Blood of Aenarion (1) Paperback – November 27, 2012

Sometimes, I find myself craving pure old-fashioned sword and sorcery escapism. You know, tales of action, adventure, and intrigue with vile villains and jaded heroes. Books where the exploits of legendary figures are chronicled, as they stride across a world, meting out death and destruction to their enemies, even while they carry around their own personal crosses upon their back. And Warhammer novels are tailor made for these moments.The best part of these sugar-coated fantasy stories are the characters. Every Warhammer fan has their personal favorite. But few of them are as interesting or as ill-fated as Aenarion, the first Phoenix King of the Elves; the warrior who braves death by godly flames and the Curse of Khaine (when he draws the vile sword of the God of War and Murder) not for personal glory but to obtain the power to defend his people from the endless hordes of Chaos. So, naturally, when I saw this book, realized it was all about Aenarion’s descendants and promised to reveal, at least, a sliver of lore about the legendary Phoenix King, I had to read it.Blood starts things off with a mesmerizing tale of Aenarion’s final battle. This too brief introduction to the Phoenix King taking a reader into the head of the doomed legend, revealing his true feelings about his life’s choices, exploring his complicated relationship with Caledor Dragontamer and Morathi, and, ultimately, setting the stage for the stories main villain, N’Kari the immortal Daemon prince.Shifting from the ancient past, the story finally comes to rest on a pair of Aenarion’s ancestors: Tyrion and Teclis. These twins reared in the wilds of the continent of Ulthuan by their widowed father, who is more obsessed with repairing the ancient battle armor of Aenarion than spending time with his children. Tyrion is the athletic twin, endowed with amazing physical ability and with a mind for strategy; Teclis is a sickly youth, whose mind is better suited for magic. The two of them content with their current life, shielded by their father from the truth of what it means to be of the blood of Aenarion.But peace never lasts. Things changing abruptly for the twins when their aunt arrives unexpectedly. The current Phoenix King having decreed that Tyrion and Teclis must be examined for the taint of Khaine’s curse. The fear of the elves that Aenarion’s ancestors will be born with the taint of the Bloody-Handed God of War and Murder, causing them to slip into some form of madness and bring untold misery to their race. And, thus, are our ill-starred twins ripped from their isolated childhood home and immersed in a world of power and intrigue they are not prepared to handle.While I usually do not warm to coming-of-age stories anymore (too old and grumpy, I think), I enjoyed this one. William King doing a wonderful job of fleshing out the twins (especially Tyrion here), creating real individuals who lived up to their legendary Warhammer status but also were more complex. The pair exhibiting moments of confusion, sadness, weakness, and actual mistakes! Not Chosen Ones in the usual sense (though the twins are definitely gifted in different ways and viewed as having potential by those who wish to be their benefactors) but youths who have much to learn and seemingly not enough time to do so before doom befalls them. This personal portrait of the real Tyrion and Teclis, not the legends, a huge reason I enjoyed the narrative from start to finish.The other element I thoroughly enjoyed throughout Blood was William King’s simple yet perfect observations regarding the differences (or lack of differences) between the Elves of Ulthuan and their Druuchi cousins. Specifically, I am referring to how the author deftly and subtly shows the High Elves and their demented cousins to not be so terribly different after all; each people merely a different side of the same coin. The Druuchi of Naggaroth and the Elves both flawed races, overflowing with intense passions and hopeless hubris. This seemingly simple and insignificant observation clarifying the eternal conflict for me better than any multi-page info dump ever could have.The only problem I had with this story was the lack of suspense. Anyone who is the least bit familiar with Warhammer knows Tyrion and Teclis are important figures in the lore, legendary figures even, so the possibility of their tale ending here was basically zero. Certainly, all stories have a tendency to never ask more of their heroes than they are able to overcome, but with specific details of Tyrion and Teclis’s lives already set down in stone, William King had his hands tied to a certain extent as to what he could actually do with and to these characters. Unfortunately, that did hold back the narrative from reaching its full potential.Blood of Aenarion had its grip on me from the first page of Aenarion’s story, building in me a deep desire to know who and what his ancestors would be. Tyrion and Teclis definitely lived up to my expectations, providing me with a nice action and adventure story in a world which I found comfortable yet intriguing. And, yes, I did like it enough to immediately move on to book two of the series.

I've been a fan of William King's since he first wrote the Gotrek and Felix novels and I've read them all. Highly recommended. Although Blood of Aenarion also features a duo of characters, Tyrion and Teclis as opposed to Gotrek and Felix, and the tone is not as light-hearted than in the Slayer novels, Blood of Aenarion is a tremendously good book. The pacing that King sets is masterful and the character development is rich and engaging. He makes you care about his characters, fleshes them out to the core and allows the reader to truly identify with their personalities. As a Warhammer player and owner of a High Elf Army, this book - and the two novels to follow are going to become a veritable bible of source material for background information and scenario ideas as well.I'll add that even if you know nothing about the Warhammer world or High Elves or even who Tyrion and Teclis are (and who they later become), this novel is accessible and functions as a great introductory piece to the lore and culture of Warhammer's High Elves. William King is a real treasure, I can't wait for the next one.

Aenarion was one bad motherf*cker and I would like to hear more learn more about him. Tyrion and Teclis are great characters and Malekith shares SO many similarities with Darth Vader. Great stuff.

Bill King has always been my favorite black library author and he just cemented that spot with "Blood of Aenarion". This isn't just a fun read based in the warhammer world, it's a great fantasy novel. A young Tyrion and Teclis realize their potential and destiny as they struggle with High Elf society, their own personal demons and...well, real demons!!!Can't wait for the next installment of this trilogy.

Decent Warhammer book but nothing spectacular. Tyrion and telcus are interesting characters and there was good development throughout the book. Not a whole lot of action but there are some epic scenes. I will defiantly follow through with the other books.

i got about 200 of warhammer books.....this rates up there to be in the throne room shelf..i notice they have been handled by people visiting the growler...as long as there are no smears..had to reorder some..glad i did..collector item now...ole bill king is an excellent wordsmith....

Big fan of the author from the Ragnar series. Didn't like the Gotrek and Felix novels at all. Couldn't put this book down. Can't wait for the remaining two novels to arrive :) Great novel!

I gave up on the book - I've yet to do that. No connection with characters, storytelling wanting. If you liked sword of shanarra, if you did you may want to skip this one. I like action but also content and overall thread of story and being able to relate.

I looked up this title as I'm a keen Warhammer Fantasy Battle enthusiast, especially the excellent Total War PC game that has spun off from the traditional table-top game, and I wanted to learn a bit more about the Warhammer world. To that effect, the book helped to serve this purpose, offering some background to many of the key characters and races.In all other respects however, this is a pretty routine piece of science/fantasy work really and probably something I would have enjoyed lot more in my youth. The characters are fairly one-dimensional and the author tends to fall in to the trap (as do many, in my view) of stereotyping entire races with the same characteristics. As such, the whole thing becomes a bit formulaic and lacking nuance.The story itself is coherent, reasonably well written and hangs together fine...there's enough to keep me going with the series, although admittedly this is because the book isn't particularly long. In summary, I'd say if you are interested in the science/fantasy genre generally, but not Warhammer, then there are much better books for you to explore. If however you are interested in both the genre and Warhammer specifically, this is worth a go.

Well written within the constraints of The Warhammer universe. Not the most original plot line but the characterisation more than makes up this for this.As with all King novels; you can't go wrong.

Libro molto interessante per chi conosce l'ambientazione di Warhammer. Essendo una parte di una trilogia, bisogna attendere di aver letto anche gli altri prima di poter esprimere un giudizio complessivo della storia, tuttavia l'ho trovato intrigante, sebbene alcune parti risultino un po' lente. Molto bello il prologo.

Wer ein Warhammer Fan ist dieses buch ist ein muss. eine unglaubliche interessante Geschichte in der die Gesellschaft der Hochelfen sehr deutlich beschrieben ist und die Geschichte über die Zwillinge ist einer der besten die ich bis dato gelesen haben. deshalb habe ich hier 5 sterne geben ich hab lieber dieses Buch gelesen anstatt tv zu schauen

Totally recommended 100 percentA good buyA good dealDefinitely I would repeat it, I do not hesitate it