Reviews and Comments

"The Realmgate Wars" is a promotional novel, or rather a promotional anthology, for Games Workshop's "Age of Sigmar" tabletop game. The "Age of Sigmar" game was launched in 2015 as the successor to the earlier "WarHammer Fantasy Battle" game. With the new game, there was a new setting, that needed new stories. "The Realmgate Wars" ties the new game to the old one. The world from "WarHammer Fantasy Battle" was physically destroyed, and from its ashes, new worlds arose.

The new worlds had a time of happiness, then had a series of major wars. Those wars ended with most realms being overrun by the forces of Chaos - the archetypical bad guys of the book. Only Azyr, the domain of the warlike god Sigmar, remained unsullied. Sigmar closed the gates of Azyr, and started working on a new army - the Stormcast Eternals. He reincarnated the bravest warriors, trained them rigorously, and then in the first story sets them loose upon the worlds. This is the moment that the titular "Age of Sigmar" begins; all stories and games are set in the time after the god Sigmar unleashes his new elite warriors.

In itself, that premise isn't bad: we have conflict, we have a bunch of heroes, and we literally have entire worlds to explore. Yet, the book disastrously fails to use its potential.

The problem is that there is no characterization, and no character development. All Stormcast Eternals are essentially the same - brave goody two-shoes with at best a hint of darker or deeper emotions. If the name "clone wars" hadn't already been taken by another franchise, it would have been a more appropriate title than "the Realmgate wars".

The titular realmgates themselves are portals: they allow transportation between the different worlds. This naturally makes them strategically important, and the battles mostly revolve around capturing these portals.

Unfortunately, the book has little else than battles. It has almost 900 pages, and barely one without people trading blows. A well-written fight can be interesting, but 900 pages telling us how someone slung their hammer, cracked an enemy head, then dodged a blow, and so on... it gets tedious.

It's a pity, because it could have been so much better. For example, there's the story of Tornus the Redeemed, who is a champion of Chaos but eventually defects to the Stormcasts. He gets occassional paragraphs about his past, that explain to us why he makes this traitorous decision. (If you defect to the good guys, you're still a traitor, just one who chose Team Good). But these paragraphs get buried under seemingly endless descriptions of combat. Nor, for that matter, is there any consequence to this change of allegiance. One would expect the forces of Chaos to hold a deep hatred of the man who switched sides, but instead, it's never mentioned anymore. Not even in a "we don't talk about Tornus" attitude - no, the whole thing is entirely forgotten. Everybody is far too busy doing battle to have personal developments - even grudges against other characters.

Unless you enjoy long descriptions of battles and single combats, this book is not recommended.

This was one of the first mainstream fantasy novels with a gay protagonist. Written and published in 1989, when this was a risky proposition for a mainstream novel.

The book follows the adventures of 15-year old Vanyel Ashkevron, the eldest son of a noble. As such, he will one day succeed his father as head of the family, but father and son don't get along well. After a particularly bad episode, Vanyel's father sends him away to study in the capital, under the guardianship of his aunt Savil. Although Vanyel has no desire to live with his aunt, this exile turns out to be a blessing in disguise. When Vanyel discovers that there are boys who fall in love with boys rather than girls, he realizes that he is one such boy himself; and with it, he understands his feelings for Savil's protégé Tylendel. The two boys enter a relationship, and for a while, Vanyel finally has a happiness that he had never thought possible. Tylendel also introduces Vanyel to his mount Gala, a "Companion": Valdemar's breed of intelligent, magical horses. Valdemars Companions choose its Heralds, and it is Gala who has chosen Tylendel. Gala and Tylendel share a deep bond; she has had to help him over a heartbreak earlier, and is eventually happy that he has found love with Vanyel.

But there are dark clouds over the young lovers' heads. If Vanyels homophobic father learns that he is in a relationship with another boy, he will drag the boy back home and force him into a cloyster. Meanwhile Tylendel's family is involved in a bitter feud, and Vanyel is about to be dragged in...

The book can be quite a tear-jerker, but all in all it is a beautiful and sensitive story. It is as much a coming-of-age novel as it is a fantasy novel. Many teenage protagonists in fantasy are written as fully functional adults in teenage bodies; Vanyel, however, clearly has some growing up to do. And the emotional abuse that he has suffered from his father, doesn't make that any easier.

If I have a criticism of the book, it is that the last part feels rushed; as if a longer story had to be compressed to fit the pocket book format. For example, Vanyel has spent about 300 pages being very self-centered; then a single adventure opens his eyes to the needs of others. Yet this important new insight itself is described with just a few sentences.

Similarly, this is where a villain conveniently shows up. Although the book doesn't lack unpleasant people, from Vanyels father and his brutish armsmaster to the Leshara family that caused Tylendel enormous pain, it doesn't have a villain who deserves being killed in a final battle. Enter Krebain, a sadistic sexual predator who seems to be there only for the purpose of having a climactic battle at the end. To be fair, that final battle does help to bring the book to a satisfying conclusion, so it (almost literally) works out neatly in the end. And when Vanyel launches a near-suicidal attack on Krebain to protect the villagers, his final thought brought tears to my eyes.

Recommended for fantasy fans, horse lovers, and those who like to see a queer protagonist carry the day.