Customer Reviews

Gotrek & Felix: The Second Omnibus (Warhammer Novels)

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Amazing stories in the vein of the original Conan stories, it reads like pulp adventures from the 20's. Fast paced, lots of action, heroes of dubious legality but honor and courage. Villains that are fleshed out but truly evil.

Nothing fancy here, just good, old-fashioned sword and sorcery (with a heavy emphasis on the sword). If you enjoyed the first Gotrek & Felix anthology, you'll enjoy this continuation of their adventures. I love these books!

Readers are no dummies. If you're reading this review, you're probably a classy person. For these stories to assume otherwise about you approaches insult. The only reason me or anyone else would complain is because we like our Warhammer books to be entertaining. And the second omnibus still feeds us the carnal bloodlust we still hold dear. It's no mistake to compare these stories to Conan (although Howard had sort of a point to his stories while King doesn't apparently suggest any values). If our stories are not entertaining, then we regrettably have no use for them. But we still love them.

I started reading Gotrek and Felix when I was 18. Comic books hadn't seduced me yet, so I wasn't spoiled by the violence of Sin City or brutality of From Hell. Result: The violence herein was fairly rapturous. And the guy used a lot of words I'd never seen before. I got satisfaction from both poles.

I'm 26 now. I picked up this omnibus thinking I'd have the same feelings for the series. After all, Trollslayer, Daemonslayer, and Skavenslayer were cool; however, when I finished Skavenslayer I seem to remember thinking: "That was fun, but I don't want to read about GRAY SEER THANQUOL ever again." Well... Thanquol shows up constantly. Whenever I read anything about him I put up with it for a paragraph, then become irritated and bored. Skaven don't annoy me the way kender do (holy GOD kender annoy me), but...

I used to appreciate King's unpacking of a given character's personality, thoughts, and mood. King fills most of his books with thoughts of the character's he's using. This was fun in Trollslayer because Trollslayer had a bunch of different stories and therefore a bunch of different mind's to explain. I theorize that when King writes one big story it kills his momentum. And might I add that 100 pages into Dragonslayer I didn't see a single difficult word.

This leads me to another theory: Did Black Library force King to dumb down his stories? No one can say. But King seems to have a subtle knife he can't or won't use. Perhaps that's why he hasn't written any of these books in a while.

I'm putting this omnibus in the archive. I can't waste my time reading it when I know I have better things to read.

The difference between an OK story and a Page Turner is Momentum, and this Omnibus starts to lose it as the story progresses.

Story:
This omnibus contains 3 full length novels entitled: Dragon Slayer, Beast Slayer, and Vampire Slayer. This Omnibus continues the adventures of a pair of warriors as they battle their way through the Warhammer Universe. In order to get the most out of this book, you should really read the first Omnibus because it introduces the characters and conflicts.

All three stories are intertwined like a true trilogy and rivalries, friendships, and relationships, continue from book to book. I really enjoyed reading about Gotrek and Felix as they traveled the world on their death quest in the First Omnibus. The characters grew, became more powerful, and faced greater challenges. In this Omnibus, it seems like they reached their MAX Levels halfway through the book. They stopped growing. They became one dimensional. They didn't face tougher challenges. They didn't get any new battle scars or wounds. No new loot. No moments of enlightenment. The battles and dialogue started to feel a little bit like they were Cut and Pasted. The suspense dwindled away as the stories became predictable and the conflicts lost their rewards and consequences.

World:
All of the stories take place in the Warhammer Universe. The world is a blend between Lord of the Rings and Germany when it was under the rule of the Holy Roman Empire. It's Gritty High Fantasy in a state of perpetual war and turmoil. This book focuses on the Hearty Dwarves, Chaos Spawned Beastmen, A HUGE Dragon, and a legion of undead.

Characters:
Despite the fact that Gotrek has committed a serious crime, he is noble and lusts for the battle that will give him a glorious death. Felix owes Gotrek his life and accompanies him on his quest to die. Because Felix has spent so much of his life behind books, the travels across the world are new and exciting to him. The reader experiences Kislev, Praag, and (Tran)Sylvania through the eyes of Felix. In addition to the deadly duo, this omnibus features an array of other heroes and villains. The duo is joined by a wizard named Max, a few new Slayers, Ulrika, a warrior woman from the harsh border province of Kislev. The new characters are fun, but none of them have any lasting impact on Gotrek and Felix.

