Tag Archives: Gotrek (and Felix)

Where to Start With Black Library: Age of Sigmar Grand Alliance Order

Hello and welcome to this instalment of my Where to Start With Black Library article series, where I’m offering suggestions for good entry points into BL’s various ranges, and attempting to demystify Warhammer fiction a little bit. Historically, Black Library hasn’t provided much in the way of guidance regarding its massive range of stories, so I was pleased to see a recent (at the time I’m writing this) Warhammer Community article offering suggestions for where to start with Age of Sigmar books exploring the Grand Alliance Order – the ‘good guys’ (ish) of the Mortal Realms. While I applaud the intentions of this article, I didn’t think it was very thorough, and I didn’t necessarily agree with all of its suggestions, so I’ve put together an article myself on the same topic.

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RAPID FIRE: Darius Hinks Talks Gitslayer

Welcome to this instalment of my Rapid Fire series of author interviews, where today I’m chatting to the excellent chap that is Darius Hinks about his new Black Library novel Gitslayer. Darius already has form writing about the irascible Slayer Gotrek Gurnisson in the Age of Sigmar, and this is his second Gotrek novel after 2019’s entertaining Ghoulslayer. It also bears what is surely one of the finest titles in all of the Black Library range! Gitslayer goes up for pre-order in hardback (via the Games Workshop website), ebook and MP3 audiobook (via the Black Library website and, presumably by then, Amazon) on Saturday 15th May, so if you’re keen to get your hands on Gotrek’s next adventure read on to find out more about it!

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QUICK REVIEW: The Tilean’s Talisman – David Guymer

Long before tackling the Doom of Gotrek Gurnisson in Kinslayer and Slayer, David Guymer’s first contribution to the saga of Gotrek and Felix was the short story The Tilean’s Talisman. First published in Hammer & Bolter Issue 14, and then in Gotrek & Felix: The Anthology, it sees devious skaven Siskritt attempting to steal a magical item of great power – the titular talisman – from a Tilean merchant, while the tavern around him burns. It’s a plan of typical skaven brilliance, using a bigger assault on the human city as cover for Siskritt’s own agenda, but the one thing he didn’t plan for was the presence of a certain belligerent dwarf Slayer and his human companion.

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QUICK REVIEW: The Perfect Assassin – Gary Kloster

Gary Kloster joins the illustrious ranks of Black Library authors who have written about Gotrek Gurnisson in Age of Sigmar with The Perfect Assassin, a tale that focuses not on the surly Slayer but on his companion, the aelf Maleneth. The unlikely pair find themselves in the city of Losten in grim Ulgu, but while Gotrek happily drinks a tavern dry of beer, Maleneth relieves her boredom in bloodier fashion. When she’s tasked by one of the city’s nobles with finding and killing a mysterious assassin stalking the streets, at first she’s barely interested, until a sighting of the assassin’s unusual powers piques her curiosity.

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Nounslayer: Gotrek Through the Ages (Part Two) with William King, Nathan Long, David Guymer and Darius Hinks

Welcome back to part two of Nounslayer: Gotrek Through the Ages, in which I’m talking to the four Black Library authors most associated with the enduring character of Gotrek Gurnisson. The first part of this article (check it out here if you haven’t already read it) covered an introduction to Gotrek, an exploration of why he’s proved such an enduringly popular character, and a history of the Nounslayer series from William King’s earliest stories through to Nathan Long’s five novels. That took us up to 2010’s Zombieslayer, Long’s final instalment in the series.

