Dominion and Your Top Three Age of Sigmar Black Library Reads

[Greyshadow]

I just finished Dominion by Darius Hinks and my goodness - what a cracking read! Definitely in my top three Black Library books I've ever read and it may even be my favourite of all time. The characters are wonderfully well done and the way the plot unfolded was just fantastic. I was actually sad to put the book down as I didn't want to say goodbye to all those characters I had warmed to! An emphatic five stars.

It's got me thinking, perhaps there are some other brilliant Age of Sigmar reads I should be giving a go? Here are my top three Warhammer books (in no particular order):

• Domion by Darius Hinks
• City of Secrets by Nick Horth
• Dreadfleet by Phil Kelly (Okay, not Age of Sigmar but hey, I love this book and have read it three times!)

What are your top three Age of Sigmar books?

Hopefully, new players will get some great recommendations from you lot too! 😀

Edited October 16, 2021 by Greyshadow

[ArkanautDadmiral]

I wasn’t a big fan of Dominion. I’m hard pressed to pick three…

Scourge of Fate, Spear of Shadows, Hamilcar Champion of the Gods… Overlords of The Iron Dragon, Gloomspite, City of Secrets.

There you go have 6 haha. I’m going to read Scourge of Fate again. I desperately wanted a Spear of Shadows sequel but Josh Reynolds departure rules that out

Oh I missed Plague Garden… and Dark Harvest haha.

AoS books haven’t really been piquing my fancy recently though.

[xking]

10 hours ago, Greyshadow said:

I just finished Dominion by Darius Hinks and my goodness - what a cracking read! Definitely in my top three Black Library books I've ever read and it may even be my favourite of all time. The characters are wonderfully well done and the way the plot unfolded was just fantastic. I was actually sad to put the book down as I didn't want to say goodbye to all those characters I had warmed to! An emphatic five stars.

It's got me thinking, perhaps there are some other brilliant Age of Sigmar reads I should be giving a go? Here are my top three Warhammer books (in no particular order):

• Domion by Darius Hinks
• City of Secrets by Nick Horth
• Dreadfleet by Phil Kelly (Okay, not Age of Sigmar but hey, I love this book and have read it three times!)

What are your top three Age of Sigmar books?

Hopefully, new players will get some great recommendations from you lot too! 😀

I didn't Read Dominion, What did you like about it? Some of the guys over all the "Age of Sigmar lore Masters" Discord didn't like it.

 

[RexHavoc]

10 hours ago, ArkanautDadmiral said:

I wasn’t a big fan of Dominion. I’m hard pressed to pick three…

Scourge of Fate, Spear of Shadows, Hamilcar Champion of the Gods… Overlords of The Iron Dragon, Gloomspite, City of Secrets.

There you go have 6 haha. I’m going to read Scourge of Fate again. I desperately wanted a Spear of Shadows sequel but Josh Reynolds departure rules that out

Oh I missed Plague Garden… and Dark Harvest haha.

AoS books haven’t really been piquing my fancy recently though.

I've not read a AoS book since they cancelled the eight lamentations.

I've picked some of the others up since, but honestly just lost interest when the sequels were cancelled and they went with the cash grab Gotrek stories instead. I brought the gloomspite book, coven of Blood & lady of sorrows partly because they were cheap and partly in case I regretted not getting them later on. But had no inkling to even try them.

I get that they likely want AoS to be their 'big gods and even bigger models' game, where as the eight lamentations was more about regular mortals in the realms. This is probably so they can continue to push big god models against the more gritty old world stuff that will be incoming, but AoS was once unimaginable in size and had room to cater to the mortals and the gods. They massively shrunk the setting in the 2nd Ed retcon and to me, that took away what was unique about the setting that wasn't just 'old world heroes on steroids'.

I really hope that they bring things like Josh Reynolds back to writing for AoS in the future. I'll happily go back to buying AoS books again then.

[ArkanautDadmiral]

1 hour ago, RexHavoc said:

I've not read a AoS book since they cancelled the eight lamentations.

I've picked some of the others up since, but honestly just lost interest when the sequels were cancelled and they went with the cash grab Gotrek stories instead. I brought the gloomspite book, coven of Blood & lady of sorrows partly because they were cheap and partly in case I regretted not getting them later on. But had no inkling to even try them.

I get that they likely want AoS to be their 'big gods and even bigger models' game, where as the eight lamentations was more about regular mortals in the realms. This is probably so they can continue to push big god models against the more gritty old world stuff that will be incoming, but AoS was once unimaginable in size and had room to cater to the mortals and the gods. They massively shrunk the setting in the 2nd Ed retcon and to me, that took away what was unique about the setting that wasn't just 'old world heroes on steroids'.

I really hope that they bring things like Josh Reynolds back to writing for AoS in the future. I'll happily go back to buying AoS books again then.

I don’t feel the way you do about the gods thing, or the other stuff really. Incidentally I think Spear of Shadows featured One of the gods more than any of the other books I read, bar Hamilcar.

Only reason I’ve not been too bothered about AoS books recently is because they’ve all mostly been about factions I’m not bothered about, or anthologies which I don’t have interest in. That and I’ve been making my way through Eisenhorn and Ravenor. As soon as there’s another Cities, KO or Chaos centric book I’ll be straight on it.

[Greyshadow]

2 hours ago, xking said:

I didn't Read Dominion, What did you like about it? Some of the guys over all the "Age of Sigmar lore Masters" Discord didn't like it.

 

A good author can pull at your heart strings and get you to really care for the characters. There is a viewpoint character called Niksar who is such a great cipher for us the reader. He sees the madness of it all but doesn’t give in to it due to a simple but very relatable friendship. The author really understands our expectations too and pulls the plot in unexpected directions . Also, there is no Dues Ex Machina’s in here, everything weaves together beautifully.

If you like Spear of Shadows and Cities of Secrets, you’ll like this one.

[Chikout]

You should all read Callis and Toll: the Silver Shard. It is the sequel to city of Secrets and a much better book. Then you should read Thieves Paradise and Heart of Winter, the two novellas that feature some of the same characters. Those would be my top 3. I really think Nick Horth is my favourite AoS writer. 

As a bonus if you can get of hold of some recent white dwarfs the sequence of Duardin stories by David Guymer is excellent, as is the sequence of stories that Guy Haley wrote for inferno. 

As a further bonus anything written by Evan Dicken is worth your time. There's a lot a lot of excellent AoS fiction that gets missed. 

 

[Ahriman]

Here's hoping the AoS output from Black Library picks up substantially soon. When they get it right it can be so so good.

My current top 3:

1. Silver Shard: fantastic human level view of the Realms, where the fantastical blends with their normal lives

 

2. The Eight Lamentations: again, human level view of the worlds but larger stakes than Silver Shard. Great characters

 

3. The Gotrek series. While he's lost some of his key characteristic by not fulfilling his death oath, and the lack of Felix is sad, I think he's the perfect character to walk the 8 Realms and highlight the fantastic absurdity of it all. I also love his new companions, and the Stormcast Eternal in Ghoul and Gitslayer has a fascinating arc, and fleshes them out nicely.

 

 

Honourable mentions to Dominion, Shadespire, Dark Harvest and Lady of Sorrows, and I've heard good things about Stormvault but haven't read it yet.

[RandyRyan]

I did enjoy the Dominion novel. I found the scene in the abandoned tower gave me some proper chills.

I hold up Spear of Shadows as my favourite Black Library novel. Josh Reynolds' take on the Mortal Realms is just perfect IMO. It's crazy settings, gods and warfare, but without being overly dark and serious in tone. I find a lot of BL fiction to just be needlessly bleak - Reynolds keeps it fun.

Black Pyramid and Dark Harvest are also favourites. They are some of the few BL novels that I have read more than once.

I am yet to read Hamilcar but it's on the list.

Edited October 17, 2021 by RandyRyan
Spelling

[Baron Klatz]

1. Gonna echo Spear of Shadows  and City of Secrets here. Just too good for a first step into the Mortal Realms for newcomers.

Honorable mention to "Hammerhal and Other Stories" for another beginner recommend.

2. Soul Wars just inching above Hallowed Knights: Black Pyramid. More Josh greatness put into ink with lots of great characters and fantastical settings.

3. Realmgate Wars: Hammers of Sigmar,  definitely a case of Stormcast bias on my part but I very much enjoy how much stuff the book goes over with greenhorn Stormcasts immediately going into a over-the-top battle against Khorne, a torture bridge made of welded cages and a evil moon's gravity pulling combatants into orbit. And that's just the first few pages before we see mortals living in hellish conditions under chaos from a priestess' view of her ruined homeland, two realms getting a chance to shine and epic battles galore leading to a bittersweet ending. It packs a lot into itself.

Another honorable mention to Realmgate Wars: Warstorm here. Very nice stories that give good views of the Stormcasts and bizarre realmscapes.

On the subject of Dominion.

Good book, not a great beginner story though. It's too dark and treats Ghur like a 40k Death World instead of Monster Hunter on mythology steroids.

A lot of newbies I talk to wonder how anyone can even try settling territory there which discourages their imagination with making any narrative in the Realm of Beasts. It's the opposite of Spear of Shadows which played on the amazing places and high fantasy upbeat locations found there.

It's a better book for intermediates who know the realms can have both dark and light whimsical elements. Like some parts of Ghur you're gonna find a forest that wants to eat you that's on the back of a mountain that wants to eat both you and the monster forest while other times you're gonna run into areas like the Black Marsh Barony with it's coast cities on the backs of land-eating giant turtles whose excrement is mined for gold they can't digest.

https://ageofsigmar.lexicanum.com/wiki/Black_Marsh_Barony

15 hours ago, RexHavoc said:

but AoS was once unimaginable in size and had room to cater to the mortals and the gods. They massively shrunk the setting in the 2nd Ed retcon and to me,

Oh that wasn't a retcon, they had hints of it from the get-go. In the first starter book with Gorkamorka's Waaagh hitting the edge of the realms and turning back and the 2015 Clans Pestilens tome showing the spherical realmspheres for the first time.

All 2nd ed did was define them better instead of leaving it vague how infinite they were. 

I mean do you remember when people saw this Ironjawz art and thought this was how you traveled between the Realm of fire and life with the realms being an abstract planet?

It's far better they defined how infinite the realms are like this:

"Realmspheres are spheres of reality, coalescing and breaking apart within the Aetheric Void. After the destruction of the World-That-Was, various kinds of magic formed new realities of near-infinite scope and grandeur by clustering together, crystallising and combining with nebulae, cosmic dust and debris "

https://ageofsigmar.lexicanum.com/wiki/Realmsphere

Ever expanding realm edges, countless sub-realms inside and outside the realmspheres that keep multiplying, mega-continents you can fit several Earths on with more lands and sky islands made all the time, knowing the 8 Mortal Realms are the largest but not the only realms in the void.

The setting is as endless as ever. We just can see the infinite potential better now.

15 hours ago, RexHavoc said:

've not read a AoS book since they cancelled the eight lamentations.

I hope that doesn't include Soulbound material. Simply phenomenal stuff.

I'd also say just give Omnibuses like "Sacrosanct and Other Stories" & "Oaths and Conquests" a try. Tons of unique larger than life characters and views of the vast crazy realms they adventure through.

[Ferban]

The Dominion novel was ... ok.  It had some really cool moments (the tower scene, the epilogue, and others), but some of the stuff didn't make much sense.  And, (let me stress that this is entirely subjective and a personal opinion) I didn't find Niksar all that likeable.  In fact, he made some fairly despicable decisions early on that really cast him in a bad light going forward.  I also didn't like the Dawnbringer much, or the Knight Arcanum.  Or Niksar's weird friend (Ophelia?) who seemed to show up only to help advance plot points. 

However, if you liked it, I'm glad you enjoyed it!  We don't all have to like the same stuff.  Also, I'm not a literary critic by any means.  I just like what I like.  

For me, I would put my top three as Overlords of the Iron Dragon, Lady of Sorrows, and probably Thunderstrike and Other Stories (in no particular order).  The last one is a collection, but almost every story is a fun read.  I ordered Stormvault as an ebook on Black Library.  Haven't started it yet, though. 

[Stormblood]

The Imprecations of Daemons:  One of my favorite warhammer books of all time, short story but fantastic.  Basically the exorcist in Age of Sigmar.

 

I also like the Gotrek Books, and Gloomspite was just very cool and thematic

[Candlelight]

Whoa, calling Dominion top BL book. That's pretty strong. I'd say it's a generic AoS novel, forgot all about it in the next few days.

Unfortunately, none of the AoS novels impressed me enough to list it as my top AoS BL reads. It mostly ranges from mediocre to a decent pulp. However, there are some short story hidden gems.

Strong Bones and A Tithe of Bone by Michael R. Fletcher. Sadly, this is very likely everything we're getting from Michael. The deal he was offered by BL wasn't good enough. I still strongly recommend these stories and if you like his style, check out his non-WH stuff. Well worth it.

And the third one is Into Dark Water by Jake Ozga. Something completely different, far from bolter ******. It shows what kind of stories are possible in AoS if the writers aren't forced to promote new plastic toys.

[Televiper11]

For novels, Gloomspite & Dark Harvest & Silver Shard were my favorites. There have been many excellent short stories.

[Skreech Verminking]

Spear of shadows and the first gotrek book from the aos system were my favorites.

Just because they had skaven in it.

[ArkanautDadmiral]

1 hour ago, Skreech Verminking said:

Spear of shadows and the first gotrek book from the aos system were my favorites.

Just because they had skaven in it.

What about Hamilcar? Or profits ruin?

Hammilcar actually made me almost interested in starting Skaven! Almost… haha

[Skreech Verminking]

4 minutes ago, ArkanautDadmiral said:

What about Hamilcar? Or profits ruin?

Hammilcar actually made me almost interested in starting Skaven! Almost… haha

Hamilcar, and profits ruin,

that is the first time I’m hearing of it.

also what kept you from starting the ratty boys?

[ArkanautDadmiral]

2 minutes ago, Skreech Verminking said:

Hamilcar, and profits ruin,

that is the first time I’m hearing of it.

also what kept you from starting the ratty boys?

Too many other models to paint! Haha

But I very much recommend both because you’re a Skaven fan.