6) - Red Thirst

Well after going back to a proper novel it is time to go back to the short story anthologies.  Red Thirst was the third and final of these collections of short stories from the original run and is again edited by David Pringle.  The first thing i noticed is that this one only has six stories compared to the eight of the other books.  This should allow the stories within to be a bit better as the authors have a bit more space to tell their tales.

Ok lets take a look at the cover.  I found finding anything a bit more difficult as the red thirst is something Blood Angels in 40k suffer from, so i only found two variants.  I suspect the one above is the original as it shares the same theme of others in this series.  The background is taken from the cover of the 1st edition warhammer fantasy roleplay.  And of course with the name Red Thirst the random background had to be red.  The one i have though is this one -

The ogres hairdresser should be applauded for such a good colouring job.

Its the same picture but zoomed out a bit.  Ill talk about this picture a bit more when we get to The dark beneath the world.  No red background though, in a book called Red Thirst i cant say i am happy with that.  The bad news though is that as its the later version i wont have any of the cool illustrations to comment/mock.

No time to waste lets get going - SPOILERS INCOMING!

Red Thirst - Jack Yeovil

Editor David Pringle has decided to stick with the same format as Wolf Riders and lead with the title story.  He can now sit back and relax and cash his cheque.  Its written by Jack Yeovil, aka Kim Newman so expectations are high for this one.  We join the mercenary Vukotich as a prisoner being taken to a penal colony.  Vukotich was in the short story Ignorant Armies where he was killed at the end so i think we can safely assume this is a prequel.  Readers from previous blogs will remember this was written before the current fluff was set.  This is an issue with Red Thirst as the dwarven sea fortress of Zhufbar now appears to be in Empire hands.  It could be fixed just by setting it in another city as Zhufbar doesn't play a major role in the story.

Within the first few pages their is mentions of characters from Drachenfels, I do like how all Newman's stories all merge together.  I think it helps bring the world together more than other novels which are set in the same place at the same time and still feel separate.  It helps build the world and the modern black library authors should take note.

So The Empire has an issue where a moral zealot called Claes Glinka has gained sway with the powers that be and now these non affiliated guardians of purity enforce strict moral codes on the populace.  Vukotich has fallen foul of these moral crusaders and is now incarcerated.  The viewpoint swiftly changes outside the prisoners wagon to the would be jailor, Dein Ch'ing who is using the moral crusade as cover for his work in the name of the chaos god Tzeentch.  We get some mentions of far flung Cathy, probably more than anywhere else in the warhammer library.  We get a mention of the Pagoda of Tsien-Tsin, the Monkey King, Great Gojira (Japanese word for Godzilla!) and erm......the Catshit Daemons.

Godzilla exist in warhammer!  Great news for everyone.

Alas so does this.....and its a daemon!

Anyway Vukotich escapes but is chained to a young women who he takes for a whore and plans to lose her as soon as possible.  They work together to kill there pursuers and Vukotich says he need his hand more and uses a sword to attempt to chop her hand off.  Doesn't go so well though as it bounces off her skin.  The young lady is none other than the vampire Genevieve Dieudonné.  As they make their way to a small village looking for a smith to cut their chains (Genevieve's is made of silver) Vukotich is torn between lust and disgust at the vampire.
They make their way to an abandoned lodge so Vukotich can sleep but during the night there is a secret meeting held there that the overhear.  Wladislaw Blasko who is currently ruling Zhufbar (god the dwarfs must be pissed) meets with the strangest looking mutant I have read about so far.  He is called Yefimovich and is described as a perfect living statue of transparent glass that has an inner fire burning inside him.  What an amazing description, sounds like something out a marvel film.  I really like this as its completely unique, well at least to my knowledge.  Anyway the two are in cahoots that when Glinka does his next big speech he will be assassinated and the mutants will take control of the moral crusade.  And when Blasko's aid starts to panic Blasko kills him and then kicks the body, just in case you were in doubt that he was a bad guy.
We go back to Ch'ing who is still pretending to be a member of the moral crusade.  He is due to be the one to perform the assassination but when he uses some magic to see the meeting between his high priest and Blasko he spots Vukotich and Genevieve listening in and recognises them as the escapees and cant allow then to live.  So he uses a bamboo flute and calls on the ancestor Xhou to harry them, as you do.

The Duo are currently on an Ox cart escaping the area when the spirit arrives.  From the description i see an an old school genie hovering over them.  Xhou promises them all sorts if they just leave and don't interfere with their plans.  Vukotich, the Iron Man, is all for leaving but Genevieve persuades them to turn around and save Glinka, the leader of the moral crusade which they hate.  The next town they arrivein is home to a mass burning of art.  A poet gets angry and the only reason i mention this is that a young boy watching him in admiration is dragged off by his mother, the boy is Detlef, the lead character in Drachenfels.  Its all related i tell you!  Anyway a riot breaks out and they escape the area heading for an inn.  Oh my!  They get to the inn and have sex, doesn't sound like it was very good!  I do not know why earlier warhammer authors are obsessed with sex but they are!  I may investigate further in a future blog.

As they try and leave a wood daemon sent by Ch'ing appears.  As they flee other elemental's, fire, water, air and earth appear.  Vukotich notes that wood is not an element and Genevieve tells him it is in Cathy.

Glad they mentioned that as i was sure wood wasn't an element but was too shy to mention it in case it was and i looked like a idiot.

Genevieve remembers an old tale and uses it to her advantage.  She asks that the mightiest of them accept her surrender and the get into a battle royal and cancel each other out.  Very clever way of setting that up.  They make it to the black water just in time to stop the assassination but Ch'ing does not go down without a fight.  The end fight sounds like a scene from Mortal Kombat with Ch'ing flying around, spells going off and he turns into a spectral dragon!  In the end he flees, Blasko drowns and Glinka is found out to be a mutant.

How ace would a warhammer beat em up be?

So that was Red Thirst and i really enjoyed it.  The pacing was just right and as usual is very well written.  The insight on Cathy was refreshing and i enjoyed the tie ins with Newman's other warhammer novels.  Alas it would take a lot of fluff retconing to pull it into line with the now established warhammer world.  I doubt the dwarf players would be happy with them losing another hold!

Rating - 8/10

The Dark Beneath the World - William King

We are back with Gotrek and Felix as the fantasy novel franchise juggernaut is still in its early phases.  On there way to Carak Eight Peaks (still Carak not Karak) they find a group that have been ambushed by Orcs.  We see this from Felix's point of you who ends up in the river trying to avoid being drowned by an Orc.  They both get carried by the current and Felix almost goes over a huge waterfall.  Interesting fight this one as it was different to your normal fantasy affair.  We are off to a good start.  Oh and we also get the answer to the age old question, what colour is Orcs blood?  Emerald Green!

So the duo fall in with the three ambush survivors, a religious knight, a scout and a wizard.  Sounds like a roleplaying adventure group to me.  They travel to the eight peaks and Gotrek gives a quick history of its rise and fall.  When they get there a group of Dwarfs greet them and take them to the keep.  The journey emphasizes the danger of the area and just how run down the fallen city now is.  They are taken to Prince Belegar who is the same Prince Belegar from the old Dwarf army book which had a battle in it.  Ah the good old days, when all literature GW pumped out was taken into consideration.  Now the Black Library books are not even considered cannon by some.  So Gotrek wants to hunt Troll and the humans have come to recover an ancient blade, Karaghul, both are granted permission to go down into the depths.  They are warned though of Dwarf Spirits roaming the underground, the thought of ancestors trapped in the afterlife causes Gotrek to show fear for the first time in the novels.  If its enough to scare him, yeah you should be afraid.

They go down into the depths and Felix gives up counting the stair at 862...to be honest if you have got that far you might as well keep going.  Gotrek gets a bit sad as he points out the amazing architecture they encounter is now beyond them and that their race is a dying one.  Although King does write that he has sadness in his eyes, plural.  He only has one left.

Maybe he can have different eye patches with drawn on eyes to reflect his mood, today he was wearing his sad eye.

So they come across the first bit of resistance with an Ogre led tribe of goblins.  During the feet another rival tribe arrives and after the wizard lets loose a fireball the two tribes end up fighting each other allowing the heroes to punch through and escape in the confusion.  Now i must draw your attention to the front covers again.

