Warhammer Adventures
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Warhammer Adventures is an series of Young Adult (ages 8 to 12) novels published by Black Library and based on Age of Sigmar and Warhammer 40,000 8th edition. Each novel will feature a group of children going on amazing adventures, like in every young adult novel ever released. Given that this generic plot template is being applied by freelance writers with no experience writing for Warhammer to settings filled with overpowered capeshit assholes and overpowered grimderp assholes, respectively, expect canon rape to ensue; it's entirely possible that the series will be relegated to an alternate continuity if the fans bitch enough.
Novels
Warped Galaxies (40k)
- Attack of the Necron by Cavan Scott
Realm Quest (Age of Sigmar)
- City of Lifestone by Tom Huddleston
Characters
40k
Zelia: The female leader (and also the token black) that every young adult novel seems legally required to have these days. A young daughter of an archaeologist, she helps her mom dig up ancient alien artifacts and hates weapons in a setting where everything alien and most things that aren't alien actively try to kill you. Instead she believes that the best way to overcome fear is by learning. Voted most likely to be slowly tortured to death by the Inquisition for seeking out the truth.
Talen: The son of an Imperial Guard officer, Talen decided to run away from home to avoid military conscription and became a hive ganger. He's fairly aggressive and kind of a brute however, that is offset by his loyalty to his friends. Expect someone to make a greenstuff version of him as a Necromunda Juve. He carries around a toy Soldier which is one of the only reminders he has of his older brother who went off to war.
Mekki: Pretty much your average Techpriest but younger. He hails from Mars and is described as an inventor due to his creation of a small robotic swarm that assist him with certain duties (something only the most radical of techpriests would not take offense to. "Suffer not the machine to think"). His right arm is paralyzed so instead of doing the normal, cool Mechanicus thing and replacing it with cybernetics he decides to just build a brace to help him move it, Omnissiah only knows why he wasn't just chopped up for servitor parts.
Age of Sigmar
Reception
Initial reception has been polarizing, to say the least. Many consider this series as a futile attempt to dilute the grimdarknes of both warhammer settings to try and appeal to a younger demographic. Characters hating guns, gleefully searching xenotech and running away from conscription in 40k certainly don't give people that much confidence, putting into question how well would the authors deal with darker groups like Dark Eldar/Elves, Chaos, Undeads or Tyranids. There's also the argument that many kids preffer fantasizing about character older than them, and that by making the protagonist kids, they are invariably just making it corny and unnapealing to the very audience they want to attract. Defenders of this book series argue that this could be an opportunity to flesh out groups and aspects of the setting that often get ignored, showing positive aspects of the galaxy in a setting so focused on grimdark. There's also the possibility of new mini-lines being produced, probably somewhat cheaper than the mainline series to not scare children away (and more importantly, their parents' wallets), which would help flesh out some factions of the game.
Considering that GW themselves have said that their ideal demographic is “an intelligent 18 year old,” its somewhat baffling why they’ve chosen a demographic so young. At best they should have started with young teens, giving them more room to stay closer to the grimdark of 40k while still being able to pull back. Perhaps their reasoning is that younger kids are easier to sell merchandise to, which is probably true if properties like Skylanders are anything to go by. That being said, we don’t know what’s GW’s long-term strategies are for drawing in and maintaining this younger demographic, or what the parent’s reactions will be when their kids start screaming “BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD” or “HERESY” at every opportunity.