In typical Black Library fashion, the End Times series of novels now gets a range of supplementary short stories, filling in some of the gaps left by the books. Set immediately prior to the events of The Curse of Khaine, SP Cawkwell’s short story The Siege of Naggarond details the Chaos assault on the druchii city, led by Valkia the Bloody. After the destruction of one of the northern watchtowers, a single elf survives to carry a warning back to Naggarond, where Kouran Darkhand waits to lead the defence of the city in Malekith’s absence.
Unfortunately there’s little sense of this really adding anything to the wider story arc, or developing the characters involved in the story. With the narrative split across three viewpoint characters, none of them have the chance to really shine and so all three come across rather flat and one dimensional, which is a shame given Cawkwell’s previous work with Valkia. There’s little room either for expanding upon exactly why Malekith and Morathi are missing, or what the wider implications of this siege might be. The writing is fine but unexceptional, but alongside an alarming number of silly little proofreading errors the whole thing feels a little rushed and ill-considered, sadly. Worth reading for End Times completists only.
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