Book Review: The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger (book 1)
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.
Tags: Books
Book Review: The Horus Heresy: The Master of Mankind
Book number 41 in The Horus Heresy series, The Master of Mankind attracted me because the character of the Emperor is always being talked about but never in detail in any Warhammer 40,000 lore. We can learn how he did this and that, how he fought, how others think he decided a certain strategy... but never get to actually see him in "direct action", engaged in a conversation with someone, or simply get to the time where he was not in the Golden Throne and how he lived and directed mankind then.
The book focuses indeed on the Emperor, both in how he was directing some of his main projects back in the Horus Heresy (the Eldar Webway, the Golden Throne, and other which I'd rather not spoil) and how he thinked, bits of his personality and extremely radical practicality regarding every action he took, in the form of half-dream half-visions he shares with some of his high-ranking Adeptus Custodes officers.
But we also get to learn qute a bit about the Adeptus Custodes themselves and the Sisters of Silence, as the problems that Magnus the Red caused spawned terrible chaos creaures pouring in into the webway, and mankind needs to keep hold of it at any cost.
An interesting book, as I mentioned with hints at the Emperor's personality, good battles full of tension, chaos demons, titans... The perfect mix for an entertaining read.
Tags: Books Warhammer 40000
Book Review: The Art of Dead Space
I love the first two Dead Space videogames, and I've finished the main trilogy plus another one released on iOS. This art book contains concept art, drawings and lore about the 3 main titles and bits from two small comic book series.
Essentially, if you liked the games you will enjoy the pictures and the companion text. It tells many small details about most topics, from the whys and hows of the weapons to the suit designs, the different enemies, and of course the markers. It does contain huge spoilers so you should be careful with that, but after beating the games, it is a must read to expand the lore.
To complain about something, that there seems to be more content about the third game than the first two, and at least for me those are the best titles. I'd love to have seen even more about the Ishimura ship... but even with that it is worth it for fans.
Tags: Books Videogames
Art Book Review: Inquis Exterminatus
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.
Tags: Books Warhammer 40000
Book Review: Angels of Caliban
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.
Tags: Books Warhammer 40000
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