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Kormak the Guardian #0.5-3
The Kormak Saga
"The King of High Adventure," Starlog.
"Immediately convincing, classically brooding," Steve Tompkins, TheCimmerian.com.
To the world at large, he is a mercenary and assassin, a brutal killer with a deadly blade. In reality Kormak is a Guardian, one of an ancient order sworn to protect humanity from the servants of the gathering darkness.
Kormak is a sword and sorcery hero in the tradition of Conan, Solomon Kane and Druss the Legend, a driven man with a mission to hunt down the ancient demons who slaughtered his family. His action-packed adventures take him from one end of his richly detailed fantasy world to the other.
Flesh to Shadow
The first Kormak Omnibus contains the first three novels, plus the short story Guardian of the Dawn and many extras such as a map of the Kingdoms of the Sun and the author’s notes for all of the stories.
STEALER OF FLESH
The Ghul are the Stealers of Flesh, an ancient race of demons who possess the bodies of humans to work great evil. Now one of them has been freed from its ancient prison using Kormak's own dwarf-forged sword and the Guardian must pursue it to a haunted city on the edge of the world to end its reign of terror.
DEFILER OF TOMBS
An open tomb, a dead child and an unleashed ancient horror send Kormak on a path of vengeance through the haunted northlands of Taurea. He seeks Morghael, a necromancer with a plan for resurrecting the dark empire of Kharon and the power to bring the dead swarming back to life.
WEAVER OF SHADOW
War brews along the border of the Elvenwood. The prophet of an ancient evil has corrupted the nation of Mayasha, reducing the once proud elves to feral slaves of the Shadow. Allied with the monstrous Spider Folk she is poised to sweep away the human settlements in the ancient forests and spread her Blight across the lands. Only one man stands between her and absolute victory; Kormak.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
William King lives in Prague, Czech Republic with his lovely wife Radka and his sons Dan and William Karel. He has been a professional author and games developer for over a quarter of a century. He is the creator of Gotrek and Felix for Black Library. He is also the author of the World of Warcraft novel Illidan. Over a million of his books are in print in English.
He has been nominated for the David Gemmell Legend Award. His short fiction has appeared in Year's Best SF and Best of Interzone. He has twice won the Origins Awards For Game Design. His hobbies include role-playing games and MMOs as well as travel.
"Immediately convincing, classically brooding," Steve Tompkins, TheCimmerian.com.
To the world at large, he is a mercenary and assassin, a brutal killer with a deadly blade. In reality Kormak is a Guardian, one of an ancient order sworn to protect humanity from the servants of the gathering darkness.
Kormak is a sword and sorcery hero in the tradition of Conan, Solomon Kane and Druss the Legend, a driven man with a mission to hunt down the ancient demons who slaughtered his family. His action-packed adventures take him from one end of his richly detailed fantasy world to the other.
Flesh to Shadow
The first Kormak Omnibus contains the first three novels, plus the short story Guardian of the Dawn and many extras such as a map of the Kingdoms of the Sun and the author’s notes for all of the stories.
STEALER OF FLESH
The Ghul are the Stealers of Flesh, an ancient race of demons who possess the bodies of humans to work great evil. Now one of them has been freed from its ancient prison using Kormak's own dwarf-forged sword and the Guardian must pursue it to a haunted city on the edge of the world to end its reign of terror.
DEFILER OF TOMBS
An open tomb, a dead child and an unleashed ancient horror send Kormak on a path of vengeance through the haunted northlands of Taurea. He seeks Morghael, a necromancer with a plan for resurrecting the dark empire of Kharon and the power to bring the dead swarming back to life.
WEAVER OF SHADOW
War brews along the border of the Elvenwood. The prophet of an ancient evil has corrupted the nation of Mayasha, reducing the once proud elves to feral slaves of the Shadow. Allied with the monstrous Spider Folk she is poised to sweep away the human settlements in the ancient forests and spread her Blight across the lands. Only one man stands between her and absolute victory; Kormak.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
William King lives in Prague, Czech Republic with his lovely wife Radka and his sons Dan and William Karel. He has been a professional author and games developer for over a quarter of a century. He is the creator of Gotrek and Felix for Black Library. He is also the author of the World of Warcraft novel Illidan. Over a million of his books are in print in English.
He has been nominated for the David Gemmell Legend Award. His short fiction has appeared in Year's Best SF and Best of Interzone. He has twice won the Origins Awards For Game Design. His hobbies include role-playing games and MMOs as well as travel.
