We have seen Gotrek and Felix take on orcs, trolls, giants, dragons, men, vampires, skaven (ratmen), dark elves, chaos warriors and beastmen – who else was there left to be the target for Gotrek's mighty axe in his seemingly never-ending quest for an honourable death as befits a Slayer?

Set immediately after the events of the last instalment, Elfslayer, we see a return to fighting one of earliest opponents faced in the series, the chaos-warped beastmen. However this time they face a powerful beastman shaman with powers of a sort they have not faced before.

A general principle followed by many successful story tellers is that of the ordinary person thrust into extraordinary events. Felix Jaegar is now in his forties. He has been following Gotrek as the dwarf's remembrancer for more than twenty years. In many respects, he often regrets his drunken vow to accompany Gotrek. It was only a chance meeting that thrust him onto that path to begin with. He is disconcerted to find that he has become a hero to some and Felix tries to persuade them otherwise with the real story of hunger, hardship and more. He is very much the ordinary person thrust into extraordinary events. This is a large part of the appeal of the Gotrek and Felix novels under both its authors.

The Warhammer world is dark and gothic by intention. Many novels you read set there have a sense of desperation about them in the face of the ever-increasing encroachment of the darkness of Chaos. While Gotrek and Felix battle these forces in that setting, there is more a sense of the heroic fantasy about their adventures than some of the darker, grimmer counterparts in the Black Library.

Shamanslayer has everything in it that one expects to see in one of the Gotrek and Felix novels. We see how events have severed any remaining ties to Felix's family. Two characters from earlier novels make a return. The reappearance of Snorri Nosebiter was both welcome and sad at the same time. Snorri, a fellow Slayer, is showing signs of something like dementia or Alzheimer's. But there is also a hint that there might be something more to Snorri's malaise than just a few too many blows to the head.

This is rip-roaring sword and fantasy. Nathan Long has that indefinable X factor that makes stories come alive (well to me at least).

Unlike other Gotrek and Felix novels, this one ends on a real cliffhanger, the scene well and truly set for the next instalment. It is a real 'who shot JR' type of moment.

I think I speak for all Gotrek and Felix fans – please, pleeaaasse, don't keep us in suspense for too long.

Ross C. Hamilton