What do you think?
Rate this book
Through the Darkness: The Story of Machinations
Fear breeds the unlikeliest of allies . . .
The mercenary Rutger Shaw doesn’t have many friends, but to the ones he’s earned he’s loyal to the death. That’s just what his partner Taryn di la Rovissi is afraid of, and it’s one reason she’s not thrilled when Rutger dodges another contract so they can help out his old Steelhead captain, Brunner Ainsworth. Together with Brunner, Rutger and Taryn join a Highborn army and march to liberate the Llaelese town of Dunlyf from Khadoran oppressors. Yet the mercenary force finds Dunlyf deserted, with no sign of its people or what happened to them and its buildings strangely intact.
When Brunner’s squad goes missing as well, Rutger and Taryn’s search leads them to stumble across an old enemy, Harlan Versh, a zealous witch hunter and member of the infamous Order of Illumination. It soon becomes clear that a mysterious evil is plaguing this region and Harlan Versh may be able to help the mercenaries track down their friend and the missing people of Dunlyf. A tenuous alliance is struck, and Rutger, Taryn, and Harlan Versh begin to uncover clues that point to a vast and deadly threat lurking beneath their feet.
The mercenary Rutger Shaw doesn’t have many friends, but to the ones he’s earned he’s loyal to the death. That’s just what his partner Taryn di la Rovissi is afraid of, and it’s one reason she’s not thrilled when Rutger dodges another contract so they can help out his old Steelhead captain, Brunner Ainsworth. Together with Brunner, Rutger and Taryn join a Highborn army and march to liberate the Llaelese town of Dunlyf from Khadoran oppressors. Yet the mercenary force finds Dunlyf deserted, with no sign of its people or what happened to them and its buildings strangely intact.
When Brunner’s squad goes missing as well, Rutger and Taryn’s search leads them to stumble across an old enemy, Harlan Versh, a zealous witch hunter and member of the infamous Order of Illumination. It soon becomes clear that a mysterious evil is plaguing this region and Harlan Versh may be able to help the mercenaries track down their friend and the missing people of Dunlyf. A tenuous alliance is struck, and Rutger, Taryn, and Harlan Versh begin to uncover clues that point to a vast and deadly threat lurking beneath their feet.
ebook
First published January 1, 2013
3 people are currently reading
40 people want to read
About the author
Aeryn Rudel
68 books65 followersAeryn Rudel is a writer from Seattle, Washington. He is the author of the Acts of War novels published by Privateer Press, and his short fiction has appeared in The Arcanist, The Molotov Cocktail, and Pseudopod, among others. Aeryn is a notorious dinosaur nerd, a baseball fanatic, and knows far more about swords than is healthy or socially acceptable. He occasionally offers dubious advice on the subjects of writing and rejection (mostly rejection) at www.rejectomancy.com or Twitter @Aeryn_Rudel.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
February 1, 2020
The characters were superb, the story very engaging and the creatures that we see pretty exotic. In this one, we follow Taryn and Rutger two mercenaries that are accompanying an army to protect the city of Dunlyf and guarantee the supply of red sand, some type of gunpowder or fuel to machines called warjacks, big beefy robots of war, but when they get to the city they find it deserted.
After that, some soldiers of the army that they're working for gets kidnapped and that triggers the events that make them meet Versh, by far my favorite character, he is what is called in this world an illuminated one which makes him a zealot and then through investigations, they come to find our antagonist the cephalyx, creatures that resemble spider-like humanoids that use magic to create what is in essence ghouls, and from that, the story unfolds.
This book was an amazing experience, fast-paced, action-packed, has some pretty emotional moments and is overall a very good read, the only thing that came to bother me is that it makes you wish there was more story with Taryn and Rutger, and especially Versh, but this one is a solid 5-star rating and very enjoyable, so go read it.
After that, some soldiers of the army that they're working for gets kidnapped and that triggers the events that make them meet Versh, by far my favorite character, he is what is called in this world an illuminated one which makes him a zealot and then through investigations, they come to find our antagonist the cephalyx, creatures that resemble spider-like humanoids that use magic to create what is in essence ghouls, and from that, the story unfolds.
