Unwanted spoilers aside, it’s a tremendously entertaining story which explores an interesting little corner of the Mortal Realms complete with typically duplicitous aelves, hateful sylvaneth and at least one surprisingly wily human. If you can, try to avoid reading the synopsis on the back of the book or the Black Library website, as it rather spoils an important plot point which occurs more than a third of the way into the book. If you’re interested in how Dark Elves (ok, aelves) fit into the Age of Sigmar this also offers an opportunity to see a glimpse of how the Scourge Privateers operate and organise themselves, and how they view their current role in context of Sigmar’s Grand Alliance. This is a 130-page novella we’re talking about so don’t expect an in-depth character study here, but there’s nonetheless a decent amount of backstory to enjoy interspersed amongst the sheer fun of watching Zenthe swashbuckle her way into and out of trouble. Zenthe pretty much stole the show when she appeared in City of Secrets, and likewise in the sequel The Silver Shard, so it’s great to see Horth developing her as a protagonist in her own right.

Little does she know that her mission will eventually take her from her father’s Black Ark to the frozen darkness of a sylvaneth-infested forest in search of a powerful artefact known as the Heart of Winter.

A Scourge Privateer of considerable reputation, Zenthe leads her crew into Ghur, the Realm of Beasts, intending to kill her father and see out a decades-long grudge. Nick Horth’s Age of Sigmar novella Heart of Winter features the aelf Fleetmaster Arika Zenthe – originally introduced as a secondary character in City of Secrets, she’s now front and centre in her own story.

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