Headtaker

BLACK LIBRARY HALL OF FAME: APRIL 2017
"Most Black Library books I read, I read for research. In fact, reading Black Library novels, Forge World tomes and Games Workshop Battletomes and Codexes take up pretty much all of my reading time, so I rarely get to pick what I’m going to read.

Of course, quite often I come across something I really enjoy. Headtaker by David Guymer is one of those books.

I read Headtaker when I was writing the End Times novel, The Rise of the Horned Rat. Along with the massive sourcebook 'Thanquol' it formed the bulk of my research. I’d written Skarsnik a few years earlier and wanted to make sure that the end of Karak Eight Peaks was suitably grand by including as much as I could from other sources and linking Skarsnik, ‘The King of Black Crag’, Headtaker, Thorgrim and the events from 'Thanquol' into one coherent narrative. In this case, joining everything up was a challenge. David made a difficult book easier to write by creating such a great cast to play with.

They say a novel is judged by the quality of its characters. One of the tricky parts of writing Warhammer books is depicting believable non-humans. Headtaker is an outstanding novel on this score, because it has them in abundance. I loved both David’s skaven and dwarfs. His version of Queek, the eponymous Headtaker, was brilliantly psychotic. A real skaven’s skaven. And who can forget the loyal Ska, and the old-fur Sharpwit? Headtaker does what the best Black Library books do, extrapolating from gaming lore, colouring in those bits that are out of sight in the source books, to bring the Warhammer universes to brilliant life.

Dwarfs and skaven are utterly opposed in terms of character, nevertheless David manages to switch between the two with deceptive ease. Queen Kemma is one of my all time favourite dwarfs, and with Belegar he conjures a perfect picture of how the dwarf virtues of nobility, pride and stubbornness can leave them hopelessly stuck. Belegar’s story is continued in Thorgrim, in which David introduces even more excellent dwarf-folk, so I’ll be cheeky, and make this a recommendation for both.

I could go on, and cite David’s depiction of the Under-empire as also excellent, but why read more of this when you could go and read the book for yourself?"

– Guy Haley

THE STORY
Warlord Queek Headtaker is unlike other skaven, a fearless warrior, a general who leads from the front and the grim victor of many great battles. When King Kazador begins to gather an army at Karak Azul it falls to Queek to lead a surprise attack on the hold, but even one as cunning as he cannot resist the chance to face such a renowned hero of the dwarfs in single combat. With old enemies moving against him on both sides of the conflict, he musters his stormvermin for war...

Written by David Guymer