Lost Tales

For those unfamiliar the Gotrek and Felix stories are set in Games Workshop's Warhammer universe. Gotrek is a Dwarf Trollslayer - a member of a cult sworn to seek death by taking on the most dangerous foes. The bigger the monster or more numerous the enemy the better. Felix is a former poetry student who after Gotrek saves his life one evening swears to record Gotrek's doom in an epic saga.

I've read all of the William King books and most of the Nathan Long ones so this was my first experience of new authors adding to the saga. I have to say it was a mixed bag which is kind of disappointing and doesn't bode well for the future in my opinion.

Charnel Congress - Josh Reynolds. A three way dance between Gotrek and Felix, some necromancers and a vampire. Couldn't really get into this. I got a little lost with the descriptions of the vampire transformations which I couldn't really visualise. There's a cracking line by Gotrek in a bar in relation to alcohol consumption which put a smile on my face - I thought the personality of Gotrek was captured well here.

The Reckoning - Jordan Ellinger. I like a story with plenty of Dwarf culture. There isn't much more to the old 'skaven under a Dwarf hold' story we haven't seen before and the ending was a little weak but this was the standout tale. The culture and society of dwarves was richly developed in the story and we got a little more of Gotrek's backstory (by the way this fan web page is great for keeping track of the timeline http://kalevalahammer.webs.com/timeli...

Into The Valley Of Death - Frank Cavallo - The main reason for me wanting to read this. It is the Felix 'prequel'. A story from before he met Gotrek. What I like about this is that the Felix in this story is quite different from the matured Felix in later books but the seeds of who he will become both in terms of his morality (and his handiness in a scrap). Cavallo could have just copied King and Long's Felix but he has kept his essence yet still done something different. Felix takes up with a Death wizard looking for an ancient book. I did wonder at the end of the story how Felix would ever get to civilization in one piece after the adventure though...

Curse of the Everliving - David Guymer. Really didn't like this, found it boring and just a big end fight scene without any of the charm. More importantly it didn't feel like Gotrek and Felix - neither character came across as authentic for me, I really don't care for the direction of the series if the characterisation isn't right. Neither character acted or spoke like they used to. They didn't even seem that close in the story and as everyone knows when they aren't abusing each other, being grumpy or angry these two really care for each other.