Van Horstmann

Warhammer Heroes #8

by Ben Counter

Egrimm van Horstmann is the most promising wizard the College of Light has ever seen. Surpassing his mentors and reaching new heights of magical power, he seems destined to lead the college into a bright new future. But darkness follows van Horstmann, and where he treads, death follows. As enemies close in on him, van Horstmann’s true motives become clear – he plans to unleash an ancient dragon imprisoned beneath the college and bring ruin to the Empire, in the name of Chaos.

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Magic

301 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 1, 2013

About the author

Ben Counter, as well as making several contributions to Inferno magazine, has written the Soul Drinkers and Grey Knights series and two Horus Heresy novels for the Black Library. He is an ancient history graduate and avid miniature painter with a bronze demon under his belt.

Reviews

[Kris43 · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm feeling pretty smug about being the first one to review this.
*grins*

Watch out, small spoilers ahead.


This book does a really good job of presenting magic in Warhammer world.
From the very start, you get a grand demonstration on how the colleges where founded when high elf, Lord Teclis, shared their knowledge with men. Knowledge about the aethyr and magic.

Aethyr is a different plane of existence where magic comes from. It is the opposite of the physical world, a twin composed of energy and thought. With a infinite potential to be tapped. It is also the realm from where deamons come from.

Lord Teclis takes human apprentices and in doing so gives men the weapon to fight against demon-chaos forces who use weak and ignorant wizards to manifest themselves in our realm.

This way different colleges of magic where formed. One of the light, to purify and fight corruption. One of the amethyst about death, decay and transcendence. One Jade about beast lore, nature and shape shifting. One Amber about life and healing. One celestial about stargazing and divination. One Gold about transmutations and shaping living metal. And much of the book is spend in dealing with different magics, theory, life of the wizards. It was fascinating!

This brings us to Van Horstmann, our hero. In the beginning, he was a mystery to me. Because he is a very cold, calculated and rational man. We get a few glimpses from different times seeing him doing this and that. Much of his motivation remains concealed. That irked me a bit. Only in watching him do stuff did I begin to understand what is he all about. Once I understood that I begin to appreciate the way he was. Aloof and secretive. More about action than making emotional gestures. He makes these bold and complex plans, prepares for stuff years ahead and foresees every possible outcome. He is brilliant! Also ruthless and devious. At first there is absolutely no redeeming quality about him, later once we know more, all he does makes more sense. In the end I couldn't help but admire him. He never turns completely likable, but I do like him. But make no mistake, if I would see him coming down the street, I wouldn't stop running until he was as far away as possible!

What else? There is this huge dragon sitting trapped under College of light's pyramid. Chaos dragon. And lots of different deamons. Also a Dark God of Chaos, and a overzealous witch hunter with his army of butchers. Lets not forget the plague epidemic and the skaven. All this makes one hell of a party!

[DarkChaplain · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just finished it. 6 out of 5. It was that good. Clear purchase recommendation. More text coming later.

[Unseen Library · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rating of 4.75.

Welcome back to my Throwback Thursday series, where I republish old reviews, review books I have read before or review older books I have only just had a chance to read. For my latest Throwback Thursday I review another awesome Warhammer Fantasy novel, the compelling and unique Van Horstmann by Ben Counter.

In the human realm known as the Empire, magic has been feared and mistrusted through most of its history, with practitioners hunted down and burned at the stake. However, following the Great War against Chaos, the elven mage Teclis was allowed to train various talented humans in the use of magic, establishing the eight Colleges of Magic that train scholars and battle mages to help the armies of the Empire. Out of all the colleges that were formed, the most revered are the College of Light, whose powerful light magic can be used to push back the darkness of Chaos.

Years after its formation, a young wizard manages to find the College of Light, hidden behind a magical barrier in the Imperial capital, Altdorf. This wandering wizard, Egrimm van Horstmann, is a talented young mage whose desire for knowledge and skill at manipulating the Wind of Hysh immediately impress his new teachers, and many believe that he will rise high in the order. However, van Horstmann has a dark secret that burns deep within him, and knowledge, power and ambition aren’t the only reasons for his joining the Light Order.

As van Horstmann rises in the ranks of his order, it soon becomes apparent that he has a diabolical plan. Working with dangerous forces, including daemons, cursed items and even the Chaos god Tzeentch, van Horstmann begins to manipulate his order, the other colleges, and even the emperor to get what he wants. But the closer he gets to achieving the goal, the more enemies he makes, and soon factions within the Light Order and the greater Empire begin to move against him. Can van Horstmann succeed in his mission before his dark purpose is discovered, or will his dastardly designs unleash the great and uncontrollable power hidden at the very heart of the College of Light?

This was an impressive and deeply captivating Warhammer Fantasy novel, and I absolutely loved the elaborate and clever narrative that Counter came up with. Focusing on an intriguing villainous figure and crafting an addictive story around him that also explores key aspects of the franchise’s lore, Van Horstmann was an outstanding novel, and it was probably the best Warhammer fantasy novel I have read so far.

To see the full review, click on the link below:
https://unseenlibrary.com/2022/07/22/...

For other exciting reviews and content, check out my blog at:
https://unseenlibrary.com/

[Tarl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Counter has put together a spellbinding story about Horstmann has his progression through the Light Order of magic. I was a bit shocked to have the story start out with Horstmann already a young man rather than him as a youth, as most of the Warhammer Villain series have done, but I got used to it pretty quickly. Counter presents details about his past throughout the story at certain events, which works well.

However at the end, and I do mean the very end of the book, this is when we actually understand WHY he is doing everything he is doing. While it pieces together a whole bunch of the clues Counter has spread throughout the story, it also robs the climax of any and all power it could have had if Counter would have presented Horstmann's reasons earlier on in the storyline.

There are some beautiful moments of writing in this novel. Horstmann vs the Grey Seerer being one of my favorite. It's exactly how a magic battle should be written, and I greatly enjoyed how that scene came together. The culmination of Horstmann's plans was another powerful scene, even with it being sprung at the last minute, and it comes out as a very well played revenge story. The writing is strong throughout the novel and the action keeps you wanting to move from scene to scene. The antagonists are understandable and you can't help but cheer for their cause in the later sections of the story. The daemons are handled extremely well too. Each one unique and revoltingly terrible in their own unique ways.

This book is easily one of my more favorite Warhammer villain novels. Counter's experience writing Warhammer shows in this story and I think anyone who is interested in one of the game's old villains should pick this book up. It's almost a shame that GW did away with him as a model and usable special character, more so now that this book is out.

So all in all, this novel is a good read and one that most Warhammer fans (especially Chaos players) will greatly enjoy. It has a good inside view of how the schools of magic came together as well as the interpolitical conflicts that those schools go through, which adds a lot of flavour to the Warhammer world itself. Overall I suggest you pick it up if any of what I mention above is of an interest to you.

[Maetco · Rating 2 out of 5]

I feel it's really hard to give this book a single rating because some aspects of it are really good but others are far from it.

The book does a good job in helping me to understand Warhammer world especially one of its more difficult subjects magic/winds/aethyr. The level of details is at its best astonishing. This element would get 4,5/5 from me.

The plot is fairly simple but not childlike simple. The ending saves a lot. I would rate it 2,5/5.

I wanted to read the book because I have always felt that the general story (him living inside College of Light for years excelling in his "studies" and when he was about the discovered he flew off on a chaos dragon yelling "So long, suckers!") about Van Horstmann sounded very manly but I didn't really know anything about him and there has been speculation that he might be written as Tzeentch's General for the End Times. Unfortunately this book didn't really have the insight I was looking for even though it's all about Van Horstmann. The story doesn't go deep enough to the personality of the man. I would rate the Van Horstmann / story as 2/5.

The storytelling varies between bad and uninteresting. The reader always knows that there is a plot somewhere there but the book lacks any sense of discovery becauset it doesn't provide the information needed for the reader to deduct any twists. The all-knowing narrator just kind of spills the beans every now and then. I would rate it 1,5/5.

The general style or quality of writing is ok but nothing special. I would rate it 2,5/5.

[Graeme · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the best Black Library books I've read yet, and a very solid fantasy book in general. Van Horstmann is an engaging central character and generally falls outside the tropes that Warhammer heroes and villains often slot into. Van Horstmann is from the start a fairly nasty and duplicitous character, although politic enough to avoid scrutiny from the rest of the Light Order as he begins his rise through the ranks. He's well written and, while his motives aren't always clear, nothing he does seems out of character or needless.

The prose is much more elegant than a lot of BL books, which suits the context of the book, but is also incredibly vivid. Particularly when it comes to describing the more magical or daemonic elements of the book, Counter conjures imagery that wouldn't be terribly out of place in Lovecraft, and puts a new spin on some symbolism in Warhammer writing which have become rather tired. I particularly van Horstmann's method of spellcasting being based on an imaginary tower full of gemstones, whose appearance changes depending on the circumstances of the spell being implemented.

Only a couple of negatives, really. The story rattles along a bit too quickly, even though it's 400 pages long (but with rather large text) and I feel much of it could have been given more room to breath. The last part of the book in particular feels rather rushed. Parts of the book felt more like a series of events happening that are retroactively explained in fairly hasty fashion. Rather than letting these events and their repercussions settle in the book tends to rush on to the next big event. While it makes for an exciting story it perhaps undermines the otherwise excellent overall character build.

All in all a good fantasy book and to the top end of Black Library offerings. I'll have to seek out more of Ben Counter's work.

[Abhinav · Rating 4 out of 5]

You can find the full review over at The Founding Fields:

http://thefoundingfields.com/2013/03/...

Shadowhawk reviews the latest Warhammer Heroes novel.

“Ben Counter returns to top form for Black Library in his first full-length Warhammer Fantasy fiction and writes a novel that is as much about the incredible diversity of magic in the Old World, as it is about one man’s revenge. If you read one Warhammer novel this year, Van Horstmann should be that one.” ~The Founding Fields

I’ve been a fan of Ben Counter’s work ever since I read his first Grey Knights novel, titled, Grey Knights. It was a time when I still exploring the larger diversity in Warhammer 40,000 novels beyond those of just Dan Abnett (Gaunt’s Ghosts), Graham McNeill (Ultramarines), and William King (Space Wolves), so the timing was excellent. Ben’s Grey Knights books are still among my all-time favourites after all these years, and I’m waiting for when Black Library announces a new book in the series. Ben has written quite widely in the Warhammer 40,000 setting, such as the 6-book Soul Drinkers series which finished last year, two Horus Heresy novels (one of which, Galaxy in Flames, is one of the best in that series), and a ton of short fiction. He appeared to have taken a bit of a break for a few years, but he returned last year with an Imperial Fists novella, Endeavour of Will, for the Architect of Fate novella anthology. And only a few months prior, he had had a Warhammer Fantasy short story published, Seventh Sun in Age of Legend.

The signs were all there that Ben Counter was back into the groove of writing some great Warhammer stories for either setting, and that he would keep building on top of each piece of fiction. And that is exactly what he has done for Van Horstmann, the latest stand-alone novel for the Warhammer Heroes setting, and also his first full-length piece of Warhammer Fantasy fiction. My expectations from the novel were quite high, given the incredible cover from Cheoljoo Lee, and the fact that Ben has resurrected a character from one of the earliest editions of the Warhammer Fantasy Battles tabletop game. That is a win-win situation for me.

As it turns out, Ben Counter has delivered on the promise of the novel, and while there are a few minor flaws in it, Van Horstmann for me is still one of the best novels to have come out of Black Library in recent memory. I would even say that it stands along just fine next to Nick Kyme’s The Great Betrayal, C. L. Werner’s Dead Winter, Sarah Cawkwell’s Valkia the Bloody, and Josh Reynolds’ Gotrek & Felix: Road of Skulls, all of which have been fantastic.

Van Horstmann is a story about revenge, identity, magic, and sacrifice. All four are inextricably linked and Ben gives each of them equal weight as the narrative progresses. Through Egrimm van Horstmann, one of the most promising initiates for the College of Light in memory, we see a very different side of the setting than any other novels. Thing is, most Warhammer novels focus on individual heroes in a somewhat sword-and-sorcery/heroic fantasy style, or go for the epic fantasy angle with armies of Elves and Dwarves and disparate Human kingdoms fighting against each other. In my experience and from what I can recall at the moment, outside of C. L. Werner’s Thanquol & Boneripper novels, the magicians, sorcerers, and mages that also inhabit the setting often get the short shrift. Even if we do see them take center stage, we never get an insight into the workings of their orders. Some of the Dwarf novels, especially those by Gav Thorpe and Nick Kyme, go into this a fair bit, but not to any great extent since such characters are never the prime focus of the narrative, relegated mostly to the sidelines.

That is where Van Horstmann slots in perfectly. Through the titular character, we get a lot of insight into how the College of Light works, what its beliefs are, its rituals, its ceremonies, the powers of the Wizards of Light, and so on. We also get to see some great cameos from Wizards of the other factions – the Bright, Gold, Jade, Celestial, Grey, Amber, and the Amethyst Orders. The Gold Wizards especially are a very important component of the narrative, and a part of Van Horstmann’s plans for revenge against those who have wronged him. The play of different magics throughout the novel, especially when they all work together for a common goal in the prologue, is what I loved. There is so much diversity in the cultures of all the orders that it can get a little overwhelming at times, but Ben softens that up by not hitting the reader over the head with the differences.

Horstmann himself is an interesting character. I had expected the novel to show his origin story, but that is not the case here. Ben has written him at a stage where he has already fallen to Chaos, so it is not a novel about the “how”, but the “why”, and the consequences that result. Horstmann is relentless in the pursuit of his goals, utterly dedicated and focused, never looking away from his objectives. The character’s confidence can be just a bit too much, because you are left wondering if he does have any flaws, but then again, the brilliance of the narrative is in showing, precisely, Van Horstmann’s intellect. He can anticipate events, manipulating and bringing them to conclusions that no one else has even considered. Ultimately, that’s why I loved the character. He makes a great change from heroes or even anti-heroes who are always second-guessing themselves, who keep wondering what the consequences of their actions might be, who have doubts. Van Horstmann has expelled all his doubts and he has brought himself to the point where he will not suffer himself to suffer any distractions.

[Hogenhout · Rating 4 out of 5]

detailed description through out and captivating twist at the end

[Manerr · Rating 4 out of 5]

It gives you exactly what you expect from it, no more, no less, and that's way more than what you can usually expect from a Warhammer book.

[Berylek · Rating 5 out of 5]

Szczerze, jedna z najlepszych książek, jakie przeczytałem w tym roku. Świetnie pokazuje ewolucje bohatera i wszelkie jego zmagania.
For the DARK GODS!

[Christopher · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ben Counter did a really good job enforcing how crazy and revenge motivated Van Horstmann is. He had lost his sister long ago and ever since has been different. Although not caring to kill people who get in the way and be a real bastard, I actually liked the character. I found him to be very interesting and even funny, in a black humourist way.

All in all I enjoyed reading it. Ben Counter did a good job, as this was his first fantasy novel he did well, his other works include Galaxy in Flames and Battle for the Abyss. So it is welcome to see him writing new stuff. I’d recommend this to anyone who likes action and black humour, okay there isn’t really any jokes but I find dark stuff to be funny at times. I shall give this novel four stars. Not a masterpiece but an enjoyable read nonetheless.

[Tim Maidment · Rating 3 out of 5]

Warhammer is a rich setting, and I'm sure there are all sorts of shout outs in here that a regular gamer would giggle at. It's not a bad book, but it is essentially a biography that tries, but falls just short of successfully using foreshadowing and cryptic dream sequences to get us under the protagonist's skin.

I love high fantasy, I love wizards, I love dragons; but somehow this just felt a little flat in it's ending.

[Henrik · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the plot, interesting insight into the orders of magic in the Empire, but the writing never captivated me. Decent enough.