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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Awesome.....THE REIGN OF NAGASH BEGINS!, August 21, 2008
This book succeeds where books like Heldenhammer fall almost flat. In the ancient empire of Nehekhara Nagash's father dies and he begins plotting to seize total power. As royalty and a high ranking priest in the Mortuary cult, he is delighted when dark elf prisoners fall into his hands and he strikes a deal with the dangerous followers of Malekith to learn the black arts from them in order for sparing their lives.
From their it only gets better, as an epic story of world gripping ambition, black treachery and the epic struggle of Ancient civilization whose covenant with their Old Gods is threatened by the Dark Forces Nagash threatens to unleash upon the entire world.
Brave Kings and Priests of Old Gods of Nehekhara must take a stand against one of the greatest evils the world has ever seen and beware treachery from their own as they fight to preserve their way of life against the undead legions of Nagash and his evil folllowers. It all leads to an epic showdown at the most ancient city of Nehekhara between the heroes of that great civilization and the Black Necromancers evil sorcery.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Evil, cruetly, repine - Now thats more like it, September 26, 2008
I was marginably disappointed by Heldenhammer, the first of the Time of Legends books. While the character devlopment was good, certain aspects of the story were a bit of a let down. Not so with Nagash, the first of three novels detailing the exploits of the Great Necromancer.
Nagash exudes evil like stars exude light. It isn't overblown until his rise to power, and his balancing act of politics and his horrific experiemnts and magical study will make your skin crawl. The supporting characters, a motley collection of scum and villany, are well fleshed out and still manage to appear as individuals, rather than being lumped into the general thug and important thug categories.
The scenery and culture of Nehekhara is incredibly vivid and well described. The plot bounces around at times, sometimes forcing you to make educated guesses for certain terms until they're defined later. However, it proceeds at a decent pace, slowing for background, and picking up steam during the great war between Nagash and the other Priest-Kings of his homeland.
There are some significant and some not so significant deviations from accepted lore. The Blessed Land apparently had their own pantheon of gods, which provided very real, very tangible rewards to their worshippers, and are incredibly entertaining, though they're essentially molded after the major egyptian pantheon, though few people could miss that subtle reference. A couple other points can be glossed over or easily retconned, but quite a few definitely are different from fluff provided for the tabletop game.
The in-depth lore is what makes the book 5 stars. The building of the Black Pyramid, Nagashs education in dark magic by the Dark Elves, his monstrous attacks and atrocities performed during the war give the novel a punch I was not expecting so early in the trilogy.
The only downside is some of the macroed text. They apparently did a lot of metal beating back in the day, as every descriptive of armor and equipment includes the word "hammered" at least twice. While I appreciate detail and visual cues as much as the next reader, a thesaurus would've helped.
However, my annoyances at lack of descriptive terms pale beside the entertainment and depth of the book. While you might shake your head at the stupidity of some of the other characters for their actions towards Nagash, you'll find yourself rooting them on. Definitely looking forward to his dealings with the Skaven in book 2.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Suprisingly slow, December 15, 2008
For a novel so full of action I felt like it dragged on a little unneccesairly. The first scenes I was in awe at the desctiption of the fighting and the blessed men standing against Nagash. However, about half of the way in I found it a bit of a chore to pick up and read as the sotry seemed to just repeat itself over and over again. It was basically the same scene repeated "Nagash commands evil minions to battle good group with special God power A or B or against group C with technology". It holds no real suprising twistsIt may be that I am aware of what is going to happen that made it so tedious, but i havent had this problem with the Horus Heresy series so I'm not to sure what the problem is.
In a nutshell it is probably worth the read if you have a Tomb King army and it may set up to be a stellar next installment. But as a standalone novel as it is ATM I wouldnt recommend it TK's or Vampire Counts arent all that interesting to you.
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