What do you think?
Rate this book
Warhammer 40,000
Das Vermächtnis der Wulfen
Die Space Wolves sind ein stolzer und grimmiger Kriegerorden
mit einer langen und ereignisreichen Geschichte. Doch nicht alle
ihre Sagas künden von Ruhm und Glorie. In ihrer Vergangenheit
liegen Geheimnisse und Widersacher verborgen, welche die
Folge der Taten eines vergangenen und halb vergessenen Zeitalters
sind. Als Fenris, die Heimatwelt der Space Wolves, von einer
Flut bösartiger Dämonen angegriffen wird, beantworten alle,
die dem Orden dienen, den Ruf zu den Waffen. Der Krieg bricht
mit ungekannter Heftigkeit über die Space Wolves herein, doch
inmitten des Gemetzels lauert ein noch viel größerer Schrecken:
die Rückkehr verlorener Brüder, des finsteren Erbes ihres Primarchen
Leman Russ. Können die Space Wolves die Enthüllung der
Wulfen überstehen?
Read it Because
WARUM DU DIESES BUCH LESEN SOLLTEST
Zwei fantastische Romane in einem Band, die von der Rückkehr der sagenumwobenen Wulfen berichten – und das inmitten eines gewaltigen Angriffs des Chaos. Wer die Wölfe mal so richtig in Aktion sehen will, ist hier richtig. Vlka Fenryka!
- Genres40kScience Fiction
519 pages, Paperback
Published March 1, 2018
4 people are currently reading
75 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
February 26, 2016
This is a really strange old kettle of fish. If you like 130 page fight scenes, then you'll maybe quite like this.
But other than that... I had no idea who any of the characters were, no idea what any of the locations were, it just kept throwing BIG FIGHTY STUFF at the page, at one point like, all but one of the planets in the Wolves home system are destroyed by Chaos in the space of literally two paragraphs.
I got to the end and I had absolutely no idea what the hell had happened. Other than GRRR! SMASH! KILL! SHOOTY! STAB! CHARGE! GRRRRRR! MANLY WOLVES TOGETHER BEING NOT AT ALL HOMO-EROTIC! GRRRR!
So if you want 130 pages of SHOOTYSTABCHARGEGRRR! And space wolves killing squizillions of demons without even breaking a sweat, before charging on to kill yet more mega-squizillions more demons. This is the story for you.
If you want like... plot, and characters you care about, and a coherent story. Maybe give it a pass.
But other than that... I had no idea who any of the characters were, no idea what any of the locations were, it just kept throwing BIG FIGHTY STUFF at the page, at one point like, all but one of the planets in the Wolves home system are destroyed by Chaos in the space of literally two paragraphs.
I got to the end and I had absolutely no idea what the hell had happened. Other than GRRR! SMASH! KILL! SHOOTY! STAB! CHARGE! GRRRRRR! MANLY WOLVES TOGETHER BEING NOT AT ALL HOMO-EROTIC! GRRRR!
So if you want 130 pages of SHOOTYSTABCHARGEGRRR! And space wolves killing squizillions of demons without even breaking a sweat, before charging on to kill yet more mega-squizillions more demons. This is the story for you.
If you want like... plot, and characters you care about, and a coherent story. Maybe give it a pass.
January 9, 2021
Sometimes, especially when life gets heavy, burdensome, and at times hurt, you need to unwind, both body and mind, and take in something that uplifts you, or at least makes you smile. One of my favorite forms of sheer entertainment is the Warhammer universes. I enjoy stories of good people, especially people of faith, struggling against real, objective, heinous evil. Perhaps it's because I am a military historian, and so much of that is drawn in shades of grey, with neither side, ever, being truly righteous.
And thusly, I come back to a period where, for a few weeks or so, I need to switch gears and escape. And what better way to escape than with some badass space Vikings, eh?
Curse of the Wulfen, by David Anandale, is not a bad book, nor is it a great one.
It's entertaining, though it's not without it's flaws, the vast majority of which David himself had nothing to do with.
Back around a decade ago, give or take a couple years, Black Library was invested in giving the individual Astartes Legions their own, unique cultures and backstories through the guise of the Horus Heresy novel series. Each Legion culture was heavily inspired by a real human, historical culture. Well, my personal favorite culture was of the Space Wolves, the VI Legion.
