Bleak, grimy, dour. Great!

I was not acquainted with the 40k warhammer games/series, and got this book for 3 reasons. The beautiful, mesmerizing cover art, the fact that I needed to add a book during a 2 for 1 sale and nothing else caught my fancy, and because I was in the mood for a creepy, dark horror story.

I'm glad I picked it! This story is relentless in its bleakness, you can just feel evil dripping off it. It is well written, no clunky language and it keeps flowing without any boring bits. The narrators voice also suits the material really well. I was thoroughly creeped out during many parts, which is exactly what I wanted. I won't spoil the story, but it was pretty easy to follow/imagine even as someone who is not familiar with the 40k universe. Just think of it as fantasy horror. I may start listening to the series now too, but it absolutely works as a stand alone novel as well. Especially if you listen to it on dark, rainy nights.

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10 people found this helpful

Clumsy story

Started out good with a nice atmosphere and good mystery, but in the end all the storybeats turned out to be pretty pointless and it felt unsatisfying.

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1 person found this helpful

Brilliant story- really dark and spooky- great characters

Reminded me a little of The Wicket Man! Great storytelling- I wish there was a sequel to this. Loved the audible narrator too- great choice.

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1 person found this helpful

A bright insight into the dark warhammer universe.

Loved every insight in this audio book. All the chapters built up to the final three chapters and what a ride it was! If new to the warhammer world. I recommend searching the races and creatures to avoid confusion. I being lucky enough to have experience in the warhammer universe.

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1 person found this helpful

Dark fantasy

I would say the story is more in the dark fantasy genre rather than horror, but it was enjoyable nonetheless. The narrator's voice gave a grim and moody atmosphere which suited the story well.

Overall very good, if not quite what I was expecting.

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If you go down to the woods to day.

If you think the Age of Sigmar setting isn't "Grim-Dark" enough for you give this book a go. Jake Urry gives a very different style of narration to most BL audio books but it works well with this books creepy theme.

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2 people found this helpful

Grim Dark

Finally a fantastic novel in the setting of AoS that demonstrates just how dark and horrible it is to live in the mortal realms! I really enjoyed this, one of my favourite black library books for sure. I strongly recommend you give it a listen!

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Less horror more dark fantasy

Josh Reynolds is a new name to me for black library, but each book I've read of his is a good read. Dark harvest is paced quite slowly and seemed to wrap itself up very quickly. The ending had a feeling of must be kept under X pages or X word count briefing.

The characters are nicely human and relatable in a universe with elves, dwarves , magically armoured post humans forged by lightning, sentient fungi and ratmen.
The story sits nicely on its own. it is set in the age of sigmar but this bookneeds no knowledge of the Warhammer lore or history to enjoy, but there are nice nods to those that do.

The cast of characters is quite small and actions to the situations seem very realistic which is nice and gives the book a grounded dark fantasy feel.

I wasn't a huge fan of the narrator myself though others may find his dry tone suiting to the setting. or thought it lacked a bit of nuance and there wasn't any difference in tone from the narrator when different characters were speaking.
it's ok once you are used to it, but it feels more or a reading of the book rather than a performance which lots of audiobook narrators do.

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High hopes...

I had high hopes for Dark Harvest, especially after having read Kim Newman's superb Beasts in Velvet which uses the Warhammer-setting to great effect to create real page turner filled with suspense and an incredible twist at the end. Dark Harvest does none of this. Instead it plods, almost slithers, along at a slow pace preferring to build a dark foggy world of despair, full of evil, ancient spirits, slumbering gods, angry trees...and eels! (Oh so many eels!) Main character spends most of the first half of the book going from one character to another, asking more or les the same questions and getting more or less the same answers, while being tormented by a dark deed from a dark past that is never fully revealed. It all feels a bit cookie cutter and even though the book presents it as a mystery - the strange happenings in the swampy town of Wald - you've more or less worked it all out within the first few chapters, leaving the final chapters falling flat. Jake Urrey's performance also takes some getting used yet his gutteral voice and slow pace is strangely befitting this dark and dreary but ultimately forgetful tale.

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