Original Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay Cover 1986

  The Ogre in the battle is the one described exactly in the short story.  Even down to the hair.  Also the knight and wizard are the same as well.  The only problem is that the dwarf that is meant to be Gotrek has two eyes.  But the problem is the dates.  This was published in 1986 and Red Thirst came out in 1990.  And to eliminate any doubt that this is the scene take a look at this one -

Its a flip of the whole picture.

This one includes the second tribe appearing, the demon fireplace and the stand off on the stairs.  So it looks like William King has seen this cover and decided to tailor it so it can be included in the story.  I think that's a great idea and i wish they could do it more with covers past and present and is also quite impressive at how well he pulls it off.

After the battle they run into their first ghost.  It dissipates before anything can happen but brings a tear to Gotreks eye, yep he is back to only having one eye again, normality ensues.  After a while including an encounter with a mass of moths, another spirit appears and speaks to Gotrek, they need help as their tombs have been desecrated which has pulled them back from the afterlife.  Of course Gotreks going to help, he is a hero!  They find the desecrated tomb and the massive chaos mutated troll within it.  The troll has a chunk of warpstone chained to its neck and has grow a few mutations.  The description of the baby head and the pincer arm do make it sound truly horrifying and shows how mutations should be done to effect.  The three red shirts all die as per standard star trek protocol.   

We are all going to fight the troll, not all of us will make it....but you know i will

Using lamp oil Felix is able to set it on fire which stops it regenerating and allows Gotrek to bring it down in the end.  With the troll dead though the goblins are no longer scared to approach and it looks like its all over for them.  However the dead spirits of the dwarfs appear and slaughter the greenskins like the scene in return of the king.  Felix take Karagul the sword and they leave. 

Well that was another good entry in the series and i liked the story of how Felix came upon Karagul.  It had the scene with the roleplay cover and a great end bad guy to fight.  Also i like a bit of backstory which we got on the journey there.  Only negatives are the other characters are instantly forgettable and a bit of inconsistency on Gotrek's eye(s).  Positives far outweigh the negatives though.

Rating - 8/10

The Spells Below - Neil Jones

Red Thirst has been great so far, lets see if this one can maintain the momentum.   We meet Neil Jones for the first time and in fantastic news it appears Neil Jones is his real name.  He wrote Deathwing which is from the warhammer 40k early novels.  Can't see many more warhammer novels by him, that always makes me a bit nervous. 

So here we have a wizard in training Katarina Kraeber on her way to her next lesson with her mentor and lover Anton Freiwald.  When she arrives at the house she finds it completely surrounded by the Grafs men, wizards from all the colleges and a siege engine.  Wow they must be up against an army.  Before she can do anything she is spotted by Antons rival and captured and taken to the Graf.  It transpires Anton is accused of using dark magic and being in league with chaos.  The Graf orders the siege engine to fire but it hits a magical wall and the stone falls short.  The distraction allows Katarina to get loose and she sprints for the house.  With the spells help she makes it to the house.  There she finds Antons Kislev mercenaries and realises that Anton has placed a loyalty spell on them.  She wonders about the morality of that but tells herself Anton had no choice.  Anton himself is there and he has a familiar!   Not enough of them about anymore.

I love these guys, nothing chaotic about them at all....

An assassin of Khaine appears, yeah that wont work in todays fluff, and goes after Anton who is in his inner sanctum.  Despite being forbidden to go in Katarinas love for Anton overrules her fear and she goes in.  Antons bound to be a chaos worshipper.  The journey down the stairs is not easy as Anton has put all sorts of spells in the way.  But she uses her love for Anton to get through it....groan.
She gets to the lab where skulls are flying around, although she describes Anton as being of the rainbow college, im not sure that has ever existed?

There is a rainbow mage in this though!  Two player gamebooks were ace.  Shame by playing gamebooks meant you had no friends, rendering two player ones pointless.

 Anton and the assassin are dead and for some reason she does not feel the emotion she should.  Eventually the spell fades and it appears Anton had enslaved her with his magic.  With rage she searches for his grimoire and eventually finds it, including having to put up with her arm being chewed by a magical trap when the area holding the book grows teeth....wow.
So the familiar become Anton as she realises that he has had many lives and every time he dies the homunculus becomes the wizard and he is reborn.  A scuffle ensues and she stabs him with the assassins blade in a scene from Empire strikes back when she uses a fetch spell when she cant reach it.

Hmm this was not very good, it was pretty obvious and was filled with some cartoonish stuff.

Rating - 3/10

The Light of Transfiguration - Brian Craig

Its another tale from Orfeo, everyone's favorite spoony bard.  Brian Stableford has reverted back to Bretonnia, his favorite place to write about.  We get a brief history lesson about a daemon worshipper called Khemis Kezula who had a fortified manner near the Vaults mountain range.  He was defeated by the Knight Lanval de Valancourt who proceeds to smash the place down and leaves it abandoned.  Upon his death he warns his son not to go near it but when his son then dies in battle he can not pass the message on.  Instead the ground is left to the sisters of Shallya, the Goddess of Mercy.  So after agreeing the ground was so remote and therefore no bloody use to them the current Valancourt provides them with masons to help build a temple.

We join a young priestess by the name of Sister Adalia who is one of the priestess of Shallya sent to the cursed location to set up their temple.  Not much happens as the men set to build houses for everyone, Stableford puts across how difficult the work is but you cant really make it exciting.  Eventually the house is built and it sounds a very dreary place.  Adalia though discovers some fragments of broken stained glass.  She starts to collect them in the attempt to reconstruct it (her dad was a window maker).  The mother superior frowns on this so Adalia has to continue her work in secret.  The story basically revolves around her searching for glass fragments amongst the ruins.  Yes those cursed ruins, stupid girl.  So as the window starts to take shape the completed parts glow at night, with the light causing the shadows to dance randomly.  Does this put Adalia off?  No don't be silly, her life is very boring and this is the only excitement she gets!

The picture half way through reconstruction.

Adalia starts to neglect her spiritual duties and even goes as far as praying to any god to help her finish the window.  That night she finds a Dwarf waiting for her with the rest of the pieces of the painting.  Never trust a random dwarf with shards of stained glass!  So she completes the picture that night and gets this -

Terrifying

Ok i lied.  Its got a daemon in the middle that sounds like a Lord of Change from the description.  As soon as she completes it the daemon materializes into the room.  She is enraptured with it and opens her arms to embrace it.  This is as close as we get to Stablefords usual random sexual encounter, should it count?  Yes it does.  We flip to the next day and the burnt body of Adalia is found in her room completely covered by all the fragments of glass.

Well typical of Brian Stableford that i don't know what to make of this one.  It does make you think a bit but you could see the ending coming a mile away.  Even worse was the build up as its was extremely dull.  Still its better than Spells Below as the writing style is much better even though the subject matter is not.

Rating - 4/10

The Song - Steve Baxter

Steve Baxter is back, i enjoyed the Star Boat in Wolf Riders, but in an interesting twist he appears to be writing about halfling detective Sam Warble, whose previous short story was written by Sandy Mitchell (which was not his real name).  Keeping up?  Good.

The Halfling Detective is sitting in the bar when his friends come in and ask Sam about the ring he has.  After some back and fore he eventually starts to tell them his tale.  It all starts with Sam losing a card game to an elf.  With a strong hand but no money the elf asks him to put his mind on the line as the stake.  Sam of course loses and the elf casts a spell on him.  Eight days later Sam wakes up in the pub cellar with a message to go to a specific house.  Sam makes his way to the house and its the elf that he lost the card game to, Eladriel.  He has sealed some of Sams being away (Sam describes how bland his senses appear to be) and would like to trade him that back for the chance to here a human called Lora sing.  It turns out that some of the elves have taken to collecting human art and also collecting the humans themselves.  Lora is meant to be the greatest singer of her generation and has been purchased by the most powerful elf in Marienburg, Periel.

Sam makes it out to Periels private island and is confronted by his Ogre guardian.  He manages to bluff his way out of it by teaching the Ogre how to play cards in an entertaining encounter.  He finds Lora and hears her sing which reduces him to tears.  She bemoans her captivity to him but when Sam tries to free her she keeps making excuses.  She is treated like a Princess now and prefers that life to being free at her fathers pig farm.  Now when she sang last her voice shattered a glass and Sam now has a magical bottle for her to sing into.  He uses his hat to protect it from shattering and returns to Eladriel.  The elf opens the bottle and listens to the song, everyone cries again but without the protection of the hat the glass shatters.  But so does the bottle containing a part of Sam and he is whole again.  Impressed by his trickery the elf lets him go.

