Maledictions: Scary Warhammer Stories to Read in the Dark

I wish they showed the crimson siding in the preview, it looks so macabre without being over the top (and was a pleasant surprise).

To tell the truth, I was never really into scary stories as a kid, though to be fair I was an easily frightened kid. However, my interest in Warhammer has added horror to my list of literary interests, so there's that. With that out of the way, I finished Maledictions, a collection of short horror stories written by a few different authors taking place in the Warhammer settings (Age of Sigmar and 40K) a few days ago, and I by and large liked it as my first foray into books like Scary Stories to Read in the Dark.

Each of these stories I'd say are at least decently written, but their strongest aspect is in how they set the tone and control the information you know. Now as somebody who knows a good chunk of lore and units from the hobby, I know what a warpspawn is, Nurgle is a nameable entity to me. However, the characters in these stories live in the setting, they have no knowledge of all these various details, and the writing throughout conveys this excellently. The characters may not know what horrors are hunting them, but you might recognize them, and the writing transforms these pieces on the game board to truly terrifying foes and creatures. Also well done is the establishment of the setting, as it's not initially apparent where each story takes place (each is pretty different), but by the end you'll know at least the universe in which each takes place. My favorite example of this was one story in which you were lead to believe that the story took place somewhere in the Age of Sigmar setting, when in fact it was in the 40K setting, which I thought was an amazing twist.

Now this book isn't without faults, and falling into the mold of horror stories. For one, I think the protagonist died in practically every story, which got predictable after the fifth time. Now a few survive, though in the end they usually banish or eliminate the evil forever, but why couldn't they simply escape by the skin of their teeth? It would have made for another kind of pulse-pounding ending, but then again this is my first foray into this sort of story (outside of Steven King). Besides this, I don't have much complaint with this book, feel free to read it all in a few sittings or by reading a story every now and then, it makes no difference (none are connected).

At the end of the day I'd recommend this book, it's a great collection of horror stories, not too long, and not too short. Even for people who aren't normally into this kind of thing, fans of Warhammer should find it immersive and informative as to how scary and dangerous both settings are. It's not for young kids (obviously) but it's not too graphic or disturbing, so I'd say middle schoolers and older could find this appropriate