Book Review: Path of the Seer by Gav Thorpe
Following hot on the heels of Path of the Warrior comes book two in this amazing Gav Thorpe series. This time telling the role Thirianna has to play in the tale of Alaitoc
Book Details
Title: Path of the Seer
Author: Gav Thorpe
Publisher: Black Library
Type: Paperback
Page Count: 401
Commercial Fluff: The second book in the best-selling Eldar series by Gav Thorpe.
The ancient Eldar are a mysterious race, and each devotes their life to a chosen path that will guide their actions and decide their fate. Thirianna abandons her simple existence to embark upon the mysterious Path of the Seer. She will tread a dark and dangerous road that leads her to the other realm of the warp, where daemons are made flesh and nightmares are manifest. Only there can she realize her psychic abilities. After unleashing her powers in battle and communing with the spirits of her craft world, Thirianna turns her skills to discerning the future amidst the myriad strands of fate. Her visions reveal a significant threat descending on Alaitoc, and the living and the dead will march to war to defend it.
Review
It's nice to walk through the halls of the Alaitoc craftworld. In the 2nd to 5th edition of the game, Alaitoc was my Craftworld of choice (I liked Rangers). So, exploring the craftworld through Mr. Thorpe's work is truly fun. It has also added more terms, locations and character names to the Eldar Encyclopedia (coming soon to this website).
The main highlight of this book is finally being able to explore the inner workings of the seer path. This book did not disappoint on this front; it helped me better imagine the warlocks and how they interact with the Shrines; it made the skein seem more understandable, the reasoning behind rune craft and how a seer can become trapped on the path. This alone is worth the price of admission. Another great highlight is that this is set in the same time frame as the first book, so we already know a bit about the character and understand what is happening around her. This allowed Thorpe to grow the character organically and not have to ram details down our throats as we knew what was happening to a certain point. For me, there were very few lowlights, which is excellent. My standout issue is that I would have preferred to see the timeline move forward more. Though I understand it is a different viewpoint of what is happening, I feel he could have pushed it further than he did. I would have also loved more on the different psychic paths - like the bone singers, the spirit seers, warlocks, etc. I know there must be more options (like lesser paths), and it would have been fun to learn more about this.
Ultimately, Gav Thorpe once more proved why I enjoy his tales. I must try to pick up some of his non-black library books and see if I enjoy those just as much.
Until next time, feel free to drop me a comment below.
