Age of Sigmar Book Review: Gates of Azyr

Right, I just finished the first two fiction books for Age of Sigmar, I want to do a quick run down of the first one, Gates of Azyr. As is now traditional, GW have released a novel that tells the story laid out in the starter set, showing you the battles you can recreate with the provided missions. These are never the most amazing books, because they have a formula to stick to, they have to go through the events in the starter set, which builds up the mechanics of the game to introduce it to new starters to the hobby.

This is easily the best of these they’ve done so far though, and gives us out first insight into the role of mortals in the Realms and into the point of view of the Stormcast Eternals.

Set almost entirely on the Aqshy, Realm of Fire, it pits the newly transported forces of the Stormcast Chamber the Hammers of Sigmar, the advance force sent to open the Realm Gate of Azyr to allow Sigmar’s army into the Mortal Realms. They clash with the Gore Tide, an army of Khorne worshippers desperate for a new challenge as the Realm of Fire is offering poor sport for the warlord Khorgos Khul who is one of the mightiest servants of Khorne on Aqshy.

Giving us point of view chapters for nearly every faction and most of the characters of the boxed set, it really answers a lot of questions we’ve had about the Age of Sigmar.

Eternals aren’t soulless robots, they retain memories of the life before the Reforging, they’re not Space Marines who know no fear, they are mortal souls filled with the power of a God which leaves them fallible. The mortals of Aqshy, the tribes constantly hunted by the Blood Reavers or the armies of Khorne, are an interesting proposition, nearly a millennia spent hiding and running, lest they be caught and eaten or worse. It left me wanting to know a lot more about the world and eager to get some games in. I am also desperate to know more about Ionus Cryptborn, who is not like the other Stormcast Eternals. He’s something very different and owes Sigmar a debt.

It’s well worth a read, sets the scene for the start of the Age of Sigmar box really well and lets you know more about how this world is going to work, going forward its going to be an interesting ride!

I enjoyed it. Certainly added context to what AoS is all about. It's a bit bolter porny (hammer porny?) but I do enjoy a bit of bolter porn, it's a bit like reading Jack Reacher novels. I think keeping the Sigmarites as possessing human emotions/concerns is a sensible move it makes them more accessible as characters as opposed to Space Marines (the comparisons are there). It is also nice to see they are continuing to provide character to the chaos minions it provide much greater depth rather than just having them as mindless hammer fodder.