Articles tagged with: Books

Very recently I finally finished the original Uncharted Trilogy, so combining that with my recent read of The Art of Last of Us, grabbing The Art of the Uncharted Trilogy was a clear choice. And one I do not regret.

The review is pretty much like the aforementioned Last of Us title, but 3x. Tons of beautiful sketches, illustrations and drawings both seen in the game and never seen before (because they were conceptual, discarded, or simply evolved into other final versions). Lots of early designs of the main character Drake, but also of his close friends and many secondary characters from all three titles, and we're not talking just about bosses but NPCs, enemies, even the flora and types of trees.

Illumination tests, evolution of certain set pieces, tricks and non-realistic concessions they had to do to make the games either more visually appealing or gameplay-wise more enjoyable, and I was surprised to also see quite a few discarded scenarios (material that sometimes you don't even get to know about).

Covering three games in around 200 pages means it always feels brief, but I've you've played the games you will love the insane amount of detail, from how they decided which clothes enemies should wear at certain places to how Drake's diary pages should be built to feel natural and realistic.

Publication date: 2019-09-15

Tags: Books

I skipped a few Horus Heresy books because I wanted to read about the Thunder Warriors and The Outcast Dead was the recommended source. The main story relates to a powerful astropath who, after surviving a warp accident on a spaceship, got almost mad and apparently incapable of performing his duties, and who by chance will party with some renegade Space Marines who were imprisoned on Terra, so not much about Thunder Warriors there... it is true that part of the later plot does involve them (I don't want to spoil anything), but I was hoping to know more details.

Still the main story is quite interesting, at first unfolds slowly but then takes pace and I read the last third of the book way faster, devouring the words and trying to learn what happened next. Another good Horus Heresy novella, and one that goes quite deep into astropaths, cryptopaths, navigators and related psykers.

Publication date: 2019-09-01

Tags: Books

Usually any art book contains concept art and character & enemy designs, but probably due to Naughty Dog's nature (the company responsible for the videogame), in The Art of Last Of Us there is an incredible amount of beautiful scenery, iterations of not only the main characters but also non-player characters and monsters, examples of different lighting tests on scenes...

I loved the videogame, and the book doesn't disappoints, showing sketches, different steps and iterations (including discarded ones), colouring... Special mention to the faces: You clearly feel how much effort was put on trying to find "the perfect match" for each character face, different expression tests, or details like hair color. And the same applies to enemies: Lots of iterations on the type, clothing and weaponry.

A nice collector's item indeed.

Publication date: 2019-08-20

Tags: Books

The Flight of the Eisenstein picks up just after the Isstvan III traitor forces attack and massacre of loyal Space Marines, continuing the adventures of Death Guard captain Nathaniel Garro, who witnessed the rebellion, stole a ship and is trying to escape the Isstvan system to warn the emperor about Horus and some primarchs betrayal.

Without spoiling much, we'll read not only about battles between loyal and traitors, between space marine and demons, but also interal fights inside the survivor minds trying to digest the fact that most of what they stood for has been corrupted, that they will face their own brothers (and worse) in battle.

Continuing exactly where the third book left, was an enjoyable and nice paced read, with some tense moments and sometimes grotesque descriptions of some chaos taints.

Publication date: 2019-02-16

Tags: Books

I've wanted to read The Dark Tower books since I was young and first heard about the adventures of The Gunslinger and the mysterious world, mixture of western and fantasy, guns and spells. I've had the books in english since at least a decade but never decided to start with them... until a few weeks ago.

I've now finished reading the first book (of the eight that compose the series), and while I'm not going to do individual reviews but instead write again when I finish all of them, I can summarize as "I'll keep reading". While I expected more action, I understand that the first book is more of a presentation, an initial act to set the scenario for the things to come. There is action and tension, but there is lot of background (especially of the main character Roland).

I had read before both a small graphic novel and a short story that I think was a fragment of one of the books, and got hooked by the mixture of classic western with weird magical stuff happening everywhere, as it breaks your preconceptions and expectations. It also denotes the sometimes turbulent but always brilliant mind of Stephen King.

As a quick summary for lazy people not wanting to click the link at the beginning of the blog post, Roland is the last of a line of gunslingers, who seems to be obsessed with finding a man in black and has been following him for a long time already. They live in a world where there are hints of past technology, but that seems stuck in between the old west and feudalism, but a world where magic is very often present. At the center of this world resides The Dark Tower, a mysterious building that our gunslinger seems to desire to enter.

Publication date: 2018-11-19

Tags: Books