Objective Secured

Warhammer Adventures – a Preview Review

The following is written by Obsecs own 14 year old daughter – Miss D. She was given a free extract copy of the 2 Warhammer Adventures books and we asked her to give us her thoughts. Shes maybe a touch old for the target demographic but is a reader, gamer and lover of fantasy and scifi books so she seemed like the perfect candidate to give us a review. – Ed

I read the introduction to two books both aimed at kids my age and younger (10-13), which were set in the Warhammer universe. I had the smallest amount of knowledge going into these books consisting almost entirely of one three hour conversation comparing the ancient myths these  books take ideas from (Greek/Roman, Egyptian and Norse) which is a whole other conversation for another day and a small conversation about what space marines are and why the exist in this universe.  The books I read were: Attack of the Necrons by Cavan Scott and City of Lifestone by Tom Huddleston. Both books treated the reader like they knew nothing about the Warhammer universe this was much appreciated. I don’t think that these stories would have done their job as introductions to this world if I’d had to continuously ask who this character is or why the actions of characters were happening, I would not want to keep reading as it disrupts the flow of the story and makes it less enjoyable.  Thankfully that didn’t happen. So without further ado let’s get to the stories.

City of Lifestone follows, Kiri, a slave girl who appears to be 12 or 13 years old we aren’t told exactly.  She’s in the realm of fire working for the Darkoath barbarians, who force her to build a fortress to protect something, which we are later told is a realm gate. The story really kicks off when Kiri’s mother, Chetan, dies and tells Kiri her dying wish is for her to return to her true home, Lifestone. Kiri then starts a revolt and the army of Sigmar arrives and begins killing slavers. In the midst of battle a birthmark on Kiri’s arm guides her to a doorway (realm gate) that takes her to Lifestone. Confused? Don’t worry I think I can explain it.

Once in Lifestone, Kiri realises the home her mum once knew is gone, she then enters a market that is totally silent which really creeps her out. Once in the market she’s told by an old lady she’s being stalked by someone called the shadow caster (who could be called the child snatcher), after this confusing encounter she meets a thief and his two friends all of whom have the same birthmark as her. Upon realising they have the same birthmark the thief and his friends announce they are Kiri’s new friends now and that she must come with them, this announcement finally prompts her to run away from these people and get lost in the process. (I can’t say I’d do any different in her situation).  While on the run she finds some rat people, the skaven, who make me think off master splinter from teenage mutant ninja turtles. The rats’ people then try to kill her and her weird friends rescue her and the extract ends.

But, I hear you saying, what about the birthmark? Well I’m glad you asked. We are told by her new friends that with three of them together they can locate anyone with that mark, so I believe her mark guided her to safety and people like her so she can master her birthmark power. 

WHAT DID I THINK? I think the story was good. We get a sense of what Kiri’s like, meet our main characters and meet a character who I’m sure will be important later (Kellen). Overall the extract was really interesting and enjoyable; I was disappointed when it ended. The story took its time introducing the realms and universe in a way that didn’t feel like exposition.

DO I WANT TO KNOW HOW IT ENDED? Why are you asking this? Of course I want to know how it ended. I want to know for certain why her birthmark leads her there and what happened to Lifestone. Given that the cover of the extract only shows two of her three new friends I want to know what happens to the friend.

DID I HAVE ANY ISSUSES WITH IT? No, the author made the story interesting. The only confusing bit in the entire story was Kiri saying that her weapon of choice was a catapult when what she meant was a sling shot, these weapons look nothing alike and I was sat there wondering how you could effectively use a mini catapult in battle.

WOULD I RECOMMEND IT? Yes. It’s a fun, interesting story that engages the reader and doesn’t treat said reader like an idiot because the book has a huge font and not many tricky words. The universe is interesting (in case I haven’t said that enough) and I enjoyed reading it.

Now onto Attack of the Necron.

Attack of the Necron follows 12 year old girl, Zelia. The story begins with her being awoken by a robot, which is clearly distressed. She then introduces us to her crew mates, mentally, while going to find out what the issue is. The issue turns out to be a gang, which had broken into Zelia’s home (her mum’s space craft) and was looking through the hold in hopes of finding riches. She then attempts to attack the gangers with a ladle and gets thoroughly beaten, before the ganger can kill her though she is rescued by another gang member. His name is Talen and he must be important as he gets a whole chapter to himself. The gangers are then driven from the ship by tiny droids whose job is to protect the ship and its cargo. In Talen’s chapter he confronts the boy who attacked Zelia and calls him a coward in front of  the gangs leader, this then leads Talen to be nearly killed by the same ganger who nearly killed Zelia, he is saved from death by an invasion siren though, not a combination of himself and robots. After the siren blares we get to see Zelia again, rushing to find her mum at her worksite to tell her of the break in. Whilst at the worksite we see what had invaded the planet- the Necrons, Creatures which we discover are world destroyers. Zelia, her Martian friend Mekki, her mother and an ancient man named Erasmus race back to the ship in an epic display of Martians technological abilities, Zelia’s flying abilities and the space marines. My prior Knowledge painted space marines as scary, warriors whose job was to keep the peace to the best of their ability and minimise civilian death but they weren’t heroes. My ideas of space marines was that they were more Stormtrooper then Jedi, this was not what I got from these marines, these marines were heroes. This story was non-stop action and a very enjoyable read.  

WHAT DID I THINK? I thoroughly enjoyed the story. It was well written, did its job as an introduction well and I know the main characters and understand enough of their backstory to look forward to when the two protagonists meet. The author kept the story fast paced and interesting in a way significantly different to the first to they feel like different stories (which they are). Overall the end to the extract made me want to keep reading.

DO I WANT TO KNOW HOW IT ENDS? Yes. The story confused me though, the extract ends with Zelia applauding her own flying skills and thinking about the day her flying skill might not be good enough to save them which I imagine is the Segway to the rest of the story. The story is about the attack of the Necrons though and the Space Marines arriving is written as though it’s the solution to the problem. It makes more sense for it to be Zelia and Talen who must find a way to remove the Necrons from this planet because they are the main characters. I want to know what happens next to them so I can see how they relate to the invasion. I would also like to know why the Necrons invaded this planet.

DID I HAVE ANY ISSUES WITH IT? No, like Lifestone I had no real issue and when Zelia uses an unorthodox weapon the author acknowledges it.

WOULD I RECOMMEND IT? Yes. This is the more Sci-fi book of the two so it’s the novel that I’d recommend as the first Warhammer book for reader because to my knowledge Warhammer is more Sci-Fi based. Sci-Fi novels also tend to get right into the action and this can make it more enjoyable for some people. In this case I preferred the Sci-Fi novel to the fantasy novel (despite fantasy being my preferred book choice more often than not) because it was more fast paced.

Well – there you go. Target audience seems mighty keen to read these books so I can see them coming to the Obsec studio sooner rather than later! Warhammer and Games Workshops (at least local to us) still have the free extract copies being given away if you are keen to let your younger hobbyists have a read. I’m sure we can convince Miss D to give us a full review once we have the books in hand. – Ed