Showing posts with label Reviews. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Reviews. Show all posts
Monday, December 7, 2009
Friday, September 25, 2009
The Horus Heresy: False Gods and Galaxy in Flames
Let's also agree that I burn through books far to fast for my own good. Fast enough that I've gone ahead and picked up the next 4 books in the series. But let's get back to the first three books.
False Gods is exactly what it should be, a good second book. It shows how Horus became corrupted, how he came about making the choice. It also gives us the clear rift that forms among the members of the Mournival. Loken is still our main character here, but several of the remembrancers also take center stage.
Galaxy in Flames continues after False Gods, showing us the battle of Istvaan III, as well as the ultimate betrayal of Horus as well as setting us up for the next series of books.
I have to admit, despite knowing how everything turns out, I couldn't help but wonder that maybe, just maybe, things might turn out differently. The justification for why he turns is sound enough, but evil enough, that it hurts to see the brother Astartes turn on one another. You can't help but wonder if they are all so loyal to Horus. The battle between Horus Aximand (Little Horus) and Torgaddon, as short as it was, exemplified the reality of the battle, and I wish it had been featured more. Abbadon's thoughts on the matter, however, were perfect, and demonstrated there, in five simple words, what the traitor legions would essentially become.
One thing that I found interesting was the use of the words "traitor" and "loyalist" in GoF. Both sides were using the terms, and it really helped nail the point home that the truth was, both sides believed they were doing what was truly right. This really makes the entire thing that much more tragic. Sure, Abbadon might be showing signs of being corrupted, but I don't believe he was the norm.
Of course, looking back on False Gods, I can't help but be amazed that Horus would listen to Erebus even after Magnus comes in and reveals him for lying. That, I think, demonstrated clearly that while Horus was deceived in some ways, it was his choice in the end, and he made it.
And I think that's the important point here. Despite all the tragedy and despite all the second guessing, the traitor marines knew what they were doing. On the surface, they might think what they are doing is right, and that might suit them for a time, but deep down inside, they know what they are doing is wrong. But they still made that choice.
Galaxy in Flames ended well. I didn't enjoy the ending, for reasons that I'll avoid discussing because it will give away things that I shouldn't. But I didn't enjoy it because it happened the way it should have happened. It's Warhammer 40k after all.
The Flight of the Eisenstein is next, which I'm excited about. Death Guard! Captain Garro's short but awesome storyline in the previous books got me all excited. I'm sure a lot of it has to do with my love of the Death Guard itself.
I would like to add that a lot of the fun with these books is thinking about recreating some of the armies. It's so much more fun when you can build an army and have a story behind it. Now I know why there are so many pre-heresy fanatics out there.
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Horus Rising by Dan Abnett
I read. A lot. So far, this year, I've read (with the help of audio books for some): The Wheel of Time series, the Harry Potter series, Starship Troopers, Ender's Game, Dune books 1 and 2, World War Z, Lucifer's Hammer, One Second After, New Spring, Hannibal: One Man Against Rome, Wizard's First Rule, Duma Key, the Final Empire: Mistborn, and a few others I don't remember. I also just finished Horus Rising, the first book in the Horus Heresy. I'll say this: it is an excellent book, much better then I expected. I had expected it to be good for a book based on a game considering the reviews it's gotten, but it's just a great book. You don't need to mention the game part. I was curious how someone was going to write a book based on Space Marines. Was it going to be filled with lots of combat? A part of me was prepared for a lot of chapters that read more like battle reports.Hardly. The book is a far cry from what I expected, and a pleasure to read. It's filled with a lot of character building, a lot of good dialog, and a great story. It's a setup for what we all know is coming, and I think knowing what is coming makes what I read even better. To read the subtle changes in Horus and company, to see how the Luna Wolves were and see their slow decline. Even that is done well. The start of their decline is apparent only because we know what's going to happen, and to read about it, I can't help but feel sorry for them, to emphasize with them. In fact, I can't help but feel like so far, they are in the right.
Horus Rising does an excellent job at setting up the fall. I'm going to start False Gods tonight by Graham McNeil. He has big shoes to fill. I hope he delivers. The Luna Wolves have come alive under Mr. Abnett and in a way, I want to see them succeed. Another surprise was the books main character wasn't Horus. It was the Luna Wolves Captain of the 10th company, Garviel Loken. Loken is an interesting character. I see his setup as well, and of course, I know what happens with him, which makes everything so much more tragic.
This book has made me so excited to learn more about the space marine chapters, the chaos space marines, the history of the Imperium, and, well, the background of the 40k universe.
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Review of MiniWarGaming’s Guide to Painting Miniatures
MiniWarGaming.com came out with a new e-book on Miniature Painting. I love the hobby side of the game as much as the game itself, and I could still use a lot to learn when it comes to painting. When I read that MWG had a nice new e-book on the subject, I figured I’d give it a shot and see what it was all about.
At under $20, it was cheap compared to other miniature painting books. Sure, it was only a PDF, but you also get two $15 gift certificates and one month free membership to the site included, it pays for itself. Couple that a money back guarantee, and you have a damn good deal. So I decided to give it a shot.
Layout and Design
Let me start with a big gripe I have with the layout. The font chosen for the header is horrible. Yes, it’s a fun font, it looks cool, but for reading the book on the computer, it makes it difficult to scan. I find that I can quickly scan the headers of the different sections. It was the first glaring problem I had, and I noticed it rather quickly.
The other thing to consider is the layout for a PDF. Wizards of the Coast is superb with their PDF offerings of Dragon and Dungeon magazines. Rather than a normal portrait style layout, the magazines are formatted for a landscape layout. The benefit is for reading on computer screens. I imagine I’m not alone in how I will use the e-book. I open the e-book on my computer to the appropriate section I want to reference. My monitor is positioned on the same desk I paint on. This means I can read and review while painting. From here, I can both paint and reference at the same time. In a landscape format, I can see the entire page on my widescreen monitor. As it is now, I can’t do that.
On the plus side, the page numbering of the PDF matches the page numbering used in the table of contents!
The e-book is filled with lots of pictures. Not so many that they use it as filler. Rather, every picture makes itself an important part of the e-book. The pictures are high quality, and really do a good job at helping to get a certain point across.
Disregarding the orientation of the layout, the layout and font choice for normal text is appropriate for the subject matter. It’s easy to follow along.
Content
This is the real strong suit of the e-book. This e-book is packed full with so many topics it’s kind of mind boggling. They managed to fit so much into a book only 59 pages long. Each topic is covered fairly well. It would be easy to write a lot more on many topics, but frankly, they’ve found a good balance between providing you with what you need to know, and providing you with lots of fluff. For me, that was important. This guide isn’t going to turn you into an ‘Eavy Metal painter over night. No guide can. What this guide does do well, though, is give you a lot of practical advice as well as direction.
How does it do this? It covers topics such as setting up a painting area, basic color theory, what to do when you make mistakes, dealing with shaky hands, paint brushes (and going beyond the miniature company brushes), and advice with paints. It talks about dry brushing, washing, highlighting, green stuff, and working with metal miniatures (with a non-pinning method discussed for assembly).
As you can see, even before we get into the painting part, there are lots of articles that discuss things that many of us might have wished someone would have told us when we began (or even after we began).
This book doesn’t get into the basics too much, though. Most of the coverage is on applying specific techniques to specific areas, but does a good enough job of showing how this could be applied to other areas as well. For example, the layers section focuses on painting a cloak, but the details are good for how to apply that technique anywhere and aren’t too specific on just using it on cloaks. I like this method best, as it demonstrates the technique in a specific application rather than an abstract one.
The e-book also has a good section on air brushing. I found this to be pretty awesome. Not only does it cover painting with an air brush, but also gives advice along the way in dealing with air brushing. The section covers several techniques, as well as covers how to apply camouflage to armor that looks good and seems easy to apply.
Another part I enjoyed was on weather vehicles. It covers more than just weathering; this section also covers wear and tear on a vehicle.
The book covers special effects as well. Armorcast puts out Cinematic Effects like smoke coming out a barrel, a rocket flying out, and other cool effects that can be attached to models and painted. The book covers not only how to apply them and paint them, but also how that muzzle flash will affect the lighting on the model itself (called Object Source Lighting).
Finally, the book covers painting a gnoll with a lot of fur and a space marine. Because, you know, what would a mini painting book be without a space marine?
I should note that all the articles are written in an easy to read manner. The book takes you through with the understanding that you aren’t a complete dolt, but doesn’t assume you are a master painter already. I found it to be enjoyable to read, and enjoyed the overall tone.
Conclusion
The e-book was well worth it, especially when considering all the bonuses you get along with it. If you enjoy the hobby and want to learn more painting techniques, this book is one you should consider. The book doesn’t cover advanced techniques like non-metal metal or blending or numerous other techniques, but it doesn’t need to. It covers how to paint models to a good standard so you can play war games with those models. Yeah, I know. That doesn’t sound so impressive. But the reality is, it really does a good job at showing you how easy it is to move beyond the “base coasted chaos black with a mix of grey plastic” army to the “hey, it actually looks nice” army.
The MiniWarGaming’s Guide to Painting Miniatures, volume 1, does an excellent job of getting your unfinished models painted up to a high table standard. The book provides easy to employ techniques that allow you to say good bye to the plastic color scheme you are using now. Now you can field your army without shame.
At under $20, it was cheap compared to other miniature painting books. Sure, it was only a PDF, but you also get two $15 gift certificates and one month free membership to the site included, it pays for itself. Couple that a money back guarantee, and you have a damn good deal. So I decided to give it a shot.
Layout and Design
Let me start with a big gripe I have with the layout. The font chosen for the header is horrible. Yes, it’s a fun font, it looks cool, but for reading the book on the computer, it makes it difficult to scan. I find that I can quickly scan the headers of the different sections. It was the first glaring problem I had, and I noticed it rather quickly.
The other thing to consider is the layout for a PDF. Wizards of the Coast is superb with their PDF offerings of Dragon and Dungeon magazines. Rather than a normal portrait style layout, the magazines are formatted for a landscape layout. The benefit is for reading on computer screens. I imagine I’m not alone in how I will use the e-book. I open the e-book on my computer to the appropriate section I want to reference. My monitor is positioned on the same desk I paint on. This means I can read and review while painting. From here, I can both paint and reference at the same time. In a landscape format, I can see the entire page on my widescreen monitor. As it is now, I can’t do that.
On the plus side, the page numbering of the PDF matches the page numbering used in the table of contents!
The e-book is filled with lots of pictures. Not so many that they use it as filler. Rather, every picture makes itself an important part of the e-book. The pictures are high quality, and really do a good job at helping to get a certain point across.
Disregarding the orientation of the layout, the layout and font choice for normal text is appropriate for the subject matter. It’s easy to follow along.
Content
This is the real strong suit of the e-book. This e-book is packed full with so many topics it’s kind of mind boggling. They managed to fit so much into a book only 59 pages long. Each topic is covered fairly well. It would be easy to write a lot more on many topics, but frankly, they’ve found a good balance between providing you with what you need to know, and providing you with lots of fluff. For me, that was important. This guide isn’t going to turn you into an ‘Eavy Metal painter over night. No guide can. What this guide does do well, though, is give you a lot of practical advice as well as direction.
How does it do this? It covers topics such as setting up a painting area, basic color theory, what to do when you make mistakes, dealing with shaky hands, paint brushes (and going beyond the miniature company brushes), and advice with paints. It talks about dry brushing, washing, highlighting, green stuff, and working with metal miniatures (with a non-pinning method discussed for assembly).
As you can see, even before we get into the painting part, there are lots of articles that discuss things that many of us might have wished someone would have told us when we began (or even after we began).
This book doesn’t get into the basics too much, though. Most of the coverage is on applying specific techniques to specific areas, but does a good enough job of showing how this could be applied to other areas as well. For example, the layers section focuses on painting a cloak, but the details are good for how to apply that technique anywhere and aren’t too specific on just using it on cloaks. I like this method best, as it demonstrates the technique in a specific application rather than an abstract one.
The e-book also has a good section on air brushing. I found this to be pretty awesome. Not only does it cover painting with an air brush, but also gives advice along the way in dealing with air brushing. The section covers several techniques, as well as covers how to apply camouflage to armor that looks good and seems easy to apply.
Another part I enjoyed was on weather vehicles. It covers more than just weathering; this section also covers wear and tear on a vehicle.
The book covers special effects as well. Armorcast puts out Cinematic Effects like smoke coming out a barrel, a rocket flying out, and other cool effects that can be attached to models and painted. The book covers not only how to apply them and paint them, but also how that muzzle flash will affect the lighting on the model itself (called Object Source Lighting).
Finally, the book covers painting a gnoll with a lot of fur and a space marine. Because, you know, what would a mini painting book be without a space marine?
I should note that all the articles are written in an easy to read manner. The book takes you through with the understanding that you aren’t a complete dolt, but doesn’t assume you are a master painter already. I found it to be enjoyable to read, and enjoyed the overall tone.
Conclusion
The e-book was well worth it, especially when considering all the bonuses you get along with it. If you enjoy the hobby and want to learn more painting techniques, this book is one you should consider. The book doesn’t cover advanced techniques like non-metal metal or blending or numerous other techniques, but it doesn’t need to. It covers how to paint models to a good standard so you can play war games with those models. Yeah, I know. That doesn’t sound so impressive. But the reality is, it really does a good job at showing you how easy it is to move beyond the “base coasted chaos black with a mix of grey plastic” army to the “hey, it actually looks nice” army.
The MiniWarGaming’s Guide to Painting Miniatures, volume 1, does an excellent job of getting your unfinished models painted up to a high table standard. The book provides easy to employ techniques that allow you to say good bye to the plastic color scheme you are using now. Now you can field your army without shame.
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