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Brunner the Bounty Hunter #2
Blood and Steel
ENTER THE DARK and dangerous world of ruthless bounty hunter Brunner, as he hunts down the Old World's fugitives without respite or mercy! Allowing nothing to stand in his way, Brunner battles against goblins, vampires and all other manner of dark creature in order to catch his quarry and claim his reward. But lurking in the shadows is the mysterious Krogh, a rival bounty hunter with a grim reputation who will stand for nothing less than Brunner's demise.
288 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 2003
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
October 15, 2023
This is an excellent Black Library novel (an anthology of serial adventures featuring the same hero, rather). It's great sword and sorcery fiction more broadly speaking. The plots are exciting and surprising. The characters are intriguing and demand your attention. The Warhammer Old World setting is vividly and viscerally rendered. The writing style is gripping and pulls you along, with some great moments of artful writing, particularly in dialog and action scenes. I'm a big fan of the main character, Bruner. He reminds me of the Man with No Name in his brutality, coldness, yet fierce loyalty to an austere (and narrow) moral code.
May 8, 2021
Here we go again. Suffice to say this is very gritty, very grimdark novel.
I will make a review tomorrow.
_______________
As you all know or not, C. L. Werner is one of my favorite writers. One of the first introductions to grimdark novels and his novels in perspective of evil characters or at least anti-hero were one of the firsts I've seen published. Of course there's been some, like Kane (Karl Edward Edgar) among others. But truly in perspective of an evil character there aren't that many.
Maybe The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley is one previous example (Morgan Le Fay point of view) but even that, it's not that evil per se, but different perspective of the world Christian vs Pagan.
But I am digress. Pure evil characters are not that common - and only in Black Library is where they really shine, If you read Forgotten Realms or Dragonlance other novels set in share universe there aren't that many bad perspective novel. Probably Raistlin but even so isn't totally evil.
So, there's that. Black Library really have some villain perspective like Iron Warriors, C L Werner almost all novels etc, and even those who you may consider "good" are not that "good". They are more grey or anti-hero. That's why I love Black Library novels that's why I love Grimdark - although you cannot escape with the same stuff in a non-black Library novel than independent. Sex per example, drugs or even pure violence, racism etc.
Nowadays there are hundreds of grimdark novels and I have most of them :D
Here we follow Brunner as he goes through his adventures. There are three tales here. The first is on that they went beneath the Vaults. This is something that Brunner novels as Orfeu brough whereas latter novels in warhammer didn't. They were set in Tilea, Estalia and Border Princes. This is something interesting and different. I believe they had more freedom because the old world was more defined therefore less prone to invent stuff. The first tale "Beneath the Vaults" it's a story where Brunner is bringing a criminal from Tilea to the Empire. He there meets another tracker and I believe after their confrontation he will return in the next novel.
The second novel Brunner is task of destroying a mummy. But the employee? A lady-vampire more beautiful than any other being Brunner ever saw. Very interesting with links with Araby and probably Nagash novels. I hope we see her character more in those novels, who knows. Was she an important character?
The third and takes half the novel it takes Brunner in an assassination attempt in Remo (aka Roma). It really develops the city which I knew nothing about. It gave some information about another god that is more important that Sigmar (and even Morr which I learn he is worship everywhere).
This is so good. Some bonus points to the evil "Carandini". This is Christopher Lee name and even CL Werner identify whin Carandini L Werner in the old Black Library forum. So it was interesting to see making this homage. I bet there were others but alas...
I will make a review tomorrow.
_______________
As you all know or not, C. L. Werner is one of my favorite writers. One of the first introductions to grimdark novels and his novels in perspective of evil characters or at least anti-hero were one of the firsts I've seen published. Of course there's been some, like Kane (Karl Edward Edgar) among others. But truly in perspective of an evil character there aren't that many.
Maybe The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley is one previous example (Morgan Le Fay point of view) but even that, it's not that evil per se, but different perspective of the world Christian vs Pagan.
But I am digress. Pure evil characters are not that common - and only in Black Library is where they really shine, If you read Forgotten Realms or Dragonlance other novels set in share universe there aren't that many bad perspective novel. Probably Raistlin but even so isn't totally evil.
So, there's that. Black Library really have some villain perspective like Iron Warriors, C L Werner almost all novels etc, and even those who you may consider "good" are not that "good". They are more grey or anti-hero. That's why I love Black Library novels that's why I love Grimdark - although you cannot escape with the same stuff in a non-black Library novel than independent. Sex per example, drugs or even pure violence, racism etc.
