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I have been making my way through the novellas and shorts the Black Library have been releasing to support Age of Sigmar - if anyone is interested, I have penned a few thoughts on each...

The Gates of Azyr
The Gates of Azyr was the first to appear, and it serves as a quick introduction to Age of Sigmar. It concentrates on the events depicted in the starter set, where the Hammers of Sigmar, led by Vandus Hammerhand, launch the beginning of Sigmar’s new crusade. Each of the scenarios in the starter set is drawn from this book, from Vandus tackling a Khorgorath early on, to the Prosecutors battling past Bloodreavers to open the Realmgate, thus allowing the rest of the Stormcast Eternals to enter the battle.

That is the story in a nutshell – if you have the starter set and have read the scenarios, you already know what happens. In fact, if you have the starter set, you have already read part of this story, as excerpts from it are scattered about the primer rulebook.

However, the point, I think, of this story is to breath life into the Stormcasts (and their enemies, for that matter), to see how they fight and live , getting into the actual ‘mechanics’ of the setting. For example, the starter set tells us that that the Stormcasts can be ‘hurled’ onto the battlefield by the power of Sigmar. In this story, you see how this actually happens (big bolt of lightning, dome of energy, Stormcast appears). You also see what happens to a Stormcast when they ‘die’ on the battlefield. It is this kind of detail where game fiction can shine and it lends a fuller perspective to your games as you play.

It also explores the idea of Stormcasts being drawn from past lives, and what this means for the individual characters. And I will be coming back to this soon…

The Gates of Azyr is not a complicated tale, and it is not really intended to be. As an introduction to the new setting it is perfectly competent, and it succeeds in what I presume was its main function, breathing life into the recently released models and giving them a new depth. If you want to know more about your new Stormcasts, you cannot really go wrong.



The others can be found at https://ttgamingdiary.wordpress.com/2015/08/18/fiction-review-age-of-sigmar/

I wish I had of seen this a month ago, I could have saved £8 on The Gates of Azyr.

It's okay, but so short to be massively over priced. Then consider it is effectively duplicated with the starter pack book as you say and I feel pretty miffed by it.



Anyway mildly diverting though it was, I don't think I will be picking up the much more expensive second book.

 notprop wrote:

Anyway mildly diverting though it was, I don't think I will be picking up the much more expensive second book.

You mean War Storm? It is, I feel, a superior book and may be worth a second dip.

Cheaper as an ebook, but I presume not is not an option?

No school like the old school; paper for me all the way!

Yeah that's the one. Does it actually have any detail to it? The first one was all a bit flash without ever seeming to get anywhere. There wasn't really any great peril in the story unless you were an unnamed bloodred-shirt.

It was £15 IIRC @ GW and would have to be allot better and allot more than 120 pages. I feel it would be money better spent on more (ever more) Judge Dredd books!

 notprop wrote:

Yeah that's the one. Does it actually have any detail to it? The first one was all a bit flash without ever seeming to get anywhere. There wasn't really any great peril in the story unless you were an unnamed bloodred-shirt.

I would say yes. One of the major characters... well, something really bad happens to him, and the character of the Great Unclean One was, I thought, well covered - the whole happy angle of Nurgle is in there, mixed with the absolute certainty that he is going to win. And the third story has a nice escalating battle, in that it starts off fairly high-powered and then gets cranked all the way to 11.

In comparison to Gates, the first story follows on directly, but it has a lot more detail on the characters, the locations and what everyone is doing.

As I said, of all the stories released thus far, War Storm is the one I would recommend the most, especially if you have already read Gates.

 notprop wrote:
It was £15 IIRC @ GW and would have to be allot better and allot more than 120 pages. I feel it would be money better spent on more (ever more) Judge Dredd books!

Well, I can't really argue against that

Just finished Gates and Storm and I agree with what has already been said here.

I will point out though that after reading the two recent campaign books released for AoS, the novels are (quite rightly!) far more skillfully written. It was refreshing to have some genuine prose and storytelling as opposed to the 'and then this happened and then that occured because of this thing and that' style they seem to be filling the big books with!

I have been eyeing the new AOS fiction with some trepidation,... part of me wanting to have a go and see if I like it,... another part afraid that I will be disappointed,.... and another sensible part of me saying I need to save money for other more pressing things,.... (I say another "sensible part" of me, but I mean my wife).
I think I am most curious if there is going to be a rich lore, will the AOS worlds be populated with taverns, mortal hero's, mercenaries, farmers, ordinary soldiers and back alley thieves etc?

