Beastslayer (Warhammer Novels) [Mass Market Paperback]

William King (Author), Marc Gascoigne (Editor)

Book Description

Series: Warhammer Novels | Publication Date: February 1, 2004

As the dark forces of Chaos bring destruction to the northern lands of Kislev, only dwarf warrior Gotrek Gurnisson and his human companion, Felix Jaeger, stand between the evil hordes and the ancient city of Praag. Reprint.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"speedily paced and action packed" -- SFX Magazine, Spring 2001 --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

William King was born in Stranraer, Scotland, in 1959. His short stories have appeared in 'The Year's Best SF', 'Zenth', 'White Dwarf' and 'Interzone'. He is also the author of the Gotrek & Felix novel (‘Trollslayer’, 'Skavenslayer', 'Daemonslayer', 'Dragonslayer' and 'Beastslayer) and two volumes chronicling the adventures of a Space Marine warrior, Ragnar ('Space Wolf' and 'Ragnar's Claw') all available on Amazon. He has travelled extensively throughout Europe and Asia, but he currently lives in Prague, where he is hard at work penning the sixth Gotrek & Felix adventure, 'Vampireslayer'! --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 412 pages
• Publisher: Games Workshop (February 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1844160521
• ISBN-13: 978-1844160525
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.2 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.1 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,027,383 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Hack 'n Slash, March 30, 2001

By 

Richard S Cloud (Boise, ID United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Beastslayer (A Gotrek & Felix novel) (Mass Market Paperback)

A chaos horde of beastmen marches out of the wastes, laying siege to the walled fortress-city of Praag. These beastmen are stronger, faster and uglier than humans. Worse still, they are led by an undefeated leader and incomparable sorcerers. The heigth of the walls of Praag will not be enough. The ancient spell-wards on the walls will not be enough. The dukes army will not be enough. Fortunately, the city of Praag has other resources to call upon. Short in stature and short on tact, searching for a worthy personal doom, the dwarven slayer, Gotrek Gurnisson now mans (or dwarves?) the walls of Praag along with his human sidekick, Felix Jaegar.

This is King's fifth book in the Warhammer Slayer series featuring Felix Jaegar, Gortrek Gurnisson and Max the Sorcerer. If you crave good against evil, hack and slash, especially the desperate last stand pulp-type novels, then Beastslayer might be for you. The fight scenerios carry the book and their are occasional cute bits of dialogue (I just loved Snori, a fellow dwarven slayer). However, do not expect to discover subtly in characterization (such as the blazing romance in Simon's "Hawk and Fischer"). Do not expect to find charming anti-heroes (such as Leiber's "Fafhred and the Gray Mouser"). Do not expect to find the occasional flashes of epic brillance and characterization build-up that you will find in many of David Gemmel's works (especially "Legend"). Characterization and plotting do not run deep in "Beastslayer". However, if you could take those former novels and pulp them down, you might get a Gotrek and Felix--a "Beastslayer" type book. As for myself, I will not order ALL of the slayer books, but I will now go back and order the first of the series and see how it goes.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Can't get enough of Helm's Deep in LOTR? Get this book!, January 10, 2003

By 

Vorthog (Ontario, Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Beastslayer (A Gotrek & Felix novel) (Mass Market Paperback)

This is the fifth book in William King's ongoing epic series (after Trollslayer, Skavenslayer, Daemonslayer and Dragonslayer) about the Dwarf Gotrek who has vowed to find his death in glorious battle in order to pay for past misdeeds, and his human companion Felix who has sworn to accompany him on his quest and record his bravery.

This installment finds our heroes trapped in the walled city of Praag which is beseiged by a huge horde of beastmen, Chaos warriors, barbarians, demons and more. If you liked the battle of Helm's Deep or Pelennor Fields in LOTR, you are in for a treat! King does a great job of building up the tension and letting us feel what it's like to live in a city under seige.

Several familiar characters from previous books are back, but my most favourite characters in this book were the newly introduced evil twin mages. They are truly worthy adversaries and I hope King will bring us more of them in future installments.

On the minus side, a sub-plot involving traitors within the city never really seems to live up to its potential. More surprises and less predictability in this regard would be nice in future. And while I thoroughly enjoyed the entire book, the last chapter seemed quite rushed and the ending rather anticlimactic and jarringly abrupt. I wished the book could have gone on for another 100 pages!

But the sudden ending is probably because the story will pick right up again in the next book "Vampireslayer", just as King did between Daemonslayer and Dragonslayer. Can't wait to read this next one too!

Overall I'd rate this book as my second favourite of the series so far after Daemonslayer.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good but incomplete, March 22, 2001

By 

Godlearner "No good deed, shall go unpunished." (NJ USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Beastslayer (A Gotrek & Felix novel) (Mass Market Paperback)

Highly cerebral this book is not. The characters are shallow, the action is one-dimensional and the ending is so abrupt as to make you feel the full novel was literally torn in half and the first part was published. The scenery is vivid and one can almost see the colors of battle. The action is very fast passed and shown from varying points of view.

It is not necessary to have read the other novels in the series to enjoy this book, but it would help to understand as to how the characters came to be were they are and the author expects you to be somewhat familiar with what drives them.

An incomplete work but I loved it.