hugh's review
(Disclaimer: I don't know much Warhammer, and I'm aware there's a lot of backstory I'm missing)
Short stories set in one specific campaign in the Warhammer universe.
These read to me mostly as a kind of fanfiction (which I definitely don't mean as an insult) - Warhammer has a huge, complex universe, and these stories seem like individual writers have taken tiny pieces of a huge picture to carve out their own niches. They have features in common, but I like that they each have very different stories and styles. I love too that this style of collaboration means they're not writing about the biggest characters or the main narrative, it's about exploring the side characters and novel angles.
That said, there's a satirical short story Ursula le Guin wrote (which I've entirely forgotten the name of) about an author really wanting a cup of coffee, and writing a story about it by substituting alien names and sci-fi tropes. I feel like that's exactly what's happened here - the military tech is all spaceships and laser weapons, but none of it seems functionally different from guns and melee combat. These stories could easily take place in real settings, and it makes me wonder why they aren't? (That said, the terminology makes is seem like the authors want to be *really* clear that this is a sci-fi setting)
Short stories set in one specific campaign in the Warhammer universe.
These read to me mostly as a kind of fanfiction (which I definitely don't mean as an insult) - Warhammer has a huge, complex universe, and these stories seem like individual writers have taken tiny pieces of a huge picture to carve out their own niches. They have features in common, but I like that they each have very different stories and styles. I love too that this style of collaboration means they're not writing about the biggest characters or the main narrative, it's about exploring the side characters and novel angles.
That said, there's a satirical short story Ursula le Guin wrote (which I've entirely forgotten the name of) about an author really wanting a cup of coffee, and writing a story about it by substituting alien names and sci-fi tropes. I feel like that's exactly what's happened here - the military tech is all spaceships and laser weapons, but none of it seems functionally different from guns and melee combat. These stories could easily take place in real settings, and it makes me wonder why they aren't? (That said, the terminology makes is seem like the authors want to be *really* clear that this is a sci-fi setting)
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