Bloody Books Review - THE CURSE OF KHAINE – GAV THORPE

Nagash has risen and Altdorf has fallen. Against these two, quite alarming turn of events comes the third part of the series by Gav Thorpe, as we close out the tale of Malekith, the Dark Elves and their war against their high-born cousins. Malekith sees opportunity in the chaos and confusion of The End Times, seeing it as a time of change rather than one of apocalypse. Malekith wants to finally take his place as the lord supreme of the Elves., with a destiny unfolding in a way not forseen.

The core of the tale is a strong one, staying in step with the Campaign book it was released alongside. We have a surprising number of named Elf characters of both the dark and the high variety swooping in and out of the narrative, and the scale of the End Times is on full display here. Foreshadowing comes in waves, setting up the dark tempest yet to sweep away the world. Its all very portentous in a grand way, which leaves little time for the character development as events unfold at an ever-rapid pace. We understand why each character does what they do, but there isn't time to feel the decisions.

Malekith, the main and major focus of the tale, has the weight of momentum behind him, and we know this from all his appearances and past fiction, with so much of that being a paragraph here, a conversation there. We are denied the time to sink into his rage, his loathing of all other mortal and immortal creatures. Any time it does have the chance to explore these feelings, Morathi dominates the scene. Malus Darkblade turns up in what amounts to a cameo before shuffling off-scene. Tyrion is set up as a mirror image to Malekith but lacks the screen time to be more than a passing example of an elf-gone-right.

Gav does an admirable job here, he manages to get across the complexity of the situation that the Dark Elves are in, but this comes at glimmers of what could have been whenever the abillity to truly understand how the followers of Khaine see Naggurund and the lives they lead. This is an solid entry, and reading it alongside the Campaign book does help raise it up.