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After a pretty lackluster literary performance, WAR seems to have hit a pleasing note in terms of the literature backing it up. Dark Storm Gathering, sequel to Empire in Chaos, made a lot of really interesting fixes that made the story a lot more compelling. Also, as an added gift, it’s written in a way where you don’t lose much if you pick this up without reading Empire in Chaos.
The story effectively covers the events after the climatic end of Empire in Chaos without even referring to the book outside of two or three characters and the horde of Chaos. Other than introducing the Dark Elves as they slowly start to needle their way into the fray, it does shows how the rot of corruption is quickly fraying the fabric that is the Empire. This is still in the beginning too. The imagery of the war council when one of the counts gets corrupted by Chaos and turns into a rippling mass of tentacles, eyes and teeth in front of the Emperor is actually really effective.
Who cares?
Simply put, you do. One of the things that you really get from Dark Storm Gathering that you didn’t get in Empire in Chaos is better character and setting development. This is a good thing because you start to care more about the world that these events are happening in. It’s just that everything is better written than it was in the previous book.
Military engagements had the right sense of scale. The cities and towns were more believable. The characters seemed like real people. They also got the mindsets of the people, based off of their jobs and races, down perfectly too. There is also a distinct feel between characters that didn’t happen in Empire in Chaos. This is to say that in Empire in Chaos, the characters felt and read the same way outside of the major dwarven character. This book though, lets all the characters that need a voice have a voice and they don’t sound the same.
So is there any problem with the book?
For a Warhammer-based book of any kind, it still has difficulties with scale. So occasionally the dark fantasy’s realism is marred by either going too big or not big enough. It isn’t a bad thing since the story isn’t bogged down by the writer trying to get as close to the right scale as possible. The story still moves and does so quickly enough to make the story interesting.
The other problem is that, at least until more stuff is put into play making Warhammer Online more like any of the Warhammer Fantasy games, whether it’s the strategy game or the pen-and-paper RPG, its fiction is based off of a highly restricted version of the franchise. So, even though quite a bit of Warhammer fiction tends to be epic even if it takes place in a small town, the fiction for the MMO is going to continue having a feel that it’s not really complete.
Bottom line
It’s not great book. If you’re a fan of Warhammer fiction, you could easily find better. However, if you’re looking for something based specifically on Warhammer Online, Dark Storm Gathering is a more justifiable expense than its predecessor.
Site [Dark Storm Gathering] Read [Empire in Chaos]
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