Customer Reviews

Grey Seer (Warhammer Novels)

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(18)
3 star:		(12)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Grey Seer Thanquol is brought before the Council of Thirteen to account for his failures. The skaven sorcerer's largest recent sin seems to be his failure to capture a certain dwarf airship. Thanquol survives a deadly trial only to find that the Council has not finished with him. Thanquol is entrusted with a vital mission and few survive any mission from the Council. A huge Wormstone that had been lost for a thousand breedings has been found. It is buried within the collapsed burrows beneath the man-nest (human city) of Altdorf. It is a block of pure warpstone, endowed with properties through an ancient process that cannot be duplicated. It is the key to destroying all the kingdoms of men and dwarfs with unparalleled plagues. The Grey Seer that had originally located the Wormstone is dead, but his apprentice, Kratch, survived and can lead Thanquol to its site.

Grey Seer Thanquol believes Kratch is the sole survivor from the previous expedition due to betraying his dead mentor. Thanquol must keep Kratch close to his whiskers if he wishes to make sure the traitorous apprentice does not attempt to kill him as well. The Council sends minions with Thanquol, supposedly to help retrieve the Wormstone, but again Thanquol well knows that those minions are but spies for the Council. The group is to complete the mission without divulging anything about it to those dwelling within the skaven city of Under-Altdorf. Knowing that he cannot trust anyone within his group to protect his life, Thanquol must first find himself a totally loyal and intimidating bodyguard, a mutant rat-ogre to be named Boneripper.

When Thanquol learns that some human smugglers have stolen the Wormstone and hidden it within their city, he realizes that his mission has become even more dangerous. Thanquol must recover the Wormstone, keep his own kin from killing or betraying him, while also dealing with a mysterious shadowmancer wizard and his band of (human) henchmen from ruining everything.

***** FIVE STARS! Fans of the "Gotrek & Felix" fantasy series will already be familiar with Grey Seer Thanquol. Gotrek (a dwarf) and Felix (a human) have unwittingly thwarted numerous of Thanquol's schemes. (The dwarf airship was but one.) Though this new series features the characters from "Gotrek & Felix", anyone who has not had the pleasure of reading that series will NOT be lost at all. Having read them myself though, I could not keep from chuckling whenever Thanquol briefly thought about one of his failed schemes and I suddenly realized it to be one I recalled reading in a "Gotrek & Felix" title. Thanquol's recollections of his past failures are kept very brief and only those who have read the other series will even make the connections. In my opinion, those rare sections are a brilliant touch.

It did not feel strange as I followed the skaven. The author kept Thanquol's personality intact. The skaven sorcerer is very cunning, able to adapt quickly to changes, as well as figure out how to use those changes to his advantage. I have never enjoyed a skaven villain more. No one writes a story better than C.L. Werner! *****

Reviewed by Detra Fitch of Huntress Reviews.

So says Grey Seer Thanquol!
I am the chosen representative of their malevolent majesties, the Lords of Decay, the Council of Thirteen of holy Skavenblight and the living claws of his most vengeful divinity the Horned Rat. I am the eyes, nose and ears of Skavenblight. I am their judge and their dagger! Know me and tremble,spleen-less mouse and beg my indulgence for your impiety!

I must say it took almost no time from the moment I picked this book up to the time I set it down fully read.
Clint Lee Werner has really outdone himself with this one. From the maze of inescapable death to the maze of merciless penance he does not let up.

I was surprised by the Tregara, a beast of the underworld, a sort of cross between a cave spider and a catachan devil with preying mantis in the mix.

We are treated to a brief synopsis of Thanquol's many adventures from his humble beginnings through the present. What great feats led him to his present discomfort? Why not else but the short-sighted fools and slackards that did not follow his great stategies.

White Stormvermin - dread bodyguards of the council so alike in appearance they might have been cloned.
Kratch - a young and erstwhile apprentice, promising but treacherous
Lord Skrolk - Great Lord of Clan Pestilins
Hans & Johann Dietrich - smugglers
Skabritt - Kratch's master
Theodor Baer - Sergeant of the Griffons(Altdorf's city watch)
Arch Plague Lord Nurglitch
General Paskrit
Warlord Gnawdwell
Night Lord Sneek
Kritislik

to name but a few of the cast of characters to look forward to.

The object of the play?
The Wormstone - two hundred pounds of cursed warpstone!

At one point I was reminded of the old Star Trek episode The Trouble with Tribbles when reading this insult - "This self important functionary of a ten-flea circus with delusions of grandeur."

Who knows what evil lurks in the streets of Altdorf?
The Shadowmancer knows!
Introducing Jeremias Scrivener saviour of Altdorf.... sort of.

Where does all this exciting action take place?
In Under-Altdorf of course, second in size only to Skavenblight but fallen on decadent times where the skaven have even adopted human mannerisms. Even Thanquol finds he has become infected when after he blasts the wrong servant he hits the top of his head with his palm.

See Thanquol, during the climactic battle, hurl such a mighty spell that Lord Skrolk and every other skaven are horrified and vent the musk of fear.

Of course for every skaven fan there is much venting of the musk of fear, grovelling, extreme cowardice, blaming underlings, backstabbing, flattering superiors, deceptions, avarice, treachery and rat ogres.

A good time had by all.

This was interesting enough that I was able to finish it without having to force myself. If you are into fantasy stories you should like this, I think the more you are into the game the better you will understand/appreciate this story. I am not that into the game so perhaps thats why it wasnt a 5star book for me. The journey with the anti hero is fairly exciting, very dark and gory and overall fun...3 1/2 stars ;o)

Watch out Gotrek and Felix...Thanquol's got his own book and that can only mean, he won't be going down any time soon. Grey Seer chronicles the latest adventures of Thanquol. Thanquol is the one adversary that Gotrek and Felix have yet to defeat. In this excellent read, Thanquol must recover the Clan Pestilins' secret weapon. The story opens with Thanquol being called upon by none other than the Council Of Thirteen, the highest rulers in all of Skavenblight. Fearing death he nonetheless goes to his audience with the council. But on the contrary, the council does not give Thanquol death, but intead the prestigious and deadly task of recovering the great and mighty Wormstone. This fantastic weapon could not only end humanity, but the entire world leaving only the possessor of such a weapon the ruler of the world. In a fast paced and exciting narrative, Thanquol's quest for the Wormstone is told in bold style. I won't give away the details, but the reader will have to discover if Thanquol can survive the treachery of the Under-Altdorf scum along his journey. And should he overcome all the obstacles...can he master the Wormstone. This is heady stuff and a great adventure. It's rare in the Warhammer universe to find yourself rooting for a Skaven...but this is one of those times. It's a nice change of pace and will breath life into some new corners of the Warhammer world. After all, even the Skaven play a role in shaping the future.

This book just LOVES its setting. If you love its setting, too -- the dirty, rotting-from-the-inside Warhammer Fantasy setting -- you'll probably like this book. Also, if you like gross-out, disgusting, pulpy fantasy settings generally, get it while it's hot. The vile, foul, dripping, stinky wretched cesspool of the Empire and its underworld is where this book spends one hundred percent of its mojo.

Other than that element, it's hard to like the book. It's slow, and determined to stay slow: about forty pages into it, two low-life smuggler bands encounter each other in the sewers and whip out their swords, and I thought "a ha, here we go!" -- but the narrator cut away, and immediately rejoined the scene after the fight was over. Huh? Slow on action, generic fantasy characters, wooden dialog... but I still kind of like it, just for the sub-Howardesque, sub-Lovecraftian, euro-putrescent dark fantasy setting it embraces.

The world of Warhammer Fantasy is the bastard son of the group I game with: everyone at least has an army, but none of them are painted, and they are rarely played with. As a result, the fiction that accompanies the world is often overlooked. Everyone I know has read a Horus Heresy book, but few have read anything from the WHFB universe. And it's a shame. The Warhammer Fantasy universe has a ton to offer, with C.L. Werner's Grey Seer being a shining example of how interesting the fiction of the Warhammer universe can be.