Namely, does AOS have ordinary people, towns, cities, civilizations etc. Will I miss my lost ancient crypts, my forgotten haunted castles, my dark forests? Or is it all super human apocolyptic elemental magical planes and energy beings etc?
I miss Gotrek and Felix.... (I have held off reading the last 2-3 books because I'm afraid of it ending,.... so no spoilers)

OldSod wrote:

Namely, does AOS have ordinary people,

They have popped up in the first book (and with the flashbacks, but that is something else). They are concentrating on the big heroes at the moment, but the little guys have made an appearance.

MongooseMatt wrote:

OldSod wrote:

Namely, does AOS have ordinary people,

They have popped up in the first book (and with the flashbacks, but that is something else). They are concentrating on the big heroes at the moment, but the little guys have made an appearance.

Nice, I know it sounds stupid in a fantasy setting, but I like it "realistic" if you know what I mean. You can't have mighty warhosts tromping across the battlefields without the farmers filling their bellies, taverns quenching their thirst, wenches,... er em serving the drinks, families being reared, cut throat intrigue going on in the mighty palaces and rat filled back alleys..... it needs a bit of grit and grime to be warhammer.

At the moment the fluff is purely centered around the 'post apocalyptic' realms being retaken by the Stormhost. I think someone else summed it up better when they said it had gone 'less Tolkien more World of Warcraft'.

I do hope they somehow manage to populate the realms with ordinary people again though as I'm usually one to skip over pages and pages of 'bolter porn' in BL books in favour of the drama and nuggets of background. Unfortunately though if you are looking for thatched roof fantasy it isn't going to be found in AoS books. At least not right now.

My wife is sucking up the lore like a teen with a slurpee on a hot summer day.

I really enjoy the artwork and the models, and even the world backgrounders -- but reading the fluff isn't my thing. Dunno why, have never really liked GW fiction all that much. I DO want to know what happens, though, so I just get the summary from her

OldSod wrote:

MongooseMatt wrote:

OldSod wrote:

Namely, does AOS have ordinary people,

They have popped up in the first book (and with the flashbacks, but that is something else). They are concentrating on the big heroes at the moment, but the little guys have made an appearance.

Nice, I know it sounds stupid in a fantasy setting, but I like it "realistic" if you know what I mean. You can't have mighty warhosts tromping across the battlefields without the farmers filling their bellies, taverns quenching their thirst, wenches,... er em serving the drinks, families being reared, cut throat intrigue going on in the mighty palaces and rat filled back alleys..... it needs a bit of grit and grime to be warhammer.

Even the death world has people living in it and they drop some details on what a ruler's title would be on that world. Now my honest opinion on the second book? I like it a lot and the reason why? The stormcasts in my opinion are more human than space marines so I can relate and understand them a lot more my favourite part was when.




Honestly they are just the order/good version of the chaos warriors. The book turned me into a fan of the hallowed knights though ONLY THE FAITHFUL!(the celestial vindicators are also cool since they view sigmar more as a man who gained power than a god) God the character in the third book is awesome.

Out of the Hammers of Sigmar I want to know more about Ionus read the book and find out why I am so interested in him and the relicators. I do recommend reading gates of ayzer though if you are planning to read the realmgate wars novel.

MongooseMatt wrote:
Hammers of Sigmar, led by Vandus Hammerhand

Oh please...
And let me guess, his weapon is a hammer too?


Thanks for the review.

Are the books written by any noted authors? In the early days of 40K fiction, GW had some quite well respected SF authors writing them.

 Kilkrazy wrote:
Are the books written by any noted authors? In the early days of 40K fiction, GW had some quite well respected SF authors writing them.

Is there a way to find out the authors? I've been looking at the store listings, and there aren't any names there.

Probably have to buy it.

Anyhow, thanks for the reviews, MM.

 Kilkrazy wrote:
Are the books written by any noted authors? In the early days of 40K fiction, GW had some quite well respected SF authors writing them.

gates of azyr is written by Chris Wraight... Cover art by Kai lim

Like everyone here I'm look I by for some humans to `live along side` in my fiction so I hope they will come. I think it will take the big guys to establish a foothold somewhere and build a city first. New Altdorf?? Hopefully not but I do want some taverns etc eventually. Perhaps more Conan than it used to be in fantasy, a bit grittier.

Just bought Gates of Azyr a couple nights ago, got about halfway through last night in a sitting.

Its pretty OTT, which I love. Will report back more when I finish.