William King (1) (1959–)

Good job. Really reining in the out-of-control reading there, Nige. Are audio books crack? I think they may be crack. Anyway, the lads finally meet an Elf and go to Albion which is obviously some version of England, drenched in rain and fog, and the source of terrible threats to the entire world. Don't want to give too much away, but there might even be a giant. Gotrek may run his thumb along the edge of his axe until a drop of blood shows a few times. Felix may ponder the many strange turns show more his life has taken since he met the dwarf. There may even be some slaying. *Wink.* show less

Under the rather grim but compelling tale of poor old Felix, traumatised and haunted by his terrifying adventures there's a deeply, darkly comic, almost farcical tale of a city threatened by an army of intellignet monsters whose constant plotting against each other results in their fiendish plans being wrecked, usually by the dwarf and human heroes, culminating in an all-out invasion aided by plague, rats, beasts and deadly weapons, only things keep going wrong, usually because they can't show more stop scheming against each other. Consequently, the episodic nature of this book is punctuated by hilariously bloody catastrophes, more often at the not involving Gotrek's terrifying axe, meaning it's actually rather well-constructed and cleverly executed. show less

Admiring more and more the rock-solid craft that goes into these, from the handling of the plotting-for-the-novel-and-for-the-series, to the characterisation, the just-enough-detail worldbuilding, the carefully constructed epic action scenes. This volume has the contrasting highlights of opening with a huge dragon versus a dwarf airship, and a pleasingly prickly and difficult adult relationship developing between two people in uncertain circumstances who aren't always their best selves show more towards each other. Also, every time the Skaven are onstage there's invariably a reference to their fear musk-glands, which feels like a reference to a billionaire currently spraying his glands all over a social media platform. show less

Giantlsayer - at this point you really feel that King is coasting now. Is there a direction, or are we starting with the title and working back from there. The reappearance of some naughty chaos wizards who have turned into regular baddies gives the illusion of continuity. But they have just cropped up to cackle from behind a cloak before disappearing again, no idea why or how they got there. Teclis gets a nice run out, though he is conveniently saved from noble sacrifice at the end by a show more humble Scots-flavoured tribesman. Interestingly, some of what went on in this book foreshadowed the End Times event that did for the Warhammer world. Our poor Scots noble self-sacrifice could only hold back the tides of chaos for a decade, notes Teclis, and then he'll have to come back and fix it again. Was the End Times all because Teclis didn't go back again? And if we consider that Bill King's final Gotrek book ends with a Mhairie-Siu dying so that the rest of the world could carry on, perhaps we can infer that the End Times could have been avoided had Bill been allowed to carry on writing Gotrek ad infinitum. 2.5 stars

Orcslayer - Nathan Long's first outing as the writer of G&S is a great start. He packs more characterisation into Gotrek in one book than King did in seven (six? idk). The spooky possessed orcs make a nice difference, the dwarfs are great, presenting Gotrek through a pre-Slayer acquaintaince is a good move, Long gets the tone exactly right for Felix, and the Big Bad is horrible and Very Nasty Indeed. 4 stars

Manslayer - This one is great too, more fine Gotrek characterisation and some backstory, a vampire civil war, cultists everywhere, and a battle with a huge demon made of cannons on the back of a flying ship. 4 stars! show less