Gotrek and Felix Reading guide

[KrrNiGit]

Gotrek and Felix Reading guide
 

Have you read/listened to the amazing adventures of Gotrek in the Mortal Realms and wanted to know more? Have the nerds down at the hobby store been shaming your lack of Old World street cred? Have you got a lot of free time and no one to play with? Then have I got the book series for you!

 

The Gotrek and Felix series is the preeminent Old World fiction that Games Workshop have ever produced. With 17 novels and considerably more short stories there is a lot to go through. So to help those of you who are curious here is a primer to help you through their adventures.

 

To break things down I have split the series into several ages, focussing on different styles, authors and thematic elements. 

 

PROTO AGE

The first age is Gotrek’s proto-period. This age contains William King’s first short stories of Gotrek and Felix and are helpfully collected into the Trollslayer novel. These stories are proper Old Hammer stories. They are very grim and come from a period where the mythos of the Warhammer world had not yet been set in stone. These stories feel like a WHRP or D&D adventure. They are interesting, but distinct from the rest of the books both in theme and tone. Gotrek is not a super-dwarf icon, but rather just another ordinary dwarf surviving by the skin of his few remaining teeth. These books explore dwarfs in the Old World and explore what makes that different from other fantasy setting of the time. They are a mix of thoughtful exploration into the interesting contradiction of being a Trollslayer whilst also feeling like a fanfic of someone’s roleplaying sessions.

 

These stories are a mix of creepy horror and gritty, serious action movies; like the original Die Hard or Lethal Weapon movie. They are good, but don’t really add to the characterisation of Gotrek presented through the later ages of fiction. I enjoyed reading them immensely but you could skip them without missing much. Well worth the read for the nerd cred and completionist.

 

There are also some excellent readings of these short stories in The Oldhammer Fiction podcast. Lewis Kernow really makes the stories come to life and I highly recommend them.

GOLDEN AGE

With the release of Skavenslayer, William King really begins the Gotrek and Felix story as we know it. Gotrek and Felix become the iconic duo, exploring the Old World’s darkest corners with the humour and charm of Warhammer’s original odd couple. From the grim oddness of the original short stories, Gotrek and Felix enter the now settled world of Warhammer’s family friendly red era. Other key characters are introduced into the Gotrek and Felix story as the novels of this period go on. Not only are notable allies are introduced but one of Warhammer’s most iconic antagonists; Thanquol. 

 

These stories contain many meaningful moments and plenty of excitement as they explore the breadth of the Warhammer world. King is able (for the most part) to maintain the stakes, keeping Gotrek from becoming an unharmable killing machine while ramping up the excitement as the stories go. 

 

If this period was a movie, it’d be a fun 90s action movie, like Die Hard with a Vengeance. There are gritty and violent elements with engaging characters (even if they aren’t all that deep), but there is also increasing amounts of fun and silly moments. 

 

King’s skills as a writer help make these fun romps, with enjoyable characterisations. It is this run that settles Gotrek and Felix as the key Warhammer characters from the Old World. If you are going to read any Gotrek and Felix novels, these are the ones to go with.

SILVER AGE

The line between the Golden Age and Silver Age of Gotrek and Felix was difficult for me to define. I went with the change of author from William King to Nathan Long with Orcslayer. You could go move this demarcation earlier to include Giantslayer with the last of King novels blending into Long’s both stylistically and with the move of focus away from King’s original wider cast to a more singular focus on Gotrek. This move along with the increasing ridiculousness of the scale of the conflicts presented characterises this group of novels. Gotrek stops surviving by the skin of his teeth and starts to become an unstoppable killing machine slash force of nature slash demigod. As such the obstacles Gotrek faces also need to ramp out in ridiculousness to try and keep pace. The only thing keeping Gotrek from jumping the shark completely here is the skill of Nathan Long’s writing. He manages to keep the feel and fun of the Golden Age going just that bit longer though that shine starts to wear thin towards the end. 

 

While fun this period doesn’t really add anything into the Gotrek mythos that couldn’t be skipped. Read these if you enjoyed your way through the Golden Age and still want more hijinks. 

 

For a media reference this period is more the very silly Lethal Weapon 4, Rush Hour or He-man Masters of the Universe than the serious, gritty action movies of earlier periods. It is light and fun, if a little more shallow.

MEH AGE

Following Nathan Long’s Silver Age of novels, Anthony Reynolds and David Guymer have a go at writing for the series. This I feel is the ‘meh’ age. While I have enjoyed other things both Reynolds and Guymer have written these stories were a struggle to grind through. They are largely forgettable. You could easily replace Gotrek and Felix in these stories with any generic fantasy hero and nothing in them would change. They don’t add anything new to the mythos and they don’t feel like the earlier stories or follow the established pattern. Tellingly these stories are the only Gotrek and Felix novels to drop the ‘slayer’ suffix.

 

Don’t bother with these ones... I have been collecting the Gotrek and Felix Omnibuses and this is the only one I haven’t bothered with (even though my collection goes from the fourth to the sixth omnibus now).

THE FINAL AGE

With the Final age Gotrek and Felix return to form and return to the ‘slayer’ suffix. These two stories, written by David Guymer, bring the story of Gotrek and Felix to a close (as Games Workshop blows up the Old World around them). These stories bring the focus back on the original family of characters established by William King in the golden age, bringing their stories to emotionally satisfying conclusions. Fittingly along with the wider themes of the End Times, these stories return to the grim feeling of the early novels. The world is ending and these stories show our heroes in the peril of an unescapable cataclysm. 

 

These provide the bridge between Gotrek and Felix in the Old World and Gotrek’s re-emergence into the Mortal Realms. They are equal parts gritty reboot and return to form for a classic series. They are essential reading for fans.

 

Reading Guide

 

If you want to read the minimum amount but still get the whole story I would recommend reading from Skavenslayer to Vampireslayer and then jumping ahead and read Kinslayer and Slayer. This will give you the key arcs of the main cast and their conclusions. It also picks out the best-written stories in the series in my opinion.

 

If you want more Gotrek and Felix go on high adventures type stories and don’t mind some of the over the top silliness then read the Silver Age books. You’ll have a good time. If after reading all of that and you still love Gotrek and Felix, then you can go back and read the short stories collected in Trollslayer. Having a look into the prototypes of the slayer and heroic archetypes in the Warhammer world is fascinating enough to make up for its rough edges. Finally if you’ve done all that and are a bored ****** you can read the ‘meh’ era stories... or literally do anything else.

 

If I went to reread these myself I would start with Skavenslayer and keep going in order until I started to get sick of Gotrek then jump ahead and read the final two novels (Kinslayer and Slayer) and call it a day. 

 

 

 

 

Edited October 15, 2023 by KrrNiGit

[Beliman]

Nice write up! Thanks a lot

It seems that all images are down.

About G&F, I started reading them a few years ago (2014-15) but I couldn't end the third book. The first one was exactly what I liked, short stories exploring the world. But the second one was a but too much for me and I lost interest after starting the 3rd. 

It's weird because I read some G&F AoS books and are good enough for me. Should I try again the old ones?

Edited October 29, 2023 by Beliman

[KrrNiGit]

Dropping off makes sense with the big tonal jump between the earliest book and later ones. And it is very easy for things to feel more like a slog with such a big series. Best to drop things than soldier on, this isn’t fine art it’s just silly fun. 
 

I think if you’re enjoying the current AoS Gotrek books going back and reading the Golden Age books would be good fun if you want more Gotrek action.