The Konrad Saga
A Warhammer Omnibus

By David Ferring

Omnibus published in 2005 by Black Library. Contains Konrad (1989), Shadowbreed (1990), and Warblade (1993)

Reviewed by Paul McNamee

Pardon me for getting a little personal on this review.

Ryan Harvey pinged me one day, "Hey, would you like to review some Warhammer novels for the site?" "Warhammer," I thought. "I don't know a damn thing about it. Wait, some of the Warhammer authors had stories in Flashing Swords, right?"

"Sure," I replied to Ryan. "Send 'em along."

Then I got busy doing my homework. There have indeed been Warhammer authors who have had stories featured in the e-pages of Flashing Swords and they've been interviewed by Sword and Sorcery as well-- C. L. Werner and William King. If you haven't read the interviews yet, you should. William King gives a very concise summation of the two Warhammer worlds right in his first answer. I couldn't describe it better.

Konrad

Meet Konrad, a boy with no name—orphaned, abused, and trapped in a meaningless life as a nameless servant. But a chance encounter leads to friendship and opens possibilities he could never imagine. But when he finally chooses freedom, greater forces conspire to make him dreadfully aware that he cannot escape his mysterious destiny. The beasts of Chaos are on the move, and they always seem to come back to Konrad.

As the opening to the complete saga, Konrad performs its role. As a stand-alone novel, Konrad feels a bit schizophrenic. The first act lasts for one hundred pages. Though slow to build to a climax, it is very solid and evenly paced. The last two acts, each being half as long as the first and comprising the last hundred pages of the novel, are more rushed and do not hold together as well. The first act presents us with Konrad's growth toward freedom from his dreary life. The second act quickly introduces a mentor and then skips ahead five years into the third act, which is suddenly a dungeon adventure. A shorter first act and an expanded second act—to allow us to learn more of Konrad's mentor, Wolf—would have been a welcome change.

The novel establishes many open-ended mysteries, none of which are resolved by the novel's end. Who was the mysterious Bronze Warrior who was the harbinger of doom for Konrad's village? Is Konrad's lover really dead? Who is Skullface, the immortal that could not be killed? The pacing feels a bit off and the story rushes toward a conclusion that doesn't conclude anything, and only serves as a direct cliffhanger into the next volume.

Style-wise, the writing is fine. Konrad's predicament, his confusion, and his desperation are all palatable. The descriptions of the Chaotic hordes of Beastmen razing Konrad's village are well done. The sense of impending doom, the sense that Konrad will lose any happiness he finds, and the distinct feeling that higher powers are involved in machinations behind-the-scenes of Konrad's life are all well-drawn.

All in all, Konrad is a promising but disjointed start.

Shadowbreed

The second novel of the Konrad saga is a more solid romp through the Warhammer world. The story moves at a good pace and holds steady on its through-line. Konrad is thrust into adventure after adventure, chasing his destiny—or more often being pushed along by it. From his capture by a horde of Chaotic Beastmen, to the mystery of the Bronze Warrior, to the underground lairs of wizards and skaven (rat lycanthropes) Konrad fights his way brutally in the name of survival.

David Ferring does a good job of establishing mysterious hooks to hold onto the reader, too. For instance, the mystery of the Bronze Warrior, established in the first novel, is partially—and only partially—explained. It's enough to satisfy the reader for the second act of the saga, and leaves the reader anxious to find the answers in the third novel (hopefully). And what of Konrad's ultimate fate? Will he die? Or worse, will he yield his struggle and become an agent of Chaos himself?

The villains become less faceless in this second novel, though there is still the dichotomous issue of dealing with Chaotic evil. Chaos needs no motivation, yet our hero needs something specific to battle—something or someone specifically at odds with his own values. That aspect of the saga still lacks through the second novel. But there are hints that there are players in the game with a game plan, and one has hope that these various teasers will be fully explained and explored by the conclusion of the third novel.

Shadowbreed firms up the shoring of The Konrad Saga, and moves us along briskly toward the conclusion of the saga.

Warblade

The third novel of the saga is not unlike the second, with Konrad moving through various adventures alternately moving toward and avoiding whatever his final destiny must be. The novel follows the singsong plot of alternate adventures in cities and underground. This story in particular has a funerary undercurrent that grows stronger as the tale progresses. Konrad seems like the last honest man alive, as nearly everyone else is revealed to be something other than what they present to the world.

The battles are swift and brutal, the corpses pile high. Ferring keeps the suspense of Konrad's destiny taut right through the final pages. Konrad finds allies new and old. Barra, a dwarven smith, was a particular delight (I would like to have seen more). The mysteries are all answered, albeit some less satisfactorily than others. I enjoyed Konrad's final fate, but his long awaited, first and final direct confrontation with the mysterious Skullface was unsatisfactory.

Summary

The Konrad Saga novels were the first of the Warhammer novels. They reveal an author and a series that were still finding their footing. There are some good things in this saga. Characterizations of the hero and his allies are solid. No one felt one-dimensional, though there are some characters who could have had more time on the page. A few of the battle scenes are nothing more than slaughter, but Ferring wisely sums up such battles with an economy of words. The longer battles are given their descriptive due. The initial Beastmen attack on Konrad's home village is particularly lengthy, but well done.

And there are areas of weakness. The central construct of higher forces manipulating Konrad throughout the tale never quite manages to fire on all cylinders. The flow is a bit jagged. There are multiple influences but they do not mesh smoothly—high fantasy (gods and magic and Fate), sword-and-sorcery (bloody battles, flawed heroes), and even Dungeons & Dragons (time and again we find Konrad slicing his way through an underground lair of chaotic beasts).

I would not say that The Konrad Saga failed, but neither did it entirely astonish me. It does not make me anxious to read as much Warhammer as possible. On the other hand, I found it entertaining enough that I would be interested in seeking out other Warhammer titles that might appeal to me, based on their cover blurbs.

C. L. Werner's Witch Hunter appears to be infused with a good dose of Solomon Kane...put that one on my list!