Blacktalon

Main Review:

Albert Einstein once said: ‘Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.’ At this point, I think continuing to willingly read Black Library books set in the Mortal Realms might count as an act of madness on my part. A quick flick through the nearly half dozen stories that have appeared on Fully Booked makes it clear that even the best amongst them are largely still flawed at best. But despite knowing that, I still found myself clambering to give Liane Merciel’s ‘Blacktalon’ a go, hoping amongst hope that I might finally find a pearl amongst the oysters.

Reader, I did not. Once again, it’s just sort of fine.

But first, for those who are new to the setting and to Neave as a character, a brief crash course. A nine-foot tall armoured behemoth with lightning powers and axes to grind, Neave Blacktalon acts as the assassin non pareil for Sigmar, God of the Storm. Sigmar is THE big cheese of the whole setting (it’s literally called Age of Sigmar) and yet does very little himself – instead spending most of his time in his big castle in the sky trying to find a way to make super-powered lightning soldiers who don’t lose their humanity progressively the more they die.

Unlike her previous literary outing, Neave has now acquired a team around her, imaginatively named ‘the Black Talons’ who definitely exist to do more than justify selling another box of tiny toy soldiers to collectors. Together, this band hunt the biggest, baddest, most dangerous enemies in all the Mortal Realms; trying to stave off death, destruction and chaos one mission at a time. And that, in a nutshell is what the plot of Blacktalon is. Neave and company are tasked with slaying a series of warlords and monsters to try and stop a prophecy which could spell the end of Sigmar himself and plunge everything into chaos.

Somewhat paradoxically, these stakes were TOO big for me to get invested in. If Star Wars and Marvel have taught me anything, it’s that there’s no risk of anything really world-shattering ever happening in a random expanded universe novel. Certainly nothing involving bumping off the eponymous divine being of the whole setting. Furthermore, whilst there were some lovely stylistic moments and locations dotted here and there, like a cursed labyrinth made of crystal or receiving prophetic visions through being struck by lightning, I found it difficult in places to actually keep track of exactly what was happening in any given scene. It reminded me a little of a particularly convoluted episode of Doctor Who.

It’s not just messy from a pacing standpoint though. The actual descriptions both in and out of combat are gross too. You can barely go a page without some sort of drooling or oozing. This only intensifies as the story goes on, with cannibals, gout and many other deeply macabre elements coming to the fore as set dressing. Whilst it goes a long to be be evocative of the setting and peril of the Blacktalons’ situation; it really rather put me off the story being told.

Despite the overbearing grossness of their opponents, I did keep pressing on with the book for the snippets of sections which were more enjoyable. Unlike Yndrasta: The Celestial Spear, Merciel does at least grant Neave the honour of being the main character of the book that bears her name. Despite being a super-powered assassin, Neave is an immensely empathetic character, with a strong desire to ‘do the right thing’ and try and protect the mortal beings that she encounters.

Also compared to Yndrasta, Merciel’s story features an increased number of Stormcast Eternals beyond the main character, so there’s more time to ruminate on what it means to be a lightning powered immortal bound to be ‘reforged’ over and over, losing a part of yourself with every death and subsequent resurrection. As someone who has spent many years trying to convince friends and strangers to look past the memes that surround the Stormcast, it was almost re-assuring to see someone else foreground the tragic nature of these heroes.

Whilst these silver linings went some way to alleviate the bad taste in my mouth when reading, there was only so much that they could do. Even more unfortunately, the ending is so weak that it burnt through all the good favour that I had clung onto into the final scenes.

The book promises a big, dramatic, world-shattering reveal that it simply can’t live up to. The rumoured ‘secret of Sigmar’ is that he smote a whole city because a small percentage of the population were at the risk of becoming heretics. Merciel tries to present this as something shocking, but for the average Warhammer (or even Old Testament) reader, such behaviour is standard ‘Tuesday-afternoon’ fare. The truth of Sigmar’s actions, we are told, was hidden away partly to prevent extremists using this as justification for their own cruelty – but even a cursory flick through any of the wider lore for the Age of Sigmar universe reveals countless examples of Sigmarite priests and witch-hunters acting with impunity to stamp out heresy. It is practically a hallmark of the setting’s tone.

As a result, I left Blacktalon feeling rather disappointed, as the book is weaker than the sum of its parts. The vast majority of it is entirely forgettable, and the bits that do stick in the mind, like the ending, are memorable for all the wrong reasons.

If you’re not already a Neave Blacktalon fan, you can give this story a miss. If you are a Neave Blacktalon fan, I'd recommend skipping it too.

Until the next time, happy reading!