A bit of a
change for today.
No models. Instead
books.
Inspired by
a post on Realm of Chaos 80’s blog which had an interview with William King as
well as reading the Rogue Trader battle reports on Tales From the Maelstrom
blog I had a browse through my shelves of early Warhammer & Warhammer 40k
novels.
Before we
had Black Library there was GW books...here are the books I picked up in those halcyon
days...where the sun always shone and holidays seemed to last forever. Or
something like that.
Nowadays the
BL books I read tend to be 40k far more than fantasy. I’m not sure how much is
down to my own personal tastes changing and how much is to do with 40k being
more popular nowadays and Black Library producing books in favour of that. With
the Horus Heresy series dominating along with Gaunts Ghost series, ADB’s Night
Lords trilogy etc the 40k (or 30k) do seem to dominate compared to the Fantasy
output.
However back
in the day I have the feeling the slant was more towards Fantasy than 40k.
I certainly
have more Fantasy novels (and anthologies) than 40k from that period.
So we
begin...keep in mind these aren't reviews. Just me thinking back, struggling to
remember stuff while showing pictures of books. Sounds fun eh?
The Konrad
Trilogy by David Ferring
The Konrad
trilogy is a classic archetype of fantasy. Young boy survives an attack on his
village killing everyone and who then goes off with a strange man to grow up
and find himself. So nothing new there, but it is in the Warhammer World and
involves a jaunt in the Chaos Wastes which is nice. To be honest I can’t
remember much, if anything at all, about the trilogy (it was a long time
ago...).
The Orfeo
Trilogy by Brian Craig
- Zaragoz, Plague
Daemon & Storm Warriors.
The three
books are standalone stories connected through the travelling story teller
Orfeo, so the books follow him to a new location where he tells a new story
(though each story has nout to do with where he is at the time).
I do
remember enjoying these stories. Especially Plague Daemon, well I like Plague
Daemons in general so that is hardly a surprise. I remember being intrigued by
Storm Warriors, I was into all things Warhammer Elvish at the times so I was
easily hooked into it. The books aren't big full action pieces, more character
driven which I enjoyed.
Drachenfels & Genevieve Undead by Jack Yeovil
Oh I did
enjoy these. An undead girl with a taste for blood, what’s not too like? At the
time in Warhammer you get more of this grey area in the background it’s why I
so enjoyed reading the WFRP articles in White Dwarf at the time). Just because you
were a Vampire it didn't mean you were a bad person. I must re-red Drachenfels
soon.
Red Thirst
& Wolf Riders – Anthologies.
Two
collections of short stories.
Not much I
can remember about these except...Gotrex and Felix, some more Genevieve action and a very big Advanced Heroquest vibe.
Reminds me I did prefer Advanced Heroquest to Warhamemr Quest. AHQ seemed darker and less child friendly.
Warhammer
40k
Deathwing - Anthology.
 |
| Doesn't he look awesome? |
Oh
Deathwing, how I love thee.
I read the
Deathwing short story first in the Space Hulk expansion of the same name and it
made me fall in love with Dark Angels. So unsurprisingly I bought the anthology
with the short story in when it came out.
The other
stories are well worth a read as well, especially the two by Ian Watson –
Warped Stars (sent shivers down me at the time) and The Alien Beast Within
involving an Imperial Assassin.
Inquisitor
Trilogy and Space Marine by Ian Watson.
While
Warhammer 40k fluff has moved on these books are still excellent reads.
Space Marine
follows the recruitment from Necromunda of three gangers into the Imperial
Fists Chapter. You see their training and their growth into fully fledged Marines.
The
Inquisitor Trilogy – this is a completely different kettle of fish (where does
that saying come from?). Even though a fair amount of the ‘background/fluff’
has changed since these days you still get some of the things introduced in the
trilogy popping up in peoples thoughts, and who knows with the way GW and FW
are looking back into pre-history and bringing them into the light we may get
to see some of these things again.
Oh we have Harlequins!
So the books are still very topical.
As a side
note one of the Marines from Space Marine has a cameo. Which is nice.
Dark Future
Demon
Download – Krokodil Tears – Comeback Tour by Jack Yeovil.
Some may not
know of Dark Future.
But it was
great. I still have fond memories of T-boning a car. I do need to build the set I picked up off ebay not long ago.
These books did a great job of building on the background snippets in the rulebooks and from White Dwarf, fleshing out the setting nicely.
Think on
this...
Wasteland
America! Cars! Guns! Elvis!
Seriously, I did enjoy these.
Right, think
that is as best as it is going to get. For proper reviews you should probably head over to somewhere else that does that kind of thing. But I do strongly recommend you take a look at these old books (I did hear some were re-released so you should be able to get hold of them somewhere). Regardless of how some of the stories may not mesh with the 'modern' take on the Warhammer World or the 40k universe the fact is they are some damn good stories written by some damn good authors and they shed a light on some areas which aren't covered by the stock in trade Black Library novel nowadays. Go on, pick up a book or two...
In other
news I have some Mega Nobs now so I’ll get back to some models.
Don't you know where the kettle of fish saying comes from!!!!!?........well either do I :D might have to dig out my idioms dictionary.
ReplyDeleteI have fond memories of the Konrad series, Inquisitor & Space Marine. I've only recently picked up some of the others i.e. Drachenfels, Plague Demon series & the short story compilations. Drach's was fantastic, wish I would have read that back in my youth. Plague Demon was ok for the first book, the second was mediocre & I didn't bother with the last one. The short story compilations are great reads....lots of different stuff.
Your review of these books is fine, you should be proud to promote these old school novels.....they kick arse!
Cheers.
The ones I read I remember being good reads, quite possibly made better by being linked with the hobby. There were aspects and interpretations you wouldn't necessarily imagine or pick up on based only on the tabletop games.
ReplyDeleteI only read some of those later on when they were reprinted by Black Library in the early 2000's since English is only my second language and those books probably never made it to the other side of the Channel.
ReplyDeleteThe Inquisition War Trilogy was a very nice read, even if it was already outdated in terms of fluff, at least you could meet a Squat. My only regret is that the series seems to peter out with Chaos Child, at least in my mind.
The Genevieve books were really entertaining and brought back memories from the 80's about Constant Drachenfels. I remember playing the Warhammer RPG in those days and it had a murderous adventure in his castle, a race against time to reach him before he became too powerful. Good times...
Cheers for the comments, nice to know people still like seeing the old school stuff.
ReplyDeleteLike you say teh fluff has moved on but those early books by Ian Watson, the Inquisition Wars really inspired and influenced so much that has come after.
ReplyDeleteGreat books then and still great now.