Skavenslayer [Mass Market Paperback]

Skavenslayer is actually six adventures during the travels of Gotrek & Felix. Slayer Gotrek Gurnisson is a dwarf on a death quest. He roams the land searching for the mightiest of evils to fight and slay until he is finally rewarded with a glorious death that will long be remembered and talked about for generations to come. Felix Jaegor is sworn to accompany the Slayer, however long it takes, even though it could end in his own death. Should he survive, it will be Felix's job to record and report the heroic dwarf's many battles, as well as how Gotrek fell in combat. Here are the adventures within this book:

Skaven's Claw
Felix and Gotrek are temporarily working in the sewers of Nuln, hunting goblins. Otto, Felix's older brother, runs the family business in Nuln now. It is during a routine shift in the sewer that they (and the others on the shift) come across someone conspiring with the skaven.

**** This story picks up where "Ulric's Children" (in book titled "Trollslayer") leaves off. Grey Seer Thanquol and his giant hybrid rat-ogre are involved in it all as well. ****

Gutter Runners
Felix and Gotrek are working as bouncers at The Blind Pig, the roughest bar in Nuln, and skaven assassins are being sent to kill them.

*** This is an extremely short story. It adds nothing to the duo's destiny, but the battles sure are fun. ***

Night Raid
Believe it or not, Grey Seer Thanquol actually warns our two heroes about an attack on the College of Engineering. Of course, in doing so he is also helping himself.

**** Grey Seer is getting more devious in this tale. Perhaps he will actually take over the surface world some day. (And perhaps my mother is an elf.) ****

Plague Monks of Pestilens
Skaven Clan Pestilens goes to the surface with the Cauldron of a Thousand Poxes. It is an artifact stolen from the temple of the Plague God, Nurgle, long ago, when the world was still young. This worries Grey Seer because plans by Clan Pestilens tends to get out of control and decimate skavens in addition to humans. Again our two heroes will be mysteriously warned so they may deal with the problem.

**** This one is much like the last. Lots of fun. ****

Beasts of Moulder
Clan Moulder plans to starve the human city by releasing furry, rat-like monsters into the city. These creatures could eat the entire city dry within only a few days. Each creature has a hundred babies every day. The furry monsters are to arrive under cover of night via a black grain barge. Another mysterious message and our duo rush to keep the barge from docking.

***** Null (skaven from last story) is seeking information about Grey Seer and soon will be after revenge. I thoroughly enjoyed the ironic ending of this story. *****

The Battle for Nuln
The city of Nuln is under siege. Hunger, disease, despair, and the skaven are everywhere. Word is that local nobles had quarantined the city and that archers were shooting those who tried to depart by road and that Imperial naval ships on the river were singing any vessel which tried to pass them.

Grey Seer Thanquol is making plans to take the palace during the masked ball to be held by the Elector Countess. Unknown to Grey Seer is the fact that Null, Grottle and Heskit (skaven leaders from previous tales in the book) have learned of his messages to Felix and Gotrek which resulted in their plans being ruined. The trio are making their own plans to assassinate him.

**** All the stories finally merge for a wonderful ending. A short epilogue follows. I am amazed at how well this all comes together. Other than a couple of filler stories that had no real contribution except to add an extra battle or two, this entire book is extremely well done. ****

Reviewed by Detra Fitch of Huntress Reviews.

"SkavenSlayer", starts of with, Felix, and Gotrek, in the sewers of a large imperial city as sewerjacks, to kill trolls, or other forces of chaos, who might be wondering in the maze of sewers, in order to get money. However there simple job to get money became there battlegrounds for there new breathtaking adventure, when they find a skaven ratman, making a deal with a human. As the human gave the ratman, a warp stone, the ratman, saw gotrek and threw the stone to the ground which caused a eary fog to kill the ratman, and one of the sewerjacks accomponing felix, and gotrek. after that gotrek and felix, realized the city was in trouble to be attacked from the most unexpected direction, from below.
Together felix and gotrek must fight the hordes of skaven, to protect the city, or die in honor.

this book was one of the best I've read, it had great suspense, action, humor, ect. i recommand that all felix and gotrek novel lovers read this book. also if your a skaven funatic you would probably injoy this book.

This is the 2nd book in the Felix & Gotrek series, but the 5th one I've read. I started with the 3rd book in the series, "Daemonslayer", and read the two after it before deciding to go back and read the first two volumes in the series that I'd missed.

Out of the five, I'd have to say that this is by far the most comical, and also seems to have the greatest amount of character development for our hero Felix Jaeger.

William King seems to be having a real ball writing the scheming, often silly and always back-stabbing rat-men called the Skaven, and I get the impression that in fact they may very well be his favourite Warhammer race of all to write. After reading and enjoying this book so much I feel I gained a whole new appreciation for them, and understand more why he even decided to carry some Skaven characters on into subsequent books in the series.

Briefly, this book finds our fearless adventuring pair in the city of Nuln, in the heart of the Empire, where they are reduced to eking out a humble living in the most menial of duties in the sewers below. But in the course of this humiliating work, they uncover a deadly plan by the devious rat-men to take over the city. -- Can our heroes save the day???

The plot takes lots of twists and turns and brings lots of laughs along the way. The characters of crafty Skaven sorceror Thanquol and especially his poor, bedraggled lackey Lurk Snitchtongue (love that name!), who seems to be barely escaping from one tight situation with his masters after another, are especially memorable.

Lurk goes on to get further "development" in the next book! So while I wouldn't say this book is essential in the series and is actually one of the lighter entries, I think it would definitely enhance your enjoyment of its unforgettable sequel if you read this one first.