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Gotrek & Felix #2

Skavenvadász

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Gotrek és Felix visszatér a történetfolyam második részében. Ezúttal Nuln városában csapnak össze a káosz erőivel, a Birodalom eltörlésére, és az emberi faj kiirtására törő patkányemberekkel. A Thanquol Szürkelátnok által vezetett skavenek a város alatti csatornarendszerben várják, hogy megindíthassák támadásukat az emberek ellen. Ilyen hatalmas sereg ellen vajon mit tehet a két harcedzett kalandor?

320 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1999

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William King

344 books725 followers
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5 stars
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3 stars
800 (16%)
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 228 reviews
Profile Image for Joseph.
789 reviews135 followers
May 28, 2018
Thud and blunder in the best possible sense of the term.

As in the previous volume (Trollslayer), this is structured as a collection of longish short stories; unlike in Trollslayer, there's a much stronger linkage between the stories.

After the events of the previous book, our heroes Gotrek Gurnisson, trollslayer-at-large, and his traveling companion/amanuensis Felix Jaeger (excerpts from whose book form the headers for each of the chapters) have come to the city of Nuln. Unfortunately, so have the Skaven, Warhammer's race of rapacious, intelligent, chaos-tainted humanoid rats, led by the Grey Seer Thanquol. Needless to say, when our heroes and the Skaven first run into each other (while Gotrek & Felix, in what one hopes to be a career low point, are working as part of an anti-monster patrol in the noisome depths of Nuln's sewers), neither side is too happy about it. Fortunately, the Skaven are, in addition to their other charming qualities, riven by internecine squabbles, and if one clan can use Gotrek's axe & Felix's sword to grind another clan to bloody gobbets, so much the better ...
Profile Image for Eli Parker.
52 reviews
July 13, 2018
This book is the worst thing I've read in quite a long time. The story is told in a series of episodes (Feels like it may have originally been published in a magazine or something?) in which the nefarious rat-man Skaven try various plots to invade the generic fantasy city of Nuln and are repelled with minimal effort.

I'm told that the heroes are more fun if you read the first book in the series, and I admit, I haven't. Gotrek is a disgraced dwarf who wants to redeem himself with a noble death in combat, but can't, because he's too good at fighting. In fact, almost every conflict in the book is resolved by Gotrek easily showing up at the right place at the right time and killing all of the bad guys without breaking a sweat. His personality mostly comes through in generic one-liners like "let's get kiling."

Meanwhile, his sidekick, and the typical viewpoint character, is Felix. Born into a wealthy merchant family, he's left a guaranteed cushy lifestyle of wealth for adventure. Felix is the blandest character imaginable, and about half the ink in the book is wasted on his banal thought process. Felix gets a letter? We get three paragraphs of him mentally listing all the characters who might want to write him before he bothers to read the return address. Felix decides to buy something in a shop? Get ready for two pages of him looking at every other item in the shop first and deciding not to buy them one-by-one. It seems like every time King wrote a chapter, he came up a few thousand words short, and padded his wordcount with constant dips into Felix's tedious stream of consciousness. This book builds "mystery" by letting Felix speculate ten possible outcomes to every decision he makes before telling you what happens. Felix also has a perfunctory romance plot in this novel, which is a constant source of anxious walls of text for him, and not much else.

The Skaven are backstabbing, selfish, factional, power-hungry manipulators, and what little fun there is to be had in this novel is in seeing their general, Grey Seer Thanquil, habitually rationalize his own duplicity and cowardice while scheming against his political rivals for the exact same traits. In the hands of a better writer, this could have been a blast, but the best scheme he can come up with under William King's pen is to send letters to our flavorless protagonists once per episode, tipping them off to his rivals' invasion plots so that they can foil them again and again without needing to do anything but sluggishly react. The Skaven never feel like anything close to a credible threat to our heroes. Between curbstomp battles between Gotrek and the rat-monster of the week, King makes an effort to describe the Skaven's plots' effect on city's population, but none of it carries the least bit of weight, because nothing bad ever happens to any character who anyone could possibly care about.

Most of the Skaven characters seem to exist for promotional reasons. This book seems to be intended mostly to get the reader interested in playing as the Skaven in the Warhammer Fantasy game by showcasing all the different character units. There's a clan of ninja rats, a clan of rats who spread disease, a clan of steampunk tinkerer rats, and a clan of rat Dr. Frankensteins, who breed different kinds of non-anthropomorphic rats as biological weapons. We also see giant rat-ogres highlighted. At times, Skavenslayer feels like an extended commercial for a Warhammer expansion, like a G.I. Joe episode featuring all the new G.I. Joe toys. Each unit gets a loving look at its special abilities and flavor text before Gotrek steamrolls it and we move on to the next one.

I don't know who I could recommend this to. Even if you're obsessively interested in Warhammer lore, the Skaven in your imagination at your game table are almost certainly more interesting than this.
Profile Image for Matthew.
40 reviews1 follower
February 8, 2019
Book two of the Gotrek and Felix series continues with our heroes trying to eke out a living in the great merchant city of Nuln. Much like the first book, Skavenslayer comprises of a series of short stories. This time, however, each story revolves around a central narrative concerning the titular Skaven, a race of cunning ratmen, and their efforts to conquer the city. I enjoyed Skavenslayer much more than the first book, as it brings out one of the Warhammer universe's more unique aspects, in blending elements of horror with oddly placed humor.

You see, although the Skaven are a very real danger in being a literal plague of rats, they are also extremely paranoid and greedy, and tend to seize defeat from the jaws of victory through their own convoluted attempts to best their peers. In addition to Gotrek and Felix, Skavenslayer is as much about the Skaven Thanquol, a sorcerer who is both the greatest of his kind and the most inept, and his underlings, each representing one of the great clans of Skavendom and who each desire seize all the glory for themselves.

Overall I highly recommend this book, both for its fleshing out of the Warhammer world, as well as the continued development of Felix. My only major qualms are that aside from his usual cracking of heads, Gotrek didn't see much time in the spotlight and remains as much of an enigma as he was in the first book.

Profile Image for Pere.
150 reviews39 followers
December 21, 2024
Segunda entrega de las aventuras de este dúo. Una mejora respecto a su primera aventura, ya que en esta ocasión la trama es más lineal y carece de los confusos saltos temporales del libro anterior.

El relato alterna entre dos puntos de vista: el de Félix y el de Tanquol, un poderoso jefe Skaven. Aunque al principio los capítulos centrados en Tanquol pueden resultar algo pesados, con el tiempo logran enganchar y añadir profundidad al relato.

Se trata de aventuras sin grandes pretensiones. No esperéis aquí las reglas detalladas de Sanderson, la brutal crudeza de Abercrombie o las florituras narrativas de Rothfuss. Más bien, tiene un estilo más cercano a las historias de Conan o a los libros de Reinos Olvidados.

Una lectura para pasar el rato, entretenida en su justa medida. Por ello, le doy tres estrellas y media.
Profile Image for Louis.
148 reviews1 follower
January 16, 2025
This was just wonderful. There was no nuance just horrible evil little rat men doing things because they’re evil and they want to appease their horrid rat man deity, not because of an emotional backstory.

I loved the horrid little rat men, they made me laugh very much indeed. I listened to the audio book and he did all the voices with great enthusiasm and gurgling. They were always supremely confident in their ability and their status, they could achieve anything because they were just the best little rat man ever. Then as soon as anything goes wrong they immediately run away and claim failure is due to betrayal or someone plotting against them - it couldn’t possibly be their own fault. I empathise very much with the funny little guys.

Also they kept threatening to blast or eat eachother. They very much were trying backstab one another any possible opportunity was taken. “Most merciful master please do not blast me”. Also the misunderstandings and spelling mistakes were funny too. Also they keep railing ludicrous quantities of glowing green illegal substances. Comical evil is the best kind.
Profile Image for Holden Attradies.
642 reviews20 followers
October 18, 2011
This was the first Warhammer book I've read. I've heard from most people that play Warhammer that the books are pretty hit or miss, but since this is my first I don't really have a good field of reference. Regardless I enjoyed this, so either this was a hit or the books are better than the picky nerds make them out to be.

The writing style took a bit to get used to. Every few pages, and towards the end of the book every few paragraphs the center of narration shifted. It made the book feel very fast paced, at times too fast passed, there was never really a break from it till the epilogue.

I know this was the second in the series, but it was written so well that I didn't feel like I missed anything, and I'm pretty sure if I had read the first one it wouldn't have felt like they were needlessly re-hashing old information.

Story wise I really enjoyed the way they portrait the shaven as their own worse enemies.
Profile Image for Mitchell.
124 reviews1 follower
December 10, 2020
Coming back to this novel as an audiobook after reading the physical book over a decade ago I expected a good read but was surprised by just how brilliant the story and narration are!

The narrator does an exceptional job bringing Gotrex/Felix to life and immersing you into the story. The Skaven voices are perfect and exactly how you expect them to sound, especially Thanquol with his scheming and plotting.

The story too also does a great job keeping you interested in Gotrex + Felix's time in the city of Nuln with the best bits being around the Skaven's schemes and characters.

A brilliant novel and an even better audiobook rendition, a must read for any Warhammer fan!
Profile Image for Taylor.
83 reviews17 followers
September 26, 2022
Really fun series so far. I think all you really need to know is William King can write the hell out of environments, making it really easy to picture all of the scenes, and that Jonathan Keeble is a S-tier narrator.
Profile Image for Unseen Library.
1,014 reviews53 followers
July 16, 2021
Rating of 4.5.

Welcome back to my Throwback Thursday series, where I republish old reviews, review books I have read before or review older books I have only just had a chance to read. The adventures of my two favourite Warhammer Fantasy protagonists, Gotrek and Felix, continues, with the second incredible and extremely fun entry in their series, Skavenslayer.

After their previous escapades throughout the Empire and beyond, wandering adventurer, outlaw, and writer Felix Jaeger is still reluctantly following the Dwarf Slayer Gotrek Gurnisson on his quest to find a glorious death. After travelling to the Imperial city of Nuln, the two heroes attempt to make some money to support their travels. However, danger is always around the corner, as the heroes find themselves thrust into the middle of a vast conspiracy when they take on a menial job. The chittering and evil hordes of the Skaven are amassing beneath Nuln, determined to conquer the city by any means necessary. Led by a dangerous and ambitious leader, the rat-men have several sinister plots to kill all the humans above and appropriate their city and technology for their own glorious purposes. The only chance the city has to survive this chaos appears to be Gotrek and Felix, who are constantly dragged into the middle of the Skavens' plots, thanks to fate, Skaven pettiness or terrible bad luck (both Felix’s and the Skavens'). Can the two heroes save Nuln from the Skaven hordes, or will Gotrek finally find the death he always seeks?

To see the full review, click on the link below:
https://unseenlibrary.com/2021/07/16/...

For other exciting reviews and content, check out my blog at:
https://unseenlibrary.com/
Profile Image for Gordon Ross.
251 reviews2 followers
March 8, 2025
Gotrek and Felix, mohawk-wearing, axe-weilding dwarf and the posh human who tags along to capture the former's heroic death in a poem, return for a second novel-length adventure this time facing off against a society of wicked rat-men living in the city sewers. As with Trollslayer, this reads as a series of interconnected short stories rather than a novel, possibly a result of having been originally published in serialised form in White Dwarf magazine.

As fun as it is to spend time with our eponymous heroes, their character development is thin at best and the rat-like Skaven steal the show here. We spend a surprising amount of time in the villain's point of view and King brings the faction - introduced in the Warhammer table-top game - to vivid life, leaning into some of the more ridiculous aspects of the game designers' creations with affection and playing the whole thing admirably straight.

Delightfully creative and entertaining, even if the resolutions tend towards the repetitive.
Profile Image for Fiona.
315 reviews9 followers
August 16, 2023
Follow this unlikely pair through the siege at Nuln, where the Skaven deliver a new twist to plague and hunger in the course of their battle for supremacy.

In contrast to the first novel, the short stories in this one are more closely connected, giving the impression of topics in a series of chapters, rather than distinguishing between entirely separate stories.

