Gotrek and Felix are back again in this fourth instalment of the apparently open-ended series. William King continues where 'Daemonslayer' ended and has the mighty Dwarven airship 'Spirit of Grungni' return to Kislev. There is no warm welcome at Straghov Mansion, however. The Kislevite stronghold, home to Felix's beloved Ulrika, has been ambushed by a Skaven army under Gotrek's arch-enemy Grey Seer Thanquol, who is intent on stealing the airship for the greater good of his rat-people. Yet as the Spirit's firepower is joined by the last surviving Kislevites, Thanquol's force is once again defeated. The adventuring party known from the previous volume, including Ulrika and the Imperial Wizard Max Schreiber, is thus reunited. They all board the airship in order to warn Kislev and the Empire of the impending invasion, since they have seen huge forces of Chaos in the Wastes marching south. Their first stop is Karak Kadrin, the Slayer Keep. On the way, they meet a mutated dragon which almost destroys the 'Spirit' - only a terrible sacrifice can save our heroes. Thus, once arrived at Karak Kadrin, the slayers decide to go kill the dragon or find - suprise - their doom. Unfortunately, both a marauding Ork warband and a group of bandits would like a piece of the hoard, too. They won't, of course, if Gotrek's axe can avoid it.

Did I mention in my last review that William King has the tendency to try and top his previous novel? Well, let me recount that. We had one Slayer in the first two volumes, three in 'Daemonslayer', and a whole city full of them in 'Dragonslayer'. Admittedly, he thus broadens the spectrum of possible Slayer careers and biographies. For instance, he portrays a Dwarven thief who shaved his head after being caught but isn't quite reformed, and a young Slayer who hides his actual fear of death behind endless boasting. Other than these, King does not introduce a whole lot of new characters, but develops the well-known ones. The wizard Max Schreiber delves deeper into the mysteries magic and finds himself tempted to use his powers to snatch Ulrika from Felix. The relationship of the lovers is probably the most interesting part of 'Dragonslayer', simply because it's so unspectacular. Felix and Ulrika grow apart, as the bickering gets worse and their tolerance for each other's quirks decreases. It's a rather realistic portrayal of a love being lost. Most of the novel, however, is devoted giving the readers its title's worth. However I thought that the whole dragon-hunt business is a quest rather randomly inserted into the story-line, since it isn't connected to any of the two main developments of the series, i.e. the Skaven conspiracies of Grey Seer Thanquol and the new incursions of Chaos. Neither did William King put much effort into the dragon itself, which is a shame, because if one uses a creature as rare and mysterious in the Warhammer World as an actual dragon, one should at least try to make it special. But King doesn't give us much more than the fantasy stereotype, slightly Warhammer-flavoured by an utterly unneeded Chaos mutation.

As a novel, 'Dragonslayer' thus turns out to be a rather conventional piece from an author who lost touch with the inspiration that still emanated from his first few texts. Maybe it's just the law of serialism, but while number four in the Gotrek and Felix series is still quite entertaining, it isn't special. As gamers, we get a few bits and pieces of information about Karak Kadrin, the Slayer King and the World's Edge Mountains, but nothing that would make 'Dragonslayer' essential reading for the chroniclers of the Warhammer World. Hence the novel joins the ranks of those thousands of fantasy novels meddling in mediocrity.

(mw)