Review: Wolf Riders edited by David Pringle
I reviewed Ignorant Armies a few months ago and absolutely loved it. In fact, I believe it was tied with The Secret History for my favorite read of 2023. So looking at my TBR pile and finding another Warhammer Fantasy short story collection edited by David Pringle, I had high hopes. And while Wolf Riders doesn’t quite live up to its predecessor, it’s still well worth the read.
Like Ignorant Armies, this book takes place in the grim and perilous lands of the Warhammer Fantasy universe, a Tolkien-esque world with an early Renaissance flair. The eight stories cover a range of settings and topics and although the focus on the malevolent Chaos Gods is downplayed, there is slightly more attention given to non-human characters to balance it out.
“Wolf Riders” – The return of Gotrek and Felix, the Dwarf-and-Human duo from the opening story of Ignorant Armies, this time guarding a group of human refugees through a dangerous mountain journey as bad luck seems to stalk the caravan.
“The Tilean Rat” – A Halfling is hired by a mysterious Elven woman to look for the titular rat statue, supposedly of only sentimental value.
“The Phantom of Yremy” – A mysterious thief stalks the streets of a Bretonnian town, seemingly with a vendetta against the magistrate.
“Cry of the Beast” – A young man and his adopted father find an Elven girl washed up on the beach after a shipwreck
“No Gold in the Gray Mountains” – Bandits hiding out in an abandoned, supposedly-haunted castle abduct a young noblewoman and must figure out how to keep her alive long enough to ransom her
“The Hammer of the Stars” – A schoolboy and his friends suspect trouble when exotic strangers come to town.
“Pulg’s Grand Carnival” – Seeking a place where he isn’t outcast, a young albino is persuaded to join a carnival run by the charismatic but airheaded Pulg, but a local businessman is out to get rid of Pulg an his carnival by any means necessary.
“The Way of the Witchfinder” – A servant of one of the Gods of Law sets out on his first mission.
Of the stories, “Tilean Rat” was probably my favorite. In addition to homages to the classic film noir The Maltese Falcon, the story was just a lot of fun, with twists and turns and a brisk, lively pace that made it an easy read. The last two stories, however, are by far the weakest of the bunch, with “Pulg’s Grand Carnival” being too long and having an unimpressive climax, and “Way of the Witchfinder” being too short to properly develop the characters or action.
Gotrek and Felix’s return offers a lot of new development to their characters and dynamic and while I preferred ” Geheimnisnacht”, it was also one of the more enjoyable stories in the bunch.
This book was pretty solid. I doubt that it will become a great favorite of mine, but each story was engaging and several of them are well worth rereading.
Warnings: As is typical for the setting, expect plenty of violence and some light body horror, as well as spatters of animal cruelty.
Rating: 7/10
