Reading Lamp: Chris Wraight

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Review: Restorer by Chris Wraight

This may be a mere short story, but I figured it was worth talking about, considering how much it impressed me. The next novel review should be coming soon, once I figure out some things. In the meantime, some gushing about Chris Wraight's White Scars!

The Story:

"Shiban Khan has returned to Terra. As the Warmaster draws ever closer, his body is remade and his mechanical shackles cast aside, but there are other, deeper wounds that must still be confronted before he can face battle again."

The Review:

Restorer is a beautiful story. It perfectly highlights just what power the short story format can have, if used intelligently, as an aside to an ongoing saga. It is not a mandatory read to understand the rest of the Horus Heresy by any means, but just enough of a bonus, an epilogue chapter to a character arc from two previous novels, a novella and some shorts, that it is utterly satisfying and moving for the reader.

If you haven't read Chris Wraight's White Scars novels for the Horus Heresy, Scars and The Path of Heaven, you are doing something wrong to begin with. If you have read them, as well as the Brotherhood of the Storm novella (printed in Legacies of Betrayal), you simply owe it to yourself to read Restorer as well.

It really puts the bow on one of the most striking plotlines from Wraight's Scars stories: The friendship/rivalry between Shiban Khan and Torghun Khan. Where Brotherhood of the Storm established their divergent philosophies of war and showcased Torghun's struggles to accept his place within the Ordu of Jaghatai, and Scars delved even deeper into their origins and paths, with The Path of Heaven handing us the results of their rivalry, which presented the V Legion's own schism in microcosm, Restorer puts past errors, grievances and stubborness at rest in a very introspective way.
An important way, too, if you ask me.

Where many short stories in the Horus Heresy series turn into slices of action across the galaxy, this one brings us to the heart of Terra and gives us insights into the state of the Throneworld in the final months before the Siege. It even gives us a glimpse of the traitor forces' arrival, which may be a first. It does so in a very personal way that speaks volumes about the strength of Wraight's characterization skills. Shiban Khan, for all his faults, invites us to prepare for the impending assault of Horus Lupercal's forces - both physically and mentally.

I honestly believe that Chris got something special here. Even if this turns out to be the final piece in his White Scars saga for the Heresy, it'd be an epitaph worth remembering as one of the most poignant pieces of short fiction across the entire series. It is the final piece that I could only have hoped for after the grim events from The Path of Heaven and puts to rest one of the very few points that book disappointed me with back when I read it.

As far as the depictions of Terra itself go, I can't criticise a thing. There is a clear contrast here to Wraight's recent Inquisition novel The Carrion Throne, with both versions of Old Earth across the Millennia feeling distinct and right, giving just enough of an impression of the world to satisfy curiosity and letting imagination extrapolate the rest. The inhabitants we come across feel troubled and authentic in the situations they are presented in. This is a world just waiting on the edge of its proverbial seat, expecting the arrival of the apocalypse any day now. The dire situation was handled perfectly, in my eyes.

With all that in mind, I cannot recommend Restorer highly enough. It stands as one of the series' finest pieces of short fiction - and with as many dozens of those out there, that's got to count for something.

Restorer on Goodreads

Review: Vaults of Terra: The Carrion Throne by Chris Wraight

I know I've been slacking lately. Please address complaints at Square Enix's Final Fantasy XIV team; the Stormblood Expansion just launched a week ago and I had to catch up on the story up to that point the rest of the month. Considering how much I adore the game's storyline and characters (the best you'll find in an MMORPG, I'd argue), reading actual books wasn't a priority lately.
But hey, this one's fantastic so I breezed through it anyway!

