A Warhammer novel.  The city of Erengrad stands in the path of a terrible Chaos invasion and Stephan Kumasky and his friends must escort a young woman to the city, to unite it's people.  I liked that, rather than in some distant mountain range or on the edge of the Chaos Wastes, the majority of this book takes place within the Empire itself.  This allows McIntosh to establish the growing degradation of the realms of humankind as the power of Chaos increases.  What I liked even more, however, is that the author deliberately leaves his main characters ambiguous, even Stephan himself, so that you are never entirely sure which side there on.  This is particularly poignant with Bruno, Stephan's best friend.  The ambiguity is reminiscent of the best Warhammer books, the Genevieve novels by Jack Yeovil, and takes this book out from among the cliched dross that Games Workshop usually spews out.  The final battle at Erengrad is, however, a major disappointment, not fulfilling half of the promise built up by the rest of the book.

4 out of 5

 

Taint Of Evil

A Warhammer novel and the sequel to 'Star Of Erengrad'.  Above, I mention how the previous book was raised out from among 'the cliched dross that Games Workshop usually spills out'.  With this book, however, McIntosh takes a running jump and plunges head-first into the depths of cliched dross.  If you've read much Warhammer at all, then this book will be all too familiar to you.  Embittered mercenaries, yaddah yaddah yaddah, hideous mutants, blah blah blah.  The wonderful ambiguity that McIntosh instilled in his characters in the previous volume is entirely gone here, as Stephan and Bruno enter a town where something strange is going on (yawn).  You'll know what's coming chapters before it does and when if finally does, you'll think 'wow, I could've been reading something good instead'.  New to Warhammer?  Then you might enjoy it.  I didn't.

1 out of 5

Then I would strongly recommend 'Riders Of The Dead' by Dan Abnett, which deals with similar issues and situations.

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