Razumov's Tomb

Storm of Magic #1

by Darius Hinks

As the Chaos moon of Morrslieb veers wildly off course, the Old World is wracked by a series of bizarre plagues. From a lofty spire of the Celestial College, the Empire's Grand Astromancer, Caspar Vyborg, scours the heavens for an explanation, seeking guidance in the stars. But as the Empire sinks further into madness and violence, his order is forced to search stranger places than the night sky - the investigation leads them to the grave of a long-dead sorcerer named Razumov and an ancient, half-remembered prophecy. Caspar decides that his only hope is to complete the dark rituals that killed Razumov centuries earlier, but as Morrslieb waxes full and ferocious magical storms begin to tear the very fabric of reality, Caspar learns the true, terrible nature of Razumov's tomb.

Genres: Fantasy

128 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 2011

About the author

Darius Hinks is an author, writing primarily in the science fiction and fantasy genres. He was born in Birmingham, England, in 1972. He works and lives in Nottinghamshire. Hinks' first novel, Warrior Priest, won the David Gemmel Morningstar award.

Reviews

[Michael Haase · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is quite possibly the wackiest, most hilarious and insane Warhammer story I've seen thus far. There's so much crazy shit going on in this book it's hard to keep track of it all. This book is basically the literary equivalent of what would happen if you took a box full of random Warhammer miniatures and just dumped them all in a pile. It's the very definition of "everything but the kitchen sink".

So, as you could guess, I had a blast with this one. Too bad, it's virtually impossible to find a copy of physically. You'll just have to purchase the e-book version if you want to read it.

P.S. I'm subtracting a star because of it's dodgy use of magic. Warhammer is a very rule-oriented fantasy world and this book really stretches the limits in terms of what is feasibly done with magic.

[Matthew Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

A short novella, so the story gets going fast and hard with some spectacular Warhammer Fantasy dark adventure-nonsense. Thoroughly enjoyed.

[Paulo "paper books only" · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was my fourth story by the author (second novella of Darius Hinks).

This was an interesting read about a world a bit different from "our" Olde Worlde". Magic is running amock and many beasts, dragons and other beings are rampaging throughout the Empire. Bizzare plagues are stiring and it seems that there arent any safe havens. Even people are acting differently. And cat's are talking...

The reason? The Chaos Moon Morrslieb is closer and so it's influence is greater. But the Celestial College, pressured by the Emperor himself as an asnwer. The Grand Astromancer Caspar and his faithful apprenditice Gabriel must go to a place where an ancient mage made an atempt to be more powerfull harnessing the power of azyr. There they would try to continue the attempt and help the Empire. From this moment on we are inside the mind of Caspar jealousy of the young Gabriel which seems to know it all and likely the saviour.

There are other characters but they are not that desenvolped besides the previous mention and, Niclas the Reiksgraf of the Knights of Twin Tailed Comet (first time I heard of them).
The tale is told in several perpesctives (Caspar, Gabriel and Niclas) but also from the antagonists perspective. Besides the main plot line there are also two or three minor that intercede with the main plot. The setting travels from Altdorf to Schwarzbach and then to some Tomb King land and then back to where they start. The book ends as it begins with a chronicle from a "A History of Celestial Magic" book.

Overall, was an interesting read and another good story by Darius Hinks.

[Nadia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very Enjoyable, grim story