I read somewhere that Warhammer books were at some point written with instructions to write for a mature 18 year old boy reader. As I am now significantly beyond that age, I should perhaps pause and question my reading habits. "Really? Pulp fantasy novels at your age?" There. That's that done. With that troublesome introspection out of the way, I will say that I do not actually believe that to be true. Several books are clearly written for a younger audience (or an immature 18 year old boy, ie someone who is about 14) and I have reviewed some here, and this one is clearly for an older or more intelligent audience. You, dear readers. Of course.
This is the tale of a wizard and his attempt to infiltrate a cult of Tzeentch worshippers in Altdorf. As you can no doubt guess, this involves a struggle to hold on to his sanity and his morals along the way, as he faces all the troubles of the undercover agent, and wrestles with moral issues and psychological issues. This is of course dangerous territory as the pitfalls of clichés are many, and it risks becoming a bit ham fisted with only 250 pages to tie up the plot, throw some personality on the characters and so on. Somewhat surprisingly, it works out okay. No massive surprises or sage wisdom, but a hard tackle on the difficulties that characters in the Warhammer World would no doubt encounter in a brush with Chaos.
Oh, and there is some (non graphical!) sex too. One of the characters is even a prostitute. This is not something usually handled very elegantly in Warhammer books. Not that I think a lot of the books really need it either, but with a host of literally sex-less creatures in the Warhammer World(s), it is nice to see not all sexuality blotted out from the books, or neatly packaged as "that Slaanesh stuff". Not that I mean to go off on a rant about it it either, but I am sure the "mature 18 year old boy" reading this will appreciate the odd ... bit of sex.
Another good thing is that the plot does not feature large scale warfare. I have talked about this in other reviews too, and I do like it when Chaos is the worm in the Empire's apple, rather than just the sweeping tide of mayhem from the North. This book is full of the former type of action, and that suited me quite well. In fact, I could have played out almost all of the plot in the book with miniatures that I own, and on a small coffee table, so no huge armies or anything for you to wrap your imagination around.
Certain things in the book may happen a little too... smoothly. I think that has to do with the constraints of 250 pages vs 400 as some of the other books offer without having the need for them. It is nit-picking really, but sometimes books suffer from not having any ... non-useful characters. What I mean, is that when there are not enough characters to cover a great many possibilities, then sometimes you can work out the plot a bit too soon. There is nothing to throw you off the scent, you might say.
This book contains less/none of the tongue in cheek humour that blossoms in some of the other books, and you won't find characters whose German names makes your eyes roll back, or quite the poor attempts at wit that some other books tend to have. I kind of liked that, at least in this particular book where it would have felt particularly misplaced.
In conclusion... I really enjoyed it. I do tend to enjoy this TYPE of book/plot though, so the odds were pretty good, as long as nothing went wrong or turned too stupid.
Overall rating: 4 out of 5. Like a nice burger, cooked to perfection and dressed right. Not a culinary wonder, but good eating.
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