Stormvault

Warhammer Age of Sigmar

by Andy Clark

A Warhammer Age of Sigmar novel

Venture into a long-dead city alongside the Celestial Vindicators in an action-packed tale that pits the Stormcast Eternals against marauding greenskins, the vile hordes of Chaos, and mercenaries seeking riches – not to mention the dark presence that lurks beneath the streets.

READ IT BECAUSE
Subterranean labyrinths, battles against enemies and supposed allies, Stormcast Eternals in a desperate situation… You'll experience all this and more as you prepare to discover the secrets of the Stormvaults…

THE STORY
An ancient labyrinth of eerie subterranean ruins and creeping shadow, the dead city of Mordavia has long concealed a secret of unimaginable power. Now, as vast armies gather and war drums thunder, the perilous treasures of this cursed city are about to be unleashed. Lord-Celestant Kalyani Thunderblade leads her Celestial Vindicators into battle, determined to ensure that the city’s secrets remain forever under lock and key. Yet the odds are stacked steeply against her. Plague-ridden legions of maggotkin, swarming tides of skaven, brutal greenskin hordes, and mercenary Kharadron Overlords are all racing for the prize, shattering the sepulchral silence as they transform Mordavia’s ruins into a blood-drenched battleground. Worse still, something monstrous stirs ever-closer to wakefulness deep beneath the city’s buried streets. At the head of a desperate alliance, Thunderblade must battle twisted warlords, rising storms of dark sorcery, and her own inner demons to achieve victory in Mordavia, lest she pay the ultimate price…

Genres: Fantasy

277 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 20, 2021

About the author

Andy Clark is a background writer for Games Workshop.

Librarian note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Andy^^^^^Clark

Reviews

[Craig Munro · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was my first AoS novel. The action was pretty good and smashing so many factions together was amusing. There were also some short sections that I really enjoyed (the Skaven, most notably) but the story was underwhelming on the whole.

[Josh Peek · Rating 4 out of 5]

When you pick up a Black Library book, set in the grimdark world of Warhammer, you have a pretty good idea of what to expect. It's going to be grim, it's going to be dark, and a lot of people will die. Really, the only question is how interesting the journey is along the way, and Andy Clark writes some of the more interesting journeys that come out of the Black Library. Both in his other book, Gloomspite, and here in Stormvault as well, he does a masterful job of bringing his characters to life with distinct objectives, fears, and, most importantly, voices. The varying races and characters feel different from each other in their approaches toward the book's MacGuffin (a magical sword), and none of them slide along with the plot simply for plot's sake.

Of particular note are the Kharadron Overlord allies who stoutly refuse to do anything until they have bargained their way into a profitable agreement and seen it signed in triplicate, end of the world be damned. The Nurgle general is similarly enjoyable to read as, despite his role as The Bad Guy, he genuinely seems convinced that he's doing everyone a favor by hand-delivering them plagues. None of these characters seem locked into their roles as "good guys" or "bad guys", rather they all are self-serving, some of them just have less destructive goals than others.

One gripe I tend to have with Warhammer novels is that many creatures or participants in the battles seemed shoe-horned in. You can almost see some executive reading a draft over the author's should and saying, "Wow this is cool, but it doesn't have enough examples of our Very Expensive Models in it. How about shoving a few more in?" As a result of this, there is painstaking detail when describing some of the characters so that you, the reader, are super aware that this is actually a physical model that you can totally purchase if you'd like. It's almost like the author isn't allowed to have a Nurgle worshipping character without describing and naming every model from the Nurgle model range. Clark handles this (presumably mandatory) injection of product placement better than most, however, so even when a whole new model range (I mean army of bad guys) shows up out of the blue to fight, it doesn't come across as particularly awkward.

Overall, I'd definitely recommend any of Clark's books to fans of the Mortal Realms, but if you're not aware of the large groundwork of lore behind this universe, then there are probably better fantasy novels to try.

[Luna · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think the premise is better than anything.

The story wasn't very good, the characters too varied in quality. It starts well, drags on for too long, loses itself and ends on nothing. It's also not very creative throughout, undermining the premise.

I was primed into liking Splitchritt and Kalyani, but the latter didn't "withered" instead of growing on me; I liked the Skaven and Orruk bits (always fun), and I do like Nurgle's followers in general (although the faction didn't deliver much), but it wasn't enough. Cankus and Yakob were my favourite characters, even though some of their dialogue was incomprehensible. It almost got the book 3 stars, but the ending was so nothing, I can't justify it.

Bronvynne wasn't the best character, also. I love the idea of a translator (arcanotranslocutor) being a core character in the narrative, but she never really makes sense. Her translations are never properly explored, and later she just loses cohesion altogether by not being a translator anymore and not being anything else. She was a plot device turned protagonist.

Aside from the disappointments, the text is really bizarre. It really drives me crazy how redundant this Clark was:
• Retreading plot points
• Retreading information
• Every thought in italics gets a dialogue tag (as if the shift into First Person, Present Tense Italics phrases weren't enough)
• Word repetition in close proximity
• Decapitations...

And there are more structural cosmic horrors, like transforming scenes we're supposed to follow into dialogue or a recollection, breaking the chronology randomly; and confusing sentences that might be grammatically correct, but need a double or octuple take.

The fun I had seeing this world, enjoying the Skaven and having an emotional ride with the brothers Glumm was undermined by a very strange writing style too. It felt childish, inconsistent and ineffective. It would change abruptly (I'm not talking about POV voice, that was mostly good; I mean the general treatment of the writing), always over-explain things (sometimes, things you already knew or deduced), and it sounded clichéd, but not in the places where cliché could be almost cosy — just in phrasing.

I wish I could explain it better.

I'm not giving up on AoS (though I don't plan on coming back soon), but I'm not sold on the author. This could be an editorial thing, so maybe I'll give Andy Clark another go on a different IP... hopefully, a short story or a novella.

[Swords & Spectres · Rating 5 out of 5]

Most people I know find the Age of Sigmar a bit daunting, too different or not as fun as the Old World setting that came before it. This book, however, is a lot of fun and anyone can pick it up and have a good time with it. A bit of knowledge is a good thing to have going in (a bit is practically all I have where Age of Sigmar is concerned) but I certainly had a blast with this one and found myself flying through it.

The reason I feel this book works so well, especially as more of an entry level taster to the world of AOS at large, is that you get a very good taster of four of the factions that make up this world. The Stormcast Eternals, The followers of Nurgle, The skaven (rat men) and the orks.

Each faction has POV chapters and get fleshed out very nicely. The orks, I'd say are the one group that get a little less fleshing out than the other three, but as long as you know they're big, green, very strong and get excited when they hit things, see other things hitting things and when they either hear, or make, loud bangs, you pretty much have all you need to know to get by where they're concerned.

We get an in-depth look at what makes up the Stormcast, how their eternal rebirth thing works. There's a good amount on the skaven and their magics, and plenty on the chaos worshipping, plague-ridden followers of Nurgle. There's even some lore on other factions mentioned, but I'll say no more in case it verges on spoiler territory.

And then, of course, there's the massive four-way battle between the above-mentioned groups.

All in all, this is a very fun, easy way of dipping your toes into the hard to navigate pond that is Age of Sigmar and there's a pretty decent story wrapped up in all of the fighting. If The Black Library do a 'Welcome to the Age of Sigmar' book pack, this should be included.

[Kyle Harrivel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thoroughly enjoyed this book. The story focuses on a large scale campaign to capture a weapon that has unknown, but unimaginable power. The story focuses on four different sides of the conflict. It includes the plague servants of Nurgle, the Stormcast and their Ally’s, a mob of green skins, and of course a horde of Skaven. The four armies clash in a huge battle that truly lives up to the expectations of a Warhammer novel. The novel is filled with battle scenes, gore, death, and chaos.

Clark does an amazing job describing these events through the eyes of multiple characters on all sides of the conflict. His descriptions of battle are detailed, but not to the degree the reader finds themselves getting bored. The story moves along at a fast pace as well due to the battle between the fours armies laying pretty much the entire length of the novel. Character development is also pretty decent considering how many characters there are and how different each one is.

I’m new to Age of Sigmar as most of my experience from Warhammer fantasy comes from the total war games, which focus on the old world and not AoS. So I cannot speak as to whether or not the book is lore accurate. I will say that it does set up at the end for a possible sequel, which if done I will definitely pick up. Clark did a great job of offering service to fans though as he includes characters and units from table top that even I recognized.

I will probably pick up some more of his Warhammer novels as he has written several and I enjoyed this one very much. As a fantasy novel it’s ok but if you are a Warhammer fantasy fan, I think you will enjoy it immensely. If you aren’t a fan of Warhammer but are looking for a fast, action packed story in a fantasy universe, check it out as well.

[Vincent Knotley · Rating 5 out of 5]

If there is a book out there to in some way bring the tabletop game of Warhammer: Age of Sigmar kicking and screaming into a level of detail far beyond throwing dice and moving models across a board, it is Stormvault.

Without wanting to go too far into it, Stormvault's author Andy Clark doesn't hang back, introducing a roster of the best and foul-worst characters from throughout the Age of Sigmar to duke it out over the city of Mordavia.

Apocalyptic devastation is abound as the not so fair city of Mordavia is torn apart by battles large, small, and frankly titanic raging through its streets. Nobody comes out of the experience without a scratch. If anything, a scratch is the least of their worries. Characters you fall in love with in the matter of a paragraph are routinely torn asunder in ways only the setting of Stormvault would allow.

If it's action the likes of which wouldn't be out of place in a two hour monster movie supercut, Stormvault is the answer.

[Christian · Rating 5 out of 5]

OMG. So good. I sincerely hope Black Library editorial and writers take notes on how to write a super exciting epic battle featuring memorable characters, many of whom die capriciously just like on the tabletop. I feel that Mr. Clark STARTS with the battle and THEN the characters get to it. This serves to set a high level of excitement at the start and gets the plot firmly into place. I was reminded of the big bound Horus Heresy books that looked at the battles like they were pet of military history. Mr. Clark if you’re reading this *chef’s kiss* I really hope to read more of Kalyani and her adventures, hopefully, getting this damn cursed blade! Also, I’m so SO looking forward to more of the 40K knight titan story.

[Kyle T · Rating 3 out of 5]

A book without an ending. I think Stormvault is a proper "middle of the road" book. It's not boring, and it's not engrossing. It just is. I was reading this while on the metro to and from work, so it was a welcome distraction from the commute. Pretty enjoyable at times.

My one complaint is alluded to in my opening sentence. There's no falling action or resolution. The climax and super groundbreaking events happen in the literal final chapter. Then it's over. It's as if Andy Clark wrote this way way before "it was due" and when he was finally submitting it to Black Library he thought to himself "Did I finish that book? Eh... I probably did. Let's send it in!"

[Nick · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is fine. The characters are all pretty bland and Kalyani barely deserves a name given how generic she is. Plot is simple and follows your standard warhammer AoS style. If you have this book for some reason it’s fine to read but I wouldn’t go out of my way to intentionally buy it.

The sample chapter at the end involving the deepkin is boring too. Took me a while to get through this book.

[Alberto · Rating 3 out of 5]

Trae un concepto interesante con un arma que es a la vez una especie de quimera y no diré más para no hacer spoiler. Pero mis expectativas incluían más tiempo y exploración del concepto de las Criptormentas que es precisamente el nombre de la novela. Hay muy poco de eso, así que no entendí mucho por qué le dan ese título. Y lo repito, los skaven no me terminan de convencer como adversarios. En mareaskaven sí, un poco. Pero acá, nada que ver.

[Ben · Rating 3 out of 5]

It is a good book overall, I didn't enjoy the start but that might be because I have read so many warhammer AOS books that I find the introduction sections to stormcast and the related armies/plots less interesting, the book has some really good characters though, I really liked the nurgle heros. I recommend it for people who like epic battles and warhammer Age of Sigmar.

[Garett Heavrin · Rating 3 out of 5]

My first age of sigmar book, I’ve really grown to like the celestial vindicators. I hope maybe one day I’ll see a conclusion to the few lingering questions but a solid choice overall, not super bad but it didn’t grab me as much as I hoped. I would absolutely recommend it to anybody who’s a stormcast eternal fan who maybe doesn’t know which forging they enjoy.

[Craig Munro · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was my first AoS novel. The action was pretty good and smashing so many factions together was amusing. There were also some short sections that I really enjoyed (the Skaven, most notably) but the story was underwhelming on the whole.

[Andrea Lewis · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was recommended this as a good introduction to the Warhammer age of sigmar world and it didn't disappoint.
Well written, very descriptive so you feel like you can truly imagine the world and the characters within it

[Joseph Carr · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well plotted but not well written. Lots of fighting taking place in an only half-understandable hellscape. I hope this isn't going to be the style of AOS books throughout AOS 3.

[Liam Conway · Rating 5 out of 5]

this book was fun and it had a lot of action but also suttle.

[Piper · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have read a few Aos books before so know what I was in for. The battle were well executed featuring memorable characters. Mr Clark does a great job if descriptive writing.

[Kevin Collett · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s been a while since I read a Warhammer book.

The story and writing are fine but I found myself becoming desensitised to all the fighting, death and peril a bit before the end.

[D. · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thank the publisher, and Netgalley for my opportunity to review this book.
I am an avid WarHammer and 40k player, so I was delighted to get the opportunity to review this book. It was really enjoyable, and hit all the right 'grimdark' notes, alongside having a really compelling storyline and greatly enjoyable characters.