Rogue Untouched

By

On 28th February 2021

In Book Reviews, Reviews

I have been provided with an advance copy of the new Marvel Heroines book Rogue Untouched by Alisa Kwitney, published by Aconyte Books, so here is the honest review I promised in exchange for the book.

So here is an important disclaimer which is always important to put out there first. I have a casual work contact with Asmodee to demonstrate board games for them in stores and at conventions. Asmodee being the parent company of Aconyte the publisher.

I am going to try my best to not let that cloud my judgement in this review, but I accept that subconsciously it might.

Also I won’t lie, I have looked at other reviews to see what others think, so there may be some influences from them in this book review. If I am going to quote them, I will attribute them. But if I forget to, or something is highly influenced by them, and you think I ought to attribute someone, let me know so that I can.

What is Marvel

Look at this point I would bore you with a bit of background to the game/universe, but lets not, you all know the Marvel Universe, if you don’t have you been living under a rock!

The Marvel Heroines series focuses on the female hero’s of the Marvel universe, the first book in the series was Domino Strays, which I really enjoyed, so I was looking forward to this book.

The Story

This is an origin story for our favourite power absorbing mutant Anne Marie also known as Rogue, and this is firmly set in the Aconyte-618 Earth, so its been able to abandon many of the fine details about Rogues 616 backstory and reimagine it in a slightly more modern and interesting way.

The character of Rogue has been depicted very differently in the many media forms in which she has appeared outside the comics, with only the 90s Cartoon being close to it. In the movies, she was basically Kitty Pryde, but fit into that story they were making.

Here in this novel she is probably a mixture of the comics, cartoon and movies, to form a well developed character, who when we meet her, has no idea that she is even a mutant, and is subsisting as a waitress in a diner. That is until she encounters a handsome Cajun gambler, who brings her into a whole new world.

In this book, Rogue is a character who is unsure of herself, having put her high school boyfriend into a coma, she is just trying to get out of her small town so that she can go to university and study psychology. We get to see her interactions with her friend, neighbours, boss and overly religious aunt, which really does give us a great background for the character.

The story is told in a first person persepective and we really do get to know Rogue, better than I think we ever have before, especially in this early part of her life. We do see the internal trauma she has from the earliest manifestations of her powers, but I do feel like this is kinda put aside in place of more focus on the self-doubt, but another reviewer (Katie Clark) pointed out that having the trauma happen before the events of the novel, allowed us to see her become a more empowered woman, which I agree with.

Conclusion

This book is a very enjoyable read, although parts of the conclusion felt a little bit rushed, and I did like that as well as well known mutants like Pyro and Toad being featured, we also had lesser known ones like Zeitgeist and Nature Girl, and even some mutants who I am not at all familiar with, one of who I think was created for this story.

The Characters are super three-dimensional, there is no wasted characters here, and even those with bit parts feel a lot more fleshed out than I would have expected them to be.

Also the little reference to The 10th Kingdom, made me smile as I thought that was an awesome mini-series.

I think this book deserves a solid 4.5 stars out of 5, and I only knock it down a touch because the ending felt a little rushed and I think another chapter or two would have been appreciated.

There is also nice room in there for sequels, and I really hope that there are some.

The eBook is released on the 4th May and the paperback hits the shelves on 10th June.

Ugh Toothache

By

On 21st February 2021

In Blog

This week has been dominated by toothache, and I don’t get to see the dentist until Wednesday.

It’s keeping me awake and might and making eating very very difficult.

It’s been ages getting an appointment because they have pretty much been closed all of lockdown and now I need a lot more work than might have been otherwise needed.

But it’s the least of my lockdown consequences I guess considering the state of my lungs!

What I Am Modelling

I started the week by putting Morgok’s Krushas and Morgwaeth’s Blade-Coven in the painting table first.

My toothache is really really bad, so I was very distracted and really didn’t do much initially, but I did concentrate on Morgok’s Krushas first.

I then turned my concentration towards Morgwaeth’s Blade-Coven, and I got these finished in Saturday evening.

The next thing I started to work on was the T’au AX39 Sunshark Bomber, it got moved ahead because my airbrush needs a good clean in order to get the main colour on the Ghostkeels.

I managed to get that finished late on Saturday night.

On the side I was also working on some Sigmarite Ruins from Mortal Realms to add to my scenery collection, I got one set from subscription and one from Forbidden Planet.

I really like these as I think they will add more flavour to my Warcry and Age of Sigmar games at home.

I then started work on a squad of Custodians for Heresy and 40K, and surprisingly got them finished very quickly.

I have actually now promoted to the painting table number 7 on my list a German Heer Infantry Squad for Bolt Action.

So what’s on the painting queue right now?

  1. Zone Mortalis Terrain
  2. T’au AX39 Sunshark Bomber
  3. Reikenor the Grimhailer
  4. Sicaran Ruststalkers x 5
  5. Blades of Khorne Skulltaker and Bloodmaster
  6. T’au XV104 Riptide x 3
  7. German Heer Infabtry Squad x 10
  8. Sentinel Guard Squad x 5
  9. Blood Angels Primaris Apothecary & Sanguinary Priest
  10. Necron Warriors x 10 & Scarabs x 3

What I Am Reading

I finished The Sword of Surtur, and you can read the review here.

I also devoured The Shield of Daqan, and that was an amazing book, and you can read my review here.

I am now reading Rogue Untouched and so far it’s really good.

I finished listening to Nexus and that was a decent read, although I am getting the feeling that the hopeless last stand might be an ongoing thread for 40K intro novels in 9th edition.

I also listened to Plague of the Nurglings which was a very fun book, and the first bit of Chaos in the Warhammer Adventures series.

Really loving these books and I hope they do more after the next one.

What I am Playing

On Saturday we played a game of the Thunderbirds Co-Operative Board Game which was a lot of fun, and for once, we actually managed to beat The Hood.

I love this game so much and hope everyone gives it a try some day.

On Sunday I played more Star Wars: Squadron with Graham, Chris and Dave, and I streamed it as well, which you will be able to see tomorrow on YouTube.

What I Am Backing

CoraQuest has now funded and we have that to look forward to.

Pyramid Scheme also delivered its rewards via Backerkit so I shall be devouring those soon.

What I Am Cooking

Not as much as I would like, but I did make these lovely posh dogs for lunch on Thursday.

The Shield of Daqan

By

On 19th February 2021

In Book Reviews, Reviews

I have been provided with an advance copy of the new Descent: Journeys in the Dark book The Shield of Daqan written by David Guymer and published by Aconyte Books, so here is the honest review I promised in exchange for the book.

So here is an important disclaimer which is always important to put out there first. I have a casual work contact with Asmodee to demonstrate board games for them in stores and at conventions. Asmodee being the parent company of Aconyte the publisher.

Secondly I am a friend of Davidon Facebook, and whilst we aren’t best buds, we do interact with each other on occasion and I consider him a class person.

I am going to try my best to not let these things cloud my judgement in this review, but I accept that subconsciously it might.

What’s is Descent: Journeys in the Dark

Simply put Descent: Journeys in the Dark is good old fashioned dungeon crawler whose linage goes all the way back to Heroquest.

Based very much on the Doom board game published by Fantasy Flight Games, you can see influences from across the gaming hobby, with bits from Space Hulk and Lord of the Rings being identifiable.

It’s set in the world of Terrinoth, a setting shared with Runewars, Runeage and a few other games and RPGs published by Fantasty Flight Games.

It’s a high fantasy universe and you will recognise many of the tropes and races seen in other similar fantasy style settings. It’s not particularly unique, but it is fairly well developed and interesting.

Descent is the dungeon crawler game in that universe, with one player being the evil overlord of the dungeon and the others taking in the tiles of the hero’s.