This book was an amazing experience, fast-paced, action-packed, has some pretty emotional moments and is overall a very good read, the only thing that came to bother me is that it makes you wish there was more story with Taryn and Rutger, and especially Versh, but this one is a solid 5-star rating and very enjoyable, so go read it.
June 23, 2015
This was a great story that introduced new game factions into the fiction line. My favorite part of the book however was the insight provided into the history and relationship of Rutger Shaw and Taryn. There was some great characterization there as well as with Harlan Versh. It is always a lot of fun to see characters from the game come to life in the fiction.
The storyline itself was structured fairly well and left me wanting to read more about the Convergence of Cyriss and the Cephalyx. I had already read the "Forces of" book for the Convergence but hadn't read much about the Cephalyx so I really want to read more about them.
The storyline itself was structured fairly well and left me wanting to read more about the Convergence of Cyriss and the Cephalyx. I had already read the "Forces of" book for the Convergence but hadn't read much about the Cephalyx so I really want to read more about them.
January 2, 2021
Overall this was a disappointing read. I enjoy playing Warmachine/Hordes on a regular basis and engaging with my local gaming community. I even picked Convergence of Cyriss as my main faction for Warmachine (Grymkin for Hordes) because I found the little lore I came across to be fascinating. I was hoping this would be more lore about the world to give greater depth to my understanding of the world the games live in. However, this was not the case.
More than anything, this book read like a dramatized battle report. Like intensely so. Keywords from the game were peppered throughout the battle descriptions to the point of eyebrow raising. I play with my husband and son and didn't feel like the battle descriptions in the book were more dramatic than the stories we tell ourselves at the end of our own tabletop battles. In that case, I wasn't really sure what I gained reading the book as opposed to just playing the game.
Even though I enjoy playing tabletop miniatures games (Warmahordes, 40k, Riot Quest, etc.), I'm not actually a huge fan of military fiction. I found the writing to be rather stilted and ultimately boring. That may seem odd given that it was action packed from beginning to end, but since military fiction isn't my thing that meant it never grabbed me. There were tantalizing hints at so much lore that could be developed and explored, but it all ultimately amounted to (like I said before) really just a more dramatized battle report.
It gets 2 stars instead of 1 because I do really enjoy the world that this is set in. But I'll be skipping future Warmahordes books in the future.
More than anything, this book read like a dramatized battle report. Like intensely so. Keywords from the game were peppered throughout the battle descriptions to the point of eyebrow raising. I play with my husband and son and didn't feel like the battle descriptions in the book were more dramatic than the stories we tell ourselves at the end of our own tabletop battles. In that case, I wasn't really sure what I gained reading the book as opposed to just playing the game.
Even though I enjoy playing tabletop miniatures games (Warmahordes, 40k, Riot Quest, etc.), I'm not actually a huge fan of military fiction. I found the writing to be rather stilted and ultimately boring. That may seem odd given that it was action packed from beginning to end, but since military fiction isn't my thing that meant it never grabbed me. There were tantalizing hints at so much lore that could be developed and explored, but it all ultimately amounted to (like I said before) really just a more dramatized battle report.
It gets 2 stars instead of 1 because I do really enjoy the world that this is set in. But I'll be skipping future Warmahordes books in the future.
February 18, 2020
Great Novella...
July 25, 2014
A surprisingly good book originally written as a series of vignettes. They tied together well and their origin may have been a boon. The pace kept moving almost frantically. The only real failure is it was hard to imagine the scale of the battles. The action did best when it was small scale. Still, a plot that had it's twists, good action and actual character development (not the norm in game fiction set in a highly meta plot driven game world) made this a wonderful surprise.
April 6, 2014
Reading this was a great way to get my head around the Iron Kingdoms setting. An flowing story with some entertaining characters, but mostly focused on action, as one would expect from its origins.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews