Drachenfels

Jack Yeovil (Kim Newman)

The Black Library, 2002

Reviewed by John Hocking

This novel originally dates from 1989 and is set in the Warhammer gaming universe. The Warhammer universe originated in the UK and has proven to be the most consistent game-based fantasy environment ever made. To an outsider, the two Warhammer worlds, one set in a fantasy past full of swords and sorcery, the other set in a science fiction future full of blasters and space battles, appear to be little more than elaborate excuses to engage in preposterously overblown scenes of combat and carnage. Truth be told, I expected little more out of this novel.

Drachenfels is by Kim Newman, who has earned a respectable following for his baroquely detailed, vampire-alternate history series that began with Anno Dracula, as well as a number of well-received horror novels and some engaging film journalism. I figured that Newman, writing Warhammer at the beginning of his career, would pull out the stops and spin a balls-out, down and dirty, lurid sword and sorcery tale. I was wrong.

Part horror story, part costume drama, part group character study, Drachenfels is as much about the staging of a mammoth play as it is about the reawakening legacy of the world's most powerful and evil sorcerer. Newman's talent and enthusiasm fill the pages with dozens of characters, each occupied with his or her own concerns. There is a certain lack of discipline here, as the central storyline is reduced to a background pulse while the author charges boldly forward with sub-plots and digressions and observations by the basketful. Yet this is not necessarily something I want to hold against the book. If Newman seems unable to fully control his creative impulses, he certainly seems to enjoy giving them free rein. Vivid details of character and conversation add verisimilitude. Hideous sorcery provides real chills. Odd moments of abrupt emotion spark up unheralded. The climax is ferocious and the denouement oddly moving.

Newman wrote a number of other books set in the Warhammer universe. I imagine I'll read all of them.