Remember the Fallen

“The enemy? His sense of duty was no less than yours, I deem. You wonder what his name is, where he came from. And if he was really evil at heart. What lies or threats led him on this long march from home. If he would not rather have stayed there in peace. War will make corpses of us all.” 

A day to remember all those lost to conflict and a hope that one day War really will be confined to a tabletop.


Quote from 'Lord of the Rings - The Two Towers' David Wenham as Faramir

Books in Brief : Death of Integrity by Guy Haley

I've been looking forward to getting hold of this since I learned of it as a work in progress about a year ago and as soon as it dropped I finished it off in short order. Having waited 25 years for a Blood Drinker novel, there was no way it was going to see a bookshelf until the very last page had been turned. So grab a 'brew' and pull up a chair for another not so brief book review.

Death of Integrity is the latest in the Space Marine Battles series, a series I must confess to having not read anything from previously, something I will now have to rectify; it's also only my second foray into works by the author Guy Haley. The first being his short story The Rite of Holos which featured in Hammer & Bolter last year and is now available as an eBook. I covered 'Rite' very briefly in a post back then, a cracking little read of its own and also a prequel to DoI.

If you're a regular visitor to this Blog you'll know that the Blood Drinkers have been my chosen Chapter since I first got into 40k all those decades ago, you'll also be aware that I have written extensively about their existing cannon background and generated a huge amount of my own material to fill in the blanks as it were. This makes me a harsh critic indeed, you only need look at the roasting James Swallow's Blood Angels books endure at my hand and the Angels are only cousins to the Drinkers.

Suffice to say Guy had his work cut out, he'd shown real promise with the short story, now expectations were doubly high; would he, could he deliver?

UK Games Day 2013 : Pt II Forge World Seminar

Lagging even further behind the rest of my fellow Bloggers reporting the Games Day news, the Forge World seminar has been pretty comprehensively covered; but I hate not completing a mission and lets face it posts have been a rare thing on the 'Edge this year. So for what it's worth here is what I scribbled down during the very entertaining briefing by Tony Cottrell & Alan Bligh, along with some more pictures from the Battle of Phall diorama (The taking of the Contrador), oh and some miniature provisionally called Primarch Number 5, wonder who that could be?

UK Games Day 2013 : Pt I Forge World

So in the vast desert of my Hobby time an Oasis appeared on the horizon (probably the first and only time Birmingham has been described as such) and I was able to bask in it's bounty of 40k goodness. 

That's right, I'm pleased to report that yours truly managed to successfully navigate Spaghetti Junction to attend this years UK Games Day; enabling me to top up my rather frayed Hobby Karma and continue what has been a very popular series of posts from the event, every year since this Blogs creation back in 2010.

Books in Brief : Fear to Tread by James Swallow

As promised , I'm back (can't quite believe it took three months but that, it seems is parenthood for you) with a not so brief  Books in Brief review of the Horus Heresy novel Fear to Tread by James Swallow.

In the past I have been, deservedly I think, quite harsh in my criticism of Swallow's handling of the Blood Angels in his 40k period books (here are links to my reviews for Blood Angels Omnibus and Red Fury). Perhaps I have an overly critical eye and fanboy bias due to the Chapter being the primogenitors of my own beloved Blood Drinkers; but the fact remains those books were by any stretch sub-par and the author can and has delivered much better.

It was with some consternation then that I found Swallow was still at the helm when it came to the first Heresy novel dedicated to the Primarch Sanguinius and his Legion.

So should fans of the Heresy series and the Blood Angels 'Fear to Tread' the pages of this novel?

Well with some reservation the answer is no but caution is still advised; Mr Swallow has pulled up his literary britches and while not delivering a classic, he has risen above his previous lamentable Blood Angel works, producing an adequate addition to the series.

Postcards from the Edge

Time to check in with those of you still monitoring this channel for signs of life, letting you know that the Emperor's light still burns in my little corner of the Blogosphere albeit on minimal power setting.

My Hobby time has been on restricted duty since the birth of our daughter; compound that life changing event with a shift pattern that was custom designed to hinder the 40k hobbyist and a long term case of 'Slow Painter's Syndrome'. It all makes for poor reading I'm sorry to say.

Like many in our community (most will have read and some written similar posts) I'm still wrestling with the logistics of actually sitting back down at the painting table and getting a game in seems an insurmountable challenge at present; but I am determined to keep a firm grip on our beloved Hobby this time and not let it fall by the wayside as I did back in the middling years of Third Edition (a career enforced lapse that in the light of my current commitments appears quite trivial).

My Greatest Creation : A Collaborative Effort

For all those wondering where in the Realms of Chaos yours truly has been for the past month (I note none of you sent search parties...) let me tell you that for once I have, what is known in my line of work as, 'a Lawful Excuse'.

I had been busying myself with the final preparations for a very important arrival up until yesterday morning and at 09:41 Hrs GMT, after bravely battling through much adversity and enduring all the Apothecaries could throw at her; the Good Lady Bix brought our VIP safely into the world.

A Baby Girl, late by 8 days (gets that from her Dad) and absolutely beautiful (most definitely her Mum) weighing in at a none too shabby 8 lbs 6 ounces; we have named our little ray of light Inara Jade.

So I may be offline for a tad longer, I sure as sure need to find where my last three nights sleep have run off to (I know, 'Get used to it!', I hear all the parents amongst the readership shout). But the Forge still stands, acting as a refuge to flee back to the Hobby when nappy changes threaten to damage my calm; so with luck I'll be back here on The Edge soon.

As always, thanks to all of you who take the time to drop by.

Skies of Blood : Stormraven Build Pt I

Some modelling progress at last, my two Stormraven kits have made it onto the Forge workbench; construction motivated by a recent big game played up at Warhammer World with my fellow gaming buds from our League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (a report and some pics may follow if I can bear reliving the pain of such a total arse whooping).

War Paint : Blood Drinker Priest Markings

Staying on the subject of Guy Haley's writing for the moment, I mentioned in Decembers post that the author had described a prominent marking on the Sanguinary High Priest character in his Hammer and Bolter short story, The Rite of Holos and that he was then kind enough to share his ideas about the marking with me.

A Bigger Picture : The Death of Integrity

It would appear that my post back in early December featuring the cover for the upcoming Space Marines Battles book The Death of Integrity may have been a little hasty. 

The author Guy Haley has posted some new art for the book over on his Blog, he explains that what he thought was the cover was in fact just a place holder.

From the looks of it Jon Sullivan was just warming up, check out the full picture below.