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Warhammer Heroes #Omnibus
Total War: The Emperor's Armies
Mighty armies clash as the Empire's greatest heroes must unite to defeat ruinous threats from both within and without.
Rebellion consumes the province of Averland and civil war looms, while orcs threaten to sweep out of the mountains and devastate the land. Suspecting the taint of Chaos behind the uprising, the Emperor Karl Franz sends two of his greatest champions to defeat the greenskins, thwart the Dark Gods and restore Imperial rule to Averland. This book collects together the novels Sword of Vengeance and Sword of Justice, plus the short stories "Feast of Horrors" and "Duty and Honour".
Rebellion consumes the province of Averland and civil war looms, while orcs threaten to sweep out of the mountains and devastate the land. Suspecting the taint of Chaos behind the uprising, the Emperor Karl Franz sends two of his greatest champions to defeat the greenskins, thwart the Dark Gods and restore Imperial rule to Averland. This book collects together the novels Sword of Vengeance and Sword of Justice, plus the short stories "Feast of Horrors" and "Duty and Honour".
- GenresFantasy
896 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 2012
4 people are currently reading
122 people want to read
About the author
Chris Wraight
220 books386 followersChris Wraight is a British author of fantasy and science fiction.
His first novel was published in 2008; since then, he has published books set in the Warhammer Fantasy and Stargate:Atlantis universes, and has upcoming titles in the Warhammer 40K setting.
He is based in the south-west of England.
His first novel was published in 2008; since then, he has published books set in the Warhammer Fantasy and Stargate:Atlantis universes, and has upcoming titles in the Warhammer 40K setting.
He is based in the south-west of England.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
October 25, 2012
Looking at the front cover I was expecting a basic hack and slash violence-fest but I was pleasantly surprised to find this collection of two novels with a couple of link in pieces added to be very attention demanding and detailed reading.
Leaning heavily towards politics and the complex workings of a kingdom 'Swords of the Emperor' turned out to be a bit of a surprise. The main characters 'Schwarzhelm and Helborg' are hard as nails and truly oldschool fantasy no nonsense tale knights of the best kind, the battle scenes are exceptionally well put together and never overbearing.
I did find it a bit of a slow read through, not in any bad way at all, more in the way of there being so much worth while information to take in and appreciate, the twists in the tale are quite subtle for this kind of writing and the long term character development shown is very believable and written with great skill.
This omnibus ticked a lot of boxes for me, so with the inclusion of Orcs, Civil War, Gods, and Warriors with magnificent facial hair it was never going to be anything but a winner.
Leaning heavily towards politics and the complex workings of a kingdom 'Swords of the Emperor' turned out to be a bit of a surprise. The main characters 'Schwarzhelm and Helborg' are hard as nails and truly oldschool fantasy no nonsense tale knights of the best kind, the battle scenes are exceptionally well put together and never overbearing.
I did find it a bit of a slow read through, not in any bad way at all, more in the way of there being so much worth while information to take in and appreciate, the twists in the tale are quite subtle for this kind of writing and the long term character development shown is very believable and written with great skill.
This omnibus ticked a lot of boxes for me, so with the inclusion of Orcs, Civil War, Gods, and Warriors with magnificent facial hair it was never going to be anything but a winner.
July 4, 2020
Thoroughly enjoyed it.
May 5, 2020
I am going to try and be fair. This is my first foray into Warhammer Fantasy novels, as such, I don't know if this is how things usually go down, or how characters are portrayed.
That being said, I felt very torn on whether I enjoyed these stories or not. Sure, there was intrigue, action and plenty of world building, but at times it just felt a bit stale.
The characters are not particularly likeable. Schwarzhelm, Helborg, Bloch. There are others, but they all have the same sort of problems: arrogance, stubborness, stupidity. These stories could well have been compiled under the title 'Poor Communication Kills: A Warhammer Novel'. I can appreciate a good deception as much as the next reader, but any big twists unveiled during the reading were rarely, if ever, surprising. A lot of the conflicts could have been resolved if the characters had been a bit smarter.
The action scenes are well written, if a bit samey. A lot of the times the heroes just roar defiantly and the tide turns. I can appreciate the attempt to stage battles with thousands of soldiers, so I'll forgive the stumblings there, as it's chaos, and rightly so.
Worth noting that the only female characters in this collection are either prostitutes or daemons. I'm not suggesting they need to be generals/soldiers, because the universe doesn't seem to allow for that, but still.
There are two novels here. Sword of Justice and Sword of Vengeance. These make up the meat of the page count. There are also two short stories: Feast of Horrors, and Honor and Duty. Neither of these needed to be in the book, and if anything their presence hurts the characters of Schwarzhelm and Helborg by being there, though I cannot fully cover this without spoilers.
All in all, a fun read, if a but lengthy in the wrong kind of way. Warhammer fans are the target audience, but casuals with interest in the series could do a lot worse.
That being said, I felt very torn on whether I enjoyed these stories or not. Sure, there was intrigue, action and plenty of world building, but at times it just felt a bit stale.
The characters are not particularly likeable. Schwarzhelm, Helborg, Bloch. There are others, but they all have the same sort of problems: arrogance, stubborness, stupidity. These stories could well have been compiled under the title 'Poor Communication Kills: A Warhammer Novel'. I can appreciate a good deception as much as the next reader, but any big twists unveiled during the reading were rarely, if ever, surprising. A lot of the conflicts could have been resolved if the characters had been a bit smarter.
The action scenes are well written, if a bit samey. A lot of the times the heroes just roar defiantly and the tide turns. I can appreciate the attempt to stage battles with thousands of soldiers, so I'll forgive the stumblings there, as it's chaos, and rightly so.
Worth noting that the only female characters in this collection are either prostitutes or daemons. I'm not suggesting they need to be generals/soldiers, because the universe doesn't seem to allow for that, but still.
There are two novels here. Sword of Justice and Sword of Vengeance. These make up the meat of the page count. There are also two short stories: Feast of Horrors, and Honor and Duty. Neither of these needed to be in the book, and if anything their presence hurts the characters of Schwarzhelm and Helborg by being there, though I cannot fully cover this without spoilers.
All in all, a fun read, if a but lengthy in the wrong kind of way. Warhammer fans are the target audience, but casuals with interest in the series could do a lot worse.
July 25, 2016
I'm giving this book 3 stars in an effort to be unbiased, however, my personal experience with the book is 4 stars as I really like the Warhammer world very much.
The writing was good, and the style well done. The author described everything well without getting too wordy.
The plot was slightly predictable and very straightforward, however it's Warhammer so that is to be somewhat expected.
The characters are interesting and I actually like the character development. I've heard others say it's lackluster, but I think they may be forgetting that the main characters are mature/old warriors who are set in their ways, therefore making the character development seem minuscule. Despite this though, I think that also makes the development a bit more profound.
If you like the Warhammer universe, either from the recent Total War game or if you're an old tabletop fan, I think this is a fun read you should pick up at some point. If not, do a little reading on Warhammer and make sure it's for you before picking this book up.
The writing was good, and the style well done. The author described everything well without getting too wordy.
The plot was slightly predictable and very straightforward, however it's Warhammer so that is to be somewhat expected.
The characters are interesting and I actually like the character development. I've heard others say it's lackluster, but I think they may be forgetting that the main characters are mature/old warriors who are set in their ways, therefore making the character development seem minuscule. Despite this though, I think that also makes the development a bit more profound.
If you like the Warhammer universe, either from the recent Total War game or if you're an old tabletop fan, I think this is a fun read you should pick up at some point. If not, do a little reading on Warhammer and make sure it's for you before picking this book up.
June 23, 2014
Sadly I did not care for this. After like 150 pages & realizing I only gave a damn about one character, I just had to call it quits. Frustrating, but often my joy over an author in the 40k universe doesn't cross over into the fantasy side.
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October 15, 2013jgfhjgfig
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews