What do you think?
Rate this book
Warhammer Age of Sigmar
Gods and Mortals
A Warhammer Age of Sigmar anthology
The storm has broken. Sigmar has returned to the Mortal Realms, and his eternal armies march across the lands, smiting the unworthy. This collection of short stories tells tales from the greatest battles of the realms.
READ IT BECAUSE
This volume collects together a plethora of fantastic stories from across the realms – it's a must-read for anyone keen to know more about the Age of Sigmar.
DESCRIPTION
For too long, the Mortal Realms have suffered under Chaos’ twisted crusade. Tainted lands writhe in agony and once great cities lie in ruins, the hopes of their people extinguished. But the storm winds rise. Sigmar’s greatest creation, the Stormcast Eternals, strike with His vengeance. Their lightning drives the darkness away and their thunder drowns out the screams of the Foul Gods’ acolytes as they fall to sword and halberd. The sons and daughters of the storm know they cannot fail. For now is the time where the fate of a world will be decided. Where Gods and mortals must rise and fight, or face their final damnation.
CONTENTS
The Dance of the Skulls & Obsidian by David Annandale
Blacktalon: Hunting Shadows by Andy Clark
Vault of Souls by Evan Dicken
Bear Eater, Force of Personality, Gods' Gift & The Hardest Word by David Guymer
Pantheon by Guy Haley
Callis & Toll: The Old Waysby Nick Horth
Pilgrim’s Trial by Robbie MacNiven
Auction of Blood, Eight Lamentations: The Tainted Axe, The Library of Forgotten Moments, Order of the Fly: Tourney of Fate & The Road of Blades by Josh Reynolds
Gravesend Gold & The Witch Takers by C L Werner
The storm has broken. Sigmar has returned to the Mortal Realms, and his eternal armies march across the lands, smiting the unworthy. This collection of short stories tells tales from the greatest battles of the realms.
READ IT BECAUSE
This volume collects together a plethora of fantastic stories from across the realms – it's a must-read for anyone keen to know more about the Age of Sigmar.
DESCRIPTION
For too long, the Mortal Realms have suffered under Chaos’ twisted crusade. Tainted lands writhe in agony and once great cities lie in ruins, the hopes of their people extinguished. But the storm winds rise. Sigmar’s greatest creation, the Stormcast Eternals, strike with His vengeance. Their lightning drives the darkness away and their thunder drowns out the screams of the Foul Gods’ acolytes as they fall to sword and halberd. The sons and daughters of the storm know they cannot fail. For now is the time where the fate of a world will be decided. Where Gods and mortals must rise and fight, or face their final damnation.
CONTENTS
The Dance of the Skulls & Obsidian by David Annandale
Blacktalon: Hunting Shadows by Andy Clark
Vault of Souls by Evan Dicken
Bear Eater, Force of Personality, Gods' Gift & The Hardest Word by David Guymer
Pantheon by Guy Haley
Callis & Toll: The Old Waysby Nick Horth
Pilgrim’s Trial by Robbie MacNiven
Auction of Blood, Eight Lamentations: The Tainted Axe, The Library of Forgotten Moments, Order of the Fly: Tourney of Fate & The Road of Blades by Josh Reynolds
Gravesend Gold & The Witch Takers by C L Werner
- GenresFantasy
397 pages, Kindle Edition
First published February 2, 2019
18 people are currently reading
78 people want to read
About the author
Guy Haley
288 books718 followersGuy Haley is the author of over 50 novels and novellas. His original fiction includes Crash, Champion of Mars, and the Richards and Klein, Dreaming Cities, and the Gates of the World series (as K M McKinley). However, he is best known as a prolific contributor to Games Workshop's Black Library imprint.
When not writing, he'll be out doing something dangerous in the wild, learning languages or gaming.
When not writing, he'll be out doing something dangerous in the wild, learning languages or gaming.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
June 16, 2019
I received a copy of ‘Gods and Mortals’ via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
I have been struggling to love warhammer’s fantasy offerings ever since they decided to rip apart the Old World (my favourite setting) and turn it into Age of Sigmar. Initially, I was very hesitant to get back into after this awful betrayal of the universe I knew and loved, but I have come to terms with the fact that it is gone and have decided to get back into it slowly. It helps that many of the same characters feature in this strange new world.
Anyway, please find below my review of the short story collection ‘Gods and Mortals’. Each of the eighteen stories has a short review and a star rating (in the order they appear in in the book). Due to this it is a fairly long review.
My knowledge of Age of Sigmar isn’t massively clued-up, so I may make the odd mistake where lore is concerned. The star ratings were added up and all sorts of hellish math (percentages) were done to get a star rating for the title as a whole. Overall it scored 71 stars out of a potential 90. Giving it a solid 4-star rating.
Force of Personality by David Guymer – 4 Stars
Hamilcar Bear-Eater is the sole Stormcast Eternal tasked with aiding in the defence of Nemisuvik from the invading forced of Khorne, God of Blood. The story is told in first person narrative from Hamilcar’s own perspective. Not knowing much about the Stormcast, it was nice to have a look into the personality of one of their champions. Mostly, this was a good, entertaining story (I always find first person is). The only part that ruined it for me was that, when underwater, he managed to scream something (can’t remember the words said, but I know they shouldn’t be understandable when underwater). Other than that it was pretty solid and humorous.
Pilgrim’s Trial by Robbie MacNiven – 3 Stars
This short follows Vanik, a chaos knight, as he undertakes a trial to gain the service of a mighty steed. This was well written and it’s always nice to see a story from the perspective of a chaos point of view. The only reason this failed to get higher than a 3 is that I just didn’t feel attached to the main character/story. I can’t put my finger on why. Just didn’t feel it.
The Dance of the Skulls by David Annandale – 3 Stars
Vampire queen, Neferata, attends a ball that she knows is a trap and, most likely, an attempt on her life. The overall plot is that of vampire court intrigue and assassination attempts. I really struggled to get into it but did start to enjoy it more in the latter stages of the story. I prefer my short stories to be more snappy than intrigue-based.
Order of The Fly: Tourney of Fate by Josh Reynolds – 5 Stars
This is one of the longer stories in the collection and easily one of the most enjoyable. This is told from the view of Gryme, a young man in the service to the plague god Nurgle wo is desperate to become a knight of the Order of the Fly. When a fair lady is taken by a knight of Tzeentch, Gryme swears an oath to bring her back safely. Great writing, storytelling and supporting characters as anyone familiar with Josh Reynolds would expect from his work.
The Hardest Word by David Guymer – 5 Stars
David Guymer’s second story of the anthology sees the return of Hamilcar Bear-Eater. In this one, the boastful Lord Castellant has to defend his fortress from a skaven attack, hot on the heels of receiving a prophecy telling of him being dragged off in chains by ratmen. I really like the character of Hamilcar and would be interested in reading a novel-length offering of his.
Auction of Blood by Josh Reynolds – 5 Stars
Josh Reynolds’ second story of the anthology was far shorter than the first but felt far grittier and more entertaining. It follows Bok, a seller of rare books and agent for his mysterious patron; Neferata. Neferata has tasked him with procuring a certain item at auction. As the title suggests, it gets bloody. I did not want this to end. I can only hope there are longer works featuring Bok, either released or due to be. It did end in a way that suggested he would be getting into further trouble in the future.
Pantheon by Guy Haley - 3 Stars
Pantheon was more of what I class as a passive story than a dynamic one. Sigmar was the main character and, by viewing the life and deeds of a mage from history and showing the wisdom he gained & the important lessons he learned about the folly of wanting eternal life, tries to convince a goddess to inspire mortals against the forces of chaos. I didn’t really care one way or another for this and feel a person more in the know as far as Age of Sigmar goes would get a lot more out of it. I gave it a 3 star rating purely for the decent writing and the overall moral. It really made me think.
Vault of Souls by Evan Dicken – 2 Stars
This one featured three Stormcast Eternals making their way through the cursed city of Shadespire, searching for someone called Thalasar. I’m not sure whether it was a failing of the story or of me as a reader, but I just couldn’t stay focused at all when reading this. To the extent that I read the whole thing and have no clue what happened. I didn’t find myself invested in the characters. I did, however, through the decent writing of the author, enjoy a fair bit of brilliant imagery throughout.
