CL Werner’s 2018 novel Overlords of the Iron Dragon was a pacy, entertaining Age of Sigmar story and its sequel, Profit’s Ruin, hits many of the same notes and delivers a similarly fun, action-packed adventure. Having returned to Barak-Zilfin with empty holds to face the wrath of his investors, Captain Brokrin Ullisson is confronted with the very real possibility of losing both his charter and his ship, the Iron Dragon. His only hope is to accept a perilous mission to find the infamous Profit’s Ruin, a vast floating mass of weeds and vines which is said to have snared countless sky-ships, and return with enough salvage to settle his debts.
No adventure story would be complete without deadly obstacles and fiendish enemies of course, so Brokrin faces not only the considerable dangers of Profit’s Ruin but the attentions of a sorcerer out for revenge by proxy, a rival ship of piratical Kharadron, and the difficulties of integrating new faces into his troubled, down-at-heel crew. Most of the story takes place within the tangled arboreal confines of Profit’s Ruin, aloft in the skies of Chamon, which makes for a great setting full of danger and mystery, at once tangled, claustrophobic and vertiginous. All the while Brokrin and his crew are doing their best just to work together and survive, Brokrin himself is trying to understand what’s at the heart of this airborne jungle, and whether there’s some kind of overriding intelligence at work.
It takes a similar approach to Overlords, focusing on a small cast of Kharadron – including slippery new logisticator Agrilo – while sorcerer Yoshiro pulls strings from afar. Werner continues to explore Kharadron characteristics of gold-lust, honour, loyalty to crewmates and adherence to the Kharadron Code, including a little bit of what happens when backers and investors fail to see due returns, and there are a few nice little links back to both Overlords and, briefly, the audio drama Guns of the Black Eagle. Meanwhile Yoshiro, introduced via a pitch-perfect scene of internecine Chaos conflict, makes for an entertaining antagonist, even if his motivation is pretty much the standard thirst for power. Look elsewhere for an in-depth character study – instead, this simply takes entertaining characters and throws them head first into action-packed adventure.
Age of Sigmar as a setting has scope for all manner of storytelling, and with this Werner leans towards the fun side of the setting, exploring the endless variety that the Mortal Realms – and in particular their skies – can hold. It doesn’t veer too far from the template set out in Overlords, maintaining the same breezy pace and relatively straightforward narrative brought to life with inventive, entertaining set-pieces, so fans of the first book will find this easy to pick up, not to mention rewarding to revisit familiar characters. It’s very much a natural continuation of the same story, but when the characters and style are this much fun there’s nothing wrong with that! Ultimately, it’s just a satisfying straight-up adventure story, and a reminder of how much fun Werner’s writing is when he’s so clearly enjoying himself.
For more information, see this interview with CL Werner talking about Profit’s Ruin.
Check out the main Age of Sigmar reviews page on Track of Words.
