What do you think?
Rate this book
Legends of the Age of Sigmar
Black Rift
A Stormhost of Sigmar's celestial warriors run a gauntlet of enemies in an attempt to close a dangerous rift that could drown an entire realm in daemons.
In the Tephra Crater lies the city of Uryx, a once-proud bastion now overrun by the Bloodbound. Anhur the Scarlet Lord means to use the city to open a gateway to Khorne’s own realm and drench all of Klaxus in blood. Only Sigmar’s chosen stand in his way – the Warrior Chamber of Orius the Adamantine, one of many fighting a bitter war of liberation in this region. Their quest is a grim one: breach the walls and reach the heart of Uryx to prevent a ritual that will bring about death untold. The hopes of all Klaxus rest on Lord-Celestant Orius – his warriors are many, and heroes all, but to triumph he must defeat not only the forces of Chaos but the demons of his own past.
It's the full story of the battle for the Black Rift, collected in one volume for the first time, and it's full of epic battles that showcase the Stormcast and their (many, many) enemies.
Includes:
Assault on the Mandrake Bastion
In the Walls of Uryx
The Gnawing Gate
Six Pillars
The Scarlet Lord
Ten Skulls
Bridge of Smoke
The Sulphur Citadel
In the Tephra Crater lies the city of Uryx, a once-proud bastion now overrun by the Bloodbound. Anhur the Scarlet Lord means to use the city to open a gateway to Khorne’s own realm and drench all of Klaxus in blood. Only Sigmar’s chosen stand in his way – the Warrior Chamber of Orius the Adamantine, one of many fighting a bitter war of liberation in this region. Their quest is a grim one: breach the walls and reach the heart of Uryx to prevent a ritual that will bring about death untold. The hopes of all Klaxus rest on Lord-Celestant Orius – his warriors are many, and heroes all, but to triumph he must defeat not only the forces of Chaos but the demons of his own past.
It's the full story of the battle for the Black Rift, collected in one volume for the first time, and it's full of epic battles that showcase the Stormcast and their (many, many) enemies.
Includes:
Assault on the Mandrake Bastion
In the Walls of Uryx
The Gnawing Gate
Six Pillars
The Scarlet Lord
Ten Skulls
Bridge of Smoke
The Sulphur Citadel
- GenresFantasyAnthologies
279 pages, Hardcover
First published April 2, 2016
6 people are currently reading
70 people want to read
About the author
Joshua Reynolds
313 books337 followersJosh Reynolds’ work has previously appeared in such anthologies as Historical Lovecraft from Innsmouth Free Press and Horror for the Holidays from Miskatonic River Press, and his novel, Knight of the Blazing Sun, is currently available from Black Library. He can be found at: http://joshuamreynolds.wordpress.com
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name.
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
April 7, 2021
This is one of the best of the “battle report” stories, giving us something to care about in that the fallen kingdom of Klaxus still has actual people in it who need to be saved, which means that the Stormcasts have arrived before it’s too late. Orius the Adamantine is a Lord-Celestant forged in much the same fashion as Vandus Hammerhand and Gardus the Steel Soul, leaning more toward the latter, in that he has more of an actual personality, but is a bit blander. He has even more memory of his old life than either, which gives the conflict with his friend-turned-nemesis Anhur that has extended over multiple lifetimes a better chance of hooking us in and making us care as readers.
This might be AoS’s biggest weakness as a fiction setting at this early juncture – the Mortal Realms are far more alien and weird than the Old World, which was much easier to understand and get stuck into quickly. It also doesn’t help that every place we’ve been so far is either devoid of ordinary human life or almost to that point. I think it was a mistake to wait this long to show us a Stormcast take a frightened child in their arms, or to give us lines like:
“Do not fear, child. We are the storm, and we have come to wash Klaxus clean.”
Or the moment where Orius puts the thousand souls imprisoned in the monstrous form of the Gnawing Gate to rest, and brings mercy. Now this is some proper heavenly paladin stuff, and if BL/GW wants people to read the fiction and see the Stormcasts as divine deliverance for people crushed under the heel of Chaos and other evils, they need to do more things like this. We joke with terms like “Sigmarines”, but the SEs were built for a different purpose than the Adeptus Astartes. While there often is bitter irony when the wretched of the Imperium of Man, there in the grim darkness of the forty-first millennium, look to see “deliverance” from the God-Emperor’s Angels of Death, the Stormcasts are meant to bring hope as well as war.
Rant over. The rest of the story is fun, if again “battle-report”-ish, and takes the time to show us who is fighting this battle, which means that there’s real significance when a named character goes down, and we have a much better idea of why that matters and the significance of the loss. Also, Reynolds’ track record of interesting supporting characters continues, with top honors going to Kratus the Silent for the SEs and Hroth Shieldbreaker (Volundr takes a close runner -up) for the ravening Khornate loonies. Hroth borders on the likeable, as do Anhur and Volundr, and shows what nobility there can still be found in these bloodthirsty barbarians, and gives them shades of meaning and depth, rather than the more one-dimensional types like Korghos Khul. Most of the Gorechosen do, or at least give us something to look at and think about rather than only ever hollering about blood and skulls and such. The dialogue and the emotions and passions loom up to the heavy-metal-filtered Wagnerian heights that I think BL/GW wants it to hit. It can be done, but you have to lay the groundwork, as Reynolds does here. Think like the difference between the MCU and the DCU.
