3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
More Thanquol Please!!, May 7, 2011
This review is from: Temple of the Serpent (Warhammer Novels) (Mass Market Paperback)
In the first book, Grey Seer, Thanquol is forced to retrieve a large amount of Wormstone from another Skaven city by the Council of Thirteen. Of course, the plans went astray for a variety of reasons, and Thanquol was blamed for everything that went wrong.
Needless to say, in Temple of the Serpent, Grey Seer Thanquol is called before the Council to explain to the Lords of Decay how the Wormstone was lost in Under-Altdorf. This includes a brief recap of the first book - from Thanquol's twisted POV - so it's not necessary to have read the first book, but I highly recommend it!
"Under the madness of these persistent fractals, the equations of the Old Ones were unbalanced, broken by perverse arithmetic."
Temple of the Serpent actually begins with a prologue from the POV of an ancient creature called the slann, named Lord Talco, who studies the Great Math of the Old Ones, and views xa'cota (the rat fractals) as "corrupted algorithms." It was a bit difficult to follow, but it illustrated perfectly how different the lizard race is from the Skaven or humans.
Thanquol is forced to meet with Nightlord Sneek, leader of Clan Eshin, after his disturbing meeting with the Council. Sneek is planning to send Shiwan Stalkscent, an assassin, with Shen Tsinge, a sorcerer, to a long lost empire of Clan Pestilens. The plague clan was chased off by Sotek the Snake Daemon, who is worshipped by the lizard race. Sneek wants Thanquol to go with them to make sure the high priest of the lizards is killed. The lizard race has built the Temple of the Serpent, where the slann resides. As Sneek explains to Thanquol:
"Pestilens has tried many times to kill the snake prophet. If Eshin succeeds where the plague lords have failed, it will make them afraid."
In the midst of this plot, another member of the Clan Eshin named Chang Fang plots to avenge the death of his fellow assassin, Chang Squik - one of the reasons Thanquol failed to return with the Wormstone from Under-Altdorf. Basically, Thanquol is going to have deal with another mountain of problems just to stay alive. Since they have to cross a large ocean, they hijack a human ship called the Black Mary - I absolutely loved the way the Skaven pulled off that little trick.
Of course, there is always a human factor to any Warhammer story. In this case, the crew of the Cobra of Khemi find themselves steered by an unnatural storm to Lustria (also known as Green Hell), with the lizards and Skaven. The hired mercenary of the ship, Adawolf, sort of reminded me of Felix, but without the whining. While I found the crew to be interesting, I thought that Werner spent too many pages telling the humans' side of the story, instead of spending more time focusing on Thanquol's POV. After all, I bought the book because I am a Skaven fan, and I love how Thanquol constantly twists the actual events.
When all three groups converge on the City of Quetza, the battle scenes were superb. I was really impressed with Werner's detailed descriptions of the surroundings and other inhabitants of the jungle. He wasn't too wordy, but he made me feel like I was actually there, suffering with the rest of them. Although, I have to admit, I think I've lost count of how many Bonerippers Thanquol has gone through.
You don't have to be a Warhammer fan to appreciate the excellent fantasy adventure that CL Werner has written. I can't wait for the third book, Thanquol's Doom - I've already marked the release on my calendar. I just hope we see more of Thanquol next time...and it had better not be the last one!!
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4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Not as good as Grey Seer, September 15, 2010
This review is from: Temple of the Serpent (Warhammer Novels) (Mass Market Paperback)
Sad to say but the second skaven novel by CL Werner was no where near as good as the first one, Grey Seer. This doesn't mean that the book was terrible. It was still written in CL Werner's discriptive and imaginative writing style. Werner did an even better job of showing how they skaven are their own worst enemies and even though they are so cunning and evil, at times they do the stupidest things. Unfortunately, where Temple of the Serpent fails the supporting cast of antagonists just weren't as compelling this time around as in Grey Seer. Maybe it's becuase the lizardmen are so far removed from normal Warhammer stories. Maybe it was because the other characters that were in Lustria the same time as Thanquol just seemed to be morons and really boring to read about. Most likely it was probably both of these things. Read Temple of the Serpent if you are a CL Werner fan or you want to maintain continuity because you have read Grey Seer, but don't expect to be overwhelmed by it.
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1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
I really enjoyed this one...., January 19, 2011
This review is from: Temple of the Serpent (Warhammer Novels) (Mass Market Paperback)
I have to say, I really enjoyed this book. I liked the story being in Lustria and enjoyed the stories around the other groups involved. The only thing I felt this book lacked is the insight from the Skaven. I find there is a lot of amusement to be had from the thoughts of the Skaven. How they view themselves as so superior and how they find fault in everyone else. I would have enjoyed more of this from the Skaven other than Thanquil since a lot of them are involved for so much of the story. Other than that, I have no complaints about the book and am looking forward to the rest of the series.
All in all, not as good as the first book in the series (which explains the four stars), but a damn fine read.
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