Book Review- Gaunt's Ghosts: Necropolis

                                                         Black Library

Dan Abnett's Necropolis is the third book in the Gaunt’s Ghosts series, which follows the heroic commissar Abram Gaunt and his dwindling Imperial Guard regiment as they fight across countless warzones in the 41st millennium. Even a military fiction writer as competent as Dan Abnett can’t make an uninterrupted stream of battles interesting. Thankfully Abnett’s strong point is that his Warhammer fiction is never just about the fighting.

A considerable amount of Necropolis lacks Gaunt and his Ghosts. Most of the opening act is spent establishing Vervunhive and its rival Ferrazoica. Both are “hive cities,” termite mound like superstructures that house a considerable portion of the Imperium’s population.

Book Review- Drachenfels

 

                                                             Black Library

A reprint of Drachenfels is a part of the opening for Games Workshop’s recently announced Warhammer Horror line. Originally published in 1989, the book was one of the earliest pieces of Warhammer fiction, predating even Black Library. Written by esteemed horror novelist Kim Newman under the penname Jack Yeovil, the book told the tale of the titular “Great Enchanter” and the adventurers who slew him. 25 years after their apparent victory, the traumatized survivors of that quest gather for a play recounting their triumph. Unfortunately, Drachenfels' dark powers are so great that they extend from beyond the grave...

While it has some issues, Drachenfels is in most respects the gold standard of Warhammer fiction. It has a fleshed out cast and a compelling villain. That's coupled with a complete narrative arc, which includes a satisfying and uncharacteristically upbeat ending. The novel fully explores Warhammer Fantasy’s setting, while providing enough context to stand on its own. All in all, it's a competently crafted story. Drachenfels has a lot more intelligence than you'd expect from licensed fiction, even if can be a little too obvious at times.

Many recommend Drachenfels as an introduction to Warhammer Fantasy’s setting and with good reason. The book fully realized the grimy world of political intrigue, strange magic, and brutal carnage previously established in magazines, army books, and RPG supplements. Drachenfels examines crucial concepts like the gods, Imperial politics, Sigmar, mutation, and even the alien Slann’s hand in shaping the Warhammer World. But most impressively, it puts all of it in a grounded context that still does those concepts justice. Part of what distinguished Warhammer Fantasy’s setting from so many other tabletop games was how the world felt like one people actually lived in.

Book Review- Gotrek & Felix: Trollslayer

                                                                                                                                                      Black Library

 

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.