Fulgrim - Horus Heresy book 5

Graham McNeil presents his 2nd novel in the Horus heresy series. Fulgrim, somewhat unsurprisingly,  tells the story of the Primarch Fulgrim and his legion, the Emperor's children.

Before I immersing myself in the Horus Heresy novels the only Graham McNeil books I had read were the Sigmar Times of Legend trilogy.  Overall their pretty good books,  including lots of barbarian/celtic/norse-esque elements to the people in the stories (which compared to modern day Empire which are more Renaissance/Prussian-like).  Often the books show the birth of certain changes in the Empire, such as warhorses breed to wear armour, the discovery of black powder, the origins of flagellants and more. If you can over look certain bits of the story as being a manipulation of canon then the book reads very enjoyably (ok SPOILER: ill admit, I got caught up with Sigmar already having got Ghal Maraz his hammer and him not being chieftain of his tribe or even the Empire when it clearly states otherwise in many of the general warhammer rulebooks etc)

So barring that all in mind I find Graham McNeil stuff always enjoyable and fun, he keeps to the spirit of most of the Warhammer universe. So with Fulgrim, it's important remember that the story tries to encompass lots of different sections in the Fulgrim story, and so it is actually broken down in a large number of increasingly smaller chapters as the story goes on. Fulgrim as a Primarch doesn't terribly interest me, but I did find that I wanted to see into his personality, his relationship with his brother Ferrus Manus, and their polarity and yet similarities at the same time. The Iron Hands chapter plays a regular role in the story telling, and it was nice to read some of their story. Like with many of the Horus Heresy books covering the traitor chapters, it is all about telling the interesting story of their fall, how they were manipulated by force greater then themselves.

I think I read somewhere that reading Horus Heresy novels was often akin to watching a train wreck in slow motion, which given the obvious end out come that's not entirely surprising. But sometimes you forget that along that journey you might feel like a carriage here or there might some how miraculously arrive unscathed at the end, if shaken. I think Graham McNeil, and many of the other Black Library authors do a pretty excellent job of willing you to believe that some how there is a bright light for these victims in the play out, no matter how much you might know about their final outcome. If you're a fan of Emperor's children, Iron hands, stories involving the Primarchs or just the Horus Heresy it is definitely worth a read. For someone knew to it you've hopefully read the first 3-4 novels in the series anyways, in which case you're probably already hooked. One of the many nice things about the Horus Heresy is that Forgeworld produce some pretty exquisite models (if terribly expensive), but it's often nice seeing first hand how the giants of the stories looked.

Overall I'm given Fulgrim a 7.5/10. It sometimes is a little long (though for Emperor's children fans this is probably a good thing), however I do feel like it covers a lot of the important points about their history and evolution as followers of chaos.  For a fan of them i'd probably give it a 8.5-9/10. 

Gotrek and Felix Lost Tales

Gotrek and Felix Lost Tales is a collection of 3 short (previously released as Ebook) stories. The 4th and final is a printed version of the audio drama Curse of the Everliving (which I have already listened to).

Charnel Congress - Josh Reynolds

I was honestly a little surprised by this one. Josh Reynolds other Gotrek and Felix novel, Road of Skulls, leaves something a little to be desired....not that its a bad story, but maybe because I'm not sure where it fits in their adventures, and just doesn't have the feel Long and Kind impart to Gotrek. So when I finished reading this I was pleasantly surprised. Josh Reynolds puts together an excellent short story about the Slayer and his Remembrancer. It is fast paced, with the right level of action throughout the whole story, good villains and characters in general. it has an average setting, but I think that it a) needed to actually be set there, and b) helps it fit in with the overall story of Gotrek's travels in terms of not always having it in the same locations.

-7.5/8


The Reckoning- Jordan Ellinger

Based in Barak Varr and the surrounding areas, The Reckoning brings a good old fashion band of Dwarfs into the mix, and the most obvious of enemies, the Skaven, together. By sticking with the general idea, Jordan Ellinger takes us through a pretty decent Gotrek and Felix story, and that little bit to his timeline and history, whilst also present a very common adversary in a very interesting way (if your a skaven player you might find it good inspiration for your own army or units). Overall I really enjoyed this one, and I'm personally hope Ellinger releases a full length story whilst Nathan Long is on hiatus.

- 8

Into the Valley of Death- Frank Carvallo

This one is a rather unquie story, in that in focuses solely on Felix, in his life before meeting the Slayer. Whilst well written, I just feel that both Gotrek and Felix need each other to achieve that unique compliment in terms of story telling. Don't get me wrong I enjoyed it, and if you have Lost Tales don't ignore it, but it doesn't really add anything to the collective story of Gotrek and Felix. Probably the nicest part is this semi-background development for Felix having a character (who's name i've promptly forgotten) who helps nuture and give experience and advice to Felix, possibly explaining his ability in combat a little bit by the time he meets the Slayer. As a note Frank Carvallo's story telling however is spot on, would be interested to see him try a whole novel

- 7

Curse of the Everliving- David Guymer.

Curse of the Everliving was originally a audio drama by David Guymer, voiced by a professional voice actor (not Toby Longworth I believe). I listened to the audio drama first, and personally it was the most disappointing audio drama and Gotrek and Felix "thing" i've ever listened to. To make it clear, I think David Guymer put together a good story, it had the right elements to it for a short story.  Its just the awful voice overs. Gotrek sounds welsh. WHO THE FRICK THINKS WELSH IS THE MOST TERRIFYING LANGUAGE! I know that its in English, and so to differentiate the the "German" empire men, and the "?" Dwarven race was given welsh.....just a mistake. the story gets lost in the annoying accent.

So the problem is I never read the story, because its not really my thing to re-read stories so soon after listening to an audio drama.  Personally it's a pretty good story looking back on it.