Thrill of adventure and unspeakable horrors, with the only lack of focusing a lot on Felix, narrowing Gotrek down to his given role - though we do get some gratifyingly harsh dwarfish comments from time to time!
Profile Image for Giovanni Casula.
87 reviews4 followers
September 11, 2023
Finalmente Alanera sta portando in Italia un edizione (si spera stavolta completa) pari all originale black library delle avventire di Gotrek e Felix, coppia iconica del miglior grimdark inglese.
In questo caso i nemici erano gli Skaven, dei topi umanoidi che vivono sottoterra.
Libro come tutta la saga che poco si presta alla masturbazione intellettuale ma molto alle botte di un certo livello,le azioni sono incalzanti avvincenti e quando ci troviamo a leggere i punti di vista degli skaven spesso tragicamente divertenti! Se amate il grimdark questa serie va letta obbligatoriamente!
Profile Image for Nigel.
Author 12 books70 followers
September 10, 2022
Under the rather grim but compelling tale of poor old Felix, traumatised and haunted by his terrifying adventures there's a deeply, darkly comic, almost farcical tale of a city threatened by an army of intellignet monsters whose constant plotting against each other results in their fiendish plans being wrecked, usually by the dwarf and human heroes, culminating in an all-out invasion aided by plague, rats, beasts and deadly weapons, only things keep going wrong, usually because they can't stop scheming against each other. Consequently, the episodic nature of this book is punctuated by hilariously bloody catastrophes, more often at the not involving Gotrek's terrifying axe, meaning it's actually rather well-constructed and cleverly executed.
Profile Image for Jodi.
2,371 reviews43 followers
February 28, 2023
Wie erkennt man ein Lieblingsbuch? Indem mensch feststellt, dass mensch nicht will, dass das Buch zu Ende geht und dabei trotzdem will, wie es ausgeht. So erging es mir mit dem zweiten Band der Gotrek & Felix-Reihe. Aber so ging es mir ja auch schon beim ersten Teil.

Hier steht eher Felix im Mittelpunkt, Gotrek haut dafür wie immer schön drauf. Wer also schon Band eins mochte (wie ich), wird mit der Fortsetzung sehr zufrieden sein. Ich auf jeden Fall bekam genau das, was ich wollte. Und dazu ganz viele Ratten...
142 reviews
May 15, 2023
A more connected story then the first volume. The stable setting of Nuln helps to give the action a feeling of place and make the stakes seem more real. Gotrek and Felix are still fun, pulpy characters. The juxtaposition of the skaven scheming sections followed by the actual incomptence of their plans added a nice balance of humor to the grim violence.
Profile Image for Stasiu.
237 reviews4 followers
April 1, 2025
3.5

KRASNOLUD ZABIŁ SZCZURA TOPOREM WŁEEEB
SZCZUROGRY WALCZYŁY TEEEEŻ
NULN!
SZCZURINWAZJA TU BYŁA TAK!
A PAN FELIX JAEGER PISZE POD PUBLIKE!


A Skavenom zaśpiewom o Skavenblight i spaczeniu xDDDDDDD też bedom myśleli że ich lubimy

~Piotr Balazs, arcypotężny lektor audiobooka tej książki
7 reviews8 followers
October 28, 2021
The Skaven would be the most powerful race in Warhammer if they'd stop trying to backstab each other at every turn. This book portraits this nature perfectly while showing you all of the major Skaven factions and their quirks in a compact and enjoyable story. This is a must read for role playing fans
Profile Image for Linda.
161 reviews
February 19, 2024
Way better than the first book since its one long story instead of a compilation of short shorties. This actually felt like it had a beginning and an end as opposed to the first book wilhich wouldn't end but just jump to the next adventure with no transition.
60 reviews
May 20, 2026
Where the last installment delighted me with its diversity of setting, this collection of stories rallies behind a single key location and builds the stakes! I may be horribly biased but the antagonists in particular of this book are an absolute joy! Consequence and escalation in equal measure build the plot (and the plight!) of a stable supporting cast to create a story with a touch more depth, vastly enjoyable! Worth a read, yes-yes!
Profile Image for Tomáš Drako.
436 reviews6 followers
October 1, 2017
Perfektná oddychová fantasy jednohubka. Žiadne zbytočné keci, len akcia akcia a akcia.
Profile Image for Robin.
620 reviews30 followers
September 6, 2020
Ce second tome est supérieur au premier en terme d'intrigue. Il ne rentrera pas dans mes favoris mais il est très correct et parfait pour ceux qui découvrent la lecture ou la fantasy.
Profile Image for Hernan Garcia.
42 reviews4 followers
February 24, 2023
Hermano libro. En algún momento puede volverse un poco denso ya que la formula se repite a través de toda la historia, pero no deja de ser muy entretenido.
84 reviews
August 20, 2024
Divertidísimo, fácil de leer y hace ver a los skaven de una manera muy divertida y clara, mostrando su forma de pensar y actuar.
El primero me gustó, este me ha encantado
9 reviews
July 12, 2025
Moja ulubiona choć obiektywnie mniej wprawnie napisana od kolejnej części. Skaveni jednak nadrabiają charakterem i humorem, świetnie napisane szczurki.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 228 reviews