Golden Anvil

Blackhearts is an omnibus edition of the books Valnir's Bane, The Broken Lance, and Tainted Blood, plus two additional shorts stories, one of which forms a prelude to the first novel, and the other of which fills the gap between the first and second novels. The author is Nathan Long, who took over the Felix and Gotrek series from the original author. I was a fan of his writing there, so when I saw this omnibus available used, I jumped at the chance to check out more of his work. Normally I review omnibus editions separately, but this one really holds together well as a single extended novel.

The story takes place in the Warhammer fantasy setting, and is essentially about a group of men who have been rescued from hanging by a noble who essentially blackmails them into doing his dirty work. They're stuck doing their best in situations where their benefactor's desires frequently conflict with what might normally be seen as the desireable course of action. This sets up some rather nice tension within and among the characters. That adds a nice extra layer to the story.

As is typical of the Warhammer stories, the writing is generally very fast paced. There's lots of fighting and lots of other adventursome action of all kinds. There is also some gory moments as the group finds itself up against some of the forces of chaos (evil). As the author puts it, this is a story about more or less normal people taking part in an adventure, not some super-capable noble heroes. As a result the characters are quite varied in nature, and feel pretty real.

All in all, I liked this book. It is a little on the gory side, and it definitely features some characters who are not exactly the best humanity has to offer. Still, it was quite interesting, and an enjoyable read.

1. 3/19/11 - Sheepfarmer's Daughter by Elizabeth Moon
2. 5/20/11 - Mogworld by Yahtzee Croshaw
3. 4/30/11 - Storm Front by Jim Butcher
4. 4/9/11 - Oath of Gold by Elizabeth Moon
5. 3/13/11 - Daemonslayer by William King
6. 5/22/11 - Blackhearts by Nathan Long
7. 5/6/11 - The White Rose by Glen Cook
8. 5/3/11 - Shadows Linger by Glen Cook
9. 1/31/11 - Consider Phlebas by Iain M. Banks
10. 2/28/11 - Skavenslayer by William King
11. 1/12/11 - Fall of Angels by L.E. Modesitt
12. 2/24/11 - Trollslayer by William King
13. 4/1/11 - Divided Allegiance by Elizabeth Moon
14. 4/28/11 - Metal Swarm by Kevin J. Anderson
15. 5/20/11 - The Stainless Steel Rat for President by Harry Harrison
16. 2/19/11 - Sinner by Sara Douglass
17. 5/18/11 - Excession by Iain M. Banks
18. 4/19/11 - The Gift by Bryan M. Litfin
19. 1/24/11 - Stalking the Dragon by Mike Resnick