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Warhammer Fantasy
Oathbreaker
In this storming tale of courage and heroism, a band of dwarf adventurers make a doomed attempt to reconquer the lost dwarf hold of Karak Varn.
384 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published February 26, 2008
6 people are currently reading
317 people want to read
About the author
Nick Kyme
281 books163 followersNick Kyme (b. 1977) writes mostly for Black Library. His credits include the popular Salamanders series and several audio dramas.
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
April 4, 2013
If your anything like me, you picked up this book because you love Dwarves. They're my favorite fantasy race, and it's difficult to find books that centers on them. This has, unfortunately, led me to read some books of questionable quality and this is one of them.
There are far too many main characters in the book to ever manage to really feel attached to any of them. Which is a good thing, as most of them will die. I'm not kidding here, the author seems to love to senselessly kill his characters off, oftentimes almost as an afterthought. There's so little back story to any of the characters, you start to get their names confused anyway, and are constantly having to look back to see who so-and-so was.
The story has a fairly short arc, going from bad to worse, and worse, and worse. It becomes almost painful to keep reading as dwarves die meaningless deaths, and more and more enemies are thrown at them for no real reason. As if thousands of Skaven weren't enough, Orcs and Goblins appear as well, and then a dragon shows up just because the dwarves weren't in enough trouble already.
On top of this, after finishing the book, I realized that the time line laid out doesn't really make any sense. Things that should have happened several years ago are spoken of as having occurred just months before... and small jumps in the times it would take for things like travel don't seem to add up.
The ending itself, while somewhat keeping with the dwarven lore set forth in the Warhammer universe, is just so bad you feel wronged by having read it. Ending the book in this way, with no hope for the few remaining characters, sank the battleship.
Honestly, the book seems rushed- if the story had been told over two or three longer books, it may have worked better. It needed the time to get back stories for the characters set out, properly describe locations, and have a story arc that flowed better. I can't say much for author's work; I found this book to be poorly written, but I haven't sampled anything else by him either. All in all, I wouldn't recommend this book, unless you were desperate. One would be better off reading Markus Heitz's "The Dwarves" series.
There are far too many main characters in the book to ever manage to really feel attached to any of them. Which is a good thing, as most of them will die. I'm not kidding here, the author seems to love to senselessly kill his characters off, oftentimes almost as an afterthought. There's so little back story to any of the characters, you start to get their names confused anyway, and are constantly having to look back to see who so-and-so was.
The story has a fairly short arc, going from bad to worse, and worse, and worse. It becomes almost painful to keep reading as dwarves die meaningless deaths, and more and more enemies are thrown at them for no real reason. As if thousands of Skaven weren't enough, Orcs and Goblins appear as well, and then a dragon shows up just because the dwarves weren't in enough trouble already.
On top of this, after finishing the book, I realized that the time line laid out doesn't really make any sense. Things that should have happened several years ago are spoken of as having occurred just months before... and small jumps in the times it would take for things like travel don't seem to add up.
The ending itself, while somewhat keeping with the dwarven lore set forth in the Warhammer universe, is just so bad you feel wronged by having read it. Ending the book in this way, with no hope for the few remaining characters, sank the battleship.
Honestly, the book seems rushed- if the story had been told over two or three longer books, it may have worked better. It needed the time to get back stories for the characters set out, properly describe locations, and have a story arc that flowed better. I can't say much for author's work; I found this book to be poorly written, but I haven't sampled anything else by him either. All in all, I wouldn't recommend this book, unless you were desperate. One would be better off reading Markus Heitz's "The Dwarves" series.
October 5, 2017
This book was a mess and I was glad seeing I wasn't the only one that felt that way. It had the components to be a good read but the delivery was just lacking. It was crazy hard to follow, with FAR too many point of view/main characters all with similar names and not enough time spent on them to really allow the reader to differentiate between them. And during the second half of the book the action became even harder to follow with the section breaks sometimes not actually switching between characters or making it near impossible to tell where in the Dwarven keep the characters were. And before you had your footing there was another section break and you were following another character you never really got to know.
It did have some stellar passages. All the parts from the point of view of the greenskins or skavens were pretty cool. And there were some awesome battle scenes, it was just hard to care about the Dwarf characters because we barely got to know most of them.
It did have some stellar passages. All the parts from the point of view of the greenskins or skavens were pretty cool. And there were some awesome battle scenes, it was just hard to care about the Dwarf characters because we barely got to know most of them.
January 13, 2023
Greenskin and Skaven perspectives were boring, but the dwarf perspective was pretty great.
January 28, 2011
Fast romp, delivers on its promise of gruff dwarfs bludgeoning orc, goblin and skaven skulls. Basically a riff on Moria, if Gimli had decided to go back with an army to clean it out. Various facets of Warhammer Dwarf society are touched upon.
October 10, 2020
I love everything else I've read by Nick Kyme, and I'm a huge fan of the dwarfs, but this book left me with a big fat "meh". Introducing the band of dwarfs that the story would follow was chaotic and the dwarfs were too similarly named and introduced too quickly to keep them straight until I was probably 2/3 through the book. The plot felt very rushed and jumbled for the majority of the book, and the plot only started to have momentum near the end of the book, with an ending that starts strong and ends a bit wobbly.
July 17, 2022
Spíš slabší WHF knížka. I pro milovníka trpaslíků je to zklamání.
Knížka trpí poněkud chaotickými střihy (neplést s chaotitovými nebo Chaosovými!), nepřeberným množstvím postav a někdy i dost zmateným popisem událostí.
Říkal jsem si, jestli výše napsané není díky špatnému překladu, který by místy lepší být mohl, ale i recenze anglického originálu tyto nešvary zmiňují.
Jestli nemáte zrovna co číst a WHF máte rádi, tak si to dejte, ale jsou lepší WH knížky. Výrazně lepší.
Knížka trpí poněkud chaotickými střihy (neplést s chaotitovými nebo Chaosovými!), nepřeberným množstvím postav a někdy i dost zmateným popisem událostí.
Říkal jsem si, jestli výše napsané není díky špatnému překladu, který by místy lepší být mohl, ale i recenze anglického originálu tyto nešvary zmiňují.
Jestli nemáte zrovna co číst a WHF máte rádi, tak si to dejte, ale jsou lepší WH knížky. Výrazně lepší.
January 11, 2018
This was an okay book. It had the Dwarves trying to retake an ancient hold that was overrun by Orcs an Skaven. Overall it just had way too much combat in it, and very little character development and not much plot.
Also the book had too many characters that seemed to be bland and hard to tell apart. At some points it was like you had to take notes of who was who in order to keep them straight.
Still it was an enjoyable read.
Also the book had too many characters that seemed to be bland and hard to tell apart. At some points it was like you had to take notes of who was who in order to keep them straight.
Still it was an enjoyable read.
October 23, 2019
This books falls under the banner of "generic warhammer" for me, while I've said before that books about dwarfs are not my favourite subject, this one I found to be more tedious than most. It had a few scenes with the Scaven they were too few and far between to break up the tedium. But if you like or are interested in warhammer books about dwarfs then you'll certainly like this one 🙌🏻🙏🏻
July 7, 2020
Kyme manages to catch the Dwarf culture, and how they think and act. There is some excitment, and some good writing but the back of the book says it all, "...doomed attempt..." . And there is way to many characters, but they all end the same way.
August 16, 2020
Couldn't fully finish the last 100 pages, had to skim it. The book was good the first couple hundred pages then quickly turned into a snail paced borefest. This almost 400 page book could have easily been cut to a crisp 280 and have been more enjoyable.
August 20, 2023
Kind of a blah book overall. It has some interesting moments but the plot is glacial, theres little intrigue, and the character development was so sparse it was hard to remember who was who in the fairly large cast. Definitely left a lot to be desired
November 27, 2018
Epic. One of my all time favorite books. Two thumbs way up!
March 4, 2025
Mucho peor que el anterior, demasiados personajes sin un protagonista o una línea clara. No he entendido muy bien de que iba todo.
October 8, 2011
Well, first of all let me say that I tried to read this book in February and after arriving page 100 I stopped. I love dwarves and believe me when I say I wanted to read and like this book. In the first 100 pages I was feeling a bit dissapointed. Since I tried never to leave a book un-read I started for second time (in the page I had left) and read it until the end and I was glad I did it.
After reading Gav Thorpe's dwarf book "Grudgelore" I must say that I enjoy the other one better. This book has good things believe. They are centered on dwarves and only dwarves (with a couple of pages dedicated to goblins and skaven). Of course the Gotrek series are the best dwarven books. For me they are in another level of magnitude, the William King ones because I still haven't read any book written by Nathan Long.
The dwarves in warhammer are far better than those in forgotten realms or dragonlance. But that is easily explained since Warhammer world is a grim world where the ending is inevitable. That made the dwarves of warhammer akin to Tolkien. They are a dying breed (as the elves).
The plot? Well a dwarven stronghold Karak Varn, has been overrun by skaven and the goblins and a band of dwarves from several strongholds ask an audiance to the High King to retake the hold. The first 150 pages is the meeting of the characters as they go into the stronghold and the rest of the book is all the process of retaking it.
