Ghoulslayer

Warhammer: Age of Sigmar

By: Darius Hinks

Narrated by: Jonathan Keeble

Length: 8 hrs and 22 mins

Publisher's summary

A Gotrek novel

Gotrek Gurnisson, last survivor of the world-that-was, seeks the Undying King himself amidst the bleak underworlds of Shyish. Surrounded by the ghosts of the past, can Gotrek achieve his goal, or will his soul be forfeit?

Listen to it because:

It's Gotrek's first full-length novel in the Mortal Realms, and it pits him against all the horrors of the Realm of Death, as he seeks almighty Nagash!

The story:

In the bleak, haunted underworld of Shyish, a vengeful Slayer seeks the Lord of Undeath.

Gotrek Gurnisson returns, his oaths now ashes alongside the world-that-was, his fury undiminished. Branded with the Master Rune of Grimnir, the God that betrayed him, and joined by Maleneth Witchblade, a former Daughter of Khaine turned agent of the Order of Azyr, the hunt has taken them far and wide through the Realm of Death. Will Gotrek find a path to the Undying King or will the underworlds claim him as their own?

©2019 Games Workshop Limited (P)2019 Games Workshop Limited

I miss Felix

gotrek is awesome. john keeble is fantastic for narration. but the age of Sigmar universe is so...meh. it feels like a rehash of old high fantasy tropes. and the new companion just isn't as interesting and as likeable or fun as Felix Jaeger. the magic is gone.

Definitely worth the listen.

While Brian Blessed IS Gotrek Gurnisson, Jonathan Keeble does an admirable job. The story got a bit confusing about 3/4ths through but, it alleviates said confusion by the end. Overall, A good listen and a good sequel to Realmslayer.

Miss Felix but good read

The new companions are fine but not near as interesting as Felix. The story was solid. Fun read.

A Good Book but a bit of a letdown at the end

Over the story was a solid Gotrek adventure. The character is translated to the Mortal Realms well and his new cast of adventures buddies are interesting and multi-layered.

But...

SPOILERS AHEAD

The ending was solid but the whole premise behind the book was Gotrek finding and killing Nagash. While I didn’t think this would happen, I was at least excited to see Gotrek exchange a few lines of dialogue with the big bad death god. To my dismay, Nagash doesn’t even show up in the book. He is talked about a lot, but when the book finally has a chance to bring him into the story at the conclusion, the plot turns around and heads the other way. Despite this, the book is still decent and a good read for any Gotrek fan.

Gotrek is back in glory

I was certainly hesitant about this story. The scale of the Mortal Realms and the lack of Felix seemed far too much. I am overjoyed to be proven wrong. Though i still miss Felix and hope to see him return someday, I've grown very attached to Gotrek's new companions. Speaking of, Gotrek is an excellent taste of the Old World in the Mortal Realms. The story told had excellent pacing and blended comedy, intrigue, and action brilliantly. I really cared about the supporting characters. I cannot wait to see where this adventure goes!

Not the same Gotrek

Jonathan Keeble is the only saving grace for this story. I wanted to like this story, but it was so meh. I lost all hope for this story when Gotrek was overwhelmed by moths and pathetically swinging his axe at them in a wild fashion.

Different but still good

Really I'm just here for Gotrek but I miss the blessed Brian. The cast from Realmslayer made me excited. as much as I liked the performance the writing was a bit... lacking.

Loved it!

It is exciting to pick up with Gotrek in the mortal realms and continue to see him struggle and evolve as the great hero of a new age!

Gotrek is the personification of AOS

This story once again reminds of a better time and a better witld(The old world) the story matched the old Worlds Gotrek a lot better than previous books. Looking forward to more sagas that can remind you of his old self. The complexities of the ghouls was really challenging and near Impossible but if they didn’t capture it pretty good.

Gotten is DOOMED…to Suffer Bad Writing. AOS Sucks.

Gosh, every AOS story line sucks. It’s like they try to beat you over the head with how awed the reader is supposed to be about the mortal realms and gods and legions upon legions of whatever and blah blah blah blah blah. It gets boring and trite and annoying and it’s in like every book. I loved the old world fluff and yeah sometimes you’re on the edge of world shattering disaster but most of the time the story line focuses on more relatable (given a fantasy universe) issues and themes. Endless legions! Gods!!!! World destroying!!!!!!!!! Every, single, darn, book. It’s like a child mightily impressed with themselves wrote this book and every other AOS book and guides the essence of AOS fluff. The two companions are meh. The twist at the end was poorly explained and out of nowhere, like a square peg into a round hole.

Exceptional

I've read all titles in the 'Slayer' series to date, and this is absolutely a favourite of all that I have read. Darius Hinks does an excellent job of balancing the bombastic comedy and fatalistic melancholy for which Gotrek is known and loved. Hinks also flexes his ability to build a surreal fantasy world - the kingdom of Morbion and its denizens - whilst simultaneously keeping the magical setting grounded and tangible.

Whilst Hinks' portrayal of Gotrek is arguably one of the best since the series began, he also does a brilliant job of exploring the character and motivations of Maleneth in a way that the audio dramas are not able to. Trachos - a Lord-Ordinator and a new character for this book - epitmoises the tragic heroism of the Stormcast Eternal. Other Black Library authors writing stories about the Age of Sigmar posterboys would do well to examine Hinks' Trachos as he is the single best portrayal of a Stormcast thus far.

Jonathan Keeble is an excellent narrator and does a better Gotrek than Brian Blessed. There. I said it.

Good fun, but didn't quite hit the sweet spot

As ever, if I see something with Gotrek's name on it, I have to dive in as he is one of my favourite characters the Black Library have ever produced. I also have a very iffy relationship with the Age of Sigmar (I'll never truly like it and will always see it as the crappy actor that replaced your favourite actor for the same character in between seasons of your favourite TV show) but thought maybe a Gotrek novel would be what I needed to get me a little closer to the setting.

Although it was by no means my favourite Gotrek novel, it was certainly enjoyable. I love the fact that Gotrek shares my dislike for the Age of Sigmar setting as he frequently calls things by the names they were known as in The Old World rather than the silly names they are known by now.

His quest for vengeance upon the gods sets him on the trail of The Great Necromancer, the god of the dead, Nagash. His single-minded hunting of the gods is enjoyable and, when paired with his gruff, brutish character it works incredibly well. 

The partnership with Maleneth Witchblade is by no means as satisfying as the partnership with Felix, but his comradery with the Stormcast Eternal they are with is an enjoyable one. I didn't hate Maleneth but I just couldn't get into her as much as I did Felix. That's the problem when a character has shoes that are far too big to be filled by those that come after him. I'm not sure what it is, whether it's the characters, the setting or some mixture of the two, but there was something that just rubbed me slightly the wrong way and left it feeling less like a Gotrek novel and more of a novel that Gotrek appeared in. Whatever the reason, I just couldn't bring myself to give it the full five stars.

I'd not recommend this to anyone who isn't familiar with Gotrek. My advice would be to pick up the books set in the Old World before trying to enjoy these. You may not enjoy them as much, but you'll certainly have an easier time of it. You also can't really get a sense of what Gotrek has lost by starting here.

The voice acting was, as is always the case with Jonathan Keeble, wonderful. I am thrilled to see that he seems to be the voice actor they want to use for Gotrek going forward as he suits the character perfectly. This is my third book narrated by Keeble, the 2nd in the Warhammer universes, and it will certainly not be my last.

Worst Slayer saga yet!

horrendous! terrible story compared to any of the slayer's story and the voice acting is terrible.

He makes it sound like a nursery pantomime.

Gotrek has been made to sound like an idiot and every time the 'actor' makes the female voices he sounds like a terrible amateur drag queen!

A fantastic tale.

A thoroughly absorbing tale beautifully narrated. Exploring the realm of Death alongside Gotrek and his companions was a great pleasure.

An absolute must listen!!

Keeble is fantastic as usual loved every second of this book. Anyone who loves fantasy pull the trigger you will have no regrets.

An improvement, but still bad.

Well narrated and, at times, fun popcorn fantasy. A vast improvement on the Brian Blessed helmed audio dramas featuring the same lead character.

Unfortunately, like most of these books, it follows a very rigid and predictable formula and the same language repeated over and over. The battle scenes are so very repetitive and, at times, laughable - such as the characters carrying on very calm and normal conversations while we're expected to believe thousands of foes are swirling around them.

Another problem is the setting. The Mortal Realms are so vast and nebulous that they have no sense of place and nothing that happens has any consequence. For all their faults, the old Warhammer Fantasy novels at least had a fixed and mapped out world for it's stories to take place in (you couldn't just destroy a city for example without it having consequences for the rest of the setting).

Excellent, just amazing

Fantastic books great story, perfect performance 5 out 5 for overall, I totally loved the book well worth a spare credit

Brilliant

Brilliant again in thee series. Character transformation is amazing can't wait for the next one

Magic & Mayhem

Loved it constant action. The best read book I have purchased so far excellent performance.

Man I missed Gotrek!

Very enjoyable this Audible!
Recommend this highly if your a Gotrek fan.
There are some funny moments here and there and oh boy it’s so good to have this character back!