Riders of the Dead

by Dan Abnett

Book Overview

To the north of the Empire lies the Chaos Wastes, home of the Dark Powers and their servants. All that stands between the gateway to hell and the civilised world is the city of Kislev. Two brothers in... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 184416019X
• ISBN13: 9781844160198
• Release Date: January 2004
• Publisher: Black Library
• Length: 407 Pages
• Weight: 0.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 4.2" x 6.8"

Customer Reviews

Fast-paced, tense.

Abnett has a knack for literary warfare. He has done a splendid job emersing the reader in a world of dark fantasy here. The characters and their histories are beautifully fleshed out. Perhaps the best thing to note in this book is the gradual, painstakingly well-crafted way that a protagonist makes his way down the path of darkness. From a hero to a villian, the transition is so well honed that you'll be awestruck. My only complaint is that, after spending hundreds of pages building these characters up and detailing them flawlessly, the final battle between our protagonists lasts nearly half a page, and feels somewhat unsatisfying. You've followed a main character for a long time, soaking up his mannerisms and ways, only to have him cut down quickly and efficiently, with little time spent on his own thoughts as it happens. Perhaps Abnett did this on purpose, but it left me feeling a little flat. Despite that, this is an excellent piece of fantasy, and I'd recommend it to anyone interested in brutal action and warfare.

The Year that no one forgets...

... or actually the book that no one forgets. The book was about two demilancers of the Empire who went to war and got separeted. It was the 2521 and a full scale war was goin' on. One of the empire armies march north and face the northern tribes. The northern tribes were more and outnumbered then and most of them fell. Some were made captives to their own sports and others fled south. And this is how our story begins. Dan Abnett made a story about two different friends, if you can call it. One is a noble (anti-hero) and other is a educated person (Hero). In the book they go to drastic changes. This book is about the main characters but we can see other aspects. Dan Abnett portraits exclently the Viewpoint of Empire, of the Kislevian's (who are the empire allies but seen as under-developed people), and the Northers (Norsca) Who are the antognists of the empire. In the end I personally admire each and every other realm. The norcsa who aren't that all chaos and mayhem, the kisvelians who live in the stepps and aren't that under-develped but rather code and faith followers. I like the all book. If there is a part where I don't feel so excited its the end. I guess it was rather precipated. But the end after the last battle was tottaly unpredictable. (It remind me of Dan Abnett's Double Eagle) If you want to start reading Warhammer you can start anywhere since they are all great books. But Abnett's book are just marvelous. I would recomend this one to people who love a book about war and character development. (I am not a native english person but portuguese)

Best Abnett novel yet.....

This is a very good read. If you ar into battle scenes, Abnett is your man. No one is better than Abnett at descibing the blurr,blood, and chaos that is medevil combat. But it not just the battles that make this book great, its cultures add a huge amount of flavor and substance to it also. Would be a 5 star classic if not for the sudden ending. Abnett likely had a page count given to him to stay under by the publisher.

finest work yet

If you are a fan of Warhammer, this is not only Dan Abnett's finest novel so far, but it is one of Games Workshop's finest fantasy novels yet.

Somewhat slow start, typical great Abnett finish

The early portions of this book are not consumed with the typical fire of Abnett's other books, e.g., the Gaunt's Ghosts Warhammer 40k novels, but there are many good things to recommend this book.First, for readers who are unfamiliar with the Warhammer Fantasy universe, things might be a bit confusing, but Abnett does a good job of explaining things as they come, focusing more upon the characters and their plights than on the game world. There are two main characters, who begin the story very different from how they are at the novel's end. One was born into nobility, and is very haughty and overbearing, while the other is of lesser birth and has worked very hard to improve his station. They are fellow horse soldiers in the Empire, sent to help the defense against the northern hordes. They quickly become separated, and their lives follow very different paths both from each other and from their previous existences. One is captured by the evil northern forces and is slowly corrupted by them, while the other falls in with the barbarians of the steppes, tenuous allies of the Empire. Both experience radical changes of perspective and personality before the climax of the novel. Besides what I thought was a slow start, it seemed that the end was almost too quick. Perhaps this in itself is a statement of the way of life in the Warhammer world, but for a novel it seemed very hurried and disappointing. Don't get me wrong, now, for the last 75 pages or so I could not put the book down. But for the first hardcover Warhammer book, I would have liked a longer novel with more resolution than was given, though the very end was quite nicely done.Basically, I really liked the story, but I think most people should wait for the paperback, as this is not quite worth the hardback price. Personally, I hope that the Black Library puts out more hardcover books (again, Gaunt's Ghosts, guys!), but that they make it more worth the price. For [the money], I want a longer read than this one.