Van Horstmann de Ben Counter

We continue our look at some of this month’s new releases today with Ben Counter’s Van Horstmann. This Warhammer tale follows the fall of one of the College of Light’s greatest wizards, Egrimm van Horstmann. Once destined to lead the College into a glorious new age, van Horstmann is seduced by power and his grand plans soon turn to sinister schemes involving the two-headed dragon that is kept chained in the dungeons below the ancient building. Here’s an extract showing an early stage of his descent into evil:

Bones. The pit was full of bones. Dozens of skulls, hundreds of ribs, gnawed by rats and brown with age. Sigmar knew when this place had been filled, or which emperor had ordered the bodies hidden here. Perhaps they were agitators disappeared from the streets of Altdorf, perhaps prisoners of war no longer valuable as hostages or sources of intelligence. Perhaps they were plague dead from the palace staff.

Van Horstmann clutched dumbly at the bones. His head spun and he had to think to work out which way was up. A short distance away lay Rudiger Vort, his leg pinned beneath a block of fallen stone.

The daemon was on its back, legs curled like a spider. But it was not dead. It shuddered and hawked up a mass of gore and broken teeth. Talons clacked among the bones as it scrabbled to right itself.

Van Horstmann crawled next to Vort.

‘What is magic?’ said van Horstmann.

Vort looked at him without recognition in his eyes.

‘Vort, listen! What is magic? Think! Think!’

Vort could do nothing more than shake his head. The writhing form of the daemon was reflected in his idiot eyes – even the fear had been shocked out of him.

The daemon rolled over. It dug its talons into the dirt and bones beneath it and its mouth yawned open. Van Horstmann could see the churning power in there, a conduit to whatever hellish realm constituted the aethyr for such a monster, a purple-black vortex of decay and destruction.

‘Sacrifice,’ said van Horstmann.

He forced the point of the doctor’s knife up under Rudiger Vort’s jaw, feeling the point slide past the jawbone and up under the tongue.

If that snippet wasn’t enough for you, there’s another extract here.

Van Horstmann is available to pre-order now and you will be able to download the eBook this Friday.

Thancred de Cantal a écrit:Van Horstmann , à ce que j'ai compris est en précommande sur le site de games workshop au prix de 12,50 euros . Le résumé est en Français , le roman doit l'etre aussi , enfin je crois

Voici le lien :
http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catalog/productDetail.jsp?catId=cat440353a&prodId=prod1940095a
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Livres: Romans warhammer: Van Horstmann