Customer Reviews

Nagash the Sorcerer (Time of Legends: Nagash Trilogy)

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

 

 

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.

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.

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.

Mike Lee is a notorious lore butcher, he writes beautiful stories, but fails to follow what warhammer has set the lore to be. with the nagash book it was no different. i loved the book and will purchase all sequals, but am disappointed that he got only the general outline of nagashes history.

*SPOILER WARNING*

the general lore is accurate, yes...but on most details he fails to stay true to the lore, the vampires (called "immortals" in the book) are not weak to sunlight until nagash curses them with this affliction for betraying him. in the end, when nagash is defeated, he is not betrayed by arkhan, arkhan gives his live to save nagash. nagash also escapes into the desert, where he almost dies and becomes a liche, he does not get transported straight to the brittle peaks and to the warpstone surplus located there. these are the three biggest lore-faults that i found with this book. once again, i loved this book, and would recommend it to any1 who likes nagash, just be warned that it is only partially accurate.

Nagash, Grand Hierophant of the Living City's mortuary cult, searches for the secret to eternal life. Without the fear of death, the gods would have no hold over mortals. Nagash's brother, Thutep, is the king. When Nagash first sees Neferem, the betrothed of Thutep, he feels jealousy as never before. Neferem represents the covenant. She is the conduit for the gods' powers. Once she becomes queen, she stands beside her husband's decisions, helping to care for their people. Nagash, craving power, plots to kill his brother, take the throne and the queen for himself, and bring about the end of the gods' hold on mortals.

Nagash becomes the Undying King. His life-giving elixir is given only to those he chooses. As long as those chosen keep taking the elixir, they are immortal. Through trickery, Neferem is made immortal. She is enslaved, bound body and soul, to Nagash. Her hatred for Nagash is as undying as his elixir makes him.

The sorcerer, craving more and more power, continues his dark experiments. The Hieratic Council in Mahrak defies the Undying King. But before the necromancer is done, all Nehekhara will lie beneath his heel, and Settra's great empire will be restored. The age of the old gods is over!

**** FOUR STARS! Mike Lee has done a terrific job of bringing the legend of Nagash to (immortal) life. As I read about the birth of vampires, there were times that I wondered if perhaps I had been ensorcelled by the author's writing talent. I admit that I found the narrations to be too long-winded at times, yet the images crafted within my imagination as I read were amazing. Highly recommended reading! ****

Reviewed by Detra Fitch of Huntress Reviews.

This book was a very well played out story that I found that I ended up loving through the whole book. I liked how it showed how Nagash took over the Living City and his advances on the rest of the cities that didn't ally themselves with him. The book had a different way of explaining things with a flashback chapter to before Nagash was in power after about two chapters of the present time with Nagash marching on all cities that opposed him. I didn't really like this when I was reading on account that before it switched to one or the other time sections I would be enthralled into the time that I was reading about but it was still very good and I would recommend this book to anyone trying to learn the back story to Warhammer or trying to get into the Black Library books or even just trying to find a good fiction novel.

This book is definitely a must read for anyone that is curious about the lore of Warhammer's Time of Legend series. In itself the book is split between the war against the Nagash and his original ascension.
Mike Lee superbly crafted the character of Nagash as the power hungry monster and narcissist he is supposed to be. And for that the book deserves a 5 star rating.

Unfortunately the ending of the book appears to have been forced due to the 'trilogy' element of the other series. I must warn of any further reading, for to give the proper context and disappointment it is a spoiler - seriously, if you wish to not know stop reading ;-)

Shortly before the ending Nagash is about to destroy the holy city with a nightmarish army that is technically forced to a stand still for years. Only on the very day of the rescue armies arriving to finally support the besieged city does a holy man reveal the weakness to its destruction.
While Nagash is merrily destroying the city the two reinforcing armies arrive and fight. As with all terrible cliche movies, Nagash's erstwhile, human and still living, allies had finally enough and decide to turn against him.
To make matters even strange for me was when the only way to stop Nagash: GUNS were used against them. Suddenly a far off, Asian, culture had traded gunpowder and guns to his allies. Who turned against him and literally shoot him in the face.

The book literally ends with Nagash effectively having a hole in the head. That is why the book seemed forced: Not only was Nagash unstoppable with his undead army from an ancient Egyptian themed battle, and did need guns to stop him, it also had rather idiotic alliances. Why would anyone ally with Nagash, aside from fear and forced plot, when one had seen him raise the dead? Wasn't it obvious from the very beginning that 'if' he had won, his allies would have been next to die?

So i love Nagash. I was a big fan before the books came out of the character, so perhaps im a bit biased, but i thought the books lived up to the hype.

Its hard not a talk about nagash without ruining the story, but lets just say that this is a true villian that will rattle the heavens and slay the gods almost through force of will alone. There is not a larger character in the entirety of classic Warhammer imo, good or bad.

I was enthralled by this epic tale of Ancient Nehekhara, which pits the lengendary necromancer Nagash against the rest of Nehekharan civilization at its peak. The setting, based on Ancient Egypt, is brought to life in all its splendour by the descriptions of the fabulous Nehekharan cities, its pantheon and priesthood, and of course all the great large scale battles described at length in 'Nagash the Sorcerer'.

Perhaps the best Black Library author when it comes to describing epic fantasy battles (also evidenced during the Naggor campaign against Hag Graef in one of his Malus Darkblade novels), Mike Lee is at his very best in this first part of the Nagash series. Lee is not known to remain faithful to established lore in his novels, but in this case I thought the deviations were an improvement, and as a this is a 'Time of Legends' novel I guess his version is now the official one.

My only complaint is the complete lack of characterisation throughout the novel, which is a shame, especially as Nagash and some of the Nehekharan kings had the makings of fabulous characters. But the novel contains so much that I nevertheless maintain my rating at five stars.

The book itself is a good, relatively compelling read. The Egyptian-esque setting is good, concisely explained, and nicely balanced between action and exposition.