Except, they hate that name, they prefer the Vylka Fenryka.
Dan Abnett's Prospero Burns turned what were cartoony, over the top Space Vikings, into a more grounded, realistic, and far more interesting Legion of Varangians who hailed from a cultural norm that was very heavily inspired by the pre-Christian Kievan Rus. Reading that novel, despite some of the physiological traits that are unique to the Vylka Fenryka, you could almost call them the Sons of Vladimir instead of the Sons of Russ.
Anyways...
Fast forward to less than a decade later, and Black Library decided to entirely eschew that bit of coolness, and instead double down on cartoony, over the top Space Vikings, all the while telling someone to hold their Boddington's because you silly muppets hadn't seen anything yet.
Now, our old, early Games Workshop cartoony, over the top Space Vikings were turned up to frigging eleven and a half, hopped on cocaine, and smack so full of blatant references to Norse mythology that it kinda became cringe.
Enter the modern Space Wolves, or as some call them, truly militant furries.
Call of the Wulfen plays on this timeframe, and the sheer ridiculous nature of the current Space Wolves (apparently they now embrace that name, as all vestiges of their, extremely cool and more grounded analogous to Kievan Rus culture is done away with...) made me pass this one up for a long time.
However, they have moved the setting forward, the lore has evolved, and this particular first of a two part series is a major piece of the prelude to that moving of the Doomsday Clock forward. And since I refuse to spend seventy US dollars on a campaign book that these two novels were written around (I am not made of money, and my fiction budget is substantially less than my history budget), I settled for the two novels. My hopes weren't high.
In truth, I was largely pleasantly surprised.
Mostly, that's David Anandale's fault. He is a genuinely very good writer, especially when dealing with the darker side of the setting, and this one flowed well enough that it kept my interest. Plus the story was on a grand scale, and the plot more complex and complicated than I was expecting, which is always a good thing.
But I have to drop a star just for the silly nature of the Wulfen in general. (They're basically Lycanthropes, the Wulfen curse is a Space Wolf succumbing to the worst aspects of the Canis Helix that they're genetically modified with to take on the genetic attributes of their Primarch, Leman Russ. Most, the vast majority, don't succumb, but now the Wulfen of the 13th Great Company have returned, fulfillment of an ancient prophecy, a great sign of the coming of the End Times, and the return of Russ).
Despite all that, it was good enough to earn a three star rating, which isn't a bad one, really. Another star was dropped for the shortness of the book itself, simply too short to really go into any depth as to the story, instead everything had to be rushed, and this left more than a few holes and a less satisfying overall read.
Still, it was worth the time, your mileage may vary.
And thusly, I come back to a period where, for a few weeks or so, I need to switch gears and escape. And what better way to escape than with some badass space Vikings, eh?
Curse of the Wulfen, by David Anandale, is not a bad book, nor is it a great one.
It's entertaining, though it's not without it's flaws, the vast majority of which David himself had nothing to do with.
Back around a decade ago, give or take a couple years, Black Library was invested in giving the individual Astartes Legions their own, unique cultures and backstories through the guise of the Horus Heresy novel series. Each Legion culture was heavily inspired by a real human, historical culture. Well, my personal favorite culture was of the Space Wolves, the VI Legion.
Except, they hate that name, they prefer the Vylka Fenryka.
Dan Abnett's Prospero Burns turned what were cartoony, over the top Space Vikings, into a more grounded, realistic, and far more interesting Legion of Varangians who hailed from a cultural norm that was very heavily inspired by the pre-Christian Kievan Rus. Reading that novel, despite some of the physiological traits that are unique to the Vylka Fenryka, you could almost call them the Sons of Vladimir instead of the Sons of Russ.
Anyways...
Fast forward to less than a decade later, and Black Library decided to entirely eschew that bit of coolness, and instead double down on cartoony, over the top Space Vikings, all the while telling someone to hold their Boddington's because you silly muppets hadn't seen anything yet.
Now, our old, early Games Workshop cartoony, over the top Space Vikings were turned up to frigging eleven and a half, hopped on cocaine, and smack so full of blatant references to Norse mythology that it kinda became cringe.
Enter the modern Space Wolves, or as some call them, truly militant furries.
Call of the Wulfen plays on this timeframe, and the sheer ridiculous nature of the current Space Wolves (apparently they now embrace that name, as all vestiges of their, extremely cool and more grounded analogous to Kievan Rus culture is done away with...) made me pass this one up for a long time.
However, they have moved the setting forward, the lore has evolved, and this particular first of a two part series is a major piece of the prelude to that moving of the Doomsday Clock forward. And since I refuse to spend seventy US dollars on a campaign book that these two novels were written around (I am not made of money, and my fiction budget is substantially less than my history budget), I settled for the two novels. My hopes weren't high.
In truth, I was largely pleasantly surprised.
Mostly, that's David Anandale's fault. He is a genuinely very good writer, especially when dealing with the darker side of the setting, and this one flowed well enough that it kept my interest. Plus the story was on a grand scale, and the plot more complex and complicated than I was expecting, which is always a good thing.
But I have to drop a star just for the silly nature of the Wulfen in general. (They're basically Lycanthropes, the Wulfen curse is a Space Wolf succumbing to the worst aspects of the Canis Helix that they're genetically modified with to take on the genetic attributes of their Primarch, Leman Russ. Most, the vast majority, don't succumb, but now the Wulfen of the 13th Great Company have returned, fulfillment of an ancient prophecy, a great sign of the coming of the End Times, and the return of Russ).
Despite all that, it was good enough to earn a three star rating, which isn't a bad one, really. Another star was dropped for the shortness of the book itself, simply too short to really go into any depth as to the story, instead everything had to be rushed, and this left more than a few holes and a less satisfying overall read.
Still, it was worth the time, your mileage may vary.
June 19, 2017
You can read the full review over at my blog:
https://shadowhawksshade.wordpress.co...
When I first got into Warhammer 40,000 fiction my first stop was Grey Hunter by William King. Odd to start with a third novel in a series for a setting you don’t understand but that’s where I was some fifteen years ago. I was no stranger to this however because when I started on the Animorphs novels by K. A. Applegate, the third novel The Encounter was where I started. And just as then, I fell in love with what I was reading. For me, Grey Hunter started an obssessive love with the Space Wolves and Ragnar in particular that persists to this day. Always happy to read something about them, and in that respect Curse of the Wulfen definitely stands as one of the best that Black Library has to offer. Part of the War Zone Fenris campaign, this novel by David Annandale explores how the Space Wolves Chapter must adapt once its mythical Thirteenth Company returns to the material realm, lost for some ten thousand years. It is a fantastic start to the campaign lore, and I definitely recommend it.
Perhaps the most striking aspect of the novel is its prelude, which sees three heroes of the Chapter come together before a particular tomb deep in their mountainous fortress-monastery. The two Wolf-Lords Krom Dragongaze and Harald Deathwolf, plus the Wolf-Priest Ulrik the Slayer. The Space Wolves are a Chapter heavy on mysticism and omens, and this one-page start to the novel is pretty chilling for what it portends for these warriors and their brothers. And from there, Curse of the Wulfen is a tale of uncertainty and heroism, legends and doubts. Lost to the warp at the dawn of the Horus Heresy when the Space Wolves burned Prospero, the homeworld of the Thousand Sons, the Thirteenth return in scattered packs and the Chapter’s companies are each tasked to head out and gather them all wherever they may be.
As someone who has long been enamoured of the myths of the Thirteenth Company and the wulfen curse of the Chapter, this novel was a blessing. William King’s novels dealt with the concept tangentially though Lee Lightner’s Wolf’s Honour gave us significant details that were very intriguing. However, the Horus Heresy series seems to have run a little roughshod on all of that. Except for a short story in the anthology Tales of Heresy, we do not see Lord Bulveye and his Thirteenth ever again and Dan Abnett’s Prospero Burns takes the Wolves in a very different direction. All the same, there is enough here that you can see how David Annandale takes all the disparate threads and weaves them together into an evolved concept. There is no Bulveye here, but the essence of who and what the wulfen are still remains and it is really fascinating to read.
