Title Day of the Daemon (Book I Daemon Gates)
Author Aaron Rosenborg
Pages 256
Year 2006
Reading Time 4 days (May 2010)
Rating 9 out of 10
I had this book for some time and as I made my monthly-unexpected distribution of my books from one place to another I start reading this book. It was small with barely 250 pages and it was a light read. There are three novels in this series. The second being Night of Daemon and the last one Hour of the Daemon. So far so good. The whole story develops as fast as they gallop across the empire (even if they say it took a couple of months). But even in that fast novel we get some character development. Just what I needed…. Being stuck on several books like Dune, Unlondon and 7 other books I wanted something different so I started reading this one. Well what a Joy it was. I am currently reading the second book called Night of the Daemon and so far so good.
The author was not unknown to me. I have Queen of Blades (starcraft) by him and other warcraft novels. Unfortunately as I have many books it's always hard to choose from them or to read them all. I am trying to diminish my reading pile but it's hard.
I enjoyed the book and this author it’s one who knows what is doing. He sure understands the warhammer world. It’s a shame that he only wrote this trilogy. The first book he gives you an image of Ind. I think it’s one of the few books who talks about that place. This second book goes to the Border Princes. Few books go there. And the third book goes to the Grey Mountains and the magical forest of the wood elves. Few books go beyond the Empire in the Warhammer Fantasy repertoire…
Now the plot… Four daemon-statues were made by an artist who was unaware the nature of them. One was discovered at Middenheim and the other three were sent to distant parts of the empire.
The story starts in Ind for the first chapter and it sure look like I was reading about Indiana Jones. Then the plot goes to Middenheim (White Wolf City) shortly after the Storm of Chao but most of the book is their search throughout the empire.
Our heroes are Dietz and Alaric von Jungfreud (a minor noble). If the latter is an archaeologist/tomb-raider the first is the one getting through all dangers.
After raiding the temple in Ind they escape to a rope-bridge (Indiana Jones and the temple of Doom anyone?) and they go home to Middleheim to sell a mask they had found and to learn from their exploits. As they try to sell to an honest artisan they discover one statue and confront the owner who tells them that he made four of them. Three have been already moved and this one is almost finish. As they tell him that those statues are chaos beings they tell the authorities that make them go after the other statues and destroy them.
Here is where the author gets its point. The plot is good but the development of the main characters is quite good. I enjoyed Kleiber, the witch hunter, but the rest of the characters are flat and un-interesting. But that’s okay because seeing a witch hunter like Kleiber is pretty unusual. This witch-hunter has some qualities and can even admit that he was wrong. He is not a fanatic as some of other authors portrayed them. There are other characters travelling with them in their quest (almost all with hidden agendas). There is an explorer, a merchant, a cartographer a scout and a small company of Middenheim troops. In their way they encounter several dangers such as beastmen, strigany (this one turn out to be good guys), orcs and humans. After destroying the three statues they return home and the last few chapters focus on the unfolding of a hidden agenda by Chaos-worshippers in Middenheim and provide the reasoning for events in the following instalment 'Night of the Daemon'.
This novel was good not only for those things I mentioned before but also because of the information give. Not only we get a brief glimpse into the relationship (or lack of it) between the Temples of Sigmar and Ulric but also we get to know some history behind the Strigany and the Empire. I really hope it continues this way...
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