"Grimdark, but with a nightlight on"
Warhammer Adventures is a series of middle grade books released by Games Workshop. Each of Games Workshop's two primary settings has its own series of Warhammer Adventures books, with those set in the Warhammer 40,000 universe known as Warped Galaxies while those set in the Mortal Realms of Warhammer: Age of Sigmar are called Realm Quest.
The Warhammer Adventures series consists of the following books:
- Warped Galaxies by Cavan Scott
- Attack of the Necron
- Claws of the Genestealer
- Secrets of the Tau
- War of the Orks
- Plague of the Nurglings
- Realm Quest by Tom Huddleston
- City of Lifestone
- Lair of the Skaven
- Forest of the Ancients
- Flight of the Kharadon
- Fortress of Ghosts
The first books were released in February 2019. The audio books for Attack of the Necron and The City of Lifestone are narrated by David Tennant and Billie Piper respectively.
Tropes featured in the Warped Galaxies books include:
- Asshole Victim: Rizz, who tried to kill both Zelia and Talen and attempted to leave the latter for dead during a Necron invasion (after the latter tried to save his life!). He meets his end by being atomized by a Necron gauss flayer.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: The Necron invasion in the first book overwhelms the planet's defenses, systematically slaughters its people in the streets, and ultimately blows the whole planet up in a matter of hours.
- Embarrassing Nickname: Flea Pit's name is actually Flegan Pala, but decides that it's best that the kids use the name given to him by Talen because it's easier to pronounce.
- Lighter and Softer: Compared to the base setting, anyway. The Imperium is a bit less of an overt dystopia, its people are bit less genocidal-religious-fanatic-y, pacifists are both a thing and actually taken seriously, interstellar travel is a lot more casual, and so on. It still has a much darker tone and significantly higher body count than your average children's book.
- Nothing Is the Same Anymore: The series is set several years after the events of the Gathering Storm. As such, Primaris Marines make an appearance.
- Technical Pacifist: Zelia is perfectly fine with destroying their enemies with improvised or unconventional methods, but will come down with all the righteousness she can muster whenever her companions try to defend themselves from the various aliens trying to kill them with an actual gun. This is explicitly based on the Insane Troll Logic that a lot of the archeological sites she visited are battlefields, and being armed didn't save the dead soldiers, therefore weapons are worthless. None of her companions take this entirely seriously. By the third book she still won't use a gun herself, but their adventures have finally beaten it into her head that her initial stance was unreasonable in a galaxy full of people trying to kill them.
- Trailers Always Lie: The animated character trailers make the series look a lot Lighter and Softer than it actually is. For instance this one
shows Zelia awakening a bunch of Necrons and them just letting her leave when she puts back what she stole, when in the book they're in full Terminator mode at all times.
Tropes featured in the Realm Quest books include:
- Brats with Slingshots: Kiri's preferred weapon. One of the animated trailers shows her practicing with it.
- Cool Airship: A dirigible galleon.
- Gadgeteer Genius: Alish has an instictive understanding of mechanisms, and can repair or create nearly anything.
- Lighter and Softer: As with Warped Galaxies.
