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Warhammer Fantasy
Knight Errant
The noble knights of Bretonnia are bound by duty and honour to fight for their king, and defend their lands from invaders. When the Lord of Bastonne falls ill, his two sons Calard and Bertelis are plunged into conflict as suppressed rivalries surface. As a horde of goblins swarms out of the forests, the knights gather their forces to repel the foul beasts, little suspecting that the true enemy has yet to reveal itself.
416 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published May 20, 2008
13 people are currently reading
231 people want to read
About the author
Anthony Reynolds
91 books167 followersAnthony Reynolds was a Games Developer and manager at Games Workshop in the UK. Since then he's written freelance for a number of companies, including Black Library Publishing, Mantic Games, THQ, Bandai-Namco, Behaviour Interactive, and River Horse Games. He currently lives in California.
Librarian note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
Anthony^Reynolds
Librarian note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
Anthony^Reynolds
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
November 26, 2019
Brettonians in WHF books are pretty rare, so it's a good thing that Sir Calard of Garamont and his fellows are interesting folks.
The characters types are old-fashioned, but not stereotypes, and none are without any sympathetic qualities, save for perhaps the gors, ungors, and other assorted nasties of the beast-horde that descends on Bordeleaux and Bastonne. Calard in particular is a great example of a fundamentally decent personality type who only really needs a good education to shock him out of his expectations.
For all its hooves-a-thunder and flashing blades (and this one definitely puts the "war" in "Warhammer"), "Knight Errant" is a surprisingly human story, and about family and growth and loss as much as it is about the desperate struggle against inhuman evil. This even has a tragic flaw that sets everything in motion.
Sir Calard has grown up a lot, and between wanting to see him grow further in his knighthood and the cliffhanger ending, "Knight of the Realm" is definitely next on my list.
The characters types are old-fashioned, but not stereotypes, and none are without any sympathetic qualities, save for perhaps the gors, ungors, and other assorted nasties of the beast-horde that descends on Bordeleaux and Bastonne. Calard in particular is a great example of a fundamentally decent personality type who only really needs a good education to shock him out of his expectations.
For all its hooves-a-thunder and flashing blades (and this one definitely puts the "war" in "Warhammer"), "Knight Errant" is a surprisingly human story, and about family and growth and loss as much as it is about the desperate struggle against inhuman evil. This even has a tragic flaw that sets everything in motion.
Sir Calard has grown up a lot, and between wanting to see him grow further in his knighthood and the cliffhanger ending, "Knight of the Realm" is definitely next on my list.
September 30, 2017
An unexpected gem of a book, a tale of Knights but told within a world much darker than normal for the tropes of knights; in some ways it is probably more true-to-life than that romanticism, as even our heroes treat the lower orders with contempt and disdain. The relationship between Bretonnia and the goddess The Lady (of the Lake) is illustrated with an earthy kind of mystery that put me in mind of the way the Goddess was depicted in 2000AD's Slaine. The story is perhaps a little too telegraphed but the violent and horrific combat, the dark and sinister foe and the solid pacing mean that I even as the story galloped towards a foreseen conclusion I likewise rushed to create time to read it.
November 9, 2014
just like all warhammer...excellent fantasy fight scenes! less on characters, but the carnage.... just great
January 21, 2025
This book lacks a real story, a red line so to speak. It is just a bundle of unimgainative scenes of violence. Never the why of all these actions is explained. A dissapointment.
June 6, 2020
Well, this has got everything you’d expect from a Warhammer novel: drama, faction one-upmanship and battle scenes, all dialled up to 11. Unfortunately, the main characters are duller than your grannies makeup, and it just falls flat as a book.
As someone else in the comments has already noted, the main character has his hand held throughout the novel and, rather than coming out as a better person at the end of things, this just reinforces the thought that the nobility are witless fools. Well trained witless fools, but witless fools nonetheless.
Another major problem with Knight Errant is that while you are supposed to realise that those not born of noble blood are downtrodden, the fact that the main characters treat them as little more than dirt to be wiped from their boots (when they are not actively torturing their own peasants) does nothing to endear the plot to the reader.
The battle scenes are also a little laughable, but I’ll leave it to the reader as to whether or not this fits in with Warhammer.
As someone else in the comments has already noted, the main character has his hand held throughout the novel and, rather than coming out as a better person at the end of things, this just reinforces the thought that the nobility are witless fools. Well trained witless fools, but witless fools nonetheless.