Worth a read. This is the standard that “battle report” fiction ought to at least be hitting.
This might be AoS’s biggest weakness as a fiction setting at this early juncture – the Mortal Realms are far more alien and weird than the Old World, which was much easier to understand and get stuck into quickly. It also doesn’t help that every place we’ve been so far is either devoid of ordinary human life or almost to that point. I think it was a mistake to wait this long to show us a Stormcast take a frightened child in their arms, or to give us lines like:
“Do not fear, child. We are the storm, and we have come to wash Klaxus clean.”
Or the moment where Orius puts the thousand souls imprisoned in the monstrous form of the Gnawing Gate to rest, and brings mercy. Now this is some proper heavenly paladin stuff, and if BL/GW wants people to read the fiction and see the Stormcasts as divine deliverance for people crushed under the heel of Chaos and other evils, they need to do more things like this. We joke with terms like “Sigmarines”, but the SEs were built for a different purpose than the Adeptus Astartes. While there often is bitter irony when the wretched of the Imperium of Man, there in the grim darkness of the forty-first millennium, look to see “deliverance” from the God-Emperor’s Angels of Death, the Stormcasts are meant to bring hope as well as war.
Rant over. The rest of the story is fun, if again “battle-report”-ish, and takes the time to show us who is fighting this battle, which means that there’s real significance when a named character goes down, and we have a much better idea of why that matters and the significance of the loss. Also, Reynolds’ track record of interesting supporting characters continues, with top honors going to Kratus the Silent for the SEs and Hroth Shieldbreaker (Volundr takes a close runner -up) for the ravening Khornate loonies. Hroth borders on the likeable, as do Anhur and Volundr, and shows what nobility there can still be found in these bloodthirsty barbarians, and gives them shades of meaning and depth, rather than the more one-dimensional types like Korghos Khul. Most of the Gorechosen do, or at least give us something to look at and think about rather than only ever hollering about blood and skulls and such. The dialogue and the emotions and passions loom up to the heavy-metal-filtered Wagnerian heights that I think BL/GW wants it to hit. It can be done, but you have to lay the groundwork, as Reynolds does here. Think like the difference between the MCU and the DCU.
Worth a read. This is the standard that “battle report” fiction ought to at least be hitting.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 25, 2018
Hate to admit that this one just did not grab me. Despite being written by Reynolds, one of the best in Black Library, the fact that this one was one long, somewhat monotonous, battle scene really took away a lot of the enjoyment.
This is the last of the Realmgate Wars series I needed to read (though chronologically, I believe, this one falls between WarStorm and Ghal Maraz) and it suffered from the same symptoms of these early AoS tales. Paper thin lore, not the fault of the authors but the fault of whoever decided to Squat Warhammer Fantasy and start afresh...
As well as simply too few fleshed out factions, no sense of where the stories take place beyond a mere outline, and that the focus was on epic battles in order to sell a new range of (admittedly gorgeous) miniatures.
If I wasn't really looking forward to the next generation of Age of Sigmar stories (a large percentage penned by Josh Reynolds, which is perfectly all right as I truly enjoy his work), I might have stopped here.
The Realmgate Wars did have several really good stories; the Duology of novellas by Guy Haley concerning the Tzeentch Sorcerers Tower, Warbeast by Gav, Mortarch of Night by Josh and Guymer, and a fantastic ending by Clint Werner in Lord of Undeath.
Black Rift, sadly, is not among those. Would be awesome as an extended audio drama, for me at least, simply doesn't work as a novel.
Reluctantly gave one of my favorite authors two stars.
Sorry Josh.
This is the last of the Realmgate Wars series I needed to read (though chronologically, I believe, this one falls between WarStorm and Ghal Maraz) and it suffered from the same symptoms of these early AoS tales. Paper thin lore, not the fault of the authors but the fault of whoever decided to Squat Warhammer Fantasy and start afresh...
As well as simply too few fleshed out factions, no sense of where the stories take place beyond a mere outline, and that the focus was on epic battles in order to sell a new range of (admittedly gorgeous) miniatures.
If I wasn't really looking forward to the next generation of Age of Sigmar stories (a large percentage penned by Josh Reynolds, which is perfectly all right as I truly enjoy his work), I might have stopped here.
The Realmgate Wars did have several really good stories; the Duology of novellas by Guy Haley concerning the Tzeentch Sorcerers Tower, Warbeast by Gav, Mortarch of Night by Josh and Guymer, and a fantastic ending by Clint Werner in Lord of Undeath.
Black Rift, sadly, is not among those. Would be awesome as an extended audio drama, for me at least, simply doesn't work as a novel.
Reluctantly gave one of my favorite authors two stars.
Sorry Josh.
December 10, 2019
Ultimately, it left me feeling dissatisfied on multiple fronts.
Josh Reynolds, currently one of the top dog writers at Black Library, and after thoroughly enjoying his previous work, his name alone drew me to this novel.
Unfortunately, bar the few memorable (mostly due to being over the top rather than well concieved) sequences and some original high fantasy set peices couldnt save this from being a largely bland, boring battle story with no depth, lacking character development and emotion.
Josh Reynolds, currently one of the top dog writers at Black Library, and after thoroughly enjoying his previous work, his name alone drew me to this novel.
Unfortunately, bar the few memorable (mostly due to being over the top rather than well concieved) sequences and some original high fantasy set peices couldnt save this from being a largely bland, boring battle story with no depth, lacking character development and emotion.
January 5, 2021
This took a bit for me to get through. As other reviews mention, it is almost beginning to end coverage of a battle. That got confusing and boring after a bit and I kept losing interest. Once we got more into the background of the characters and the relationship between Oros/Orios as a warrior and now a Stormcast Eternal, the book became more interesting. Exploring what it means to be lose who you were as you are reforged but those alive still remember you, faults and all.
June 8, 2017
This is an almost cover to cover battle report, from troop movements to individual blows in duels, of huge armies at war. The Stormcast Eternals battle the forces of Khorne reinforced by Skaven to secure a crater city. There are moments of surprising character development as interesting backstory is revealed.
March 16, 2017
I read it and it was a nice story but it was quite tiresome when the writer was trying to depict the stormcasts. I undestand they must be epic, but the writer overdoes that and makes the story less pleasant and hard to read. On the other hand when the writer depicts the forces of chaos things are better, he does not use that tiresome vocabulary and instead he desribes them as humans that have lost their path.
January 5, 2022
One of the better novels in the Age of Sigmar setting from Games Workshop/Black Library.
It still comes across as a giant battle report, with all the latest toys on the table, but has a good selection of characters with some back story to the main ones.
The Stormcast (fantasy Space Marines) have to fight a Chaos invasion on the former homeworld of their leader Orius. He is up against a former friend and ally Anhur, in charge of the forces of Khorne.
The main forces are rather one-dimensional; there's too much "blood for the blood god" and "we shall not break" in the dialogue during the normal battles, although the fights between various heroic characters have more variety.
The heroic fights start to crop up in the last third of the book, so it picks up once you get there. The history between Orius and Anhur gets explained throughout, and leads to a good ending.
There's no real surprises and it ends up as you would expect.
It still comes across as a giant battle report, with all the latest toys on the table, but has a good selection of characters with some back story to the main ones.
The Stormcast (fantasy Space Marines) have to fight a Chaos invasion on the former homeworld of their leader Orius. He is up against a former friend and ally Anhur, in charge of the forces of Khorne.
The main forces are rather one-dimensional; there's too much "blood for the blood god" and "we shall not break" in the dialogue during the normal battles, although the fights between various heroic characters have more variety.
The heroic fights start to crop up in the last third of the book, so it picks up once you get there. The history between Orius and Anhur gets explained throughout, and leads to a good ending.
There's no real surprises and it ends up as you would expect.
June 18, 2016
Josh Reynolds’ Age of Sigmar novel Black Rift was initially published in eight short story-length instalments under the Black Rift of Klaxus banner, before its subsequent release as a combined volume. However it’s read, it details the battle for the crater city of Uryx fought by the Stormcast Eternals of Lord Celestant Orius Adamantine and the Khornate warlord Anhur the Scarlet Lord. Orius and Anhur have a personal connection, having fought side by side to protect the city in their previous lives, and while Orius believes he has backed Anhur into a corner, the Scarlet Lord plans to open a gateway to Khorne’s realm and ascend to daemonhood.
Read the rest of the review at https://trackofwords.wordpress.com/20...
Read the rest of the review at https://trackofwords.wordpress.com/20...
July 28, 2020
Even though it reads like an extended battle report, with people getting all their toys on the table, this is a good fantasy novel set in Games Workshop's new Age of Sigmar setting.
The forces of chaos are over running the world of Klaxus, and the Stormbound forces of Orius are all that stand in their way.
Individual battle scenes are well written, and both forces are a bit more fleshed out than in other novels.
The forces of chaos are over running the world of Klaxus, and the Stormbound forces of Orius are all that stand in their way.
Individual battle scenes are well written, and both forces are a bit more fleshed out than in other novels.
December 17, 2019
Was ok. Unlike a lot of the other books from the Realmgate wars series (Ive read 1->6 so far) I really struggled to get into this book. Im not sure why but the characters and story didnt grab me the way the other books did.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews