Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Superb Gothic fantasy-murder-thriller, 21 Jun 2007
Set in Altdorf, the capital of the Empire, this novel combines thriller, horror, mystery and fantasy elements to construct a discontinuous narrative at once captivating, terrifying and thought-provoking. The mystery features a bewildering cast of around fifty weird and wonderful characters, ranging from the seer Rosanna, who picks up psychic resonances from objects and people around her, to the parodic, bawdy dwarf de la Rougierre, the cruel duellist von Liebewitz, and chaos-worshipping ambassador Dien Ching. Some of the many characters are integral to the mystery; others are occasional extras and red herrings to throw the reader off the scent.
Yeovil's creative license with the Warhammer world allows him to create an unusual setting - picking up on the Gothic fantasy themes of the game, Yeovil adds touches which make this world decidedly more modern, as well as constantly dark and corrupt. In fact the books do more than any other work to flesh out this fantasy world as a serious backdrop. In Yeovil's world, Chaos is not the one-dimensional monstrosity of the game, but involves a constant subterranean corruption pervading life. The other social problems of his world - serial killers, revolutionaries and reactionaries, corrupt bureaucrats, drug addiction - are distinctly modern, despite the feudal and city-state settings. "Good" barely exists in this world; the heroes are ambiguous beings on the border of corruption, their earthly interests caught up in higher events, usually against their will; sanctimoniously good characters appear as zealots or hypocrites (often both). A discerning reader will also find a lot of modern-culture references, usually with a twist - such as tough copper "Filthy Harald" and his "Magnin" throwing knife, Dickon of the Dock Watch, and allusions to the politics of the day (early 1990s Britain), such as the "thumb" (poll) tax and ministers "Hasselstein" and "Tybalt".
The core of the story is a murder mystery/psychological thriller, following attempts by Rosanna, Harald and concerned aristocrat Johann von Mecklenburg in their pursuit of a vicious serial-killer known as the Beast. Johann fears it could be his chaos-altered brother Wolf. This ripper-style woman-killer could be man, woman, animal, or chaos creature, and its identity is kept secret until the very end. In fact, Yeovil leads the reader on a tantalising trail, scattering hints and red herrings, culminating in a sequence where readers are led to believe a number of characters have been uncovered as the Beast. The title refers to a political subtext to the mystery: a piece of green velvet left at one of the murders indicates that the killer may be an aristocrat.
This main story is supported by a number of scene-setting sub-plots - the insurrectionist machinations of the firebrand Yefimovich and his followers, conflict between the "Hook" and "Fish" waterfront gangs (whose constant rivalry reflects such real-world pairings as Cripts and Bloods), duelling to the death at the Palace, corruption in the Watch (police), the traumatic life of Wolf, the operation of secret Chaos cults - all of which come to a head in urban revolt in the fog, bringing together most of the protagonists in a series of events culminating in an action sequence at a shady gathering.
The style of writing is first person, but switching between a large number of different perspectives, some of which - such as Rosanna, tormented by living the deaths of the Beast's victims, the tormented drug-user Wolf, a character who turns out to be chaos-altered, and of course the Beast itself - are well beyond the expected range. One subsection is written in the style of the official Inquiry into the Great Fog Riots. The emotional nature of Rosanna's impressions is very well conveyed, and effective in making sure she knows enough for the inquiry to proceed but not enough to prevent false leads and confusion.
Set after Drachenfels and Yeovil's original short stories, but before Genevieve Undead and the two new stories in Silver Nails, this book contains spoilers for the earlier tales (particularly Drachenfels and The Ignorant Armies), and features recurring characters from them, including cameos by Genevieve and Detlef. Harald and Rosanna will reappear in the short story "The Warhawk" in Silver Nails.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Amazing, 26 Aug 2005
This novel is quite simply extraordinary. The pace of the story and the timing with which crucial imformation is revealed is nothing short of spectacular. For any of those who have read other novels and short stories that were written in the same era, it references many of the characters and events from these (not limited to Jack's own characters, even felix and gortex get a mention), which is a nice touch. However, this makes it a difficult read for all those who are unfamiliar with them, as there are many names that disappear as soon as they arrived, and this makes remembering who is important and who isnt difficult to remember (my mum read the book, and this is her input). I bought this the first time it was released, and have read it countless times since then. In addition, the author is not a woman as the other review suggests, kim newman is in fact, a man.
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4.0 out of 5 stars
A rose in the parking lot, 22 Aug 2007
Fiction set in the Games Workshop worlds is typically muscular, pulpy and satirically fascistic to an extend that isn't always clearly satirical. This book stands out from the shallow monotony of much of the recent Black Library publications like a rose in a parking lot. It has great depth and subtlety and manages that most elusive feat of franchise fiction: it could easily stand alone as a work of fantasy but it is deeply integrated into the Warhammer world, especially the more free-form setting of the early nineties.
Yeovil (a pseudonym) creates a fast paced and engrossing mystery woven into a realistic and complex fantasy world. It is integrated into the wider Warhammer world both by the familiar proper nouns that crop up from time to time and a deeper understanding of the nature and potentials of the setting than many modern authors can even pretend to.
The political satire of the book is incisive without being sanctimonious. The context is a maelstrom of deceptive suggestions, fascinating and subtly drawn secondary characters and a city that comes alive; an open sewer of petty rivalries, instinctive corruption, the basest instincts and the highest courage and mankind.
Except for Space Marine there is no Warhammer book I can recomend as highly as this one, nor can I say enough to distinguish this book, and others of this era, from the glossy, juvenile work currently being published by the Black Library. Nothing wrong with that in itself, especially as Games Workshop repositions itself for an ever younger audience, but for grown-ups wanting franchise fiction that can stand side by side with some of the best original world fiction out there, Beasts in Velvet in an experience to be treasured.
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by Jack Yeovil
by Jack Yeovil
by Jack Yeovil
by Nathan Long