This band is comprissed with several characters with nordic names. It was hard at the beginning because they not only introduced themselves with their name but clan and most of times with the profession. But as I write them down it was not hard for me... It was the main fault of the book in my humble opinion.
The battle scenes are the main focus of the novel and inbetween them the writer tries to develop the characters. I must say that apart for two or three of them I didn't care for them. In the end I didn't knew who was the main character... (maybe that was the design of the book).
The ending was good and not predictable. I must say that in the last one hundred pages I was trying to guess who was Nick Kyme trying to kill or not. I must say that Nick is good with Dwarves. There is a second book I will read and I hope that is better than this.
Should I recommend it? To dwarven lovers? Yes but they must buy the Grudgelore to guide them. To anyone who plays and read warhammer novels? Yes. To a newcomer? No, maybe start with Gotrek and Felix.
After reading Gav Thorpe's dwarf book "Grudgelore" I must say that I enjoy the other one better. This book has good things believe. They are centered on dwarves and only dwarves (with a couple of pages dedicated to goblins and skaven). Of course the Gotrek series are the best dwarven books. For me they are in another level of magnitude, the William King ones because I still haven't read any book written by Nathan Long.
The dwarves in warhammer are far better than those in forgotten realms or dragonlance. But that is easily explained since Warhammer world is a grim world where the ending is inevitable. That made the dwarves of warhammer akin to Tolkien. They are a dying breed (as the elves).
The plot? Well a dwarven stronghold Karak Varn, has been overrun by skaven and the goblins and a band of dwarves from several strongholds ask an audiance to the High King to retake the hold. The first 150 pages is the meeting of the characters as they go into the stronghold and the rest of the book is all the process of retaking it.
This band is comprissed with several characters with nordic names. It was hard at the beginning because they not only introduced themselves with their name but clan and most of times with the profession. But as I write them down it was not hard for me... It was the main fault of the book in my humble opinion.
The battle scenes are the main focus of the novel and inbetween them the writer tries to develop the characters. I must say that apart for two or three of them I didn't care for them. In the end I didn't knew who was the main character... (maybe that was the design of the book).
The ending was good and not predictable. I must say that in the last one hundred pages I was trying to guess who was Nick Kyme trying to kill or not. I must say that Nick is good with Dwarves. There is a second book I will read and I hope that is better than this.
Should I recommend it? To dwarven lovers? Yes but they must buy the Grudgelore to guide them. To anyone who plays and read warhammer novels? Yes. To a newcomer? No, maybe start with Gotrek and Felix.
May 16, 2023
I wanted to like this book, I wanted to read about cool dwarfs (not something I thought I would ever say). But this is not a good book. It's not poorly written, but which suffers a bit from too much action and the description thereof. Or in other words, it's too simply written; with lots of action and not much else - But that's typical in YA books, doubly so in Fantasy. And this is both.
One thing I did like about this book; is... well, it's more the idea of the premise, that I had in my mind than anything else. And that is the "feeling" I had while reading it; about the Dwarves taking a Hold and desperately trying to hold it against an unfathomable horde of Skaven rats, deep down in narrow tunnels and hallways... unfortunately, this is not what the book focuses on. The story is an unstructured mess and mostly unimportant. It needed to be neat and tight, and straight to the point. Instead it starts of with a foreshadowing. Jumps ahead and later throws in characters willy-nilly as fast as they are killed off.
I wanted to like this, but it feels rushed and left me very unimpressed. It has the effect that I'm unwilling to read any more of Kyme's work.
One more thing; I still think the front cover is one of the best I have ever seen.
One thing I did like about this book; is... well, it's more the idea of the premise, that I had in my mind than anything else. And that is the "feeling" I had while reading it; about the Dwarves taking a Hold and desperately trying to hold it against an unfathomable horde of Skaven rats, deep down in narrow tunnels and hallways... unfortunately, this is not what the book focuses on. The story is an unstructured mess and mostly unimportant. It needed to be neat and tight, and straight to the point. Instead it starts of with a foreshadowing. Jumps ahead and later throws in characters willy-nilly as fast as they are killed off.
I wanted to like this, but it feels rushed and left me very unimpressed. It has the effect that I'm unwilling to read any more of Kyme's work.
One more thing; I still think the front cover is one of the best I have ever seen.
January 17, 2015
It was entertaining enough and I enjoy anything to do with dwarves, as they are my favourite fantasy race. I just wish the author had learnt to use a thesaurus properly instead of just choosing the word with the most syllables, regardless of whether it was really the right word to use or not. It got better as I got more into the story, but then I would just get jarred out again by a poor word choice.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews