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The Realmgate Wars #4
Call of Archaon: The Realmgate Wars Book 4: A Warhammer Age of Sigmar Novel
Out of Print Call of Archaon Warhammer Age of Sigmar The Realmgate Wars Book 4 ----- Three champions of Chaos are roused from the ongoing war against Sigmar's servants and compelled to journey into the heart of darkness. Their goal? To serve at the side of the Everchosen himself, Archaon, as one of his Varanguard. But the trials before them are many, and not all will survive... ----- Of the many champions of Chaos, none are as great or as feared as mighty Archaon. He is the Everchosen, Exalted Grand Marshal of the Apocalypse and Ender of Worlds, and it is a worthy warrior indeed who can fight by his side. Such Knights of Ruin are known as the Varanguard. Only by answering the call of Archaon can a warrior of Chaos ascend to their ranks, and acceptance is never guaranteed, for their mettle must first be proven. In this dark tale, three fell champions of the Chaos Gods all heed the call of the Everchosen. Each desires the ultimate to become part of the Varanguard. But where one is chosen, others will fail, for Archaon’s will is cruel and his trials exacting...
- GenresFantasyAnthologies
Hardcover
First published July 20, 2015
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
April 25, 2019
There were several things that affected my enjoyment of this book. 1.)The fact that the story is written by several different authors makes it not as continuous as a regular story so this makes it harder to follow as one story will be headed in one direction and when it ends the next author will pick up somewhere else in the story. This made it hard to follow. 2.) I have no problem with stories being told from the "bad" guys perspective but in this case, it is really hard to understand what is the overall motivation of what they are doing. As another reviewer said the story could have used a little more of the title character in the story to explain what all of these champions were being called to him. 3.) This is more a general complaint about the series as a whole. I am not sure how the placement of the story in book 5 makes sense. It just seems that Archaeon came out of nowhere and you do not know if he is a result of what has come before or a lead up to something big that is about to happen. I am pretty sure it is the latter but where did he come from? Why is he doing this? Does he work for the dark gods or not and if so what is his connection to them? This story definitely delivers on the action I have come to expect from the series but a little more explanation would have been helpful.
April 7, 2016
I've been reading these new world novels and so far I've found them all lacking something of what the old ones had, there is no "human" element (the element can be possessed by a skaven or goblin or what have you) with these creatures, no even the humans in them feel real.
The struggles of these super human beings killing lesser beastmen by the dozen as the swing a sword, kinda takes away a lot.
It is... To epic?
Still might be worth a read though, check it out!
The struggles of these super human beings killing lesser beastmen by the dozen as the swing a sword, kinda takes away a lot.
It is... To epic?
Still might be worth a read though, check it out!
June 24, 2021
A bit more disjointed in story flow compared to the other books. 8 stories by different authors makes it hard to follow a central thematic plot. It was great to see the treatment of Archaon and how he interacts with the various Chaos factions. I have finished the story collections in the Realmgate wars and hope the remaining novels are better than this.
May 24, 2017
Overall, Call of Archaon was alright. I had a bit of a hard time getting into the story initially, but I did like how each of the 3 Chaos Champions had their own stories and which would become intertwined.
The 3 Chaos Champions in question are: Toxis Bule of Nurgle, Ushkar Mir of Khorne and Prince Zuveus, the Prince of Embers, of Tzeentch. Each of these characters hears the Call of Archaon, the Grand Marshal of the Apocalypse, to wage war and destruction upon the Mortal Realms! It's pretty cool seeing things from the perspective of the villains, and trying to gauge their thought process and why they do the things they do. I also found it interesting in how pursuing the Call of Archaon means abandoning the creed of your chosen Chaos god to join the armies of the Everchosen, who's been blessed by the entire Chaos Pantheon. Archaon is definitely a character who I'd like to learn more about.
I honestly liked Ushkar Mir and the Prince of Embers, as they were fleshed out more and had interesting story arcs. Khorne and Tzeentch are also my favorite Chaos gods, so I may have a bit of a bias. I don't like Nurgle much, hence my dislike for Toxis Bule, not to mention reading the visceral descriptions of Nurgle's Rot!
The idea of Ushar Mir, a Champion of Khorne who hates his patron god, is really appealing and very tragically ironic. I was really saddened what happened to him and I almost was hoping for resolution on his part. This is Warhammer and we're talking about Chaos here, so very naive of me to expect a "happy ending"(or something close!)
The Prince of Embers was also a great character, who was very Tzeenchtian with an endless ambition and drive to see his plans brought to fruition. He does get what he wants, but in typical Chaos fashion, it ends up being more than he bargained for! My favorite line in the story was when he completed his trial, "He truly knew what damnation was now." That line made it for me and it truly embodies the dedication and devotion of what it means to serve Chaos. What is the price that you would pay for your ambition?
The 3 Chaos Champions in question are: Toxis Bule of Nurgle, Ushkar Mir of Khorne and Prince Zuveus, the Prince of Embers, of Tzeentch. Each of these characters hears the Call of Archaon, the Grand Marshal of the Apocalypse, to wage war and destruction upon the Mortal Realms! It's pretty cool seeing things from the perspective of the villains, and trying to gauge their thought process and why they do the things they do. I also found it interesting in how pursuing the Call of Archaon means abandoning the creed of your chosen Chaos god to join the armies of the Everchosen, who's been blessed by the entire Chaos Pantheon. Archaon is definitely a character who I'd like to learn more about.
I honestly liked Ushkar Mir and the Prince of Embers, as they were fleshed out more and had interesting story arcs. Khorne and Tzeentch are also my favorite Chaos gods, so I may have a bit of a bias. I don't like Nurgle much, hence my dislike for Toxis Bule, not to mention reading the visceral descriptions of Nurgle's Rot!
The idea of Ushar Mir, a Champion of Khorne who hates his patron god, is really appealing and very tragically ironic. I was really saddened what happened to him and I almost was hoping for resolution on his part. This is Warhammer and we're talking about Chaos here, so very naive of me to expect a "happy ending"(or something close!)
The Prince of Embers was also a great character, who was very Tzeenchtian with an endless ambition and drive to see his plans brought to fruition. He does get what he wants, but in typical Chaos fashion, it ends up being more than he bargained for! My favorite line in the story was when he completed his trial, "He truly knew what damnation was now." That line made it for me and it truly embodies the dedication and devotion of what it means to serve Chaos. What is the price that you would pay for your ambition?
January 3, 2018
Book four in Black Library’s Realmgate Wars series for Warhammer: Age of Sigmar, Call of Archaon is a collection of eight short stories by David Annandale, David Guymer, Guy Haley and Rob Sanders, each contributing towards a single wider story arc. Between them they tell the tales of three champions of Chaos, chosen to compete for the honour of joining the Varanguard and to fight beside Archaon himself. Each one the follower of a different Chaos god, they follow their own paths to the inevitable final showdown, manipulated all along by the unseen hand of Archaon’s subject, the Many-Eyed Servant.
Where this book is strongest is when the characters can really develop beyond being in the thick of battle, and when the authors take advantage of the freedom that the Age of Sigmar setting offers to show some really interesting locations and challenges. It’s certainly not perfect, but overall it covers a fair amount of ground and offers enjoyable variety by virtue of the four different authors.
Read the full review at https://www.trackofwords.com/2017/06/...
Where this book is strongest is when the characters can really develop beyond being in the thick of battle, and when the authors take advantage of the freedom that the Age of Sigmar setting offers to show some really interesting locations and challenges. It’s certainly not perfect, but overall it covers a fair amount of ground and offers enjoyable variety by virtue of the four different authors.
Read the full review at https://www.trackofwords.com/2017/06/...
August 25, 2016
Review also published here
Call of Archaon was originally released over the course of many months via 8 short stories by various authors. It isn't a novel as the publisher advertises, and more of an anthology.
Since I reviewed the short stories individually as I read them, I will just link them here, and then add a full verdict down below. That seems the best way to do it to me.
Beneath the Black Thumb by David Guymer
Eye of the Storm by Rob Sanders
The Solace of Rage by Guy Haley
Knight of Corruption by David Annandale
The Trial of the Chosen by Guy Haley
In the Lands of the Blind by Rob Sanders
Blood and Plague by David Annandale
See No Evil by Rob Sanders
The book suffers from many problems. One of them is that it wasn't written as a novel, or even a trilogy of novellas with a cherry on top.
The serialized format is a killer to pacing and balance I find, and CoA proves that. The incessant need to provide bombastic battles takes away from the quiet time you could set aside for a longer story, something that is needed to provide character growth and let the reader anticipate the next big development. Instead this quiet time is relegated to the first few pages of a story, if even that.
Battles drown out things that could have been, had it not been written piecemeal. While there are some parts that were pretty good and creative, as well as well delivered, the pacing seems nightmarish to me. I read the stories over the course of many months with breaks between most installments, but even then reading this 8 part story felt exhausting. Especially the final three parts seemed to be hitting me around the head with murder-kill-death scenes. Even the clever and interesting ideas the authors put into the mix seemed hamstrung by the format restrictions.
I have been observing similar with Black Library's other serializations, including Legends of the Dark Millennium: Space Wolves or the other Age of Sigmar series. As a proponent of the first stand-alone serialization BL did with Scars , I am honestly disappointed that it turned out this way. Scars wasn't afraid of giving the reader time to contemplate and to build up the plot and characters, but then again, that serialization was always intended to be read as one novel, not as individual "Quick Reads" you could dive into out of order. Issues also released on a weekly basis rather than once a month, if subscribers were lucky.
Another big problem I found with this book was the lack of Archaon for 95% of the whole thing. He appeared in passing to the Many-Eyed Servant, and in person in the final two parts, but it still felt like too little, too late. While we have been told about the Call of Archaon sounding to the champions, it was all the Many-Eyed Servant's doing, at Archaon's command. He himself didn't seem to lift the finger until the very end. He lacked presence, and I am afraid dominating the cover artwork won't make up for it.
On top of that, the Lord of the End Times felt diminished. Stereotypical Dark Lord material. He was so much more than that in Archaon: Everchosen , Archaon: Lord of Chaos and The Lord of the End Times . There was more to him than a dominating presence and flying a three-headed dragon-daemon thingy into battle and laughing about his subordinates slaughtering one another for his amusement. I was really disappointed that Rob Sanders of all people didn't give him more attention in the finale, seeing how much I loved his depiction of the character's origin story.
Call of Archaon isn't the worst Age of Sigmar book I have read. Not by a long shot. It is even great at times. But it is so bogged down by more or less generic battle scenes and format-specific problems, that I felt exhausted and bummed out after being done with it. It turns out that if you hear the Call of Archaon, you're better off picking up the WHFB novels about him than this collection.
Call of Archaon was originally released over the course of many months via 8 short stories by various authors. It isn't a novel as the publisher advertises, and more of an anthology.
Since I reviewed the short stories individually as I read them, I will just link them here, and then add a full verdict down below. That seems the best way to do it to me.
Beneath the Black Thumb by David Guymer
Eye of the Storm by Rob Sanders
The Solace of Rage by Guy Haley
Knight of Corruption by David Annandale
The Trial of the Chosen by Guy Haley
In the Lands of the Blind by Rob Sanders
Blood and Plague by David Annandale
See No Evil by Rob Sanders
The book suffers from many problems. One of them is that it wasn't written as a novel, or even a trilogy of novellas with a cherry on top.
The serialized format is a killer to pacing and balance I find, and CoA proves that. The incessant need to provide bombastic battles takes away from the quiet time you could set aside for a longer story, something that is needed to provide character growth and let the reader anticipate the next big development. Instead this quiet time is relegated to the first few pages of a story, if even that.
Battles drown out things that could have been, had it not been written piecemeal. While there are some parts that were pretty good and creative, as well as well delivered, the pacing seems nightmarish to me. I read the stories over the course of many months with breaks between most installments, but even then reading this 8 part story felt exhausting. Especially the final three parts seemed to be hitting me around the head with murder-kill-death scenes. Even the clever and interesting ideas the authors put into the mix seemed hamstrung by the format restrictions.
I have been observing similar with Black Library's other serializations, including Legends of the Dark Millennium: Space Wolves or the other Age of Sigmar series. As a proponent of the first stand-alone serialization BL did with Scars , I am honestly disappointed that it turned out this way. Scars wasn't afraid of giving the reader time to contemplate and to build up the plot and characters, but then again, that serialization was always intended to be read as one novel, not as individual "Quick Reads" you could dive into out of order. Issues also released on a weekly basis rather than once a month, if subscribers were lucky.
Another big problem I found with this book was the lack of Archaon for 95% of the whole thing. He appeared in passing to the Many-Eyed Servant, and in person in the final two parts, but it still felt like too little, too late. While we have been told about the Call of Archaon sounding to the champions, it was all the Many-Eyed Servant's doing, at Archaon's command. He himself didn't seem to lift the finger until the very end. He lacked presence, and I am afraid dominating the cover artwork won't make up for it.
On top of that, the Lord of the End Times felt diminished. Stereotypical Dark Lord material. He was so much more than that in Archaon: Everchosen , Archaon: Lord of Chaos and The Lord of the End Times . There was more to him than a dominating presence and flying a three-headed dragon-daemon thingy into battle and laughing about his subordinates slaughtering one another for his amusement. I was really disappointed that Rob Sanders of all people didn't give him more attention in the finale, seeing how much I loved his depiction of the character's origin story.
Call of Archaon isn't the worst Age of Sigmar book I have read. Not by a long shot. It is even great at times. But it is so bogged down by more or less generic battle scenes and format-specific problems, that I felt exhausted and bummed out after being done with it. It turns out that if you hear the Call of Archaon, you're better off picking up the WHFB novels about him than this collection.
January 3, 2025
Some pustule-ridden guys fight some blood-obsessed guys for Archaon's favor. Wash, rinse, repeat.
I really feel like these Realmgate Wars books were rushed, and it's sad that it soured me on the world so much that it was years before I picked anything up from the AoS setting again.
Special note to David Annandale, whose stories stuck out as more readable to me.
I really feel like these Realmgate Wars books were rushed, and it's sad that it soured me on the world so much that it was years before I picked anything up from the AoS setting again.
Special note to David Annandale, whose stories stuck out as more readable to me.
January 23, 2019
Pretty enjoyable for the most part. Some Chaos characters that were interesting and a plot that feels disconnected at first but slowly comes together.
August 13, 2020
A mixed bag. A few of these stories are beyond cringy with the choas gods doing all the fighting for the units, however some stories are great
July 5, 2022
Like most short story collections, some are good, some are bad, overall I think it was worthwhile to read but it’s very variable.
April 4, 2023
I'm enjoying listening to this series. Nice to hear from the perspective of EVIL!
February 11, 2016
Sitting up, finally I've finished it............5 minutes later, I am scratching my head, thinking, thinking, thinking..........where are the emotions, the excitement, the feeling of words bursting right out of my mouth..........
Very strange for me to just, well think of nothing to write, THIS IS IT, villains, monsters, demigods of evil..........and yet all I can think of is BLAH!!!!!
A book that I have always wished for: Evil at its best.......and it doesn't even compare to Nagash's origins omnibus............Copsys Bule PlaqueLord, Ushkar Mir Khornebestowed and Zivius(goes to show how really disappointed I am with this book........sigh!!!!!! Can not even remember the last prime antagonist).....a lot of plots and stories and they took it and ran it to the ground!!!!
Very strange for me to just, well think of nothing to write, THIS IS IT, villains, monsters, demigods of evil..........and yet all I can think of is BLAH!!!!!
A book that I have always wished for: Evil at its best.......and it doesn't even compare to Nagash's origins omnibus............Copsys Bule PlaqueLord, Ushkar Mir Khornebestowed and Zivius(goes to show how really disappointed I am with this book........sigh!!!!!! Can not even remember the last prime antagonist).....a lot of plots and stories and they took it and ran it to the ground!!!!
June 30, 2016
This was a very interesting read about the forces of Chaos. Chaos commanders are truly vile and despicable unlike their 40K counterparts that could possibly be seen as anti-heroic or even misunderstood. Yet, as terrible as these Chaos commanders are I kind of got sucked into their dramas even as I wanted them to die at the hands of Sigmar's Stormcast Eternals. I think that's good writing. Chaos is not only vicious and irredeemable but also cruelly capricious. The Age of Sigmar is interesting because Chaos has already won and now the upstart forces of good are trying to take it all back.
December 17, 2019
This book is broken into short stories following 3 different chaos champions.
Overall the book isnt bad. The story following the Khorne champion and the Bloodbound is by far the best. The Nurgle story is in the middle. I found the Tzeentch champion story to be disappointing and wanted to get through it and back to one of the other two champions as fast as I could.
Overall the book isnt bad. The story following the Khorne champion and the Bloodbound is by far the best. The Nurgle story is in the middle. I found the Tzeentch champion story to be disappointing and wanted to get through it and back to one of the other two champions as fast as I could.
July 15, 2016
Short stories that linked together to tell the tale of Archaon looking for his champion.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews