Trollslayer

Gotrek and Felix: Warhammer Chronicles, Book 1

By: William King

Narrated by: Jonathan Keeble

Length: 9 hrs and 55 mins

Publisher's Summary

A Gotrek Gurnisson novel.

When Felix Jaeger, a student, poet and minor political agitator, swears a drunken oath to a half-mad dwarf, it changes his life. Adventure awaits, as Felix records the mighty deeds of Gotrek Gurnisson, Trollslayer.   

Listen to It Because: This collection of stories is where the saga of Gotrek began. Mutants in the forest, goblins in the mountains, a troll beneath the world - from these small beginnings came the greatest partnership in the Old World and a hero who has crossed realities and become a legend.  

The Story: Gotrek and Felix: unsung heroes of the Empire or nothing more than common thieves and murderers? The truth perhaps lies somewhere in between and depends entirely upon whom you ask.... 

After fleeing the authorities in the Imperial city of Altdorf, Felix Jaeger swears a drunken oath to dour dwarf Gotrek Gurnisson to record his death saga. In the cold light of day, Felix's worst fears are confirmed as he learns that Gotrek is a Trollslayer - a dwarf doomed to seek out a heroic death in battle to atone for an unknown personal disgrace. Their travels throw them into a string of extraordinary adventures as Felix tries to survive his companion's destiny.  

Written by William King. Narrated by Jonathan Keeble.

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

love gotrek and felix

keep them coming, I want all of the trollslayer series please..... ... .. ... .

was great need more

I loved it please make the rest can't wait for skavenslayer need more please hurry

An amazing set of tales for any fan of Fantasy

the Gotrek and Felix books makes me miss the old days of Warhammer Fantasy and just makes me wish for more of these books to be released. Trollslayer was an enjoyable set of misadventures of the two misfit rogues that will please any fans of both Fantasy as a genre and lovers of Warhammer

classic warhammer

this is the best of classic warhammer fantasy , and the voice acting is superb.

YEEESSS MOOOOORE XD

So happy they fianlly have the first of the series on audible, have read it several times but Jonathan Keeble makes everything more Epic

Great series

I've read this series several times over the years. Great series with great characters. Johnathan Keeble brings this novel to life with his fantastic range of voices, he is hands down my favorite narrator.

Gotrek & Felix Take my Money!

Great stuff! Love the old world warhammer fantasy setting. Keeble is awesome in the Black Library books as well the delivery is pretty great. Please buy them so they do the whole series!

excellent series, looking forward to more...

each chapter acts as a short story so it makes it quick and enjoyable reading

Finally

I hope they bring the rest. I read most of the books but do not have the same free time that i once did so i would love to finish listening to one of my favorite series.

Great

I hope that the rest of the slayer books make it to audible. I can’t wait

The start of Black Library's greatest series

A lot of the reviews I have seen shirk away from giving Trollslayer a 5 out of 5 because it is an 'episodic' story. Ordinarily that just means 'this is a short story collection masquerading as a novel' (much like 'Ghostmaker' of the Gaunt's Ghost's series). Trollslayer is certainly not a short story collection.

What this 'episodic' story is, is a masterpiece of grim, dark, oppressive fantasy fiction. Yes, some of the chapters are complete stories or mini-adventures in their own rights, but they are all a part of a much larger narrative within the book rather than just each chapter broken up by 'oh, this reminds of me of the time ...' Again ... I'm looking at the shoddy links in the Gaunt's Ghost series.

William King has, in this one book, achieved what many writers for the Black Library never actually achieve. They say they write grimdark fiction and they try to get that across with excessive gore and violence, but King gets that point across with beautiful writing, incredible scene-setting skills and the raw talent for not only writing, but creating, atmosphere. 

Trollslayer has long been thought of a great entry point into the Warhammer Fantasy series and it wasn't until I re-read it that I see why. In this novel they introduce you, if not in person, but in description, to many of the factions within the Warhammer Universe and the delicate balance upon which most relations between factions hang.

Not only is this the novel to kickstart your Warhammer Fantasy adventure, it's the start of the series that will form one heck of a solid back bone as to any reader's understanding of the Warhammer Fantasy universe. Things like this are the main reason why Age of Sigmar will never reach the beautifully crafted levels that the Old World reached. There is nothing that wraps its arms around you and welcomes you to the world in that setting, there is only confusion. 

I kind of went off-track there ... but reading a book set in the Old World just angers me that Age of Sigmar exists. Anyway, back to Trollslayer.

King creates very believable and enjoyable characters throughout, even those that feature as background noise to the main setting have the feel of men, women and children that you would expect to see in a fantasy world of this sort and it makes the whole reading experience easier.

The speech, a notoriously difficult part of any novel-writing experience, is wonderful and the banter between characters is not only easy and free-flowing, but believable and realistic. There are no pitfalls where the author just decides to throw in unrealistic/unhuman-like conversation solely to pad out the word count, nor is there the awkward 'character randomly explains plot by guessing stuff out loud to his companion' that is often a frustrating aspect of some fantasy novels I have come across in my time.

The long and the short of this review is: Not only is this a well-crafted and wonderfully written novel, it's one where everything just fits perfectly. 

Having both listened and read Trollslayer, I can say that, for my money, the audio is a lot better (not an easy feat considering how much I enjoyed reading it). Jonathan Keeble is an absolute genius when it comes to fantasy narrating and I'll certainly be seeking out more books read by him, especially in this series. His voice work just makes this novel such an immersive and addictive experience. It's rare I wish for a novel to be twice as long as it was, but in this case I wish it were ten times as long.

Fantastic... Original awesome warhammer

These stories are just fantastic.

Lots of great battle action but the real strength are the characters and the great relationship between a dwarven warrior looking for the perfect death and the bard tasked by blood oath to tell the tale.

Undead warriors. Trolls. Orcs. Mutant cultists. What more do you want?

These stories are also 'grimdark' written over a decade before it was a thing. The best of that genre could learn a lot here.

Jonathan keeble does a great performance too. Similar to how I always had the characters in my head (which I must admit if a actor doesn't, admit often puts me off an audio book)

Hopefully audible will be adding the sequels as soon a possible!!

Get this book Manling

If you love the old world and the heroes of the old world then you will love this. Absolutely brilliant, great narration once again by Johnathan Keeble. I really hope the whole series is done.

Come for the dwarf, stay for the bloodletting...

An excellent selection of short stories with wonderful voice acting. This is my first warhammer fantasy story and it sets the world out very well.

At last!

Been waiting for this a while- now looking forward to the rest- please make it happen GW!

would recommend to any fantasy fan

Great Story and narrator performance must read for warhammer fans also Great book for anyone that likes fantasy. Well my journey with gotrek and felix has begun wish me luck.

Amazing

Amazing listen, story is amazing and so is the reader, listened to the whole thing in two days, couldnt stop!

Funny, Dark book about the old Warhammer world

Trollslayer is a great read with a lot of funny and Dark moments. The acting is great and the different short stories really make it a good quick Read/listen.

Over the moon

I’m so happy this series has come to audible. The voice acting and production value really does the book justice. 5/5

Worth a 29 year long wait.

A peerless performance and a hugely entertaining slice of Warhammer Fantasy. I been telling myself I will get around to reading all of the Gotrex and Felix stories for almost 30 years but thank to audible I've finally found a way to fit it in. This compendium of short stories is well worth a listen. Maybe an understanding of the Warhammer fantasy background will be helpful, but it's not essential.