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The Realmgate Wars #3
Hammers of Sigmar
Amongst all of the Stormhosts, none are more vaunted than the Hammers of Sigmar. Forged first upon the Anvil of the Apotheosis, their Warrior Chambers are exemplars of Sigmar’s glory. In the shadow of the Nomad City, the mettle of the Stormbound is tested against the hordes of Khorne in the battle to sanctify the Crucible of Blood, a gateway to Chaos and madness. Within the ranks of the Stormcast Eternals, there is one who is greater than all others. He is the Celestant-Prime, Sigmar’s Storm made manifest. For centuries he slumbered, until the great hammer of Sigmar, Ghal Maraz, was returned and he rose again. But a warrior born must still be tempered, and so unto the swamps of Krahl does Sigmar cast his scion to destroy a powerful creature called the Prismatic King.
The Celestant-Prime makes his first appearance in Black LIbrary's Warhammer Age of Sigmar fiction! And as the God-King's champion battles his foes for the first time, he tries to make sense of who he is, what his purpose is and why he's worthy of wielding the might of Ghal Maraz.
The Realmgate Wars: Hammers of Sigmar contains two brand new stories:
Stormcast by Darius Hinks
Scion of the Storm by C L Werner
The Celestant-Prime makes his first appearance in Black LIbrary's Warhammer Age of Sigmar fiction! And as the God-King's champion battles his foes for the first time, he tries to make sense of who he is, what his purpose is and why he's worthy of wielding the might of Ghal Maraz.
The Realmgate Wars: Hammers of Sigmar contains two brand new stories:
Stormcast by Darius Hinks
Scion of the Storm by C L Werner
272 pages, Hardcover
First published October 17, 2015
18 people are currently reading
94 people want to read
About the author
Darius Hinks
108 books129 followersDarius Hinks is an author, writing primarily in the science fiction and fantasy genres. He was born in Birmingham, England, in 1972. He works and lives in Nottinghamshire. Hinks' first novel, Warrior Priest, won the David Gemmel Morningstar award.
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
April 8, 2016
Hammers of Sigmar
includes two stories, Stormcast by Darius Hinks and Scion of the Storm by C.L. Werner. Hinks' story makes up about two thirds of the book, so it is about the length of Black Library's recent short novels on its own, and almost twice as long as the Age of Sigmar novellas included in the previous Realmgate Wars installments.
Both Hinks and Werners are veterans of Warhammer Fantasy, with more than enough works to their names; Werner takes the cake with a lot of classics, however.
As you might imagine, my expectations were relatively high. Both authors wrote stories I greatly enjoyed and showed great passion for GW's Fantasy range. Maybe they would know what to do to tease out that charme of the old setting that made me wanting more, and create memorable characters in Age of Sigmar.
Since Hammers of Sigmar doesn't actually follow the campaign books beyond referencing events, the authors should have had enough room to improvise. Or so I hoped. In the end, I was left somewhat disappointed with one story and very pleased with the other.
Stormcast by Darius Hinks:
First off, I actually enjoyed this for the most part.
Hinks picked a first person style for this short novel, alternating viewpoints between Lord-Celestant Tylos Stormbound, his Lord-Relictor Boreas Undying, Prosecutor-Prime Drusus Unbound and the non-Stormcasts Vourla, High Priestess of the Steppe that this story revolves around, an age-old scholar-necromancer called Mopus (because his full name is silly and lengthy), and a Khornate captain.
This is liked a lot, as the shifting perspectives fleshed things out nicely and the contrasting views of some characters pronounced the unworldiness of the Eternals. It also helped the story's pacing, and my willingness to finish it, as even if I didn't particularly care for one character at a given moment, the next one might be more interesting to me.
The highlights were the crone Vourla, who was enslaved by Khorne warlord Hakh but showed her defiance by manipulating him using her own visions of the future. Presenting the warlord a worthy foe on a silver platter worked out well enough. I liked her scheming presence throughout, even though it might have been a tad underused overall. She certainly prodded her captor here and there, but didn't take much of an active role up until the very end, while her PoV chapters ended halfway through.
Hakh's captain, who received a chapter of his own, felt intriguing to me. He was a maniac, which could be said about any Khorne worshipper, but his detachment from reality could have made for a cool subplot. Instead, I am afraid he was killed off rather unceremoniously as a mid-boss and never reached his full potential. A pity, as there were multiple things Hinks could have done with him to spice things up.
Mopus (full name: Menuasaraz-Senuamaraz-Kemurzil... Yes, indeed. Let's not use it again) meanwhile added a layer of ambiguity to the story. He's a scholar hermit skilled in necromancy, and has history with Lord-Relictor Boreas. They meet in one chapter only, before going their separate ways again. Mopus' perspective chapters kick in afterwards, and add a lot of depth to him as a character. Like Vourla, he is a schemer, but also a hopeless sod who has abandoned life in most regards. He is malnourished to the point of resembling his skeleton warriors, and knowledge is his biggest desire.
His story arc was more engaging to me than that of the Stormcasts, and so I am kind of bitter about it not having been more towards the center of the stage. His appearances mostly happen apart from the main plotline, and when it finally converges, it does so half-heartedly. The character was well-constructed for what it was, but again it was a case of missed opportunities.
Now, as for the Stormcasts themselves, I'm torn. The first person narrative added a lot to Tylos Stormbound and co, but it also detracted from my overall enjoyment of their role. The first chapter alone (Tylos' perspective) was, to me, a full showing of the Sigmarines' awesomeness at awesome, glorious combat in the glorious name of Sigmar. Stop! Hammertime and all.
A lot of scenes felt that way, though to be fair, Tylos and Boreas had more subtle moments of development throughout. All three Stormcast characters struggled with their own natures, one way or another, and that I enjoyed.
If only it hadn't been so tedious to wade through all this glorious combat, I'd have been more engaged. There's only so many Khorne dudes you can slay before it becomes monotonous.
And there's my chief complaints: The plot itself is very formulaic. For being the first book in this series that doesn't have to adhere to specific battleplans and background pages, it was surprisingly run of the mill.
We have the same scenario of a warrior chamber of the Stormcast Eternals being dropped into a realm (fire, how could it be any other?), way off course, in search of a lost realmgate to reclaim. They battle untold hordes of Chaos dudes on the way, suffer almost complete losses and in the end only half-complete their goal. It is getting somewhat ridiculous just how many of these important realmgates, so vital to Sigmar's reconquest of the mortal realms, get destroyed instead of recaptured. It happened in at least two novellas before (Borne by the Storm by Nick Kyme and The Gates of Dawn by Josh Reynolds), and the general scenario is mirrored in almost all the Realmgate Wars stories so far.
Add to that the endless superlatives and world-shattering events taking place () in the form of deus ex machina and you have an Age of Sigmar story that was pretty much by the book.
It is tediously formulaic. I had expected more, but perhaps I shouldn't have. This short novel has plenty of good points, but my enjoyment of it was seriously hampered by the amount of times Hinks went for the default choices. Maybe it was down to the editors' story write-up he was presented with. Maybe the team uses a build-your-own-Stormcast-story flowchart. I wouldn't be surprised.
But at the end of the day, I was underwhelmed with the end result. I wanted to be excited and know that the author is perfectly capable of doing that. It just doesn't appear that Age of Sigmar is as capable, or at least not with the direction the studio and editorial team at Black Library are taking it right now.
Scion of the Storm
At last. A story that feels more like an adventure, a hero's quest, than an unimaginative battle report. It is not by any means as good as some similar books Werner has written under the Warhammer Fantasy IP, but it is a start for Age of Sigmar.
The story revolves around the Celestant Prime, the arguably most powerful character in the Stormcast Eternals' arsenal. He's got wings and wields Sigmar's own hammer, Ghal Maraz. He is, for any intents and purposes, overpowered next to the other Stormcasts, who almost worship him, and can take on multiple Greater Daemons at once, as shown in this story.
At first I was bored with the story, due to it opening with yet another battle scene against the followers of Chaos, just that in this case there was no army engaging them, but a lone Stormcast Eternal. After plenty of slaughter, we finally find out who he is, what his task is and that he wields Ghal Maraz, which replaces "the warrior" as name for the character before Celestant Prime is adding to the range of identifiers.
By chapter two, an old wizard joins his journey to defeat the Prismatic King who usurped the nation that is this story's setting. He's a tzeentchian overlord, so trickery and twists are expected for the rest of the story, some of which felt somewhat obvious when they happened.
Their journey leads them through the Realm of Metal, with all its tzeentch-induced oddities. It felt good to just... walk through the setting for a change rather than pay for every step with the blood of the Stormcasts' enemies. Still, battles were going to happen sooner rather than later, especially after a group of lost Stormcasts join the party.
I very much enjoyed the way the novella's hero was presented, even though he is barely a character in his own right. The small inklings of him having a history with the Prismatic King are not exactly relevant to the story, and for all intents he is simply an embodiment of Sigmar's will. If he was remote controlled by the Heldenhammer, I wouldn't be surprised.
Still, his role in the story held a certain amount of gravitas, and while he was definitely on a different level of power than any other character in the book, a lot of times he chose not to fight and instead play it with cunning and faith.
Ghal Maraz took the role of major plot device, solving various problems and being awesome, but then, it is THE Warhammer itself, so I could easily forgive everybody fawning over it. Even though it was never this way in WHFB, of course - its value in the old setting was more symbolic than anything.
Yes, this novella went into the right direction. It wasn't perfect, but it did enough things right to provide an enjoyable experience. I got somewhat bored by chapter five, before the finale in the sixth, but that was due to an oversaturation of battles more than the characters. It seemed a bit like Werner was ticking off boxes as far as Tzeentch daemons and other Chaos elites went. The final showdown and ways Werner resolved the plot, however, felt surprisingly cool.
Full Verdict:
Hammers of Sigmar is a bit of a mixed bag. While Stormcast featured many decent ideas, the execution was too formulaic and lacking for me to be too thrilled with it. It didn't help that it took up 66% of the book. For every well done thing I found another that ticked me off in one way or another.
Scion of the Storm however was a refreshing tale that lasted as long as it should have and thus didn't overstay its welcome by padding it with needless battles. It filled that quota when it fit.
If anything, it made me hopeful for C.L. Werner's Wardens of the Everqueen .
The four star rating is for the most part down to the latter story. It lifted up the quality of the collection significantly. Stormcast would be easily skippable as just another conquer-realmgate-with-lots-of-military-against-Khorne tale, but Scion is actually a worthwhile read that gave a decent sense of who the Celestant Prime is, or what he represents (outside of being the token big kit for the faction's model range).
The book as a whole wasn't fantastic, but the way it ended left me with a positive note.
Both Hinks and Werners are veterans of Warhammer Fantasy, with more than enough works to their names; Werner takes the cake with a lot of classics, however.
As you might imagine, my expectations were relatively high. Both authors wrote stories I greatly enjoyed and showed great passion for GW's Fantasy range. Maybe they would know what to do to tease out that charme of the old setting that made me wanting more, and create memorable characters in Age of Sigmar.
Since Hammers of Sigmar doesn't actually follow the campaign books beyond referencing events, the authors should have had enough room to improvise. Or so I hoped. In the end, I was left somewhat disappointed with one story and very pleased with the other.
Stormcast by Darius Hinks:
First off, I actually enjoyed this for the most part.
Hinks picked a first person style for this short novel, alternating viewpoints between Lord-Celestant Tylos Stormbound, his Lord-Relictor Boreas Undying, Prosecutor-Prime Drusus Unbound and the non-Stormcasts Vourla, High Priestess of the Steppe that this story revolves around, an age-old scholar-necromancer called Mopus (because his full name is silly and lengthy), and a Khornate captain.
This is liked a lot, as the shifting perspectives fleshed things out nicely and the contrasting views of some characters pronounced the unworldiness of the Eternals. It also helped the story's pacing, and my willingness to finish it, as even if I didn't particularly care for one character at a given moment, the next one might be more interesting to me.
The highlights were the crone Vourla, who was enslaved by Khorne warlord Hakh but showed her defiance by manipulating him using her own visions of the future. Presenting the warlord a worthy foe on a silver platter worked out well enough. I liked her scheming presence throughout, even though it might have been a tad underused overall. She certainly prodded her captor here and there, but didn't take much of an active role up until the very end, while her PoV chapters ended halfway through.
Hakh's captain, who received a chapter of his own, felt intriguing to me. He was a maniac, which could be said about any Khorne worshipper, but his detachment from reality could have made for a cool subplot. Instead, I am afraid he was killed off rather unceremoniously as a mid-boss and never reached his full potential. A pity, as there were multiple things Hinks could have done with him to spice things up.
Mopus (full name: Menuasaraz-Senuamaraz-Kemurzil... Yes, indeed. Let's not use it again) meanwhile added a layer of ambiguity to the story. He's a scholar hermit skilled in necromancy, and has history with Lord-Relictor Boreas. They meet in one chapter only, before going their separate ways again. Mopus' perspective chapters kick in afterwards, and add a lot of depth to him as a character. Like Vourla, he is a schemer, but also a hopeless sod who has abandoned life in most regards. He is malnourished to the point of resembling his skeleton warriors, and knowledge is his biggest desire.
His story arc was more engaging to me than that of the Stormcasts, and so I am kind of bitter about it not having been more towards the center of the stage. His appearances mostly happen apart from the main plotline, and when it finally converges, it does so half-heartedly. The character was well-constructed for what it was, but again it was a case of missed opportunities.
Now, as for the Stormcasts themselves, I'm torn. The first person narrative added a lot to Tylos Stormbound and co, but it also detracted from my overall enjoyment of their role. The first chapter alone (Tylos' perspective) was, to me, a full showing of the Sigmarines' awesomeness at awesome, glorious combat in the glorious name of Sigmar. Stop! Hammertime and all.
A lot of scenes felt that way, though to be fair, Tylos and Boreas had more subtle moments of development throughout. All three Stormcast characters struggled with their own natures, one way or another, and that I enjoyed.
If only it hadn't been so tedious to wade through all this glorious combat, I'd have been more engaged. There's only so many Khorne dudes you can slay before it becomes monotonous.
And there's my chief complaints: The plot itself is very formulaic. For being the first book in this series that doesn't have to adhere to specific battleplans and background pages, it was surprisingly run of the mill.
We have the same scenario of a warrior chamber of the Stormcast Eternals being dropped into a realm (fire, how could it be any other?), way off course, in search of a lost realmgate to reclaim. They battle untold hordes of Chaos dudes on the way, suffer almost complete losses and in the end only half-complete their goal. It is getting somewhat ridiculous just how many of these important realmgates, so vital to Sigmar's reconquest of the mortal realms, get destroyed instead of recaptured. It happened in at least two novellas before (Borne by the Storm by Nick Kyme and The Gates of Dawn by Josh Reynolds), and the general scenario is mirrored in almost all the Realmgate Wars stories so far.
Add to that the endless superlatives and world-shattering events taking place () in the form of deus ex machina and you have an Age of Sigmar story that was pretty much by the book.
It is tediously formulaic. I had expected more, but perhaps I shouldn't have. This short novel has plenty of good points, but my enjoyment of it was seriously hampered by the amount of times Hinks went for the default choices. Maybe it was down to the editors' story write-up he was presented with. Maybe the team uses a build-your-own-Stormcast-story flowchart. I wouldn't be surprised.
But at the end of the day, I was underwhelmed with the end result. I wanted to be excited and know that the author is perfectly capable of doing that. It just doesn't appear that Age of Sigmar is as capable, or at least not with the direction the studio and editorial team at Black Library are taking it right now.
Scion of the Storm
At last. A story that feels more like an adventure, a hero's quest, than an unimaginative battle report. It is not by any means as good as some similar books Werner has written under the Warhammer Fantasy IP, but it is a start for Age of Sigmar.
The story revolves around the Celestant Prime, the arguably most powerful character in the Stormcast Eternals' arsenal. He's got wings and wields Sigmar's own hammer, Ghal Maraz. He is, for any intents and purposes, overpowered next to the other Stormcasts, who almost worship him, and can take on multiple Greater Daemons at once, as shown in this story.
At first I was bored with the story, due to it opening with yet another battle scene against the followers of Chaos, just that in this case there was no army engaging them, but a lone Stormcast Eternal. After plenty of slaughter, we finally find out who he is, what his task is and that he wields Ghal Maraz, which replaces "the warrior" as name for the character before Celestant Prime is adding to the range of identifiers.
By chapter two, an old wizard joins his journey to defeat the Prismatic King who usurped the nation that is this story's setting. He's a tzeentchian overlord, so trickery and twists are expected for the rest of the story, some of which felt somewhat obvious when they happened.
Their journey leads them through the Realm of Metal, with all its tzeentch-induced oddities. It felt good to just... walk through the setting for a change rather than pay for every step with the blood of the Stormcasts' enemies. Still, battles were going to happen sooner rather than later, especially after a group of lost Stormcasts join the party.
I very much enjoyed the way the novella's hero was presented, even though he is barely a character in his own right. The small inklings of him having a history with the Prismatic King are not exactly relevant to the story, and for all intents he is simply an embodiment of Sigmar's will. If he was remote controlled by the Heldenhammer, I wouldn't be surprised.
Still, his role in the story held a certain amount of gravitas, and while he was definitely on a different level of power than any other character in the book, a lot of times he chose not to fight and instead play it with cunning and faith.
Ghal Maraz took the role of major plot device, solving various problems and being awesome, but then, it is THE Warhammer itself, so I could easily forgive everybody fawning over it. Even though it was never this way in WHFB, of course - its value in the old setting was more symbolic than anything.
Yes, this novella went into the right direction. It wasn't perfect, but it did enough things right to provide an enjoyable experience. I got somewhat bored by chapter five, before the finale in the sixth, but that was due to an oversaturation of battles more than the characters. It seemed a bit like Werner was ticking off boxes as far as Tzeentch daemons and other Chaos elites went. The final showdown and ways Werner resolved the plot, however, felt surprisingly cool.
Full Verdict:
Hammers of Sigmar is a bit of a mixed bag. While Stormcast featured many decent ideas, the execution was too formulaic and lacking for me to be too thrilled with it. It didn't help that it took up 66% of the book. For every well done thing I found another that ticked me off in one way or another.
Scion of the Storm however was a refreshing tale that lasted as long as it should have and thus didn't overstay its welcome by padding it with needless battles. It filled that quota when it fit.
If anything, it made me hopeful for C.L. Werner's Wardens of the Everqueen .
The four star rating is for the most part down to the latter story. It lifted up the quality of the collection significantly. Stormcast would be easily skippable as just another conquer-realmgate-with-lots-of-military-against-Khorne tale, but Scion is actually a worthwhile read that gave a decent sense of who the Celestant Prime is, or what he represents (outside of being the token big kit for the faction's model range).
The book as a whole wasn't fantastic, but the way it ended left me with a positive note.
August 21, 2016
Wow, it might finally be time for Guy Haley's 'Storm of Blades' to step aside, there's a new contender for best Age of Sigmar story yet written in the house. Because 'Stormcast', by Darius Hinks, the first of two novella-length stories in this book, is to put it simply, spectacular. It follows the by-now familiar Realmgate Wars formula with a Stormhost of Sigmar's warriors blasted into a hostile realm with the aim of wresting the region from the vile clutches of Chaos. What elevates this above any accusations of being more of the same is a brilliantly warped depiction of a landscape that's been oppressed and remoulded by Khorne, a caste of memorable antagonists, a mortal sorceress (my one grip is that I'd liked to have seen a bit more from her at the end) and a fascinating subplot involving a pair of necromancers in a farway realm as they debate which side to aid and whether to intervene at all. The finale too is a cut above your basic battle, with the addition of some inngenious backstory and one very large and very angry daemon.
I feel a need to go and read the Orion series right now...
The second story, 'Scion of the Storm', was written by C.L.Werner, one of my favourite Black Library authors and fellow fur-wearer, and (by accident or design) follows the shift set by 'Stormcast' to first person perspective, which made for an interesting change. This book gives our first look at the Celestant Prime, sent to battle a daemon of Tzeentch and uncover the fate of a missing Stormhost called The Thrice-Blessed. The initial battles were essentially showcases for the Celestant-Prime's titanic awesomeness, but once we're inside the daemon's palace and his devious maze of reflections then things really get interesting. Trickery abounds and the daemon's final deception was a killer. The real mystery of course is the identity of the Celestant-Prime, it's not revealed here, but I'm certainly intrigued enough to want to find out
I feel a need to go and read the Orion series right now...
The second story, 'Scion of the Storm', was written by C.L.Werner, one of my favourite Black Library authors and fellow fur-wearer, and (by accident or design) follows the shift set by 'Stormcast' to first person perspective, which made for an interesting change. This book gives our first look at the Celestant Prime, sent to battle a daemon of Tzeentch and uncover the fate of a missing Stormhost called The Thrice-Blessed. The initial battles were essentially showcases for the Celestant-Prime's titanic awesomeness, but once we're inside the daemon's palace and his devious maze of reflections then things really get interesting. Trickery abounds and the daemon's final deception was a killer. The real mystery of course is the identity of the Celestant-Prime, it's not revealed here, but I'm certainly intrigued enough to want to find out
June 26, 2016
Hmm, I'm getting a little tired of the constant fighting. Some more character development and world building with a side plot would make the story more well rounded.
March 16, 2021
True rating for this volume was 3.5 stars overall.
Stormcast, - Darius Hinks (4 stars)
What I enjoyed most about this one was the characters and the atmosphere. Hinks changes up the perspectives than his AoS-writing brethren thus far, and has come up with some original personages that are at least as interesting as anything that’s come before them. Also, this one has atmosphere to burn (aha), taking us from the much-visited Realm of Fire to the Realm of Death, and bringing in third and fourth parties in the persons of Vourla, Mopus, and Giraldus. Lord-Celestant Tylos Stormbound and his brother (in mortal life as well as ascended) Lord-Relictor Boreas Undying make for a pair of capable and likeable heroes, both menacing and admirable, and lit with a more convincing faith than one typically sees in SEs. Anyone who can inspire a necromancer to fight alongside them and perhaps believe in Sigmar’s dream is no slouch. The Chaotic types always have to bury Sigmar whenever they get a chance to talk about him, but those in the grave-bothering business are far too close to Nagash to be so easily hornswoggled. The undead keep a respectful distance from the Big S, having run afoul of his anger and power more than once in the World-That-Was.
But it’s the Khornate loonies that I found fascinating here – both far more interesting than the rather generic (if reliable) Korghos Khul, may he take a frazzling break once in a while. Hakh, the Lord of the Blood Creed, is far more magnetic than Korghos (if probably less powerful), with his slow-burning menace. Make no mistake, he’s the Blood God’s own through and through, just as willing to carve up his own lackeys as anyone else, but he can think in his own barbaric way - and he stays his hand when he has a higher purpose than mere short-sighted killing. Korghos has this too, to a point, but Hakh does it way better. Reading Hakh is like sharing a room with a hungry tiger; Korghos seems little different to me from an Ork Warboss with a different paint job (aha) and the sense of humor filed off. Sometimes a bit of buildup is more effective than the literary equivalent of a hurricane of swear words and headbutts.
Vhaal the Skinless, Hakh’s executioner and chief lieutenant, has the most fascinating Khornate mindset I have yet to see in any Warhammer fiction – Fantasy, 40K, or AoS. His bone-deep conviction that no one in the waking world is real – “these talking sacks of blood”, he calls them – save himself and the Blood God, is a really effective motivator. If you haven’t guessed by now, I find Khornate villains to probably be one of the easiest BL stock characters to write really lazily, and I’m really impressed with Vhaal, who is desensitized to the incomprehensible cruelty and violence he deals out by completely dehumanizing everything. There are no real people to kill, then – just a bunch of “talking sacks of blood” that get in the way of your religious communion. I was pleased for Tylos and Co that they brought down a foe like this so definitively – even a small amount of well-managed stage time makes a secondary character like Vhaal effective and meaningful – but I was disappointed that I won’t be seeing Vhaal the Skinless in the future. I’d much rather read him than watch Korghos overstay his welcome yet again (or ever have to read the word "Bloodsecrator"). I hope someone else plays around with this motivation again in the future. Maybe a cult, perhaps? A Khornate religious faction?
Vourla is interesting, representing what civilization there was in the Realm of Fire before Chaos mucked the place up. She appears to have sprung from a real, if dying culture, and the hapless wretches still being used and abused by Hakh and his Blood Creed are still more interesting than the nameless tribe on the run on the Brimstone Peninsula way back when the Realmgate Wars started. She kind of fades into the background in the last act, as Hakh literally drags her around the map and she watches an invasion of high-level characters start duffing each other up properly.
On that note, the fights are good, and we get to see Stormcasts that really seem worthy of the name. The Stormbound are the toughest of the Hammers of Sigmar I have yet seen on the field of battle; the equal of the Steel Souls Chamber of the Hallowed Knights. These guys do not break, they do not run. They relentlessly grind forward with the inevitability of a landslide and hit like anvils shot from a cannon. Tylos Stormbound can really fight – much more convincingly and powerfully than Vandus (unless the latter’s swinging Ghal Maraz around, and that’s not a fair comparison). Boreas Undying summons up some fulminomantic special effects that far outclass anything any of his brethren have yet produced – his lightnings are too much even for the Stormcasts themselves, which really amps up the divine aspect and impact of the Big S’s favored means to reach out and fry someone. Hakh gets a cool moment here as well, taking a full-tilt Stormcast hammer blow to the face and still carrying on. It’s a well-done moment that builds him up without making Tylos look weak, which is often the side effect of juggling all these overpowered characters from the toybox, er, model-box, and making them fight. (He can’t do it twice, though. Ouch.)
There’s just tons of atmosphere and power radiating through everything, from Hakh’s barely-contained menace to the eye-burning radiance of the Stormbound, to the overwhelming evil of the Crucible of Blood. Darius Hinks has made me connect to how AoS seems like it should feel, more than anything else. Looking forward to seeing what else he does.
Scion of the Storm – C.L. Werner (3 stars)
Werner is one of my all-time favorite Warhammer Fantasy writers back in the days of the World-That-Was, his Matthias Thulmann trilogy being a firm favorite. This one is a bit more of a mixed bag. I feel like AoS is a bit too shiny of a setting for a man who really brought the grim into the Old World, whose favorite stuff was vile ratmen and the resolute but terrible types who hunted them.
So it’s odd to me that the King of Grime gets the privilege of inducting the shiniest of all Sigmarines, the Celestant-Prime, who I am suspicious is our old pal Karl-Franz, the very last of the Emperors of Sigmar back on the World-That-Was. He’s been given Ghal Maraz itself to deal death to the Big S’s enemies with, and I don’t think prizes from that deep in the cereal-box are given to just anyone. I did enjoy Werner’s bit of lore-callback with “…upon the broad and brutal head were inscribed runes that had been old in the Age of Myth.” The C-P is certainly a destroyer amongst destroyers, able to singlehandedly pulp groups of foes that would at the very least slow down ordinary Stormcasts for a short time. He does have the literal “Godhammer of Sigmar” as they’ve taken to calling it, which if anything, seems to be even more powerful than it was in elder days.
Werner adds some interesting new wrinkles to the metallic realm of Chamon, with bizarre flora and fauna that gives diversity to the more arid, desert-like portrayal that we say in the saga of Thostos Bladestorm and the finding of Ghal Maraz. He is also much more at home in the Eyrie of the Prismatic King, the Tzeentchian Big Bad of the piece, with its malign sorceries and bringing in a heavy dose of the Lovecraftian inspiration that has informed GW’s portrayals of Chaos for a long while.
The battle in the Eyrie is much more to his taste, I think, and reliably fun. I’ve ready this piece twice now, and I’m starting to wonder if Werner was satirizing the Stormcasts in his narration a bit. Could just be me, I guess. The battle with the Prismatic King goes a bit predictably, and the expected Chaos-y twist at the end is sort of nerfed, mostly by how quickly the C-P and his warband seem to get over it. Again, I half wonder if Werner is tweaking the stern nose of the Sigmarines in this aspect.
This one was okay. Most of the significance is watching the C-P make his debut. Werner needs some grubbier corners of the Mortal Realms to work in.
Stormcast, - Darius Hinks (4 stars)
What I enjoyed most about this one was the characters and the atmosphere. Hinks changes up the perspectives than his AoS-writing brethren thus far, and has come up with some original personages that are at least as interesting as anything that’s come before them. Also, this one has atmosphere to burn (aha), taking us from the much-visited Realm of Fire to the Realm of Death, and bringing in third and fourth parties in the persons of Vourla, Mopus, and Giraldus. Lord-Celestant Tylos Stormbound and his brother (in mortal life as well as ascended) Lord-Relictor Boreas Undying make for a pair of capable and likeable heroes, both menacing and admirable, and lit with a more convincing faith than one typically sees in SEs. Anyone who can inspire a necromancer to fight alongside them and perhaps believe in Sigmar’s dream is no slouch. The Chaotic types always have to bury Sigmar whenever they get a chance to talk about him, but those in the grave-bothering business are far too close to Nagash to be so easily hornswoggled. The undead keep a respectful distance from the Big S, having run afoul of his anger and power more than once in the World-That-Was.
But it’s the Khornate loonies that I found fascinating here – both far more interesting than the rather generic (if reliable) Korghos Khul, may he take a frazzling break once in a while. Hakh, the Lord of the Blood Creed, is far more magnetic than Korghos (if probably less powerful), with his slow-burning menace. Make no mistake, he’s the Blood God’s own through and through, just as willing to carve up his own lackeys as anyone else, but he can think in his own barbaric way - and he stays his hand when he has a higher purpose than mere short-sighted killing. Korghos has this too, to a point, but Hakh does it way better. Reading Hakh is like sharing a room with a hungry tiger; Korghos seems little different to me from an Ork Warboss with a different paint job (aha) and the sense of humor filed off. Sometimes a bit of buildup is more effective than the literary equivalent of a hurricane of swear words and headbutts.
Vhaal the Skinless, Hakh’s executioner and chief lieutenant, has the most fascinating Khornate mindset I have yet to see in any Warhammer fiction – Fantasy, 40K, or AoS. His bone-deep conviction that no one in the waking world is real – “these talking sacks of blood”, he calls them – save himself and the Blood God, is a really effective motivator. If you haven’t guessed by now, I find Khornate villains to probably be one of the easiest BL stock characters to write really lazily, and I’m really impressed with Vhaal, who is desensitized to the incomprehensible cruelty and violence he deals out by completely dehumanizing everything. There are no real people to kill, then – just a bunch of “talking sacks of blood” that get in the way of your religious communion. I was pleased for Tylos and Co that they brought down a foe like this so definitively – even a small amount of well-managed stage time makes a secondary character like Vhaal effective and meaningful – but I was disappointed that I won’t be seeing Vhaal the Skinless in the future. I’d much rather read him than watch Korghos overstay his welcome yet again (or ever have to read the word "Bloodsecrator"). I hope someone else plays around with this motivation again in the future. Maybe a cult, perhaps? A Khornate religious faction?
Vourla is interesting, representing what civilization there was in the Realm of Fire before Chaos mucked the place up. She appears to have sprung from a real, if dying culture, and the hapless wretches still being used and abused by Hakh and his Blood Creed are still more interesting than the nameless tribe on the run on the Brimstone Peninsula way back when the Realmgate Wars started. She kind of fades into the background in the last act, as Hakh literally drags her around the map and she watches an invasion of high-level characters start duffing each other up properly.
On that note, the fights are good, and we get to see Stormcasts that really seem worthy of the name. The Stormbound are the toughest of the Hammers of Sigmar I have yet seen on the field of battle; the equal of the Steel Souls Chamber of the Hallowed Knights. These guys do not break, they do not run. They relentlessly grind forward with the inevitability of a landslide and hit like anvils shot from a cannon. Tylos Stormbound can really fight – much more convincingly and powerfully than Vandus (unless the latter’s swinging Ghal Maraz around, and that’s not a fair comparison). Boreas Undying summons up some fulminomantic special effects that far outclass anything any of his brethren have yet produced – his lightnings are too much even for the Stormcasts themselves, which really amps up the divine aspect and impact of the Big S’s favored means to reach out and fry someone. Hakh gets a cool moment here as well, taking a full-tilt Stormcast hammer blow to the face and still carrying on. It’s a well-done moment that builds him up without making Tylos look weak, which is often the side effect of juggling all these overpowered characters from the toybox, er, model-box, and making them fight. (He can’t do it twice, though. Ouch.)
There’s just tons of atmosphere and power radiating through everything, from Hakh’s barely-contained menace to the eye-burning radiance of the Stormbound, to the overwhelming evil of the Crucible of Blood. Darius Hinks has made me connect to how AoS seems like it should feel, more than anything else. Looking forward to seeing what else he does.
Scion of the Storm – C.L. Werner (3 stars)
Werner is one of my all-time favorite Warhammer Fantasy writers back in the days of the World-That-Was, his Matthias Thulmann trilogy being a firm favorite. This one is a bit more of a mixed bag. I feel like AoS is a bit too shiny of a setting for a man who really brought the grim into the Old World, whose favorite stuff was vile ratmen and the resolute but terrible types who hunted them.
So it’s odd to me that the King of Grime gets the privilege of inducting the shiniest of all Sigmarines, the Celestant-Prime, who I am suspicious is our old pal Karl-Franz, the very last of the Emperors of Sigmar back on the World-That-Was. He’s been given Ghal Maraz itself to deal death to the Big S’s enemies with, and I don’t think prizes from that deep in the cereal-box are given to just anyone. I did enjoy Werner’s bit of lore-callback with “…upon the broad and brutal head were inscribed runes that had been old in the Age of Myth.” The C-P is certainly a destroyer amongst destroyers, able to singlehandedly pulp groups of foes that would at the very least slow down ordinary Stormcasts for a short time. He does have the literal “Godhammer of Sigmar” as they’ve taken to calling it, which if anything, seems to be even more powerful than it was in elder days.
Werner adds some interesting new wrinkles to the metallic realm of Chamon, with bizarre flora and fauna that gives diversity to the more arid, desert-like portrayal that we say in the saga of Thostos Bladestorm and the finding of Ghal Maraz. He is also much more at home in the Eyrie of the Prismatic King, the Tzeentchian Big Bad of the piece, with its malign sorceries and bringing in a heavy dose of the Lovecraftian inspiration that has informed GW’s portrayals of Chaos for a long while.
The battle in the Eyrie is much more to his taste, I think, and reliably fun. I’ve ready this piece twice now, and I’m starting to wonder if Werner was satirizing the Stormcasts in his narration a bit. Could just be me, I guess. The battle with the Prismatic King goes a bit predictably, and the expected Chaos-y twist at the end is sort of nerfed, mostly by how quickly the C-P and his warband seem to get over it. Again, I half wonder if Werner is tweaking the stern nose of the Sigmarines in this aspect.
This one was okay. Most of the significance is watching the C-P make his debut. Werner needs some grubbier corners of the Mortal Realms to work in.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 25, 2018
You can read teh full review over at my blog:
https://shadowhawksshade.wordpress.co...
First there was the Age of Myth, when the Eight Realms were in harmony and the pantheons of the gods and goddesses worked with each other. And then came the dreaded Age of Chaos as the pantheons were sundered and the Eight Realms descended into anarchy and despair as the forces of the Chaos Gods ran rampant. And now the Age of Sigmar has begun, the God-King Heldenhammer sends out celestial warriors to throw back Chaos and liberate the Eight Realms from their grip. As we’ve already seen, it is not an easy road, and many heroes and villains have fallen across it.
Hammers of Sigmar tells us the stories of some of these heroes and villains and it is truly a mixed bag. Darius Hinks’ Stormcast is about Lord-Celestant Tylos of the Stormbound warrior chamber as he and his warriors race against time to destroy a great Chaos artifact. C. L. Werner’s Scion of The Storm is about the mysterious hero known only as the Celestant-Prime and his quest to kill a mighty Chaos warlord. Different types of missions, different heroes, different villains all come together to present the weakest story of the Realmgate Wars, but perhaps also some of the most poignant.
As with the other Realmgate Wars before it, Hammers of Sigmar is divided into two novellas of varying length, the first by Darius Hinks and the second by C. L. Werner as they both make their Age of Sigmar debut, having written extensively before for Warhammer Fantasy. Stylistically, both stories are very different from each other and that is part of the appeal of the novel. It keeps things fresh and interesting, breaking from the monotony of the “regular” stories as we’ve seen before.
Hinks’ Stormcast provides an interesting concept with the mission entrusted to the Stormbound, but to be frank, I was rather bored by it all. Neither Lord-Celestant Tylos Stormbound, nor Lord-Relictor Boreas made for compelling characters, seemingly cast in a cliche mold that we’ve already seen before with some of the other Stormcast characters. That they are from a different warrior chamber is a plus point, but I couldn’t really relate to either of them in a meaningful way. That was compounded by the fact that Tylos is a thick-headed glory-chaser while Boreas is a pale imitation of Lord-Relictor Ionus Cryptborn of the Hammerhands. And the overall story of Stormcast is no different to what we’ve already seen. The formulaic nature of everything really took me out of the experience, one I do not care to repeat, truth be told.
https://shadowhawksshade.wordpress.co...
First there was the Age of Myth, when the Eight Realms were in harmony and the pantheons of the gods and goddesses worked with each other. And then came the dreaded Age of Chaos as the pantheons were sundered and the Eight Realms descended into anarchy and despair as the forces of the Chaos Gods ran rampant. And now the Age of Sigmar has begun, the God-King Heldenhammer sends out celestial warriors to throw back Chaos and liberate the Eight Realms from their grip. As we’ve already seen, it is not an easy road, and many heroes and villains have fallen across it.
Hammers of Sigmar tells us the stories of some of these heroes and villains and it is truly a mixed bag. Darius Hinks’ Stormcast is about Lord-Celestant Tylos of the Stormbound warrior chamber as he and his warriors race against time to destroy a great Chaos artifact. C. L. Werner’s Scion of The Storm is about the mysterious hero known only as the Celestant-Prime and his quest to kill a mighty Chaos warlord. Different types of missions, different heroes, different villains all come together to present the weakest story of the Realmgate Wars, but perhaps also some of the most poignant.
As with the other Realmgate Wars before it, Hammers of Sigmar is divided into two novellas of varying length, the first by Darius Hinks and the second by C. L. Werner as they both make their Age of Sigmar debut, having written extensively before for Warhammer Fantasy. Stylistically, both stories are very different from each other and that is part of the appeal of the novel. It keeps things fresh and interesting, breaking from the monotony of the “regular” stories as we’ve seen before.
Hinks’ Stormcast provides an interesting concept with the mission entrusted to the Stormbound, but to be frank, I was rather bored by it all. Neither Lord-Celestant Tylos Stormbound, nor Lord-Relictor Boreas made for compelling characters, seemingly cast in a cliche mold that we’ve already seen before with some of the other Stormcast characters. That they are from a different warrior chamber is a plus point, but I couldn’t really relate to either of them in a meaningful way. That was compounded by the fact that Tylos is a thick-headed glory-chaser while Boreas is a pale imitation of Lord-Relictor Ionus Cryptborn of the Hammerhands. And the overall story of Stormcast is no different to what we’ve already seen. The formulaic nature of everything really took me out of the experience, one I do not care to repeat, truth be told.
November 25, 2018
This book kinda picks up where the third one did. In this one the main character is the Celestant Prime who is the wielder of Sigmar's Hammer Ghal Marz. He is seeking out the Prismatic Prince who has created a huge palace that traps its foes withing it's walls. In his quest he is accompanied by a wizard seeking revenge and some fellow Stormcasts who have also been tasked with finding and destroying the Prismatic Prince. As I have read this series I have divided these books up into two categories. There are the action books and those that advance the story and give more background to the characters. This book falls into the action part which is entertaining but it would be nice to see the story get advanced also.
October 17, 2020
I was a disappointed in this. While it is two separate novellas, the stories didn't appear to be connected but do call back to the previous books in the series. There was a start of character development in these but then it devolved back into non-stop fighting. While the role of these novellas appear to be introducing the various factions and locales for Age of Sigmar, it reads more like a battle report. I found myself wanting more character building and world building to really pull me into this story. Perhaps if these were closer to novel length that might have happened. I have hopes for the next book in the series.
August 6, 2021
Again, this is two novellas in one book, Stormcast and Scion of the Storm. Stormcast, personally, I found far too ambitious for its own good, juggling first person, present tense, and a large number of perspectives, which overall felt very disjointed. While Scion of the Storm was better, I found it honestly too short to be compelling, and it felt more as if it was just setting up later stories.
July 22, 2018
It’s okay. Some pretty cool moments in both stories and typical heroic fantasy characters that make it worth while. But only read if you’re going to be invested in the series and if you care about the lore.
May 25, 2018
Barely average for licensed fiction.
April 4, 2023
This is good high fantasy. If the Lord of the Rings is fine dining, that you indulge in. This is a good burger you would go back for every once in a while. A lot of fun listening to this series.
September 13, 2020
CAUTION HERE MAY BE SPOILERS!!!
gotta say that this book really disappointed me. it was actually pretty boring, to be honest.
book 3 in the Age of Sigmar and up till now the series was doing great every instalment was a continuation of the previous one. we had recurring characters and villains and I get that one of the down points of this series is the lack of overall story but what little we had was great. this one while not exactly lacking in it just wasn't up to the standard of the previous ones.
first, we have Stormcast by Darius Hinks which takes up the majority of this book and the biggest drawback for me was the first-person narrative it took. not many books get written where you are the character. where it's less than him or her doing something and written as you doing it. and I have to say I hated it. couldn't stand it.
it confused me to the point it was like reading a book about myself because of the perspective it was written in and just did a number on my brain. so straigh away no matter how good the story was going to be i was already on the outs with it.
other than that horrible aspect i did like the story but i just cant get away from that first-person narritive. this is the first book ive read that has done it and hopfully its the last.
the seconds story in this book and arguably the better of the two was Scion of the Storm by one of Black Libaray’s best writters, C.L.Werner. and unfortunatly not even he can save this book.
his story was much better written, more stor driven and it really shows what this guy can do with so little.
i really liked the charactures, the setting the whole mirror world was original and well wrote and it was wrirten in third-person naritive! Thank Sigmar for that!
i was really looking forward to reading this book and continuing the AOS series but dude...this was more of a chore than enjoyable read. if this book wasnt part of a series i would of donated it to a charity shop and be done with it.
the scariest thing about this book was that its the first Darius Hinks Warhammer novel I've read and I hope to sweet merciful Shallya that his other books don't follow this lead.
Simar save us all if he does 😪🙌🏻🙏🏻
gotta say that this book really disappointed me. it was actually pretty boring, to be honest.
book 3 in the Age of Sigmar and up till now the series was doing great every instalment was a continuation of the previous one. we had recurring characters and villains and I get that one of the down points of this series is the lack of overall story but what little we had was great. this one while not exactly lacking in it just wasn't up to the standard of the previous ones.
first, we have Stormcast by Darius Hinks which takes up the majority of this book and the biggest drawback for me was the first-person narrative it took. not many books get written where you are the character. where it's less than him or her doing something and written as you doing it. and I have to say I hated it. couldn't stand it.
it confused me to the point it was like reading a book about myself because of the perspective it was written in and just did a number on my brain. so straigh away no matter how good the story was going to be i was already on the outs with it.
other than that horrible aspect i did like the story but i just cant get away from that first-person narritive. this is the first book ive read that has done it and hopfully its the last.
the seconds story in this book and arguably the better of the two was Scion of the Storm by one of Black Libaray’s best writters, C.L.Werner. and unfortunatly not even he can save this book.
his story was much better written, more stor driven and it really shows what this guy can do with so little.
i really liked the charactures, the setting the whole mirror world was original and well wrote and it was wrirten in third-person naritive! Thank Sigmar for that!
i was really looking forward to reading this book and continuing the AOS series but dude...this was more of a chore than enjoyable read. if this book wasnt part of a series i would of donated it to a charity shop and be done with it.
the scariest thing about this book was that its the first Darius Hinks Warhammer novel I've read and I hope to sweet merciful Shallya that his other books don't follow this lead.
Simar save us all if he does 😪🙌🏻🙏🏻
February 22, 2016
The first tale in this book was Stormcast by Darius Hinks. Very different prose to the previous two books, which provided a very different view into the Stormcast Eternals and the ongoing realmgate wars.
Particularly enjoyable was Hinks description of the stormhost in the opening pages of the book and he really builds a picture of a mighty stormhost arrayed for battle and was a joy to read.
The tale is pacy and has a fantastic ending filled with heroics and sacrifice.
The second tale is the introduction of The Celestial Prime and although short demonstrates his power and has a very nice twist - sterling work by c.l werner
Particularly enjoyable was Hinks description of the stormhost in the opening pages of the book and he really builds a picture of a mighty stormhost arrayed for battle and was a joy to read.
The tale is pacy and has a fantastic ending filled with heroics and sacrifice.
The second tale is the introduction of The Celestial Prime and although short demonstrates his power and has a very nice twist - sterling work by c.l werner
May 26, 2016
Book three in the Realmgate Wars series, Hammers of Sigmar once again combines two novellas into a single volume, collecting together Stormcast by Darius Hinks and Scion of the Storm from CL Werner. Both are new story arcs, Hinks tackling a Stormcast chamber sent to reclaim a daemon-infested Realmgate while Werner introduces Sigmar’s greatest champion – the Celestant Prime – who’s tasked with rescuing a lost force of Stormcast and defeating a Tzeentchian champion.
Read the rest of the review at https://trackofwords.wordpress.com/20...
Read the rest of the review at https://trackofwords.wordpress.com/20...
December 1, 2015
Objective rating three stars, fanboy rating four stars. A sigmarine action fluff. Good stuff.
July 7, 2016
Control of the realm gate continues.
February 24, 2017
another good book in the series so far...
July 20, 2022
Sobran la mitad de páginas, por lo menos. El Celestant Prime es un meme en este libro.
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