Opinions on High Elf and Bretonnian novels?

[Sir_Glonojad]

Hello,

I am considering getting (and reading) some Warhammer novels (after some *.*-slayer experiences I stayed away from such for quite a few years, You see). Obviously I am interested mostly in stories concerning armies I do collect (or paint, in the case of the High Elves).

Can anyone share their opinion on these books? I hear that the "Malekith" book is not written very well, at least as far as psychological profile of the title character is concerned (who seems to behave as a childlish teenager) but aside from that I do not know much.

Any opinions? Thanks in advance!

[Juicy21]

the bret novels are really awsome.. but i do enjoy the times of legends novels from sigmar and nagash a lot!!!

[Bingo the Fun Monkey]

Knights of Bretonnia, according to my Bretonnian friend, is awesome. I'm about to start reading it tonight, actually. Can't speak for Gilead's Blood.

[Rolo Ramone]

I really enjoyed "Knights of Bretonnia", but the best of them, in my opinion are "Knight Errant" and "Knight of the Realm". I have the impression that the rest of the serie was a little "rushed", but either way I like it.

[Sir_Glonojad]

Okay, I guess I'll get the "Knights of Bretonnia" bundle then. Thanks! So what about the Elves?

[Sheena Easton]

The High Elf "books" to date have been universally ABYSMAL with the exception of Gileads Blood which is better if you pretend its not a Warhammer book. Same for Dark Elf ones.

[GrandmasterWang]

The red duke isnt bad at all. Its all about Bretonia. Id say its worth a read.

Malekith is "ok".

[Artinam]

It must be said though that Knight of Bretonnia, is a 'trashy' adventure novel perfectly fitting in the Bretonnian archtype. Its great to read for fun but no powerful new insights are gained on Bretonnia (as everybody acts as described in the armybook). Neither does the story has any real shocking twists if your familiar with Warhammer Lore . Only Questing Knight had some great stuff on Moussillion, the decaying old but grand city.

I thought the Peasant interactions were the most interesting in it, finding out what Grail Pilgrims think and why they act in a certain way.

[quantumcollider]

I tied reading the 'Knights of Bretonnia' trilogy, but stopped during 'Kinght of the Realm'.

The books do a good job of translating the armybook into a Warhammer story. The problem is that they do it too good. The 2-dimensional representation of arrogant knights and downtrodden inbred peasants was copied almost exactly into the story, making it very hard to relate or even sympathise with the main characters. I stopped reading when I ended up cheering for the forces of Chaos (who paradoxically seemed quite human) to finish off that bunch of stuck-up high born brats. I was almost sick to my stomach with Bretonnia and its society.

Which was a very bad thing considering I quite cherish my Bretonnians...

[huitzilopochtli]

Time of Legends books - loved every one I've read. Great Alith Anar one, Shadow King, I think.

[T10]

Any opinions? Thanks in advance!

In my opinion, in the Gotrek and Felix age we saw some really crappy WFB-themed novels come out. I can only hope the current generation is better.

As for me, I read 40k, but play Warhammer.

-T10

[Private_SeeD]

I've read the first two books from the Knights of Bretonnia and they weren't that bad, the second book did feel rushed at the end but don't have the 3rd one so can't give an overall review. shame what some said about the the ToL elve novels, I've read all of them and enjoyed them. Also BL have the new elf trilogy about Caledor's remaining blood heir's, not happy about the price of these books but the novel was pretty solid

[TheDungen]

The Malekieth one is actually quite good, not as good as the shadow king one but better then the Caledor one.

[woodster17]

I've made myself an avid collector of every BL WFB novel over the years- which equates to about 200+ in my bookcase (starting on 40K now). Bretonnian books are excellent- to some extent Guardians of the Forest is a Bretonnian book too since the main character is from Quenelles. Questing Knight and Grail Knight were obviously not independent novels but written to finish the Knight Errant and Knights of the Realm series- I have no problem with that- they tied it in fine.

High Elven books are really quite mixed- Gilead is really good while Sons of Ellyrion and Defenders of Ulthuan not so much. The Sundering series I quite enjoyed. Problem with HE stories is that Gilead aside they are quite one dimensional- it's always DE's. Would be excellent if somebody picked up on Yvresse and Eltharion and Grom the Paunch's invasion if you don't have an Elven story set in some other place in the WH world.

[Fen]

The bretonnian books are fine,but KE and KotR have issues when you look at them with a fan's eyes,while QK and GK have problems because they are shorter that they should

KE and KotR often seem to go out of their way to make the bretonnian characters/setting look as bad/stupid as they could get (ok,i got it,bretonnian society is way behind imperial one,so every bretonnian character has to have his awkwardly stupid quirks...But when surrounding/trick bretonnian ARMIES becomes so easy as both book show,it goes right into the silly zone.I'd expect the best chavalry of the old world to fare a bit better than needing to be saved by one empire politician guiding paesants for example).That,and numbers and event often not adding up the right way


QK and GK suffer less from that,but a lot more from being cut short pagewise (for example,the passage from QK to GK events is basically handwaved,and the 2 huge battles in GK are basically footnotes,where there were lots of great things that could have been done with them (seriously,the dark side of Athel Loren VS the asrai?Courunne army + the Wild hunt versus Mousillion army?Just think about it....)

As i said,they are fine,but tbh at the moment if asked about one book speaking of Bretonnia to suggest,i'd say The Red Duke over KoB.Even with the main character being a vampire.It still shows some of the same "things" KE and KotR do,but i feel it does it in a more "balanced" way

[MiyamatoMusashi]

The High Elf "books" to date have been universally ABYSMAL with the exception of Gileads Blood which is better if you pretend its not a Warhammer book.

Largely agree with this. Except Gilead's Blood is also better if you haven't seen The Seven Samurai as you won't be thinking "WTF, this is just a Seven Samurai rip-off *cough* I mean homage" every page.

But then, if you haven't seen The Seven Samurai, I'd far more recommend watching that than reading Gilead's Blood.

[Sir_Glonojad]

I've just begun reading the Red Duke. It reads quite nice, but I am afraid that it may mean that Knights of Bretonnia will be a disappointment as, considering opionons above, they are worse than the vampire novel. Am I right? Or maybe I should start with Knights of Bretonnia instead?

[Hannimar]

Well Malekith wasn't Gav's best piece, however the Shadow King remains my favourite Warhammer Fantasy novel. Caledor was also great. Try them out Glonojad

[Darkminion]

In my opinion Malekith was a good novel, displaying Malkiths personality quite nice and giving some excellent insight in Elven (and Dwarven) history in the warhammer world. The only thing I really disliked was ridiculous shift at the end.

Although Shadowking is not a bad book, I really hate it how they portrait Alith Anar. I allways liked his character concept very much, but they totally ruined him for me in this novel. He is a spoilt brad with no regard for anyone (including his own people) and has no problem with abandoning them all to pursue his own self pity and shortcomings.

Caledor was the worst of the three books in my opinion. Allthough not a bad read all in all they could have done so much more with it. It sipmly does not deliver anything more then an army book does: "The dark elves beat the High elves on all fronts but then something happens and the battle is won...".
Also the character of Caledor is not memorable enough in my opinion. I just didn't "feel" for him.

D...

[m1acca1551]

Brettonian series was awesome, yes the army book translates directly to the books in regards to knightly attitudes and peasants actual worth, but is this a bad thing? Hell no!! there are to many books that portray the good gyuys as the selfless individuals as oppsed to the brettonian characters who actual are exactly what they are. The chaos warlord does suffer from a certain of humanisation imo, which can detract from the feeling is this guy really a bad guy. Still a great read, would highly recommend, the red duke again is great aslong as you are a brettonian buff :P

HE... well a mixed bag here im afraid some bad, some ok and some like shadow king are just plain awesome, shadow king i simply couldnt put down and read in 2 days simply amazing!!! caledor and malekith are both good books but are out shone by alith anar tale, made me want to start a nagarythe army using a combo of dark elves and high elf mini's...

Off topic, why the hate for the slayer series?? they were written in a time when gw was casual and fun hence the books represent that, and yes they go and smack every thing they come up against, yet the same happens with every other book especially the SM series...