Another major problem with Knight Errant is that while you are supposed to realise that those not born of noble blood are downtrodden, the fact that the main characters treat them as little more than dirt to be wiped from their boots (when they are not actively torturing their own peasants) does nothing to endear the plot to the reader.
The battle scenes are also a little laughable, but I’ll leave it to the reader as to whether or not this fits in with Warhammer.
June 9, 2016
In the Warhammer world, Brettonia is filled with chivalrous knights, defending damsels in distress, being honourable, riding horses everywhere, going on quests, oppressing peasants, and refusing to use ranged weapons.
Although the action when it happens in this book is good, and the forces they're up against are described in all their hellish detail, I couldn't get interested in the main characters at all.
In a nutshell, Brettonians are boorish douche bags.
The author spends a good chunk of the book explaining the downtrodenness (if that's actually a word) of the peasants and the attitudes of the nobles towards them. Bows are peasant weapons. Being poor, diseased, dirty etc are peasant problems. (If you could do a word count of this book, I expect "peasant" would be one of the top words in that list).
A good premise for a story, but could have used any of the other nationalities in the Warhammer world and would have been much better.
Although the action when it happens in this book is good, and the forces they're up against are described in all their hellish detail, I couldn't get interested in the main characters at all.
In a nutshell, Brettonians are boorish douche bags.
The author spends a good chunk of the book explaining the downtrodenness (if that's actually a word) of the peasants and the attitudes of the nobles towards them. Bows are peasant weapons. Being poor, diseased, dirty etc are peasant problems. (If you could do a word count of this book, I expect "peasant" would be one of the top words in that list).
A good premise for a story, but could have used any of the other nationalities in the Warhammer world and would have been much better.
April 30, 2019
A great book to start the Bretonnian Omnibus, can be slow at first because of the introduction and character building, but once they went to War it just picks up from there,
Vivid description of the battle scene. Recommend.
Vivid description of the battle scene. Recommend.
October 5, 2022
This book takes a look at the Brettonia region of the Warhammer universe, which is closer to classic medieval imagery of honorable knights and damsels, but of course with the dark Warhammer twist.
More accurately, the book follows Calard and his brother Bertelis, who are princes in the Garamont family. They've become knights in training, and are going off to war to help fend off marauding orc hordes. Along the way, there are ancient family curses, rampaging beast men, long lost relatives found, magical little girls, 25th hour betrayals.
The start of the book is a brief introduction to the Garamont family. Then they're recruited, and it covers their first battles against the orcs, leading into the beastmen which are the real threat(Warhamer book LOVE throwing out orcs as the red herring enemy)and ends in some battles with family drama as the subtext.
It was actually pretty good. Brettonia definetly felt different from the rest of the Old World. They put a big emphasis on their knights and nobility, and the peasants are little more than property to be tolerated. I think the book maybe could have a used a normal POV from the peasants, to put in perspective the dehumanizing abuse they experience. Because, let's be clear, these nobles, knights, and royalty are awful people and the peasants are put on the front line to die with less than a thanks and then dropped in mass graves. It's incredibly messed up, but it's all glossed over while the main character pouts about his family drama and cries over missing his girlfriend.
There were at least some tiny hints at Calard having some humanity, but his brother Bertelis doesn't seem to care about much of anything outside of getting laid and being rich. But some props should be given for the man, their mentor Gunther, who at least shows some level of compassion and disappointment in the boys for how careless they are. I thought he would be a super generic character, but he honestly ended up being the most intriguing. Even if you can probably guess his entire plot from beginning to end within 1 page of meeting him.
Overall , it was a well written book that maybe didn't finish as well as it's beginning and middle. A lot of stuff just happened rapid fire right at the end, and not in super satisfying ways. There were also threads that either get answered in book 2 or are possibly never answered? Namy why one certain character had so many pages dedicated to their journey? I still really enjoyed the book, it was in the upper tier of Warhammer books I've read in regards to writing, pacing, keeping the plot intriguing, and even the main villain was somewhat interesting and shown just a smidgen of humanity to elevate them above being a pure monster, which is more than most WH books bother doing.
More accurately, the book follows Calard and his brother Bertelis, who are princes in the Garamont family. They've become knights in training, and are going off to war to help fend off marauding orc hordes. Along the way, there are ancient family curses, rampaging beast men, long lost relatives found, magical little girls, 25th hour betrayals.
The start of the book is a brief introduction to the Garamont family. Then they're recruited, and it covers their first battles against the orcs, leading into the beastmen which are the real threat(Warhamer book LOVE throwing out orcs as the red herring enemy)and ends in some battles with family drama as the subtext.