For a dungeon crawler, let’s be honest it’s one of the best out there, and the only reason it’s not in my collection is that Lindsay and Megan aren’t as enthusiastic about high fantasy as I am!

The Story

This book is honestly a real page turner, I devoured it in two sittings, it really is that good.

Told from multiple points of view like the Song of Ice and Fire books, this really is a engrossing and wonderful book to read, my favourite of Aconytes books thus far.

The book tells the story of the invasion of the Barony of Kell, once the last bastion against the evil from beyond the veil, and now is a shadow of its former self, assailed by bandits and famine. The noble Baron is a leader who cares for his people and he has found himself caught between the trap of feeding his people or defending them, without the manpower to do both. The Barony now faces an invasion of the barbarous Uthuk, led by vile Ne’Krul whose purpose is to bring her demonic masters into reality.

We have the legendary Trenloe the Strong and his Companions of Trenloe, a group of mercenaries, dedicated to protecting the people of the realm, and we are introduced to them as they escort refugees to safety. And the other hero, the holy warrior Andira Runehand, and her band of pious pilgrims, come to confront demons and stop them from entering the mortal plane.

These two heroes find themselves becoming the last hope of Kell, and through separate journeys play a part in an epic and desperate battle to save the world.

Conclusion

Its fun, its exciting, its literally dripping with personality, and what’s more, you need absolutely zero knowledge of the setting. This is a perfect franchise genre novel in my opinion.

Its absolutely character driven and not one scene in the book feels forced, everything feels like its there to drive the characters more, to give more insight to them. The first sitting, I literally devoured 65% of the book because I simply couldn’t put it down, and I only stopped because I actually feel asleep at 4am!

I cannot highly recommend this book enough, the only slight negative, is that this very much feels like the start of an epic series, and I am now desperate for the next book, so David, get writing post haste!

You can buy the eBook now and the paperback gets a release on the 15th April

The Sword of Surtur

By

On 17th February 2021

In Book Reviews, Reviews

I have been provided with an advance copy of the new Legends of Asgard book The Sword of Surtur by CL Werner, published by Aconyte Books, so here is the honest review I promised in exchange for the book.

So here is an important disclaimer which is always important to put out there first. I have a casual work contact with Asmodee to demonstrate board games for them in stores and at conventions. Asmodee being the parent company of Aconyte the publisher.

I am going to try my best to not let that cloud my judgement in this review, but I accept that subconsciously it might.

I am also friends with Clint on Facebook, but I suspect that’s more about him connecting with fans rather than being a big fan of mine!

Also I won’t lie, I have looked at other reviews to see what others think, so there may be some influences from them in this book review. If I am going to quote them, I will attribute them. But if I forget to, or something is highly influenced by them, and you think I ought to attribute someone, let me know so that I can.

What is Marvel

Look at this point I would bore you with a bit of background to the game/universe, but lets not, you all know the Marvel Universe, if you don’t have you been living under a rock!

The Legends of Asgard novels specially focus on the Norse mythology influenced Asgard with characters like Thor, Odin and Loki.

The Story

This story focuses on Tyr the God of War and brother to Thor as he decides to try and outdo his sibling, by stealing Twilight, the sword of the Fire Giant Surtur.

He is joined by Bjorn Wolfsbane, a young hunter, and sister to the Encantress Amora, Lorelei. This team up is really interesting, you have two characters there who have been eclipsed by their more well known and successful sibling and there is a massive amount of envy and jealousy on display.

And jealously also has a nice role to play in the story too, as both Tyr and Bjorn find themselves drawn to the bewitching Lorelei, which has rather big consequences for Asgard.

Mostly taking place in Surturs realm of Muspelheim this book draws very heavily on Norse mythology, probably more so than the comics. In a way a lot of it reads as a love letter between Clint and Norse culture, as he really brings it to life, in a Marvel way of course.

Tyr is a character than in Marvel, should be one of the greatest and most powerful heroes, but has always taken a back seat, and that’s the same for the books primary antagonist, which makes for an interesting dynamic.

The feelings of self-doubt and envy that Tyr feels throughout the book, really make you connect with him, in a way that I never have been able to in the comics.

Frankly this is the best story featuring Tyr that I have ever read, and I have read quite a few of the comics in which he features. You really feel like he has so much potential if only he had gotten the right writer, something I think has now been corrected.

There are pacing issues, which is the only downside, some sections of the book seem to drag a little, whilst other move at a pace so brisk that I had to go back and reread to see if I missed something.

But given that’s my only complaint, I think that’s pretty good.

Conclusion

This is a an extremely good book, not because it’s an epic tale of a sons quest to prove himself to his father, but because it actually makes you sympathise and actually identify with a Norse god.

The two big twists in the book, well one was obvious, but well executed, the other, well that one was a big surprise and really good.

You can buy the eBook now and the paperback gets a release on the 18th March

A Most Generous Gift

By

On 9th February 2021

In Blog

So on stream last week I mentioned I was saving for a new capture card for my PC, and one of my viewers, was so amazing and went and bought me it.

I am utterly overwhelmed with this amazing generosity, I actually cried, it did come with a message asking me to keep on streaming, so I will keep that promise.

He has asked me to not publicly name him, which I won’t, but an EoE t-shirt has been sent to him!

He got me the incredible Elgato 4K60 Pro, which is a super cool piece of kit, and now has pride of place in my PC.

He sent it along with a pair of 5m braided HDMI cables to plug it in, and oh they are also very nice too.

I got it installed in my PC pretty much straight away after it arrived and took it for a spin, although it didn’t work with the HDMI Switch I had installed and I had to replace that with a HDMI Extractor that I used to use. But that wasn’t a bad thing as I had planned to do that anyway as I wanted to take the audio from the HDMI feeds anyway.

It now allows me to capture games at 60hz and passthrough to the monitor at 120hz which is a massive improvement for my gameplay and streaming!

I tested out the capture card with a stream today and you can watch it on YouTube now, but this is what the card is capable of doing!

I am so absolutely and utterly grateful to him for sending me this, and as of March I will be streaming video games again on Twitch.

But the addition of two 5m quite thick HDMI cables meant that I had to sort out all of the wires under the desk, which I did on Saturday with Megan’s help.

We got all the wires all organised and sorted out, although it still does look a bit like spaghetti junction. We have mounted an extension strip on the wall, along with the Phillips Hue Hub, a USB Hub and the Network Switch. And some Command Strips have been ordered to let me atttach a couple of power bricks to the wall as well and keep them out of the mess.

I did have to order a new 3.5mm extension lead to take the audio from the monitor to the speaker system, but because I removed so much superfluous stuff, I freed up some USB extension cables so that I could plug the Zigbee strips into a USB hub that’s plugged into a mains adaptor.

All the other wires have been routed together and tied together with cable ties, it still looks bad in many ways, and I think I need to get some shorter cables, and some trunking to hide them a bit more.

I do need to think about a better over all solution to that overall.

What I Am Modelling

I started the week by doing some airbrushing. I use the airbrush to get down base colours and with black spray paint out of stock everywhere I am now priming with the airbrush.

I got the Scourge done with their colourshift paints, and primed and got base colours into the T’au stuff.

The Scourge starter fleet was painted up on Tuesday morning, and I love the finish I got on these.

I then turned my attention to the XV109 Y’vahra and a pair of Technical Drones which got finished on Tuesday night.

I then started on the Escher Gang using Duncan’s Warhammer TV video, but also worked on the Inperial Knight Gallant on the side as I couldn’t watch the video whilst playing an RPG.

The Knight was finished in stream on Thursday night and looks fantastic.

I also put in the transfers for a Tactical Squad for the podcasts Sons of Horus army.

I the. Put all my efforts into the Escher Gang and got them finished this afternoon.

So what’s on the painting queue as we enter a new week?

  1. Zone Mortalis Terrain
  2. Morkgoks Krushas & Morgwaeth’s Blade-Coven
  3. T’au XV95 Ghostkeel x 2
  4. T’au AX39 Sunshark Bomber
  5. Custodian Guard x 6
  6. Reikenor the Grimhailer
  7. Adeptus Mechanicus Sicaran Ruststalkers x 5
  8. Blades of Khorne Skulltaker & Bloodmaster
  9. T’au XV104 Riptide x 3
  10. German Heer Infantry Squad x 10

What I Am Reading

Still reading The Sword of Surtur by CL Werner and I am aiming to finish it tonight.

I have also been listening to the audiobook of Nexus and Other Stories, although I am only listening to the main novella by Thomas Parrott.

What I Am Playing

I did upload that video of The Witcher 3, after a lengthy delay.

On Wednesday I played a little bit of Star Wars: Squadrons, which is such a fun game.

But I desperately need to play a bit more multiplayer to Git Good!

Also on Wednesday night, myself, Graham, Dave and Megan played finished our current Star Trek Adventures episode and that was a lot of fun, we even got ourselves a new ship!

On Friday I actually played some BioShock 2 and I only went and finished the game, you can watch the whole thing here as a YouTube playlist!

On Sunday I played Star Wars: Squadrons with Graham, Chris and Dave and the video for that is in the first section of this blog post.

This evening I also played a game of Roll for the Galaxy with Lindsay and Megan and of course Megan won, but I was only 9 points behind her, which I didn’t think was too bad considering it was my first play.

What I Am Backing

We are still backing CoraQuest, and really loving all the reporting about it, it looks like so much fun!

I also did get myself a lovely nice bunch of digital rewards from Steve Jackson Games for Car Wars 6th Edition.

And also from Steve Jackson Games, I got the survey for Pyramid Scheme, but that’s been filled out and returned already.

What I Am Cooking

This morning I made our breakfast, which was really simple, just some chicken sausages with cheese on muffins.

But it was bloody delicious!

Lord Barrington Update

By

On 8th February 2021

In Blog

The wonderful Lord Barrington has been with us about two months now and he is slowly but surely coming around to us, the girls more than than me.

Not long after he arrived we noticed the eye on which he had his operation, was weeping, well it turned out he had an ulcer in his eye, and it was a nasty one.

So for four weeks, he has had to have eye drops four times a day, which he absolutely hated with a passion. Eventually he allowed just one of us to administer them, but very grumpily.

He has now been off them since Friday as his eye is fully healed, with just a small amount of scarring.

He is now starting to warm up to us again, but the eyedrops have set the relationship back a bit. He hides a lot when we enter the room, and often sleeps under the bed, but there are lots of instances where he is showing signs of trusting us.

The other night he briefly slept on the bed whilst Megan was in the bed, and he loves to play, if his favourite toy is anywhere near him, he goes mental for it.

He is however scared witless of Bonnie, she terrifies him a lot, he is very intimidated around her, if she is at the top of the stairs, he won’t come down for foods.

It’s hard work, but I am sure in time we will have a brilliant relationship.

What I Am Modelling

I started the week by finishing of my Plague Drones of Nurgle. These will serve in my Maggotkin of Nurgle for Age of Sigmar, Chais Daemons for 40k and Darmons of the Ruinstorm in Heresy.

I then started work on some Stormcast Eternals, the Vanguard-Palladors, Knight-Azyros and just because I was working on that style, Ironsouls Condemnors.

I got the Knight-Azyros finished first.

I then finished Ironsouls Condemnors from Champions of the Dreadfane.

Deciding to basically eliminate one entry from the painting queue, I hit up Lady Harrows Mournflight, also from Champions of the Dreadfane.

This left me working on the Vanguard-Palladors for the Stormcast Eternals, which were painted quite slowly, but they are very enjoyable.

But this completes my Stormcast Eternals for now, and I will only be adding to them from Mortal Realms right now, although I do want a Lord Ordinator.

Let’s take a look at what’s coming up for me?

  1. Zone Mortalis Terrain
  2. Escher Gang x 10
  3. T’au Y’vahra & Technical Drones x 2
  4. Morgok’s Krushas and Morgwaeth’s Blade-Coven
  5. T’au Ghostkeel x 2
  6. Imperial Knight Gallant
  7. T’au Sunshark Bomber
  8. Custodian Guard x 6
  9. Reikenor the Grimhailer
  10. Sicaran Rustsalkers x 5

What I Am Reading

I finished The Night Parade of 1000 Demons by Marine Brennan and posted a review here.

I also earlier this week posted a review of Head of Mimir.

I have now started on The Sword of Surtur by CL Werner, and I am gonna give a good shot at getting it finished tonight.

I have also started on the audio book of Nexus by Thomas Parrott.

What I Am Playing

I played a couple of hours of The Witcher III earlier in the week which will uploaded in the morning.

On Wednesday I played a bit of Star Trek Adventures with Graham, Chris and Dave which was a lot of fun as we prepared the ship for a forthcoming battle.

On Saturday we played a quick game of Pandemic: Hot Zone North America, which we lost in brutal fashion as outbreaks in San Francisco and Seattle caused us to run out of red cubes!

And on Sunday myself, Graham, Chris and Dave played a few games on Star Wars: Squadrons.

What I Am Backing

We have backed CoraQuest on Kickstarter, this looks like a lot of fun, and the video just makes you fall in love with the idea of it!

What I Am Cooking

I cooked Dirty Rice on Saturday, it’s a bit of a staple of mine and it’s bloody delicious and filled with veg.

The Night Parade of 100 Demons

By

On 5th February 2021

In Book Reviews

I have been provided with an advance copy of the new Legend of the Five Rings book The Night Parade of 100 Demons by Marie Brennan, published by Aconyte Books, so here is the honest review I promised in exchange for the book.

So here is an important disclaimer which is always important to put out there first. I have a casual work contact with Asmodee to demonstrate board games for them in stores and at conventions. Asmodee being the parent company of Aconyte the publisher.

I am going to try my best to not let that cloud my judgement in this review, but I accept that subconsciously it might.

So let’s crack on with a review then!

What is Legend of the Five Rings

L5R as it’s often known is a fantasy setting for a series of card games and RPGs originally published by AEG, but now taken care of by Fantasy Flight.

It’s set in the empire of Rokugan which is heavily feudal Japan influenced, with a bit of other East Asian influences, like China and Korea thrown in as well.

It’s a fantasy setting with the usual fantasy trips of goblins and rat men, but also oni and kitsune too.

In the Empire there are several great clans, made up of various families, and in this novel we focus on the Crab Clan, who are considered the least cultured of all clans.

Their task in life is to guard the rest of the empire from the taint of the Shadowlands on the Carpenter Wall.

The Story

Chaos has broken out in the isolated Dragon Clan village Seibo Mura, when during full moons, vicious demons rampage throughout the village, causing havoc, destroying buildings and killing villagers.

The Dragons send the samurai Agasha no Isao Ryotora to investigate the situation in the village, but an unexpected helper has arrived in the form of Asako Sekken of the Phoenix Clan.

Lets get this out the way, I have seen criticism in other reviews that the novel doesn’t have much action and the demons don’t actually feature that much, well if that’s what you want, this book isn’t for you.

This book is one that focuses on the spiritual, so it delves into the Kami, guardian spirits, demons, holy rituals and prayer. Its deeply engrained in Japanesse spiritual culture and is heavily based on the Hyakki Yakō. Not all that surprising as the author is a folklorist and anthropologist.

There is also an almost spiritual procedural investigation aspect to the story, as the pair figure out what exactly is going on in the village by interviewing the inhabitants and researching the background of the demons.

The characters are, well I will be honest, its hard to get into their heads at first. They both have secrets to hide, and they both try their best to solve the mystery whilst keeping those secrets hidden from the other. They are a bit of an odd couple, Rytotora is serious and sombre, a very straight character who despite his humble background, embodies the very nobility of the Samurai.

Sekken on the other hand is more laid back, care free, a scholar who prefers to spend his time reading rather than doing, and gives off an aura of only being there because its a break from his boredom.

The story alternatives between their points of view which is interesting, and there is a frustration that they clearly are attracted to one another but both too caught up in the whole idea that the other wouldn’t be attracted to them that you can almost tear out your hair.

And that leads me to another point, the fact that Aconyte have been very good about putting queer characters in their books, front and centre, with no song and dance about it. LGBTQ characters in their books are part of life, they exist and there is a wonderful, almost ordinary way in which they are presented.

Conclusion

I actually really loved this book, but I will be honest, it wasn’t the characters which drew me in, it was the background.

The fascinating and rather beautiful way that Marie has presented the culture and world of Rokugan drew me in and kept me turning the page.

The characters whilst mildly interesting really took a backseat to the wonderful world of L5R and this for me would be a better background read for anyone wanting to get into the RPG than any other background book as it makes the world really come to life.

Solid 4 out of 5 stars.

You can buy the eBook now and the paperback on the 15th April!

The Head of Mimir

By

On 3rd February 2021

In Book Reviews, Reviews

I have been provided with an advance copy of the new Legends of Asgard book The Head of Mimir by Richard Lee Byers, published by Aconyte Books, so here is the honest review I promised in exchange for the book.

So here is an important disclaimer which is always important to put out there first. I have a casual work contact with Asmodee to demonstrate board games for them in stores and at conventions. Asmodee being the parent company of Aconyte the publisher.

I am going to try my best to not let that cloud my judgement in this review, but I accept that subconsciously it might.

Also I won’t lie, I have looked at other reviews to see what others think, so there may be some influences from them in this book review. If I am going to quote them, I will attribute them. But if I forget to, or something is highly influenced by them, and you think I ought to attribute someone, let me know so that I can.

What is Marvel

Look at this point I would bore you with a bit of background to the game/universe, but lets not, you all know the Marvel Universe, if you don’t have you been living under a rock!

The Legends of Asgard novels specially focus on the Norse mythology influenced Asgard with characters like Thor, Odin and Loki.

The Story

This story focuses on a young Heimdal and his sister Sif, as they undertake a quest to save Odin, who has been bewitched to remain in the Odinsleep during a war waged by the Frost Giants of Jotunheim.

But the Frost Giants are winning the war, and Odin is desperately needed, as somehow the natives of Jotunheim have an advantage in the war.

Breaking the rules and slipping into the inner sanctum of the Allfather, they discover a great relic is missing, the Head of Mimir, which gives advice and wisdom, having been preserved by Odin.

This story is about the quest of Heimdal and his sister as they travel through out the nine realms to retrieve the Head of Mimir and awake the Allfather.

Its a book as my friend Michael from Track of Words puts it, isn’t Heimdals origin story, but his first steps to becoming who he is in the comics as we know him.

The story has a lot of action, its very hectic and goes at a very fast pace, reminding me of an RPG adventure, but it does focus on Heimdal being a warrior who thinks about how to solve an issue, rather than simply being Leroy Jenkins.

His sister is the counterpoint the that, a warrior who wants to find the problem and kill it. In one part of the book they encounter a legendary creature, and whilst Sif would like to fight it, knowing she has no chance of beating it, Heimdal challenges it to a game, and instead of just playing the game, which he could never win, he pokes at the creatures ego to throw him off.

Conclusion

This is a great book, its a lot better than I expected, and it doesn’t bog the reader down in exposition, whilst I know the stuff about Asgard, this book would be perfectly approachable for someone without that knowledge.

Its a great blend of Marvel fantasy and Norse mythology with a sprinkle of science fiction. And the character development whilst light, is fantastic, plus the sibling rivalry and ribbing from Sif is utterly delightful.

I am really looking forward to the next Legend of Asgard book, Sword of Surtur.

You can buy the eBook and paperback now!

Resolutions Update – January

By

On 2nd February 2021

In Blog

Well this month has been pretty good but I haven’t made that much progress in my resolutions so far, but let’s take a quickest of quick looks!

I have so far this year painted 111 models.

Paint 2000 points of Necrons for Warhammer 40,000 – 8.75% Complete

I painted a single unit of warriors and their Scarab Swarms this month.

The next unit of Warriors is built and primed and on the list to paint

Paint 1000 points of Early War Germans for Bolt Action – 0% Complete

It says 0% but I did get the first Heer Infantry unit for this built and primed, and should get them painted in February.

Paint The Scourge for Dropfleet Commander – 0%

I have started by stripping the paint from my original starter fleet, and this will be repainted this month in a colour shift scheme.

Other Resolutions

These haven’t really had any progress made for them, but I have arranged to get a few more Flesh Eater Courts models to help bring us towards the goal of 2000 points!

  • Paint 2000 Points of Flesh Eater Courts for Warhammer Age of Sigmar
  • Paint Blackstone Fortress and it’s Expansions
  • Bring my Mechanicum to 3000 points for Horus Heresy, including the Warhound Titan

So what’s coming up on the painting queue as I head into February?

  1. Zone Mortalis Terrain
  2. Escher Gang x 10
  3. Stormcast Eternals Vanguard-Palkadors x 6 & Knight-Azyros
  4. T’au Y’vahra & Technical Drones x 2
  5. Morgoks Krushas & Morgwaeth’s Blade-Coven
  6. T’au Ghostkeel x 2
  7. Imperial Knight Gallant
  8. Plague Drones of Nurgle x 6
  9. T’au Sunshark Bomber
  10. Ironsoul’s Condemnors & Lady Harrows Mournflight

My First Battle Report

By

On 1st February 2021

In Blog

For a while now I have been mulling over the idea of showing some battle reports based on the White Dwarf way of doing things.

And well we finally took the plunge and did it, me and Megan played a very bad Combat Patrol Game of 40K with her Orks taking in my Blood Ravens.

We have had some great feedback about it and we would love to hear what you guys think.

What I Am Modelling

The first thing I did was finish the basing on a set of 36 Boyz and 10 Nobz for my Orks.

The move from 25mm bases to 32mm bases is so much nicer, they just look so much better on the bigger bases.

The rest of the week was mostly building, getting my next twenty project ready to paint.

I did randomly pick up a unit of Necron Warriors and start painting them, which was quite enjoyable.

I then painted up the Fallen Sigmar Statue I got with Mortal Realms, which is painted in the style as the one I did for Warcry.

And for another easy win, I painted the Endless Spell and Liekoron the Executioner for the Nighthaunt.

I am now currently working on the Plague Drone of Nurgle, and I am trying to make the wings iridescent, and I think this has worked out ok.

Should hopefully finish them tomorrow.

So what on my painting queue going into next week?

  1. Zone Mortalis Terrain
  2. Escher Gang x 10
  3. Stormcast Eternals Vanguard-Palkadors x 6 & Knight-Azyros
  4. T’au Y’vahra & Technical Drones x 2
  5. Morgoks Krushas & Morgwaeth’s Blade-Coven
  6. T’au Ghostkeel x 2
  7. Imperial Knight Gallant
  8. Plague Drones of Nurgle x 6
  9. T’au Sunshark Bomber
  10. Ironsoul’s Condemnors & Lady Harrows Mournflight

What I Am Reading

I have started on The Night Parade of 1000 Demons by Marine Brennan and I aim to get that finished in the next couple of days.

What I Am Playing

This week, not a sausage 🙁

What I Am Backing

Pyramid Scheme funded which was nice.

I also got my reward for Wyrd Science delivered, and the Dealers Choice ePub from Lords of Vegas arrived in my inbox as well.

What I Am Cooking

I made the wings for our regular wing night, this week they were Indian Spiced Wings.

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