Wolf-Lord Harald Deathwolf is our primary protagonist in the novel and he made an excellent case for the ambivalent nature of the Thirteenth and their return again and again as the narrative progressed. Initially hailed as heroes and a favourable omen of the return of their Primarch Leman Russ, the optimism of Harald eventually gives way to dread and fear once the wulfen turn out to be something darker than they appeared. I won’t go into the details here, for that’s part of the experience of reading the novel, but suffice to say that David explores the duality of the wulfen really well. They are both a gift and a curse, hearkening back to William King and Lee Lightner’s novels, and I loved that aspect of them. It made for a more enjoyable story than what I’d imagined.
https://shadowhawksshade.wordpress.co...
When I first got into Warhammer 40,000 fiction my first stop was Grey Hunter by William King. Odd to start with a third novel in a series for a setting you don’t understand but that’s where I was some fifteen years ago. I was no stranger to this however because when I started on the Animorphs novels by K. A. Applegate, the third novel The Encounter was where I started. And just as then, I fell in love with what I was reading. For me, Grey Hunter started an obssessive love with the Space Wolves and Ragnar in particular that persists to this day. Always happy to read something about them, and in that respect Curse of the Wulfen definitely stands as one of the best that Black Library has to offer. Part of the War Zone Fenris campaign, this novel by David Annandale explores how the Space Wolves Chapter must adapt once its mythical Thirteenth Company returns to the material realm, lost for some ten thousand years. It is a fantastic start to the campaign lore, and I definitely recommend it.
Perhaps the most striking aspect of the novel is its prelude, which sees three heroes of the Chapter come together before a particular tomb deep in their mountainous fortress-monastery. The two Wolf-Lords Krom Dragongaze and Harald Deathwolf, plus the Wolf-Priest Ulrik the Slayer. The Space Wolves are a Chapter heavy on mysticism and omens, and this one-page start to the novel is pretty chilling for what it portends for these warriors and their brothers. And from there, Curse of the Wulfen is a tale of uncertainty and heroism, legends and doubts. Lost to the warp at the dawn of the Horus Heresy when the Space Wolves burned Prospero, the homeworld of the Thousand Sons, the Thirteenth return in scattered packs and the Chapter’s companies are each tasked to head out and gather them all wherever they may be.
As someone who has long been enamoured of the myths of the Thirteenth Company and the wulfen curse of the Chapter, this novel was a blessing. William King’s novels dealt with the concept tangentially though Lee Lightner’s Wolf’s Honour gave us significant details that were very intriguing. However, the Horus Heresy series seems to have run a little roughshod on all of that. Except for a short story in the anthology Tales of Heresy, we do not see Lord Bulveye and his Thirteenth ever again and Dan Abnett’s Prospero Burns takes the Wolves in a very different direction. All the same, there is enough here that you can see how David Annandale takes all the disparate threads and weaves them together into an evolved concept. There is no Bulveye here, but the essence of who and what the wulfen are still remains and it is really fascinating to read.
Wolf-Lord Harald Deathwolf is our primary protagonist in the novel and he made an excellent case for the ambivalent nature of the Thirteenth and their return again and again as the narrative progressed. Initially hailed as heroes and a favourable omen of the return of their Primarch Leman Russ, the optimism of Harald eventually gives way to dread and fear once the wulfen turn out to be something darker than they appeared. I won’t go into the details here, for that’s part of the experience of reading the novel, but suffice to say that David explores the duality of the wulfen really well. They are both a gift and a curse, hearkening back to William King and Lee Lightner’s novels, and I loved that aspect of them. It made for a more enjoyable story than what I’d imagined.
February 24, 2016
Don't bother. Some of the worst writing I've seen yet from the BL. I'll try to miss any future David Annandale books. Cringeworthy doesn't even begin to describe it.
Possibly recommended for young boys who like wolves and Space Marines, suitable for ages 9-12 only.
Possibly recommended for young boys who like wolves and Space Marines, suitable for ages 9-12 only.
November 12, 2017
What this book is; is rushed. You can tell that the publisher told Black Library Author David Annandale to stay under a set word limit; as I believe this book was originally produced episodically as an E-book. As a result of this the entire book feels thin, bare bones. The book is essentially non-stop action, something that might have worked given time to flesh out character motivations, to flesh out the motion of the action and give weight to the situation but it doesn't. The motivation of the characters' usually boils down to, prophesy! and really that's it...
The action itself is equally uninspired, writing something like...
- They charged and then they fought and then they fought some more. Suddenly everything looked grim but suddenly they were saved by (something) and then they killed them all! -
That is literally how every fight goes down in this novel, it is so un-poetic/imaginative and the book gives us little room to identify with the characters'. In the brief moments that the author does delve into character moments the writing shines, but these usually last no longer than a couple of pages.
In the end there are much better David Annandale stories out there, stories where hes been given a lot more freedom and there are certainly better Space Wolf stories out there.
The action itself is equally uninspired, writing something like...
- They charged and then they fought and then they fought some more. Suddenly everything looked grim but suddenly they were saved by (something) and then they killed them all! -
That is literally how every fight goes down in this novel, it is so un-poetic/imaginative and the book gives us little room to identify with the characters'. In the brief moments that the author does delve into character moments the writing shines, but these usually last no longer than a couple of pages.
In the end there are much better David Annandale stories out there, stories where hes been given a lot more freedom and there are certainly better Space Wolf stories out there.
May 11, 2022
Это слабо даже по невысоким меркам вархаммера. Глупые и однообразные сцены , нет персонажей с запоминающимися чертами, при этом довольно много действующих лиц,невозможно запомнить. Учитывая размер, можно было придумать что-то более увлекательное.
August 9, 2017
Decent enough book providing more detail about the atta k on th fenris system. feels rushed and you don't really get to know the characters.
June 23, 2020
bit of a slow start, but then it gets really good!
February 26, 2021
A disaster of bad plot, bad writing, bad pacing, and just bad-bad thrown on more bad.
March 28, 2016
Released to tie in with Games Workshop’s latest 40k campaign supplement of the same name, David Annandale’s short novel Curse of the Wulfen sees him tackling that rare beast – an event which moves the 40k storyline forwards. In this case it’s the return to the Imperium of Man of the Space Wolves 13th Company, long-lost heroes from ten thousand years ago who emerge from the Warp much-changed, as the Wulfen. When Harald Deathwolf leads his Great Company to the rescue of a world plagued by daemons and finds aid from feral, beastly creatures still clad in scraps of slate-gray ceramite, the Space Wolves welcome their ancient brethren back (with some reservations) and proceed to seek out as many of the Wulfen as they can. Meanwhile other elements of the Imperium don’t see things in quite the same light.
Read the rest of the review at https://trackofwords.wordpress.com/20...
Read the rest of the review at https://trackofwords.wordpress.com/20...
February 8, 2016
Fast paced blood pumping bolter porn that sets up the premise of the new Space Wolves marketing campaign. I love my Vlka Fenryka and I think they have a worthy foe in Chaos Daemons and Chaos Marines. I look forward to the next installment.
February 10, 2016
Werewolves. In. Spaaaaaaaace!
It was okay. I would have liked to have seen a little less action and a little more interaction with the Wulfen. It was hard to believe no one would be flooding them with questions, starting with "Where's Russ?"
It was okay. I would have liked to have seen a little less action and a little more interaction with the Wulfen. It was hard to believe no one would be flooding them with questions, starting with "Where's Russ?"
December 28, 2016
Really short, but rather interesting set up to the involvement of the 13th company, the wulfen, and of the machinations of Chaos and how the other Space Marine chapters are getting involved in the Warzone Fenris storyline of 40k
April 15, 2016
A fun bit of backstory from the Space Wolves.
Great art, lots of battles.
Great art, lots of battles.
July 1, 2016
The Wulfen curse affect the Space Wolves as they face the Thousand Sons.
April 14, 2017
If you removed all the incessant, never-ending fight scenes from Curse of the Wulfen, you'd have about eight pages left. The actual plot should fascinating; the return of the 13th Great Company, the gift - or curse - of the Wulfen, the hope of a returning Primarch. Is the Wolf Time upon us? Who knows. Curse of the Wulfen is about 140 pages of Space Wolves beating up daemons. It is overpriced, underwhelming and only rated 3/5 because I really love the 13th and the Wulfen.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews