The difficulty in judging both Warhammer Adventures series is that they are opposites to one another. Realm Quest truly is the yang to Warped Galaxies' ying, and it embraces a few very different tropes and storytelling elements to craft its world. None of this is to say it is inherently bad. If anything, the differing direction helps it to better establish itself as a sperate story worth reading on its own. However, some of this will depend heavily upon a reader's preferences, and how it impacts an introduction into this new world.
Each series has a clear target audience, each has been written with a clear understanding of the setting and it is set to establish the tone, style and dynamic within the series. It's simply that whereas one focuses more upon an episodic format, Realm Quest is following a series based storyline. As such, this review is going to comment as much on the positives and negatives of this as it is the story and direction itself.
The Synopsis
Set in the modern timeline, City of Lifestone follows the story of Kiri, a slave to the Darkoath Barbarians. With the Mortal Realms now in a state of constant warfare against Sigmar's invading legions, the worshippers of the Ruinous powers demand ever more from their slaves. Kiri dearly wishes to flee from her life, but when she is given the opportunity to do so at last, she finds that her fate is far more complex than she ever could have imagined. A great darkness is coming to the Mortal Realms, and she is but one of a few who might stand against it.
The Good
The single most surprising thing about City of Lifestone is how it rarely pulls its punches. While few comparisons will be drawn from here on with Warped Galaxies, the flaw in the introduction to that series stemmed from how it did try to avoid grimmer everyday aspects of the world in key areas. With this story, much of what is outlined would be completely at home in a James Swallow or Guy Haley book. Kiri's life is stressful, the barbarians are constantly demanding more from her slaves, and it is an extremely grim existence. While it might not go into the same descriptions as more mature books - or feature the same level of copious body horror - it is displaying the nature of the Mortal Realms to a tee.
The story also fits into a specific, and very familiar, style which fits in well with most fantasy readers. It's not quite low fantasy, but there is certainly a Robert E. Howard-esque quality to how life is depicted and events unfold. It leaves you asking as many questions as answering them, but it does more than enough to establish the story and keep you invested very early on. This helps as it follows up events with several chases in quick succession, with little truly told to Kiri about the nature of life or even the mysterious advice her mother offers on her deathbed. Yes, Kiri's mother dies in the opening chapter. I told you this was grim.
While the tumultuous quality of Kiri's introduction could have easily put the tale on hold it works for one specific reason: We only know as much as she does. While there are a few bits and pieces which are dropped and the reader is expected to understand, much of it unfolds very naturally. She is an audience surrogate character in this regard, but rather than just using her as an excuse to explain things away, Huddleston utilises it to help better establish the atmosphere and direction of the work. It's akin to how Brothers of the Snake featured a woman unaware of the wider universe, or even the Adeptus Astartes, to establish the tone of the book along with introducing the reader to the Iron Snakes.
Furthermore, while sparsely described, there is an undeniably engaging and very interesting quality to Lifestone which makes you want to know more. One major factor within the book stems from how the city itself seems to almost be alive, warping the perceptions of travelers and altering the very streets upon which they stand. Even without this quality, however, it is also in a clear state of decay. Many areas within its limits are a shadow of what they once were, and Huddleston establishes a faded, almost vestigial, quality by simply having Kiri walk its streets. The issue is only made far more evident as events play out, introducing both the supporting cast and main villains into the story.
The actual narrative itself is concisely explained, and fully detailed, but you might not realise it at first. Part of this does play toward prophecy, but the story is structured in a way in which offsets the usual problems involving this. Some of the big ones relate more to how it re-orders a number of events and reworks a few ideas to mix things up. While a few typical elements still crop up, this method does at least keep you invested to see where it is going and what else can be utilised in its favour.
Finally, there is Billy Piper as the narrator. While her performance has its flaws, she definitely has more hits than misses here. She's one of a few who can evoke the Skaven with the mixture of horror and humour they truly need, and balances the varied tones and qualities of younger characters alongside older ones. Her only shortcoming here is her voice as a narrator, which works in the bleaker moments of the tale, but her tone seems to be off in others.
So, that's the good, now let's move onto the bad.
The Bad
The most obvious issue within Realm Quest stems more from how the story is structured and staggered than anything else. You are introduced to Kiri first and foremost, stay with her for most of the story and follow her perspective throughout the whole thing. On the one hand, this helps the tale in terms of just who to follow and the aforementioned advantages of exploring the world. On the other, it means that the tale is wholly tied to her. Characters are defined more by their association with her than anything else, and she takes up a lot of the spotlight which should be more evenly distributed. It's akin to the main failing of Star Trek: Discovery in this regard, where one hijacks what seems as if it should be a multi-person show.
The fact that so much of the story is focused upon Kiri also means that there is much less proverbial screen time for anyone else. You only start to learn about the other core characters at all past the story's halfway point, and even then it is a rushed introduction. Yes, they show up here and then before that point and have plenty of moments to interact in front of the reader. However, because these moments are action set pieces or chases, there is little time to fully offer them a chance to present themselves to the reader. A shifting perspective might have helped substantially to offset this but the story lacks that. As a result, the only characters who come across with any substance are Kiri and her two "predecessors", one of who looks as if he might quickly depart from the series. Well, that and the Skaven, but they always tend to steal the show.
The sheer volume of characters present within the tale only serves to exaggerate the above problem, however. In a short story such as this, three main characters and a villain would have been fine. This expands that roster to almost twice its size and, without a definitive introduction or time spent to fully introduce them, it can be difficult to keep track of who is who during the third act.
Matters are only made more problematic thanks to how City of Lifestone tries to use a lot of tried and tested ideas to hook the reader. The main characters are linked by prophecy, gathered by an older member of the last generation of such individuals, and need to make up for their failure. Each represents a key aspect of the Mortal Realms, and you are likely already thinking of one Saturday morning cartoon or another. This isn't inherently bad if it has something to further bolster it, but this introduction lacks so much of what makes Age of Sigmar so interesting. Much of it is spent avoiding the details which seemed so fascinating, and irritatingly it keeps offering hints at what could follow and might scratch that particular itch.
A further problem lies in how the action is handled here, specifically when it comes to outright fights. These are supposed to be largely untrained children, but after a point, the story seems to forget that particular detail. City of Lifestone handles the balance of their skill and inexperience very well for most of the tale, only for them to enter a large-scale skirmish and emerge on top at the last minute, which destroys this sense. Some of it can be excused one way or another, but it feels like a point which should have been saved for a moment much later on in the series when they have fully gelled as a group.
Finally, and most pressingly, City of Lifestone doesn't have a definitive ending. It ends on a "To Be Continued..." moment which works, but it leaves more than a few dangling threads which need to be resolved. In a larger book this can certainly work, but in a short tale such as this, it can feel unfulfilling at the end of the day. Combined with how the story is presented and the character elements play second fiddle to introducing Kiri, and it seems as if it was written with an ongoing series in mind, not as an individual tale. For some people this will make it engaging, but for others it can be quite offputting.
The Verdict
This is very much a "your mileage may vary" review, as some of the storytelling devices utilised here might appeal to some people more than others. However, in my personal opinion, it caused a few problems which should have otherwise been avoided so early on in the series. One or two fewer characters, more time spent on interaction, and another viewpoint character would have resolved many issues. As it stands, it's a story which looks as if it might be worth looking into further, but how good it will be shall ultimately be decided by how the second story follows up on this one.
If you do have a younger fan invested in Age of Sigmar - and who enjoys ongoing narratives which flow from book to book with few stopping points - this is a definite win. It still has many likable elements, but its flaws are hard to miss.
Verdict: 4.7 out of 10
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