Realm-Lords

Warhammer Age of Sigmar

by Dale Lucas

A Lumineth Realm-lords novelWhen disaster strikes their mountain home, a trio of Alarith Stoneguard must gather a band of heroes to stop vile Slaaneshi Hedonites from devastating the entire realm.READ IT BECAUSEDiscover the Lumineth Realm-lords and explore the lands of Hysh in a desperate quest to stop a cataclysm from unfolding.THE STORYA single, harrowing trial stands between supplicant Ferendir and a life of loyal service to his Alarith temple. But on the day of the young aelf’s final initiation, a Slaaneshi warhost descends upon his mountain home, leaving slaughter and destruction in their wake and stealing a long-hidden Lumineth treasure of terrible power. His world now torn asunder, Ferendir and his stalwart masters, Serath and Desriel, are forced to navigate a realm at war to stop the depraved warriors of the Dark Prince. The three Alarith Stoneguard must gather a band of Lumineth champions and embark upon a perilous quest. Failure is inconceivable, for the Hedonites seek to awaken an ancient and cataclysmic weapon, one with the power to bring Hysh to its knees.Written by Dale Lucas

Genres: Fantasy

343 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 12, 2020

Reviews

[Elodie Cunningham · Rating 2 out of 5]

The emotional core of this book, the bond between the three main characters, is good, but everything else is overwritten not in the elegant way you'd expect from an aelf book, but in a way that makes everything feel clunky and melodramatic, which is a shame.

[Paul Summerhayes · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really wanted to like this story, but I didn't. I didn't enjoy the characters (a whiny protagonist) or the adventure as a whole. While the writing was acceptable, it suffers from too much pointless description - leading me to feel that in several places the "flowery prose" was only to fill the story out to the desired word count.

Therefore, I can not recommend this story. This pains me to say, as to date, I have enjoyed every Warhammer novel I have read (and this is a lot).

[J.D Wheeldon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm an Aelf xenophobe. I dislike those haughty, pompous dagger ears. However, this was a pretty decent story. A standard fantasy quest of a group of Aelves with varying abilities on a quest to stop an evil wizard getting a world ending weapon. The relationships between the protagonists developed well with sincere emotions and the ending felt natural and satisfying. Not bad, for an Aelf!

[Jacob Bennike · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don’t normally like elves, especially the high-elf sort, but this book made me like the lumeneth. It’s one of the rare age of sigmar books to see actual character development, and not just in the protagonist but in the people he travels with. So it’s a bit of a shame that it’s written a tad poorly, and most of those changes and realizations too sudden for their own size.

But it’s Warhammer, not exactly pieces of great literature. I do think the story and the insights into lumeneth stoneguard culture and spirituality are great. The book also has some great insights into the lumeneth in general and into the followers of slaanesh, as I said, enough to make me like high-elf typed elves.

I will say that it’s probably better as an audiobook, it’s really well read and that helps connect you to the characters, and as far as the story and characters to the first 2/3 or the book deserve a flat 3/5 rating while the last part deserves a 5/5. Landing me at a solid 4/5 for the novel and a 5/5 for the audio.

But man it’s nice to see not-so-typical elves.

[Troy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good Age of Sigmar story about Lumineth elves, Slaanesh cultists and even some dwarfs. Not exactly a fully predictable ending. Recommend reading this if you're interested in Age of Sigmar lore and/or Lumineth Realmlords.

[Gabriel · Rating 2 out of 5]

I did not enjoy this book. It doesn’t fit in the Warhammer universe and reads more like a high fantasy novel for teenagers.

1) Whiny protagonist with plot armor that continuously does stupid things that should lead to his death but never do.
2) Barely any grim darkness and instead of believable characters and villains you get 1 sided party members and mustache twirling badguys that are more of a joke than intimidating.
3) Barely any substance to the story, just a bunch of disjointed events that happen along the way.
4) Soooo many touchy feely and whining conversations you would think this is some YA trilogy and not a universe where the inhabitants are at constant war against unspeakable horrors.

Either Black Library gave this author little to no time to write this novel, or no one at GW/Black Library cares about the quality of their books. This feels like a crappy version of The Neverending Story set in the Age of Sigmar universe.

Awful.

[Lionel Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fendir, a young Lumineth Stoneguard, is about to face his final test when everything is thrown into confusion after his temple is attacked and almost all of his colleagues are brutally murdered at the hands of a sadistic Slaneshi wizard on a quest for the ultimate weapon. Fendir and his two mentors, the lone survivors of the attack, must attempt to stop a demented army of Hedonites determined to succeed and release unspeakable horror onto the world.
Overall, I found this story very entertaining. It provides a detailed insight into Lumineth culture, which is the most mystical of all Elven cultures. If I have one criticism of the story, it’s that it could have been shorter. The story seemed to drag on in parts, and it felt like the author was trying to hit his word count. Despite this, this is an excellent read for anyone interested in the Age of Sigmar universe and especially the Lumineth Realmlords.

[AtomicRed · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall very meh

There’s quite a bit of good, namely that this feels like a great ethnography of the Lumineth and how they operate including their philosophies and technologies. It’s a great flavor text that expands on the world which is almost always the points of these types of novels.

That being said, the story overall is very bare bones. While it portrays a number of different lumineth and how they each have their own interpretation of what it means to *be* that they don’t really do anything interesting. Still, if you already like this faction from the edifice, you might get a kick out of this.

(Also, just saying you can have these ethnography-like books that still have good stories like what Court of the Blind King, Soulwars and Nagash did for the Idoneth, Stormcast and Legions of Nagash respectively.)

[Waltrius · Rating 3 out of 5]

Une histoire plutôt sympa bien que très classique et sans réelle surprise.

Ce ne serait pas un roman warhammer sans bons sentiments, sans batailles épiques et sans antagonistes foncièrement mauvais. Et la dessus on est servi ! La relation entre les 3 héros (l'apprenti et ses 2 maîtres) est probablement ce qui marche le mieux malgré quelques grosses ficelles, et on finit par s'attacher à eux.

Comme souvent avec les romans warhammer, je regrette que les ennemis soient assez unidimensionnels (ils sont juste... Méchants) mais en lisant ce genre de roman, on sait à quoi s'attendre !

C'est quand même une bonne introduction à l'univers intriguant des Lumineths et plus particulièrement des Alariths, les gardiens de la montagne. Ma soif de lore n'est pas totalement assouvie (c'est d'ailleurs pour ça que j'enchaîne avec un deuxième roman sur les Lumineths) mais l'histoire donne une bonne idée de la philosophie de ces elfes des montagnes.

Au final, Realm-Lords fait le job. Il est loin d'être indispensable mais si comme moi vous avez soif de lore, c'est un étape sympathique sur votre longue route !

[Michael Brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

Honestly really enjoyed this book. Reading and learning about the stoneguards really just drew me in. The aelves in general in Age of Sigmar really stand out to me with the abundance of emotions in them and the massive will to control it. Dale Lucas really captured that essence and still managed to surprised me with a great story. Dale Lucas, consider me a fan and I look forward to reading more adventures.

[Christian · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an incredibly pleasant read about a young aelf, Ferendir, as he journeys from aspirant to full Stoneguard. The writing was very thoughtful without being pretentious. The characterization reminded me of William King’s Ragnar. I’d love to read more about Ferendir in this style of very fast paced writing. Maybe, more epic scale battles?

[Mimi Le · Rating 3 out of 5]

The only reason I read this book was because my bf is super interested in Warhammer and he wants me to join. He got me a set of lumineth army dudes and knowing that I like to read, he bought me this book too. This was an ok read, the plot was fine, but the dynamics between the characters seem “clunky.” The dialogue and the interactions between the characters come off awkward and contradictory at times. The main character seems a bit whiny while the other characters seems to discredit him for being a supplicant. It’s quite weird but I still enjoyed my time reading it. There are some savage lines that actually made me laugh. Overall, I would recommend it, only if you’re into warhammer, especially if you decide to play lumineth.

[Krijthebold · Rating 3 out of 5]

Decent and introspective, pleasantly surprising for a book based on tiny plastic dudes.

[Tamás Lehoczky · Rating 4 out of 5]

Decent fun fantasy adventure. While the story is not particularly complicated, I enjoyed it - and I don't really like AoS in general, so it's an achievement in and of itself.