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Warhammer Age of Sigmar
Harrowdeep
A Warhammer Underworlds Anthology
Dive into the dark, watery depths of Harrowdeep – an unforgiving labyrinth beneath the seas of Ulgu. Those who enter Harrowdeep are doomed to wander within it forever, whether they arrived by choice, by fate, or against their will. Discover the quests, plans, and darkest hours of the warbands who fight in this endless gloom.
READ IT BECAUSE
Discover the action-packed stories of the warbands of Harrowdeep, trapped within its unforgiving, waterlogged walls and forced to fight for their own survival.
THE STORY
At the heart of the Realm of Shadow, there lies a place of deepest dark. A cold and ancient labyrinth beneath the ocean bed, where strange halls echo with the sounds of death, and shadow-magics lurk in every nook and cranny. Whispers of its existence haunt the port taverns, along with a rumour that once dragged down to those watery depths, there is no hope of escape.
But there are those whose fate has already been sealed. A band of Stormcast-errant on a mission to discover the whereabouts of missing fleets; two pirate captains, vying for power on the seas; and a pair of priests on the hunt for a potent weapon. All have fallen prey to this sunken hell, and to survive, they must preserve their sanity. For those above will forget them – the wailing of the wind will smother their cries. And in every waking moment, all they will know is the horror of Harrowdeep.
CONTENTS
Knives in the Deep - Gary Kloster
Nadir - Noah Van Nguyen
The Tale of the Priests - David Annandale
Dive into the dark, watery depths of Harrowdeep – an unforgiving labyrinth beneath the seas of Ulgu. Those who enter Harrowdeep are doomed to wander within it forever, whether they arrived by choice, by fate, or against their will. Discover the quests, plans, and darkest hours of the warbands who fight in this endless gloom.
READ IT BECAUSE
Discover the action-packed stories of the warbands of Harrowdeep, trapped within its unforgiving, waterlogged walls and forced to fight for their own survival.
THE STORY
At the heart of the Realm of Shadow, there lies a place of deepest dark. A cold and ancient labyrinth beneath the ocean bed, where strange halls echo with the sounds of death, and shadow-magics lurk in every nook and cranny. Whispers of its existence haunt the port taverns, along with a rumour that once dragged down to those watery depths, there is no hope of escape.
But there are those whose fate has already been sealed. A band of Stormcast-errant on a mission to discover the whereabouts of missing fleets; two pirate captains, vying for power on the seas; and a pair of priests on the hunt for a potent weapon. All have fallen prey to this sunken hell, and to survive, they must preserve their sanity. For those above will forget them – the wailing of the wind will smother their cries. And in every waking moment, all they will know is the horror of Harrowdeep.
CONTENTS
Knives in the Deep - Gary Kloster
Nadir - Noah Van Nguyen
The Tale of the Priests - David Annandale
- GenresFantasy
368 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 22, 2022
6 people are currently reading
66 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
February 4, 2022
“Knives jn the Deep” by Gary Kloster was the kind of pirate romp that I can get behind. I found the main characters likable and the length, perfect for the kind of story being told.
“Nadir” Someone get Noah Van Nguyen a Stormcast series, immediately. His character work is fascinating and he REALLY gets how to make these characters likable and interesting. Usually, Stormcast suffer when they don’t have mortals to compare themselves with, but Nguyen knows how to really let the personal drama of these characters shine. I cannot speak more highly of this yarn.
“A Tale of Two Priests” by David Annandale. Old faithful! This tight psychological thriller works incredibly well and given his past work on the Horror line, its no surprise that Annandale brings that dread into Harrowdeep’s naturally creepy setting.
Overall, a nice anthology thats worth a solid look at for Warhammer fans.
“Nadir” Someone get Noah Van Nguyen a Stormcast series, immediately. His character work is fascinating and he REALLY gets how to make these characters likable and interesting. Usually, Stormcast suffer when they don’t have mortals to compare themselves with, but Nguyen knows how to really let the personal drama of these characters shine. I cannot speak more highly of this yarn.
“A Tale of Two Priests” by David Annandale. Old faithful! This tight psychological thriller works incredibly well and given his past work on the Horror line, its no surprise that Annandale brings that dread into Harrowdeep’s naturally creepy setting.
Overall, a nice anthology thats worth a solid look at for Warhammer fans.
February 21, 2023
You have to feel a bit sorry for the constraints Warhammer stories have to adhere too. They are based on miniature war games that have certain gameplay. Game designers create narrative circumstances for this gameplay to happen and then poor writers have to make somethin with it. As result the stories have to have so much dispute. So much combat. The characters have to be so elaborately described. (and he wore a trident and he had a wooden leg and a silver pauldron and and), and the setting has to be one where various groups of warriors run into each other again and again. This captures all of the three stories in this book and by the end of the last story the patterns become apparent and grating. However, all three books are written by different writers and in different forms and the switches keep it fresh a bit.
Gary Closter’s Knives in the Deep is about the rivaling captains of a dark elf and a human crew. And they hate each other and they wanna kill each other so bad! All the talk about killing each other comes across a bit childish. Then they get sucked into the underwater maze called Harrowdeep. This maze is gonna come up a few times! In the maze they get separated and lost. They come across all kinds of weird and disorienting rooms and hallways which are filled with trickery and illusion. I must say that this is now my fourth Warhammer book in a row that is set in some kind of maze and it is starting to wear me down. The final part of the story becomes more interesting. It eventually? (too late?) made me care about the characters and for the first time had me rooting for them during a riveting final battle.
The writer does have one annoying en recurring prose thing where he does 3 adjectives in a row (“there was only blood, and sweat, and tears). I dunno. I happens a lot and it drags down the speed of the reading.
Noah van Nguyen’s Nadir was my favorite but I admit I was pre-invested because the group and leading character Xalthia (on the cover) was the reason I even got the book. It’s written in first person and moves a bit quicker. It follows Xalthia, a super warrior sent by her god on an expidition into the Harrowdeep. Thing is Xalthia suspects her god doesn’t have it all together and she HATES her colleague as well. It’s a nice humanizing of the otherwise infallable Stormcast. At one point there is even the tiniest hint of sapphic admiration (but not too much! Warhammer stories are painfully devoid of fuzzy feelings) with her other colleague. The narration spends less time describing the surroundings and more time on how Xanthia _feels_ which I like. The ending leaves all main characters changed and wizened and the twist for Xalthia is a bit disappointing (SPOILER: it moves her back to being a more average Stormcast) but it is uplifting and it seems they are the only group that may make it out of the maze. Good for them. I liked the writing style. It’s to the point but also enchanting.
David Annandale’s The Tale of the Priests is where “we are all trapped in an everchanging maze” starts to wear me down. It follows two opposing groups. Each led by a fanatical priest to a different god. Stories filled with religious mumbo jumbo blabber never entertains but it’s the only Warhammer story I read so far which tries to send a message.I think the message is that all religious fanatisism is essentially the same. They way it’s written does dull down a bit as the situations each priest goes through mirrors the other. Knowing what kind of place Harrowdeep is while the characters wander around it without a clue is a nice form of glee but after a while the exact mirroring becomes too predictable and the ending which sends both mobs into a neverchanging status quo is a small letdown. Overall it shows Harrowdeep at its most depressing. A maze where nobody dies, where there is nothing to do, and where nobody escapes. It makes for entertaining board games but depressing and a bit dull stories.
I had a good time reading these but I am not sure these would make much sense to readers who are not already familiar with Warhammer lore. There are lots of mentions of things have their own wiki pages and which are not explained in the book. It never breaks the story but at times it’s a bit alienating.
Gary Closter’s Knives in the Deep is about the rivaling captains of a dark elf and a human crew. And they hate each other and they wanna kill each other so bad! All the talk about killing each other comes across a bit childish. Then they get sucked into the underwater maze called Harrowdeep. This maze is gonna come up a few times! In the maze they get separated and lost. They come across all kinds of weird and disorienting rooms and hallways which are filled with trickery and illusion. I must say that this is now my fourth Warhammer book in a row that is set in some kind of maze and it is starting to wear me down. The final part of the story becomes more interesting. It eventually? (too late?) made me care about the characters and for the first time had me rooting for them during a riveting final battle.
The writer does have one annoying en recurring prose thing where he does 3 adjectives in a row (“there was only blood, and sweat, and tears). I dunno. I happens a lot and it drags down the speed of the reading.
Noah van Nguyen’s Nadir was my favorite but I admit I was pre-invested because the group and leading character Xalthia (on the cover) was the reason I even got the book. It’s written in first person and moves a bit quicker. It follows Xalthia, a super warrior sent by her god on an expidition into the Harrowdeep. Thing is Xalthia suspects her god doesn’t have it all together and she HATES her colleague as well. It’s a nice humanizing of the otherwise infallable Stormcast. At one point there is even the tiniest hint of sapphic admiration (but not too much! Warhammer stories are painfully devoid of fuzzy feelings) with her other colleague. The narration spends less time describing the surroundings and more time on how Xanthia _feels_ which I like. The ending leaves all main characters changed and wizened and the twist for Xalthia is a bit disappointing (SPOILER: it moves her back to being a more average Stormcast) but it is uplifting and it seems they are the only group that may make it out of the maze. Good for them. I liked the writing style. It’s to the point but also enchanting.
David Annandale’s The Tale of the Priests is where “we are all trapped in an everchanging maze” starts to wear me down. It follows two opposing groups. Each led by a fanatical priest to a different god. Stories filled with religious mumbo jumbo blabber never entertains but it’s the only Warhammer story I read so far which tries to send a message.I think the message is that all religious fanatisism is essentially the same. They way it’s written does dull down a bit as the situations each priest goes through mirrors the other. Knowing what kind of place Harrowdeep is while the characters wander around it without a clue is a nice form of glee but after a while the exact mirroring becomes too predictable and the ending which sends both mobs into a neverchanging status quo is a small letdown. Overall it shows Harrowdeep at its most depressing. A maze where nobody dies, where there is nothing to do, and where nobody escapes. It makes for entertaining board games but depressing and a bit dull stories.
I had a good time reading these but I am not sure these would make much sense to readers who are not already familiar with Warhammer lore. There are lots of mentions of things have their own wiki pages and which are not explained in the book. It never breaks the story but at times it’s a bit alienating.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 8, 2023
Proper grimdark setting in Ye Fantasy Settinge
August 31, 2022
I really enjoyed Nadir. The setting reminded me a bit of when Bilbo and the dwarves encounter the goblins in The Hobbit. Except this was much darker, with a very eerie tone. Easy to read as well, and it left me wondering what would happen next. I don’t think this is a spoiler, but the ending was not what I expected, which I always appreciate.
Full disclosure - the author Noah Van Nguyen is my brother, hence I only read his novella. Which is excellent, particularly considering I’ve known him since he ran around pretending he was Batman as a child.
Full disclosure - the author Noah Van Nguyen is my brother, hence I only read his novella. Which is excellent, particularly considering I’ve known him since he ran around pretending he was Batman as a child.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews