The Hollow King

Cado Ezechiar #1

by John French

A Cado Ezechiar Novel

In his first full-length novel, the vampiric anti-hero Cado Ezechiar finds himself caught in a web of war and deceit in the city of Aventhis.

READ IT BECAUSE
The cold-hearted Cado Ezechiar is obsessed with revenge and keeping to his strict moral code – can he stay true to himself and avenge those who he has lost?

THE STORY
Cado Ezechiar is a wanderer who has outlived the memory of the age that made him. A Soulblight vampire who accepted the curse as his people and kingdom fell to Chaos, he now roams the Realm of Death and beyond seeking retribution and salvation for the ones he failed.

Aided by the bound spirits of those he lost, Cado follows a path of revenge, hunting the servants of Chaos to slake his need for blood while seeking the Sorcerer of Change who destroyed his kingdom. When his hunt leads him to the free city of Aventhis, Cado becomes caught up in the machinations of greater powers – beings who see the city and its people as dust in the eyes of ambitious gods. Torn between his code of honour and his desire for vengeance, Cado must navigate a web of war and deceit, or lose everything.

Genres: Fantasy, Audiobook, Vampires, Fiction, Novels, Adventure, Dark Fantasy

323 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 27, 2022

About the author

John French is a writer and freelance game designer from Nottingham, England. His novels include the Ahriman series from Black Library, and The Lord of Nightmares trilogy for Fantasy Flight. The rest of his work can be seen scattered through a number of other books, including the New York Times bestselling anthology Age of Darkness. When he is not thinking of ways that dark and corrupting beings could destroy reality and space, John enjoys talking about why it would be a good idea... that and drinking good wine.

Reviews

[Jason Ray Carney · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed the character of Cado. He is an intriguing, haunted protagonist. The setting was very subdued and not very distinctive. The city of Aventhis is a ruin of countless towers, but the uniqueness of this concept isn't explored, and it doesn't impact the plot much. The plot was not very interesting. Cado basically follows a criminal's trail, like a detective or a bloodhound. He is sometimes tricked into going in the wrong direction by worshippers of Tzeentch, but these detours don't seem to matter in the end. There is a kind of conspiracy at the center of the novel, but the reveals aren't too surprising, and there isn't any emotional element to the revelation. When you learn who the antagonists are, you shrug. Read this for the protagonist, the general "Mortal Realms" atmosphere, but the story and the setting (Aventhis) are humdrum. One last thing: in terms of literary style, French is talented. There are dream sequences where the protagonist relives his past, and those were wonderfully written.

[Carol · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this! I have to say that for a first Age of Sigmar novel this is actually a good place to start. The authors describes a lot of things, he explains a little of the Soulblight, and of course there are things they assume you know, but nothing that impedes you to read the book. The little Sigmar details are probably nice if you pick them up but tue overall fantasy story being told to us is not affected if you don’t know things. I went in blind, and I loved this high fantasy, I haven’t read stories like this in a long while. I loved that there’s tons of races, there’s a whole realm of the Death, there’s ghost dragons, magic that has reasonable rules, vampires that aren’t OP, and there wasn’t any romance, which I appreciate because I’m not a fan. Instead I got battles, action, Chaos, scary elves… I wanna keep reading Sigmar. See what else it has to offer.

[Joey Chocolate · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Hollow King has an interesting premise: an ancient king-turned-vampire scours the land in a quest to eradicate evil and those who had felled his empire. However, contrary to the impression of the blurb on the back of the book, the plot isn't a revenge story but a series of happenstances that Cado, the Hollow King, gets himself involved in, sometimes willingly or coerced; and it reads more like a serial rather than a single contained story.

Cado is a potentially interesting character as he is a vampire -- a 'Soulblight' -- with a code-of-honour and uniquely contradicts the perceived evil of his kind; and he communicates with the souls of his friends, from when he was human, who are trapped within his rings, for aid -- some receive him kindly, some resentful. He is direct, will shrug when at a loss, and is very compliant. There are some flashbacks to his human years and entail his attitude towards his royal duties and relationships with the now trapped souls.

Some of these flashbacks, however, particularly in the opening chapters, feel disjointed as they are interjected in the middle of minor actions as the scene is ongoing. Further adding to the disjointed feel of the opening chapters is an oddly placed history lesson on the Age of Sigmar in the middle of such actions.

Here lies a major gripe that I have with the storytelling: John French does well to describe the scenarios, surroundings, and whatever little bits of backstory for characters that are common with general storytelling. However, most of the book is a great amount of description with less emphasis on telling the story. Very often, we are described where Cado is presently, detailing everything that surrounds him and whatever bit of Cado's background that can relate -- all of which is necessary to help the reader to visualise the circumstance and world-building -- but not much is happening.

For example, by the halfway point of the book, not much has happened in the story. A warning of slight spoilers for the first half -- by halfway, Cado has slain a foe in the opening, he meets a girl in a tavern, investigates a suspicious place where some people are murdered, and then he is arrested.

Similarly, in the latter half, Cado quickly resolves the quest forced upon him, with some decent interpersonal drama, and off we go to the climax.

The halfway point, the time of his arrest, should be the end of act one, at least quarter way through, and the turning point for the story. The height of the climax feels a little unearned, considering that the characters involved weren't introduced until halfway or after.

The first two chapters open to a bit of action at a wagon, introducing us to Cado's vampiric nature and sword skills. I can see what the author had had in mind for the opening, but I couldn't help but feel that it should have opened with the scene after his arrest, dutifully detailing Cado, his sentimental soul rings, weapons, and the world's attitude towards the Soulblight, all while this is described to us by the respective characters in this scene who would play a major part in the climax. From there, we can go back and tell as much backstory in whatever fashion suited, without disrupting the flow with miscellaneous flashbacks and interruptive lore.

For the story's length, it might have worked better as a novella with a more direct and less cumbersome approach to its narrative, though I do appreciate the author's attention to, and imagination for, detail.

The epilogue is like a post-credits scene for a movie and is unnecessary. The ending of the final chapter was a suitable conclusion, providing a somber finality to the story and wonder for where Cado's journey could take him, but the sequel bait detracts from its impact.

What doesn't work for one, might work for another, for there are clearly people who do enjoy or love this, and they should; and not every novelist is going to have constant five-star works. Nevertheless, it was a beginning for Cado. But, it wasn't for me.

As an introduction to Warhammer Age of Sigmar, it can be pleasantly read without having prior knowledge of Warhammer lore or having need to read another book prior, as it's focused on the protagonist's journey and his alone, and there's not really any references or characters who should confuse the reader.

I will say that the Games Workshop figure for Cado does look spectacular; he is a very appealing design.

John French has written a plethora of novels across the Warhammer universes and they are well-received, and he has accomplished what probably many can only hope to. I hope to read a book of his that I will find investing, and I, indeed, shall look forward to what else he has in-store.

[Massimo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Starts off badly, gets boring. Not a Warhammer person (probably my mistake, I was bought it for my birthday by my Warhammer fanatic brother), and so I didn't really understand anything.
But.
Towards the end, the author starts to pick it up, and makes the book better. Character development means I could actually start understanding what was happening. The final crescendo was amazing, and so I would say if you can stick to a book, then read this. If you are a Warhammer person, then read this. If neither of the above, then this book is not for you.

[J.D Wheeldon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice to finally see Lumineth as the treacherous villains they are!!! I enjoyed reading about Cado, he has a tragic history which makes him a likeable anti-hero. Some cool villains and a nice pace to the story. Worth a read

[Lynn Kortleven · Rating 4 out of 5]

its a nice book. the character itself is an interesting character. haunted by events from the past, he now scours the land on a mission of vengeance against the forces of chaos that caused this past. this mission lands him in a city Aventhis, where most of the story takes place. the characters are interesting and its a nice almost detective like story, but of course set in the over the top setting of Warhammer. its a good read if you like vampires. the book has quite a high pase where most scènes dont take too long. but not in a bad way. it was actually quite nice.

spoilers:
in this book the characters meet the ossiarch bonereapers but also the lumineth realmlords. both of these forces have been beautifully depicted in this book. and especially the Lumineth where a great surprise to me because i did not see that coming. all the different factions have their own way of acting and thinking and the writer really emphasized this in a great way.

[Troy · Rating 2 out of 5]

As much as I wanted to enjoy this book, sadly I couldn't. It just didn't pull me in. I restarted it 3 times after pausing it a lot and still I couldn't get into it. Stopped just over half way through.

[Robert Bridgewater · Rating 5 out of 5]

Much better than I expected, I also particularly enjoyed the aspect of Cado's rings, neat idea.

[Jakub Sládek · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5*

[Thom Norman · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Hollow King asks the question we've all been thinking but were too scared to voice: "what if Edward Cullen but his family got killed by Tzeench and he had a zombie dragon?"

Cado Ezechiar was a mortal king but after his kingdom is destroyed by chaos cultists and he is almost killed, he accepts the curse of the soulblight to give him new un-life to track down the chaos worshippers and exact his revenge. This path leads him to a mortal city in the realm of death where he has to dodge city guards, witch-hunters, psychopathic Lumineth and Ossiarch Bonereapers to try to find the cult of the Burning Hand and bring his justice to bear.

It's a bit unfair to liken this book to Twilight and I did actually like it quite a bit. But I think its worth noting and getting out the way early that is a somewhat defanged soulblight. I can't say I'm the most knowledgeable about soulblight lore, but in the other stories I've read they are definitely not the 'good guys'. Of course there are plenty of examples in the Black Library of 'the baddies' being given a sympathetic treatment while, nonetheless, remaining totally terrible people, Arron Demsky Bowden's Night Lords books being perhaps one of the best examples. That's not the approach taken here though. Instead, Cado has all the innocent-murdering, blood-sucking edges knocked off to try to make him a protagonist we want to root for.

It's a choice and I don't think it's an inherently bad one. I just think you should be aware of it before you pick this up, and if that doesn't sound like your thing, maybe read something else.

Also, Cado is an idiot. Much like John French's Ahriman, for some reason, everyone (including a five-year-old girl) somehow gets the better of him. Even when he is confronting bad guys to throw off the mask of their deceit, he still manages to get it wrong and winds up almost dead.

I don't want this review to sound like a panning of this book. I really enjoyed it. Cado is a pretty cool character and he gains some very likeable side-kicks along the way. There are some super cool and creepy baddies, a plot with a few decent twists that sustains your interest throughout and a very metal final battle involving a zombie dragon.

I think this is a very solid mortal realms book and a good introduction to Cado which definitely leaves the door open for his return in future novels. It isn't a classic, but I'd certainly pick up his next adventure if French does write more. In the meantime, if you like this one, I think you'd also like the Vaults of Terra series The Carrion Throne and The Hollow Mountain. Although set in the 41st Millenium, these books are also driven forward by their central mystery and have some good plot twists. For something set in the Mortal Realms, maybe try Callis and Toll: The Silver Shard, which is a more straightforward plot but also very enjoyable.

[Neos · Rating 4 out of 5]

Iban a ser 3 estrellas y media porque Cado me parecía un Geralt de Rivia pero en vampiro que servía solo como el recurso para que toda la acción sucediese y me faltaba conectar más con él como protagonista. Justo cuando tenía esa opinión formada me dieron todos los flashbacks y mejoró mi opinión.
Valentin es mi GOAT también tengo que decir, el mejor personaje del libro y me encanta cómo reflejan la fé a través de toda su familia.
Also creo que si fuese de una franquicia que yo conociese lo habría disfrutado incluso más, sobre todo la primera parte de la novela, porque de Warhammer no tengo ni idea 😔

[Prime · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of John's better works since his massacre of story telling in The Solar War. The Hollow King follows a fallen prince as he attempts to uncover a chaos conspiracy in an old medieval town. There were some nice elements of Dark Fantasy spliced in with the high fantasy of the AOS setting and I found the dynamic between Cado Ezechiar and the ghost of his old mentor to be fun. The book can be atmospheric and the action wasn't needlessly verbose.

Unfortunately there is a little but tolerable level of wokery but I feel its significantly more refined that it has been in his previous works and I didn't find it to be too perturbing.

The story doesnt reinvent the wheel but there are some fun ideas and I enjoyed Cado's adventure. Maybe ill come back for more. Hopefully you will to!

[Jacob Bennike · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bit of an odd book. I liked it, but it’s sold as a Soldblight vampire book and it’s really not. Sure the main character is a vampire, but in terms of Age of Sigmar lore you’ll find more about tzeentchs followers, the bonerreapera and the lumineth than you will about the soulblight. So I’d that is what you are looking for, you should read the last volari or neferata instead.

That out of the way, it’s an interesting book with some nice characters and some cool stories. It also has a good over all plot that has some nice twists. I’ve read a lot of Black Library books now, likely in the hundreds, and it’s rare I get genuinely surprised by “plot twists” because they are often sort of similar, but this one surprised me plenty. I didn’t really catch me in the first few chapters, I’m not sure why exactly, maybe it’s because I hadn’t done digesting my previous book maybe it’s because this one isn’t good in the first bits, but by chapter 5ish it really had me and kept me until the end.

If you want a book with lore about the lumineth or followers of tzeentch then you will probably like it. You’ll likely also like it if you want to follow a vampire “detective” or sorts. If you’re looking for a soulblight gravelords novel, however, you will probably be very disappointed.

[Darren K. · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Hollow King isn't a bad book. In a lot of ways, it is a good book. A noble vampire on a quest of vengeance who uses the souls of his people as a weapon. It's a premise that comfortably carries the book on its shoulders, and is aided by John French's easy prose.

The biggest problem is how Cado is forced into the plot. This is a vampire king from an ancient civilization that can't even be remembered anymore. His is a name known for his exploits, and held with equal amounts of contempt and respect. Yet he is forced to help one of the factions in the story because he doesn't want to use force and hurt them. The idea was that his nobility and rules held him back, but it feels like a poorly written excuse to get him involved.

It's a problem that taints the whole book. For such a character, you never really get the sense that he's smart or powerful. He shows little agency of his own, and instead goes along wherever the story needs him to be.

Yet, there's a lot of good things in the book. The chaos cult is fun. Seeing the other factions involved and what they are capable of is great. The reason why the city is so important is cool and makes sense. It's just a shame that Cado doesn't live up to his name.

[Matthew Wake · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cado Ezechiar is a soulblight grave lord on a mission to eradicate the daemonic cult that destroyed his living kingdom in centuries past.
His travels take him to Aventhis, where he is pitted against the human forces in the city, and two factions vying for control.

The pacing is good, and John French does a good job of keeping the story moving without long periods of overly verbose detail.
The combat and action sequences are well spread and meaningful.
However, the first half of the book feels more of an investigative mystery where Cado must secretly search for clues of his enemy, whereas the second half is open combat and conflict everywhere.
The shift caused by the other factions arriving adds interest, but it feels as though it diverts from what felt like the core story. Hopefully there will be a sequel to continue on where this left off.

Another example of how Age of Sigmar allows for such a diverse range of characters and stories.
Would recommend to anyone interested in warhammer or fantasy in general.

[Nerd_Rage_Dad · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was better than I expected. If you don’t know too much about the setting it’s still a good starting point explaining some of the lore, as you follow the hollow king through the plots twists all the way to the final show down.

With only a handful of characters the pacing of this book is perfect and the plot not overly complicated but with plenty of twists.

It isn’t necessary to read the three short stories before it but they are good back ground. They are very short and this is the correct order of them.
-Beasts
-Tower of empty mirrors
-Blood bond

If you are a fan of a darker high fantasy you will enjoy this book and the character becomes more relatable and likeable as his story unfolds.

[Max Tremblay · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was easily one of my favorite Black Library story, with Godsbane and Prince Maesa, this year.

Cado is a character based on a pretty common character archetype, the noble vampire. Nevertheless, I was interested in his back story. Also, his actions and behavior seemed to be consistent throughout the whole story, which definitely is important for me liking a character.

The side characters were fine, but the best part of the story is the pacing. I was never bored and the story kept me engaged.

It is rare that I can do this, but I recommend this story to anyone, even if they are not a Warhammer fan!

[David Strašák · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best age of sigmar book I've read so far.

Compared to French's Ahriman series this one is definitely better - all the good points from the Ahriman books (like interesting complicated stories) remain, but the bad points (like story moving slowly or way too many plot lines) I did not notice here.

The character of the hollow king is really cool and interesting. He's a somewhat heroic anti-hero, although he isn't even an anti-hero by choice, but rather by his race.

The other characters were cool as well, the story featured a lot of twists and it was really swift and moved all over the place, but in a hood way, since I could keep up with it.

[Heiki Eesmaa · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've liked most of white I've read of the Old World: it was weird, wild, and grounded. I've really enjoyed Age of Sigmar's miniatures; I've DNF'd several books so far: it is safely played superhero franchise fiction a la current Star Wars or Marvel. There's a big special effects budget and careful character designs; you know it won't affect the world by the end.

French is a great writer and the audio is read by one of Black Library's staple solid actors. Cado Ezechiar ought to be really cool and the setting interesting. It is recycling tropes that worked so well in shorter forms of sword-and-sorcery. Yet my attention wandered and I just kept on waiting for the last chapter to end.

[Karlo · Rating 3 out of 5]

First time reading a story set in Warhammer "universe", so I was fascinated by the diverse political organization, religious fanatics and overall richness of different social structures. The book follows an "anti-hero" protagonist obsessed with inflicting vengeance on cultists responsible for various ill deeds, some sort of personal vendetta on a grand scale. I was mostly annoyed by the one dimensional side characters, villains and especially by portraying the protagonist as an "anti-hero" when in fact he is a hero of the story, lacking the tragic aspect of his deeds and consequences.

[Lee Herridge]

Solid enough and hopeful for the future

A solid novel, with a protagonist you’ve seen before. With the setup from this one, I expect the following books to be similarly decent but I’m hopeful something really interesting. It just didn’t surprise me at all - Cado is the kind of vampire anti-hero you think he’ll be, which isn’t *not* fun but it just met my expectations, rather than exceeding them like I would hope.

Definitely will read the sequel when it comes out.

[Tim Miranda · Rating 2 out of 5]

Somewhat of a disappointing novel. A lack of details and character development leads to a lacklustre story. As this adventure takes place in a high-fantasy world, I would have enjoyed learning more about the setting. Also, many of the characters are very forgettable and their actions are quite predictable. Cado is the only one that is somewhat interesting but suffers from a lack of a back story so that the reader can fully understand the “why” behind his actions and decisions. 2 stars.

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this one! Cado is a very fun character to follow around and delve deeper into what makes him tick. This book reminded me of the old Forgotten Realms Drizzt books by R.A. Salvatore. Nothing fancy; just a well made fantasy adventure. The uneven pacing of the first 2/3rds kept this one from getting 5 stars. But the last third was truly epic and exciting! Some excellent one on one fights and massive battles. This is one of the best fantasy adventure stories I've read in years. I'm all in on Cado Ezechiar.

[Kat in Stacks · Rating 2 out of 5]

As a fan of the Soulblight vampires, I was excited to pick this up.
Only to be disappointed by the droll writing. The first two chapters were intriguing, but then once other characters were introduced. They instantly became one sided and as bland as mayonnaise.

Due to this, I was sadly unable to finish

[Paul Sparks · Rating 2 out of 5]

Having read the short stories and really enjoying them I was disappointed (in myself mainly) that I just could not engage with this book, I actually could not finish this book I was that disassociated from the story

[Alberto · Rating 3 out of 5]

Puedo decir que disfruté de la lectura, sobre todo al inicio. Muy buena puesta en escena. Pero luego hubieron algunas cosas en el intermedio y la resolución que no ayudaron mucho. Está muy entretenida la novela y es una excelente puesta en escena del personaje.

[Cathy · Rating 2 out of 5]

The beginning of this was quite interesting but nearing the end it seemed to be overexplained in terms of plot twist which was already obvious. Struggled to get through the last few chapters. I enjoyed the Epilogue so maybe dead kingdom will be better.

[Stefanos Kiriakakis · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was quite good. I really liked the character of Cado, even though he was too angsty at some points. The ending could be better, it had the feeling of a Deus Ex Machina that came out of nowhere to save the day. Overall an enjoyable read.

[Mike Soane · Rating 3 out of 5]

A great introduction to Cado Ezechiar and the Soulblight Gravelords.

A plot filled with mystery and a twist that genuinely got me, this was a great read but it did leave me wanting a bit more!

Can't wait for the next in the series.

[Cassie · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.25 stars I guess? I'll have to think on it.