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Warhammer Chronicles #13
Skaven Wars: The Black Plague
A Warhammer Chronicles omnibus
Sigmar's Empire is fractured, its people starving – and now, a deadly plague sweeps across the lands. But this is only the prelude to the disasters to come, for the skaven are rising, and would claim the Empire for their own…
READ IT BECAUSE
A pivotal period in the history of the world-that-was is explored, a time that saw great darkness and horror – but also gave birth to one of the Empire's greatest heroes, and forged hope for a better future.
DESCRIPTION
One thousand years have passed since Sigmar united the tribes of man and gave birth to an Empire. Now, the Emperor Boris Goldgather claims ascendancy and it is a bitter reign. Under his corrupt rule, the Empire is already at risk of annihilation when a deadly plague sweeps across the lands, decimating entire populations. In its wake, a second mortal threat seizes their advantage: the skaven. Whilst the Emperor escapes to safety, his people struggle to defend their cities with diminished forces. Only one man dares brave the wilds and lead an assault upon the mutant ratmen. Graf Gunthar and his army battle to liberate towns and villages of their verminous infestation. But as glorious victories herald the promise of a new leader for the Empire – for the Graf, the trials have only just begun.
CONTENTS
Dead Winter
Blighted Empire
Wolf of Sigmar
and four short stories.
Sigmar's Empire is fractured, its people starving – and now, a deadly plague sweeps across the lands. But this is only the prelude to the disasters to come, for the skaven are rising, and would claim the Empire for their own…
READ IT BECAUSE
A pivotal period in the history of the world-that-was is explored, a time that saw great darkness and horror – but also gave birth to one of the Empire's greatest heroes, and forged hope for a better future.
DESCRIPTION
One thousand years have passed since Sigmar united the tribes of man and gave birth to an Empire. Now, the Emperor Boris Goldgather claims ascendancy and it is a bitter reign. Under his corrupt rule, the Empire is already at risk of annihilation when a deadly plague sweeps across the lands, decimating entire populations. In its wake, a second mortal threat seizes their advantage: the skaven. Whilst the Emperor escapes to safety, his people struggle to defend their cities with diminished forces. Only one man dares brave the wilds and lead an assault upon the mutant ratmen. Graf Gunthar and his army battle to liberate towns and villages of their verminous infestation. But as glorious victories herald the promise of a new leader for the Empire – for the Graf, the trials have only just begun.
CONTENTS
Dead Winter
Blighted Empire
Wolf of Sigmar
and four short stories.
960 pages, Paperback
Published May 21, 2019
84 people are currently reading
310 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
July 8, 2020
I was really tempted to award 4 stars to this triology, but the final segment of the third book would not let me.
Skaven wars the black plague takes us back over a thousand years from the end times setting back to before the vampire wars when the empire was beset by the skaven as never before. That did raise a few questions; mainly on the technological development consistency. I can't help but wonder how little the empire has developed and changed between the skaven wars and the end times or even Magnus the Pious. Sure the empire had developed schools of magic, gunpowder weapons and used demigryphs but all and all the changes are very slim to imperial society more akin to a few hundred years of history rather then over 1300 years. But maybe that is just me assuming the same teleological and linear societal changes as happened to european history (I can't help it that the warhammer empire is based upon the Holy Roman Empire).
Questions on technological and society progress aside, the books are an exquisite read. Kreyssig, emperor Boris, Erna, Manfred, Puskab, Vanhal are all interesting main characters but I have to admit that I was invested in most if not all characters that had the spotlight on them. None felt wasted or added on which to me is a sign of a great story. However this is one factor that causes the third book to crumble under the weight of expectation.
The problems with the third book are several, first of all some of the characters have an underwhelming end none more so then Vanhal the necromancer. He was by far my favorite character in the first book and his fall to darkness was well written. However in the second book his role is diminished he is talked about and viewed rather than tell the story from his view but still a powerful and meaningful character. In the third book however his role is even short of a subplot, when he comes up it is almost like an afterthought and his battle with Manfred is by far the most disappointing; a shame really to have such a builtup for nothing.
My second issue is Werner's style, like Mike Lee's rise of Nagash triology, Werner likes to rapidly switch perspective and mess around with time. To say he likes a non linear approach would be a downplay but while it works in the first two books, it falls flat in the second half of the third. All of a sudden we switch between the following; Manfred is on his way to fight in Averland/ manfred is about to fight the undead a year earlier/ Kreyssig is receiving Manfred emissaries after his victory in Averland/ back to the battle in Averland/ back to the undead and so on. To put it bluntly it is confusing as hell. The biggest issue with this and why it worked in the Nagash book and the first two of this; is that ever jump is big enough; Either big enough in time or in space to allow each story line to be its own ting. In the last part of the third book however we jump between events within a year of one another and they cross reference to such an extent that it ruins the tension. Werner should have chosen one timeline and stuck to it, yes yes I get that he wanted several perspectives to show their part of the story but then he should have made blocks that follow up on one another.
So yeah a shame really for the book offers such great tension, atmosphere, vileness, characters and settings but like a chef who overused his favorite spices, Werner should have reigned himself in.
Four stars for book one, Three and a half for the second, 2 and a half for the third. The short stories were a pleasant surprise; they were chilling and had a distinctly horror tone to them making owning this story as this bundle worthwhile.
Skaven wars the black plague takes us back over a thousand years from the end times setting back to before the vampire wars when the empire was beset by the skaven as never before. That did raise a few questions; mainly on the technological development consistency. I can't help but wonder how little the empire has developed and changed between the skaven wars and the end times or even Magnus the Pious. Sure the empire had developed schools of magic, gunpowder weapons and used demigryphs but all and all the changes are very slim to imperial society more akin to a few hundred years of history rather then over 1300 years. But maybe that is just me assuming the same teleological and linear societal changes as happened to european history (I can't help it that the warhammer empire is based upon the Holy Roman Empire).
Questions on technological and society progress aside, the books are an exquisite read. Kreyssig, emperor Boris, Erna, Manfred, Puskab, Vanhal are all interesting main characters but I have to admit that I was invested in most if not all characters that had the spotlight on them. None felt wasted or added on which to me is a sign of a great story. However this is one factor that causes the third book to crumble under the weight of expectation.
The problems with the third book are several, first of all some of the characters have an underwhelming end none more so then Vanhal the necromancer. He was by far my favorite character in the first book and his fall to darkness was well written. However in the second book his role is diminished he is talked about and viewed rather than tell the story from his view but still a powerful and meaningful character. In the third book however his role is even short of a subplot, when he comes up it is almost like an afterthought and his battle with Manfred is by far the most disappointing; a shame really to have such a builtup for nothing.
My second issue is Werner's style, like Mike Lee's rise of Nagash triology, Werner likes to rapidly switch perspective and mess around with time. To say he likes a non linear approach would be a downplay but while it works in the first two books, it falls flat in the second half of the third. All of a sudden we switch between the following; Manfred is on his way to fight in Averland/ manfred is about to fight the undead a year earlier/ Kreyssig is receiving Manfred emissaries after his victory in Averland/ back to the battle in Averland/ back to the undead and so on. To put it bluntly it is confusing as hell. The biggest issue with this and why it worked in the Nagash book and the first two of this; is that ever jump is big enough; Either big enough in time or in space to allow each story line to be its own ting. In the last part of the third book however we jump between events within a year of one another and they cross reference to such an extent that it ruins the tension. Werner should have chosen one timeline and stuck to it, yes yes I get that he wanted several perspectives to show their part of the story but then he should have made blocks that follow up on one another.
So yeah a shame really for the book offers such great tension, atmosphere, vileness, characters and settings but like a chef who overused his favorite spices, Werner should have reigned himself in.
Four stars for book one, Three and a half for the second, 2 and a half for the third. The short stories were a pleasant surprise; they were chilling and had a distinctly horror tone to them making owning this story as this bundle worthwhile.
June 22, 2021
First book is pretty sick, second is nearly as good, third is just some hot garbage. With a better ending the omnibus would easily be 4/5 stars, maybe even 5/5 with a strong ending. The main characters all start out fairly interesting and varied and have actual character arcs, but by the end it feels more like a history book with purely factual retellings of events rather than a character-based novel. Additionally, the first two books move chronologically for the most part, with any flashbacks pretty clearly presented. However, the third book constantly skips back and forth for seemingly no reason, confusing me to no end when Mandred seemed to be participating in two different battle simultaneously. What makes it worse is there's no payoff at all, the two stories could've been told one at a time and nothing would've changed.
All the internal dialogues of Vanhal, Puskab, Boris, and Kreyssig (the main villains) start out varied and interesting, but are done away with and their roles in the story turned painfully generic by the third book. Either with Puskab and Vanhal being turned into flat subplots or Kreyssig losing every interesting aspect of his character, and the introduction of boring, predictable 2-D villains like Vrrmik. And I don't even remember what happened with Vanhal, one moment he was in the story and the next he just wasn't. A shame considering he probably had the most compelling backstory of the villain characters, if somewhat cliche.
The hero characters are done a bit better, but again it falls apart by the third novel. All the best protagonists are massacred as the series progresses, leaving just Mandred, what's left of Erna, and the irrelevant dwarves who's names I've already forgotten by the series conclusion. Mandred is done well throughout, again until the end when he basically turns into a generic high fantasy warrior king, but at least he gets to keep some semblance of internal struggle and gets a decent resolution. Meanwhile Erna and the other human characters mostly get the classic "can pinpoint the exact chapter they've completed their plot task and can now be completely sidelined / given a completely unceremonious death." This mostly refers to characters like "the guy that hid Ghal Maraz" and "the guy who killed Boris."
As for the plot itself, if you've ever read a Warhammer or Warcraft narrative they more or less play out in a similar way. There are no extraordinary twists, you can more or less guess which characters get to survive and death flags are more like those giant billboards you pass on the highway. The most intriguing plotlines happen in the form of power struggles in Skavenblight or Altdorf, and even those are pretty generic high fantasy kingdom power struggles.
Overall a great read soured by a pretty poo-poo ending.
All the internal dialogues of Vanhal, Puskab, Boris, and Kreyssig (the main villains) start out varied and interesting, but are done away with and their roles in the story turned painfully generic by the third book. Either with Puskab and Vanhal being turned into flat subplots or Kreyssig losing every interesting aspect of his character, and the introduction of boring, predictable 2-D villains like Vrrmik. And I don't even remember what happened with Vanhal, one moment he was in the story and the next he just wasn't. A shame considering he probably had the most compelling backstory of the villain characters, if somewhat cliche.
The hero characters are done a bit better, but again it falls apart by the third novel. All the best protagonists are massacred as the series progresses, leaving just Mandred, what's left of Erna, and the irrelevant dwarves who's names I've already forgotten by the series conclusion. Mandred is done well throughout, again until the end when he basically turns into a generic high fantasy warrior king, but at least he gets to keep some semblance of internal struggle and gets a decent resolution. Meanwhile Erna and the other human characters mostly get the classic "can pinpoint the exact chapter they've completed their plot task and can now be completely sidelined / given a completely unceremonious death." This mostly refers to characters like "the guy that hid Ghal Maraz" and "the guy who killed Boris."
As for the plot itself, if you've ever read a Warhammer or Warcraft narrative they more or less play out in a similar way. There are no extraordinary twists, you can more or less guess which characters get to survive and death flags are more like those giant billboards you pass on the highway. The most intriguing plotlines happen in the form of power struggles in Skavenblight or Altdorf, and even those are pretty generic high fantasy kingdom power struggles.
Overall a great read soured by a pretty poo-poo ending.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 22, 2022
Finishing the Black Plague trilogy I found myself wondering what I might have to say about it. Overall, it was an enjoyable read, with a lot of cool battles, plot twists, and vividly described violence.
The skaven were well written thematically, even if there isn't much characterization there. They are alien in how they view the world and the things they value so it's kind of hard to connect with them, and I didn't find a big distinction between one or the other Skaven. They all read kind of the same way.
The humans also weren't super memorable. Kreyssig started as a memorable villain in book 1 for just how cruel he was, but by book 3 he kind of comes off simpering and pathetic. There was never any illusion that he could win, so it was just a matter of how his reign would come to an end.
Mandred was a slightly more interesting character, seeing how he went from idealic young boy to war hero, but there weren't any major roadblocks. Anything bad happen to him just made him even more stern of a character. He never doubted himself in any serious way. It starts to havea feeling of just watching the wheels turn until we get to the inevitable outcome.
Vanhal was just entirely pointless. He ties into CL Werner's other story "Witch Hunter" as an ancestor to one of the major characters, but I think he has more relevance to that story, where he does nothing, than this story where is an ...antagonist...protagonist? I just never felt like he tied into the story in a meaningful way despite the story itself telling us again and again he is important.
What I'm starting to realize about CL Werner is he is really a one book kind of guy. He's doesn't write super deep characters that you're meant to care about. They often meet tragic and brutal ends in his one off books, and there is usually some kind of poetic justice there where characters kind of get whats coming to them, either from their hubris or cruelty(or both.)
So, overall it was a fun read in the sense that it kept me engage to see how it ended, but I just never felt much of a connection overall to anything going on. It's not a trilogy i'd personally recommend others read, even if I feel like it deserves three stars if for nothing more than the competency of the prose.
The skaven were well written thematically, even if there isn't much characterization there. They are alien in how they view the world and the things they value so it's kind of hard to connect with them, and I didn't find a big distinction between one or the other Skaven. They all read kind of the same way.
The humans also weren't super memorable. Kreyssig started as a memorable villain in book 1 for just how cruel he was, but by book 3 he kind of comes off simpering and pathetic. There was never any illusion that he could win, so it was just a matter of how his reign would come to an end.
Mandred was a slightly more interesting character, seeing how he went from idealic young boy to war hero, but there weren't any major roadblocks. Anything bad happen to him just made him even more stern of a character. He never doubted himself in any serious way. It starts to havea feeling of just watching the wheels turn until we get to the inevitable outcome.
Vanhal was just entirely pointless. He ties into CL Werner's other story "Witch Hunter" as an ancestor to one of the major characters, but I think he has more relevance to that story, where he does nothing, than this story where is an ...antagonist...protagonist? I just never felt like he tied into the story in a meaningful way despite the story itself telling us again and again he is important.
What I'm starting to realize about CL Werner is he is really a one book kind of guy. He's doesn't write super deep characters that you're meant to care about. They often meet tragic and brutal ends in his one off books, and there is usually some kind of poetic justice there where characters kind of get whats coming to them, either from their hubris or cruelty(or both.)
So, overall it was a fun read in the sense that it kept me engage to see how it ended, but I just never felt much of a connection overall to anything going on. It's not a trilogy i'd personally recommend others read, even if I feel like it deserves three stars if for nothing more than the competency of the prose.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 26, 2023
3.5 stars!
This was a bit of a slog due to its sheer length of being 3 relatively long novels smooshed into a single tome (around 1200 pages).
Anyways, as a generic dark-fantasy novel, it's serviceable. It's definitely a story who's whole is greater than the sum of its parts. It takes a lot of typical fantasy tropes (palace intrigue, dark magic, etc) but weaves it pretty well into the Warhammer universe. The Skaven (a race of paranoid, narcissistic rat-men) are particular grotesque and weird. The basic idea is "The Black Plague" (much like the real world one in how it acts) is engineered and release by them in an attempt to take over the world, in the midst of what's basically a low-grade civil war in "The Empire" under the tyranny of a selfish and incompetent emperor.
Hard to concisely describe, partly cause of its length, partly due to its flaws. It has several interleaving plot arcs that sort of successfully intertwine, but occasionally just seem to peter out.
Anyways, for all that (as I way too often say) I genuinely enjoyed it. Its not a story that you're exactly going to reflect on deep themes and messages, but it was a solid dark-fantasy romp.
This was a bit of a slog due to its sheer length of being 3 relatively long novels smooshed into a single tome (around 1200 pages).
Anyways, as a generic dark-fantasy novel, it's serviceable. It's definitely a story who's whole is greater than the sum of its parts. It takes a lot of typical fantasy tropes (palace intrigue, dark magic, etc) but weaves it pretty well into the Warhammer universe. The Skaven (a race of paranoid, narcissistic rat-men) are particular grotesque and weird. The basic idea is "The Black Plague" (much like the real world one in how it acts) is engineered and release by them in an attempt to take over the world, in the midst of what's basically a low-grade civil war in "The Empire" under the tyranny of a selfish and incompetent emperor.
Hard to concisely describe, partly cause of its length, partly due to its flaws. It has several interleaving plot arcs that sort of successfully intertwine, but occasionally just seem to peter out.
Anyways, for all that (as I way too often say) I genuinely enjoyed it. Its not a story that you're exactly going to reflect on deep themes and messages, but it was a solid dark-fantasy romp.
August 19, 2019
I dislike that he jumps from POV to POV constantly (in the beginning to middle it's like every 4 pages) and one chapter it's 1121 and the next is 1120 etc, but somehow, despite the inconvenience, Werner makes it work. The book would also benefit from a character list aswell as a more detailed map so the reader could now were in the Empire they were.
A good story and the short storys were quite enjoyable
A good story and the short storys were quite enjoyable
June 22, 2020
This book is for people who are into Warhammer fantasy, for others it will take finishing the first part to get to know the characters the settings of Skaven Wars.
It's filled with details which makes it less interesting to readers not into Warhammer.
The final issue, which was irritating, was the jumping from perspective to perspective, and from year to year, which makes the reader lose focus and have to go back and check which year and which city each chapter takes place in.
It's filled with details which makes it less interesting to readers not into Warhammer.
The final issue, which was irritating, was the jumping from perspective to perspective, and from year to year, which makes the reader lose focus and have to go back and check which year and which city each chapter takes place in.
December 2, 2025
Very good book if you like Warhammer Fantasy setting and the politicking that goes into it. There is a lot of human court intrigue as well as backstabbing by the Skaven (rat-people) throughout all three books. The first book is the strongest however and it feels like the plot overstays its welcome many times as the events take too long to wrap up, the best characters die off, and the story beings to move in circles.
A good read but only if you really like rats.
A good read but only if you really like rats.
July 29, 2020
Well written book, just a little scatterbrained
A well written book with great character development, but ponderously jumps back and forth between time periods and stories making it a bit confusing to follow along
A well written book with great character development, but ponderously jumps back and forth between time periods and stories making it a bit confusing to follow along
August 4, 2023
The skaven characters were fun and the only thing that pushed me to read the entirety of this otherwise messy timeline/novel
December 13, 2023
This series was a freaking ride. Definitely worth the read.
April 24, 2023
Good book
Endings could be improved but overall its a rely good book lots of action and caricter arcs are well riten
Endings could be improved but overall its a rely good book lots of action and caricter arcs are well riten
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews