‘Trollslayer’ – William King (Black Library)

 

Page Count: 244 Pages (give or take a page or two, I read it in the ‘First Omnibus’ and my maths is never entirely trustworthy)

I went through a phase of collecting the ‘Gotrek and Felix’ novels, a few years ago, and then, true to form, I popped a large number of them on the shelf and never picked them up. I can tell you’re surprised ;o)

Well, Christmas is looming, and that is traditionally the time of relatively easy-going comfort reads, so I thought I’d dig out those books and add them into what currently passes for my TBR pile (lets just say that it’s in a constant state of flux…) I’ll read the first three in order, I have the ‘First Omnibus’ edition, and after that, it will go by the books that I was able to collect. Lets see how it goes :o)

On that note, lets talk a little about ‘Trollslayer’…

Gotrek and Felix: unsung heroes of the Empire or nothing more than common thieves and murderers? The truth perhaps lies somewhere in between and depends entirely upon who you ask… After fleeing the authorities in the Imperial city of Altdorf, Felix Jaeger swears a drunken oath to dour dwarf Gotrek Gurnisson to record his death saga. In the cold light of day, Felix's worst fears are confirmed as he learns that Gotrek is a Trollslayer – a dwarf doomed to seek out a heroic death in battle to atone for an unknown personal disgrace. Their travels throw them into a string of extraordinary adventures as Felix tries to survive his companion's destiny.

While later books, in the series, are full length novels, ‘Trollslayer’ is a collection of short stories chronicling Gotrek and Felix’s early adventures as they travel to the city of Nuln, a bounty on their heads and very much at the mercy of Gotrek’s desire to get that heroic doom (by fighting the hugest monsters available). The stories are as follows,

'Geheimnisnacht' (Reviewed over Here)
‘Wolf Riders’
‘The Dark Beneath The World’
‘The Mark of Slaanesh’
‘Blood and Darkness’
‘The Mutant Master’
‘Ulric’s Children’

‘Trollslayer’ is a bit of an odd book to start out on but it’s more about the format rather than the content. Sounds a bit weird, doesn’t it? I’ll try and explain myself…

I’m not sure how/where each story was originally published but putting them all together, in the one book, didn’t quite work for me as the reader. What we have is essentially a procession of stories where Gotrek gets wind of a huge monster and promptly goes out of his way to find it and ‘get that doom’. And that’s the whole point of Gotrek, really, so I shouldn’t really complain too much; the book is definitely delivering on that score ;o) What I personally wasn’t too keen on was basically reading the same plot over and over again. To be fair, there are a couple of stories where King takes a slightly different tack (‘Gotrek vs Memory Loss’ & ‘Gotrek gets lost, leaving Felix to deal with it), just not ‘different enough’ for me.

Maybe it’s on me though, I went for the ‘complete readthrough’ when perhaps I should have just dipped in and out over a few days. It’s one to think about if you’re picking this book up for a read.

It’s a bit of a shame then, that I read ‘Trollslayer’ in one fell swoop, as when you look at each story individually, they’re all a lot of fun. The plot for each is very simple (see the previous paragraph) but there is a steady development in the relationship between the two leads and when the ‘monster du jour’ arrives, it’s as awesome as you’re hoping it will be. Gotrek is completely focussed on a heroic death and King channels that into the climactic fight scenes. It’s also really interesting to follow Felix as he slowly realises how much trouble he has landed himself in, and the impact that it will have on his life. Felix is up for the journey though and you can see him starting to learn a little more about himself.

‘Trollslayer’ probably isn’t a book to read in one go, not if you’re me anyway, but there are a lot of signs that the partnership is going to be one worth following (spoiler: I’ve read a few of the later books and it is worth following) and the individual stories are very entertaining. I’ll probably get onto ‘Skavenslayer’ very soon.