Just don't read the audio drama.

-7/7.5

Gotrek and Felix 4th omnibus (Elfslayer, Shamanslayer, Zombieslayer)

The 4th omnibus see's Nathan Long become far more comfortable with his Gotrek and Felix writing, or rather, he settles into a medium where the story feels much more like a Gotrek and Felix novel should, and thus you can enjoy the story instead of feeling like a slightly less than Gotrek and Felix are playing out before you.

Elfslayer takes Gotrek and Felix via Marenburg, and then beyond, as unsurprisingly they find themselves involved with Elves (of the less nice kind). Obviously I don't want to give to much away, but if you enjoyed the banter between Teclis and Gotrek in Giantslayer then you'll definitely enjoy this. Elves have the potential to be much tougher appoints than your average human, and when you think that some of those he fights are born kills who've lived for hundreds of years training day in day out to be lethal it's all the more satisfying when he kicks ass. It also sees the return of two characters from the past both who make an enjoyable addition to the story. Elfslayer is kind of where I wish Giantslayer and lead directly onto, though without a lot of the back story it might not make any sense. Likeliness is if you've read all the stories this far you'll definitely enjoy this one.

Elfslayer 8/10

Shamanslayer see's the commencement of a story arc involving Gotrek and Felix and the return of another 2 important Gotrek and Felix characters. One of them we haven't seen since the original Trollslayer, and I think it's a sign of Nathan's growing skill that he reinvents them in the way he does. Overall for me that particular arc is the more interesting then the end result of the story, though in truth Shamanslayer and Zomebieslayer are tied/linked quite closely, and could be argued to be all part of the same story. Shamanslayers main protagonist are a horde of beastmen, and they've got a nifty trick up their sleeve which if used in a human city could spell the doom of the Empire.  It also includes a little side story involving Karaghul, and it's nice to see the special blade get it's own attention in the novel. Overall the story is probably better than Manslayer, but not as good as Elfslayer. Still very much worth a read, just wish he had continued with the Gotrek novels, who knows maybe he will come back to finish the story he was trying to tell.

Shamanslayer 7.5/10

Zomebieslayer is currently the last novel written by Nathan Long, and is a hell of a novel if you like the whole siege warfare/never ending horde appeal of the Undead. Caught after the events of Shamanslayer, Gotrek, Felix and co end up at Castle Reikgard, and important bastion against the forces arrayed against the Empire. If it falls death will surely come to the Empire, but how can the defenders stand against the horde outside of their walls when thing start happening which is undermining the defence, leading to questions about what is really going on at Castle Reikgard. Zombieslayer has elements of Beastslayer (siege warfare) to the story, but has a definitely different feel from say, Vampireslayer, which based on the name might have been what people were expecting. Overall it was a good story, though a bit bleak at points, but does that really surprise you when you see undead and siege beside each other?

Zombieslayer 8/10 if you love siege warfare, zombies and the undead and can face a very bleak ending. Otherwise probably a 7.5

Dwarven christmas painting

Rumour is that 2014 is going to see the release of the much anticipated 8th edition dwarf army book. On top of this a number of resculpts and new units should hopefully be joining the dwarven ranks. In anticipation I finally got around to painting a number of my models, though in truth I have an entire battalion box to put together let alone paint the 30+ more warriors (maybe longbeards) I need to paint.

 So first up I painted my small unit of slayers. Its a small unit for a couple of reasons. Firstly everything I've read about slayers and even my own gut feeling has always been that they are just not very effective in games, not matter how epic they're fluff/background is. Secondly I have know for a few years that when they did redo dwarfs (which if I'm honest I had hoped would have been sooner but hey) that they would redo the metal models, i.e. slayers, hammerers and ironbreakers. So I got this bunch second hand and I'm'm pretty happy with the way they look. technically I have 2 of the deamonslayer models in the unit (you can see a photo of one of them below) so I may leave it as a unit of 10 and have the deamonslayer hiding somewhere, not sure. Also in this batch is a dwarf slayer from the oathsworn kickstarter (see link below), he's a fantastic looking model, and encouragingly he fits in reasonably well with the other slayers, despite being a little more normal in proportions than those old models used to be (dwarves with big heads and hands). It's encouraging because the newer plastic models will if I'm' right look closer to this oathsworn model than the current ones do, so hopefully I can just buy a regiment and mix and match happily. Of course all of this depends on how they change the rules, so here is hoping for some runic tattoos for ++ invulnerable saves.  (http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/oathsworn/oathsworn-heroes-of-the-dwarfs)

I had some old school dwarf warrior back from early 2000, and then I also got hold of some more because I was ambivalent about some aspects of the newer dwarf warriors (which were rumoured to be replaced, though my gut tells me not). I've put together 20 warriors with great weapons (and i'm tempted to put throwing axes on their backs to potentially make them rangers). Another unit is armed with hand weapons and shields, and contains about ~25 models. I painted the line models first which is why the command models are at the back.

This is a single model close up shot. I've based the models with the mournfang snow texture paint.

Lastly I painted a regiment of Ironbreakers. Personally these were my favourite to paint, partially because I love the models, and the also because they were probably the easiest to paint. I'll be interested to see how the new models look. I can see them being pretty kick-ass, but likeliness is it is a shared box with hammerers, and as i don't have any of those and anticipate them looking epic i'll likely make them as hammerers. Either way though i'm pretty excited. I've included a close of the champion (cannot remember his name right now, I want to say Lodewarden but that might be Miners)

 (Grombrindal the White dwarf is accompanying this unit, which is somewhat coincidental as news that the old white dwarf magazine is changing to a weekly event with the warhammer visions taking the monthly role having been sprung on us yesterday (or rather that was the first announcement, it had been news for a week beforehand)