Valnir's Bane

In my reviews of Warhammer novels, I usually differentiate between the elements important to the gamer and the purely novelistic elements that would interest non-gamers. This technique will not work for Valnir's Bane, the first of the Black Heart novels, because it is a pure novel. In other words, the plot is the thing. Don't get me wrong,the gamer can read it and find an abundance of Warhammer Fantasy elements but that is not its raison d'etre. Its purpose, I think, is to be a fast paced Hollywood style story. In fact, as I was reading it, I kept imagining Indiana Jones racing through and under the Middle Mountains. The plotting reminded me of the saturday morning serials I saw as a kid. But his many movie allusions are not only to serials. He seems steeped in movie grammar. I will point out just a few. Reiner Hetzau's duel with a dissident member of his outlaw gang reminded me of the scene in "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid," where Butch duels for control of the Hole in the Wall Gang. The scene where the characters fall into a river and tumble over a waterfall-a time honored plot device-reminded me of similar scenes in Cecil B. DeMille's "The Undefeated," and Michael Mann's "The Last of the Mohicans". Tolkien even uses it to good effect in "The Hobbit." And, of course, the author acknowledges the similarities between the novel and "The Dirty Dozen." Ultimately, these allusions do not detract from the novel, although they do make it a different kind of Warhammer novel. In conclusion, it is obvious the author spent a lot of time plotting the novel. Even the individual chapters complied with the Aristotlean plot formula. He created suspense at the beginning and carried it successfully to the end. The battle scenes were believable and Nathan Long, most particularly, has a penchant for writing horror scenes. His prose is flawless and his pacing relentless.

Like some of the other reviews have said, the book is a cliche. Men slated to die given a chance to carry out a mission for their freedom. Sounds pretty straightforward? Very "Dirty Dozen"ish? It is. But it isn't. The characters are thrust into a situation that seems way out of their league, but they perserve and push on against relentless foes and very large odds indeed. It definately breaks the cliche in places. After reading many, many Black Library offerings from C.L. Werner, Dan Abnett, Ben Counter, William King, and a plethora of others, I think that for his first offering, Nathan Long does a wonderful job of capturing the gritty elements of the dark world of Warhammer fantasy. The story definately kept my attention from the beginning, as the main character Reiner, a man of noble birth but apparently of low-rank; sits in his cell contemplating which cellmates would make for the best partners in escape, to some of the more climactic battle scenes near the end of the story, I think it's an excellent ride. The characters besides Reiner all seem to work well in my mind. The ruthless and bloodthirsty Knight, the pair of villanous pikemen, the cowardly savant Artilleryman, the downtrodden Engineer, the malicious Barber-Surgeon, the plucky young archer and the unfortunate Tilean Rogue, all seem to come together well as their mismatched personalities lead to some interesting dialogues and exchanges throughout the story There are some nice turns and twists and I definately look forward to seeing more of Mr. Long's work. It has something to offer to the first time reader and the hardened Black Library gurus alike. Give it a shot.

This novel was chalk full of non stop action. Despite being packed with nothing but action and being a short novel, it manages some very good insight into the cast of characters. I found the novel to be a very easy read and finished it in one reading. The other review has already stated anything else i might have said except that I did find one character to be very unbelievable. The Novitiate Knight, Erich was just too stupid to be believable. The writer could have built some kind of realistic motivations that might have explained the character a bit better as he did with the rest of the cast. On the whole, a very satisfying read. Would definately purchase any sequel even though i don't tend to buy Warhammer fantasy novels except for the Gotrek and Felix line. I purchased this novel to fill my order for super express shipping. That and the storyline sppealed to me.

Valnir's Bane begins with a bang, lets neither rain nor sleet nor dark of night keep it from delivering nonstop gore and colliding bodies and objects, and then ends in a whirl. And I have to face it, I love this sort of thing. I'll read it over and over again -- if it's done well. Nathan Long does it well. He hauls out all the old adventure plot devices and characters without shame, polishes them up, and then proceeds to warp, muddy and hack them to bits. Bring it on!