The 1st Anthology book to include a Gotrek & Felix story.
Written by Various Writers (novella Geheimnisnacht is written by William(Bill) King).
Editor : David Pringle.
It has the following novellas (from these only Geheimnisnacht is a Gotrek & Felix story):
Geheimnisnacht by William King(notable for being the earliest Gotrek & Felix story!).
The Reavers and the Dead by Charles Davidson.
The Other by Nicola Griffiths.
Apprentice Luck by Sean Flynn.
The Gardener in Parravon, by Brain Craig.
The Star Boat by Steve Baxter (notable for including the 80s version of the Slann involved in a journey to the Chaos Wastes and never republished by the Black Library).
Cover is NOT Gotrek & Felix so the artist is not mentioned.
The duo is NOT mentioned in the back cover, only William(Bill) King is mentioned.
Geheimnisnacht is included in TrollSlayer book and numerous other (printed and digital) omnibus, collections, bundles, etc. For more details check the Geheimnisnacht tag.
In his introduction from the 2019 edition of Trollslayer(20th Anniversary Edition), William King revealed that :
It is more that 30 years since he first wrote for Gotrek & Felix.
”The original stories were commissioned by David Pringle, the editor of GW Books, the precursor to Black Library. Back then David was also the editor of Interzone, the SF magazine to which I had just made my first sale. When I saw he had got the job at GW Books, I wrote to him saying, ‘I play these games, I know the background, I could write this stuff.’ David replied that he was putting together an anthology of short stories. Why didn’t I try writing 7,000 words for it? I resolved to give it my best shot.”
”I was a big Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay gamer back in those days. Dwarf Slayers were among the most popular character types with my players. People loved the concept. I mean, what’s not to love about suicidal punk dwarfs with big axes? That’s where Gotrek came from. I lifted the name from an alcoholic dwarf called Gottri Gurnisson in the scenario book Shadows over Bogenhafen. I changed a syllable, modified the personality to that of a dour Scottish hard man, and I was up and running. I even had a story ready. ‘Geheimnisnacht’ was based on a scenario I had run for family and friends in Edinburgh. Since I planned on Gotrek meeting a suitable doom at the end of the story, I needed another character to live and tell the tale. That was Felix’s job. The oath-swearing arrangement formalised it inside the narrative.”
Note :
This post includes only what has to do with it and not the whole interviews, intros, etc.
