"Those Books" Nagash series

[Athelassan]

I found that the Nagash books were fine, unless you were expecting them to match up in any way to the existing background, because they just didn't. Moreover, while, despite being a "Lore Guardian" (or Fluff Nazi if you prefer) I'm generally of the opinion that I don't mind changes to the background so long as they're for the better, I felt most/all of the changes in the books were for the worse. There's also a sense that nothing happens in the second book and we get the catch-up plot from that in the third: the third book feels cramped. But it was the background concerns that bothered me.

I hated the Sigmar books wholeheartedly: the first one was barely tolerable; I thought the second one was particularly awful and I found it difficult to form a clear opinion on the third because I'd hated the second so much - I didn't enjoy it though. May there never be a fourth (although the author has threatened one).

I thought the Sundering trilogy was very good, though, aside from the first half or thereabouts of Caledor which felt like a re-hash of stuff from the first two books.

Age of Legend was pretty good, and I thought Dead Winter was excellent.

[S_A_T_S]

I liked the Nagash books, best of the Age of Legend series. Maybe it's because I don't play Tomb Kings, or even know all that much about them. I'd read about the origins of vampires before, so the last in the series did confuse me a little, and it did end quite abruptly. If it had been written a bit more 'epically', I think it would have been more appreciated. The way it ended was massive in scale, but just didn't quite come across that way, almost rushed writing. Still, some of the best books BL have released so far.

On Arhkan the Black's name,

the whole black teeth thing is before he becomes an immortal. The entire point is that Nagash has to round up a bunch of complete wastrals that no-one else cares about. That is explained in the first book. Arkhan's hygiene just points out the rough and thoughtless minions Nagash uses. The book even points out that Arkhan turns out to be far more acute than Nagash expects, and ends up changing the meaning of "The Black" to one more befitting his future actions. He earns the name as the story goes on...

[Styles]

Finally finished the last Nagash book, what a chore, the ending was terrible like the rest of the book, so rushed to try and tie it all up. Glad I have finally finished it and can now read some of the better Black Library books. Worst book I have read in ages. Nagash is a joke, hes more like skeletor from He-man!

[Karak Norn Clansman]

From the sounds of it, GW really should have a background control for all its publications...

[shadowhawk2008]

Umm... they actually do :-) I've heard from a lot of authors personally over the last few months where the Design Studio and the authors have had discussions about lore.

[stormblade]

third book-Unskavenlike skaven, unapealing characters, had a nice pace though
seconed book- pointless
first book- steaming pile of predictable twists, divided storylines (and focus is on the more boring one) but best of the three I'd say

That were my opinions the first time I read them, might go through them again sometime soon though.

[Shadow_Steed]

The first book was bad.

The second book was ok/good.

The third book was a pleasure to read.


I don't understand the dislike of BL that some people here harbour. I have read alot, (I mean alot, mostly historical fiction but also fantasy), and some BL publications are on my top list, notably Shadow King and the Malus Darkblade series.