Trollslayer

Rating:
Summary: About time they brought these back!!!
Review: I read most of the Warhammer Fantasy books way back in the day and thought the series of books long gone. I give many thanks to Hogshead who kept pubbing the WFRP series and Black Library for reviving their superb series of Warhammer novels. I remember "The Dark beneath the World" story clearly because it was one of my favorites and the basis for the cover of the WFRP book. William King knows his characters well and scripts his action and dialogue fluidly. I haven't read the other novels yet, (I just learned they're out there!) but I'm definitley going to. For all who's interested, I suggest checking out the Jack Yeovil books too.

Rating:
Summary: Where it all started. Felix & Gotrek's collected early tales
Review: I started reading the Felix & Gotrek series with the third book "Daemonslayer" and continued on with a couple more before deciding to come and check out the previous ones I had missed.

This book is the very first in the series, and collects the short stories William King published about the pair in various Games Workshop magazines and anthologies before he began writing full-length novels about them.

Since I was used to the novels, I was a bit apprehensive that the short story format might not be as enjoyable or might not allow for as much story development. But it turns out I worried for nothing. -- As usual, FELIX & GOTREK ROCK!

I was expecting the very first story to show the actual events which brought the two heroes together, but instead King picks up the tale some time later, after they have been on the road a while.

Although these stories were originally written as individual stand-alone pieces, in fact they do follow an ongoing and logically progressing geographical trail for the pair, so in a way they are linked. Thus rather than seeming disjointed, it felt something like watching an episodic movie where the screen fades completely to black for a moment, then picks up the action some time later and a little further down the road. It all seemed like one long and very enjoyable Dark Age-ish "road movie".

-- And what a road it is! From ugly deformed mutants to wolf-riding orcs, to werewolves, to Chaos warriors and beastmen, to foul and nameless things that dwell in the dark bowels of the earth -- they meet them all in this one!

As I say, since they are on the move throughout this book, it has a different feel from some other entries in the series where they are stationary in one location throughout, such as "Skavenslayer" and "Beastslayer". And the multitude and variety of foes they face seemed to make it even more interesting than usual for me. A couple of the stories towards the end seemed a little weak and predictable, but overall I still loved the book.

Now "Stand back, Manling", and let me get on to my next Felix & Gotrek book!

Rating:
Summary: Where it all started. Felix & Gotrek's collected early tales
Review: I started reading the Felix & Gotrek series with the third book "Daemonslayer" and continued on with a couple more before deciding to come and check out the previous ones I had missed.

This book is the very first in the series, and collects the short stories William King published about the pair in various Games Workshop magazines and anthologies before he began writing full-length novels about them.

Since I was used to the novels, I was a bit apprehensive that the short story format might not be as enjoyable or might not allow for as much story development. But it turns out I worried for nothing. -- As usual, FELIX & GOTREK ROCK!

I was expecting the very first story to show the actual events which brought the two heroes together, but instead King picks up the tale some time later, after they have been on the road a while.

Although these stories were originally written as individual stand-alone pieces, in fact they do follow an ongoing and logically progressing geographical trail for the pair, so in a way they are linked. Thus rather than seeming disjointed, it felt something like watching an episodic movie where the screen fades completely to black for a moment, then picks up the action some time later and a little further down the road. It all seemed like one long and very enjoyable Dark Age-ish "road movie".

-- And what a road it is! From ugly deformed mutants to wolf-riding orcs, to werewolves, to Chaos warriors and beastmen, to foul and nameless things that dwell in the dark bowels of the earth -- they meet them all in this one!

As I say, since they are on the move throughout this book, it has a different feel from some other entries in the series where they are stationary in one location throughout, such as "Skavenslayer" and "Beastslayer". And the multitude and variety of foes they face seemed to make it even more interesting than usual for me. A couple of the stories towards the end seemed a little weak and predictable, but overall I still loved the book.

Now "Stand back, Manling", and let me get on to my next Felix & Gotrek book!

Rating:
Summary: Gotrek and Felix Rule!!!
Review: I started reading the saga of these two unlikely adventurers when this book came out, I have read them all (almost done with Vampireslayer). This is in my opinion the best of all 6. I have liked the warhammer worlds since I first read of Gotrek and Felix in the Dwarf Armies Warhammer book......About the book itself, ACTION, ACTION, ACTION, and I damn good story too, this one with it's short stories connected theme is great. William King is a top notch author in my opinion, anything he writes is worth taking a look at I say.
GOTREK AND FELIX RULE!!!!!!!!!!!!

Rating:
Summary: Skull Cracking Good Fun !
Review: If you like maniacal, blood thirsty, self-centered and intelligent dwarfs (who doesn't?) you will really get a kick out of this book! Gotrek leads poor Felix into all kinds of nasty encounters, bestowing upon the reader a high level of gore, guts and frenetic axe weilding. Granted at times Felix is annoyingly whinny, but hey, you would be too if you made the sort of deal Felix did!

Overall the book is great for someone interested in lots of action with very little fluff.

Rating:
Summary: Modern day pulp
Review: Let me preface this review by saying that I have never played Warhammer and knew nothing about it before reading Mr. Kings' books.
I actually picked up TrollSlayer because I liked the cover and was looking for something cheesy and fun to read on a trip.
What I found was a book of terrific modern day pulp stories. Big, violent battles between unstoppable heroes and slimy villains. The adventures of Felix and Gotrek remind me a lot of the spirit of Robert E. Howard's Conan stories. Not that these are a knockoff.
William King has a great, over-the-top style that works well with the stories he has to tell. You can tell that he's having a lot of fun with these characters.
Gotrek can be a bit much to take, so the stories wisely focus on Felix. It's great to see a hero that actually fears for his well being and even somewhat fears his companion. It helps you to identify a bit more with these people.
I also liked the use of Germanic names for people and places. It gave the stories a flavor different from other fantasies.
One thing I will warn you on: These stories were originally written over the course of a couple of years and when you read them all together you'll notice that Mr. King has a few stock phrases he uses again and again. I'd swear that in every story Gotrek 'rans his thumb along the edge of his great ax until it drew blood'. His thumbs must be a mess! And in every third story there's a castle 'clutching a mountain like a stone spider'.
Don't let that scare you away from this book. These stories are of high quality. The other Slayer books were written as novels and don't have the problem this first book has.
I have also read and recommend William King's Space Wolf books and Farseer.

Rating:
Summary: Modern day pulp
Review: Let me preface this review by saying that I have never played Warhammer and knew nothing about it before reading Mr. Kings' books.
I actually picked up TrollSlayer because I liked the cover and was looking for something cheesy and fun to read on a trip.
What I found was a book of terrific modern day pulp stories. Big, violent battles between unstoppable heroes and slimy villains. The adventures of Felix and Gotrek remind me a lot of the spirit of Robert E. Howard's Conan stories. Not that these are a knockoff.
William King has a great, over-the-top style that works well with the stories he has to tell. You can tell that he's having a lot of fun with these characters.
Gotrek can be a bit much to take, so the stories wisely focus on Felix. It's great to see a hero that actually fears for his well being and even somewhat fears his companion. It helps you to identify a bit more with these people.
I also liked the use of Germanic names for people and places. It gave the stories a flavor different from other fantasies.
One thing I will warn you on: These stories were originally written over the course of a couple of years and when you read them all together you'll notice that Mr. King has a few stock phrases he uses again and again. I'd swear that in every story Gotrek 'rans his thumb along the edge of his great ax until it drew blood'. His thumbs must be a mess! And in every third story there's a castle 'clutching a mountain like a stone spider'.
Don't let that scare you away from this book. These stories are of high quality. The other Slayer books were written as novels and don't have the problem this first book has.
I have also read and recommend William King's Space Wolf books and Farseer.

Rating:
Summary: The sum of its parts
Review: More of a themed anthology than a novel, "Trollslayer" has the verve and energy of the old pulp barbarian stories blended fairly successfully with the depth and intelligence of post-Tolkien or Moorcock fiction. William King has done a fine job of presenting the Warhammer setting without sounding too much like an encyclopaedia. Stories based upon games are frequently awful (TSR, anybody?) and it was a distinguishing feature of Games Workshop's publishing efforts that they often rose above their origins. Even the obligatory fantasy cliches seem fresh when penned by Mr. King. Good to see these books being reprinted at last.

Rating:
Summary: SHORT STORY MADNESS - DWARFS I MEAN!
Review: Now I have read a ton of the best of fantasy books and series by top authors, and to me TROLLSLAYER was well written and action-packed, but due to its short story type book, it was not an epic. But for a book to be linked with a huge sci-fi WARHAMMER link, it was very well in the other direction in the fantasy genre and a fun read. This author William King is a gifted writer and I already purchased the other two novels of Gotrek and Felix, as well as the new SPACE WOLF, which really sounds like a good one! Anyway, if you like your fantasy short and violent, kind of reminded me somewhat of Robert E. Howards shor Conan stories - dark and violent with colorful heroes and monsters and sorceror's. My only real complaint about the book was the last storyline at the end seemed very rushed and did not clinch like it should. Perhaps because there are two more books, I dont know. And also the real main character of the story to my surprise was the human Felix. I thought Gotrek was and very little was told about his character and background. But again, perhaps its in the other two books eh? Its a good read though, so enjoy.

Rating:
Summary: meh, I wasn't that impressed.
Review: The adventure of Gotrek and Felix starts here, where their rippin' through the bodies of choas and orcs alike and the author doesn't take long to throw you in with the action. Gotrek, an trollslayer (which is a badass dwarf warrior) who is looking for a glorious death in battle and Felix, a human poet you promises gotrek, (while he was drunk) to record his story or his, "death saga."

I have been a fan of warhammer and 40k for a while and read several other black library books, in which I extremely enjoyed them. So after reading those books I wanted more of the warhammer world and I heard a lot of good things about the gotrek and Felix novels, so I decided to pick trollslayer up. I don't know if it was the hype and my high expectations of trollslayer, but I didn't think it was all that great. first off I don't really like short-stories, and this book written in a short story format, so I didn't like that. Most of the stories were pretty boring and didn't have a lot of excitement or thrilling adventure. I thought the first couple of stories were a hell of a lot better than the ones he ended with.

Trollslayer was an o.k. book, I would recommend other books in the black library range, but a lot of other people would think otherwise. so you could take my word or take somebody else's, when it really comes down to it, do you care what I think? Really?