Hammerhal (5)

Warhammer Age of Sigmar

by Joshua Reynolds, C.L. Werner

The Stormcast Eternals of the Hallowed Knights must uncover the mystery of the Hexwood before it brings the great city of Hammerhal to ruin.

Dark forces stir within the bowers of the mysterious Hexwood. A great warhost of tzaangor beastkin, creatures devoted to the Chaos god Tzeentch, defile the once-verdant lands of Ghyran. All that opposes them are the Stormcast Eternals of the Hallowed Knights, noble warriors reforged in resplendent sigmarite and wielding the lightning of Azyr. But Tzeentch's followers are cunning, and as the Hallowed Knights wage bloody war in the forests, a secret and potentially ruinous attack on the great city of Hammerhal, which the Stormcasts are oath-sworn to protect, is about to begin. Both the warriors without and the hunters within the city must act fast, or the truth about the Hexwood will be the undoing of the Twin-tailed City.

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Audiobook, Gaming, Short Stories

128 pages, Paperback

First published October 21, 2017

About the author

Josh 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.

Reviews

[Jason Ray Carney · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an entertaining anthology of short fiction and novel excerpts set in the Warhammer: Age of Sigmar universe, the so-called "Mortal Realms." Many of the contributors, like C.L. Werner, are established Black Library (i.e. Warhammer-related fiction) authors. The opening novella, Josh Reynolds' "Hammerhal," was the best in this selection, just above C.L. Werner's excerpt from his novel *Overlords of the Iron Dragon.* "Hammerhal" is just over 150 pages. It is long enough to render some interesting characters, provide a credible threat, and create an intriguing epic fantasy zone. Werner's piece, featuring an airship battle between duardin (dwarfish) airships and an evil Tzeentch sorcerer, was epic. The other pieces were fun, engaging, and rich in lore, but--an overgeneralization, I'm sure--suffer from requiring of the reader some background knowledge of the Age of Sigmar game lore. Several enemies, factions, gods, and concepts are discussed with little explanation, so an uninitiated reader might get turned around. To summarize: this is a great entry into the fiction of the Age of Sigmar. I'm looking forward to reading more.

[Sander Stouthuysen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tof boek met veel kortverhalen en segmenten uit andere boeken. Er zitten er hele goede tussen en ook een paar waar ik me moest door knokken.

[Emma Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

I decided to read this one as my boyfriend owns a lot of Warhammer books and as a fantasy lover I wanted to give one a try. He recommended this short story collection as it is mainly excerpts of books, therefore might find one I enjoyed and wanted to read the full story of. Below you will find my rating for each story and some brief thoughts on each one.
Hammerhal - 4/5
Really enjoyed this one. Interesting cast of characters. I felt like it was a good set up for Hammerhal and events for future books. Would have liked to get to know some prominent characters a bit more.
Vengeance Eternal - 5/5
One of my favourites, would love to read the full story at some point in the future. The characters where super intriguing and I want to learn their fates.
The prisoner of the black sun - 4/5
I have a weak spot for proper vampires, not those glittering, safe vampires. The dark, evil vampires. This gave me that. I loved it, again would love to read the rest of it. Didn’t connect to the characters quite as much as I did in Vengeance eternal though.
Beneath the black thumb - 2/5
I absolutely hated this one. Don’t get me wrong I love grotty things but this one made me feel sick. All the mentions of maggots, bugs and rotten flesh didn’t do it for me.
Assault on the Mandrake Bastion - 3/5
This one was really interesting, I liked the setting and the characters but I didn’t love it. The characters didn’t stand out as much as they did in the other stories.
Skaven Pestilens - 3/5
Eh, giant rat creatures who like spreading disease etc. isn’t for me. Interesting concept though.
Great Red - 5/5
My second favourite in the collection. Although does have vague mentions or spoilers for Prisoner of the Black Sun. Which I find odd that they would put them in the same collection. But I loved this, I would love to read the rest of this at some point (but I will have to read Prisoner of the Black Sun first)
Heartwood - 4/5
Slyvaneth are such interesting concept and I throughly enjoyed this story, I didn’t mind the blightmen in this so much seeing I wasn’t following their POV like in the other one. Would also like to read the rest of this one at some point to.
The Keys to Ruin - 4/5
Fyreslayers are awesome. Dwarves are cool people to follow. The fight scenes in this story were awesome.
Overloads of the Iron Dragon - 4/5
Again dwarves are awesome. Airships are also awesome.
Eight Lamentations: Spears of Shadows - 4/5
This was so interesting to me as a fantasy reader who hasn’t read Warhammer books before. This felt like a typical fantasy quest book. Therefore, I felt like it was the easiest to read and understand. I will most definitely be reading this one. Will probably be the first one I read.

[Sarah Davis · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fun short read, I had trouble staring it the opening felt very dry? After that is was great, everything I’ve come to expect from Josh Reynolds and more.

[Ben · Rating 2 out of 5]

Black Library recommended this as a bit of an intro to Age of Sigmar, and it certainly did that - but perhaps sought a little pre-existing knowledge that I really don't have ... and other than the normal fantasy tropes that made up Classic Warhammer (which GW flag as being 'Age of Sigmar's Horus Heresy'), this seemed 'all new.'

Hammerhal offered a flavour for GW's new fantasy world, but served a better purpose for just being a good ol' fashioned action-adventure novel. There were no real twists, meaty characters, and just blow-for-blow fight scenes set in-and-around the titular city of Hammerhal, a city which - despite receiving top billing - still seemed a little undercooked, but which didn't really matter when this was such a character-driven story. There was a little mythos sprinkled in with Sigmar and the Sylvaneth, but really, this was just a bit of a popcorn read for those who want to see how CQB can be written and those who want to dip-their-toe-in on the Mortal Realms.

[Nathan Haines · Rating 4 out of 5]

An overall enjoyable read.

This book is a number of short stories or beginnings of stories intended to give the reader and introduction to a wide variety of story archs withing the Age of Sigmar. With this in mind there were always going to be some stories you enjoy more than others.

I have enjoyed watching some of the AOS lore videos on YouTube which is what originally lead me to reading this book. There are certainly some stories I will be following up on, and others that I won't be which is what this book is intended to do I am sure. But overall I really liked reading this, and most of the stories in it.

They do seem to be missing any stories that involve Slaanesh though... Not sure what that is about

[Haroon Rasheed · Rating 2 out of 5]

My first take on the age of sigmar lore. I must say it's a different pace from 40k. Apparently hammerhal is supposed to be an introductory book into the age of sigmar lore. But I must say the stories weren't as intriguing as I expected. It is jam packed with non-stop combat and one tends to get lost in "the protagonist fell after a hit and swept back up with a decisive blow and then moved to the next adversary and almost the same routine follows and so on and on.. ". The most disappointing bit is that there was barely any dialogue at all, only fighting. No memorable characters either. All in all I'm looking forward to read plague garden so I could assess the lore with a better effort than this.

[Jacob Bennike · Rating 2 out of 5]

A couple of the stories are great, many are bad, but over all, it’s just not a very good mix. I’m not sure who it’s audience is, people who haven’t picked a faction? Maybe, it does give a nice taste of everything, but if you’re reading a warhammer book, well, you’re probably already familiar with who the factions are.

[Jaq · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some enjoyable tales interspersed with what felt like the same battle scenes repeated over and over. Sigma is a different feel to 40k, but I just keep feeling these tales aren’t written for my gender.....or is it just me feeling a bit left out?

[Jakurt Guthorst · Rating 2 out of 5]

Als ich vor ein paar Jahren mit dem Sammeln von Warhammer Fantasy Miniaturen aufgehört habe, bekam ich irgendwann den Wandel zu Age of Sigmar mit. Ich habe mich nun entschieden mich damit zu befassen und war mehr oder weniger schockiert, in was für eine Welt sie die düstere Lore von Warhammer Fantasy verwandelt haben. Alles wirkt unbedeutend und schwammig, vieles wurde einfach umbenannt und am schlimmsten sind die "Sig-marines" die eher an 40K erinnern.

