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trackofwords's review
3.0
In typical Black Library fashion, the End Times series of novels now gets a range of supplementary short stories, filling in some of the gaps left by the books. Set immediately prior to the events of The Curse of Khaine, SP Cawkwell’s short story The Siege of Naggarond details the Chaos assault on the druchii city, led by Valkia the Bloody. After the destruction of one of the northern watchtowers, a single elf survives to carry a warning back to Naggarond, where Kouran Darkhand waits to lead the defence of the city in Malekith’s absence.
Read the rest of the review at https://trackofwords.wordpress.com/2015/03/23/quick-review-the-siege-of-naggarond-sp-cawkwell/
Read the rest of the review at https://trackofwords.wordpress.com/2015/03/23/quick-review-the-siege-of-naggarond-sp-cawkwell/
eleven_hummingbird's review
3.0
A messy little short story.
There is absolutely zero depth here. This is a surface-level narrative of a battle and nothing more, though it does at least accomplish this decently. Told from the dark elves’ point of view, but the narrative seems to favor both sides. My boy Locephax is back and lovely as always. I do like Cawkwell’s dark elves as well, I just wish for a bit of complexity. There is a nice, clear divide between the behaviors of the dark elves and the forces of Chaos, the dark elves themselves being as cold, merciless, and selfish as we love them to be.
Cawkwell’s prose certainly improved since Valkia, but unfortunately this short story is riddled with editing mistakes. Simple typos, skipped words, etc. I would of course blame the publisher for this rather than the author. The story is inconsistent with other novels, but again, blame the publisher.
This would be fine within an omnibus or accompanying a novel, but so far as I know it is only available as a stand-alone ebook. With a list price of $4, I personally would not recommend this 29 page short story; it just does not do anything interesting. Though it is very cool when the Witch King arrives and fights Valkia.
If you want good siege stories involving dark elves, read Lord of Ruin (Malus Darkblade, Book 5) by Lee & Abnett, Malekith by Thorpe, or, hell, Tolkien’s Silmarillion.
There is absolutely zero depth here. This is a surface-level narrative of a battle and nothing more, though it does at least accomplish this decently. Told from the dark elves’ point of view, but the narrative seems to favor both sides. My boy Locephax is back and lovely as always. I do like Cawkwell’s dark elves as well, I just wish for a bit of complexity. There is a nice, clear divide between the behaviors of the dark elves and the forces of Chaos, the dark elves themselves being as cold, merciless, and selfish as we love them to be.
Cawkwell’s prose certainly improved since Valkia, but unfortunately this short story is riddled with editing mistakes. Simple typos, skipped words, etc. I would of course blame the publisher for this rather than the author. The story is inconsistent with other novels, but again, blame the publisher.
This would be fine within an omnibus or accompanying a novel, but so far as I know it is only available as a stand-alone ebook. With a list price of $4, I personally would not recommend this 29 page short story; it just does not do anything interesting. Though it is very cool when the Witch King arrives and fights Valkia.
If you want good siege stories involving dark elves, read Lord of Ruin (Malus Darkblade, Book 5) by Lee & Abnett, Malekith by Thorpe, or, hell, Tolkien’s Silmarillion.
cwebb's review
3.0
Die Geschichte ist ein wenig zerfahren, und das auf so wenig Seiten. Viel länger und ich hätte das Interesse verloren, so war es ein Überbrücker zwischen den grösseren Geschichten aus den End Times.
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