft referenced but unseen events see Felix swear to spread the
tale of Gotrek’s journey after his demise. However, that means he has to be
there when it happens. Unfortunately, that’s not as close as either of them
imagined, as they find themselves venturing into the darkest depths of the Old
World.
Gotrek & Felix is very
much the sort of power fantasy narrative you’d expect. But the surprisingly complex
dynamic King builds between the two protagonists and their nuanced
personalities is primarily what made the series so successful. The pair’s
interactions range from hilarious to tragic but they always catch your
interest.
While the two are as close as you can get to heroes in a
setting like Warhammer, King balances
that with deep rooted but believable flaws. Gotrek’s lethal quest leaves him
confrontational but otherwise distant and even Felix knows little about him. Meanwhile,
Felix’s mostly good nature is at conflict with a deep rooted selfish streak he
struggles against. Even more concerning, he quickly realizes the horrors he’s
been forced to witness and inflict alongside Gotrek have had a lasting effect.
Despite and because of all this, the duo are always more likable and compelling
than they have any right to be. The character dynamic is allowed to take
prominence thanks to the simplistic, monster hunting premise of the series. In Gotrek & Felix, King presented protagonists
that perfectly encapsulated the “grim world of perilous adventure,” where a distinct
sense of humanity survives amidst the horror.
The best and worst moments come from when Gotrek & Felix are separated. In Mark of Slaanesh, a head injury leaves
Gotrek without any memories or even the will to fight. As Felix tries to find
the cure for his companion, he finally recognizes how much he relies on the
warrior, contrasted by the resentment he feels towards him. It features very
little fighting and instead focuses on the characters, their roles, while successfully
presenting a full range of emotions. Meanwhile the final story, Children of Ulric, has Felix captured
while Gotrek wanders around the woods. The former is a spectator for nearly the
entire narrative, while the latter is absent in every sense. King wisely never
tells the story from Gotrek’s perspective, making Felix’s difficulty
understanding the withdrawn figure more understandable to the reader. However,
it backfires at times, as best shown by Children
of Ulric, in which Felix can’t do much.
Though, admittedly, it would still have been a dull story regardless of whose
perspective it was told from, due to its shoddy premise, rushed pacing, and
poor characters.
The other stories of Trollslayer
share similar elements, though King usually offers enough to distinguish each
one. Every one sees Gotrek and Felix fighting the malign forces of Chaos, the
dark gods responsible for most of the Warhammer World’s ills. Trollslayer benefits from being written
when Chaos had a more nuanced characterization and being authored by one of the
only writers who can properly present that hellish adversary. The Chaos of Gotrek & Felix comes from beyond
reality but is always let in by the privileged. Their minions might be horrific
mutants but their masters are always power mad nobles, renegade university
students, or the victims of those in power. King accurately presents Chaos as a
force that might exist beyond comprehension but hides within all too human
injustices. This approach makes the hordes of at times interchangeable
monsters, mutants, and warriors that the duo slaughter much more interesting by
the implication that creates.
Gotrek & Felix helped
set the standard for the rest of Black Library, so it’s also the shares of a
lot of its common issues. King manages to inject some complexity into Trollslayer but only Mark of Slaanesh is anything more than a
standard action-fantasy narrative. It gives Trollslayer
a simplicity that can be both charming and grating. The setup for each story is
very similar. Doomed lovers, dangerous taverns, and corrupt authorities litter
Gotrek and Felix’s travels. Due to the format of their original publication,
the short stories end up repeating a lot of information, which quickly gets tiresome. King handles the more mature content better than most Black
Library writers. While he does show the capacity to present sex and violence in
an intelligent way, at times he’ll settle for being shocking. King’s strengths
are definitely in his characterization and worldbuilding but those don’t always
compensate at times clumsy prose.
Trollslayer provides
the origins of two of the most important Warhammer
Fantasy characters. With the announcement of the Age of Sigmar continuation, Gotrek
& Felix managed to outlive the death of its own setting. That being
said, this book is only really appropriate for dedicated Warhammer Fantasy fans or those who need to start a series from the
beginning. If nothing else, Trollslayer proves
that King is more than just a veteran Warhammer
writer.
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