It was actually pretty good. Brettonia definetly felt different from the rest of the Old World. They put a big emphasis on their knights and nobility, and the peasants are little more than property to be tolerated. I think the book maybe could have a used a normal POV from the peasants, to put in perspective the dehumanizing abuse they experience. Because, let's be clear, these nobles, knights, and royalty are awful people and the peasants are put on the front line to die with less than a thanks and then dropped in mass graves. It's incredibly messed up, but it's all glossed over while the main character pouts about his family drama and cries over missing his girlfriend.
There were at least some tiny hints at Calard having some humanity, but his brother Bertelis doesn't seem to care about much of anything outside of getting laid and being rich. But some props should be given for the man, their mentor Gunther, who at least shows some level of compassion and disappointment in the boys for how careless they are. I thought he would be a super generic character, but he honestly ended up being the most intriguing. Even if you can probably guess his entire plot from beginning to end within 1 page of meeting him.
Overall , it was a well written book that maybe didn't finish as well as it's beginning and middle. A lot of stuff just happened rapid fire right at the end, and not in super satisfying ways. There were also threads that either get answered in book 2 or are possibly never answered? Namy why one certain character had so many pages dedicated to their journey? I still really enjoyed the book, it was in the upper tier of Warhammer books I've read in regards to writing, pacing, keeping the plot intriguing, and even the main villain was somewhat interesting and shown just a smidgen of humanity to elevate them above being a pure monster, which is more than most WH books bother doing.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 27, 2021
Good Warhammer book, excellent fight scenes, gore, and war!
So all I can expect from the Warhammer book, additionally we receive a pretty good overview of Bretonian society, their culture, and religion. That one is a unique gem in all Imperial/Elves-centric books about that world.
We are receiving quite an exciting plot with a few twists, a bit of grey color in that black/white story, and interesting side characters. Unfortunately, the main character is flat and dull... built almost without any actual depth. But after all, this is a book about Bretonian Knights and their fights for Lady of the Lake.
So all I can expect from the Warhammer book, additionally we receive a pretty good overview of Bretonian society, their culture, and religion. That one is a unique gem in all Imperial/Elves-centric books about that world.
We are receiving quite an exciting plot with a few twists, a bit of grey color in that black/white story, and interesting side characters. Unfortunately, the main character is flat and dull... built almost without any actual depth. But after all, this is a book about Bretonian Knights and their fights for Lady of the Lake.
October 27, 2023
I don't mind violence in books. I don't mind reading about cruelty to animals or people. AS LONG as the book deals with it in some way. This really didn't seem as if it was going to. The characters are really unlikeable - I could understand their attitudes to peasants if that is the way they have been brought up, but if even one of them had shown regret, or compassion, or had questioned their ways, I would have stuck with it. As it was, by the second big battle scene and the coming of the weird faun type beasts in the woods, I was kind of rooting for the bad guys. Decided not to bother reading on.
July 11, 2023
Knight Errant doesn't necessarily do anything new, but it's a solid adventure in a fantasy setting with knightly heroes and downtrodden peasants with a light dash of courtly intrigue and abominably monstrous foes. It was a solid read overall and works even with no prior knowledge of the Warhammer Fantasy universe (this one is set in the Old World prior to the End Times that led to the current Age of Sigmar).
February 19, 2024
One of my favorite Warhammer novels I’ve read in years. This series should have been reprinted for the intro to the old world game instead of the pile of garbage that was Lords of the lance. For fans of old school gory knight violence.
August 8, 2022
It’s an older Black Library offering, and as such it’s a pretty light read with a lot of action. Good plane ride book.
August 21, 2014
Enjoyed it as a nice summer distraction read and little intro to the lands of Bretonnia. I really enjoyed the bad guys as they were presented and Chold was an excellent side character for the plot. that being said I really wish we could have gotten more time with the supporting cast and the world of Brettonia as a whole (especially considering the how interesting the main antagonist is throughout this whole read and how little we get off him). Also I totally understood and respected the way Calard was presented to us as the reader, as a young and inexperienced knight who has skill but yet to actually match the power of the paladins and trained knights he worships from his youth.
October 30, 2013
A fair story with a motherlode of setting for fair Bretonnia. However, the main character does little to progress the plot and instead reacts while more capable allies handhold him throughout the tale. While Bretonnia is my favorite part of the Old World, the setting and concepts but not the characters are what bring me back to continue the cycle.
August 23, 2011
Piles of fun! I genuinely want to read the sequel.
October 3, 2024
Great book great opener with a few twists
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews