Book review: Realm of Chaos

Edited by Marc Gascoigne and Andy Jones, short stories by a range of authors.

It may not exactly be fair to review them all in one go. It comes across as guilt by association for some who may have written a brilliant pearl of a novella, yet find it buried deep in this... book.

I read the collections of short stories, embittered by my experiences with Warhammer novels. Not that they are all so poor, and I have even reviewed some of the better ones that I have read on this blog, but I find that several have too little substance to carry you through a whole book. Inane plots, boring characters with no depth, popular films transported and adapted to the Warhammer world, cliches... all in a flurry of adjectives to disguise the fact that you've paid good money for something that most college level aspiring writers could probably produce. At least with a gun to the head.

As you may have guessed, this one has a few real stinkers.

I'll tell you where Andy Jones went wrong: He put his own short stories in. These are godawful. Grunsonn's marauders are a sad effin bunch, and the comedy is neither funny nor in the right place, as most of the other stories seem to go for a splash of horror. They feature in no less than two stories in this book. Both should have been flushed.

I'll tell you where Marc Gascoigne went wrong: Not shouting "Blood for the Blood God!" and slaying Andy Jones for his awful stories.

There are two stories by Gav Thorpe as well. Some Warhammer enthusiasts may love his work, and I confess I have not read enough of it to truly weigh in with an opinion on his authorship. I am guessing it may be better NOW than when he wrote these two short stories, but to be fair, they are both high enough in quality to warrant being included. Predictable, yet with enough mood and detail. The last one, "Faithful Servant" is actually quite good, open-ended (fairly rare in Warhammer books) and with a good sense of how not to try and make MORE out of just one moral question.

Most of the other stories deserve neither praise or mockery. If I had to pick a favourite, I would say "Wolf in the Fold" by Ben Chessell (who also got two stories in here), though "Hounds of Winter" may deserve a mention as well, with Jonathan Green also contributing two stories.

Maybe I am too picky, but I just did not see anything here that absolutely needed to be published. I sometimes use these books as starting points, looking up the authors to see if they've written more, interesting looking stuff. I have not done that this time.

The book was essentially free, and I paid a pittance for S&H, and the read was quick. I would perhaps recommend it to commuters or young readers, but not to veteran readers or picky curmudgeons like me.

Rating: 2 out of 5. Inspires people to write their own.