Skavenslayer (Warhammer Novels) [Mass Market Paperback]

This is a breath of fresh air in the adult sf/fantasy genre. It may lack finesse, but, crucially, it doesn't lack action and (dare I say it) combat! Gotrek and Felix are contrasting characters that seem to share a common destiny. The inevitable doom of Gotrek is as good a hook for reader attention as any I've seen in the fantasy genre...I struggled to put the book down, and by the time I got to Dragonslayer, I couldn't stop - read the whole thing in one sitting. No soft heroics and boring pages of mundane activity here, the heroes are hard bitten and uncompromising, going from battle to battle in the chaos infested Old World. I have no hesitation in recommending this series to anyone that has an interest in heroic fantasy without the pretentious rubbish and absence of action that mars so many novels these days. I've read the books over and over again - the content is right up there with Terry Brooks' excellent work. Buy and enjoy!

Gotrek Gurnisson and Felix Jaeger return in Skaven Slayer, a second helping of William King's Trollslayer saga.

In this book - also it would seem entitled `My Travels With Gotrek Vol III' - Felix Jaeger finds himself penning more of the illustrious adventures of the dwarf Gotrek, and his search for a heroic death, this time fighting off the 'politically-in-fighting' clans of Skaven trying to invade the city of Nuln.

Unlike the first book in this series - which to me seemed more like a collection of short stories that had been cobbled together from possibly early White Dwarf issues or something - the whole book takes place in one city, even though the book is divided into short stories again. And this setting of one location enabled King to put a bit more flesh on the bones of the characters that I felt was missing from the first book. It also gave a bit more depth to the history of the Jaeger family, with the introduction of Otto - Felix's brother. And unlike the first book, being a friend or colleague of the duo, doesn't necessarily mean the King is going to kill you off - even if it does seem like it at the beginning.

In my own opinion though the main characters of the saga were left well behind in the shadow of the Skaven characters that King created, with all their in-fighting and desire to be held in respect by the grand Skaven council of thirteen. It was extremely comical - though bloody - sometimes, and I felt myself wanting to read further just to know what political twist in the rat-men's world was going to be brewed up next. You don't have to be a great fan of Warhammer to understand this book, and I think King puts enough explanation in to make even the most novice of D & D fans get some idea of the Skaven hierarchy.

The only down side to this book - and I have found this a lot with King's short stories - is that he really does tell a great tale and sets up the action nicely, encouraging the reader to turn every page. Soon though the reader starts to realise that the story is running out of pages for the climax of the story to come to its conclusion., and I feel that on occasions the endings of King's writing seem to come to dramatically fast endings, which let down the depth of the plot built up in the previous pages. But I guess Gotrek's immense axe chopping off the head of some villainous chaotic creation, is a pretty quick, if not bloody ending.

Very enjoyable 280 pages, and for those that care, a far better proof reading than the terrible spelling errors and missing words in the first book of the series.

Skavenslayer is definitely an improvement on the fragmented Trollslayer. The structure is similar, with each chapter controlling the plot in a very linear fashion where each chapter sets up a villain to be dispatched, it's scenario by numbers akin to a roleplaying game. The characters are still rather two-dimensional and the action is to the point and little more. Skavenslayer does has have a stronger plot that draws the chapters together, rather than a disparate collection of stories which made up Trollslayer. This ensure the pages keep turning and ultimately Skavenslayer is an easy going fantasy romp - it's not clever or complicated and should appeal to a wider audience than the more lengthy fiction in this genre.