Book review 85 // Lord of Ruin by Dan Abnett and Mike Lee

I failed so terribly at completing my Malus Darkblade story reviews. I had a lofty goal of reading these in order and blogging in a timely fashion. The first tale The Daemon's Curse was posted way back in Feb 2019, this was followed by Bloodstorm in March 2019, then Reaper of Souls in March 2019 and finally Warpsword also in March 2019. Then I got distracted for fifteen months and finally remembered during my Thousand Sons month that I had this unread book on my to-read shelf still. I couldn't believe it, I had completely forgotten about this book. I even searched the blog as there was no way I would have not posted about it. Well, I was wrong, I had forgotten so I curled up and read the story and delved back into the Malus Darkblade timeline and what an adventure.

Book Details

Title: Lord of Ruin

Author: Dan Abnett & Mike Lee

Publisher: Black Library

Type: Paperback

Page Count: 413

Commercial Fluff: In the world of Warhammer, no race is as cruel and treacherous as the dark elves, and no member of this race is more infamous than Malus Darkblade. Now that he has retrieved the five missing artefacts, Darkblade must return them to the daemon before the year is up. But can Tz'arkan be trusted to honour his part of the bargain or will he try to trick Darkblade one last time?

Review

And here we hit the final epic tale of Malus (not counting Deathblade written by a different author). Malus is once again in the middle of trouble. He finds himself in the court of Malekith the Witch King and is appointed commander of his armies. Now Malus has to face his first true test as a commander and defeat his sister Nagaira now a full devotee to Slaanesh and her chaos hoard of beastmen and barbarians. All this whilst attempting to regain his soul from Tz'arkan!

This book took Warpsword and ramped up the action even more. We are treated to almost over the top bloody battles and otherworldly dark magic. Into this backdrop, we have surprising plot twists and unsurprising twists. This is the perfect Warhammer story and truly had me gripped to the end and sad this series had to end. Is this the true reason I hadn't read this book?

Do yourselves a favour and pick up the collection and have an enjoyable read.

Book Review 46 // Warpsword by Dan Abnett and Mike Lee

I'm really hitting my stride at the moment with my reading, averaging 50 pages a night. What this does mean is that my book collection is finally starting to shrink and I am greedy looking at what I should get into next! But before that can happen it is time to head back into the world that was and join Malus once more as he searches for the fourth artifact. Have you read the earlier reviews.....no. Well follow this link.

Book Details

Title: Warpsword
Author: Dan Abnett & Mike Lee
Publisher: Black Library
Type: Paperback
Page Count: 407
Commercial Fluff: In the world of Warhammer, no race is as cruel and treacherous as the dark elves, and no member of this race is more infamous than Malus Darkblade. His soul taken forfeit by a daemon, Darkblade must now seek the legendary Warpsword of Khaine or be forever damned.

Review

Here we are, the fourth tale in the Malus Darkblade series. It also means we are at the second to last adventure. First up I have to say there was a real twist in the story telling, it felt darker, meaner and scarier. Malus is slowly succumbing to the Daemon and you can feel that time is running out. To make things hard the next artifact the Warpsword of Khaine is located in designed for murder and bloodshed, that also happens to be suffering a Holy Civil War!

This was an exciting tale as we got to visit the City of Executioners, the capital city of Khaine's Worship! Add to this the fact that we finally get the Malus and Urial showdown we have been waiting for and you can't help but feel giddy.

This was a bloody tale. I'm pretty sure not a single chapter passed without bloodshed. Like the other tales in series, we are treated to twists and turns through out, we discover the cult of Khaine is built on lies, we have political intrigue, sibling rivalry and a daemon that I just find comical with his perfectly timed wit. I found the Chaos Waste section slightly rushed and I do wish some more time was spent on the temple and it's inhabitants. But overall another great read.

Now onto the final novel - Lord of Ruin. As always I love to get feedback so drop me comment.