The Road of Blades by Josh Reynolds – 3 Stars
The Road of Blades was the first Josh Reynolds story in this collection that I wasn’t overly keen on. The writing was fantastic, as it always is with Josh, but I just felt the plot was a bit too linear and never really seemed to grab my attention. It features a champion of Khorne looking for a smithing citadel, in search of a great weapon.
Bear Eater by David Guymer – 4 Stars
Hamilcar Bear-Eater and his warriors travel to the city of Jercho to warn of the advances of the vampire lord Mannfred Von Carstein. I get the feeling David Guymer may have read, and been influenced by, Joe Abercrombie. His famous ‘Say one thing for Logen Ninefingers’ has been replaced with ‘Say one thing for Hamilcar.’ The story took me a while to get into, but it picked up and ended really well. It left me wanting more. But then, I bloody love vampires. And there are none greater than the Von Carsteins in the Warhammer world.
Gravesend Gold by C.L. Werner – 3 Stars
An airship of down on their luck Duardin (dwarfs) discover the wreck of an old airship and hope that by investigating, they may find enough salvage to turn their dwindling fortunes around and make their failed venture profitable. This tale of desperation wasn’t bad. I thought it pretty solid. It just had a slightly weak ending that I found fairly predictable.
Eight Lamentations: The Tainted Axe by Josh Reynolds – 5 Stars
A one-handed knight and a tree spirit must travel deep into the darkest depths of a forest to claim one of Nurgle’s most foul weapons and remove it so the forest can flourish. As has been the case for the most part in this collection, I really enjoyed this story by Reynolds. The back and forth banter between the knight and the tree spirit was really fun and gave it an extra depth that the story otherwise would not have had. Would love to see more.
The Witch Takers by C.L. Werner – 5 Stars
Based purely on the title alone, this is the short story that I had been looking forward to the most. C.L. Werner’s Witch Hunter books from the old Warhammer Fantasy days were some of my favourite books ever. So I am glad he penned a witch hunter story in Age of Sigmar. It’s not Matthias Thulman and Streng, but this short, along with previous witch hunter novels, cements one thing as fact: Werner is the king as far as witch hunters go. This was well-written, enjoyable and I wanted more. I can only hope he already has, or is slated to write a few novels in Age of Sigmar featuring witch hunters.
Callis and Toll: The Old Ways by Nick Horth – 4 Stars
Another tale featuring a witch hunter (and his aide) as the pair are sent to put an end to a squabble between two great houses. Their task sees them head into one of the deadliest woods in the Mortal Realms to solve a murder. This was really well-written and, were it not for the ‘I told you so’ moment that, if it hadn’t happened could have saved lives, might have scored a perfect 5 stars. It just seemed like a pretty crappy, un-witch hunter thing to do and made me dislike the character of Toll quite a lot.
The Library of Forgotten Moments by Josh Reynolds – 5 Stars
Lord Balthas of the Stormcast Eternals seeks long-forgotten knowledge that might help cure the Stormcast of the impurities of their soul reforgings. Sadly for Balthas, vampire lord, Mannfred Von Carstein, seeks the same knowledge. This one was fun to read and the brawl between vampire and Stormcast eternal was enjoyable. Felt almost like a WWE hardcore match.
God’s Gift by David Guymer – 5 Stars
This is another outing for Hamilcar Bear-Eater. In this tale, he and his fellow Stormcast fight beastmen and come face to face with a treelord. This story leaves the reader with unanswered questions about Hamilcar and the prophecy hanging over his head. If the rest hadn’t already made me want to, this one has me wanting to read more about the adventures of Hamilcar.
Obsidian by David Annandale – 4 Stars
To begin with, I really did not care for this story. It just felt like Romeo and Juliet with vampires. My opinion rapidly changed when the action hit. It hit hard and fast and everything surrounding it got very interesting, very quickly. All in all, a good, enjoyable short story that ended up being far more than I expected.
Blacktalon: Hunting Shadows by Andy Clark – 3 Stars
This was well-written and fairly enjoyable. It featured a monster hunter that only hunted the deadliest of marks to have somehow displeased Sigmar. From the start I found it very hard to like or care for the main character due to her attitude. I felt the character progression was fairly predictable and her little moment of humanity at the end could be seen a mile off. Despite this, it was fairly enjoyable to read. I just feel the collection could have been closed out with a far stronger story.
I have been struggling to love warhammer’s fantasy offerings ever since they decided to rip apart the Old World (my favourite setting) and turn it into Age of Sigmar. Initially, I was very hesitant to get back into after this awful betrayal of the universe I knew and loved, but I have come to terms with the fact that it is gone and have decided to get back into it slowly. It helps that many of the same characters feature in this strange new world.
Anyway, please find below my review of the short story collection ‘Gods and Mortals’. Each of the eighteen stories has a short review and a star rating (in the order they appear in in the book). Due to this it is a fairly long review.
My knowledge of Age of Sigmar isn’t massively clued-up, so I may make the odd mistake where lore is concerned. The star ratings were added up and all sorts of hellish math (percentages) were done to get a star rating for the title as a whole. Overall it scored 71 stars out of a potential 90. Giving it a solid 4-star rating.
Force of Personality by David Guymer – 4 Stars
Hamilcar Bear-Eater is the sole Stormcast Eternal tasked with aiding in the defence of Nemisuvik from the invading forced of Khorne, God of Blood. The story is told in first person narrative from Hamilcar’s own perspective. Not knowing much about the Stormcast, it was nice to have a look into the personality of one of their champions. Mostly, this was a good, entertaining story (I always find first person is). The only part that ruined it for me was that, when underwater, he managed to scream something (can’t remember the words said, but I know they shouldn’t be understandable when underwater). Other than that it was pretty solid and humorous.
Pilgrim’s Trial by Robbie MacNiven – 3 Stars
This short follows Vanik, a chaos knight, as he undertakes a trial to gain the service of a mighty steed. This was well written and it’s always nice to see a story from the perspective of a chaos point of view. The only reason this failed to get higher than a 3 is that I just didn’t feel attached to the main character/story. I can’t put my finger on why. Just didn’t feel it.
The Dance of the Skulls by David Annandale – 3 Stars
Vampire queen, Neferata, attends a ball that she knows is a trap and, most likely, an attempt on her life. The overall plot is that of vampire court intrigue and assassination attempts. I really struggled to get into it but did start to enjoy it more in the latter stages of the story. I prefer my short stories to be more snappy than intrigue-based.
Order of The Fly: Tourney of Fate by Josh Reynolds – 5 Stars
This is one of the longer stories in the collection and easily one of the most enjoyable. This is told from the view of Gryme, a young man in the service to the plague god Nurgle wo is desperate to become a knight of the Order of the Fly. When a fair lady is taken by a knight of Tzeentch, Gryme swears an oath to bring her back safely. Great writing, storytelling and supporting characters as anyone familiar with Josh Reynolds would expect from his work.
The Hardest Word by David Guymer – 5 Stars
David Guymer’s second story of the anthology sees the return of Hamilcar Bear-Eater. In this one, the boastful Lord Castellant has to defend his fortress from a skaven attack, hot on the heels of receiving a prophecy telling of him being dragged off in chains by ratmen. I really like the character of Hamilcar and would be interested in reading a novel-length offering of his.
Auction of Blood by Josh Reynolds – 5 Stars
Josh Reynolds’ second story of the anthology was far shorter than the first but felt far grittier and more entertaining. It follows Bok, a seller of rare books and agent for his mysterious patron; Neferata. Neferata has tasked him with procuring a certain item at auction. As the title suggests, it gets bloody. I did not want this to end. I can only hope there are longer works featuring Bok, either released or due to be. It did end in a way that suggested he would be getting into further trouble in the future.
Pantheon by Guy Haley - 3 Stars
Pantheon was more of what I class as a passive story than a dynamic one. Sigmar was the main character and, by viewing the life and deeds of a mage from history and showing the wisdom he gained & the important lessons he learned about the folly of wanting eternal life, tries to convince a goddess to inspire mortals against the forces of chaos. I didn’t really care one way or another for this and feel a person more in the know as far as Age of Sigmar goes would get a lot more out of it. I gave it a 3 star rating purely for the decent writing and the overall moral. It really made me think.
Vault of Souls by Evan Dicken – 2 Stars
This one featured three Stormcast Eternals making their way through the cursed city of Shadespire, searching for someone called Thalasar. I’m not sure whether it was a failing of the story or of me as a reader, but I just couldn’t stay focused at all when reading this. To the extent that I read the whole thing and have no clue what happened. I didn’t find myself invested in the characters. I did, however, through the decent writing of the author, enjoy a fair bit of brilliant imagery throughout.
The Road of Blades by Josh Reynolds – 3 Stars
The Road of Blades was the first Josh Reynolds story in this collection that I wasn’t overly keen on. The writing was fantastic, as it always is with Josh, but I just felt the plot was a bit too linear and never really seemed to grab my attention. It features a champion of Khorne looking for a smithing citadel, in search of a great weapon.
Bear Eater by David Guymer – 4 Stars
Hamilcar Bear-Eater and his warriors travel to the city of Jercho to warn of the advances of the vampire lord Mannfred Von Carstein. I get the feeling David Guymer may have read, and been influenced by, Joe Abercrombie. His famous ‘Say one thing for Logen Ninefingers’ has been replaced with ‘Say one thing for Hamilcar.’ The story took me a while to get into, but it picked up and ended really well. It left me wanting more. But then, I bloody love vampires. And there are none greater than the Von Carsteins in the Warhammer world.
Gravesend Gold by C.L. Werner – 3 Stars
An airship of down on their luck Duardin (dwarfs) discover the wreck of an old airship and hope that by investigating, they may find enough salvage to turn their dwindling fortunes around and make their failed venture profitable. This tale of desperation wasn’t bad. I thought it pretty solid. It just had a slightly weak ending that I found fairly predictable.
Eight Lamentations: The Tainted Axe by Josh Reynolds – 5 Stars
A one-handed knight and a tree spirit must travel deep into the darkest depths of a forest to claim one of Nurgle’s most foul weapons and remove it so the forest can flourish. As has been the case for the most part in this collection, I really enjoyed this story by Reynolds. The back and forth banter between the knight and the tree spirit was really fun and gave it an extra depth that the story otherwise would not have had. Would love to see more.
The Witch Takers by C.L. Werner – 5 Stars
Based purely on the title alone, this is the short story that I had been looking forward to the most. C.L. Werner’s Witch Hunter books from the old Warhammer Fantasy days were some of my favourite books ever. So I am glad he penned a witch hunter story in Age of Sigmar. It’s not Matthias Thulman and Streng, but this short, along with previous witch hunter novels, cements one thing as fact: Werner is the king as far as witch hunters go. This was well-written, enjoyable and I wanted more. I can only hope he already has, or is slated to write a few novels in Age of Sigmar featuring witch hunters.
Callis and Toll: The Old Ways by Nick Horth – 4 Stars
Another tale featuring a witch hunter (and his aide) as the pair are sent to put an end to a squabble between two great houses. Their task sees them head into one of the deadliest woods in the Mortal Realms to solve a murder. This was really well-written and, were it not for the ‘I told you so’ moment that, if it hadn’t happened could have saved lives, might have scored a perfect 5 stars. It just seemed like a pretty crappy, un-witch hunter thing to do and made me dislike the character of Toll quite a lot.
The Library of Forgotten Moments by Josh Reynolds – 5 Stars
Lord Balthas of the Stormcast Eternals seeks long-forgotten knowledge that might help cure the Stormcast of the impurities of their soul reforgings. Sadly for Balthas, vampire lord, Mannfred Von Carstein, seeks the same knowledge. This one was fun to read and the brawl between vampire and Stormcast eternal was enjoyable. Felt almost like a WWE hardcore match.
God’s Gift by David Guymer – 5 Stars
This is another outing for Hamilcar Bear-Eater. In this tale, he and his fellow Stormcast fight beastmen and come face to face with a treelord. This story leaves the reader with unanswered questions about Hamilcar and the prophecy hanging over his head. If the rest hadn’t already made me want to, this one has me wanting to read more about the adventures of Hamilcar.
Obsidian by David Annandale – 4 Stars
To begin with, I really did not care for this story. It just felt like Romeo and Juliet with vampires. My opinion rapidly changed when the action hit. It hit hard and fast and everything surrounding it got very interesting, very quickly. All in all, a good, enjoyable short story that ended up being far more than I expected.
Blacktalon: Hunting Shadows by Andy Clark – 3 Stars
This was well-written and fairly enjoyable. It featured a monster hunter that only hunted the deadliest of marks to have somehow displeased Sigmar. From the start I found it very hard to like or care for the main character due to her attitude. I felt the character progression was fairly predictable and her little moment of humanity at the end could be seen a mile off. Despite this, it was fairly enjoyable to read. I just feel the collection could have been closed out with a far stronger story.
June 6, 2019
Loved the Book. I enjoyed how each different author wrote a individual story, but it ultimately made up a complete whole story line.
January 29, 2019
In three and a half years the Age of Sigmar setting has grown from fairly humble beginnings into something wild and imaginative, with vast scope for storytelling and almost unlimited potential. In that time, alongside a couple of dozen novels we’ve seen a whole host of short stories published, some tying in with ongoing narratives and others standing alone. Over a whopping 400+ pages Gods & Mortals collects together eighteen short stories into an impressive anthology, eight of which are brand new while the other ten are drawn from those previously-published tales. Eighteen stories, nine authors, and lots to enjoy.
Inevitably some stories work better than others (although as always that’s going to be pretty subjective), but the overall standard is very high and while most of these are connected to other stories elsewhere there’s very little sense of needing to be fully read-up to be able to enjoy these. There aren’t many spoilers on offer (and they’re not big spoilers even when they do appear), and while it doesn’t necessarily feel like this anthology has been specifically designed as such, it would actually work very well as an introduction to the Mortal Realms.
Read the full review at https://www.trackofwords.com/2019/01/...
Inevitably some stories work better than others (although as always that’s going to be pretty subjective), but the overall standard is very high and while most of these are connected to other stories elsewhere there’s very little sense of needing to be fully read-up to be able to enjoy these. There aren’t many spoilers on offer (and they’re not big spoilers even when they do appear), and while it doesn’t necessarily feel like this anthology has been specifically designed as such, it would actually work very well as an introduction to the Mortal Realms.
Read the full review at https://www.trackofwords.com/2019/01/...
June 25, 2019
ARC received from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
I haven't read many Warhammer Fantasy books, basically just the old Vampire Genevieve novels and a couple of other short story compilations, so I'm not really well-versed in the lore of the setting, so I hadn't really any context about the Age of Sigmar.
However, the book opens with a pretty solid and brief recap of what the Age of Sigmar entails before going into the short stories themselves, which are varied enough to keep things interesting, and the writers involved do a great job of approaching the material and keeping it fresh.
I think this is important in a setting like this, that is based on well-known tropes originating from Tolkien's brand of epic fantasy, and I think this book does a great job of taking the familiar and making it interesting.
It was a really fun compilation, I liked it.
I haven't read many Warhammer Fantasy books, basically just the old Vampire Genevieve novels and a couple of other short story compilations, so I'm not really well-versed in the lore of the setting, so I hadn't really any context about the Age of Sigmar.
However, the book opens with a pretty solid and brief recap of what the Age of Sigmar entails before going into the short stories themselves, which are varied enough to keep things interesting, and the writers involved do a great job of approaching the material and keeping it fresh.
I think this is important in a setting like this, that is based on well-known tropes originating from Tolkien's brand of epic fantasy, and I think this book does a great job of taking the familiar and making it interesting.
It was a really fun compilation, I liked it.
Currently reading
January 12, 2021Reading in progress...
So far I've read the first story, "Force of Personality" by David Guymer. Having heard some Realmgates/wars audiobooks I got used to the sigmarines tone, so the the author's take, combining Conan with Munchhausen, was very refreshing. And hilarious. Yes, I'm aware Sandy Mitchell did this a long time ago in 40k, but if it works...
So far I've read the first story, "Force of Personality" by David Guymer. Having heard some Realmgates/wars audiobooks I got used to the sigmarines tone, so the the author's take, combining Conan with Munchhausen, was very refreshing. And hilarious. Yes, I'm aware Sandy Mitchell did this a long time ago in 40k, but if it works...
February 28, 2019
This was a welcome short and sweet collection of snap shots of the Mortal Realms. I especially enjoyed reading about characters who have starred in their own novels. I am beginning to become more comfortable with the unique and bombastic characters of the setting.
August 8, 2019
Great short stories in the Warhammer Fantasy universe that really packed a punch. I was instantly hooked. The best book I’ve read this year so far.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews