The Vulture Lord

Warhammer Age of Sigmar

By: Richard Strachan

Narrated by: Richard Reed

A Zothar Athrabis novel.

Zothar is an Ossiarch Bonereaper who rules over a city in Shyish. He struck a bargain with Nagash to preserve the soul of his dead son, choosing a new host from the victor of the Games—a festival that takes place once each decade. When Zothar breaks tradition and raises Lycus, the current champion, as his own son, his actions incite a bloody rebellion amongst the citizens.

Listen to it because....

It’s a fascinating look at what passes for normal life in the realm of Shyish, where the living and the dead walk side by side, and everyday existence is filled with danger, adventure, and no shortage of bizarre and mystical creatures.

The Story:

In a forgotten corner of Shyish, the city of Lament prepares for the most important festival in its calendar, the Games—a series of events that will seal the fate of their victor.

Following the tragic death of his son many centuries ago, the cruel Vulture Lord, King Zothar Athrabis, made a terrible bargain with Nagash to preserve his child’s soul. Now, once every 10 years, the new champion of the Games must become host to the boy’s tormented spirit, while the old vessel is condemned to death. Most citizens of Lament deem this a great honour, but when the city’s newly crowned champion, Lycus, is taken by the king to raise as his own, his family question their sacrifice.

As the years pass and a new decade looms ever closer—and with it Lycus’ grisly fate—the Prince of Athrabis is caught between his duty to his new father and the prospect of escaping death to return to his old life. As fierce, bloody rebellion ensues, and Lycus is exposed to violent truths, he must decide once and for all where his loyalties lie.

Written by Richard Strachan. Narrated by Richard Reed. Running time 9 hours 46 mins (approx).

©2022 Games Workshop Limited (P)2022 Games Workshop Limited

A Captivating Story

The character development of this story is pretty solid. Overall it’s an enjoyable story to listen to. From the perspective of the narrator, you have a feeling of pity for any of the characters and the situations they’re put in. I very much enjoy stories that make you feel bad even for the bad guy that you know you are supposed to despise.

Amazing side to the ossiarch mind.

This book was not as I expected even after reading the overview. Expecting a story of mean dead guys just being mean dead guys surprised me when we got to see the ins and outs of an ossiarch mind. Yes, they are mean dead men but, with meaning and almost disdain towards it. Definitely worth a listen or read, you get another side of why the ossiarch do what they do, and get much more than you do in the lore of them than you will in the Lumineth books.

Pretty good all in all

A good story, but the mortals in it are pretty dumb with there actions

Zothar Carried

the story was fascinating when it focused on Zothar and Lycus, but the people of Lement often killed the mood with their foolishness. Zothar carried it enough though to compensate.

Fantastic World Building!

The first half of this book really gave you a slice out of Shyish and told you an incredibly unique background and plot set up. Unlike most Black Library books, the non-Order factions had more character than I expected. The Bonereapers were still horrific but there were some characters that had more depth beyond a spooky boogeyman. Highly recommend if you want an interesting piece of the mortal realms

An Amazing story to a new series?

I loved the whole story and I think it’s a must read moving forward for anyone getting into AoS and especially into the Death Grand Alliance.

awesome undead, idiotic humans

well as most reviews say the scenes with OBR involved are awesome and really brings you into their world. I would have loved to seen more of Lykas living with them.

the other side of this story involving the humans is just bad. I get the fact these people have been cut off from other civilizations for a 1000 years but wow do they make some rash decisions.

overall a decent story but it feels rushed and you never really believe the decisions the humans make. the bonereaper characters steal the show though and if you are interested in seeing life ruled by the bonereapers its worth picking up

Pretty Good

The book overall was enjoyable, the take on obr as a faction was interesting, as its more of an interpersonal story. Some decisions made by the supporting cast were odd and stole too much screen/page time imo.

Narration was well done, and never distracted from the story. Overall pretty good.

A story that’s aged like wine

For those familiar with fiction there’s some story beats that you might come to expect from other stories; it’s got your typical boy joins royalty from peasantry and has his identities challenged, a love triangle between the protagonist, a woman and a rival, the heroes journey of the protagonist too. However none of that detracts from the quality of what was written in this book. Everything had purpose, everything had reason, it had emotion and action. It was a splendid book to listen to, and it didn’t hurt either that Richard Reed was the narrator either, as his voice has always been great. From Twice Dead King, to Voice Acting in video games, his vocal work is always a joy to listen to. This audiobook was a 10/10 from me in all regards.

This isn't an Ossiarch Bonereaper novel

I mean, the OBR are in it, but not for most of it. This is a pointless book full of irrelevant human characters that I couldn't care about no matter how hard I tried.