Distant Thunders

The next book in the Destroyermen series (I believe this is book 4 of 5). Still my favorite time-travel/alternate world series. Great characters, great stories. One of my go-to Audible selections.

My Grade: A

The Horns of Ruin

Finished this book awhile ago, and REALLY liked it. It starts off . . . different than you'd expect, because it's setting up a more intricate world than you'd anticipate, and the fact that it's a totally different world, and not a 'steam-punked-up' alternate reality, there's some static at the beginning as your brain takes time to adjust. But once you do, it really does a good job.

I particularly liked the end, where a lot is implied, and mostly left to the reader to fill in on his or her own. An entire mythos is created, a unique magic/godhead formula over-arches the entire story, and seems to be ripe for future expansion.

I'd give this book an A-/A for myself, mainly because it took a little while to engage me. But that could easily have been my own brain not conforming to what the book was throwing to me . . .
Slainte

Ghost Story

Jim Butcher's latest: Ghost Story. Great book. Not as good a story as Changes, I think, but it's all classic Butcher, and that's all good. Great banter, and emotional investment, and all wrapped up in the end with a nice diving board put on their for momentum into the next book . . . which promises to be spectacular! I am always amazed at his ability to bring all of his plot and subplot yarns together in a really satisfying bow at the end of each book.

My grade: A, because everyone needs to have room to grow! :)

Slainte!

Black Library Reading Recommendations

Over the course of the last several years I've had many people ask me for recommendations from the Black Library, Games Workshop's fiction publishing arm. Now, Black Library has a whole slew of novels in their catalog, some among the best sci-fi you'll ever read and some . . . not so much . . . And because of the richness of the 40K Universe, the range of topics/characters/themes covered is immense as well.

So I came up with this basic Black Library 40K Primer, to help folks choose where to start when faced with this daunting edifice of Dark Gothic fiction. It's not comprehensive, by any stretch. New books are added every month, and I'm woefully behind. Also, this is just the 40K side of things. I don't read as much BL fantasy stuff, but what I have read I've enjoyed immensely.

If you're interested in . . . :

Large noble genetically-enhanced warrior monks, start with Graham McNeil's Ultra Marines (Greek hero based) or William King's Space Wolf series (viking based), or Dan Abnett's Brothers of the Snake (more standard and only a single stand alone novel).

Super secret espionage organizations, start with Dan Abnett's Eisenhorn Trilogy

Average grunts fighting a frightening array of bad guys across a war torn universe, start with Dan Abnett's Gaunt's Ghosts series.

Evil bad guys dark-crusading across the universe, start with Graham McNeil's Storm of Iron series, or Anthony Reynolds' Dark Apostle

Average grunt combat aircraft crews fighting evil mutated humans or alien menaces, start with Dan Abnett's Double Eagle

Space combat between huge, gothic star ships kilometers long start with Gordon Rennie's Execution Hour and Shadowpoint (not sure which is first)

Very funny anti-heroes with a touch of poignant emotion, start with Sandy Mitchell's Caiphas Cain novels (caveat here: these are some of my all time favorites, but you MAY need to know more about the universe than they directly convey to really appreciate them)

And finally, if you're really into amazing epic expositional historical sagas that will show you how things WERE 10,000 years ago, and thus how they got to be how they are in the year 40,000, you've GOT to start with the Horum Heresy series, starting with book 1: Horus Rising by Dan Abnett. Same caveat as with the Caiaphas Cain novels, though.

Hopefully that helps a little bit. There are other books in the 41st Millennium  that are good, also, but in my opinion these are the best, capable of entertaining anyone, not just fans of the game and the universe. Of course, if there are any questions, or you don't see something you feel should be on this list, feel free to shoot me an email at craig@thed6generation.com!

Slainte!

Adendum: New Books

Aaron Dembski Bowden, a relatively new writer in the Black Library stable, rose quickly to the heady heights of one of my favorites. I have only read two of his books so far, but they were both fantastic. He wrote one of the Horus Heresy books, The First Heretic . . . awesome.

And his own series:
If you like books from the point of view of the bad guys . . . showing an excellent differentiation of the shades of grey within the spectrum of bad guys . . . his Night Lords novels, starting with Soul Hunter, is a great place to go.

(Good catch, Vincetegator!)

A Dance With Dragons

So, I listened to Feast for Crows early in the summer to get ready for this book . . . forgetting that it only really updated me on half the characters . . . >:( But I did it, and then, finally, got a chance to start reading the new hotness in fantasy novels!

As you probably know if you're reading this, I'm a big fan of GRRM, and although I was annoyed with the delays and the eternity it took to get this book out, I wasn't in the tar and feather or draw and quarter camps. And I am LOVING this book . . . mostly. The fact that the POV characters' names are starting to shift, and the focus seems to jump too quickly from the stories I'm interested in (Tyrion, Daenerys, Jon) to characters I care less about (Reek/Davos/Bran/Asha) is annoying, but I can take it. More annoying is the excessive descriptions of places, food, and flags . . . but again, I'm willing to live with it, as the story is progressing VERY nicely!

So, for this book, I'm going to pull a Russ and say 3+ with a Re-roll, +1 if you are already a fan of the books :)

Update: The book ended very abruptly, and my disatisfaction grew with each chapter about half way through. A chapter by chapter breakdown, looking at the story arc of each POV character, would show VERY little development in almost all the major characters. A great deal is promised, and massive forces are put in motion . . . again . . . but no grand culminating battles take place . . . at least, not on stage. And one of the last moments of the book is a sad rehash of a trick he's already used once . . . it's just a question of which of two tricks he's using.

As the book came to a close I found myself just wanting it to be over as it became painfully clearl, as each POV character made their final appearance, that nothing much was going to get resolved . . . except that one bit mentioned above.

My Grade: B his writing is still excellent . . . but his pacing and his plotting is sorely lacking here. If I wasn't already THOUSANDS of pages invested, I'm not sure if I'd be moved to read the next one, given how little happened this time, despite 6 years and 1000 pages . . .

The Lost Fleet: Victorious

Currently listening to The Lost Fleet: Victorious, by Jack Campbell nee John G. Hemry.

Very, very disappointed. Wasn't a HUGE fan of the earlier Lost Fleet books, as there just seems to be something that smells a little funny to me behind the author's world view (at least how it's presented in the books). That was forgivable . . . the repetitive nature of the action, however, as the fleet kept meeting Syndics, killing them, and moving on . . . that was not forgivable. And this new book reads like Campbell or Hemry or whatever has gotten tired of the Syndics and wants to clear them from the stage for some new bad guys. No suspense, no real sense of mystery. Just jumping from plot point to plot point, seemingly trying to move on . . .

So, wasn't a big fan before, and this book is not helping that any. It's got some decent space battles, again, and I'm ok with some of the characters . . . but then, other characters are really sadly flat, and some of the command decisions Geary and the other characters make are so 'speed of plot', and would get them SO court-martialled in any logical military.

So, Lost Fleet: Victorious . . . I'm going to give it a 5+ with a re-roll.

Mea Culpa!

Well, if anyone's still checking this blog at all, I've got to apologize for the Looooooooonnnnnnnggggggg and unforeseen hiatus.

Soon after my last post I actually received my first free lance writing jobs, dream come true! Unfortunately, the first job, writing summaries of every race, both core races and allies, for the Spartan  Games space ship combat game Firestorm: Armada, proved a VERY big challenge. I basically wrote 19 articles in 10 days. It was awesome, and I am GREATLY appreciative of the chance Neil and friends over at Spartan took on me. Since I've been writing for them non-stop since then, I have to assume they liked what they saw! :)

If you'd like to check out that first assignment, just head on over here http://www.spartangames.co.uk/games/firestorm-armada and look at any of those articles along the right hand margin.

I've been writing a lot since then, but can't talk yet about what, or where it will show up.

Right after Neil took a chance on me, Fantasy Flight Games offered me the chance to take their Writing for Warhammer 40,000 assessment, an awesome exercise in fluff and fun, I think it was 13 fluff questions to be answered in fun, fluffy ways! I did that, and soon after received my first offer of a test assignment for them! So, I've been writing non-stop all summer long for both Spartan Games and Fantasy Flight. Can't talk about the FFG assignment yet, but it has been a blast to work with Gaming Luminary Tim Huckelbery and the whole 40K RPG staff over at FFG! Good luck to Ross Watson, who got the ball rolling for me, and who is now moving on to be the 40K Fluff Guru for the upcoming 40K MMORPG!

Anyway, that's where I'VE been this summer. No modeling, very little gaming, as I spent most of my non-writing time with my family up at lake Winnipesaukee. GenCon was awesome, and Karen and I spent a few days in NYC, taking in the sites, playing some games, and seeing a couple movies and of course, Spiderman: Turn Off the Dark . . . which was WONDERFULLY awful! :)

And so that's why this Blog has not seen the light of day in several months! I will be trying to get to it a little more frequently, and change up the front page a little bit to make it a little less intimidating to update.

I've got a couple ideas for immediate posts that will provide a bit of content. I'm afraid the Wierd West story is on hold until a sizable chunk of free time presents itself, but until the, I'll let you know when my writing becomes available in other places. And how exciting is it to be able to say that! :)

So, until I jump back on here, Sliante, Suckers! :)

~Craig