In this second part we’re going to move the timeline on to look at David Guymer taking up the reins, followed by Darius Hinks joining the writing team, before taking a quick look at the future of the character and what we might be able to expect to see next. I’ve also asked the authors to talk a little about the challenges involved in writing such a well-loved character created by another writer entirely. Without further ado, let’s get straight onto the next step in the history of Warhammer’s favourite grumpy dwarf (don’t call him a Duardin)…

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Nounslayer: Gotrek Through the Ages (Part One) with William King, Nathan Long, David Guymer and Darius Hinks

First introduced over 30 years ago, Gotrek Gurnisson – depending on how you look at it either the best or worst dwarf Slayer of all time – has gone on to be one of the most successful and enduring Warhammer characters of all time, featuring in eighteen novels, four audio dramas, one novella and loads of short stories…so far. Three decades after his first appearance, 2019 was a bumper year for him, with a second massive four-hour audio drama (voiced by Brian Blessed, no less) and the first new Gotrek novel since 2015’s Slayer in the shape of Darius Hinks’ Ghoulslayer. Oh, and a new plastic miniature, too.

I thought it was about time I took a look at the grumpy Slayer’s long history, so I enlisted the help of the four Black Library authors most associated with him – William King, Nathan Long, David Guymer and Darius Hinks. Join me as I look back through the history of this most well-loved of Warhammer characters, drawing upon the memories and thoughts of these four fantastic writers. In this first part, we’re going to talk about who Gotrek is and why he’s so popular, and start to go through a brief history of his adventures – then once you’ve read this, there’s a link at the end for the second part in which we’ll continue the history, look ahead to the future, and talk about what it was like writing this most enduring character.

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Ghoulslayer – Darius Hinks

The first novel since 2015 in Black Library’s much-loved ‘Nounslayer’ series, Darius Hinks’ Ghoulslayer picks up after the events of the Realmslayer (see the theme there?) audio dramas and sees Gotrek – minus Felix – roaming the Mortal Realms in a typically bad mood. This time he’s in Shyish, accompanied by the aelf Maleneth and troubled Stormcast Trachos, with his sights set on a confrontation with Nagash himself. A chance encounter with a mysterious magician leads them to the hidden underworld of Morbium in the Amethyst Princedoms, where they battle vast numbers of the titular ghouls as an army of mordants threatens to sweep all before it.

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QUICK REVIEW: The Neverspike – Darius Hinks

A prequel to his Age of Sigmar novel Ghoulslayer, Darius Hinks’ short story The Neverspike sees the Celestial Vindicator Trachos stumble upon Gotrek Gurnisson in the mountains of Aqshy. Troubled by temperamental memories and an unnatural voice in his head, accusing him of weakness and cowardice, Trachos sees in the doom-seeking Slayer an opportunity to return to Azyr in glory. Accompanying Gotrek and Maleneth on their search for the Neverspike – a dangerous fragment of Shyish – he plots how to part the Slayer from the Master Rune embedded in his chest, without quite realising who he’s dealing with.

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RAPID FIRE: David Guymer Talks Realmslayer: Blood of the Old World

Welcome to this instalment of Rapid Fire, my ongoing series of quick interviews with authors talking about their new releases. These are short and sweet interviews, with the idea being that each author will answer (more or less) the same questions – by the end of each interview I hope you will have a good idea of what the new book (or audio drama) is about, what inspired it and why you might want to read or listen to it.

In this instalment I spoke to David Guymer about his latest Age of Sigmar audio drama box set, Realmslayer: Blood of the Old World, the sequel to 2018’s brilliant Realmslayer. Read on to find out more about Gotrek Gurnisson’s next epic audio adventure, which you can order in CD or MP3 formats right now.

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RAPID FIRE: Darius Hinks Talks Ghoulslayer

Welcome to this instalment of Rapid Fire, my ongoing series of quick interviews with authors talking about their new releases. These are short and sweet interviews, with the idea being that each author will answer (more or less) the same questions – by the end of each interview I hope you will have a good idea of what the new book (or audio drama) is about, what inspired it and why you might want to read or listen to it.

In this instalment I spoke to Darius Hinks about his latest Black Library book, the Age of Sigmar novel Ghoulslayer featuring everyone’s favourite grumpy Slayer – Gotrek Gurnisson. It’s available to pre-order in ebook, audiobook and hardback right now, so check out the interview and get ordering!

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