In three and a half years the Age of Sigmar setting has grown from fairly humble beginnings into something wild and imaginative, with vast scope for storytelling and almost unlimited potential. In that time, alongside a couple of dozen novels we’ve seen a whole host of short stories published, some tying in with ongoing narratives and others standing alone. Over a whopping 400+ pages Gods & Mortals collects together eighteen short stories into an impressive anthology, eight of which are brand new while the other ten are drawn from those previously-published tales. Eighteen stories, nine authors, and lots to enjoy.
There’s a remarkable amount of variety here with stories exploring different realms, factions and characters, from the highest peak of Azyr to the haunted depths of Shadespire, and (as the title suggests) from the gods themselves to humble mortal warriors. One particular character features heavily with no fewer than four Hamilcar Bear-Eater stories from David Guymer, collecting together three previously-released tales of the Astral Templars Lord Castellant alongside the brand new Force of Personality. That’s all of the currently available Hamilcar short stories, and between them they paint a vivid picture of a character who’s unlike anything else in Black Library’s catalogue. It’s not quite Hamilcar & Other Stories but having so many stories featuring the same character does provide an interesting sense of continuity.
Alongside Hamilcar there are stories featuring Neferata, Neave Blacktalon, Balthas Arum (from Soul Wars), two sets of witch hunters, the crew of the Iron Dragon, the Stormcast featured in the Nightvault game, a Chaos knight seeking to join the ranks of the Varanguard, various miscreants searching for the Eight Lamentations, a knight of the Order of the Fly…oh, and Sigmar himself. If you’re new to Age of Sigmar there’s bound to be something that catches your eye amongst all these stories, while if you’ve been following the setting for a while you’ll already be familiar with many of the characters. Josh Reynolds’ five stories all feature different characters but share a certain sense of excitement in exploring the Realms and what’s possible therein, the two Neferata stories show the Mortarch absolutely in her element, and there’s a massive amount to enjoy in spending time with so many other characters.
What’s impressive is that there really is no filler here – it’s all good stuff! Inevitably some stories work better than others (although as always that’s going to be pretty subjective), but the overall standard is very high and while most of these are connected to other stories elsewhere there’s very little sense of needing to be fully read-up to be able to enjoy these. There aren’t many spoilers on offer (and they’re not big spoilers even when they do appear), and while it doesn’t necessarily feel like this anthology has been specifically designed as such, it would actually work very well as an introduction to the Mortal Realms. Overall this amply demonstrates the breadth of storytelling possible in Age of Sigmar, and the variety that’s already there amongst the authors currently writing for the setting.
Here’s the contents list, along with my suggestions for how each story fits in with others in the series and links to reviews where available:
David Annandale: The Dance of the Skulls and Obsidian
– Both Neferata. You should be able to read these and the novel Mortarch of Blood in any order.
Andy Clark: Blacktalon: Hunting Shadows
– Neave Blacktalon. This doesn’t appear to be specifically tied into the novel First Mark.
Evan Dicken: Vault of Souls
– Shadespire/Nightvault – standalone.
David Guymer: Bear Eater, Force of Personality, Gods’ Gift and The Hardest Word
– Prequels to Hamilcar: Champion of the Gods – they appear to be in loose chronological order, and set things up nicely for the novel.
Guy Haley: Pantheon
– Standalone. Features Sigmar (sort of) and looks back to before the Age of Sigmar.
Nick Horth: Callis & Toll: The Old Ways
– Set between City of Secrets and The Silver Shard.
Robbie MacNiven: Pilgrim’s Trial
– Prequel to the novel Scourge of Fate.
Josh Reynolds: Auction of Blood, The Tainted Axe and The Road of Blades
– All part of the Eight Lamentations series: Road of Blades is a prequel to the novel Spear of Shadows; Tainted Axe is a sequel; Auction of Blood is standalone within the series.
Josh Reynolds: The Library of Forgotten Moments
– Sequel to Soul Wars.
Josh Reynolds: Order of the Fly: Tourney of Fate
– Standalone, but loosely connected to various other stories by Josh.
C L Werner: Gravesend Gold
– Prequel to Overlords of the Iron Dragon.
CL Werner: The Witch Takers
– Prequel to The Tainted Heart.
Check out the main Age of Sigmar reviews page on Track of Words.
I like the fact that it’s an anthology in hardback!