Well, this is something laying on my desk for quite some time… when I preordered my copy of Dreadfleet (and here I was, nervous that it may sell out before I placed my order… quite the contrary, all shops I know still have dozens of boxes… don’t know why, I love the game), I also preordered the corresponding novella. Actually, this is a nice thing from Games Workshop (respectively their book division, The Black Library) that they bring out small novellas to most of their boxed games nowadays… the Island of Blood has its novella, and Assault at Black Reach got one, too. So here we have Dreadfleet, written by leading game designer Phil Kelly himself.
For me, this was a “first” in another way, too. Sure, I have read a lot of fiction based on games or movies in my time (from Indiana Jones, Star Trek and Star Wars novels up to AD&D, Shadowrun or Vampire: The Masquerade novels… really had a tad too much time then), but this is my first novel set in the world of Warhammer Fantasy.
So, what can I tell about this Novella?
The Plot
I guess I can keep this short, because it really is just a novella – though at 200 pages it didn’t have to be… I mean Michael Moorcock can put some whole empires into 200 pages… but back to Dreadfleet.
The novella is divided into three parts. The first one, “The Battle of Sartosa”, starts with Captain Jaego Roth returning to the pirate city of Sartosa, which is currently under attack by Count Noctilus, an undead bane of the Warhammer seas. He wants to save his father, his wife and his son, which he hasn’t seen for many years. Of course he comes too late, possibly because he spends quite some time battling with Undead and meeting with fellow Captain Aranissa Saltspite… he vows vengeance and equipped with a chart and a compass that his father had died defending them, his quest has begun…
The second part sees Roth in Altdorf, where he tries to get the support of the Grand Theogonist Volkmar and his huge battleship, the Heldenhammer. When he is thrown out of the Reikstemple, he steals the Heldenhammer, resulting in a bitter battle on the river Reik. The novella jumps the next step, being the robbing of the city of Zandri and the tomb of undead King Amanhotep. With a huge load of treasures (and an embittered King on his toes), the novella picks up when Captain Roth arrives in Araby where he enlists the support of an acquaintance of his, the Golden Magus. A little time later, they save (more or less) Captain Aranissa Saltspite and enlists her for the quest, too. The first huge battle against Count Noctilus and his henchships ends with a disaster, though fortunately they can save dwarven engineer Red Brockk Gunnarson and in exchange for this, all three ships are repaired and Gunnarson joins them – after all, his arch-enemy, a Dwarf turned to Chaos, is part of Count Noctilus’ fleet. Together, they enter the gate to…
Part three, “The Galleon’s Graveyard”. I won’t tell you much about this one, but the safe things: the fleet of Jaego Roth is joined by High Elf Prince Yrellian; together they fight the fleet of Count Noctilus, but in the end, everything is quite different from what everyone expected…
Consistency
I won’t call myself an expert on the history of Warhammer’s Old World, but in my eyes there were no major “mistakes” that would contradict the offical sources. Of course they had to introduce the Galleon’s Graveyard, but I think it fits well with the rest of the world.
Over the course of the novella, the willing suspension of disbelief of the reader is strained only thrice (or at least it was strained twice in my case) – fortunately both times in the first half of the novella.
First, the whole section about Roth battling his way through Sartosa seems hardly plausible. How can he be there in time, how can he survive all this, how can he arrive at his home just minutes too late? This is all not very satisfactory…
The second case concerns the stealing of the Heldenhammer in Altdorf. Here we have the biggest ship of the Old World and it is anchored in a landlocked city? Even if I accept that the Reik is a huge river, it is not that huge to allow such a huge ship to maneuver… even worse, when it is stolen, Roth blocks the Reik with it to shoot down his pursuers, effectively having this ship making an 180° turn on a river without any major problems or running on ground… this is all a little too fantastic…
The third case went almost unnoted by me upon reading the novella, so it’s only a small thing, but: when Jaego Roth finds his slain family, he gives their body to the sea, as is usual in Sartosa. Later it pointed out several times that Count Noctilus has – through his control of the Galleon’s Graveyard – managed to gain command over all dead that are in the sea, from undead fish (and Skaven) to mariners and the like. But Roth’s family somehow never made it into their number… well. probably they just never appear in front of Roth again, but it would have been a splendid plot device if they did… probably the author just forgot about them…
Writing Style
Of all the current armybooks and codizes I have read, Phil Kelly’s the author who is best at doing all those little pieces of background fiction that can be found there. I would say that he quite excels in bringing a world/army/concept to life in just a small piece of dialogue or description.
As far as I know, Dreadfleet is his first attempt at writing some larger piece of fiction, or at least I couldn’t find any other book by him. He is doing fine with his straight plot, but there are some weaknesses. Mainly, it’s about him writing about emotions - really, when Mr. Kelly is delivering dialogues, they are witty, quick and cool. But when he’s writing about love, hate, revenge… well, I can’t really follow him here. For example, when Jaego Roth is struggling through burning Sartosa to reach his father, wife and son, he is too easily distracted by whatever comes along; his love for his family can’t convince me as well as his promise to revenge their deaths. The same goes for Roth’s feelings towards Aranissa Saltspite. It just… doesn’t feel right.
One minor point would also be that there are basically only three characters in this novella that don’t appear to be one-dimensional stock characters: Jaego Roth himself, of course, then Aranessa Saltspite and finally the Golden Magus. Well, you might count Grand Theogonist Volkmar in, if you like, he has only one scene, but it’s a good one. All the rest remain sketchy, fixed on their role and that’s it. Something of a pity, to be honest, I would have liked to learn more about the motivations of, say, Count Noctilus (who more or less gets through his appearances in the guise of a instinct-driven monster with a cool red bicorne). But that’s really a minor point only, as the space and plot of the novella would have made it difficult to portray all ten captains in their full glory… my only real disappointment here was the bickering between the High Elf Prince Yrellian and Dwarf Red Brokk Gunnarson – now there’s some clichés…
On the other hand, almost all the dialogues are splendid, most of his descriptions are very good (even though you can feel that he describes the captains and their ships by using the actual models and John Blanche’s artwork – with the notable exceptions of Roth himself and the Golden Magus). His battle scenes are conveniently short and to the point – all in all I was very positively surprised to find that most of the novel is not about battles themselves, but about making plans or acquiring allies.
All in all, a fine start for Phil Kelly. I hope he will write another novel one day…
Production Value
Can’t really say much about this one. The binding is solid, cover has a nice glossy feel about it… the paper inside is quite a regular sort of pulp, nothing special. Included is a black/white rendering of John Blanche’s map, which is almost unusable without its colours, as well as some other vignettes which all did not strike me as remarkable.
Apart from an advertisement for Dreadfleet (the game) there’s also an excerpt for the upcoming Tyrion/Teclis novel Blood of Aenarion by William King. I am not too sure about this one. Mr. King is clearly a more experienced writer of fiction than Mr. Kelly, but the excerpt (a duel of young Tyrion) portrays all of the elves as some kind of refined humans with pointy ears. I miss the alieness I would associate with elfin culture… but then, even Tolkien failed at that mostly…
My conclusion
I’ll rate this one a clear B for Dreadfleet is a solid piece of fiction. The novella has some weak points (especially the long first scene at Sartosa and the battle on the Reik), but once you have worked through those, it’s a page-turner with a few twists and a good (that is unexpected) turning point at the end.
Still I suppose a lot depends on your own point of view. If you own or play Dreadfleet (the game) then Dreadfleet (the novella) is an almost indispensable addendum. For the game is, more or less, a lavish re-enactment of this novella and all the things that might annoy you ruleswise (like the ever-changing wind and other stuff) are easier to accept and embrace with knowledge of this text.
If you are not owning/playing Dreadfleet, then the novella might still be a read worth checking out, as it details aspects of the Warhammer setting like Sartosa or the Reikstemple that can’t be found elsewhere. You shouldn’t read it if you are too deep into maritime novels like those of C. S. Forester or Patrick O’Brian, though – Phil Kelly doesn’t really care about the intricacies of running a giant sailing ship and thus his detailing remains sketchy (and probably implausible) at best. It was ok with me (even though I am a huge Hornblower aficionado), but if you are a real old salt, it might be different.
Unlike the game itself, the novella is already sold out in printed form, but you can still purchase it as a ebook from the Black Library homepage. Or you could check out eBay, whichever works fine with you.
