Wednesday 24 August 2011

More night goblins...


Creeping along at a snail's pace, I have embarked upon a few Night Goblins to stave off the painting withdrawal symptoms. Orkhide Shade followed by increasingly lighter mixtures of Goblin Green and Rotting Flesh to be exact. Then a Thrakka Green wash before the final highlights. The different 'units' of Goblins have different colour clothing just to create some variety on the board so to speak, and to help with identification. Archers in Mordian Blue with a Badab Black wash and the spearmen with Mechrite Red then a Devlan Mud wash.


Should get these finished in a bit, but, ahem, we'll see.

Saturday 20 August 2011

D and D - Man, I laughed out loud! Does this make me a geek (or a nerd...)?

PAX Celebrity Game, Part 1

If ever you wanted a reason to get all geeky, this series of Youtube posts shows why. It really made me laugh and I only vaguely understand the rules of D and D. If only all games could be played in this spirit. Ace.

Thursday 18 August 2011

The end of Preacher - by Ennis/Dillon

I thought I'd make sure that I rounded off the Preacher series with a mini-review, and then list some of the things that should be coming up.


First off, let me say that Ennis and Dillon did a grand job on the series overall. I knew the work of these guys of old and it doesn't disappoint. The artwork is clear, confident and packs a punch. I adore the Fabry covers included in the trade paperbacks. There are also some great illustrations at the end too. The narrative is thoughtful, the interplay between he characters is interesting and, to an extent, very 'human', despite the storyline. The storyline itself progressed quite interestingly in the first half of the series. I enjoyed the oddities, the seediness and the gratuitous violence. The one criticism that I might have is that, by the last volume (The Alamo), I already sort of knew where the story was going to end up. It felt a little too familiar and I think this lessened the impact of the final dramatic narrative 'punches'. The Saint of Killers is an absolutely fantastic creation though!
Up and coming graphic novel reports from me will include the next few volumes (up to v.8) of the excellent black and white zombie series The Walking Dead. Then we have - The Boys (Ennis again) up to volume 5, Alan Moore's The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen : Century 1969, Willingham's fabulous Fables  - volumes 14 and 15, Mignola's The Amazing Screw on Head...
Then there's the Lord Of the Rings LCG to consider along with the rulebooks for Dark Age Games, Malifaux and Warmachine : Wrath.
I'll let you know about them all ... if ever I have time!!

Wednesday 17 August 2011

A Song of Ice and Fire - Four books in and so a review so far...

Having been extremely encouraged by Book 1: A Game of Thrones, I have embarked on a mini-mission of getting as much of this series read as possible. Consequently I am now on Book 4 : A Feast Of Crows. The others I was able to read here and there while basking in the sun on holiday. Weighty tomes they were too, each running over 600 pages or so.

Book one dragged me in and (I hate this phrase) it was a real 'page-turner'.Though I still have reservations about the ages of some of the characters, especially the female ones (e.g.Daenerys), I can perhaps see that Martin was aiming at something more medieval in tone. Young girls being married off for political and economic expediency and life expectancy being shorter. Even so, I'm not always convinced that he is able to authentically portray the mind of a 'child' - though, to be fair, Arya is convincing in parts, but grows up extermely quickly.
Nevertheless, all have been very readable, which is the important point. I felt that the hugely complex interrelationships between the various different families (or Houses), their squabbles, alliances and betrayals were handled confidently and fluently. It is a big ask to remember all of the connections and I'm not sure if I can accurately tell you who likes/hates who all of the time. The narrative therefore does 'pause' at times to remind the reader of previous events (some with better memories have argued that it's tant amount to repetition). Given that the chapters themselves are relatively short, this does mean that some information can feel a little redundant. This was true for me at times , I have to say, but this may have also been because I was reading all novels in a row and quite quickly.
Overall, I like the narrative structure, with each chapter being seen through the eyes of a different character - and (no spoiler) don't think that just because a character has their own chapter, that they can't come to a very grizzly end! Martin is more than capable of throwing a deathly 'curve ball'.
The descriptions are clear and  the narrative pace well structured and at times completetly engrossing. I enjoyed the journey through all books and the devastation wrought by the characters on each other. The other plus about a series of POV chapters is that you can see the impact of the events of the novel from a variety of perspectves. With a long novel series such as this, it helps.
I think the final thing to say is that according to the Amazon reviewers, the installment I am reading now and the next one (A Dance With Dragons) are less narratively engaging and lead the story in different directions, while bypassing some of the central characters somewhat. That remains to be seen. What I do think is that an undertaking of writing about a world as complex and involved as this is going to have to take different paths as it moves along. I do get that this means it sems to lack a sense of moving towards a definite conclusion. But here I am going to wait and be patient - and write more later...

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