Articles tagged with: Books

Inquis Exterminatus is an art book compiled by John Blanche for The Black Library, and first published in 2000 (my edition is from 2011) and which, at the time of writing this blog post, is sadly out of print. It contains around 140 pages full of artwork from all way back to Rogue Trader until late nineties, and from many artists, not only John. Also there are some companion texts and "motivational sentences", always related with the pictures they appear along to.

The contents are separated by armies/factions, containing one for imperials and heretics, another for chaos space marines/traitor legions, and then xenos races. The last pages contain some beautiful sketches that I wish there were more of them.

It is a nice art book, and one I'll keep, but my only and big complain is that some of the pictures are in black & white despite the original being in color. They are still great but having seen the coloured ones it is a pity that the book contains the B&W alternative. There are some color drawings so I don't get the reason why all that should aren't coloured. But even with that is a great compilation.

Posted on 2018-05-26

I continue my reading of Horus Heresy series in disorder, but focusing mainly on Dark Angels-themed books (being my favourite chapter). My latest read, Angels of Caliban, has been a pleasant surprise.

In this volume we get to learn with lots of details mostly two plot lines: How began Caliban conversion to chaos, and how (and why) the Imperium Secundus and Triumvirate dissapeared. On one side, new details about Caliban hidden forces, about the origins of The Order, about how Luther slowly turns to rebellion after being banished to Caliban by the Lion. On the other, how the Triumvirate worked, with Sanguinius and Guilliman and the Lion who goes hunting for Curze with drastic measures. We also get to see more of the character of the Dark Angels primarch and some decisions that might have consequences...

There are also nice links with previous books, like the Tchulcha device the angels have, but also with future events, like mentioning Luther befriends Typhon (who is already tainted by Nurgle but keeps it in secret), of the old formations the chapter had (especially the Dreadwing), and we get to learn some "motivations" we can say of some of the will-be first Fallen Angels.

As a Dark Angels fan, can't but recommend reading it. There are some chapters who feel a bit long (e.g. a certain Luther speech...) but overall quite enjoyable.

Posted on 2018-03-03

I've grown playing Blizzard videogames, so The Art of Blizzard Entertainment was an easy choice. Although the first Starcraft didn't impressed me so much, the second part was much better. Diablo, I've poured hundreds of hours on each game of the trilogy and Diablo II was one of the first videogames that we played on our LAN-parties. And then Warcraft... videogames I've played once and again (especially Warcraft & Warcraft III), in single and multiplayer, and even played World of Warcraft for a few months (until was requiring too much time).

All of the previous paragraph is to remark that I cannot be objective as those games have been among my favourites for decades. And this book delivers, oh yes it delivers.

From pencil sketches to fully colored drawings, from small details to huge scenarios, from characters to double-page scenes, it is a visual pleasure to see each page. There are commentaries also, but they are so secondary nothing will happen if you miss them. It is also a big and heavy book, which I like because that means the pictures are big and many details can be appreciated.

If you like WoW or Diablo in general, you will really enjoy the artwork.

Posted on 2018-01-03

Small review of the 20th book of Horus Heresy series, The Primarchs. On it we find four stories regarding primarchs in the Heresy era, and get a deeper view into how they think and act. The novellas included are:

• The Reflection Crack'd by Graham McNeill: Is Fulgrim possesed and corrupted by a daemon?
• Feat of Iron by Nick Kyme: Where and why did Ferrus Manus dissapeared?
• The Lion by Gav Thorpe: Is The Lion trully loyal? (I read and reviewed it in the past)
• The Serpent Beneath by Rob Sanders: Is really Omegon going to attack an Alpha Legion base on an asteroid and kill its own brothers?

An interesting read, with some twists and surprises. I like the concept of different stories as they don't share scenarios (nor writers), each one being fresh and different. It is hard to not spoil the contents so I'll just say that I enjoyed them.

Posted on 2017-12-24

Azrael is a novel classified in the Space Marine Legends group that tells us the story of how Azrael became Supreme Grand Master of the Dark Angels chapter, and his first hard difficulties when faced with a powerful enemy and the dilemma of choosing as allies the Eldar xenos.

It is a nice narrative. We get to know about how Azrael thinks and plans, but also are presented with Belial, Asmodai and even Ezekiel, other well known Dark Angel characters that will provide advice and support to him. Belial for example is presented as a Deathwing sargeant, and for once the hunt for the fallen is mentioned but not the main drive/topic "above everything else" (meaning the only drive or reason why they take decisions).

It is not a long ebook read so don't want to get into spoilers, I liked it but felt a bit short. Action tends to end quickly and I would have loved to learn more about the main character, and about his enigmatic advisor Ezekiel... but was interesting anyway.

Posted on 2017-09-25