Natürlich versuche ich bei der Bewertung dieses Buches nicht das Spiel zu bewerten, allerdings merkt man, dass Age of Sigmar als Tabletop stark vereinfacht wurde und so habe ich den eindruck, das dies sogar in diesem Buch der Fall ist. Warhammer wurde schon immer einfach geschrieben, aber hatte tiefe und Atmosphäre, die hier irgendwie nicht zur Geltung kommt.

Es passieren Dinge wie Verhandlungen mit Feinden, bei denen bei Warhammer Fantasy niemals stattfinden würden.

Die Qualität der Kurzgeschichten ist jedenfalls schlecht. Neben einem ganzen Haufen Tippfehlern kommen repetitive Szenarien mit Ausnahme von 3 Storys war es eine Qual dieses Buch zu lesen.

Wenn alle Age of Sigmar Bücher so sind, dann werde ich davon wohl keins mehr kaufen. Ich besitze noch 3 ungelesene Bücher von Age of Sigmar und werde der Reihe noch eine Chance geben, bin aber dank dieser Einführung nicht sehr zuversichtlich.

[Wim Helsen · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great introduction to the Age of Sigmar universe. I liked the novella 'Hammerhal'. It's a fast paced adventure story and even though it was quite packed with the world setting information, it read smoothly and in the end you regret the fact this novella is only 150 pages. The 'other stories' the book also contains, are all parts of other books (excerpts or chapters). They are a fun read being so short, but I'd recommend just reading the full books, otherwise you end up reading the same chapters/stories.

[Jeff Powers · Rating 3 out of 5]

A random assortment of stories and novellas. I was hoping this would respark my interest in the world of Warhammer fantasy as the Tales of the Old World or Dwarves collections did. But ultimately I found myself only half interested in most the stories. They were well enough written, just lacked something to hook me in. Not really recommended as a great entry point. But if you already enjoy the Age of Sigmar stuff of late, you might find something to enjoy here.

[Luke Costin · Rating 3 out of 5]

An ok collection of short stories, none feel particularly fleshed out but just give you a flavour of the setting which I guess is the book’s intent.
The opening Novella is probably the strongest entry.

Not sure why it randomly has excerpt from other novels

[Brian Lakes · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Great Place to Start

I’m new to Warhammer AOS. This was a great intro the world and a fascinating look at all that is taking place therein. A lot of great stories. High recommend if you’re looking for a place to start.

[Michael Dodd · Rating 4 out of 5]

A surprisingly ambitious tale filled with action, adventure, faith and dark magic. The twin cities of Hammerhal Ghyra and Hammerhal Aqsha are protected by powerful wards, but a darkness nevertheless grows within their walls, and in the dark Hexwood of the Nevergreen Mountains in Ghyran the beastkin gather. While Lord-Celestant Gardus Steel-Soul lends the Hallowed Knights’ strength to the sylvaneth against the tzaangor beastkin, knight of the Order of Azyr Sol Gage leads his comrades in excising the darkness that lurks within Hammerhal.

There’s a lot going on here for a novella, but it’s all tidily done and Reynolds nicely ties everything together into a well-paced, highly entertaining story. Existing fans will enjoy picking back up the Hallowed Knights arc as well as seeing cool characters like a Lord-Veritant, some surprisingly interesting tzaangors and even the Age of Sigmar equivalent of what would have once been a High Elf White Lion, while for new readers it should provide an excellent grounding in the setting.

Read the full review at https://www.trackofwords.com/2018/05/...

[Wim Helsen · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great introduction to the Age of Sigmar universe. I liked the novella 'Hammerhal'. It's a fast paced adventure story and even though it was quite packed with the world setting information, it read smoothly and in the end you regret the fact this novella is only 150 pages. The 'other stories' the book also contains, are all parts of other books (excerpts or chapters). They are a fun read being so short, but I'd recommend just reading the full books, otherwise you end up reading the same chapters/stories.

[Darryl]

I wanted to read this because I heard the author was good....... terrible terrible terrible terrible terrible terrible terrible terrible...

[Michael Knolla · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting enough introduction to WH Fantasy but the novella’s attempt to balance two distinct but interdependent narrative threads didn’t always smoothly transition back and forth.

[Christopher · Rating 3 out of 5]

Solid intro to the Age Of Sigmar.