‘Wulfrik’ – C.L. Werner (Black Library)

Over the last couple of years I’ve read a couple of books and a few short stories by C.L. Werner and while I’ve enjoyed what I’ve read it’s also left me feeling a little underwhelmed. Werner writes in the Warhammer fantasy setting and while he’s pretty good at capturing the raw visceral edge of warfare not a lot else than that seems to happen. Other writers develop their characters; Werner sticks his characters within sword thrust, or axe blow, and waits to see what will happen next. It’s not bad if you’re after a light throwaway read but if you’re after something a little more engaging then you might want to look elsewhere...


And that is pretty much what I’ve been doing with my Black Library reading; at least until I saw my copy of ‘Wulfrik’ sitting patiently on the pile. The ‘Warhammer Heroes’ series takes a hero from the annals of ‘Old World Lore’ and seeks to shed a little light on their character and some of the things that they are famous (or infamous) for. I’ve never come across the character of Wulfrik before but still found myself interested to see how Werner’s preference for action over character development would translate to a book that should be a lot more ‘character-centric’. I have to say that as much as I enjoyed ‘Wulfrik’ (and I did) I got just what I expected to find...

Wulfrik the Wanderer has learnt the hard way not to make bold boasts when the Ruinous Powers are listening. Now he is cursed to wander the earth without rest, pitting his blades against those foes chosen for him by the Chaos Gods. All he has to look forward to is a constant life of duelling ever more dangerous foes; should he fall, Wulfrik’s very soul will be in thrall to the Chaos Gods for all eternity. All of a sudden there is hope as a shaman offers Wulfrik the chance to be free of his curse; any hope that Wulfirk may feel though is tempered by the mistrust that has kept him alive until now. And Wulfrik would do well not to trust anyone as everyone’s hand is against the Norscan hero whose ego has become a little too big for the boots that he wears. Will the Norscan’s swords carry him through against his many foes and will he finally escape the curse that grips him? The only certainty is the river of blood that stands between Wulfrik and his goals...

To be fair, I guess that ‘Wulfrik’ is aimed at long term fans of the setting who already know a fair bit about the character; his history and what he’s up to at the moment. That being the case, you can understand people not being so bothered about the character as they are about any exploits of his that they may not know about. And that’s just what you get here, a series of exploits fleshing out Wulfrik’s life leading to his current status. It’s all done very well (and I’ll get onto that in a little bit) but what about people like me who have never come across this character before? The likes of us may leave feeling a little short changed...

To be blunt, Wulfrik is a big old dollop of rage holding a couple of big swords and more than ready to use them. That’s it, that’s what he does for the whole book. There is mention of love but you never really get the impression that’s a part of Wulfrik’s character, more something that’s there to move the plot in a certain direction. All Wulfrik is concerned with is getting the better of the people around him and whether this involves having to kill them or not. To be fair, Wulfrik’s murderous energy drives the plot forward in just the right way and it keeps the pages turning nicely.

Now you could argue that Werner has done a great job of capturing Wulfrik’s Norscan psyche and there is something to be said for that as you do get a feel for the surroundings and lifestyle that have made Wulfrik the man he is. Where is the line drawn where a character stops being ‘simply drawn’ and becomes ‘one dimensional’? It’s a fine line to tread here and, for me, Wulfrik did come across as more than a little one dimensional at times. That’s not the kind of character that you want to hang an entire book on...

It’s a really good job then that Werner more than makes up for this shortcoming with a plot that presses all the right buttons. There is so much backstabbing and intrigue going on here that you cannot help but stay on your toes and try and second guess what is about to happen next. I had a lot of fun in this respect.

Werner’s aptitude for portraying the dirty, visceral edge of warfare has already been noted and he shows once again just why (in some areas at least) he is well suited to be writing in the Warhammer universe with scenes that leave the reader in no doubt at all as to what it means to be on the wrong end of a sword blade in the heat of battle. When Wulfrik kills someone, you know that they’re dead!

Werner also displays a keen eye for the kind of foe that Wulfrik must face if he is to truly deserve his title of ‘Hero’. Foes don’t come a lot bigger than the kind Wulfrik must face and this makes for some suitably epic battle sequences where the outcome may well be inevitable but Wulfrik still has to sweat for it. It’s also interesting to note that Werner’s vision of heroism isn’t confined to the clearly marked sides of ‘good’ and ‘evil’ in the Old World. Heroism here is about what people see as being heroic and whether your actions match up to this. A typical Norscan hero is a bloody handed killer at heart and Wulfrik more than lives up to these standards over the course of the book.

‘Wulfrik’ may not live up to the standard set by other Warhammer books in terms of its character development but, in a way, this actually works in favour of the novel as a whole. Wulfrik is a simple man doing great things in a very straight forward manner. I was after a little more than that personally but you can’t argue against the overall result. Werner may be doing exactly what he normally does but, this time round, I think he did it a lot better.

Eight and a Half out of Ten