Warbeast (6)

The Realmgate Wars #6

by Gav Thorpe

Lord-Celestant Arkas Warbeast of the Celestial Vindicators returns to restore order to the lands that he ruled in his mortal life, lands now befouled by the verminous hordes of the skaven Clans Pestilens.

The once noble tribes of Ursungorod in Ghur have almost entirely fallen to Chaos, and an infestation of Clans Pestilens skaven has amassed in the caverns beneath the snowy tundra. There, Poxmaster Felk is on the brink of opening a vital realmgate – but Sigmar intends to seize this portal for himself. Arkas Warbeast, Lord-Celestant of the Celestial Vindicators, was once a mortal ruler of these lands. Now, with the aid of the Knights Excelsior, he has returned to free his kingdom from the clutches of Chaos and claim the realmgate in his God-King’s name. But first he must vanquish the ghosts of his past and overcome his own conflicted nature, in order to unleash the beast within.

Genres: Fantasy

368 pages, Paperback

First published March 12, 2016

About the author

Gav spent 14 years as a developer for Games Workshop, and started writing novels and short stories in the worlds of Warhammer and Warhammer 40,000 when the Black Library imprint was launched in 1997.

He continues to write for Black Library, and his first 'homegrown' novel series The Crown of the Blood has been released via Angry Robot.

Currently living in Nottingham, Gav shares his home with his loving and very understanding partner - Kez, and their beautiful little boy - Sammy.

Reviews

[Scott · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book won the Legend award in 2017, and I'm not entirely sure how. I found it the kind of adolescent power fantasy I would have enjoyed at 13 or so, with some character growth toward the end and an exciting climax. But I didn't identify with either of the main characters, and I never really believed they were in any danger, even when the odds against them were overwhelming.

That said, I know Warhammer has a huge following, and this was an entertaining story at its heart. Folks who are into the Warhammer universe would probably get more enjoyment out of this story than I did.

[Jordan · Rating 3 out of 5]

The overall standard of AoS fiction (and yes, I know I'm a bit late on this) is rising, though we're still hanging out with the Stormcast Eternals. While I do love a heaven-sent paladin story, I know there's more to the setting than just them, and it would be nice to get there eventually.

However, this one is way ahead of some of the earliest AoS offerings, giving us two commanders with very different approaches in Arkas Warbeast (not a great name, by the by - I honestly thought this one had to do with orruks or more Blood-Mad Khornate Loonies) and Theudris Silverhand (uptight, but gets major bonus points for coming from a vaguely Carolingian-flavored background). A & T go on a straightforward quest to free the people of the wintery mountain lands of Ursungorod (yeah, I see what they did there) in the Mortal Realm of Ghur, the Realm of Beasts. The catch is, though, that this is where Arkas hailed from in his mortal days, when he was Arka Bear-clad, the "noble barbarian" king of his people. And so Arkas' instinctive wildness and his ferocious Celestial Vindicators, driven by the need to take vengeance for their lord and the despoilment of his people five centuries ago, make up for an odd-couple pairing with Theudris and his precise and detached Knights Excelsior, as they work to put aside their differences, put a severe kicking on some Clan Pestilens Skaven, and take control of a Realmgate in prep for an assault on the Chaos-held Allpoints Nexus. Call it the Space Wolves teaming up with the Imperial Fists, maybe.

But hark! What was that? The gates are linked? There's a way around the Mortal Realms and Chaos has control of the central nexus? So that's why everything is so awful and horrible everywhere! Why did BL wait till now to tell us that? Oh, well, glad we got it somewhere, I guess.

I think the issue I'm having as I march through all this early AoS fiction is that we're told a lot how breathlessly awesome the setting is, but we haven't seen enough of it to really have it matter much to us (though they're working on that), and it's alien enough that we're just unsure enough of what to expect that it's hard to get a sense of scale and importance. For example - Theudris used to be a king in Chamon, the Realm of Metal. But he certainly wasn't the only human king there, and the nature of the Mortal Realms means that there's no proper way to give context to the importance of his kingship. We don't know how big his territory was, how many people he ruled over, how long his kingdom had been there, and even if we did, the Mortal Realms aren't continents or even planets like Earth or the World-that-Was; they seem to work like the different Planes beloved of Dungeons and Dragons or Pathfinder, and so they seem to just stretch off into infinity, except they don't. But they kind of do, because they're so vast as to be nearly infinite. It's just harder to get stuck into, because unlike the Low Dark Fantasy of WHF, where the World-that-Was was a very Earth-like planet with very Earth-like nations thrown in the blender with some builders-grade Tolkien imports and easy to figure out what's going on and why - the Mortal Realms are admittedly, different and creative and weird and a newer, bolder direction that seems to want to invoke a much more mythic scale, that takes a lot more work to establish, and I think BL was probably under a lot of pressure to help sell wargames rather than to firmly cement lore and characters and a setting that people would really enjoy, and do it at a pace that would suck people in.

Maybe I'm making too much of fantasy books designed as a game tie-in to move more miniatures and paint off the shelves. But still. AoS and the Mortal Realms have a lot of fictional potential. It's just a bigger challenge to get stuck in to straightaway, and a bit more help would have been appreciated. Oh well. Digression over.

But Gav Thorpe turns out a pretty solid story with some appropriately creepy and evil Skaven, which I always thought worked much better than the more comedic variety. Bill King does that well, and seems to have invented it, but I still think the Loathsome Ratmen and All Their Vile Kin are better as the creeping horror they are usually billed as. The inclusion of the Horned Rat amongst the Chaos pantheon is a natural fit, and I was not expecting the Big Cheese-Eater to actually show up and give us a few lines of dialogue.

The Stormcasts themselves are getting better with stories like this, where we explore more of who they used to be and the losses they undergo on the Anvil of Apotheosis when they are initially created and reforged. Sigmar is definitely the Big Good of the series, but his aims are usually much longer-ranged than those of his individual champions, and both Arkas and Theudris have to come to terms with the fact that Sigmar pulled them away from the whole of their previous lives, and effectively robbed their families and kingdoms to fight a war five centuries later. You can't make an omelet without breaking a few eggs, but try telling that to the ones left behind in the carton watching the soldier-toast getting lined up for the next course. (I'm not sure where that analogy went - sorry.) The SEs forget more than a comic French Foreign Legionnaire, and we're finally getting to see the cost, which makes them more interesting, tragic, and frightening as they continue to change over multiple reforgings.

Oh, and I would be remiss if I said I didn't enjoy watching Ursun the Bear-God of the Kislevite Gospodars come roaring (literally if briefly) back to life. He ate a whole Skaven army and blew off the top of a mountain. Well done. Of course, this raised all sorts of lore questions:

- Were the original people of Ursungorod escapees from Kislev and the World-that-Was?
- Didn't any of the other Gods of Order know he was there?
- What about some of the other Gods of the Old World that haven't turned up? Are Ulric, or Morr, or Asuryan out there? Wouldn't finding them be a huge boon to the side of Order?

Anyway, Warbeast is a solid enough novella that is helping to move AoS in a better direction. Three-and-a-half stars.

[Heinz Reinhardt · Rating 4 out of 5]

While this is a slightly formulaic quest story, it is also the first real glimpse into the humanity of the Stormcast. We see the cost of Reforging, and we see the fact that not all Stormcast are separated from the memories of their previous lives before being called to Sigmar.
I especially liked the nod to Kislev from the Old World (the World that Was) in this one, and the interplay and tensions between two radically different Chambers of Stormcast Eternals was well done.
Gav Thorpe did a great job with this one and really helped to flesh out just who the Stormcast really are. And for the ability to really humanize them, this one was worth buying it in hardback.
Definitely a must read to understand the Age of Sigmar setting.

[Michael Dodd · Rating 4 out of 5]

Book six in Black Library’s ten-strong Realmgate Wars series, (Gemmell Award-winning) Warbeast by Gav Thorpe is the first what you might call ‘full-length’ novel in the series, and Gav’s first Age of Sigmar novel.

A classic fantasy quest story, it’s not the paciest or most complex of plots, but it does an excellent job of layering genuinely interesting details onto these particular characters, and it’s probably the most complete and effective book in the series so far.

Read the full review at http://www.trackofwords.com/2017/07/1...

[Lionel Taylor · Rating 3 out of 5]

Warbeast follows Lord Celestant Arka Warbeast as he barrels headlong into his mission to stop the Skaven led by Poxmaster Felk from taking control of a realmgate. To do this Arkas must come to terms with his past and what it means to be a Stormcast Eternal. This story is full of action like the others but unlike some of the other books in the series, this one gives a little more insight into the motivations of the characters as well as the inner conflicts that they face. As it turns out immortality is not all it is cracked up to be and there is a cost to all of the reforging that the Eternals are going through. Any fan of the series will like this one.

[Esteve · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is not so bad as one can imagine. The story and Arkas Warbeast character is quite realistic for AOS. The author has carefully written out the character and his relationships with past and present.

There are many battles in the book and I dislike ending. It's some crumpled for my opinion. But the Realmgate Wars is promo series and as promo the book is good. Four killed scavens out of five.

[Michael Butler · Rating 4 out of 5]

We finally see the more human side of the Stormcasts. Much of the Realmgate wars has been focused on the battles but Warbeast delves into what happens when someone is taken while still alive and reforged into a Stormcast Eternal.
I quite enjoyed this, especially the latter half as the action and character building ramped up.

[Thom · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this one. While I like the Age of Sigmar setting in theory, it often seems to struggle with relatable major characters, I think just due to its larger-than-life setting, but this book didn’t struggle with that at all. Also, it has the skaven, and they’re still horrible, and I still love them, so that’s a plus.

[Eric Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

A solid Stormcast book. I’ve never been a huge Skaven fan so them as enemies weren’t too interesting. The two Lord-Celestiants who are the focus of the book are interesting in their own way and good studies of what the Reforging can do to the Stormcast after repeated deaths.

[Dan Findlay-Robinson · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best of the Age of Sigmar series so far and also the first full novel length offering.

Gav Thorpe introduces two very different but very engaging characters through whom he explores the personal struggles of the stormcast to be who they are and serve Sigmar.

Fight, kill, win

Epic work and look forward to more of The Warbeast in the future

[Christian · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think this book was supposed to show how not everything is so black and white and everyone gets along in the setting but the story left me indifferent. There doesn't have to be this made up angst. Action was ok, though. Gav Thorpe... *sigh*

[Alexander Draganov · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well written book, but the magic of the old fantasy world of Warhammer is gone. Detailed review in Bulgarian here:
http://citadelata.com/warbeast-warham...

[Kenneth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting look into the reforge process whereby the Celestials lose a part of themselves everytime they are reforged.