This
week I'm taking a short foray into the world of Warhammer
Fantasy. As my readers are
probably aware, I have spent considerable time trekking around in the
universe of the younger and more famous brother of the Games Workshop
family, Warhammer 40,000.
However there was a time when there were no Space Marines, no
Imperial Guard, no Traitor Legions, and no foul xenos menace. Instead
there was a fantasy setting with elves, dwarves, men, orcs, vampires,
and the ruinous powers of Chaos. Although Warhammer Fantasy
has been overshadowed considerably by its younger brother, it retains
its own following and is even getting its own Total War game. So I
decided to pick up one of the many, many omnibuses and see what the
fuss was about.
Swords of the Emperor
is an omnibus collection of a duology, a story divided into two
parts, as well as two short stories. The short stories are both
character vignettes of Ludwig Schwarzhelm, the Emperor's Champion,
and Kurt Helborg, master of the elite Reiksguard. Personally I would
have placed the short stories at the front of the book rather than
the end because they provide a little bit of characterization for
both, who are major characters in the novels but are just kind of
thrown at us without much by the way of introduction.
Plot-wise the
province of Averland, one of the major provinces of the Empire
(totally not a fantasy Renaissance Holy Roman Empire, we swear) has
been without an elector-count for too long. As a result the imperial
tithes and levies have been somewhat lacking, especially since
Averland is located in the south of the Empire, far from the constant
wars in the north. Emperor Karl Franz of Schleswig-Holstein, I mean
Holswig-Schlestein, has decided this nonsense has gone on for long
enough and is sending his Champion, Ludwig Schwarzhelm, to go down
and kick the necessary butts until a decision is made. However, as
always, there is far more at work than a petty squabble over who gets
to sit in the fancy chair and inevitably things get worse.
I will
say I felt out of my depth at certain points because I didn't know
terribly much about the Warhammer Fantasy
universe so I found myself asking why characters are important.
Because other characters treat them as important, but at least
initially they don't really go into why
they're Very Important People. If you're not familiar with the
Warhammer Fantasy universe
this probably won't be a good book to start with because there are a
few things that aren't explained and it's just assumed you're going
to know what they are. For example, the Reiksguard feature
prominently in both books, and while I knew from my own research that
the Reiksguard were elite warriors dedicated to the service of the
Emperor alone, they never really explained that in the book. It was
just kind of assumed you would know it. Which you can do in a shared
universe, but it's confusing and off-putting to a new reader.
My biggest
complaint is that I found myself bored with the book at various
points, especially during fight scenes. And there are a lot of fight
scenes in this book. There were other parts which I enjoyed and found
far more interesting, but for whatever reason the fight scenes in
this book just started feeling the same and for me it was kind of
“Ugh, great, more poking things with halberds.” There are just so
many ways you can describe people decapitating greenskins before it
starts getting repetitive.
Another
weakness of this book was I felt nothing was really at stake. One of
the biggest criticisms lobbied at both Warhammer 40,000 and
Warhammer Fantasy is
that the status quo can never be upset. The forces of Chaos and Order
have been fighting for decades now and things still stand pretty much
the same as they did when everything began. So on some level I knew
that everything would be set to rights at the end. In a way,
Warhammer Fantasy has
even less room to play around than Warhammer 40,000.
At least in 40k the author can create a planet or three in some
forgotten corner of the galaxy and sacrifice them to whatever baddie
they're writing about. In Fantasy,
you've kind of already got all of the borders sketched out and if you
start messing with things too much it's going to upset the balance
one way or the other. So while some really bad things went down in
Averland, I kind of knew it would all get reset by the end which made
the in between bits kind of meaningless.
If
you're a fan of Warhammer Fantasy
and actually know who Emperor's Champion Schwarzhelm, Reikmarshal
Helborg, and Grand Theogonist Volkmar are and are invested in their
stories, then this book will definitely get your interest. If you're
new to this universe you're going to get thrown in the deep end and
probably get confused very quickly. Other than the fight scenes which
felt painfully repetitive, this book was really interesting. I just
felt like it was a lot of wasted effort because everything got reset
at the end.
- Kalpar
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