Beastslayer

Rating:
Summary: CHAOS MINIONS TRY AND TAKE OVER THE WORLD!
Review: A chaos horde of beastmen marches out of the wastes, laying siege to the walled fortress-city of Praag. These beastmen are stronger, faster and uglier than humans. Worse still, they are led by an undefeated leader and incomparable sorcerers. The heigth of the walls of Praag will not be enough. The ancient spell-wards on the walls will not be enough. The dukes army will not be enough. Fortunately, the city of Praag has other resources to call upon. Short in stature and short on tact, searching for a worthy personal doom, the dwarven slayer, Gotrek Gurnisson now mans (or dwarves?) the walls of Praag along with his human sidekick, Felix Jaegar.

This is King's fifth book in the Warhammer Slayer series featuring Felix Jaegar, Gortrek Gurnisson and Max the Sorcerer. If you crave good against evil, hack and slash, especially the desperate last stand pulp-type novels, then Beastslayer might be for you. The fight scenerios carry the book and their are occasional cute bits of dialogue (I just loved Snori, a fellow dwarven slayer). However, do not expect to discover subtly in characterization (such as the blazing romance in Simon's "Hawk and Fischer"). Do not expect to find charming anti-heroes (such as Leiber's "Fafhred and the Gray Mouser"). Do not expect to find the occasional flashes of epic brillance and characterization build-up that you will find in many of David Gemmel's works (especially "Legend"). Characterization and plotting do not run deep in "Beastslayer". However, if you could take those former novels and pulp them down, you might get a Gotrek and Felix--a "Beastslayer" type book. As for myself, I will not order ALL of the slayer books, but I will now go back and order the first of the series and see how it goes.

Rating:
Summary: Hack 'n Slash
Review: A chaos horde of beastmen marches out of the wastes, laying siege to the walled fortress-city of Praag. These beastmen are stronger, faster and uglier than humans. Worse still, they are led by an undefeated leader and incomparable sorcerers. The heigth of the walls of Praag will not be enough. The ancient spell-wards on the walls will not be enough. The dukes army will not be enough. Fortunately, the city of Praag has other resources to call upon. Short in stature and short on tact, searching for a worthy personal doom, the dwarven slayer, Gotrek Gurnisson now mans (or dwarves?) the walls of Praag along with his human sidekick, Felix Jaegar.

This is King's fifth book in the Warhammer Slayer series featuring Felix Jaegar, Gortrek Gurnisson and Max the Sorcerer. If you crave good against evil, hack and slash, especially the desperate last stand pulp-type novels, then Beastslayer might be for you. The fight scenerios carry the book and their are occasional cute bits of dialogue (I just loved Snori, a fellow dwarven slayer). However, do not expect to discover subtly in characterization (such as the blazing romance in Simon's "Hawk and Fischer"). Do not expect to find charming anti-heroes (such as Leiber's "Fafhred and the Gray Mouser"). Do not expect to find the occasional flashes of epic brillance and characterization build-up that you will find in many of David Gemmel's works (especially "Legend"). Characterization and plotting do not run deep in "Beastslayer". However, if you could take those former novels and pulp them down, you might get a Gotrek and Felix--a "Beastslayer" type book. As for myself, I will not order ALL of the slayer books, but I will now go back and order the first of the series and see how it goes.

Rating:
Summary: King finds new ways to up the ante!
Review: After reading Daemonslayer and Dragonslayer, one is forced to wonder how can King find even more dangerous situations to put his characters in? Beastalayer answers that question.

With this book, King has fallen into a groove in making this a true novel series. The story is set in the ancient human city of Praag, that is under siege from the enormous army of Chaos King forshadowed in the last two books. Imagine the Battle of Helms Deep and you get a good idea. Only instead of being a small part of the story, the whole book is set during the siege. King's action oriented writing style is right at home here, and main protagonists Felix Jaeger and Gotrek Gurnisson are in their usual entertaining form.

There are only a few things that bother me with this book. 1) In Beastslayer, King seems to becoming a more narrative writer telling the stories with less and less dialogue. It loses some of its effect. 2) Felix is becoming more and more like Gotrek. Certainly this is understandable given the circumstances, but the dynamic between the two was interesting. 3) The book is over before it ends. By this I mean, King effectively communicates to you the villain is defeated before he's ever defeated. This takes away from any chance of a climactic ending. All the build up that Kings creates over three books suddenly loses steam. The theat disappates before it's even defeated. The ending itself isn't bad, just how it's presented. There's just NO drama. King should've taken cues from The Two Towers or his own great story Wolf Riders.

Oh well. What we are left with is still great fantasy pulp fiction. For some reason, I cannot get enough of Felix and Gotrek. I just hope King continues to improve.

Rating:
Summary: CHAOS MINIONS TRY AND TAKE OVER THE WORLD!
Review: I really enjoyed the book The Beast Slayer. It had everthing that I loved, war, magic, and love. There are two main characters of this book Felix Jaeger and the slayer, which is a really strong dwarf. Felix and the slayer first meet each other after they fought the dragon Skjilander. One of my favorite scenes in this book is when the Chaos army attacks the kislev army. The chaos army wishes to make the hole world belive in these creatures half undead and half demon called daemons. This is deffinatlt one of the greatest tasks for young Felix and the strong slayer. They Chaos army is very strong and use dark magic to slay there foes, the slayer and Felix have to use hand to hand combat and magic to totally wipe out the Choas army. All around this book is packed with action and adventure.

Rating:
Summary: Awesome, indeed!
Review: I'm quite a fan for Gotrek & Felix. Still, this book was so fascinating that it beats previous 4 (Troll-, Skaven-, Daemon- and Dragonslayer) easily. I hope that no one's enjoyment in reading this book is not spoiled by following text. If you fear so, please do not proceed.

The best thing in this wonderful story is... The dark side and the way it is told to reader. Especially twin mages must be mentioned. Their fate is hard to guess beforewards. Not all the bad guys have to die everytime. I hope that some day in future I can read about this chaotic pair again. Often the evil ones in books/movies get my sympathies, but this duo succeeded so well that I held my fingers up for them all the time. Their leader was less interesting character. That kind of maniac has been seen so many times before. Kellmain and Lhoigor... They are the salt and the pepper.

Gore and battles are scarce in this book. Tension is built by investigating Praag and it's possible traitors. The main duo solves hard situations as before and sun almost shines at the end. Without meticulous descriptions about Arek's forces this fantastic book would be only very good.

Rating:
Summary: Awesome, indeed!
Review: I?m quite a fan for Gotrek & Felix. Still, this book was so fascinating that it beats previous 4 (Troll-, Skaven-, Daemon- and Dragonslayer) easily. I hope that no one?s enjoyment in reading this book is not spoiled by following text. If you fear so, please do not proceed.

The best thing in this wonderful story is... The dark side and the way it is told to reader. Especially twin mages must be mentioned. Their fate is hard to guess beforewards. Not all the bad guys have to die everytime. I hope that some day in future I can read about this chaotic pair again. Often the evil ones in books/movies get my sympathies, but this duo succeeded so well that I held my fingers up for them all the time. Their leader was less interesting character. That kind of maniac has been seen so many times before. Kellmain and Lhoigor... They are the salt and the pepper.

Gore and battles are scarce in this book. Tension is built by investigating Praag and it?s possible traitors. The main duo solves hard situations as before and sun almost shines at the end. Without meticulous descriptions about Arek?s forces this fantastic book would be only very good.

Rating:
Summary: Hack and Slash.
Review: Latest of Felix&Gotrek novels and the best of the whole bunch. If you are looking for an afternoon of chaos mayhem and plain action, this is the book for you. The book like all the rest in the series is easy to read, fast paced and hard to put down. The characters are like those in a comic book (one dimensional). The good are just so good and the bad are just rotten evil. King does a great job in making you feel you are in a vast city laid to a siege by an invincible army. His descriptions are so vivid you can easily imagine the scenery, see the tremendous siege engine rolling forward and the howling horde trying to breach the walls . As a whole reading this book is like going to a good action packed film without any complications / drama / or regrets.

Rating:
Summary: All of Chaos vs. People of Praag
Review: The Book "Beastslayer" by William King, talks about two great friends (Gotrek and Felix) who help cities beat the chaos army. During the book, Felix has a girlfriend, Ulrika. Ulrika used to be in love with Max Schreiber, the town's young wizard. The book has many different points of veiw from many different people, including Bjorni, Ulli, Snorri, and Gotrek, three dwarves who are given the name the "slayers" of the world. Also, the othe people are Max, Ulrika, Felix, and Ivan Petrovitch Straghov, who is Ulrika's father and a great veteran. Eventually, Ivan gets to Praag and helps everyone fight. The reason why every body is of the chaos army is because of thier leader, Arek Deamonclaw, a feirce leader whos armor is all made of powerful metal that is near impossile to peirce with any ordinary sword. The chaos army outnumbered the people of Praag about 1/150. In the end, something really good happens, and something really bad happens.

Rating:
Summary: Beastslayer is a beast
Review: The Book "Beastslayer" by William King, talks about two great friends (Gotrek and Felix) who help various cities beat the chaos army. During the book, Felix has a girlfriend, Ulrika. Ulrika used to be in love with Max Schreiber, the town's young wizard. The book has many different points of veiw from many different people, including Bjorni, Ulli, Snorri, and Gotrek, three dwarves who are given the name the "slayers". Also, the other people are Max, Ulrika, Felix, and Ivan Petrovitch Straghov, who is Ulrika's father and a great veteran. Eventually, Ivan gets to Praag and helps everyone fight. The reason why every body is afraid of the chaos army is because of thier leader, Arek Deamonclaw, a fierce leader whos armor is all made of powerful metal that is near impossile to pierce with any ordinary sword. The chaos army outnumbered the people of Praag about 1/150. In the end, something really good happens, and something really bad happens.

Rating:
Summary: Can't get enough of Helm's Deep in LOTR? Get this book!
Review: This is the fifth book in William King's ongoing epic series (after Trollslayer, Skavenslayer, Daemonslayer and Dragonslayer) about the Dwarf Gotrek who has vowed to find his death in glorious battle in order to pay for past misdeeds, and his human companion Felix who has sworn to accompany him on his quest and record his bravery.

This installment finds our heroes trapped in the walled city of Praag which is beseiged by a huge horde of beastmen, Chaos warriors, barbarians, demons and more. If you liked the battle of Helm's Deep or Pelennor Fields in LOTR, you are in for a treat! King does a great job of building up the tension and letting us feel what it's like to live in a city under seige.

Several familiar characters from previous books are back, but my most favourite characters in this book were the newly introduced evil twin mages. They are truly worthy adversaries and I hope King will bring us more of them in future installments.

On the minus side, a sub-plot involving traitors within the city never really seems to live up to its potential. More surprises and less predictability in this regard would be nice in future. And while I thoroughly enjoyed the entire book, the last chapter seemed quite rushed and the ending rather anticlimactic and jarringly abrupt. I wished the book could have gone on for another 100 pages!

But the sudden ending is probably because the story will pick right up again in the next book "Vampireslayer", just as King did between Daemonslayer and Dragonslayer. Can't wait to read this next one too!

Overall I'd rate this book as my second favourite of the series so far after Daemonslayer.