The Story:

"In the hellish sprawl of Imperial Terra, Ordo Hereticus Inquisitor Erasmus serves as a stalwart and vigilant protector, for even the Throneworld is not immune to the predations of its enemies. In the course of his Emperor-sworn duty, Erasmus becomes embroiled in a dark conspiracy, one that leads all the way to the halls of the Imperial Palace. As he plunges deeper in the shadowy underbelly of the many palace districts, his investigation attracts the attention of hidden forces, and soon Erasmus and his acolyte Spinoza are being hunted – by heretics, xenos, servants of the Dark Powers, or perhaps even rival elements of the Inquisition itself. They eventually discover a terrible truth, one that if allowed to get out could undermine the very fabric of the Imperium itself."

The Review:

The Carrion Throne is the kind of novel I've wanted Black Library to publish for years and years. I was honestly worried I'd be putting my expectations up too high - the announcement excited me like few Black Library releases had in recent years. But some things sound just a bit too good to be true, don't they? It has been a long time since BL had greenlit a proper, full-on Inquisition novel and now we're seeing two series kick off in 2017 (John French's Horusian Wars being the other). Fingers crossed that this would be good, then.

Spoiler: It was fantastic!

The novel delivered that sense of thick atmosphere of grit and intrigue that the setting has lacked a great deal in recent years, outside of some exceptions. There is no glorious war here, but plenty of misery under the vener of righteousness and piety. It is easy to think of Holy Terra, humanity's home and the God-Emperor's seat of power, as a jewel of the Imperium. Chris Wraight sets the record straight once and for all and makes it very clear that it is a terrible place to live for all but the elite few, including the Inquisition. People are afraid and driven to extremes, living off scraps and knowing little to no justice in life.

In a way, Wraight even leveled big criticisms against the Inquisition's modus operandi, both through his depictions of them in action and their hypocrisy throughout, but also by pitching Erasmus Crowl's philosophies against those of his new Interrogator, who previously served under a major hardliner. They clash in ideological ways, if not openly, which serves to keep things tense for the reader. It is easy to glorify the role of Inquisitors as the ultimate authority, the righteous gun to the head of heretics. The Carrion Throne explores the adverse effects of their creed in great detail and, by focusing on Interrogator Spinoza's shift from one master to another and all the uncertainties that come with it, forces the reader to reevaluate their views on the Inquisition's activities in more ways than one.

The bulk of the book is formed by two strings of investigation, one mainly led by Inquisitor Erasmus Crowl, the other taken over by Interrogator Luce Spinoza. As can be expected, both intertwine on various points, especially as the Sanguinala, a massive festivity on Terra, draws closer. As pilgrims once more swarm the hives of Holy Terra, misery grows stronger still and more subversive elements cause grief for the local law enforcement and Inquisition. What starts as a series of gruesome murders promises to endanger the Imperial Palace and the Sanguinala themselves. What better way to cause chaos than to bring down doom on millions of pilgrims in front of the Eternity Gate?

So Crowl and Spinoza are working against time, pursuing leads as to the killings while also looking for a missing Inquisitor, interrogating rogue traders, performing autopsies and infiltrating Mechanicus strongholds. I don't think we've ever seen as much of "modern" Terra as we do here. Not only does The Carrion Throne take us places on and around the planet, but it also showcases many walks of life on the Throneworld and the way their lives are governed by fear. I was particularly impressed by pious Spinoza's shock and disbelief at seeing a statue of a Space Marine defaced and demanding the crowds around her to show a similar reaction, only to realize they're numb to it all.
In other parts, it felt horrific with what supposed luxuries the people on Terra are somewhat content with, like living in tiny hab-units. Living plants are a miracle to this sorry lot and there is little light to illuminate the dark corridors of Terra's underbelly.

The two leading characters Crowl and Spinoza were brilliant to read about too. Their dynamics as new mentor and adopted student were unique and full of tension due to clashing philosophies. Crowl himself has a lot of depth to him, not all of which has been explored just yet. There's much that I'd love to see covered bit by bit in future novels. Spinoza meanwhile already had a short story, Argent, to showcase her time under her former master and how she got honored by the Imperial Fists. Her development in The Carrion Throne was spot on and potentially more satisfying than Crowl's, simply because of her own crisis of faith and overall doubts after coming to Terra, whereas Crowl has a long history in his role already and, having been on Terra for a long time, adjusted his methods.

Crowl's retinue was, dare I say it, about as compelling as Dan Abnett's Eisenhorn retinue. Only of few of them were along for the ride for a substantial amount of time, but even the short scenes we got of some, like archivist once-Yulia Huk, are hard-hitting sections. It was compelling seeing her role in things and how both Spinoza and later Eresmus interact with her. There was a level of sadness there, of longing, that made Eisenhorn's group feel more happy-go-lucky than expected. Crowl's storm trooper captain Revus may not smile much, but his fierce dedication to the job and attitude complemented the Inquisitor's own tremendously well. Comedic relief comes in the form of sergeant Hegain, whose exchanges with Spinoza first felt a bit cringey due to the acolyte's stiffness, but opened up a good deal as characters developed and grew closer.

In my opinion, Wraight created a cast of characters that work exceptionally well together and are compelling to follow around, one and all. There was nobody I didn't care for in some capacity or wanted to learn more about. Each and every one of them deserves further exploration, whether in future novels or short stories like Argent.

The involvement of the Custodians had me excited and anxious both, seeing how Games Workshop had just printed rules for use of the Emperor's personal guard on the tabletop when they had been a defensive, reclusive force for the past 10,000 years. I was afraid that we'd be seeing a lot of them in action where they - in my opinion - do not belong. To my utmost relief, Wraight did not do that at all. In fact, I was surprised that they even relented to do as much as they did, which, until the climax, wasn't much beyond dialogue with Inquisitor Crowl.

On top of that I enjoyed the way these golden defenders of the Throne were presented, mainly through their "leader" Navradaran. In his interactions with Crowl it easily becomes apparent that his cohort have been very disconnected from the Imperium at large. They still maintain their exceptional martial prowess and intimidating presence, but their eyes are turned inward towards the Emperor's inner sanctum. In fact, Navradaran was the first Custodian Crowl had encountered or even heard of venturing outside the Palace's inner wards. His attitude and situation serve to strengthen what was known about the Custodes from a lore standpoint while making them as awe-inspiring as they needed to be here.

This is exactly what the novel needed to show. This book, for all its talk of glorious victories of ages past, the breathtaking views of the Imperial Palace, the sheer unlimited authority of the Inquisition, is one of vicious contrasts. While the wider Imperium reveres Holy Terra and considers life there a sign of immense status and luck, reality is a punch in the gut.

I cannot remember a book that has fleshed out the Imperium's society on a similar level since Dan Abnett's Eisenhorn and Ravenor novels. I guess it really is down to the Inquisition books to deal with the gritty details of these things. Even beyond the dynamic plot developments, Wraight managed to fill his book with little pieces of fluff. For example, there's a book mentioned alongside others called "My Wish to Generate Children with You is Only Exceeded by My Devotion to Him"! Nevermind what the Sanguinala brings to the table to shape Imperial culture, or the fantastic retinue Crowl has serving under him. It covers all the things I wanted out of this book.

It boggles my mind that it took Black Library this long to once again publish a novel of this caliber. The setting needs this in many ways rather cynical look at the Imperium's self-righteous hypocrisies. Seeing how well the Warhammer 40,000 universe has lent itself to this style of content featuring Inquisitors and their retinues in the past, I am happy to see its like back in production. But even aside from my relief in those regards, I still believe that Chris Wraight has truly outdone himself here and written one of his best books to date in The Carrion Throne.

Now, excuse me while I try to convince some friends to join me for a session of Fantasy Flight Games' Dark Heresy Pen & Paper Roleplaying Game (which the license expired on so FFG isn't selling it anymore, of course). I've been wanting to do that for years, but this novel has certainly increased my desire for more Inquisition adventures by a tenfold...

Vaults of Terra: The Carrion Throne on Goodreads

Review: Leman Russ: The Great Wolf by Chris Wraight

This one's a few months overdue and following Magnus out of order. It took me a while to get through it, and another while to figure out my feelings on it - and how to put them best. Hopefully I managed to find a good way to do just that here.

The Story:

"At the the height of the Great Crusade, Leman Russ and his Dark Angel brother, Lion El'Jonson, come into conflict as they pacify the world of Dulan.

Many are the sagas of Leman Russ, Lord of Winter and War, most fearsome of the Emperor’s primarch sons. At the height of the Great Crusade, his Space Wolves fight to bring the rebel world of Dulan to compliance. Enraged by the defiance of the tyrant Durath, Russ has pledged to strike him down personally – but his brother Lion El’Jonson of the Dark Angels advises more caution. With the might of two Legions arrayed against Durath, tensions nevertheless run high, and the rivalry between the Wolf and the Lion threatens to engulf them all."

The Review:

Leman Russ: The Great Wolf left me conflicted. I struggled to get invested in this Primarchs novel for quite some time before I decided to just sit down and get it done. Despite having some brilliant moments that left me in awe, the almost overwhelming amount of action, especially early on, left me struggling to enjoy the book.

A big part of my problems with this one isn't just down to content, or specifically a big focus on battles. The structure of it all is what made it feel as exhausting to me as it did. Leman Russ comes along split into a mere six chapters. The first and last of these form the meta narrative, putting the rest of the book into the context of Russ telling the story of his feud with the Lion of Caliban. They are, however, not labeled as prologue and epilogue like you might expect.
The remaining four chapters in between focus on the war for Dulan, the Wolf King and the Lion's many disagreements and ends in, as lore would have it, them punching the living hell out of one another. This iconic and highly anticipated moment in 40k history was handled exceptionally well, in my opinion, whereas the early parts and what may constitute as the main plotline felt underwhelming to me.
I digress, however. While reading the book, I found many, many scene changes that could have easily warranted a chapter break. I've always been in favor of having a good amount of chapters. As long as you're not as ludicrous with it as the Star Wars: Rogue One Junior Novelization which has over 60 chapters for a mere 192 pages, I'd say a few redundant chapter breaks are preferable to having endlessly long ones. Leman Russ, to my dismay, has plenty of those.

I honestly don't know what went wrong here. A lot of times the book lent itself to thematic breaks left and right, splitting battles from more profound and introspective moments, but instead it all runs together into one mess that I found tough to keep excited over. If you're anything like me in this regard, you might struggle.

But aside from these structural issues, I found the novel too loaded with battle scenes and all they entail. The first Dulan-plotline chapter kicks off with a massive boarding action, for example. Yes, it did a good job showcasing the Wolves' way of war, their howling and single-mindedness, but it dragged on a bit too much for my liking. It isn't that Wraight didn't make an effort to make me appreciate the Jarl of the 13th Great Company. I quite liked Jorin Bloodhowl of Dekk-Tra. His role within the Legion is fairly unique, due to being one of Russ's old guard on Fenris. It is just that I never really felt much for the Dulanians. They were the stand-in antagonists. The only thing they actually had going for them for the biggest part of the novel was their advanced and odd technological level. But if that's the only thing I can associate with them for the majority of the story, then I cannot claim to find that very interesting or engaging.
It seemed like the perfect opportunity to showcase an advanced civilization that rejects the Imperium's rule, yet the only part that came close to that was the Lion's final meeting with the "Tyrant" of Dulan. That was about where I got curious about this civilization. Sadly, that's also where it became irrelevant to the rest of the book.

I guess it is to be expected somewhat to have the war on Dulan be more of a backdrop for the Wolf vs Lion story of old. We didn't really know much about the conflict before and all the interesting bits were about how Russ and Jonson started their Legion feud for good. But for that, I feel that this happened a bit too late in the book. The buildup was decent, if action-heavy, but the blows landed only in the final stages of the book. As a climax it worked wonders and made me appreciate Wraight's skill at handling Primarchs once again. But between this rivalry plotline, the Dulan war and the third plotline involving the curse of the 13th Great Company, I felt like it didn't take center stage enough.
All three plotlines needed more to them to really shine. They were serviceable, but in the end I felt that the book needed more room to properly build them up. They play into one another just well enough to not make the book feel shizophrenic, but not well enough to properly satisfy me.

Having a big timeskip after the conclusion of the big brawl, rushing through the Heresy-to-come up until the aftermath of the Imperial Palace, was awkward in my opinion as well. It is clear that Wraight wasn't going to spoil Heresy-series events, and that the book needed to work stand-alone and not hold anything mandatory for the flagship series. The encounter between the two brothers also needed to be in the book. But after being relatively slow and bogged down with battles for 80% of the book, having one of the 4 chapters available to the core-part of the novel rush through decades into the future of the HH series, felt awkward. It seems more like a pacing issue to me than anything down to Wraight's skills as an author. In fact, this chapter was one of the most engaging parts of the book for me. It just didn't fit as neatly as I've come to expect from Wraight after all I've read from him.

But this is all so very negative, isn't it? I honestly don't like being this way. My disappointment has a lot to do with the high expectations I had for this novel, based on Wraight's own work with the Space Wolves both in and out of the Horus Heresy series. And truthfully, he did a bang-up job showcasing the Great Crusade-era Legion, with quite a few bits of foreshadowing and easter eggs. The Wolves felt dangerous in many scenes, and the Lion too felt authentic to his core character archetype. He is proud, deeply arrogant, but also insanely competent. Despite all of that, Wraight made it clear that the Lord of Angels wasn't quite as cold-hearted as he often appears. It was great to see Lion El'Jonson this way. The scenes putting the lense on him were some of the best in the book.
Russ, too, did get some neat additions to his character and the fears he held for his Legion. This is a Wolf King that wants his Legion to be seen as more than simple-minded barbarians, quite in contrast to his appearance in Prospero Burns, where he seemed mostly comfortable with the idea of being underestimated by all. It is interesting to see how many aspects of Leman are the same as in chronologically later depictions, while subtle changes were made to accomodate his pre-Heresy Great Crusade incarnation.

Yes, Leman Russ: The Great Wolf is well worth reading. It may be my least-favorite Primarchs novel out of the first three and took me a good while to slog through, but it is still a competent novel that does a lot of good things for the Vlka Fenryka. I'd say the final chapters where everything comes to a head alone make this book worthwhile, despite the pacing and structural issues. It is, however, one of the books that I wish hadn't gotten the short novel treatment but instead been a full-length novel. I believe that, had that been the case, Wraight could have fully lived up to expectations and made all three plotlines compelling in their own right. Either way, it is a great read for fans of the Wolves, but also the Dark Angels and people like me who wanted to see more Great Crusade depictions of the Legions than we got so far.

Leman Russ: The Great Wolf on Goodreads

Review: The Path of Heaven by Chris Wraight

The Path of Heaven is a monumental entry in the Horus Heresy series. It achieves much, reveals details about the nature of the war and the Emperor's secrets, but also develops not just one but three Legions and as many Primarchs beyond what we have seen so far.
While some sections might drag on a little too much in the early chapters, things pick up speed later on, and end with some very powerful scenes. As a whole, I loved this novel.

The Story:

"The Khan returns! After the events of 'Scars', the White Scars Legion have chosen their loyalties. Now, after years of battle against the traitors, it's time to return to Terra and prepare for the inevitable invasion. But first, Jaghatai and his warriors must brave a gauntlet of enemies and the terrors of the warp...

