Cursed City

Warhammer: Age of Sigmar

By: C L Werner

Narrated by: Richard Reed

Length: 10 hrs and 33 mins

Publisher's summary

A Warhammer Quest Audiobook

When a series of vicious murders rock the vampire-ruled city of Ulfenkarn, an unlikely group of heroes - a vampire hunter, a vigilante, a wizard and a soldier - must discover the truth even as the city's dread ruler takes to the streets and the bloodletting increases.

Listen to It Because

Delve into the dungeons beneath the city of Ulfenkarn and discover the story behind the board game in this tale of thrilling adventure.

The Story

Ulfenkarn is a city of nightmares. Its vampiric rulers have indulged their bloodlust in every shadow-clad alley, turning the once-proud metropolis into a charnel house. Already crushed beneath the tyranny of Radukar the Wolf and his Thirsting Court, a spate of vicious murders plunges the mortal inhabitants into fresh terror. Emerging to uncover a connection between the attacks is an unlikely group of heroes: a vampire hunter from Carstinia; a slum-born vigilante; a ruthless wizard; and a soldier who is the last survivor of her noble bloodline. Arrayed against them are the undead monsters that thrive upon Radukar's gory regime. But a daring search for answers turns into a fight for survival when the Wolf himself descends his Ebon Citadel and joins the carnage in the streets....

Written by C L Werner. Narrated by Richard Reed.

©2021 Games Workshop Limited (P)2021 Games Workshop Limited

Great companion for painting Cured City

This book was a great deal of fun and very well performed. Great companion for painting the miniatures for the Cursed City boxed game that is the setting for this title. if you're a Games Workshop or Black Library fan give this book a listen.

Incredible

This story was an incredible journey that leaves you hungry for what is in coming next. The setting, the writing and a cast of unique characters all add a profound contribution to an exciting story. An excellent book that I wish was even longer.

Weak Hunter

The Vampire hunter was to weak... I'm surprised he survived through his rookie years, let a lone take on older vampires.

Narrator saved this one.

Did not like the story very much and some parts felt like they were rushed.
The narrator did a good job in making the characters interesting.

I would only recommend this book to people that play the boardgame.

Great Worldbuilding

One of the greatest aspects of the Warhammer Universe is while the world and lore is vast, it's content is often delivered in small bite size chunks with it's own unique and impactful flavor.
This was a great sampling of the governing actions and impact of the undead and a few exceptional champions. Worth a read (listen) if you enjoy Warhammer lore, and a fun mystery.

4 stars because it felt a bit repetitive at periods throughout.

Worth it if you’re interested in the board game.

I recently started playing the Cursed City game and this book did a great job of explaining the history of Ulfenkarn, Radukar, and some of his various minions. It set the scene nicely for the board game. Reed did an absolutely cracking job of reading it as well. Some well done, clearly distinct and characterful voices.

That’s about all it’s good for though. If I were to have read it with no intention of playing the game, I would have found it somewhat bizarre, unexplained and woefully unfinished (because, of course, this is presumably only supposed to be the first half of the story, while the game is the other half).

Coupled with that, it suffers from the same problems many Black Libary books do, in that there’s more fighting than actual story and ends up being like listening to a late ‘90s death metal song: ‘gore, blood, flesh, stench, more gore, more blood’. Never heard the word ‘visage’ so many times in so few hours hour. Just another average writer trying to sound more eloquent than he might be, to the point a lot of the flowery language sounds forced and overdone.

As I say though, those are problems I find with many Black Library novels though so if you usually don’t mind their style, you’ll probably be fine with this one.

Otherwise, if you intend to play, or are already playing, the Cursed City board game, definitely give this one a go. Really helps to shed a lot of light onto where it’s set, what’s going on and why.

If you’re not going to play the game though, perhaps not so worth it.

great lead into the game

This book takes place just before Warhammer quest cursed city and does a great job of setting up the game and plunging you into the grim city of Ulfenkarn.

Not the story I expected

I listened to this because I have the GW board game of the same name. I was intrigued by what this book would cover, hopefully not spoiling the ending to the game itself.

To my relief, this is a story that takes place before the events in the board game. It actually tells the story of Emelda Braskov and her adventures before she teamed up with Jelsen Darrock, Brutogg Corpse-Eater, Glaurio ven Allen III and etc.

What’s cool about the book is how it fleshes out what Ulfenkarn is like on the street level, and what it’s citizens go through on a daily basis. It’s also cool that Radukar, the main antagonist, is actually very active in the story and not just in the background

What I didn’t quiet expect is it read more like a detective novel with both the heroes AND villains trying to solve a series of mysterious murders, instead of the main sorry of freeing the city of Radukar’s tyranny. Even Radukar himself seemed more like Sherlock Holmes rather than an evil lord!

It’s a strange storytelling angle. And oddly, my favorite character ended up being Radukar. Not Emelda or her small band of heroes and vigilantes. He just had so much more personality and depth.

All in all, it wasn’t a bad audiobook but one that could have been so much better. I enjoyed it overall.

Great story and narration.

I enjoyed this story from start to finish. It serves as a prelude to the Cursed City board game from Games Workshop. The narration and voice acting was well done and very fitting to the tone and scene. The writing was well done as well, descriptive of the setting and action and just gruesome enough when it had to be.

Cursed City was great!

I liked the gritty setting, human perspective, and constant danger. This novel really sets the scene for Ulfenkarn if you want to dig into the characters and setting for Cursed City.