In a welcome return to the audio format for Hamilcar Bear-Eater, David Guymer’s The Palace of Memory sees the Lord Castellant of the Astral Templars venturing into Shadespire in search of secrets for Sigmar. Lost within the labyrinth of shadeglass, Hamilcar finds himself in the titular palace and confronted with ghosts of his past, facing obstacles even the mighty Bear-Eater can’t defeat with brute strength. Reliving moments of his life both before and after his reforging, Hamilcar is forced to consider that his faith in Sigmar might not be quite what he claims it to be.
Essentially it’s a love story…of sorts…although to say much more would spoil things. Suffice to say this is Hamilcar we’re talking about, so while we do see a slightly more tender side to him it’s still accompanied by a considerable amount of shameless bravado, brilliantly voiced by a bombastic Steve Conlin. Once the plot settles into a rhythm the ending is arguably a little telegraphed, but that doesn’t matter as it offers a characterful, personal look at the cost that the Stormcast pay for their power, through the unique lens of a character who sees the Mortal Realms differently to most. If you’ve not met Hamilcar yet, this would be a good place to start.
This was released as part of the 2018 Black Library Advent Calendar – click here to see the main page for the Advent Calendar, with links to all of the reviews.
Check out the main Age of Sigmar page on Track of Words.
