Books, The End Times The Curse of Khaine by Gav Thorpe

 
So, a little against my interest I picked up the next in the run of the Warhammer End Times books- The Curse of Khaine by Gav Thorpe. I was needing a break from Warhammer novels, but my inability to get through the first few pages of another book and the potential (according to rumours) new edition of the Warhammer fantasy rules dropping in about a month I know I need to get through them before too many spoilers crop up.

This one focuses on the Elves, specifically the Witch King Malekith of the Dark Elves who has spent 6000 years getting more and more bitter and angry at not being granted the throne of the High Elf lands of Ulthuan. As the forces of Chaos invade Naggaroth and his generals plot against him he makes the decision to abandon the Dark Elf lands and take back Ulthuan or be destroyed. Summoning every dark elf the invasion is launched.

The book’s written in an interesting way as every time Malekith is confronted by a reminder or individual from his past it enters his memories and we get an insight into key moments of the previous 6000 years- mostly his defeats in Ulthuan, his ego being beaten or his sorceress mother Morathi manipulating him. There’s also a small moment with Malus Darkblade though dependent on how smart Malus really is I was a little annoyed at some spoilers of the final Malus book being hinted at.

Although the memories filled in a lot of gaps and expanded on Malekith as a character they sometimes were too frequent and slowed the pace of the book, this was made more an issue as numerous battles were hinted at with no real expansion- even the (now customary) deaths of important characters were passed over a little too frequently.

I’m now torn between reading the next book in the series or reading to Malus book to discover what happens with regards the spoilers- given I was a bit bored by the previous malus book it has at least raised my interest levels again