Writing Style:
In this Omnibus, the stories become formulaic, where the heroes wander around and face a huge climactic battle at the end. Unfortunately, it seems like all of these novels have some pacing issues. Parts drag on and the climatic battles are all over too swiftly. In exciting page turners, the story arcs build up to a conflict and an exciting resolution. At the end of the battle, the heroes should get something for their trouble: Gold, New Weapons, Love, a Heroic Death... In this Omnibus it seems like the heroes survive a conflict, just to enter another one.

Romance Fail:
Felix gets a girlfriend in this trilogy... sorta. It is the strangest relationship that I've ever seen in a novel. It begins... doesn't go anywhere... then lingers around... and dissipates into nothing. It is original, but it doesn't build to anything. It's just kind of there... sorta... but not really... and they don't talk about it... they just look at each other kinda funny... like kids at a Junior High Dance... Because of this, one of the major story arcs loses steam. It was a chance for Felix to grow as a character.

Action:
As you may have guessed, this book is loaded with cover to cover action. There are massive battles, skirmishes, castle sieges, brawls, duels, more battles, deadly magic, beastmen, armies, undead, an airship, an ancient dragon, and even more battles. The action in the battles is well written. Spells are cast, blades hack and slash, and many die. But the spoils and perils of war from the first omnibus are lacking in this one. The main characters don't grow or sustain permanent injuries as a result of the battles, so they lose their impact. By the end of the omnibus, it feels like they're going through the motions.

The Main Difference Between Omnibus 1 and Omnibus 2:
Omnibus 1
Gotrek fights a horde of enemies, loses an eye, and gains a powerful magic axe!

Omnibus 2
Gotrek fights a horde of enemies.

Maturity: Teens
There are loads of fantasy violence and gore and non-descript sexual situations. (Basically the lights go out and a couple wakes up happy the next morning.)

Overall: 7.5
For $10 you get 3 full novels. The first story, Dragon Slayer is the best, but the next two start to feel flat. Still, if you love reading High Adventure Stories in a Medieval Fantasy Universe, this is a great bargain. If character development isn't really important to you, these are fun books to read.

If you enjoyed this, definitely pick up Robert E. Howard's Conan the Barbarian Stories or the Savage Sword of Conan Comics. You will probably also like the Drizzt books by R.A. Salvatore. And if you like Epic Heroes, definitely pick up Legend by David Gemmell. If you like Fun and Entertaining fantasy, you should read Lankhmar by Fritz Leiber.

i picked up the first and second omnibus on a lark. by the start of the 2nd omnibus i was ready to pack it up and move on to another author. if you like one dimensional characters and predictable stories you'll probably rate these 5/5. i give them a 3.

my summary of every story in the first 2 omnis... felix whines and regrets his oath but finds courage to overcome his cowardice...for now. gotrek drinks, goes into a seemingly hopeless battle, killing everything that moves.. whines about not finding his glorious death. ratmen scheme... make things difficult for everyone... get defeated... come back to repeat cycle. the only truly likeable character i found was Snoori. at least he has an excuse for being 1-dimensional.. he's stark raving mad.

oh and whoever did the artwork on the 2nd omni clearly has no clue. felix is more the bard than the barbarian conan type... and since when do they start wearing matching pants???

This second omnibus (which contains Gotrek & Felix novels four through six) is just as solid as the first omnibus. If you've read those novels (and I would hope you have if you're looking at the second omnibus), then you will like these just as much. The action, humor, and gore is maintained very well. Character's develop a bit slowly but considering the type of pulp-fiction King aims to create, it is suitable. As always, I am impressed with his ability to accurately represent the Warhammer universe.

My only complaint about these novels is that King cuts over to the Skaven storyline way too much throughout the novels. It gets boring after a while, and I did skip over some of those parts.

I have reviewed all three Gotrex & Felix omnibus collections that are available. If you want to see my other reviews, please see my Amazon profile.

William King's GOTREK & FELIC: THE SECOND OMNIBUS bundles DRAGONSLAYER, BEASTSLAYER and VAMPIRESLAYER under one cover, telling of a poet Felix Jaeger who finds himself in an unlikely alliance with a dwarf Gotrek to witness his death and compose an epic poem about it. His position as a fugitive and his new alliance will bring him further into contact with new dangers.

this is one of the best reads vive ever had!im excited to se hows this expands on the story of the characters

After reading the first Omnibus I bought this. If you liked the first 3 books, you will love this. It continues on with the Slayer and his human "friend" and there adventures together. This is a must have if you want to continue reading about the two.

This omnibus is a great read just like the first, the only gripes i have is that the book tended to lean heavily Felix's thoughts and feelings about Ulrika and BEASTSLAYER would of been a bit better if it wasnt dragged out for so long.

Even with the two gripes aforementioned, i still give this omnibus 5 stars.