For too long had the Vth Legion ranged out beyond the sight of the wider Imperium, remaining ignorant of the Warmaster’s rebellion and the war that inevitably followed. Only once their primarch, Jaghatai Khan, had satisfied himself that the path before them was just and true did the White Scars choose a side, taking the fight to the traitors on every front. But, four years later, the Legion’s unfettered spirit has been broken by relentless attritional warfare against the Death Guard and the Emperor’s Children – the Khan’s Stormseers must find a clear route to Terra if they are to take part in the final, apocalyptic battle."

The Review

Chris Wraight has set the foundation for the White Scars Legion in Scars, a couple of years back. He builds on his successes in this installment, set over four years after the conclusion of Scars. It shows a very different picture from the laughing speed-riders of the Ordu of Jaghatai, however. They are at breaking point; weary, their moods far removed from joy. The war of attrition they have been waging to delay the Warmaster's forces has taken its toll on them, and they are on the verge of losing their soul as a Legion.

The difference between the two books' renditions of the White Scars may be jarring to readers. Some characters, like Shiban Khan of the Brotherhood of the Storm, signify the strongest discrepancies - visibly scarred from the climax of Scars, he is bitter, quick to hold grudges, out for revenge and willing to throw everything away to get it. His position within the Legion has changed, too.

Even Jaghatai, Primarch of the White Scars, is feeling time running out. He is desperate to bring his Legion back to Terra to defend the Throneworld, trying to fulfill his oaths. With the Warp being unstable and the traitors at his heels, the way is closed to him, and he has to gamble with the lives of his sons.
He is also very reflective this time around, musing on the Emperor and his reasons for leaving the Great Crusade. One of those scenes brings one of the most evocative, tragic yet powerful quotes the series has seen to date to the table:

So I fight for a Father who I never loved, against a brother that I did. I defend an empire that never wanted me against an army that would have taken me in a heartbeat.

It does a wonderful job illustrating Jaghatai's position in the Imperium, yet also shows an incredible strength of character that catapulted the Khagan to my top favorite Primarchs. He is set apart from his brothers in so many ways, not least of all his will to be true to himself and do what he sees as right, even as he sees his Legion falling apart.

This puts him into contrast with Mortarion, the other Primarch in a main role here. The two have unfinished business, of course. Mortarion, though, abandoned the Imperium in an attempt to get rid of warpcraft and psykers. Ironically, he gave it all another, stronger foothold in doing so, and now he struggles with his new position. While at the same time he wishes to stand beside Horus at Terra and be in the Warmaster's favor, he is trying to understand the warp and sorcery while keeping it firmly leashed and outlawed within the region.

Wraight really dialed Mortarion's corruption-meter back from McNeill's version in Vengeful Spirit, where he unleashed a personified life-eater virus. While this could be interpreted as inconsistencies between authors' visions of a character, I think Chris sold it well enough to not feel that way to me. If anything, I enjoy how Mortarion is being shown as balancing on the knife's edge. He will fall, of course, and cut himself. We know the destination, as with many things Heresy, but The Path of Heaven gave us another satisfying bit of the journey.

The third Legion in play (beyond the sorta-cameos of two more) are the Emperor's Children, who have a bigger role overall than the Death Guard. Mortarion is shown more often interacting with Lord Commander Eidolon, now called the Soul-Severed, than his own Legion.
Eidolon is now in command of about a third of Fulgrim's Legion, and it all gave off vibes of early Chaos warbands, especially due to the introduction of Ravasch Cario, Prefector of the Palatine Blades. His encounter with Eidolon was both entertaining and exciting, and his role over the course of the story was cool to follow. His position within the Emperor's Children is a tenuous one indeed.

What I did not enjoy as much about the novel were early action scenes, which fulfilled their purpose of showing the complex maneuvering of the Khagan, but also felt a little disjointed and dragged on for almost a quarter of the book.
I wish the author had instead focused a little more on a couple of (in my opinion) underused characters and developed the relationship between Shiban and Torghun Khan more. The resolution to their plotline felt lukewarm to me, especially considering what they've been through since Brotherhood of the Storm, and how they were always set up as contrasting characters. They have made somewhat of a role reversal in this book, which I liked a lot, but I think that Wraight could have taken it a little farther still.

At the end of it, though, this book was full of memorable moments. Gutwrenching ones, too. There were many deaths I wouldn't have expected going in, and most of them left some sort of impact on me. Experiencing the Khagan's pained reactions to it all left a scar, too.
The Path of Heaven did a fantastic job showing us the weariness of the Legions, and how the Heresy is taking its toll on everyone. I felt that this installment did a better job at that than any other book so far.

But the end is coming at long last. This one definitely opens up the next phase of the Heresy War in a bombastic way (quite literally, all things considered), and progresses the plot on many points. To me, it felt revitalizing for the series as a whole, after many excursions to the Eastern Fringes or the bunch of anthologies following the draught of new releases in 2015 year. The series needed a book as strong as The Path of Heaven, and while it isn't without flaws and some missed potential, it is a very strong entry.

‘Do not grieve. I saw him before we were pulled out. He was already laughing.’

I could ramble on about many details and characters about the book that I enjoyed, but really, I am just going to recommend reading it yourselves. If you have kept up with the series this far, you owe it to yourselves to dig into The Path of Heaven. And if you have been frustrated by the lack of progress on the main plot points, or the Imperium Secundus arc, then this should still be something to look into.

The Path of Heaven takes the Scars through hell, and I was glad to be along for the journey.

The Path of Heaven on Goodreads

Review: The Gates of Azyr by Chris Wraight

The Gates of Azyr kicked off the Age of Sigmar, Games Workshop's reboot of their Warhammer Fantasy range. Officially, it is a setting succeeding the Old World of WHFB, while thematically and in terms of design, it is an entirely new universe.

The Story:

"The war is over, and the Mortal Realms have all but fallen to Chaos... Khorgos Khul rampages across the fiery Realm of Aqshy, hunting down mortal kind to slaughter or subjugate to Khorne. His Goretide have crushed all resistance... until the storm. From the heavens hurtle paladins clad in gold. Sent by Sigmar, the Stormcast Eternals have come to liberate all the realms from the yoke of Chaos.

It’s your first chance to enter the mortal realms and see Sigmar’s chosen warriors in action – heroes of heavenly magic in god-forged armour who ride the storm and bring death to the servants of Chaos, in this case the dreaded Goretide. The perfect place to start exploring the Age of Sigmar."

The Review

This is it, then. The Age of Sigmar has come... and left me cold, bored, frustrated and unsatisfied.

There is very little to this novella. In fact, I am confused as to how there could be this little substance to this book. At 128 pages, I expected a lot more of... everything. Everything except mindless action, of course, since that is all you really get in this story.

Especially when compared to other novellas Black Library has published, this one is bleak. Even Space Marine Battles stories like Blood and Fire, The Eternal Crusader or the Warhammer 40,000 starter set novella, Dark Vengeance, the various Gotrek & Felix novellas... they all offer more than this book did. A lot more.

For one, they don't spend about 66% of the book with immortal, hammer-wielding, angelic supermen fighting enraged chaos-worshipping buffoons. Well, they often do have that, but not in one go. There are various scenes and characters involved to shake up the monotony of combat. This is not the case here.

Once battle is joined (barely a third into the novella), it does not stop to even consider the mortal humans it introduced as early as chapter two, went into hiding in chapter three and did not reappear, act or become in any way useful until chapter 8, mere pages before the book's end.

There didn't appear to be any point to these mortals apart from showing off the cruelty of the bloodreavers in chapters two and three, and to give protagonist Vandus Hammerhand, Lord-Celestant of the Stormcast Eternals, an opportunity to prattle about how he and his fellows are the bringers salvation.

I did not like Vandus Hammerhand. In fact, I think I could have liked him, had he not been introduced as a wonderful, perfect "Sigmarine" (as people have taken to calling the Sigmar-serving Stormcast Eternals, due to their resemblance to Space Marines), first of the host and overall swell dude.
The Eternals are mind-scrubbed. They got snatched away by the God-King Sigmar, mind-wiped and reforged into immortal warriors living pretty much only for war in Sigmar's name.

Vandus Hammerhand didn't seem to have received that particular memo, since the moment he enters the realm of Aqshy, to reconquer the land and defeat Chaos Lord Korghos Khul, that his memories start returning. His name, his moments before being spirited away, memories of the realm he once defended... it all comes back to him. And it turns out that Khul and him have unfinished business to settle.

Neither the return of his memories nor his emotions regarding them felt in any way satisfying to read about. The impact on Vandus was at the same time mind-numbing (for him) and yawn-inducing (for me). For being the first of the host, though, Vandus sure took a lot of taunting from his former enemy, Khul, to get a grip and unleash Sigmar's power. When the main character wonders why the heck he is still holding back against the guy who burned his village to the ground and is bathing the realm in Chaos (literally), you cannot help but ask yourself why a fool like that was picked to lead the glorious heroes tasked with cleansing the realms.

In fact, I wanted Korghos Khul to win. At least he had some interesting ambitions (collecting the final skull to offer to his god Khorne, to top off his skull-pyramid and ascend to apparent daemonhood and lay waste to all the realms with his "Goretide"), humor and actual interaction with his lieutenants (all of which had silly names, like "Skullbrand the Bloodsecrator").
Where Khul showed actual excitement about fighting Vandus, the latter seemed to cower on top of his "Dracoth" (think He-Man sitting on his Battlecat Gringer, just that its a wingless dragon beast instead). I almost laughed when Vandus finally started to get serious and told his nemesis that "nothing remained" of his old self - just after he got paralyzed because of his memories, and before he encounters the surviving mortals.

Even Ionus Cryptborn, the "Lord Relictor" of the Stormhost, would have made for a more compelling character. Let me quote a passage:

Ionus smiled beneath his deathmask. If things had been different, he might have been pleased to recount the tale. He would have told of the debt he owed the God-King, and the ancient curse that his choice had made him subject to. He would have told of Nagash, the deity who slumbered still but would be sure to come for him when the toll of years was complete. He might have said that, yes, he was different, and that he was the Lord-Relictor of the Stormhost, privy to secrets that not even the Hammerhand had been made a party to, and that every road ahead of him was dark and filled with pain whatever the outcome of this battle.

That is about as much as the reader gets to learn about Ionus Cryptborn, and all I could think of when reading it was that the Cryptborn's debt to Sigmar, the curse and his fallout with Nagash would've made for an exceedingly more compelling narrative than this one.

The stakes of it all are very esoteric and intangible in this story. The realm is a broken wasteland, humanity is almost wiped out (in fact, Vandus is surprised to learn about the survivors after winning the battle), and the biggest motivation for the Stormhost seems to be that they do not wish to disappoint almighty, all-knowing Sigmar.

I can't even fault Chris Wraight for this - that's simply how Games Workshop designed the lore for the Age of Sigmar tabletop game. Dull and uninspired, without any of the charme you'd find in Warhammer Fantasy stories before it. None of the humor, sense of wonder or adventure. It seems that in the grim darkness of the replacement of Warhammer Fantasy Battles, there is only war.

In a nutshell, The Gates of Azyr is the story of two armies clashing for around 4-5 chapters before an anticlimactic end to the story. But as Vandus Hammerhand tells us that "truly, [the wars] are only just beginning". Maybe Vandus and Khul will even meet again, who can tell.
As of now, I am even less eager to follow those...

The Gates of Azyr on Goodreads