Christmas Cards from the Edge

Having managed to bag a weeks leave over the holiday season for the first time in years, you would have thought I'd have had a load of time on my hands, some of which I could devote to the Blog. But festive duties have overtaken me, last minute wrapping of presents, tree decorating and the obligatory family visits have left little time in front of the cogitator.

But lets face it, with gifts to be opened, mountains of food to be scoffed and a few too many bottles of booze to be quaffed; does anyone really want to be glued to the Net at this time of year?

Books in Brief : Horus Rising by Dan Abnett

Once again I'm going to come out of this brief review reeking of 'Danboyism' but the truth is that Dan Abnett is one of the best writers I have had the pleasure of reading works by for some time. I started a bit off track with Legion and then straight into Rising and as with Legion I just couldn't put it down. The detail and depth of the main players and the settings around them are fantastic.

Abnett uses words like paints on a canvas, the images he conjures are so clear; the book aptly captures the heady glories of this Renaissance period of the Imperium and gives a sense of the driving forces behind it. Warfare, science, art and of course religion all intrinsically linked and yet each creating friction with the others and causing cracks to appear in the Emperors master plan.

The potrayal of the Demigod like Primarchs and their superhuman 'sons' the Astartes as having very human qualities that are both a blessing and a curse, reminds me of the legends of ancient Greece; the development of their characters and the relationship with the 'normal' humans around them is very central to the tale and makes for riveting reading.

Oh and the book opens with the kind of twist that a Director such as Christopher Nolan would be proud of and has heaps of bolter banging action as any reader of a Warhammer 40k novel would expect.

Having been following the tales of the Heresy since it's first inclusion into 40K; what was once a simple tale of betrayal is shaping up to be a tragedy of epic proportions.

Tales from the Dark Millennium : Lalinta Prime Pt VI

Dark Pact

“They have returned Lord.”

Bile the Eviscerator looked up from the glowing Hololithic map of the Haxtes battle front, projecting from the chart table and turned his attention to the Death Guard who had entered the command post.

T’kin knelt at a respectful distance his bare head bowed, sloughs of leathery brown skin hanging limply and exposing portions of yellowing skull beneath. The kiss of the Blight Grenade he had used to fell one of the bastard sons of the false Emperor, a Librarian no less had left him some pleasing trophy scars.

“Have they secured the item?”

Battle Report 2 : Ambush at Sanctus Edge and the Salvation of Raltia Hive

Guest submissions by Paul aka 'Pestie' and Bish

Trying to play catch up with the battle reports and general progress of our Lalinta Prime Campaign. Playing, learning and writing notes at the same time takes all my effort during a game at the moment (for me that's still multi tasking on a Heroic difficulty setting) ; but as much of our armies are unpainted at present, not being able to take pictures of the battles doesn't seem too much of a loss for now.

Heresy Online bows out of the Blogosphere

The sharp eyed among you, those who have not spent decades hunched over a poorly lit painting table or fusing your eyeballs playing console/Pc Games until O'Mygodaclock; are blessed with youth or are just named 'Shoggy' Domor. May have noticed my little section of The Webway shrank by one earlier today.

Blood Drinkers Fandex : Origins

I've spent the last week or so of rare and precious free time working on the Blood Drinker Fandex project and after much cursing, gnashing of teeth and the odd ceremonial thump to the side of my cogitators casing (MS Word is truly a devil that refuses to be tamed) I've pieced together the following for the Origins section of the dex, a lot of it is a re-write of work I did over on B&C but having put it through the old grey matter sieve again, I think it's come out for the better.

I've also produced an orbital picture of the Chapter Homeworld of San Guisuga; the project is still in its infant stages and as such I haven't pinned down the layout yet, but I'll keep posting up the meat of the work as I finish it, with a view to eventually turning the whole thing into a PDF.

For Sale: Praetorian XXIV Ltd Edition Box Set

'If it's a miracle, Colour Sergeant, it's a short chamber Boxer Henry No 45 Lasgun miracle.'
'And a bayonet, sir, with some guts behind it.'

The clean up push continues apace, I've advanced into the dusty provinces under my painting table where amongst the piles of flash and broken paintbrushes, I've discovered ancient caskets that have lain undisturbed for many years and within have been some nice long forgotten finds.