Customer Reviews

Darkblade: Bloodstorm (Warhammer Novels)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Malus Darkblade is a dread lord of Hag Graef. He is a dark warrior, betrayer, and one of the fiercest among the Dark Elf race.

Malus is still possessed by the foul daemon, Tz'arkan. Malus has one year to locate five unholy artefacts or his soul will be forfeit. In the first book, Malus retrieved one of the needed items. Now he seeks the Idol of Kolkuth. To do this, Malus must betray, double cross, and even triple cross his dark elf siblings as he uses them to locate an island belonging to their enemies, the Skinriders.

Skinriders worship a god of decay. Therefore, their skin literally rots away. They attack ships belonging to the dark elves as they return from raiding for slaves. Skinriders consider flesh as treasure and take as many slaves and prisoners as possible from the ships. These poor souls are skinned alive as tribute to their god and for new skin to adhere to their own rotting bodies.

Maulus Darkblade does not expect his task to be easy. But he does expect to spill a lot of enemy blood.

***** Once again Dan Abnett and Mike Lee give readers exactly what they want; more blood and violence in less time. Malus has turned blood and treachery into an art form. Since Malus betrayed his sorcerer brother, Urial, in the first novel, I believed there was no way possible to convince Urial to team up with him. But I am proven wrong. Malus is a master of his art/war craft. I stand by my words in the review of the first novel: Horrifyingly addictive! I want more! *****

Reviewed by Detra Fitch of Huntress Reviews.

The continuing story of Malus, the murderous black elf on his search to find the artifacts that will rid him of the Daemon yoke.
The Second artifact involves sailing into territory controlled by Northern pirates (mad worshippers of Chaos). To do that Malus manipulates his king to send him at the head of Malus's brother's fleet to cleanse the northern waters.

The Good:
Dan Abnett scores high above the average fantasy garbage writers that are more numerous than flies these days. He is a professional writer, with lots of experience and it shows.
His storytelling is excellent. The story is full of fast paced popcorn action and is hard to put down. There is a delicious sea chase, and ample gory battles for the Warhammer fans. Actually I liked this story better than the first volume, which was a just a series of violent encounters (They reminded me a DM rolling for random encounters, with only a thin connection between them).
We get to see a lot more of Malus' deranged family, in this volume. The plots of his younger sister. The love triangle between two of Malus' half brothers and his extremely beautiful half sister (indeed a twisted family) is the fuel that runs this story.

The Bad:
Ok, this is the story of a dark protagonist, but still I would expect our hero to have a few redeeming qualities. Minor characters with redeeming qualities surround Malus. They show courage, honor, humor, resourcefulness and leadership. Qualities that Malus lacks, and that attach readers to a character. Don't get attached to any of these minor characters though, cause Malus will probably kill them at some point.
Malus is vicious, cruel, manipulative, liar, spiteful and bitter on his good days.
His only standing quality is his willpower, Malus will refuse to die just out of spite. I would expect a more round, less flat, protagonist. Something that will make me care if he lives or dies. Currently I care more for Malus' new subordinate (the cynic Hauclir) than for Malus.

To sum it up, this is a good read for any Warhammer fan. I'd give it 3.5 stars if there was such a rating option.

'Bloodstorm' is the second installment in the tale of dark elf Malus Darkblade, the first being 'The Daemon's Curse'. While 'Bloodstorm' could stand alone, I highly recommend picking up 'The Daemon's Curse' first.

Malus has returned to Hag Graef and his father, the Vaulkhar Lurhan, once again in shame. Now possessed by the daemon Tz'arkan, who insinuated himself inside Malus the moment he touched the treasure found in Tz'arkan's Temple. Malus has brought back the Octagon Of Praan, a relic of great power, but cannot rid himself of the daemon unless he finds four more relics within one year's time. The Octagon, and his plans, he cannot reveal to his family.

The Vaulkhar finds Malus out, though, and tortures him brutally. After enduring torture beyond any ever met out by Lurhan, kept alive by Tz'arkan, Malus is nursed back to health by his sister Nagaira. Nagaira has more plans for Malus, but Malus has plans of his own.

Now Malus must find the next relic, the Idol Of Kolkuth, which is said to reside on a hidden island deep in the territory of the Skinriders, a savage people who worship a god of decay. For this, Nagaira is useless to him, but not so his older brothers Bruglir The Reaver and Urial The Forsaken.

Through blood, treachery, murder, torture, blackmail, and horrifically brutal rituals, Malus gains Urial's support and forces Bruglir's fleet to take him through the dangerous waters of the Skinriders to find the Idol of Kolkuth. The Skinriders are a great addition to the series, their bodies literally rotting, their skin sloughing away, from their worship of the god of decay. Yuck!

'Bloodstorm' is the second bloodbath ... er ... book in this series, and I cannot recommend it highly enough. Comparable to Salvatore's awesome 'War Of The Spider Queen' series, the tales of Malus Darkblade are a feast worth dining on for any lover of dark elves. Don't skip over these books because they have ties to a popular video game, they are well written, stand alone tales that will leave you thirsty for more. Enjoy!

You get pretty much get what you expect from this book:
a fast read, with unrelenting action. The character development
is pretty much restricted to illustrating Malus' depravities,
and taking them further notch by notch. No other
characters really get developed, and you can pretty
much guess why. If you are willing to accept these as
features, rather than bugs, then this book is quite a fun
ride.

I picked up this book the other day mainly because of the cover, art work is amazing. Having never read a Warhammer novel, I had no intentions of reading it until I learned more about it. Well I sat down to look at the cover art work once more, before shelfing the book, when I decided to read the first page...Hooked! That has rarely ever happened for me.

The author(s) detail is so vivid I might as well been in an IMAX theater! The opening seen is so well described I had to keep reading to find out what happens...and what happens is entirely frightening. This book is dark! From brutal fleshly tortures to the depths of wickedness of demonic cult gatherings this book explores all that is macabre and dangles you in front of it to make sure you see it all!

Full of surprises and leaves you wanting to know more and worst of all...see more gruesome rendezvous. Action packed to the last page got to get more of this Malus Darkblade! This is the second volume in a series but reads well on its own telling you much of the back story leading to this particular edition. Rushing out to get the others!

This 2nd novel of three started out just like the 1st - excellent and dark fantasy that hinted to greater things to come - but didn't for me.

Just like the 1st novel, the first half of the 2nd volume seems to be written by one of the authors, while the other half is written by the other. And it seems, whomever wrote the two first halves of both novels - is the better writer. I liked the fist halves of both novels way better than the latter halves.

Still, all in all, both novels are thrill rides, filled with dark mayhem and fantasy-filled adventure. I just purchased the 3rd volume. These are two of the better fantasy Warhammer novels out there. Graham McNeil's Guardians of the Forest is thus far the best in the fantasy Warhammer series. Check both of these series out.

All three cover artworks are excellent. I wish Malus's nauglir beast would have been in this story more.

The second book of this series picks off right where the first book left off. Malus returns to Hag Graef from his disastrous journey to the Waste, only to find his holdings seized, and his life declared forfeit. Quick thinking and dealing with his powerful brothers and sisters saves him from being sacrificed, and he slowly begins to rebuild his power base, setting himself as a crucial ally to all of his siblings against the others, all while keeping the daemon Tz'arkan a secret.

After locating the resting place of the second of five artefacts, he forces his plan on his siblings to brave the treacherous North Sea, and his most powerful brother, all while several death sentences hang over his head should he falter or fail in the slightest.

Abnett and Lee produce yet another great storyline, with great character interaction, well described combat scenes, and fantastic dialogue. They describe the culture of the Dark Elves without apology, and manage to work in subtles of their behavior that're shocking to even fans of dark fantasy without being overwhelming or disgusting. Magic is a pivotal plot device without being a deus ex machina. The ending is incredibly well written, with a final battle scene that is very inventive and captures the tone of Chaos well.

I liked this book series a lot and plan on reading more of his work. Thanks for the great read. Rick

This keeps up the action found in the Previous Volume. It's a nice change of pace in fantasy novels to have the bad guy be the main star. The authors do a good job of making him an anti-hero without alienating so much from the reader they don't care about him.

This book also does a good job of interweaving all the schemes and plots the various characters have for & against each other into a reasonable climax.

All-in-all a book I'd recommend to any fan of Fantasy, not just fans of the Warhammer World.

I have read both books in this series and cant wait for the next one to come out.