‘Fangs of the Rustwood’ – Evan Dicken (Black Library)



Being a big fan of the original Warhammer ‘Old World’ setting (in fiction anyway, never got round to trying the game…), I had a bit of a tantrum when it all got replaced by ‘Age of Sigmar’  and have since generally tended to shy away from the new ‘Age of Sigmar’ books. Well, I did try one but it didn’t work for me.
One thing I do have a weakness for though is any book or story with a giant spider on the cover so when I saw ‘Fangs of the Rustwood’ I just knew that I would have to give it a go.  And give it a go I did (it’s another Black Library short story so a brief burst of reading when I should have been working but that’s another story…) It’s not just spiders that wait for you in the Rustwood, if you ever see what else lurks there then the odds are that you won’t live to tell the tale…

Kantus Vallo, witch hunter of the Order of Azyr, escorts a caravan of prisoners back to civilisation for trial. Their path takes them through the Rustwood, a great untamed wilderness, menacing and foreboding. Each prisoner is a suspect in the murder of an influential governor – sorcerer, poisoner and guard captain, each has their means and motives. Vallo's attempts to discover the truth are derailed when the inhabitants of the Rustwood attack. Enemies quickly become allies, but can Vallo truly trust three potential killers?

‘Fangs of the Rustwood’ sets itself the tall task of trying to solve a murder mystery amongst the ongoing assault of Rustwood’s lethal fauna. It’s a task that the tale succeeds in although you’ll wish that Dicken had been allowed to tell it in slightly greater depth. While the two elements of the tale mix well, there isn’t quite enough room for the tale to really breathe in terms of atmosphere and exploring the motives of our three suspects. Luckily for us, Dicken works well enough, in the space that he is given, that you’re left wanting more rather than moaning that the story is threadbare (if you know what I mean).
I’m not going to lie, I was really hoping for the witch hunter to be the killer and everyone else to be innocent but that was never really on the cards. What you get instead is a methodical movement through suspects until a mixture of circumstance and the killer cleaning up, a little more, leaves us with a mystery solved. It is a little straightforward but when you’re in the middle of a fight, that’s how it goes sometimes.

The fight itself is great because it’s not just spiders that we’re talking about here, there are little goblin creatures (Grots) riding them! This would be awesome by itself but it also adds another level of unpredictability to the proceedings as both spiders and Grots are partial to an ambush or three. It’s not good for Kantus, and his band, but it is great for the reader as we get a scrap that is great fun to watch play out.

I ended up having a lot of fun reading ‘Fangs of the Rustwood’ and it could well be the story that gets me back into reading more fantasy from the Black Library. I certainly hope that Evan Dicken is given the chance at a novels worth of story next time round, I’d definitely read it.

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