Book eight of Black Library’s Realmgate Wars series for Age of Sigmar, Bladestorm is immediately notable for two things – first that it was originally serialised as seven individual short stories, and second that its author, Matt Westbrook, is in fact a pen name. It’s the continuation of Thostos Bladestorm’s story, picking up where we last saw the Lord Celestant in Ghal Maraz, a changed man after his reforging. He and Lord Celestant Mykos Argellon lead their chambers to destroy a Chaos-held fortress and reclaim a vital realmgate, a mission which must succeed for the next stages of Sigmar’s plan to proceed.
Who Matt Westbrook is in this case remains unclear, but in Bladestorm he (or she) has written a short but (perhaps surprisingly, considering its serialised nature) enjoyable tale that crams a lot into a fairly short space. There’s plenty of action as the Celestial Vindicators fight their way through enemies galore but it’s nicely varied and split across multiple character threads as the story progresses. Where some Age of Sigmar stories have been guilty of some rather over-simplified plotting, this rattles along at such a pace that there’s room for more plot than you might imagine, with the main task of the Stormcasts’ mission achieved surprisingly quickly only for the plot to take a couple of unexpected turns with some enjoyably inventive moments.
Both Lords Celestant get plenty of pagetime, with the much more human-feeling Argellon getting nicely fleshed out and offering a satisfying clash of personalities with the cold, distant Thostos. Beyond that contrasting pair it’s a lowly Judicator (the ones with the bows) named Atrin who impresses most from the Stormcast ranks, while a mortal tribeswoman, Alzheer, offers an enjoyable alternative perspective. Of course as the title suggests this is ultimately Thostos’ story and it offers an interesting look at the repercussions of reforging as we see the damage done to his personality, observed largely through other characters’ eyes. It’s not exactly a deep character study, but there’s plenty to enjoy above and beyond the fighting, not least in seeing the Stormcasts wrestle with their fears for what will happen as and when they inevitably fall and are reforged. There’s also a sense here, which hasn’t really been evident before, of the scale of the challenge that Sigmar and his armies face if they’re to succeed.
For the most part you can forget that this was written in serial form, and just enjoy a concise, tight story that works on pretty much every level. Inevitably there’s a degree of repetition that reminds you each ‘chapter’ actually needed to re-set the scene so as to work as a standalone short story, and you might also notice a few inconsistencies as the number of remaining Stormcast occasionally fluctuates to serve the needs of the plot. Those (minor) niggles aside, this is a genuinely satisfying and well-crafted story that belies its short length and serialised nature to maintain the standard set by Warbeast and Fury of Gork in the second half of this series.
