Mark of Chaos

Warhammer Fantasy

by Anthony Reynolds

As the forces of Chaos sweep down from the north to threaten the civilised lands of the human Empire, a young Empire commander must prove his honour by tracking down and destroying the enemy leader. Epic fantasy set against a backdrop of war on a grand scale.

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction

416 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published December 31, 1999

About the author

Anthony Reynolds was a Games Developer and manager at Games Workshop in the UK. Since then he's written freelance for a number of companies, including Black Library Publishing, Mantic Games, THQ, Bandai-Namco, Behaviour Interactive, and River Horse Games. He currently lives in California.

Librarian note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Anthony^Reynolds

Reviews

[Paulo "paper books only" · Rating 2 out of 5]

Mark of Chaos written by Anthony Reynolds based upon the game with the same title.The story flows nicely and it's divided by the main view of the two characters. Stefan von Kessel a captain of Ostermark and Hroth a champion of Khorne.The story begins after the defeat of Warlord Asavar Kul at the hands of the emperor Magnus Pious. The invasion force was scattered and most of tribes destroyed. But several tribes of the Norscan, Kurgan and the Hung wandered through the lands of Kislev and within the empire. In the beggining of the book we see an attack by Hroth, a Khazag in a village of the Empire. After murdering all the residents he made a duel with another champion of Tzeench which he defeats. After each duel the followers of the loser will join the winner. That is the way of the Norse.After the defeat appears Sudobaal, a sharman that is searching the sword of Asavar Kul. Hroth is his champion. After that they move north and arrive at the shores and there they are received another champion of Khorne, Ullkjar, which is defeated by Hroth. As Hroth is kiling his enemy, Sudobaal intervene and he is spared. Instead Hroth kills several of Ulkjar's men.Meanwhile Stefan von Kessel was defending the northern borders. After a bad decision by the Count of Ostermark, Gruber, that refused to sent troops to the north, Stefan made a choice of withdrawing from the norther border. Gruber was mad but did nothing. Afterwards it appears Reiksmarshall Wolfgange Trenkenhoff that leads his army and Stefan army to the north to help the elves entrechened there. After an succefull attack they attack the fort and save the elves. There they meet the elf mage Aurelion and Khalanos and his dragon. Reiksmarshall have to move south and gives Stefan the command of his army to sail, with the elves, to the island where the artifact the Chaos hosts desire.Meanwhile a scout of Stefan arrives with a letter that confirms his innocence and his grandfather and the treachery of the Count Gruber and his alliance with the dark powers of Nurgle.Stefan drives south with his army leaving the elves alone. Afterwards he meets a hero of the Great War, the warrior-priest Gunthar. Then he drives his army to meet his enemy. Two Ostermark armies clash and knowing of his fate Gruber reveals himself and invokes the army of Nurgle which attack both of armies.Meanwhile Wilhelem the cold-hearted scout complete his quest to arrest Gruber in the middle of the fray and Stefan kills him with a magic-sword entrusted by Gunthar. After killing most of the plaguebearers the plague demom was killed by Gunthar.Meanwhile Hroth arrives at the island as the elves attack him. He leaves his hosts behind and with Sudobaal he goes to a cave where Hroth shows his treachery finally and strikes the sharman. He then enters the portal where he meets and bests Asavar Kul retriving his sword, the slayer of kings and Khorne makes him a demon Prince. Exiting the realm of chaos and in the cave he makes Sudobal his pawn. He leaves then the cave and join the battle on the beach where he slays most of the elfic horde and then battle and kills Khalanos and kills his dragon.After the killing against Gruber and his fiends of Nurgle his moves his armies to Talabheim where Hroth is going to attack.Olaf the Berserker and a thousand warriors strike Teclis the elf-mage. They all die. Making defenses in Talabheim with the surviving warriors of the previous war, and boosted by milita and the reaming soldiers of Talabheim, Stefan prepare for war. The attack come in several waves until the the daemon prince attacks. In the end, we might expect for stefan to kill the daemon prince, what would be very unrealistic but in the end the daemon prince is hunt down by the wrath of Sigmar.

I think in overal it was a page turning book. It was never slow and made you want to continue all night on. But there are several things that made me think.. the main question is the final battle why weren't the previous 200 knights of the household march forward to defend their city? They were waiting to be overrun? I didn't understood that tactic, but is minimal. But 200 knights as household guard? Strange. How expensive that would be.

I am looking forward for Dark Apostle.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is really good and interesting and this book has a lot of plot twists and it talks about a land filled with evils and the Empire (the Humans) need heroes that are willing to fight the evils.

[Cameron · Rating 5 out of 5]

Far more entertaining than I first thought. battle scenes were really well written.

[kruse · Rating 3 out of 5]

I remember reading this in middle school thinking it was awesome! But this time around it wasn’t as good as I remembered it.

Mainly because there’s lots of convenient plot plugs that don’t get any explanations. Hroth’s story is fun, but you don’t get much back story on him so he feels flat. The end is abrupt and doesn’t do Stefan much justice for all the build up he gets during the book. Also lots of violence.

Quick, easy read. It’s the author’s first book, and for that the story is pretty intriguing and is action packed. For being a novel adaption of a video game, it’s entertaining.

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

If this book didn't have some real iffy examples of fatphobia it would be a five.

An excellent book with some extremely amazing battle sequences. I've never played this game but I am 100% seeking it out after this book. Excellent split between sides of a conflict that acknowledges the flaws inherent in both.

[Justin · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you are starting out in Warhammer fantasy, this is not a bad place to start, its a long time before the main story but you see a few familiar faces.

[Andrei88 · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was ok, better than expected, still after reading other warhammer books I actually felt that the book was to bloody in some aspects. The fight scenes are good however you shouldn't expect any surprising plot twists.

[Walter Foster · Rating 5 out of 5]

i thought it was a good book with plenty of violence and action throughout not alot of surprises. it follows the line of war novels.