The Gotrek and Felix series is one of my favorite fantasy series. After my high school years were nothing but Dragonlance, Forgotten Realms, and Star Wars Legends, I switched to both Warhammer 40K as well as Warhammer Fantasy. From my college years to this very day, I’ve continued enjoying this fantastic series even as I also acknowledge its appeal lies in the simplicity of its narrative.
The premise is the titular characters are a buddy cop pair of fantasy adventurers. Gotrek is a Trollslayer (or just a Slayer), which is a dwarf who has pledged to seek their death in battle to atone for some unknown reason. Felix is a university student who has gotten himself wanted by the government for taking part in a protest that went horribly wrong. After a drunken pledge to serve as his chronicler (or “rememberancer”), Felix must follow Gotrek on his endless series of suicide missions. It’s just Gotrek is so good at fighting that he keeps surviving these impossible adventures.
Truth be told, I’ve never been that interested in the Warhammer Fantasy setting versus its dark future counterpart. However, the Gotrek and Felix novels successfully bring to life the kind of fascinating contradictions inherent to it. The Empire is what passes for an advanced, rationalist society in a Medieval fantasy setting with all the typical fantasy races existing alongside them. However, it’s slowly dying and will probably never reach the full Enlightenment, let alone Industrial Age, because it is beset by a hundred or more threats that are ready to tear it down.
Gotrek is kind of fascinating in that he’s not breaking dwarf stereotypes but embodies them so completely that he becomes a sort of reconstruction of the archetype. Honor is so important to him that he will follow a pledge to absurd degrees. He hates elves, magic, and anything that smacks of weakness but is also uncompromising in the face of evil. Given how corrupt the Old World is shown to be, he is a refreshing breeze of nobility. The fact he’s allowed to be a one-man army carving through humanoid forces by the dozens is also beautifully realized.
Felix, by contrast, is the more romantic of the two and provides much-needed levity. In some ways, their relationship resembles that of Geralt and Jaskier/Dandelion. Felix is the only one of the pair who cares about surviving to the next day as well as serves as a “sane” counterpart to Gotrek’s doom-seeking. He’s also frequently prone to falling in love with the local action girls.
Some of these characters being so well-developed that I prefer them to Gotrek and Felix themselves. I am a huge fan of the chaotic and scheming Skaven, particularly Thanquol the Grey Seer, because they embody every possible vice but are still more sympathetic than someone human characters. I also love Ulrika, Kat, Snorri Nosebiter, and Maximilian ‘Max’ Schreiber that could carry their own series (with Ulrika getting two books of her own that I loved).
The original novels were written by William King, followed by Nathan Long, and some additions like Josh Reynolds. The William King books are, to me at least, the best of the series but the latter ones have their own appeal. I don’t exactly approve of where the series ended up going but there were some truly fantastic stories spread throughout. The behind-the-scenes drama is also worth discussing but not here. Suffice to say, it is an interesting story about the perils of working with IP owned by someone else.
I feel the books somewhat lost the plot in later works and the massive twenty-year tims skip was just the start of this (brought about by outside factors of attempting to make the pair “contemporary” to the setting’s timeline) but some of the best books are later additions. My all-time-favorite of the books is Road of Skulls by Josh Reynolds for example, which is a “timeless” Gotrek and Felix novel.
Do the books have flaws? Oh, heck yes. These are definitely “hamburger and fries” fantasy and a huge chunk of each volume is filled with extended fight sequences that fill multiple chapters over, say, character development or worldbuilding. Gotrek’s invincibility means that you will see the dwarf slash his way through armies with virtually no effort at all. However, that’s the sort of thing you sometimes want when you sit down for a fantasy novel. The fact they have so much to go for them in addition these excellent battles is to its immense credit.
In conclusion, Gotrek and Felix are great books that are full of action, drama, and great fantasy characters. Is it a series that potentially overstays its welcome and should have ended with Gotrek’s doom far earlier (as the original author intended)? Yes, probably. Some of the latter books rely on outside factors that are completely beyond the scope of the novels. Yet, I can’t say that I’m not glad the series has continued for decades of my adult reading life. They are truly books that help make me.
