Nagash the Sorcerer (Time of Legends: Nagash Trilogy)

This book succeeds where books like Heldenhammer fall almost flat. In the ancient empire of Nehekhara Nagash's father dies and he begins plotting to seize total power. As royalty and a high ranking priest in the Mortuary cult, he is delighted when dark elf prisoners fall into his hands and he strikes a deal with the dangerous followers of Malekith to learn the black arts from them in order for sparing their lives. From their it only gets better, as an epic story of world gripping ambition, black treachery and the epic struggle of Ancient civilization whose covenant with their Old Gods is threatened by the Dark Forces Nagash threatens to unleash upon the entire world. Brave Kings and Priests of Old Gods of Nehekhara must take a stand against one of the greatest evils the world has ever seen and beware treachery from their own as they fight to preserve their way of life against the undead legions of Nagash and his evil folllowers. It all leads to an epic showdown at the most ancient city of Nehekhara between the heroes of that great civilization and the Black Necromancers evil sorcery.

This book is a wonderful tale that shows the rise of the greatest force the mortal realms will ever see. Mike Lee does a wonderful job portraying the events from all sides of the conflict, as well as the ingenuity of our protagonist. Such is the power of Nagash.

Nagash, Grand Hierophant of the Living City's mortuary cult, searches for the secret to eternal life. Without the fear of death, the gods would have no hold over mortals. Nagash's brother, Thutep, is the king. When Nagash first sees Neferem, the betrothed of Thutep, he feels jealousy as never before. Neferem represents the covenant. She is the conduit for the gods' powers. Once she becomes queen, she stands beside her husband's decisions, helping to care for their people. Nagash, craving power, plots to kill his brother, take the throne and the queen for himself, and bring about the end of the gods' hold on mortals. Nagash becomes the Undying King. His life-giving elixir is given only to those he chooses. As long as those chosen keep taking the elixir, they are immortal. Through trickery, Neferem is made immortal. She is enslaved, bound body and soul, to Nagash. Her hatred for Nagash is as undying as his elixir makes him. The sorcerer, craving more and more power, continues his dark experiments. The Hieratic Council in Mahrak defies the Undying King. But before the necromancer is done, all Nehekhara will lie beneath his heel, and Settra's great empire will be restored. The age of the old gods is over! **** FOUR STARS! Mike Lee has done a terrific job of bringing the legend of Nagash to (immortal) life. As I read about the birth of vampires, there were times that I wondered if perhaps I had been ensorcelled by the author's writing talent. I admit that I found the narrations to be too long-winded at times, yet the images crafted within my imagination as I read were amazing. Highly recommended reading! **** Reviewed by Detra Fitch of Huntress Reviews.

Received in condition and time as expected

So i love Nagash. I was a big fan before the books came out of the character, so perhaps im a bit biased, but i thought the books lived up to the hype. Its hard not a talk about nagash without ruining the story, but lets just say that this is a true villian that will rattle the heavens and slay the gods almost through force of will alone. There is not a larger character in the entirety of classic Warhammer imo, good or bad.

I'd read the second book in the series first. I was excited to finally get to read the first one. It starts out well, but just gets kind of repetitive. If you like big war stories then you'll love the novel. However, I just found it a bit too generic. One big army with super power X attacks another with super power Y and thousands of nameless warriors fall to it. To me it got somewhat tedious to read it. Now the fun part for me was the interspersed chapters that covered the rise of Nagash in the first place. I found those to be extremely enjoyable and well written. It was a more personal side of things with characters I actually grew to care about in a fashion. It was worth the price of admission. The ending was a bit sudden and spoiler (which is abundantly clear as if you couldn't tell since it's a trilogy) Nagash loses, which is the fun of book 2 where he claws his way back, and book 3 where raises an army...but does he ultimately get his revenge? I won't spoil that for you. It's almost certain you won't see where the ending of the trilogy is going...though that's not necessarily a good thing though. If you read them all, you'll see what I mean. A last note, all the books in the series are pretty long so you get plenty of reading time out of them. It's really hard to recommend or dissuade someone from the series as this trilogy is even more a matter of taste than a lot of Warhammer books.

Excellent book, a must read for those who love Warhammer.

Arrived well, and really good so far

Das Buch beschreibt den Kampf der Könige von Nehekhara gegen den Erznekromaten Nagash, der mit der ersten Verbannung von Nagash endet. Daneben wird dessen Aufstieg vom Prinzen zum Priester zum Urvater aller Untoten in einem extra Handlungsstrang beschrieben. Dies erfolgt, ähnlich wie beim 'Herr der Ringe', durch eingeschobene Kapitel. So gibt es einmal die Hauptgeschicte (ca. 1750 vor Sigmar) und die Vorgeschichte (ca. 1950 vor Sigmar). Das Buch ist interessant geschrieben, auch wenn man die Handlung eigentlich schon kennt. Kleines Problem an dem Buch: Es gibt mit Nagash zwar einen Antagonisten (Schurken), aber keinen Protagonisten (Held), weil sein Gegenpart aus mehreren Königen besteht. Daher darf man sich schon auf die nächsten beiden Bände freuhen, wenn Nagash mit Alcadizzar* und Sigmar 'richtige' Gegener erhält. (* Es kämpft und stribt in diesem Band zwar ein Alcazzar, aber das müsste ein Vorfahre von Nagash's großem Gegenspieler 200 Jahre später sein.) Wie häufiger bei Warhammer sollte man aber auf Logik nicht allzu großen Wert legen. So schaffen es z.B. in einem die Kapitel zwölf mythische Ushabti-Krieger nicht, 40 Verschwörer von Nagash niederzumachen (bevor diese unsterblich wurden) und ein paar Kapitel später kann Akhmen-hotep mit ca. zwanzig davon eine Armee von mehreren tausend Mann in schach halten. Solche kleinen Ungereimtheiten finden sich über das ganze Buch verteilt...

Nagash isnt a very typical fantasy novel, and completely not what i would expect after heldenhammer. I had assumed, from the sigmar book, that our adventures here in the lands of the dead would focus around the individual nagash and his personal life. How very wrong i was. What this book represents is the turmoil in khemri and the other nehekaran cities, the wars and the politics, and definately the battles. It runs on two timelines, the first before nagash has power and showing his coming to be, and the second the story of how he attempts to conquer the surrounding lands. The chapters that do focus on Nagash show his personality as you would expect. Unlike Horus in the heresy books they have not tried to make Nagash a hero gone wrong. He is a bad man all the way through. Another good theme which was underwritten into this book was how the people of the land were suffering under the warring states, not through brutality but neglect. As always i never want to reveal too much of the story, but this is one of those plots that is very thick and everything leads tumultuously towards the strong ending, not completely unpredictable but with its own twists just the same. There are three reasons why i didnt give this the full five stars though. 1) - The jumping between the two timelines can get confusing at times. 2) - A lot of the names become hard to remember until you get into the book, as there are a lot of characters 3) - The introductory chapters were very slow, and the book didnt really become an edge of the seat read till later on. As far as im concerned this is the ultimate book on the beginnings of the undead in the warhammer world, and a very interesting read. I would say it was a lot more intellectual than the usual goblin-bash of a black library book.

Great

Good detailed read and enjoyable. Product is fairly worn but for the age and obviously a used item as out of print this is really good. Thank you