604 pages, Kindle Edition
First published April 7, 2013
66 people are currently reading
104 people want to read
About the author
William King
350 books712 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
February 4, 2015
Sword and Sorcery of Variable Quality - generally good fun.
Imagine the worlds of R E Howard and J R R Tolkein thrown into a blender, then set stories in it with a touch of Howard, a whisper of Fritz Leiber and, perhaps, a soupcon of Clark Ashton Smith and you have an idea of what William King is up to here. When it works well, the results are truly excellent - it is like being transported back to reading these classics of fantasy when a teenager. Sadly, if not very surprisingly, it isn't all at that standard.
The opening short story is in the really very good category. Guardian of the Dawn introduces the central character, Kormak, his world and his quest. It is punchy and crisply told but manages to sketch a background that hints at much more. Best of all, it does more than simply provide the obvious. Kormak's duel with the enemy is not quite the one we might have expected. It is possibly the best thing in here.
The next book - really a collection of linked short stories - is rather less good. Stealer of Flesh has plenty of pulpy action but often indifferently told, although the stories do pick up after the first couple. The author's notes reveal that he wrote the last couple of short stories here first and then filled in the rest. It feels as if there was less interest in some of these stories that were designed to fill in the gaps.
The remaining two books - Defiler of Tombs and Weaver of Shadow - are proper novels, albeit short ones. One deals with necromancers and barrow wights, the other with elves and giant spiders. Both offer not only plenty of action but atmosphere and world building. Both provide entertainment. These two books most clearly show their roots in a specific sort of sword and sorcery style fantasy, for both good and bad. There is fun to be had, but certain allowances, in terms of the conventions of these sorts of stories and what the author can get away with, have to be made.
Imagine the worlds of R E Howard and J R R Tolkein thrown into a blender, then set stories in it with a touch of Howard, a whisper of Fritz Leiber and, perhaps, a soupcon of Clark Ashton Smith and you have an idea of what William King is up to here. When it works well, the results are truly excellent - it is like being transported back to reading these classics of fantasy when a teenager. Sadly, if not very surprisingly, it isn't all at that standard.
The opening short story is in the really very good category. Guardian of the Dawn introduces the central character, Kormak, his world and his quest. It is punchy and crisply told but manages to sketch a background that hints at much more. Best of all, it does more than simply provide the obvious. Kormak's duel with the enemy is not quite the one we might have expected. It is possibly the best thing in here.
The next book - really a collection of linked short stories - is rather less good. Stealer of Flesh has plenty of pulpy action but often indifferently told, although the stories do pick up after the first couple. The author's notes reveal that he wrote the last couple of short stories here first and then filled in the rest. It feels as if there was less interest in some of these stories that were designed to fill in the gaps.
The remaining two books - Defiler of Tombs and Weaver of Shadow - are proper novels, albeit short ones. One deals with necromancers and barrow wights, the other with elves and giant spiders. Both offer not only plenty of action but atmosphere and world building. Both provide entertainment. These two books most clearly show their roots in a specific sort of sword and sorcery style fantasy, for both good and bad. There is fun to be had, but certain allowances, in terms of the conventions of these sorts of stories and what the author can get away with, have to be made.
April 21, 2018
As a great fan of the books about Gotrek Gurnisson and Felix Jaeger by William King, I started to read this book with some anticipation. It feels like a Conan adventure, but without the framework of an established fantasy world. A map and some background material would be welcome.
And despite how King describes in an author chapter how he labours with the text, and rewrites it several times, it does feel a bit hurried just like the last part of the Gotrek series (and the last Ragnar Blackmane).
But it gives an insight just how much work a real good fantasy novel needs. King is still masterful with his description of fear or the supernatural but Kormak as a solitary hero needs some kind of regular sidekicks or personalities to interact with, now it feels a bit dry.
The omnibus is very hard to put aside.
And despite how King describes in an author chapter how he labours with the text, and rewrites it several times, it does feel a bit hurried just like the last part of the Gotrek series (and the last Ragnar Blackmane).
But it gives an insight just how much work a real good fantasy novel needs. King is still masterful with his description of fear or the supernatural but Kormak as a solitary hero needs some kind of regular sidekicks or personalities to interact with, now it feels a bit dry.
The omnibus is very hard to put aside.
March 13, 2023
This is a very easy reading book. Fairly good story and interesting character but it feels like there is s missing - I don’t know what it is but something seems lacking.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews