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| Gorgeous dragon artwork by Cheoljoo Lee |
After Emperor Magnus' victory at the end of the Great war against Chaos, he requested of the Elven Lord, High Mage Teclis to help him form in the Empire's capital of Altdorf, for each of the 8 winds of magic a corresponding school.
A little over a hundred years later a young man arrives to demand entry into the Light College.
His name is Egrimm van Horstman and his rise through the ranks will be meteoric.
But Van Horstmann has dark secrets, and his gaze is fixed on terrible goals. And if he attains them the purity of the Light college will be stained a darker shade of magic.
There's your unrevealing cover blurb., it even fits on the back of a novel, and doesn't spoil anything. Not that hard was it?
The prologue opens with the sealing of the chaos dragon Baudros in a magical construction in the place where later the Buchbinder's district of Altdorf will be. This sealing is done by Teclis and the 8 founding wizards of the colleges of magic. Try as I might, the only hints to place this in Altdorf's history and the Warhammer history in general were that this takes place after the great war against Chaos. and according to the Empire codex (7th edition), this takes place in 2304.
Now, the problem with the prologue in regards to this date is that it depicts Altdorf as... still pretty small, or at the very least that is the impression given, and not the grand opulent thing it will become. Despite that this is a city that's been around since Sigmar himself (then known as Reikdorf).
A chapter later, when the main story begins Altdorf is grand and impressive, burst out of its initial shell, sprawling across both sides of the river. An entire new district of wanted-to-be-opulent-but-kinda-failed squatting over the place where the events of the prologue took place. This has as a side-effect, this kind of vague-speak, where no dates are being mentioned, where it's implying right off the bat that quite a lengthy amount of time has passed between the prologue and the events of the main story. Enough for rising and falling of generations of family fortunes. Without any actual dates one has that unmistakable impression. But... as the colleges were founded by Teclis somewhere in 2304 at the request of Emperor Magnus, and Van Horstmann's arrival in Altdorf takes place in 2437 (which I deduced myself quite easily, my dear Vido; the key is of course is the novel's use of the Great Altdorf Fire in 2431), that's not in fact the case, and it's a little confusing and something that I, obviously, got stuck on.
But in the end, I admit, it does all fit... and now that I've got that out of my system, let's get on with the rest.
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I very much enjoyed the novel.
It focuses on the Empire's colleges of magic by way of a Chaos hero character. One who arguably did the most damage to the Light college since its very founding; the sorcerer Egrimm van Horstmann.
Van Horstmann is a fascinating character, even though we are mostly deprived of his inner workings. We get partial glimpses of his schemes, and of the interesting way his magic works, and prett damning reveals of the deals he makes, but though we know what drives him pretty early on, the exact origins of why aren't shown until the very end. Counter keeps his cards close to the chest.
And this can be a bit of a problem. In a way; holding off this reveal lends him strength and will, and by keeping him so enigmatic Counter manages to make of him a force rather than a character, grieved by an unimaginable trauma, enough to make him staggeringly patient and deliberate, as if mountains were to tolerate climbers, because their mouths are at the top and it'd be more satisfying to grind them with teeth of ice than to crush them with hands of stone.
But, there's also a problem with this, because even though it's clear that Van Horstmann is working towards a goal, acting towards a terrible vengeance, the glimpses we've been given are not enough to make coherent sense on their own, and they seem improbable and unlikely to give rise to such a monomaniacal quest, never once hinted at outside of his own mind. In a way that's interesting, but this means that there isn't an overarching story that isn't just 'Van Horstmann working towards something to do with the Light college', and from the start we are waiting for that reveal.
It as if you start watching a movie, already knowing there's going to be a twist.
The novel's cover blurb works directly on this as well, by stating black on white how the novel ends... Yes. Really.
It's a strategy akin to the recent movie-trailer trend where if you piece together what the trailer is showing, you're likely to figure out what'll happen. The argumentation there is that the average moviegoer doesn't want to be surprised and instead wants to be coddled; hence, give the viewer what is expected and they'll go home satisfied, even if that necessitates spoiling things beforehand.
Here the reasoning is that, most readers will come here from the gaming background, and will already be in the know on who this character is, what he did, and where he ended up, which the blurb indeed reveals.
For someone not in the know, this can be a little frustrating, making it seems as if you already know everything.
Hence, Counter's withholding of the object of and reason for Van Horstmann's vengeance. But I do have to say, when this is finally delivered on, when it is actually revealed:... it's... quite special.
The moment of vengeance is the lure that will draw you through the novel, and if you go with it, (and if you're a bit of an evil bastard in your fiction) you will not be disappointed by its attainment. It is very, very good. It's malign and sadistic and it's delivered in a climax that's already exploding left and right, with chaos and magic spreading through the halls, with collateral damage going through the roof (literally).
There were some sad moments amongst all that carnage. And you could see them coming, the significant deaths, of those who managed to grow on you. It was expected, but damn... Chaos characters can be evil. And yet, the deliveries, though brutal, also held some unexpected deeper emotions.
It's generally why I love them, the bad guys, because these characters are interesting of themselves. Whereas the good ones always need to stand for something, fight for something, uphold and live by a set of rules, it's always the flawed who will hold my whole attention. Because they work for themselves they become unpredictable, and their designs and goals will necessitate elaboration, and they frequently don't fit in any mold. And van Horstmann is like that.
The ending, past our main character's anticipated climax, is a little rushed. A side-effect, I guess, of the origin-story nature of the novel. I can't label it much else other than being a bit of a let-down.
You expect a good culmination, but it's just another status-quo delivery. For the gamers and those in love with the setting, this is absolutely not a bad thing. But those here for a good story might end up a little underwhelmed.
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Like many of Warhammer's novels primarily set in the empire's many sprawling cities, these stories carry easily recognizable shades of Leiber's Lankhmar. With narrow, shadow-darkened alleys infested by giant scheming rats (and lets call them Skaven, rather than Beastmen, though I did love that aspect of the story, if I'm honest. I always love seeing the denial of Chaos or the monsters in our midst.) to name the easiest of many similarities. And in Van Horstmann it goes an extra length, by focusing on an aspect of another who was influenced by him; Terry Pratchett and his Unseen University. I'm not saying that one looked at the other and crafted a different shape out of what was already there, just that there's only so much one can make out of a medieval setting using wizards, without coming out rather familiar.
The Dark shadow cast by the Unseen university then; Warhammer's colleges of magic are delved into, and their various hierarchies, methods and themes are neatly explored.
Counter also offers up a great and convincing conceit that allows for the verisimilitude in which most Warhammer authors tend to depict magic, explaining away why magic might not always work like it does in other stories, based on the wizard in question's interpretation of magic and how they use it.
The predominant colour here, obviously, just as one might expect, is white, for purity and light (after all, our main focus here is on the college of Light), and the pervading background effect for the novel then is one of exaggerated and holy austerity, despite that there's obvious wealth on display, in the golden trim to every robe, or in the magisters' private chambers.
Initially I thought this would end up boring, but thank Sigmar for the schemes of Chaos, lending a much needed variety to what otherwise would be a very bland colour scheme throughout.
A large focus is given, of course; to the schools' several rivalries, certain of which are fired up by Van Horstmann's scheming.
And it's great to see these schemes come to fruition as they inevitably end in terrible violence as wizards wage appalling war. There's a wizard duel at one point, between the Light and Gold college, that was both horrifying and exhilarating, as two monstrously powerful warlocks use items of power in brutal and imaginative ways. It's pretty memorable, as besides the inventive and colourful ways the two antagonists battle it out, this particular clash of two different schools of magic clash is set to high stakes, and when it's done there's some well-earned pathos.
For most of the novel, Counter progressively lifts more and more curtains that hide the inner workings of the Light college and it's always interesting. I myself didn't know a thing about the colleges, as the wizards I met in my experiences with Warhammer fiction have always been travellers, enigmatic and isolated power-hoarders.
For most of the novel, Counter progressively lifts more and more curtains that hide the inner workings of the Light college and it's always interesting. I myself didn't know a thing about the colleges, as the wizards I met in my experiences with Warhammer fiction have always been travellers, enigmatic and isolated power-hoarders.
At the last, there were two things I wanted to remark on.
Two segments that I loved especially:
Despite Van Horstmann's hunger for vengeance, he occasionally shows other hungers. Something to indicate he might have been uniquely suited for the life of a scholar, if events had not intervened p161:
'I think it must have been compulsion that must have made us walk into this pyramid in the first place.'
Van Horstmann indicated the books piled around him. 'Thousands of years ago,' he said, 'something happened in the far north of the Empire, near the shore of the Sea of Claws. Perhaps on the edge of the Kislevite steppe. It left its scars in folk songs and legends, but nowhere is it attested in its entirety. Something fell from the sky, perhaps, or a great magic was wrought. I do not know yet, but I can feel it building up, piece by piece in my mind. Perhaps eventually there will be enough to sponsor to find what traces of it remain in the earth. or perhaps it will never be found, and it will always be that maddeningly final step away. It would not be the first. Knowledge degrades such that without diligent custodians it will corrode until it is useless. A sad state. A tragedy. When I think of what has been lost, I feel the need to claw back what I can. Compulsion, as you say, without a doubt.'
Van Horstmann indicated the books piled around him. 'Thousands of years ago,' he said, 'something happened in the far north of the Empire, near the shore of the Sea of Claws. Perhaps on the edge of the Kislevite steppe. It left its scars in folk songs and legends, but nowhere is it attested in its entirety. Something fell from the sky, perhaps, or a great magic was wrought. I do not know yet, but I can feel it building up, piece by piece in my mind. Perhaps eventually there will be enough to sponsor to find what traces of it remain in the earth. or perhaps it will never be found, and it will always be that maddeningly final step away. It would not be the first. Knowledge degrades such that without diligent custodians it will corrode until it is useless. A sad state. A tragedy. When I think of what has been lost, I feel the need to claw back what I can. Compulsion, as you say, without a doubt.'
And then this other bit, effortlessly evoking wonder and mystery p198:
'This was built to echo the pyramid above,' said Pendorf. 'But it changes. We cannot map it. Takes this old man's intuition to know the way. What is it you seek?'
'The Scimitar of the Thirteenth Dynasty.'
Pendorf sucked at his teeth like a craftsman sizing up a fee. 'That will not be easy. Some of the artifacts are better at hiding than others. The Scimitar thinks itself a noble among commoners, and it disdains their company. As I said, stay close.'
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The write-up took a while to get to. and then longer to actually get done... Still, I did have fun.
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