Honour of the Grave

Angelika Fleischer #1

by Robin D. Laws, Marc Gascoigne (Editor)

Anjelika Fleischer and her companion, Franziskus, make their living by looting the battlefields of the Empire, scouring the fields for lost trinkets and gold, until they become caught up in the intrigues of the Kopf brothers, who are searching desperately for their lost brother. Original.

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Ebooks

283 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published May 5, 2003

About the author

Writer and game designer Robin D. Laws brought you such roleplaying games as Ashen Stars, The Esoterrorists, The Dying Earth, Heroquest and Feng Shui. He is the author of seven novels, most recently The Worldwound Gambit from Paizo. For Robin's much-praised works of gaming history and analysis, see Hamlet's Hit Points, Robin's Laws of Game Mastering and 40 Years of Gen Con.

Reviews

[Ken Ringwald · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought this book started extremely strong, lagged a little for me in the next few chapters, then picked up to finish wonderfully.

Other reviews mention being perplexed by the actions of the main character, Angelika. Angelika is more of a dramatic character - she has conflicting impulses that even puzzle herself at times. I enjoyed this aspect of the book; the fact that Angelika is not quite as pragmatic as she believes herself to be makes it interesting when she interacts with other, more ruthless characters.

If you prefer more iconic characters (like Gotrek and Felix for Warhammer examples) who triumph through their focus and consistency, Angelika is not that sort of character. Rather, this book reminded me more of the Vampire Genevieve novels more - I felt it fleshed out some of the common people and cities of Warhammer.

The plot was nicely twisty, so I will not spoil it. The Warhammer-specific weirdness was well-done. Battles were a particular highlight as grimy, desperate affairs. The biggest fight of the novel is quite tense and well described so that the reader can clearly picture how blood-soaked and frantic everything is. I have to admit that sometimes I skip long descriptions of combat in fantasy novels, but not in this book.

Overall: I recommend it and will be tracking down the sequels.

[Scott Marlowe · Rating 1 out of 5]

Rating



Review

*** This review originally appeared on Out of this World Reviews. ***

Honour of the Grave by Robin Laws is another book that didn't do it for me. Unlike the last couple of books that I gave up on fairly early on, though, this one had me until one of the characters did something that I felt was completely out of character. Unfortunately, this event was jarring enough that I had to put this one down.

This novel is part of the Warhammer series of novels. I haven't read enough of them to know what order this might fit into or if there is any order to them at all, but the novel seems to stand alone. This is actually the second Warhammer novel I've reviewed.

So where did Honour of the Grave go wrong? It's when Angelika, who is a grave robber by trade, betrays her very nature by saving a young noble whom she knows will be killed once she hands him over to his rival brothers. Rather than taking the bounty, leaving the lad to his fate, and riding off to her next adventure, she snatches the young lord from the clutches of death and so makes herself some very powerful enemies, not to mention causing herself to stand out in a way you wouldn't think a grave robber would relish.

I wasn't alone in this opinion of Angelika as evidenced by the reviews on Amazon.

Unfortunately, what started as a fun fantasy romp fell flat when stood up against Angelika's bizarrely shifting personality.

[Stasiu · Rating 1 out of 5]

1.

Beznadziejna. Nudna, przegadana, i strasznie, ale to strasznie płytka. Kocham świat Warhammera, ale to były jakieś grafomańskie wypociny.

Dla zobrazowania - to tak jakby wpuścić kogoś do sklepu ze wszystkimi przyprawami i składnikami świata, tylko po to, by ten ugotował przypaloną owsiankę. Nie polecam, chyba że lubicie się męczyć i frustrować czytając nudy.

[Matthew Jeffrey · Rating 2 out of 5]

Promising, but messy. Tries to tie up so many loose ends it gets wrapped up in itself.

[Wren · Rating 3 out of 5]

At first I thought this book was going to be about a semi grave robber who somehow manages to get herself into scrapes and intrigue. Well I was kinda right kinda not. Although I did like the idea that she gets involved with one of the Border Princes and I got to learn more about them. Surprisingly out of all the Warhammer books I've read I've never read one about them so that was a big plus for me. Where this book falls is that it kinda drags a bit. Some great fight scenes and the writing is pretty good. I only gave it 3 out of 5 because while it was good it wasn't up the usual standard I'm used to for Warhammer, but then again it was one of the earlier works of Black Library hence the reason there wasnt even a map of the old world at the beginning.

Still after finding out that there are two sequels to this book I am interested in reading them and seeing how her story plays out. 🙌🏻🙏🏻

[Michael T Bradley · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm giving this three stars because I'm seriously on the fence here. I really enjoyed the first 50 or so pages of this book, and it was much better than expected. But it just kind of hit a certain point where the story just ... kept going, and I realized I felt like I'd read a whole book's worth and I was only maybe a third or so of the way through the story. So I slogged through it some more, but finally just skimmed to see if anyone died.

I honestly can't imagine reading MORE entries in this series. Basically all the main characters are fairly unlikable, and while I'd be fine reading about them in short story format, I feel like they just drag after a whole in novel form. Maybe I'll try the next one and see how it goes, but I doubt it ends well.

[Eyes Of · Rating 3 out of 5]

Set in the Warhammer universe, a corpse-looter finds herself a companion in her wayward adventures, one filled with political intrigue in a time of war. While the plot was decent, as well as the varied vocabulary, the book fell a bit short in writing style. One of the joys of a third person perspective is the insight into the thought processes of the characters, something sorely lacking here. Characters would often make decisions without explanation, or even a promised foreshadow for later explanation. Battle scenes lacked finesse, but held together through creative tactics. Overall, it's a read that would interest fans of the Warhammer lore, but not most fantasy readers.