Ghazghkul Thraka - Warlord of Walords

[sitnam]

I scanned through and didn't see a discussion thread about this one, which is disappointing because I quite enjoyed this book. Though we no longer have Nate Crowley writing for Ghaz this time around, I think Denny Flowers fills those shoes quite nicely.

 

The humor isn't quite as on the nose as the Brooks books (which I've enjoyed), being a tad more subtle. It is still there, but the Orks feel more serious, in a murder-hobo sort of way. Ghaz (and the Goffa overall) is far more serious then his underlings and they way he is written definitely makes him seem on equal to a Primarch then just a big Ork. At parts he is treated less as a character and more of a force of nature.

 

I slept on this one as I'm not really into character novels, but given how much I liked it and Flowers previous works, I'll definitely check out the Grotsnik novella. 

[darkhorse0607]

Yeah, I didn't make a thread for it when it first came out, but I did sing it's praises in a few different threads iirc

 

Even as someone who isn't a huge Ork fan I thought it was fantastic. The humor was to my taste (I thought Brooks' Ork humor was a bit too much), it had good characters throughout and gave each each of the clans something to chew on rather than just focusing on the Goffs. As you say, it made Ghaz feel much larger (metaphorically) than just another Ork

 

Also on the audio side, Harry Myers did a fantastic job

 

Excellent book all around

[sitnam]

47 minutes ago, darkhorse0607 said:

it had good characters throughout and gave each each of the clans something to chew on rather than just focusing on the Goffs.

 

The showcasing of the Klans throughout was great, as it made their personalities go beyond a color and tabletop unit choices. The fast talking Evil Sun or money-makes-might-makes-right Bad Moon might of been my personal favorites

[Krelious]

On 8/17/2026 at 12:44 AM, sitnam said:

I scanned through and didn't see a discussion thread about this one, which is disappointing because I quite enjoyed this book. Though we no longer have Nate Crowley writing for Ghaz this time around, I think Denny Flowers fills those shoes quite nicely.

 

The humor isn't quite as on the nose as the Brooks books (which I've enjoyed), being a tad more subtle. It is still there, but the Orks feel more serious, in a murder-hobo sort of way. Ghaz (and the Goffa overall) is far more serious then his underlings and they way he is written definitely makes him seem on equal to a Primarch then just a big Ork. At parts he is treated less as a character and more of a force of nature.

 

I slept on this one as I'm not really into character novels, but given how much I liked it and Flowers previous works, I'll definitely check out the Grotsnik novella. 

Overall I enjoyed it, the plot was solid, characterization, the new Ork warboss is fun. I kinda over all didnt like that Ghazkull legit basically has plot armour and is basically stronger than a primarch functionally with super magic hacks to the point that he basically survives having a mountain of slag on him from a big bomb, all his armour is destroyed, peppered with all sorts of arms fire without his armour and then basically has no skin afterwards. Probably also stabbed alot too. Functionally the author basically made him like Orc Vulcan.

 

Id rather Ghaz be more like Abbadon or Dante level and sure hes tough but id rather his stength might come from the fact that hes also a clever combatent and not like hes a DBZ character. I mean in general Im fine with primarchs but I like the idea that there should be dramatic tension in that people should face lethal danger and have to get out of it which gives them some kind of agency and sense that the rules of reality work and people can die when they get shot, blown up or their head cut off. It seems utterly ridiculous to have a character that shrugs off literally everything which also makes the other characters and the overall plot kinda pointless and in addition adds to a kind of power creep in Warhammer 40k where you have supermen and then you have the supermen of the supermen which is getting into DBZ levels of stupidity. My strong assertion is that Custodes for example are a horrible idea and would be better off if they were parallel off shoots of spacemarines or maybe slightly better than an average space marine where its more like skill level makes the difference. We are already at a level where baseline spacemarines move faster than what most humans can process and then we are expected to believe Custodes are better than that and Primarchs are better than that and the Emperor is the super goat tier best of all.  Oh but then say when Sisters of Battle fight Chaos Space Marines they can take them on even though baseline humans shouldnt be able to process how fast space marines can move... I feel like this setting is kinda all over the place in terms of its power levels and abilities where its more like plot convenience comes into effect rather than having a consistent rules of how things actually work.

 

I dont think any Ork should be Primarch level of powerful and you shouldnt have unkillable characters. The danger orks pose is that they are somewhat organized, heavily militarized society with lots of numbers while the Imperium is spread thin and of course the Orks are hyper aggressive. All you really need to do with Ghazkull to make him threatening is make him more intelligent than the average ork warboss and in a story the problem he faces is that hes surrounded by idiots who dont understand tactics and fundamentally this story is the exact opposite of that where Ghazkull is just as intelligent as an average ork and does stupid Ork stuff but hes also magic Ork jesus so he survives everything... and really most of the enjoyment of this book comes from the other Ork warboss and his scrappy band. Literally the plot of this book is some Warboss has a clever idea to farm humans and use them as a vassal to create weapons and stuff for them while the Orks are worshipped as vengeful spririts and the local populace dont understand what they really are. And so Ghazkull kills this warboss for being Unorky and then goes into fighting the humans because thats what Orks do and he promptly is betrayed by something like half the warbosses under his command but he survives because hes Ork Vulcan-jesus with literal magic powers to survive anything.  

 

Again its a fun book but at the same time I just dont agree with it

[DarkChaplain]

I mean, Ghazghkull is PROPHET OF THE WAAAGH, the bloke everyone believes to be IT, and we all know how Ork faith works. Him surviving against Ragnar Blackmane despite losing his head has only cemented their belief that he's unkillable.

 

So yeah, Ghazghkull *is* Ork Jesus to the Orks.

 

That being said, he's also the closest thing 40k has to the "Primorks" of way back when, during the War of the Beast. And those, funnily enough, smoked Vulkan (and might have caused him his hopefully final death due to the Waaagh energy consuming him. Don't you dare bring him back, GW).

 

 

[darkhorse0607]

I agree with the anti mega character stance, which it feels like we are moving towards where a mega character can only be killed by another mega character 

 

But

 

I wouldnt lay that issue at Flowers feet, as DarkChaplian pointed out this has been a thing with Ghaz for a while. Even before the beheading you had the short story with Belial where Ghaz eats plasma blasts like it was nothing, gets a building dropped on him by a thunderhawk and still gets up to kill a bunch of Deathwing. And that was years ago