Warhammer: Storm Warriors

The Orfeo Trilogy #3

by Brian Craig

The king of the isle of Morien is dead, and now the new King Herla, a brave and powerful youth, must face his greatest challenge when an eldritch storm shipwrecks mysterious elves onto his shores. An ancient law forbids Herla from casting the elves back into the seas, so he accepts their presence and watches them carefully. But when accidents, thefts, violent slayings and unnatural disease spread across his land, Herla is up against the odds and about to discover the darkest secret of all....

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction

Paperback

First published January 1, 1991

About the author

Psudonym for Brian M. Stableford.

Reviews

[Paulo "paper books only" · Rating 3 out of 5]

OKay, finally a trilogy finish. Brian Craig is Brian Stableford - insert pikachu face!
In this tale we get to learn more of Albion. Orfeu is still trying to leave Arabia but then they are attacked by some Hasshasins.
He starts telling a tale of Albion and the people that live there. He starts telling the tale of a king in one of the lands and how he got to power. Interesting to see how albion was. This books were written by Boxtree (before games workshop had a publishing house). They were more free and could have some mature themes. Then Black Library appeared and the setting change. There was more control on what was being written amd the PG dropped. There is an Orfeu novel (I believe in the first) which I Have both version and I was reading the oldest one and saw a sex scene. That scene disappeared from the Black Library version.

Well, as I said this are the only novel that is set in Albion, there are few that go to Estalia, Border PRinces and so on - C L Werner is another exception. As you may be aware or not Brettonia was not always a happy chivalric based society. Before it was more corrrupt- then as the editions go forward Brettonia lore was reshaped to this do-gooders grail-seekers guys. So basically before there was Brettonia there was Albion.

Well this tale is also about a bunch of elves that were shored in their lands and their costumes expressed that the knights and king should welcome them. And then most of the books is a bit philosophical about elves and humans while there was some distrust against the elves and such. By the end we learn that Storm Warriors is a Slaanesh cult, marauder group - didn't knew that.

I enjoy the novel and it's a nice ending of a trilogy - probably Brian Craig wanted to continue the series but GW went another pleace. Konrad trilogy per example was set al over the world except the empire. Gav Thorpe trilogy was set everywhere except empire, gotrek series as well. Then Black Library focus the complete opposite.

OH well, enjoyed and now I've read like 50% of all warhammer fantasy novels.

[Arthur B · Rating 2 out of 5]

The limits of the Orfeo formula continue to grate in this novel, which is thankfully the last. Full review: https://fakegeekboy.wordpress.com/201...

[Mitch · Rating 2 out of 5]

Early Warhammer Fantasy, which, like the preceeding novel, Plague Demon, has not aged well.

[Matthew Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

The 3rd book in "the Orfeo trilogy" is again another delicious and delirious slice of dark fantasy, based in a familiar, but different 'Warhammer World' from what would come in the decade after this book was published. An exciting depiction of Albion (now long since surpassed) as a suitably Warhammer-d Celtic-Arthurian byronic land with belief in "the old faith" and the mother-goddess draws comparisons to some "Slaine" stories in 2000AD; but a uniquely interesting idea of what the dark forces of Chaos - the classic Warhammer antagonist - actually are make the whole work stand on its own, like this depiction of Albion, adjacent to the Warhammer world, but unique.

[Lorewarden]

In this novel, mysterious elves appear shipwrecked on the shore of a small kingdom and their presence slowly subverts the relative stability of the existing society. This third tale from the Orfeo trilogy was very similar to the previous two, in that the role of Chaos was subtle and lurking rather than overt and rampaging. In any case, the story was good - if a bit ponderous in pacing. The larger framework of the novel, of Orfeo telling tales, remains largely open ended. But then, we the reader did catch him in the middle of an existing adventure and are seeing just a brief snapshot of his life.

[Brendan Hough · Rating 4 out of 5]

Eye read about 2009
6.8/10