So what about the ring?  Well that is fragments of the glass bottle set in gold and when he blows on it he can hear some of the song again.

Ok, i like the way Sam talks and uses his brains and wit to get him out of trouble and Baxter really does make him a very entertaining character.  His descriptive writing is excellent as well and it was a very clever ending.  However it was too short at just over 20 pages so its hard to tell a compelling tale in that time.  Normally i would say it was a bit boring but going by how i have just read about a girl putting a stain glass window back together its not that bad.

After his card game with the Ogre Sam had won a rare collection of Bat Droppings.  Sorry for the second picture of animal poo in one blog, but i don't write the stories!

Rating - 5/10

The Voyage South - Nicola Griffith

Well after a great start Red Thirst has began to flag a bit.  Hopefully the last story here can give it a bit of a boost.   This is Nicola Griffiths second effort in the warhammer world after The Other short story in Ignorant Armies.
Isobel takes her sister Ariel to a remote location by boat and from the start its clear that its a cult of Slaanesh.  All sorts of sensuous things go on and they are all drugged by Olla milk from Araby.  Then we get a sex scene Brian Stableford would be proud of where Isobel's lover has found a cheap source of Olla milk and rubs it all over her.  She clearly overdoses though and her muscles lock up.  The guy runs away but Ariel somehow manages to manhandle her home.  Looks like the warhammer world has the same issues with drugs that we do.  Isobel dies shortly after and Ariel takes a sample of the Olla milk to an apothecary who finds it has been contaminated on purpose by seeds only found in Estallia.   The man that gave it to Isobel coughs up a name of whom sold it and Ariel goes down to the docks to search for clues and finds a women sailor who knows the man.  In order to get to him though she needs passage on a ship but doesn't have the money required so she is hired as crew to work for her passage.  Before they sail though the captain asks her why she is being followed which adds some intrigue. 

We get a brief interlude of Ariel learning the ropes but during the first port of call the first mate comes back from town and speaks to the captain.  Turns out people are asking about the ship and Ariel.  My initial thoughts are its the Estallians who do not want her to find the truth about the corrupted Olla Milk.  More time goes by and Ariel is below deck thinking about her sister, Griffith does a really good job here of making the grief believable but before you can think two much on it the man that has been following her appears.  He gives her a warning to go home or she will ruin everything and that she is not the only one interested in whats going on before vanishing.  Ariel of course ignores the warning as that would be a terrible novel if she listed to his advice.  As they continue down the river they are attacked by archers and boats that try and board the ship.  They are only saved by a mystery boat who has an archer on board that takes out most of the assailants before giving chase to the other boats.  Ariel is wounded and faints.

They finally reach Brionne only to find out the man they are after has left for Magritta a week before.  Despite the offer to stay she leaves the ship and gets a job on a new boat, the Genevieve.  Nothing of note happens and she disembarks at Bilbali, still some distance from her destination.  Ariel goes into town but it does not go well for her and soon an angry mob are chasing her, basically because she is foreign.  Pretty sure that racism.  Anyway she is rescued by an elf who is revealed as the mystery archer and the person that delivered the warning from before.  His name is too long to type but he says its easier to call him Send so i wont argue.  Send doesn't give much away to begin with and they take his ship to Magritta.   The Estalia's are trying to control the sea routes and Send is trying to find out the naval power they have.  So he is a spy then.  When she gets there she learns the truth.  The Olla Milk is not addictive, they are adding the seeds to it to make it addictive and then selling it at a lower price.  Then when the people are addicted they then raise the price and they have no choice but to pay it.  I sense this is meant to be a life lesson here.  But to keep it warhammer related its Khone followers targeting Slaanesh cultists.

When she is brooding about it all and getting angry at her sister for leaving her she hears the militia coming for Send as he is signalling a ship.  She saves his life and we are onto boat four now by my tally.

The boats that feature in Ariel's trip at there annual reunion

On-board it appears plans are in place for a fleet to go against the Estalians fleet.  We get introduced to more characters but its beginning to drag now and i find myself not really caring who they are.  The fleet attacks Magritta and its quite one side.  The real battle is magical and a Bloodthirster of Khorne appears but Send summons a Greater Daemon of Slaanesh to battle it.  The fleet leaves knowing the battle will destroy the remains of the Estalians fleet.  Ariel struggles with the revelation that he is a Slaanesh worshiper.  Send explains chaos can quickly get out of control and now he just tries to channel it where it will do most good.  To be honest i am not sure whats going on anymore.

Well what to say about this one.  It starts off very well and i enjoyed the way it was written, especially the way her sisters death affects Ariel.  Throw in a bit of a mystery and your on a winner.  The way Griffith deals with real world issues is clever but when writing a blog like this its hard to find a place to put comedy pictures in with that subject matter....If it stops with the revelation about the Olla Milk then it would have been fine but it kept going and it did feel it was dragging a lot by the end which made it hard to invest in late introduced characters.  It just became a bit of hard work in the end which is a shame as it was a good start.

Rating - 5/10

And so with that we finish Red Thirst.  Best stories are the first two by far.  If more space had been given to The Song and less to The Journey South both would have benefited i feel and been better.  Next up is a big one.  

5) - Plague Daemon

Excitement in the world of this blog!  First we have passed 1989 and made are way into the second year of warhammer novels.  Second i have no idea what order they were released in so i decided to go for Plague Daemon so we could do our first full sequel as its the second tale of Orfeo!  I tried to get my mindset into 1990 so did a bit of research into what happened, i was 10 when it rolled round the first time and have long since forgotten.  So forget the reunification of Germany or the first Gulf war and Jim Henson's death.  I did remember this however -

Magicland Dizzy on the ZX Spectrum was released in 1990, 128k of greatness.  Eat your heart out GTA 5!

Ok the cover at the top is the one i got which is the Black Library reissue of 2002 so lets have a look at the other ones the world wide web has revealed to me.

Erm.....Wow

So this one i think is the original, its got the same random background as others in the series and in case you don't know the title they have repeated it time and time again in child's writing.  Its then copy and pasted the Great Unclean one from the Lost and the Damned onto the front.  You may think this is a bit easy but remember its 1990!  That would have taken a supercomputer!  

All this just to copy and paste the cover of Plague Daemon

Next i found this - 

Getting a bit better

They have decided by this time the copy and paste is far too difficult and time consuming so they just used the whole cover of the Lost and the Dammed.  The best one by far is the remade one as its actually for the book with the main hero and villain both depicted.  Although the daemon has some real issues with its nails and is long overdue a manicure.  How does he manage to hold anything?

Again it is authored by Brian Craig, real name Brian Stableford and if you have read my previous reviews of Zaragoz or the short stories you will know we are in for three guaranteed things.  Lets crack out the Brian Stableford warhammer checklist - 

1) An awesome build to the character development and plot.

2) A disappointing ending to said plot after it fails to live up to expectations.

3) A really strange sexual encounter.

Ok checklist at the ready - SPOILERS INCOMING

So we start of with the narrator of the tale Orfeo still in captivity and in the midst of a daring escape.  Maro is with him and they steal some donkeys....yep.  Maro fumbles the harness and Orfeo gets annoyed but come on, Maro has been threatened with becoming a eunuch!  I would be a wreck under that kind of pressure so come on Orfeo give the kid a break.  Funnily enough they are caught as the pursuers can walk faster than the donkeys and Orfeo is asked to tell a tale about the dread powers of chaos.

Saddle this or loose your manhood, good luck!

The tale starts with a scene setting description of the location of this adventure which will be based in the Border Princes.  For those who don't know the Border Princes are an area of the warhammer world where no maps really exist.  The story goes that its full of petty kingdoms that are constantly falling and being rebuilt so its a blank canvass for writers.  I am for this as its nice to see some other areas of the warhammer world get some love rather than being set in the Empire all the time.  Oh and its nice to see Brian Stableford leave Bretonnia!  The first chapter proper describes the land of Khypris which is built around the river of the Tana Dante.  It is made up of many towns and the chapter goes into quite a lot of detail about the land and its enemies, the hill men known as the Zani.  It reminds of a campaign setting and this is one of Stableford's strengths as i really buy into this as a real place that could exist. Next we are introduced to the star of the show, Harmis Detz.  Detz is a soldier in the border guard who wear the colours of Prince Faramond the ruler of Khypris.  Stableford has obviously learns from Zaragoz where we had to imagine a poet was an amazing warrior.  At least now we are following a soldier any fights will be a lot more believable.  So Harmis Detz and his brother Lavarock are stationed in a remote village.  Lavarock has a wife and child, Harmis is single.  Oh well i dont fancy Lavarocks chance of surviving this now!  Wait?  Lavarock.....

Lavarock.....Interesting choice of firstname from Mrs Detz, Luckily for Harmis he was born first.

So Harmis is on watch and after a strange drowsy fog they come under attack and he is knocked out by a flying hoof before he sees anything.  When he comes to its carnage and everyone is dead, including Lavarock.  Wow i know i did not like his chances of surviving but that was much quicker than expected.  Harmis decides to track down his brothers murderers who turn out to be a band of mutants.  Knowing he cant beat them in a fight he continues to follow them to the wizard Astyanax's tower.  Cracking name for a wizard and again gives life to this area of the Border Princes.

What follows is the first major battle scene of the novel.  Harmis cant get to the wizard before the mutants so uses a mirror to try and signal them.  The tower (or house but i prefer to think of it as an old school wizards tower) is based in a lake of dark water known as the Tarn.  When the mutants attack they are assailed by tentacles and battle to free themselves from being dragged into the water.  A lone archer is also shooting at them but eventually the mutants make it through the door.  Soon though they are fleeing back out but their leader who is a sorcerer is clearly getting ready for a large spell.  Harmis sneaks up behind him and sinks his two throwing daggers into the sorcerers back.  At first they have no effect and the spell causes the tower to collapse before the sorcerer collapses.  Harmis gets a bit cocky seeing himself as a mighty wizard slayer, but then the sorcerer looks at him and curses him before he dies.

Dont look at his eyes!  Schoolboy error from Harmis.

Harmis awakes to find the wizards two apprentices helping him.  The girl Averil who is described as being very plain and Nicodemus who was the archer.  Nicodemus has injured his arm and is now next to useless.  It turns out the sorcerer who they call a Lazarite has cursed him and he must drink the black water, known as Tarnwine to keep the curse in check.  Harmis is taken to the dying wizard Astyanax who has been trapped under the debris of the collapsed tower.  The wizard pleads with Harmis that a greater threat still exists.  A daemon known as the Katharos is abroad in the land and they have planned for his coming. The wizard blesses the knives he used to kill the sorcerer so they can damage the daemon and tells him the daemons true name.  Harmis is less than impressed by this turn of events but decides to help the young apprentices get to the town they need to get to.

So in a quick recap we have a reluctant hero who must go on a quest to save the people form a daemonic magical threat that he knows nothing about.  Oh and he is after revenge for his brother as well.  Its classic sword and sorcery!

The trio come to Aldium where they spread word to the authorities.  Unlike your normal fantasy affair where no one believes the heroes the people of power kick start into action.  We then get the rest of the chapter dealing with how the towns people deal with the news.  I can see why its included as it gives the sense of impending despair which Nurgle feeds on but its not very exciting to write about so will skip over it.  Harmis and Averil kind of fall out as he wants to leave them and go back to the Border Guard instead of following the quest.  However he is addicted to the Tarnwine which they have as its fighting the corruption inside him.  The local commander gives him special dispensation and written orders to accompany the young apprentices wherever they need to go.  The quest continues!

After a few plodding chapters the action starts to ramp up.  The Zani have invaded and a scouting group of them spot the three companions and they try and shake them off but to no avail.  Harmis leads them into a wooded area.  Looking for help he finds some Gypsies who he decides are just as bad as the pursuing Zani, so he decides to hide up a tree and hope they take each other out.     

Nope, no respite from Murdering Marauders here, best let them kill each other.

Sure enough the Zani attack the camp and we get a pretty gory and descriptive account of the fate of the gypsies.  Well i guess thats what you get for camping on someone else's land and not paying any tax.  Anyway as the Zani sleep Harmis descends from the trees and starts silently killing them.  However it would be boring if it was that easy so of course they wake up and the fight ensues.  Harmis uses their injuries from the previous battle to his advantage to win the battle.  Stableford is very clever with these kind of fights.  Technically Harmis should have no chance but by manipulating the environment and being clever the victory is believable without any over the top heroics.  Harmis has to use one of his magic daggers though so he is down to one which means he has one shot at the daemon, just to build the tension. 

During the fight though Harmis is wounded and the infection still within him gets worse.  They find a roadside hamlet and it looks deserted as people flee the oncoming Zani.  They find an inn where a few people have decided to hide and hope the Zani miss them.  There is only one bed and Harmis takes it, much to the annoyance of the locals but they are fearful of him for he is a member of the border guard.  They decide that there mission is to important to wait so Nicodemus goes on ahead in a bid to find the wizards old apprentice (who i assume is now a wizard in his own right) Ritandyr.  With only plain Averil to look after the ill Harmis from the locals there is a bit of tension here of a different kind to that we have found so far, it examines human nature and its very well done.  Then things go a bit bizarre.  It wouldn't be Brian Stableford if it didn't i guess.  One of the women in the Inn needs to give birth, so she needs the bed.  Harmis is too ill to move so she has to lie next to him and give birth.  Harmis is in and out of consciousness and we get the events from his viewpoint, which needless to say is a bit f*cked up.  Anyway the baby is born and its a hideous mutant.  They all blame Averil as she helped deliver the baby and being a wizards apprentice is accused of being a witch who has cursed them.  Also the women giving birth dies from the labor as she bleeds to death.  All while poor Harmis is in bed next to all this.  I dont care how ill you are i would have got up before then.

Congratulations its a.....erm....

80s cartoon Muppet Babies would have been much better if it was Mutant Babies.  But anyway Harmis is well enough to ride so they get out of town as quick as they can before things can turn nasty.  In the next village they come across another moral conundrum.  Three members of the border guard are all that is left and they are wounded.  A women is trying to help them but they need Harmis help as with their horses they can have the cart pulled and use that to get them to safety.  Averil is dead against the idea as she wants to press on with the mission, and not at all to do with the fact that she has been described constantly as plain and the women helping the wounded soldiers, Asmunda, is otherworldly beautiful.  In the end Harmis gives them one horse and they leave them.  However in thanks Asmunda gives him a gold coin, even though he was willing to give the spare horse for free.  This section of the novel reminds me of an after disaster type film when society breaks down and focuses on human nature and moral issues.  Its a change of pace but it makes you think so it does add to the novel.

Finally they reach the town of Cavanal where they are meant to rendezvous with Nicodemus and Ritandyr.  Cavanal sits on the Tana Dante, the river and even though the bridges have been broken to prevent the advancing Zani from taking the town a small temporary bridge has been set up with all the refuges desperate to cross it.  This is bad news as we know the Zani are not the real threat but the plague daemon so it will be able to cross the river.  Averil has to wait in the queue as Harmis goes to look around.  He bumps into Asmunda again and a bit of light flirting ensues before she goes her own way.  While waiting he hears rumors of a plague in town and that the first victims were three soldiers who arrived on the back of the cart.  Harmis starts to wonder if he is the cause of the plague.  I don't think so, the daemon is Asmunda, its far too obvious to build any suspense.  Anyway with the Zani approaching tensions rise with the refugees and as it starts to boil over Harmis intervenes and the wizard Ritandyr appears to cool things down.  With the wizards authority they are able to get across the bridge into Cavanal itself.   

They take up residence in an inn at the first task is to locate the daemon.  They decide to use a powerful spell to locate the corruption.  During the spell it turns out its the gold piece Harmis was given by Asmunda is the source of the plague.  Oh well at least they didn't keep the obvious suspense going for to long.  We now know its her officially.  Anyway they need to perform an even more powerful spell to stop the corrupted gold.  They are going to unleash a thunderstorm and use the tarnwine to wash away the corruption.  Harmis will see none of this as the Zani now lay siege to Cavanal and Harmis must join the defence.

The clue was in the giant skull face of death.....

Now to explain the siege i must explain a bit more about the Zani.  They are hillmen who have massive Yak like beasts called Aurochs.  When they need to they move down into the lands of Khypris for their herds to graze but they have never made it across the river, the Tana Dante.  Anyway they are clearly being manipulated by the daemon who wants to sow the seeds of despair.  Despite the fact we have been building to this confrontation for some time the siege is pretty brief.  The battle on the banks of the river is brutal enough but as the Zani make it into the town the magical storm starts with a far from natural lightning and thunder storm.  This causes the herd of Aurochs to panic and stampede, crushing the Zani who were trapped by the beasts on one side and the river on the other.

The siege of Cavanal

Ive never seen the Lion King....I know!  Brian Stableford should sue Disney, they are clearly stealing his ideas.  When Harmis gets back to the inn he finds the wizard dead, the daemon has got to him via the spell.  Nicodemus is hurt, again, he really is useless.  So despite being defeated they head to the city of Khypris itself in an effort to confront the daemon.  During the journey Harmis hears Nicodemus and plain Averil making love when they camp, and is annoyed about it but then doesn't begrudge them seeking solace with each other.  Well that was random!  And it means we can check off the random sexual encounter from the checklist!  I didn't think it was going to happen but he managed it.  Pro.

Now it gets serious.  The plague has spread and decimated the land and the writing goes into great detail about the people that are left and the dead at the side of the road.  People are desperate for help but they cant help them so they must walk on.  The part about Harmis not looking at the children is pretty tough to read.  I can understand why he wont look as it would break his resolve.  Tough stuff.  

So the heroes arrive at Kyphris and the guards let them in but the city is deserted, everyone is dead or in hiding from the plague.  They make their way to the palace where it is locked and Nicodemus does his first useful thing and opens the bolt of a locked door using magic so they can get in.  Again there is no sign of life as the plague has claimed everyone within.  Movement out of the corner of the eye leads them on and they make their way down into the dungeons with each step the corruption gets worse.  Waiting for them is the Asmunda and the daemon tries very convincingly to persuade Harmis to join her and serve the plague god.  Harmis refuses and says the daemons true name, Ystareth.  The daemon is now bound to the place but then it all goes a bit weird.

Harmis has an out of body experience due to him still having some of the curse in him.  There he sees the story behind the daemon.  She had once been a citizen of Khypris and had a brother whom she had loved dearly.  However the brother had been killed in this dungeon.  There was no one person to blame so the revenge had been directed against Khypris itself, revenge the chaos god Nurgle was happy to help with.  I like how we get to see the story behind the daemon and its motivations but i am not sure about the way it was delivered.  The daemon could easily have just told them!  

The final confrontation takes place in the throne room with the daemon in its true form sitting on the throne.  Now lets quickly look back at the checklist, we should have a very anti-climatic ending.  Well i am very pleased to report that this is not the case in Plague Daemon.  It is a cracking end where Nicodemus sacrifices himself to give them a chance against the magical pestilent breath of the daemon.  Harmis users that powerful image of the dying children earlier to overcome the daemons power and put his magical dagger through the daemons heart.  I cant do it justice in a paragraph so i wont try.

So the story comes to an end and we switch back to Orfeo who reveals afterwards that Harmis ended up ruling Khypris with his wife Averil.  Wait he gets married to Averil, why did he mention in the story she was having sex with Nicodemus, strange thing to put in your story to a wandering bard.  Anyway they get into an argument as the Caliph says this should have been in the story.  Orfeo disagrees saying the story is about hope.  I disagree the Caliph is right.

Orfeo has been watching too much Dawson's Creek....Spooney bard!

Okay to sum up Plague Daemon i would say i enjoyed it more than Zaragoz.  The build up is not as good but the detail of the lands of Khypris and its population lends it credibility and i really bought into it.  It is a little light on the action but the moral dilemma side of it gives it a different aspect and realism.  We still had the random with the sexual encounter and the out of body experience at the end, oh and the weird birth scene.  The more i think about it the more i am convinced Stableford enjoys, erm, herbal medicine as some of the stuff is so random. In the end it was much more of generic sword and sorcery romp than his previous efforts and it better for it.

I do however have one major gripe.  Its a big one as well.  During the setup at the start when Orfeo is speaking to the Caliph about the tale and setting up the story itself he says this - "But i have only known one man who claimed to have fought a champion of chaos face to face and won."  So right at the very start of the novel we know Harmis wins.  This instantly ruined all sense of suspense that the novel then tries to build.  Drop this part and it would be a much better read, or put it at the end.

Im off to play Magicland Dizzy.

Rating - 6/10   

 

4) - Wolf Riders

Wolf Riders is the second collection of short stories that were set in the warhammer universe.  Just like Ignorant Armies its edited by David Pringle who once again has the difficult job of deciding what order to put the stories in.  Ok the cover at the top of the page is the same one i have.  Its a crazy kind of background image but the insert is a black and white wolf.  Now i think this is the original one and the reason for that is its got illustrations in it!  I will speak of them when we come to them in each tale but to my horror at the back of the book where it advertises the other books you can buy, there are illustrations there as well!  I don't know why they were removed in later editions, some of them are awful but i think it really adds to it.  They remind me of the ones in Fighting Fantasy gamebooks.  A couple of more cover options to take a look at.

I really like this one, its a very old school warhammer depiction of the goblin wolf riders and when i was younger this is what i always imagined them to be like in my head.

And the last one i can find is the result of the previous two covers getting it together one night after one too many drinks and nine months later have a child which has features from both of them.

Lets do this, Spoilers Ahead!

Wolf Riders - William King

In a shock decision from Editor David Pringle he has decided to lead with the Title Story!  That's why he gets his name on it, by making tough out of the box decisions like that.   For the first time in this series of this dubious project we revisit some existing characters as this is the second installment from Gotrek and Felix and follows on from the events in Geheimnisnacht.  So we rejoin the story with Felix in some out of the way tavern where he is defending a girl from the attentions of three trappers with evil intentions.  However one of them takes a shine to Felix instead, "Aye, Lars, right pretty he talks, and all that nice golden hair, like cornstalks.  Could almost take him for a girl myself.  When i come off the mountains anything looks good.  I tell you what-you take the girl.  I'll have this pretty boy."  So the first page into Wolf Riders and we are dealing with what will forever be the greatest threat Felix faces, being sodomized by a mountain man.  A lot of adult themes in early warhammer novels, i worry about the world the authors grew up in.  Funnily enough Felix is not up for this and a brawl ensues and is saved by the appearance of the Trollslayer Gotrek.  The girl he saves is called Kirsten and Felix is enamored with her and persuades Gotrek to join her people on their journey to the border princes.  In a nice touch it is reveled these exiled people are the people of Gottfried Von Diehl who would be the brother of Kurt from the short story laughter of the dark gods.  I like the tie ins to other stories in the early warhammer novels, it gives the sense of a conjoined world and not just a series of isolated stories.  So our heroes sign up to the barons forces so Felix can spend time with Kirsten and Gotrek doesn't have to walk.  Of course the trappers they fought are the scouts for the force but Felix makes the acquaintance of the Barons heir, his nephew Manfred von Diehl who Felix knows of as a brilliant but blasphemous playwright.  The journey is very eventful, which is just as well otherwise it would make a terrible story.  At first we deal with the aftermath of a wolf rider attack where we see some of the friction between the leading characters of the exiled people.  Kirsten is apprenticed to Frau Winter the witch/healer who resents that the Doctor is not assisting her as he is busy with young Manfred.  I sense some intrigue as well as action in this one.  They then arrive at a town and Felix is nominated to parley with the guards.  Turns out that no one will let them in as they are an armed force and too dangerous for any of the local rulers.  So they journey on and of course end up in some haunted hills and it is here that Manfred explains the Von Diehl curse and also it is revealed that the Barons right man, Dieter, is his bastard offspring with Frau Winter, who resents Manfred for being named heir over her own son.  So despite all this political intrigue and the fact they are camped next to the haunted hills Felix has time to go out for a walk with Kirsten and on only what i think is the second date they have sex.  I guess ladies must love the threat of the walking dead.  To be fair going by the start Felix nearly had in this novel he deserves it.  This being a warhammer novel, guess what the dead show up.  This is when King is at his best, its a great set up and the atmosphere is really tense and creepy.  The battle that takes place is equally good and the sense of confusion and drama is very well written.  And then you get our first picture of the book and quite rightly its of this part.  Alas its awful.  The culprit for this travesty is Paul Bonner, however luckily for you no amount of googling can find this "art" on the web.  I did find this though -

If this is the same Paul Bonner, he drew for Confrontation Age of Ragnarok, and looks to have improved 1000 fold.

Ive just made myself sad as i liked Confrontation, maybe because the models were pre-painted as i can not paint models to save my life.  Right time to get back on track, if your reading the book do not look at the picture!  Let your imagination paint the scene using Kings wonderful description.  So in the aftermath Gotrek finds the rune magic that had been holding the undead back in their barrows had been tampered with recently adding more intrigue to the situation.  Interestingly as they journey on they catch sight of the Dwarf capital in the distance, Karaz-a-Karak.  Interesting for two reasons, first in the book its the old spelling of Caraz-a-Carak.  I am glad they changed it to a K as it looks better for me.  Secondly Felix thinks he may see a tear running from Gotrek' nose, although it could be the rain, adding something to Gotreks character development.  Finally they find the ruins of an old fort to set up their new lives and Gotrek wants to move on.  Felix though has fallen in love with Kirsten and stalls, wanting to tell the dwarf that he wont be going further but too scared to do so, he managed to convince Gotrek to stay for a bit to help make the place defensible.  Someone had yet to tell Felix this was a franchise with many novels still to come.  Flash forward and the little community has taken shape and one night Felix goes to tell Gotrek he is not coming with him, only to be interrupted by an army of goblin wolf riders.  So begins the siege and it appears defeat is inevitable unless Frau Winter can hold them at bay with her magic.  When the morning comes the siege is still going but Frau Winter is called away to tend to the wounded duke.  As the second night of the battle starts the goblin shaman uses magic to smash the gate and Gotrek charges into the mass of the horde.  Felix though is tasked with finding Frau Winter who has gone missing.  He finds her dead but worse is to follow when he finds a dying Kirsten who has also been stabbed.  She says one more thing and then dies in his arms.  King does a good job of selling Felix's pain when he says I love you for the first time, only to see she has died.  Quick mention of the second illustration, its of the goblin shaman and wolf riders.  I like the wolves, they are well done, the goblins look more dopey though but its much better than the first one.  So it turns out Manfred is quite mad after finding his father was a mutant, he believes he is tainted as well and must bring the line of Von Deihl to an end.  Felix duels him and eventually wins before going to meet his fate at the hands of the wolf riders.  Gotrek though has killed the shaman and the rest have fled, he has lost an eye in the process and collapses from his wounds.
This tale had it all, intrigue, interesting back stories and histories, good characters, an atmospheric battle, a full blown siege and love and heartache.  Very good start to this anthology.

Rating - 9/10

The Tilean Rat - Sandy Mitchell

Our first glance at Black Library stalwart Sandy Mitchell!  That's not his name though, i know i am as surprised as you, its not often you see a Pseudonym in warhammer.  Alex Stewart is the real name, i have no idea how you get to Sandy Mitchell from that, i like to think their is amazing story behind it that involves a man called Mitchell buried in the sand.  Well what you think of this one is all down to if you have seen this film, or read the novel said film is based on -

The 1941 film of the Maltese Falcon, I assume Alex Stewart has this on Betamax.

This story is basically a rip from the Maltese Falcon plot and set in a warhammer fantasy setting, lets see how it does.  The hero of the piece is a halfling detective called Buttermere Warble but is known as Sam.  It is set in Marienburg and a redhead elf Astra seeks to hire Sam.  She had returned from a trading mission to discover her family and homeland destroyed by Dark Elves and now here only possession that ties her to her family has been stolen, a small statue of a Rat, from Tilea, hence the name of the story.  So Sam goes about his business with his contacts around the city, both fencers and the city watch but it turns up nothing but Sam learns others are looking for the rat as well.  In addition he does not think Astra's story completely adds up.  After another meeting he runs into the Fat man and his small friend Leppo.  The fat mans character is annoying, the way he keeps laughing.  I get that Sam is meant to find him annoying but for me its too much and breaks the flow.  Anyway the Fat man (whose name is Erasmus Ferrara) explains that Astra has lied to him and the statue is worth a fortune and offers Sam a cut if he returns it to him if he finds it. Sam is then approached by the current owner of the Falcon who is a big Norscan and tells Sam to let Astra know where he is so she can buy it.  Sam visits Astra at the Swan and calls her on her lies that he has uncovered through his investigations but is content to leave her to it as she has paid well.  Alas for Sam he discovers the gold coins are in fact lead and goes after Astra who has killed the Norscan and take the Tilean Rat.  Turns out the base is magical and Astra is a Witch Elf who wants to use it in a temple of Khaine.  At the temple though the Fat Man appears and fights her for it.  In the skirmish Leppo is killed and is revealed to be snotling in clothes...yeah ok.

How did they not know??!!

Anyway Sam takes no part in the fight and flees the scene where the watch turn up to clean things up.  The picture at the end of the story is of the final scene.  Its average at best but the depiction of Sam is good, he looks like a hobbit that's had a hard paper round.  So that was the Tilean Rat, i liked to see the halfling love, its rare to see in the Warhammer setting and Sam Warble is a believable character.  For the most part it is well written and i do like the intrigue, but its all over a bit too quick and i have to remember the plot is a blatant rip.  Not sure what i think of that, on one hand it is an interesting take, on the other hand its not that original.  I wonder if there are other films that can get the warhammer treatment?

Indiana Bones - A Liche doesn't let death get in the way of a good action adventure.

The Last Tomb King of Scotland - A guy from Scotland goes to Khemri where he befriends a tomb king.  Unfortunately he screws around with his wife and has to escape....that might be necrophilia actually scratch that.

Tyranids the movie....oh wait they have already done that.

Not a bad story, just nothing to write home about either.

Rating - 5/10

The Phantom of Yremy - Brian Craig

Brian Stableford is back again, lets hope for no strange sexual scenes this time, especially the dreaded flowers from the Gardener of Parravon.  Once again it starts out as a narrative from a story teller which i am sure is meant to be Orfeo from Zargoz.  Funnily enough it is set in a town in Bretonnia called Yremy.  I can not find Yremy in any map of Bretonnia, which dosnt bode well for its fate in this story i guess.  Bretonnia is Warhammer France and it shows in the names of the two main characters, Monsieur Voltigeur and Jean Malchance.

Bretonnia players, waiting for a new army book since 1983

So the premise is that much to the delight of the common folk their is a thief abroad Yremy that is robbing the rich.  The thief had only been glimpsed a few times wearing a black cloak and a leather mask to cover his face.  None could catch him and he was known as the Phantom of Yremy.  The art on this page is of the the phantom stalking someones bed chamber and it is hauntingly brilliant.  It is drawn by Martin Perrott and it is the best illustration so far and adds to the atmosphere of the Phantom, more like this please!  So Voltigeur is the Magistrate for Yremy and is known for his unusual punishments dished out for example making someone that stole cloth has to wear a prickly coat at all times or a prostitute that steals from her clients pocket to have her own "pocket" sewn shut with cat gut......I would have no idea what that meant when i was younger and i wish i still didnt, not sure Brian Stableford has a healthy mind.  Lets push on, so Malchance is his best friend and also his clerk and the two are forever linked and even chased the same women when they young and Voltigeur married her and Malchance vowed to remain a bachelor for life.  After a guardsman almost catches the phantom it is revealed he is coming for Voltigeur.  Also it appears the the phantom is taking only a single thing from each house, something that was given to the owner by Voltigeurs now late wife.  Erm i thought he robbed a man earlier of all his wealth, not sure if he was just practicing then?  Right my early guess is that its either his wife or Malchance.  So that night he prepares by getting his staff all armed and in position and getting a wizard to set spells on his door and chests of all his valuables and Malchance waits outside the bedroom door.  Well it would be rubbish if these precautions worked and they caught the phantom, so of course the phantom appears in his bedroom.  The phantom proclaims he is here to pass sentence and will return the next night to hear his plea and the third night to carry out the sentence.  So the phantom escapes and no one can figure out how he got in and of course the scene repeats itself in the next night as well.  Malchance comes to the conclusion that the phantom is Voltigeur and he does not know he is doing it, under some kind of spell.  Voltigeur snaps and sends Malchance form his home.  By the time the third night comes i will admit the build up has been good and there is a sense of excitement and tension by this stage.  If you don't want to know who the phantom is stop reading now.  So Voltigeur apparently works out who it is and it turns out it is Malchance who is angry that he stole the love of his life.  He explains that everyone has believed his theory that Voltigeur has snapped and that he is the phantom himself.  So what ingenious way did he break past all the fail safes?  Petty Dark Magic apparently.  What a let down, how bad was the wizard they had to set the magical alarms that he didn't notice the use of dark magic???  Just feels like a cop out to me, also Voltigeur has a pistol and tires to shoot Malchance, who has used more dark magic to go unseen and block the barrel and Voltigeur is killed by the misfire.  I am noticing a trend in all the Brian Stableford tales so far, they all have a really good build up of suspense and intrigue but so far none have followed through on it and the endings have been a bit limp.

Rating - 5/10

Cry of the Beast - Ralph T.Castle

I cant find any info on Ralph T Castle, googling only shows that Cry of the Beast was his only novel at least under that name.  Id be amazed if it was his real name but i cant find anything.  I wonder what the T stands for?  Lets go with Thunder.  Today's hero is called Tomas who lives in a cabin where he makes his living as a fisherman with his halfling father Brodie.  I am guessing he is adopted.  Wait a second, Brodie, living by the sea?

Chief Brody from Jaws!  I'm sure that's who Ralph Castle is meaning, his cunning spelling change doesn't fool me!

So Tomas is awoken by some strange inhuman howl and goes to find out what it is but Chief Brodie stops him and clearly knows more than he is letting on.  The next day Tomas finds a half drowned elf women whom they save and bring her back to the cabin.  Her name is Linna and she was shipwrecked close by and fears her brother has drowned.  That night a boozy Chief Brodie tells a tale of Richard Crowell, who decided to take the fight to Chaos and leads a band to Norsca where he disappears.  Chief Brodie says it was just a story he heard, clearly lying again.  Another night comes and Linna's brother is outside and she goes out to greet him before anyone can stop her.  Turns out its a massive chaos spawn type monster as Chief Brodie has a dawnstone which reveals its true form.  Before Tomas can save her some goblins attack and Brodie drags him back into the cabin.  Tomas tries to go after her to save her and the Chief tells him that the story about Richard Crowell is true as Brodie was there as the ships cook and that Crowell was indeed Tomas's farther.  Apparently his mother was killed by a Beastman and that was the reason for Crowells crusade.  Brodie was left on board to look after the baby Tomas but when survivors of the horrors of Norsca returned to the ships they set sail and left straight away.  He gives Tomas the dawnstone, saying it was his mothers and his father has an identical one.  So Tomas goes off into the night and tracks the monster back to a cave near the beach.  After a quick interlude fighting goblins he finds Linna in the cave.  However he uses the dawnstone and it turns out Linna is dead and that it was the monster waiting for him.  Its at this stage we get the picture of the monster in the cave.  Wow, just wow.  Its drawn by Tony Hough and in fairness to Tony its well drawn and it is exactly how the monster was described in the book.  The problem is that the monster looks ridiculous but i put the blame on Ralph Castle who wrote it like that, all the artist did was put his description on paper. 

The monster in Cry of the Beast....ok its not really

So Tomas gets a bit of luck and the monster brings down part of the cave and the falling boulders kill it.  Well i say kill it, it Shat convulsively and died.  Yep it actually says that, thats the fist instance of a proper swear word i think  When he goes to see if its dead he finds an identical dawnstone being worn by the monster, its Richard Crowell and Tomas's real father!
Cry of the beast is not a bad tale, it tells quite a good story but where it gets let down is in the beast itself.  It looks terrible, its even got long eyelashes.  I think Ralph Thunder Castle just threw in loads of random mutations and did not expect anyone to have to draw it which is a shame.

Rating - 5/10

No Gold in the Grey Mountains - Jack Yeovil 

Good news, the author of the amazing Drachenfels (Kim Newman) is back, looking forward to this.   We start by being introduced to a group of bandits who have made their camp in the grounds of Castle Drachenfels, the events of this story being set before those in Drachenfels.  They are led by career criminal Joh Lamprecht and he is joined by Freder who is a huge man but clearly very simple, Rotwang who is a quite but skilled killer and the younger Yann Groeteschele who is scared of Joh and thats why he follows him.  In order to fund a more elaborate criminal scheme Joh has led his men here to ambush a coach that carries gold mined from the grey mountains.  He has successfully done this three times in the last year which begs the question, how inept are the people in charge that they do not learn and allow the same bandit to steal their gold?  Anyway the ambush goes to plan until they can not find any gold.  Under torture the coachman reveals the gold seam has run dry, hence the title of the tale!  The scene of the ambush is the chosen illustration for this story, its quite good actually so kudos to the artist Dave Gallacher. They do however find a young girl in the coach, Lady Melissa d'Acques who is around 12.  Now if you have read Drachenfels then you know who she is but the bandits think they can hold her for ransom and take her back to the castle where she plays along like its a game.  At night the perspective changes to that of an ancient vampire who feeds on the unsuspecting Freder and the rest of the band find his decapitated head.  They head to the room they are using to hold Lady Melissa and decided to make their stand there.  The vampire though invades young Groetescheles mind and he runs screaming into the dark of the castle and Joh goes after him. He finds him mumbling to himself in a corridor and the young man attacks him.  In the resulting brawl Joh is stabbed by a crossbow bolt which he uses to kill Groetescheles who is on fire by this stage.  While this is going on the vampire is in Rotwangs mind and has discovered he has a bit of dormant werewolf blood and lets it loose.  The change happens just as Joh finds his way back and he uses his silver spur to kill the werewolf but not before his guts are opened up by its claws.  As he lies their dying he realizes that the vampire is the Lady Melissa who reveals she is over a thousand years old before she finished him off.

Awwww Crap

Ok this was a good twist but as i said if you read Drachenfels you already knew that the Lady Melissa was Genevieve's grandmother in darkness.  Still though even if you know that its still not a bad read.  Now i think the story and twists in the previous two tales are better but the difference is in the writing as despite this i enjoyed this one better.  The reason i prefer this writing style is just that you invest in the characters a bit more despite the limits of a short story as Kim Newman seems to be able to give them all unique personalities and motivations in a short space of time.  In addition his descriptions of the area are excellent, this is probably as its the second time we have been at Castle Drachenfels.  I am not an author, i am just an ignorant reader but to my mind despite the plot not being as good as the previous stories it just felt like it flowed better to me and as a result i enjoyed it more.

Rating - 7/10

Hammer of the Stars - Pete Garratt

From what i can tell from his bibliography this is Pete Garratt's only warhammer entry.  In good news for everyone though he used his real name.  Although its listed in other non warhammer novels as Peter T. Garratt, yep another unknown T middle name.  This time lets go for Titan.  The two main characters are called Peredur Mappavrauch and Saskia Whiteflower......this does not bode well.
Ok when i write these reviews i do it while reading the book at the same time so i can remember the details.  This was so bad i kept going and finished it and i thought it was the worst thing i have ever read.  So ive waited about a week and i will try again and see if i was being too harsh.  So the tale begins in Wurtbad where there is upheaval in the lower city as travelers have appeared and set up shop.  Nobody knows how they got past the guards but they did.  Reminds me of something.....

Aberdeen has the same issues as Wurtbad

Peredur is a scholar but bunks off to see the Graf address the strangers.  They finally manage to persuade them that they are friends and Peredur goes back to the university.  This one sentence sums up four pages of the story which is filled with poorly written descriptions that just doesn't flow very well.  So the spring equinox comes around and the travelers invite everyone to a festival of Taal the god of the wild places.  Peredur gets a crush on one of the traveling girls who turns out to be the sister of their leader, N'dru which during the festivities leads to an embarrassing moment as he spots Peredur making eyes at his sister.  Awkward for everyone, including me the reader for having to read it.  Not a bad idea to add to the story just poorly executed.  So the travelers pop out the wine of fallerion and start singing the Riddle of the Song of the Seals, a recipe for a pleasant evening you may think?  Well Peredur and his teacher at the university go and look it up and it turns out that people who drink the wine are more likely to succumb to hypnotic chants and mesmerizing songs!   And guess what the Riddle of the Song of the Seals happens to be!  So Peredur, his annoying best friend Safia and the teacher are the only ones unaffected.  His mum gifts him his fathers armor and weapon as he was a great hero as they go into the catacombs after the travelers who are trying to work out the riddle of the song of seals.  So they catch up to them and it turns out they are after the Hammer of the Stars for good reasons and they have found a sacred amulet that will help them.  Peredur duels N'dru for it which is depicted in an ok piece of art, in fact its the best thing so far to happen.  So the scholar who just got his armor (but it apparently a good squire) versus the hardened barbarian warrior.  Peredur is further handicapped that as he fancies N'dru's sister he cant kill him so has to just try and incapacitate him.  Of course he wins and N'dru puts the amulet back.....wait what?  He goes to all that effort and then just gives up?  Guess he didn't want the Hammer of the Star that bad then.  Peredur flush with success decides that he will go after the Hammer himself, no doubt in Pete Garratt's mind leading to a Gotrek and Felix type series.  The thought of that makes me ill.

The Emperor tells Vader Hammer of the Stars will get its own series of novels.

The main problem with this story though is the way the writer structures the sentences and also the pacing feels way off.  Its just hard work to read and any good ideas with the plot just get lost in the chore of reading it.  Saying that the plots cack as well.  I have to question editor David Pringle for letting this in.  More worrying if he has edited it how bad was it before?  I didn't want to do this so early as if i find anything worse i cant go lower on the rating scale.  However if i do find worse i am packing it in!  Gets a point for using his real name, that's all i can give it.

Rating - 1/10

Pulg's Grand Carnival - Simon Ounsley

Two real names of authors in a row?  Normally id be delighted but after the previous debacle i am quite worried.  Maybe fake names is the way to go after all.  A quick check of Simon's bibliography shows he has worked a lot with David Pringle, lets see if that helps here.  We begin at the side of a road where a young man Hans is trying to help an old man who has been attacked by robbers.  The man is dying but gives Hans a strange flute before his life ends.  Hans arrives at Krugenheim and is obviously overawed as its his first time in a city.  Two guys make fun of him (it sounds like he isn't much of a looker) so he uses the magic flute.  It is revealed that he can use it three times a year to make people do what he tells them and any more will exhaust its magic before it recharges.  So what does he make them do?  Take of their trousers and throw them over the bridge.....I feel he may have squandered that one.
Minutes later as he goes to a tavern he is mugged and on the verge of being killed before he is saved by Hannibul Pulg the owner of Pulgs grand carnival.  Hans had wandered into the worst area of the city where Pulg says the watch don't set foot in without enough numbers to make a snotball team.

I am glad Games Workshop went with Blood Bowl instead.

It is revealed Hans is an Albino with a red birthmark and has left his village to get away from the taunting.  Pulg wants to display him as a freak but sells it a bit better than that.  Having no choice Hans accepts with the plan that it only a temporary measure.  It turns out that he has a pet Wyrven that he keeps on a lead which i guess would be an awesome substitution for a guard dog.  They make their way to a pub where a deal to sell dung goes wrong and Pulg is accused of bringing dark forces to the city with his carnival.  Pulg defuses the situation well but confesses to Hans he fears the city may be turning on him.  And then we get an explanation of Snotball!  It turns out its football but with a wicker ball with a snotling caged in it.  Pulg takes him home and we are introduced to a few of his menagerie (including a bog octopus which sounded amazing and a blind basilisk) and also his co workers including Hedi who Hans has an instant crush on.  So far this novel has an unhealthy obsession with shit.  It seems to be the reality of the carnival that all these magnificent beasts shit a lot.  Despite being lumbered with the job of shoveling the excrement and mucking out the cages Hans is delighted with his new life as its still much better than where he came from, he even gets a lesson riding the tame wyrven including a flight over the city while Pulg gets drunk at the tavern.  Things repeat for a while until the city council declare there will be an inspection in three days for a suspected rodent infestation.  This sounds quite mundane but this being a fantasy setting he hires a wizard to cast a spell to kill all the rats.  Pulgs nemesis the man Grunwald tries to buy the property but runs off when Pulg threatens him with a blunderbuss.  However Grunwald turns the city against them and Hans is chased by some louts.  Pulg seems to be oblivious to all the hatred and Heidi tries to persuade Hans that they need to leave and that he has gone mad.  Before that can happen though the Knights of the White Wolf appear at the local inn to arrest Pulg but he and Hans are able to just escape on the back of the wyrven.  This is the scene that they use to throw a picture in for.  Its not great, so ill gloss over it.  When they get back home though the knights are waiting for them with Heidi their prisoner.  They charge Pulg of heresy so Hans gets the flute out.  The knights freeze allowing Heidi to escape but it breaks the spell that is keeping the Wyrven docile and it tears the knights apart.  The flute has broken the spell on all the monsters in the carnival and surrounded by knights they use a secret passage to escape when Hans realises Pulg still has the flute after he gave it to him to examine, Heidi is waiting for them, with the knights who arrest Pulg.  She has sold him out for the freedom of herself, Hans and the animals.  They decided to take Grunwalds money for the place and then take the carnival on the road.  Pulg winks to Hans as he is taken away as he still has the flute.
I quite enjoyed this one, its a good little tale and i like Simon Ounsley's writing style.  However it could honestly be set in any fantasy world, it seems a bit more generic fantasy rather than dark warhammer fantasy. The subject matter can be a bit mundane as well but it works to set the scene well.  Of course even a bland story would seem like gold compared to the Hammer of the Stars so maybe that's having an effect on me.

Rating - 6/10

The Way of the Witchfinder - Brian Craig

Ok its Brian Craig (Stableford) back again for his second effort in wolf riders.  Dare i predict a good start, excellent build and a damp squib of an end?  Oh and some strange sexual innuendo.  Lets find out!  
Again its a story teller that is relating the tale, if they did an Orfeo omnibus they could pad it with these short stories.  We are in Bretonnia, again.  It makes a change from the Empire so its not a problem for me.  It starts by telling of a place called Ora Lamae which used to be covered by the ocean but retreating waters had allowed the town to come into existence.  The Baron is just a figurehead and it is really run by his daughter Syrene who apparently is in cahoots with daemons.  It then quickly shifts to a priest of Solkon (A god of law when such things existed in warhammer) forging an apprentice named Florian who after 13 years on his 21st birthday is sent to prove himself to Ora Lamae.  Florian arrives and sets up in the street of shrines to preach of Solkon.  Over the next three days he hears the stories of the corrupt nobles.  Eventually he is lead to a meeting with Syrene who is clearly into Slaanesh and tries to corrupt Florain by offering herself.  This sounds like the review of Zaragoz, in better news i can tick off the sexual innuendo box of my Brian Craig checklist!  He resists her charms and tries to smite her with a prayer to Solkon but she disappears and he gets hit from behind and he wakes up back in the street of shrines.  The next day he is arrested and thrown into a dungeon for treason.   They roll a rock in front of the prison where he is left for dead.  For the next three days and nights he performs a mighty ritual to Solkon.  Think of that for a second, three days and nights, 72 hours straight of ritual.  No sleep, no food, no drink.  I think even David Blaine might struggle with that.

After 44 days in a glass box David Blaines Spell of Solkan made Florin look like a lightweight.

When its finished he is a walking avatar of his god and the rock melts in front of him as he makes his escape.  Both guards and daemons try and stop them but are brushed aside.  This scene is depicted in a picture.  The illustration of Florian is excellent as he looks like a holy angel, however the rest of it looks ridiculous, there is one guard behind him who looks like this -

Farting in his general direction was no match for the power of Solkon.

Anyway he makes his way to the top of the highest tower where Syrene meets him.  Instead of a fight she begs for help from the daemons and will do any penance.  At that point he feels pity for her and his spell is broken.  Must have been gutted that took 72 hours to cast!  He says there might be forgiveness in the world as well as law and therefore dammed himself in Solkons eyes.  The waves start to reclaim the land.
Well that was quick!  Its only 9 pages long and reeks of being tacked on at the end to finish the anthology.  To be fair to Brian Stableford that's a tough ask.  As Ive said many times his best part is the build up with weak finishes.  This is finish is average at best and the story to short to allow his normally excellent build up.

Rating - 3/10

So that was wolf riders, the title story is by far the best one and No Gold in the Grey Mountains is good as well.  The rest are around the average mark but the last one is rushed and suffers for it.  However sadly i will probably remember it most for the disaster that was Hammer of the Stars, I need something good to cleanse my pallet after that.  If the black library ever turn you down just make them read Hammer of the Stars before your effort!