Book Review: Death & Dishonour - Various

Title - Death and Dishonour (Warhammer)
Author - Several
Year - 2010
Stand Alone or Series - Stand Alone
Pages - 320
Reading Time - 6 days (October 2010)
Rating - 8/10

Summary
The world of Warhammer is filled with stories of survival and bravery, and also with tales of death and dishonour. This collection explores those themes with stories from some of Black Library's leading authors including Nathan Long, Anthony Reynolds, CL Werner and many more.



Contents
First of all let me tell you that I've not read them all. Some of the stories are linked with some series. I want to fully enjoy them so I will read these stories as I read the novels. In the correct order I might say.
Red Snow’ – Nathan Long (Feature Gotrek and Felix)
‘The Assassin’s Dilemma’ – David Earle
‘Rest Eternal’ – Anthony Reynolds (Part of the Brettonian duology)
‘The Miracle at Berlau’ – Darius Hinks (small story linked with the novel Warrior Priest)
‘Noblesse Oblige’ – Robert Earl (Florin and Lorenzo story)
‘The Last Ride of Heiner Rothstein’ – Ross O’Brien
‘Broken Blood’ – Paul Kearney
‘The Judgement of Crows’ – Chris Wraight (One character appear in Masters of Magic)
‘Wolfshead’ – C.L. Werner (Brunner short story)

Review
Black Library books are always interesting. Maybe I just enjoy so much that I rarely see a bad book but I've yet to read 25% of all imput by them so... This was an interesting short story collection.
Starting with ‘The Assassin’s Dilemma’ – David Earle which suprises me. Since it's not a regular writer I always have some doubts but David Earle weaved a nice skaven story. Fully of betrayal and double edged missions you can't go very wrong. It's not the best of the bunch but It's sure is a nice one. Skaven at their best. Maybe Earle as a future in Black Library. I would like to read something more from him. (7.5/10)

 
‘The Miracle at Berlau’ – Darius Hinks - Knowing that this tale linked with Warrior Priest I was in doubt of reading it but I'm glad I did it. A tale of redemption and a tale that tells us that the past never leaves us if we don't confront it. It was a nice tale of back and forward on the like of the Jakobb. I felt wanting to read Warrior Priest. All priests are not zealots and can have a dark heart full of guilt and sadness. These priest was handled well and the ending was good. (8.5/10)

‘The Last Ride of Heiner Rothstein’ – Ross O’Brien - An interesting tale but at the same time difficult to understand and it felt.. odd?. The returning of the Rothstein is not what it seems. If in the beggining the writer gives us some impression in the end we are taken aback of the "illusion" that have befall the riders. As I said it's odd and it felt strange. Maybe a second read now that I know the end will work better. (6/10)

‘Broken Blood’ – Paul Kearney is a good tale. It reminds me of Dan Abnett's Rider of the Dead. Two brothers are on two sides of the war. One fights as a champion of a Chaos army and the other wants to kill him. This tale is quite good and I think I felt drawn with both brothers. The battles scenes are quite good. I can see Kearney writing more books on warhammer universe. It sure fells like he is writing for a long time. (9/10)
‘The Judgement of Crows’ – Chris Wraight - This was an interesting return of Katerina of the Amethysts Order. In the Masters of Magic book she was an important character and I said that she deserved a own book. Alas that didn't happen but at least a short story. I must say that I prefered the Katerina of the book. It had different ambitions and ideas. This one she didn't felt right. Almost too nice... (almost). In these tale an Amethyst Wizard is needed to help a besieged town from the undead. The tales tell of another wizard that help the town a century ago. The priests of the town are too frightening that they enlist the aid of a wizard (which they don't trust... and Amethyst for that matter). The ending was quite good even if predictable. Nice tale.  (7.5/10)

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