Grey Seer is the story of Thanquol, a Skaven grey seer from the Gotrek & Felix series. He is a powerful grey seer and has a fair amount of position in Skaven society, but has done enough bumbling (presumably in the Gotrek & Felix books--I've not read them, but they are alluded to a great deal) and created enough misfortune that the Council of 13, the rulers of Skaven society, send him on a quest to recover a lost Skaven artifact know as the Wormstone. Thanquol, however, plans to retrieve the Wormstone for himself for his own insidious plans.

Running parallel to Thanquol's quest to retrieve the Wormstone is the story of a group of human smugglers that happen upon the Wormstone and intend to sell it to the highest bidder in Altdorf. The humans run into their own troubles with the Wormstone, as well as encountering a grey wizard-led secret society intent on suppressing the Skaven threat to the human world.
There's a lot going on with the narrative, as the parallel stories could stand on their own, but C.L. Werner does a brilliant job of keeping things moving without bogging down the narrative. Thanquol's story provides a really great look into Skaven society, while the story of Johann Dietrich and the smugglers shows us the underbelly of Altdorf. In addition to being parallel stories, Werner does a great job of making the two societies mirror each other.

The mirroring of the two stories is really brought to light by one fact: the qualities that we find reprehensible in the human world are the attributes that make a Skaven attain power and status in the society of the Underdark. It is Werner's depiction of Skaven society that really helps make Grey Seer shine. Thanquol's story is, simply put, hilarious. Were he a human, he would be a completely unlikable character. As he is a Skaven, one can't help but like him. He embodies all the foul and terrible attributes a Skaven should; he is deceitful, he is cowardly, and above all, he is out for himself above anything. For the story, this is a great thing, as it turns Thanquol into a delightful character to read about.

C.L. Werner does a really great job weaving Grey Seer into a fun and fast-paced story. Thanquol is an interesting and engaging character and all of his plotting on his quest to retrieve the Wormstone is delightfully wicked. The story of Johann Dietrich is also engaging, but for entirely different reasons and balances out the story to create a really nice read. It was really hard to find any fault with what Werner has created here. His prose is tight, his characters interesting, and the content compelling. Grey Seer is a really fun addition to the WHFB universe, shedding some excellent light on Skaven society as well as the ever-present, but hidden, threat it poses to the humans above.


The Long and the Short:
CL Werner's Grey Seer provides a much needed look into Skaven society and the threat it poses to the humans of the Empire. Grey Seer Thanquol is an interesting character that you immediately like for all the wrong--but in this case entirely right--reasons and his plots and plans throughout the narrative are really engaging. Werner's prose is excellent and moves the plot along at a swift pace, setting the human and skaven worlds as really nice mirrors of each other. A fantastic fantasy effort that should only be missed by those that absolutely hate rats.

(9/10) Highly Recommended

For the ones who enjoy the warhammer universe and especially the Skaven, this book will be an excellent choice. It is very fun read all the plotting and scheming of Thanquol and see everything goes wrong because the treachery, paranoia and backstabbing so common at the skaven race.
I had many good times reading this book.

Grey Seer Thanquol must redeem himself by undertaking a perilous quest. Standard fantasy adventure fare set in the Warhammer World, but well written. Skaven fans, enjoy!

It was a good read. I'd recommend the book to anyone.

I really appreicated the extra detail in the book related to the Skaven. Things like the fear glands and scents and the attitudes that made the ratmen rat-like were great. I much prefer it to the comical treatments Thanquol got in earlier books. This is a creature that has clawed his way to the top despite countless attempts on his life from all sides. In grey seer, you finally get a look into why Thanquol made it this far.

A worthy addition to the dark fantasy of the Warhammer universe.

As a fan of the Gotrex and Felix books I really enjoyed this story. The Skaven are the most vile creatures, inept and if it were not for their animosity toward their own kind, a danger to the human Empire. This is a fun read with several interesting characters (I can see them coming back) and twists of plot. None of the Warhammer books are great literature, but they are greatfun!