Blighted Empire A Review

Blighted Empire written by CL Werner published by Black library June 2013.

Blighted Empire by CL Werner

Reviewed by Lord of Ruin

After reading Dead winter I was left wanting more a lot more for Werner had created a huge cast of characters that had story lines left dangling ready for when Blighted Empire came out. Again these characters all make a return in some form or other; whether that’s the greedy Boris Goldgatherer or the fallen priest of Morr to the vile skaven Puskab Foulfur. It should be noted however that the cast of skaven has dramatically increased and many grey lords from the council thirteen make a significant appearance. The most important thing to note is that Blighted Empire picks up 5-6 years later after the events of Dead Winter and it’s during those years that many things have fallen into famine and despair.

Blighted Empire is a dark story set within a dark fantasy setting that in turn is going through a very difficult and dark time, needless to say this book really piles on misery and despair that the black plague has caused to the Empire of Man. As I’ve said before this book brings in returning characters and one of those characters that I could not wait to read about was Vanhal. Vanhal is a character that is renowned in warhammer lore as being a powerful necromancer, a necromancer who became so powerful he was rumoured to be nearly as powerful as the creator of necromancy himself Nagash and after reading Blighted empire you will believe it. Here is a man who we have seen fallen into the trap of necromancy for his own personal reasons but through this he has become something much, much worse. Werner’s depiction of him is handled with supreme care and love, it would of been easy to do some powerful warlock who’s evil and very bad, but instead like all of Werner’s ‘villains’ he delves into the man himself as well as the man that man is becoming and for doing this Vanhal becomes this extremely interesting character that also shows the reader just how powerful and extremely dangerous necromancy is for it is far more complex than just resurrecting the undead as you will quickly discover.

Adolf Kreysig is also a returning character and he has not changed at all, utterly ruthless in pursuing what he wants to achieve, here is a man you could hate, however Werner spins this character on its head somewhat by showing that though he is undoubtedly evil there is a man here who is also looking out for the Empire. You start to see why he is so cut throat sometimes and why he uses such extreme methods because if he did not things would turn out very differently in Altdorf and it would be a lot worse off without his ruthless and extreme methods of getting things done. The other villain of this duo is Boris Goldgatherer the Emperor of the Empire here Werner decides to see how far he can push the evil selfish limits of this man, for here is a character that will be utterly hated by all readers for Werner shows him to be even more degenerate than the last book.  I never thought i would say this but it feel as though Werner went a little too far trying to drive the point home that Boris is a very evil man and that the pace of the book would slow down too much sometimes when the story would come around to him and his ultimate destiny.

As I’ve mentioned in my review of Dead Winter Mandred is the Prince of Middenheim with a destiny that will shape the Empire and by seeing through Mandreds eyes his growth and progress into the man he becomes was a very welcome addition to the story, for when we see Mandred we also get to witness a man who is trying to understand the very different world that he now inhabits and how he is going to try and make a difference on its seemingly, only outcome. Werner uses this opportunity to introduce the dwarfs living under Middenheim in the mountain and it’s through the dwarfs that the world of man is introduced to the evil lurking and thriving underneath their feet, the skaven.

Werner introduced the skaven and the council thirteen in Dead Winter, whether that was the rise of clan Pestilens or the stalwart believers of the horned rat; the grey seers led by none other than grey seer Skrittar or the self proclaimed warlord of all skavendom Vecteek all of these characters and clans have been tasked with the destruction of the human race and though at times it can be a little charring when the author jumps from one different grey lord to the next he undoubtedly pulls them off superbly.

‘The pacing of the book is driven mostly by its narrative though when the action starts its ruthless and as brutal as one would expect from CL Werner’

Its when we are with the skaven that the action really gets cranked up somewhat, whether we are witnessing a massed battle between the greatest necromancer of the age battle against a grey lord and his massive skaven horde or we are watching the vile machinations of Clan Skyre fight against the unbreakable faith that is the church of Sigmar, Werner really demonstrates his understanding of how skaven armies work and function but also his descriptive writing is very clear and easy to follow when the two sides clash. Everything is there for any skaven fan, whether it be screaming bells or Jezzail sniper teams to gutter runners and assassins of clan eshin all are demonstrated to their fullest in the most grandiose and brutal manner. What I loved so much about the skaven armies is how much they turn on one another and how insidious these skaven leaders are, always trying to find a quick and easy lie to further there own ends and it is ultimately why skaven never fully succeed, dont get me wrong for skaven do succeed in a lot of things but their self destructive nature is also there greatest weapon and greatest failure and I believe that Werner has done a fantastic job of demonstrating these qualities that the skaven possess.

Though I maybe singing this books praises there were a few things that could of been avoided in order to of made this book perfect. Firstly how dire and dark the book can get can really put you off sometimes, I found that there is only so much misery and despair you can read before you have to put it down, there was just too much negative and not enough hope for my tastes though the skaven parts help with abit of humour the human parts particularly the Emperor sections i found to be abit dull after a while. The second thing has to be the size of the cast, if you thought Dead Winter was big then be ready for this one for the cast near enough doubles. I cant stress enough how important it is for Black Library to include a character list either at the front or back, I brought this up in my Dead Winter review and here its blatantly obvious it needs one. It should be noted that Werner has also included a preface covering what happened in the last book, which makes this book ideal for those wishing to start from here, though I would strongly recommend reading the first one.

5/5- Overall this is a tremendous tale set during one of the Empires most testing times and for those that love skaven or enjoyed the previous book then you will find a lot here for you to dissect and devour.  I’m giving it a five out of five because though it has a lot of very dark content, it is undoubtedly a dark story to tell and thus it can’t be marked down for doing what it’s supposed to.