Bloody Books Review: The Gates Of Azyr

I felt it was worth going back to the very start of AoS to revisit some of the earlier tales. and to see how far we have come.

The original plan was to do each of the Realmgate Wars one by one over the next few weeks and talk about how far the setting has come.

I cannot do it to myself.

2015 feels a very long time ago now for a multitude of reasons. Since this book was released, on top of waves at everything I got married, moved twice and my son was born. My life has changed a lot in those seven years, and I wondered how that would affect revisiting the very start of Age Of Sigmar.

And the answer is: yes. This was a fight. This was a struggle akin to the blood soaked battlefields of the tale, I felt the strain of battle as I pushed through each paragraph, each sentence.

In no way is this a bad book as such, as a fast and loose tale of a Thing That Happened, it’s fine. The writing is fine. The grasp of language is fine. The issue is the complete lack of….anything. There is nothing here whatsoever, and it was a difficult experience for me. The elephant in the room is simply that at this point, Age of Sigmar isn’t a setting yet, it’s a name and some concepts. The Stormcast are no more than auto-win heroes and the Khorne Cultists are basically a scream on legs. Characterisation can’t happen as it may go against what the setting may need of them. Gates of Azyr isn’t the building blocks of the Mortal Realms, its the blueprints on the wall of a meeting room to be glanced at by passers by.

As a brief overview of the plot of Gates of Azyr (minus any significant spoilers, but honestly it’s a pretty basic story so there aren’t many), is that the Mortal Realms have fallen to Chaos. Our story is set in the Realm of Aqshy and sees human survivors being hunted by the followers of Khorne. Enter the Stormcast Eternals and their golden fury. The two factions then have some battles, the Stormcasts prove tougher than the Khorne worshipers expected and this leads into the wider Realmgate Wars series and the start of the Age of Sigmar. And while I hope that future instalments in this series do a better job of characterising the Stormcast and their allies, It has to be admitted that there are some engaging and intense actions scenes.

I want to say more, but honestly, I can’t. It was a time of void, an un-experience, which for some who wants to find the best in things, someone who wants to constructively criticise and proclaim the positives, it’s difficult to write about something that has so little in it. So much so that I’ve made the decision to skip the Realmgate Wars reviews entirely.

Ah well. Not everything’s going to be a winner eh?