Beasts in Velvet, 1993, 2002 ed., Jack Yeovil
Novels based on role-playing games are usually pretty reliably bad. Yeovil’s (or, Kim Newman’s, rather) Warhammer novels are one of those rare exceptions, probably due to actually focusing on characters and plots, rather than translating game mechanics into prose or transcribing adventures. I’m a particular fan of genre-blending novels, and Beasts in Velvet is an interesting example of that, a police procedural/serial killer thriller set in a fantasy city.
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For a gritty dark fantasy world, that is one colorful outfit.
Ooh, I really liked this one.
However, there was one thing that really annoyed me after a while- “Jack Yeovil” makes references to other works e.g. Dirty Harry and this was funny the first few times but then he kept hammering it home with all the subtlety of a sledgehammer until I was ready to beg him to *stop* using that joke.
But, yeah, I enjoyed it. I thought the central mystery was well done and there’s a twist in the tale that really fooled me the first time.
Still, I think “Drachenfels” is my favourite of Jack Yeovil’s Warhammer books.
(Er… Yeah. Pardon my enthusiasm. Hope this post is coherent.)
Wait a minute – this is going to be a really stupid question, but I thought Warhammer was really dark military sci-fi?
Warhammer 40K is the sci-fi brand, just plain Warhammer is fantasy.
I love that bit with the message written by a dying man stuffed into a barrel. Gets me every time.
But I’m with Richard. Drachenfels is my favourite Warhammer book. Mainly because it starts off as a bunch of stereotypes going off on a big and noble quest against ultimate evil, and then gets that all out of the way by page 29 and then goes off somewhere much more interesting. It also has my favourite cheesy last line in any novel ever published.
I can’t be the only person who read that as “Breasts In Velvet”.
I read it as Ueluet, and was thoroughly confused.
I loved that whole series, Kim Newman really needs to write more novels, it’s been years since anything came out.