Status Updates From Trollslayer (Gotrek & Felix...

Ulric's Children was always somewhere in the middle-road. It felt a bit unremarkable being stuck right at the end after the high and low ends, and never stuck much to my mind. Still doesn't. The oddly anti-climactic ending doesn't help either - we don't even know what Gotrek was on about.

Listening to this in audiobook because I love my son. ☺️

Listening to on Audiobook because I love my son. 😁

Never cared for Mutant Master so much. It tries to be farcical but doesn't really fit in with the rest of the setting's tone.

Blood and Darkness is the longest story here, and way back when I first read these stories as a kid, probably my favourite. It had some more complexity and an antagonist with depth.

Nowadays I don't care about it nearly as much because it's just not written that well and little kids are always annoying.

Mark of Slaanesh is the only story in the first book I had little to no memory about. I can see why: it was rather a step down. Long rantings of a cultists's point-of-view that never really mattered because the story cut off right before the resolution (which was still funny), and Gotrek's amnesia - and how he was fixed - was a plain contrived plot point. It's a wonder it hasn't come up since.

The Dark Beneath The World gave us a lot to go for as far as Gotrek's character is concerned. A lot more depth to him than just a grumpy old berserker with a death-wish. Felix by comparison still comes across as a rather bland audience-surrogate sidekick.

Also, some hint at the end that Gotrek's doom is fast approaching. Well the whole bloody world ended and last I heard he still didn't get his! What gives?

Wolf Riders was a big step-up over the first story, taking more time to flesh out the characters and the setting... but also committing itself to a love story and a murder mystery, both of which'd have needed even more time to feel truly meaningful, only getting in each other's way as it was. So it fell a little bit flat, but the action was good and the prose is okay.

I first picked up this book as a kid, not knowing anything at all about Warhammer - just saw it in the library shelf and figured I'd give it a shot. Even back then I thought that it'd have been more fitting to have the entire thing be told in first-person, not just the prefaces.

Even so, I've good memories of it.