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.

Raising the Dead : Abraxas WIP Pics

Here are some work in progress pics of yesterdays completed Death Company Dreadnought Abraxas for those that may be interested.

I know I got these posts arse about face, but I just couldn't resist putting up the completed work first as it's such a rarity. Also I still don't take enough pictures when I'm working on a project to show detailed progression (takes me long enough to paint something without all the breaks for a photo shoot)!

But I did take a few of the little bit of conversion work I did on the banner which may be of use to some.

Abraxas - The Ancient of Days

Following on from yesterdays post, I present my first completed Death Company Dreadnought Abraxas the Ancient of Days.

Death Company Progress II

Promised this a goodly while back and so hopefully over the next couple of posts I will be delivering some Pic updates on how my Death Company is finally progressing apace.

Here are four more 'Evocati'* to add to the four I completed (looks at the date of the post and feels suitably ashamed) ...nearly a year ago!

Death Company Progress

Following the encouraging result with my test miniature, I've finally pressed on with a few more Death Company. As you can see I'm using some older incarnations at the moment (I think these guys are late 90's 3rd edition sculpts) mainly because I've still got a stock of them laying around the Forge, I hate to waste them especially when it means a few quid saved.

The Craft of Death : Death Company Tester

Well it took a bit longer than I had planned, but here is the completed test miniature for my Death Company, known as the Evocati in my Blood Drinkers background.

Books in Brief : Red Fury by James Swallow

Having been disappointed with the trilogy of books featured in The Blood Angels Omnibus, which were hampered by weak story and characters; also riddled with ill conceived battle scenes where squads of men turned into hundreds; wallowing in excessive gore, seemingly for lack of anything imaginative to do.

I approached Red Fury with some trepidation, determined to give it a go despite the warning given me by MC Tic Tac; I am after all a Blood Drinker player and I reasoned I owed it to my Chapters Primogenitors to read all their fluff.

Sadly the warning rang true, this book is no different and the Blood Angels are again penned as complete idiots as they let another Chaos plot overrun them (this time on their home turf of Baal).

The inclusion of the Successor Chapters (including my beloved 'Drinkers) did lift my heart, but there are precious few lines dedicated to them; much of which amounts to nothing more than name dropping on behalf of the codex, which is a real shame because there were seeds of some good ideas here.

Swallow rallies in the final chapters of the book, for a better stand up fight than he has been able to deliver thus far in these novels; but then drops the ball at the ten yard line with a seriously tepid ending. If you are a Blood Angel or Successor fan as I am; steer well clear, Swallow only does them harm.

Books in Brief : The Blood Angels Omnibus by James Swallow

Taking a break from the 'almost' faultless Heresy series and I thought I would stick with James Swallow following my enjoyment of The Flight of the Eisenstein.

This Omnibus consists of two novels Deus Encarmine, Deus Sanguinius and one short origin story, Blood Debt; they are fairly uninspiring. A little too much GW product placement in the first book leads to overcrowded battles with stilted action scenes; you can almost feel the author being pressured into getting as many vehicles into one engagement and rather than bringing the scenes to life I found myself picturing a little 6 x 4 gaming table crammed with miniatures.

The plots are ok at a push but hardly Terra shatteringly original, there are no real twists and most of the characters are mere sketches. These certainly weren't the strong, intense and thoughtful marines of the pre heresy world.

I thought Swallow did the Blood Angels a great injustice, portraying them as very gullible, laughably inept and easily killed warriors, who at the first sign of battle started ripping anyone and everyone’s throats out. I’m sure even the blood thirsty sons of Sanguinius wouldn't corrupt themselves with tainted chaos blood.

Possibly worth a read for those Blood Angels completionists, but be warned, you will probably not like what you find; I hope for better with his follow up Red Fury.

March White Dwarf : Beneath the Sea of Green

Let's face it, this month's White Dwarf belongs to the Orcs not Orks and holds very little for the 40k hobbyist, but then we have been spoilt over the last few months; there are however a couple of articles to merit not turning the issue into tinder immediately.

Old Stuff Day

Picture by FirstKeeper on deviantART

With the blog being a mere six months old I deliberated for quite some time as to whether I would submit any of my own posts for Old Stuff Day, do any of them qualify as being old? Are any of them of enough significance to warrant a fresh airing?

Finally I decided to stop being so damn self effacing and just pick something from the beginning that would hopefully be of interest and could actually be of use, well that is if you play Blood Angels or any of their Successors and like cluttering up your gaming table with shiny but far from necessary accoutrements.

February's White Dwarf : The Blood Angels Issue...again!

With the hulking form of Brother Sergeant Rafen dominating the cover of this months White Dwarf, you can be in no doubt that the Son's of Sanguinius have once again seized control of GW printing press. The artwork by the excellent Clint Langley, is from James Swallows Blood Angels Omnibus, the only bit of the book worth having IMHO, but thats another story.

Stormravens and Dreadnoughts and Eldar! Oh, my!

So my hunch was right, not that you needed to be a rocket scientist to figure it out, which is fortunate for me; GW have announced the 5th February as the release date of the long awaited Stormraven and the Furioso Dreadnought and don't these kits look the business!

Stormraven in the pipe, five by five!

Got home from work today to find my January issue of White Dwarf on the door mat, it's arrival lifting my weary spirits, I'm still acclimatising to the new working year, how about you? I was also cheered to see that it remained fully intact, despite Merlin our resident moggy eyeing the rodent festooned cover with cold contempt that threatened a short future full of claws, teeth and use as a litter tray.

After the Storm : My thoughts on the Stormraven

As most of you are probably aware by now, it would seem once again something has gone awry with the Games Workshop cogitators; either by fault or design (remember Palpatine allowed the rebels to know the location of the shield generator, he had an Empire too) and they have leaked a picture of the as yet unreleased Stormraven model. This was picked up by a number of hawkeyed 40k net-hounds; kudos guys and flashed around the world before a GW senior exec could cackle 'Everything is proceeding as I have foreseen....'

The Angels Tarot : Psychic Power Cards for the Blood Angels Codex

I can't believe a week has gone by since my last post, though I have been busy creating a few new pages on the blog for the purpose of archiving; so I've excused myself from penance for now.

Today I'm posting up some cards I made, again utilising great artwork found online (please see my disclaimer at the foot of the blog); to represent the psychic powers from the 5th Edition Blood Angel Codex. I use them for my Blood Drinker Chapter but obviously they would be relevant to any son's of Sanguinius.