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Kharadron Overlords #1

Overlords of the Iron Dragon

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Far above the highest mountain peaks, a new power has arisen. The duardin have developed new technology and weapons of war, and now they sail the skies in their amazing airships, seeking wealth and plunder. Brokrin Ullissonn, Captain of the Ang Drak, has a reputation for bad luck. Unless his fortune turns, and soon, he will lose his ship and his livelihood. When he and his crew discover the location of a source of aether-gold of unparalleled quality, the temptation is too strong to resist. No matter what dangers present themselves, the duardin desire wealth beyond all. But when Brokrinn realises what the true cost of the aether-gold will be, is it too late for him to save himself, his crew, and his ship?

Read it Because
It's the Kharadron Overlords' first starring role in a Black Library novel, and it's as packed with high-skies action, excitement and danger as a sky-ship's hold is with aether-gold!

250 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 10, 2017

34 people are currently reading
200 people want to read

About the author

C.L. Werner

170 books66 followers

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5 stars
35 (17%)
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82 (40%)
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64 (31%)
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19 (9%)
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Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews
25 reviews
September 24, 2020
Overlords of the Iron Dragon gives us a glimpse into what it would be like to voyage with the avaricious, sky-fairing duardin of the Kharadron Overlords.

I like the premise of the book, moving away from the 'Hero-hammer' world of noble Stormcast and evil, moustache-twiddling Chaos worshipers to take a look at what it's like to voyage in search of profit rather than glory or conquest.

I may also be in the minority in enjoying how the classic fantasy trope whereby dwarfs are obsessed with oaths and honour is subverted by the Kharadron into an obsession with contracts (and their loopholes). I'm not the most experienced fantasy reader, but the idea of a people basing their morality on a very black letter interpretation of contracts, rules and regulations feel fresh and different to me. This aspect of the Kharadron comes through really well in this book and their interactions with these rules help to push the plot forward in a pleasing way.

My main problem with the book is that most of the characters feel a bit thinly drawn. We get some sense of motivation but it's quite basic. Skaggi is the greedy money counter, so everything he does is about trying to increase profits. Brokrin is worried about a curse on his fortunes, so he's always really cautious. Drumark loves beer.

Black Library books are not known for rich and nuanced characterisation, but normally this doesn't matter too much because there is enough action to draw you through the book. Overlords avoids the kind of superfluous fight-scenes for the sake of fight-scenes you get in books like Primogenitor, but this leaves us hanging around on the decks of the Iron Dragon for large parts of the book, waiting for something to happen.

Contract negotiations and legal-wrangling are difficult raw material for a work of fiction, especially the kind of action-packed adventure one expects of Black Library works. Even as a trainee lawyer, I found some parts of this book consequently dragged a little. With the characters so simply drawn, I didn't really care enough about what was going to happen to the protagonists to be especially motivated to carry on reading.

Nevertheless, I persisted but, sadly, was not well rewarded. The climax feels a little bit contrived to me and the final outcome not especially satisfying. Some of the challenges which have driven the Kharadron on through the book haven't really been overcome, but are swept quickly below decks so we can simulate a resolution.

As a glimpse into the life of the Kharadron, I think this book is quite successful. I closed it with a good sense of what they are supposed to be like and a sneaking desire to pop onto the Games Workshop website and take a look at some Ironclads. As a satisfying fantasy adventure novel, however, I think it could have benefited from a bit of editing down into what would be a decent enough 100-odd page novella.

After hard negotiations and careful reading of the small print, I give Overlords of the Iron Dragon two spurts of aether-gold and a barrel of stale grog out of five frigates.
Profile Image for Brejabra.
11 reviews
December 15, 2017
Great book. It delved into some of the more selfish, negative traits of people. Most often, I find Warhammer/AoS books give too many positive, good traits to the good characters, making them the absolute moral authority on everything. In this case, it is interesting to see imperfect people, in a bad situation, figuring things out. Definitely stands out for me. The names of the characters however can get real confusing, real fast, though sticking to the storyline I found easy. This is one of my favourite AoS books, after City of Secrets.
282 reviews1 follower
January 21, 2020
I have to say, I thoroughly enjoyed Overlords of the Iron Dragon. This was my first foray into the books written on Age of Sigmar, and I think it was a great place for me to start. I'd say that the story is primarily a pulpy fantasy one, with lots of over-the-top action. However, there was a well-written story in there, too, that touched on themes of greed, obsession, and redemption, and with characters that had strengths and flaws. It was definitely an improvement over some other fantasy stories I've read in the past.

I'm very much looking forward to the sequel, and to diving into some of the other stories in the Age of Sigmar setting.
Profile Image for Carlos Gutiérrez.
31 reviews1 follower
February 18, 2022
Un meh para esta novela. La he terminado más que nada por puro orgullo, pero salvo contadas cositas, la novela es una sucesión de batallas sin sentido y personajes predecibles. No le doy un uno porque los kharadron me molan, pero hasta un dos me parece algo exagerado.
Profile Image for James Wetherill.
105 reviews3 followers
April 22, 2021
Abandoned, I got half way through and my life is too short.
Cartoonish Chaos villains, and a plodding story, didn’t so it for me 3/5
Profile Image for Mikael.
811 reviews6 followers
September 7, 2024
Great dwarven characters but relies heavily on the Iron Dragon story line and the Tzeentchian characters and it’s just drawn out. Skaggi is the best antagonist in a long time.
Profile Image for Josh Peek.
82 reviews
October 14, 2020
I'll start off with the final synopsis: this book is bad. It's probably a step above very bad although it does dip into those waters on several occasions.

I'll start with the foundation of any book: the writing. I understand that this is supposed to be faux-high fantasy, but CL Werner does not have the chops to write like Tolkien. Rather what he does is seem to have a thesaurus permanently next to his lap top to which he refers to constantly. He can hardly describe a single thing without turning it into some verbose profusion of nonsense. This especially plagues the portion of the book that has to do with the Chaos sorcerer. He starts this trend right out of the gate with my least favorite quote of the book,

"Possibilities and potentialities, the twistings of doom and fate, the shadows of futures yet unmade. Scenes of glorious victory and visions of annihilating disaster, each waxing and waning like the falling sands of time."

This reads like some college freshman's intro to fiction class, or one of those abyssal "rate my prologue" posts that often crops up on Reddit. I read most of the prose of this book under the impression that this was Werner's first novel. Imagine my surprise when I found out it wasn't.

Okay, so you don't care about the writing. That's totally fair, you gotta be pretty picky to care about that. What about characters? Ugh, bad news for you there. There aren't any. Sure, there's a bunch of cardboard dwarves stomping around, but every single one of them is so one note that they might as well be re-named like the ones in Snow White. Over here we have Captain Worrywart. There's Sergeant Drinking. Down below is Greedy. That one over there with the harpoon? That's Hunter. That sick dwarf we rescued? That's Plot Device. None of these so-called characters do anything approaching development, and it's because none of them have any sort of desires or needs that get challenged. The captain doesn't want to take risks and he doesn't the whole book. The greedy one is greedy and stays that way the whole book. The replacement captain (can anyone actually keep their names straight?) is worried about his ability to lead and remains that way the whole book. None of them change, none of them grow, none of them do ANYTHING other that resort to their one character trait and hammer it home.
That's not to even mention the Chaos sorcerer and the Chaos warlord. Their entire interactions together can be summed up in this conversation:
Sorcerer: I have a vague plan.
Warlord: I don't like your vague plan. Let's be more direct.
Sorcerer: No.
Warlord: Watch yourself. I can kill you if I want to. (proceeds to follow the vague plan)
This conversation gets repeated three times in the book over DOZENS of pages. I wish I was joking.

Writing sucks. Characters suck. What about the juicy, juicy plot? Ha! As if! Ol' Werner clearly sat down to this book without the slightest idea of how it would end because it's quite obvious that he made it up as he went along. The dwarves get shunted from plot point to plot point like they're on the world's most direct roller coaster. There's no overarching goals, there's no direction, there's no destination. They react to what's directly in front of them and then go to the next checkpoint that the NPC's point out to them. What makes this worse is that the Chaos sorcerer is supposedly orchestrated events to direct them through all these checkpoints! Here's a quick bullet point of the plot.

Wreck a dwarf fleet using a dragon.
Somehow hope that one dwarf survives
Hope that the local human tribe finds the wreck
Hope the humans signal more dwarfs
Hope the humans direct the dwarfs to the wreck
Hope the dwarfs go to the wreck and stumble upon the surviving dwarf
Hope the surviving dwarf tells them about the secret cache of gold
Hope the go get the secret cache of gold
Hope that they HAVE STORAGE CONCERNS SO THEY DECIDE TO SMELT THE GOLD DUST INTO INGOTS
Hope the go to the old haunted refinery
Hope the resurrect the secret gold demon THAT WAS IN THE GOLD DUST ALL ALONG!!!!

It's insane. I'm not exaggerating, but the sorcerer brags several times about how genius this plan is. There's no universe in which a human author sat down and sat all this through. This isn't a book so much as it is a loose collection of plot points, cardboard cutouts, and hideously generic actions scenes (man, nobody has shot anything in twenty pages, I wonder what's about to happen next? Seriously, you could set you watch by how regularly these boring action scenes showed up).

All in all, if you love Age of Sigmar or Kharadron Overlords (I actually play with them in the game; it's why I bought this book) then you might draw a slight sense of enjoyment from this, but it's deeply repressed by the mediocrity that's heaped everywhere.

Profile Image for Heinz Reinhardt.
346 reviews52 followers
January 28, 2019
An enjoyable, action filled tale of the consequences of greed and avarice. The forces of Chaos spin a web of deceit and subtle conspiracy to ensnare a crew of a Kharadron sky vessel via their own lust for wealth.
Clint always finds a way to insert genuinely good morality tales into his work, and the ending was very satisfying in that regard.
Worth a read to learn about one of the newer Warhammer Fantasy factions the Kharadron Overlords (basically Steampunk Dwarves).
Can also serve as a good introduction to Age of Sigmar as it isn't as black and white as the stories written immediately following First Editions release. The store here is a bit darker, more nuanced, and more useful as a moral warning.
Much like old Warhammer Fantasy used to be. (Though some will refuse to see the good in it merely because they hate the new setting).
Profile Image for Joe Beet.
35 reviews1 follower
May 31, 2023
This is my first AOS novel and first time reading anything regarding the Kharadron Overlords. The idea of Sky Dwarf/Pirates is pretty fun. The idea of of following a trail to a treasure, which ends up being a trap, is pretty played out though.

The characters suffer from being a bit grating overall. Skeggi particulary is straight up annoying to read. I get he is greedy and is looking to make profit at the others expense, I just don't need the exact same exchange repeated constantly throughout the book.

There is also a bit of a plot hole in the books resolution. Through the book we are shown the bad guy scorceror is looking into the future and manipulating events to achieve his desired outcome. He helps and hinders the heroes, even destroying some grots on the mere possibility they may intervene... Just a bit baffling really.

Add to that our main characters really do feel like they're on a conveyor belt of battles for the sake of it. It doesn't help that nothing of consequence comes from these battles really until the final one (though RIP the human warlord, forgotten about by the books end as well!). It may have helped to reveal the scorceror's plan sooner, so that we can share in the manipulation. It's not like the reveal was interesting in itself, or really telegraphed. Instead we are just told there is one, and then we're just strapped along for the ride.

Still, I'm keen to read more about sky pirate Dwarves, just maybe not from this series.
Profile Image for Michael Dodd.
988 reviews80 followers
June 11, 2018
Taking place mostly in the skies of Chamon, this follows sky-captain Brokrin Ullissonn and the crew of the Iron Dragon, a ship with a growing reputation for ill fortune. When they stumble upon the location of a strike of incredibly potent aether-gold, Brokrin’s lieutenants are desperate to go all in and claim a fortune that could spell the end of their troubles. Brokrin, however, remains cautious and suspects that it might just be too good to be true.

This is Werner in his element, writing about a faction which is fundamentally cool and getting to throw in pretty much anything and everything he wants to ramp up the madness. Thankfully it’s also a really good story, maintaining an fast, engaging pace that hooks you in and keeps you interested with inventive action scenes alongside interesting characters and just enough about the Kharadron to feel like you’re learning useful information about them without having it shoved down your throat. While the ending is perhaps a little contrived, overall it’s an incredibly enjoyable book that shows what’s possible in Age of Sigmar when the reins are off and authors can have fun.

Read the full review at https://www.trackofwords.com/2018/05/...
Profile Image for AshBornd.
44 reviews
October 26, 2021
Hola Amigos!
Как всегда пройдемся по пунктам:

О чем: Сеттинг Warhammer Age of Sigmar (после FB).
Дуардины - народ дворфов, бороздящих небеса на летающих кораблях.
Команду именно таких дворфов колдун-тзинчит хочет тайно использовать в своих целях.
Позволит ли их "природная" тяга к богатству стать пешками темных сил?

Что понравилось:
· Персонажи дуардинов прописаны довольно неплохо, даже частично раскрыты;
· Неплохие диалоги с долей удачных шуток;
· Более менее динамичный темп повествования без особых провисаний.

Что не понравилось:
· Очень простой линейный сюжет, подходящий скорее для мультфильма (если убрать натуралистичные бои);
· Скучноватый экшен;
· Недостаток драматизма;
· Недостаток юмора и оригинальных идей, присущих дворфам в любых сеттингах.

Review:
"Владыки "Железного дракона" - неплохой, но очень простой роман. Он не предлагает интересных идей, харизматичных персонажей, изящного слога или захватывающего экшена.
Просто среднего качества история как дуардины бороздят небеса, периодически отбиваясь от разных тварей и решая внутренние споры.
Подойдет, чтобы расслабить мозги, особенно для любителей данной расы.

Оценка 7/10.
Желание перечитать: скорее да.
Рейтинг "goodreads" - 3.68/5
Моя группа Вконтакте - https://vk.com/ashborndetv
64 reviews2 followers
July 27, 2024
Among the worst black library novels I've ever read. 80% of the book is just
The FINANCES
Our PROFITS
My FINANCES!
There will be DEBTS
The Finances!
But what about the Finances?
He stroked his beard 'The Finances!'
'The Finances' he grumbled.

The 20% that isn't a bunch of terribly written boring dwarves grumbling about finances is just generic fantasy-combat-filler that's entirely forgettable and nothing book-worthy.

An actual finance textbook would be more interesting than this slop, as even though every page is whining about finances, there's nothing interesting like actual finances (interest rates, monetary takeovers, etc.) The wolf of wall street, for example, is a memoir about a terrible person with no moral qualities of any value, but the business it talks about is interesting. This series, on the other hand, has zero things to say about literally anything whatsoever and is an entire waste of time to read.
Profile Image for Lionel Taylor.
196 reviews2 followers
August 5, 2020
This is one of the best Warhammer books that I have read so far. It is about the adventures of the Iron Dragon and Kharadron Overload Ironclad that has had a series of very unprofitable ventures so unprofitable that the crew is beginning to wonder if the ship captain Brokrin Ullinson is working under a curse. Brokrin himself is beginning to have doubts about his own abilities as a captain as well. Then while salvaging a ship from another Skyport, the crew comes across an opportunity that seems too good to be true, and in the world of Warhammer things are hardly ever what they seem.
Profile Image for Christian.
721 reviews
May 8, 2018
This was a very satisfying introduction to the skyfaring Duardin in the Warhammer: Age of Sigmar setting. Herein is presented the adventures of the crew of the Iron Dragon and their mission to turn a profit. They are dragged into a mysterious plot by agents of Tzeentch. The characters are generally likeable, the plot is easy to follow and fast paced and the action prevents boredom from settling in.
Profile Image for Brian.
21 reviews
October 12, 2025
I normally love the works of CL Werner but this one felt forced and overly complicated. While I loved seeing the inner workings and relationships of the Kharadron, the story felt like it dragged on and could have wrapped up much sooner. The characters were forgettable to the point I could never remember who was who when I read their names and their positions within the story.
Profile Image for Philippe Olivier.
3 reviews
December 18, 2017
Great book, very entertaining! Very much like a Greek tragedy set in the Age of Sigmar with an interesting new faction: the kharadron!
I also enjoyed the Nurgle demon part in the floating mountain, quite gruesome.
Profile Image for Davidrago.
34 reviews2 followers
April 22, 2019
Como lectura ligera no está mal, se atasca un poco a la mitad pero enseguida vuelve a coger ritmo y te deja un final apoteósico. Los personajes un poco planos, parece que sigue costando darles personalidades diferentes a los enanos en cualquier obra de ficción.
Profile Image for Dan Findlay-Robinson.
54 reviews
July 3, 2018
A great read, within the tale of adventures amongst the clouds, you get a great insight into the Kharadron society and the way a crew works
1 review
August 3, 2018
I am a fan of C.L. Werner and the concept of the Kharadron Overlords. This is a fun floating dwarf pirate adventure story.
Profile Image for Cuchi Aslogh.
78 reviews1 follower
October 22, 2021
Un cliché sobre enanos? Sí
Que igualmente es brutal? Pues también es verdad
Profile Image for Mitchell.
120 reviews1 follower
February 4, 2018
A great book following the adventures of a crew of Kharadron Overlords (sky dwarfs basically) and their quest to come to riches. Really good characters, story and providing a load of development for the race.

Would highly recommend for anyone who is starting a Kharadron Overlords army.
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