Nowadays there are hundreds of grimdark novels and I have most of them :D
Here we follow Brunner as he goes through his adventures. There are three tales here. The first is on that they went beneath the Vaults. This is something that Brunner novels as Orfeu brough whereas latter novels in warhammer didn't. They were set in Tilea, Estalia and Border Princes. This is something interesting and different. I believe they had more freedom because the old world was more defined therefore less prone to invent stuff. The first tale "Beneath the Vaults" it's a story where Brunner is bringing a criminal from Tilea to the Empire. He there meets another tracker and I believe after their confrontation he will return in the next novel.
The second novel Brunner is task of destroying a mummy. But the employee? A lady-vampire more beautiful than any other being Brunner ever saw. Very interesting with links with Araby and probably Nagash novels. I hope we see her character more in those novels, who knows. Was she an important character?
The third and takes half the novel it takes Brunner in an assassination attempt in Remo (aka Roma). It really develops the city which I knew nothing about. It gave some information about another god that is more important that Sigmar (and even Morr which I learn he is worship everywhere).
This is so good. Some bonus points to the evil "Carandini". This is Christopher Lee name and even CL Werner identify whin Carandini L Werner in the old Black Library forum. So it was interesting to see making this homage. I bet there were others but alas...
July 8, 2021
After reading Blood Money (the first in the series) I was left feeling a little disappointed that there was very little that connected each of the individual stories in the collection. I was hoping that Blood and Steel would come up with some way of continuing the same concept of recounting Brunner's journeys, but with more connection between them all.
Instead, Blood and Steel takes the opposite approach, and does away with the framing device that was present in the first book. We are no longer following the life of a writer who keeps running into Brunner, getting the bulk of our knowledge of Brunner through the stories the writer tells. This is just a few unconnected stories told one after the other with nothing in between.
I found this decision a very disappointing one. That writer's tale and his relationship with Brunner was something that made me feel much more immersed in the first book, and its absence here makes it much harder for me to really get into the stories.
In terms of the stories themselves (because this really is a short story collection, not a novel), they're pretty good for the most part. Werner does a great job of describing these diverse and incredible locations Brunner traverses, and the casts of characters that he meets along the way are usually very interesting.
There's really nothing wrong with Blood and Steel, it's all fine. But that's it, I think it was fine and nothing more. The individual stories stand on their own, but have very little linking them to each other except for a few throwaway lines here and there about certain events that transpired or characters Brunner has encountered. It's still worth a read, even for someone who has very little knowledge of the Warhammer universe (like myself, for instance), it's nothing mindblowing.
Instead, Blood and Steel takes the opposite approach, and does away with the framing device that was present in the first book. We are no longer following the life of a writer who keeps running into Brunner, getting the bulk of our knowledge of Brunner through the stories the writer tells. This is just a few unconnected stories told one after the other with nothing in between.
I found this decision a very disappointing one. That writer's tale and his relationship with Brunner was something that made me feel much more immersed in the first book, and its absence here makes it much harder for me to really get into the stories.
In terms of the stories themselves (because this really is a short story collection, not a novel), they're pretty good for the most part. Werner does a great job of describing these diverse and incredible locations Brunner traverses, and the casts of characters that he meets along the way are usually very interesting.
There's really nothing wrong with Blood and Steel, it's all fine. But that's it, I think it was fine and nothing more. The individual stories stand on their own, but have very little linking them to each other except for a few throwaway lines here and there about certain events that transpired or characters Brunner has encountered. It's still worth a read, even for someone who has very little knowledge of the Warhammer universe (like myself, for instance), it's nothing mindblowing.
January 2, 2023
”Blood And Steel” är inte lika kul och snabb som den första men den är lite mörkare och mer djup en ”Blood Money”.
Det är samma system som i den första boken, där kapitlen är nästan självgående äventyr där varje kapitel ger en varsin pusselbit till den mystiska karaktären Brunner.
I den här är det dock bara fyra kapitel som alla är ganska långa. Men samtidigt är de lite djupare och man får lite fler pusselbitar. Nästan att man kan bygga hela pusslet faktiskt.
Men det är ingen episk story om världens ände men en mycket lättsmält fantasybok som inte är löjlig fylld med blod, död, fantasy och ostiga one liners så är det en bok för dig.
Det är samma system som i den första boken, där kapitlen är nästan självgående äventyr där varje kapitel ger en varsin pusselbit till den mystiska karaktären Brunner.
I den här är det dock bara fyra kapitel som alla är ganska långa. Men samtidigt är de lite djupare och man får lite fler pusselbitar. Nästan att man kan bygga hela pusslet faktiskt.
Men det är ingen episk story om världens ände men en mycket lättsmält fantasybok som inte är löjlig fylld med blod, död, fantasy och ostiga one liners så är det en bok för dig.
October 7, 2024
The Blood and Steel novel was everything I would want from Warhammer Fantasy! Multiple Perspectives from different characters was cleverly written. There are so many memorable characters, I highly recommend!
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews