Marc GascoigneRecensioni

This is a pretty hammy collection. Very few of the stories are good enough to publish, and the largest one starts well but was clearly finished in a rush with loads of ideas thrown in but none that appear to be part of the story that began. The cover art is atrocious, from GW's cartoony period, and it serves as a warning for the stories inside...½

What is there to say?

This is a big collection of artwork of the Old World from the 90s and early 2000s that really shows that Millennium shift to the big classical battle paintings aesthetic of 5th and 6th edition that are incredibly nostalgic for me from the mora unique and weird cartoony style of the 90s. Personally, I prefer the character of the bizarre old stuff, but the skill and dynamism on display in the landscapes filled with waves of Bretonnian Knights and hordes of Lizardmen Saurus with a delightful amphibian aspect cannot be denied. The former get my imagination going about individuals and their lives, while I get lost in the beauty and detail of the latter that takes me back to picking up boxes of the squat one piece and shield Chaos Warriors and the the Beastmen who, casting my mind back, kinda looked like they were about to launch into a pole dancing routine on their halberds...

Warhammer Fantasy was my first introduction to Warhammer, but 40K really stole my heart, and I might be biased, but I do think there is something more unique and fascinating in general about the art of the Dark Millennium. Regardless, the art of the Old World and the Realms is wonderful, and at least they can be accused of doing weird artwork and in store posters that are weird fascistic propaganda pieces, like some of the return of Guilliman stuff was. The old and the future settings always look better and themselves when they are more grimy and weird.

A phenemonal collection from a stable of absolutely brilliant artists.

By Calgar's calloused cuticles, this book is nightmare gorgeous and shouldn't be judged by its awkwardly designed cover!

Covering the full span of the release or Warhammer 40K in 1987 to this book's release in 2006 the is a breathtaking look at artwork for each faction from a veritable smorgasbord of artists, including many who are forgotten or missed because they only did a set number of pieces.

Having just come from devouring Adrian Smith's book, which had no titles or text, I appreciated seeing some of that in here and everything with the title, artist, and where they are from. This includes box art, codices, comics, video games, novels, and more.

I am the same age as Warhammer 40K and have been a daughter of Chaos for many years, and I was amazed at how many pieces were entirely new to me, as well as feeling an immense amount of nostalgia for things I recognise that first got my interested and then hooked on this universe.

If I had anything critical to say, beyond the cover being unnecessarily ugly (in design, not the Crimson Fist artwork), it would be that the quotes throughout are rarely actually interesting or insightful, generally amounting to 'artist is great and knows Warhammer good', which I absolutely agree with, but it's funny to see it so many times. Oh, and most notes are relatively relevant, which makes the ones that aren't seem very bizarre. Honestly though, Blanche et al absolutely deserve their flowers and to tell each other and us how awesome they think each other are. This book is proof!

The final outing of brooding hero Chadda Darkmane and his rock-like jawline sees our hero, in reflective mode after the great victory against Rivel, thrown rapidly into another battle. This time his companions are super-wizard Yaztromo, who finds that without his powers he is just an old man in a big dress; the weasely con-artist Weasel (and don't we all know a Weasel, good character writing there by MG); and the sexy elf Star, who has a damn good excuse for being the pastiche of a sexy minor character. This all flows along nicely, has some nice battle set pieces, a trio of fine villains with some decent characterisation and plot-twists, lots of weird gory monsters that don't get used as much as they should; and builds to an excellent pair of final chapters and an almost perfect finale. Lacks any sort of depth and is a bit of a sausage fest, but you can't have everything.

Gave this a reread as I want to adapt it for my d&d campaign. As an introductory campaign its got plenty to do but nothing that will leave the players stumped. Intended for novice dungeon masters, which is me!½

Another outing for Chadda Darkmane and the stick up his bum. This time he needs to save the world from a big nasty demon. A fine fantasy, well paced and slightly melodramatic, with a well-designed and believable fantasy world, some genuine peril, and a bird-faced wizard.

Went back for a reread and couldn't work out why I can't remember the adventure. Rereading its because its a bit of a meh ending to a fine series. The first two books introduced the AFF system and gave the first two parts of an adventure you could run. This adventure is really very good, exciting, a good mix of action and role-play, lots of chances for the players to free-roam. The final part of the adventure, the last third of this book, feels a bit phoned in. You could argue that by this stage the GM and the players should all be used to the game and need fewer prompts or whatnot, but because the first two-thirds of the book also felt a bit phoned in perhaps it maybe was! The problem is that the first two thirds didnt really contain anything that you couldn#t have worked out or improvised, and almost no fluff to give you a sense of the wide open world of Allansia. Then leading into a final adventure that feels rushed, well, its a bit of a let down. BUT! The final adventure has a lot of good bits. The manticore, the chance for a player to play a goblin or the DM to be able to do a goblin NPC, and the whole goblin village bits are great, and my players would probably enjoy the kind of keystone kops aspect to the Kaad guards scene. The final end game is a full scale battle leading to the big bad end boss, who is well designed in terms of crunch but pretty bland. Of course a decent or experienced GM would fill in the gaps, but this book is aimed at kids and they may need more inspiration - I would have done. So not a perfect end to a fine series, but there's enough there to make this not a complete waste of time. Not worth the price that it commonly goes for, second hand, but if you can track it down at a fair price go for it!½

I love the world of Titan but I am not sure I can sell the game mechanics to gamers used to D&D. Will definitely give it a try if I can find a few people interested in a different experience.

First half, pretty good. The rest? Weak to middling with only a few bright spots.(Michael, Niall) The “romance” was shoehorned in absolutely adding nothing of value to the whole. Had me skimming the last third.

Usual gothic and brutal stories from the Warhammer 40k universe.½

This is a fun book that I've played a few times before but have never completed until last night. You're a prince sent on a quest by a god-dream, to liberate your god and your people from the siege of the lizard people. Theoretically there should be lots of lizard-slaying but I think the best route involves killing none (at least not using the combat system). Author Marc Gascoigne has a long and storied history in rpgs but this was his only FF gamebook - perhaps the experience put him off writing them. It is definitely a good book at heart, but it feels like it was heavily edited and badly proofed. There is a bit, for example, where I fought my way out of a situation but left my rucksack behind - but I had never taken it off, so did I always take my rucksack off when exploring, or was it just this time? If the former, why didn't I lose it in other situations, if the latter, why wasn't it mentioned? The epic magic finish could have done with another few hundred words because it feels quite perfunctory - well done you win bye! But the story itself was great, fun to play, hard to beat - there are so many ways to lose your stuff. The final dungeon crawl I have memories of being tricky but this time I found it quite easy, and was pleased to find the essential bits without much trouble. All in all a decent gamebook that could have done with slightly better editing and perhaps a director's cut.½

I managed to get through this book. It took me a bit longer than usual. I tend to read more than one book at once, so when it comes to anthologies, reading a bit here and a bit there is normal for me. However, this took me a bit longer than usual. Part of the reason is that it did have some stories that were just average.So those did not keep my attention as well. Since I was aiming to read all the book, rather than skipping, it took me a bit longer. After reading the Ciaphas Cain volume, which I enjoyed immensely (it is still one of my all time favorites, and I gave it five stars here), this was just not as engaging. But I still liked this volume overall because it had some very good stories, which make the volume worth reading. Some of the stories that stuck with me include: "Know Thine Enemy" about the chaplain; the one about the lucky tank soldier; the story of the ork hunter; and the tale of the memory collector. The Ravenor tale is one I may revisit when I get ready to read the new Ravenor omnibus volume. Overall, this was an entertaining volume. I think that fans of WH40K will definitely enjoy it. For the casual reader of scifi or military scifi, I think they will skim and find the stories they like, skipping the others. Overall, I liked it, but I get the feeling there are better works in the WH40K series.

A very entertaining collection of short stories from the world of Warhammer 40,000. Took me a while to read because I would read a story about every month or so, but fun to pick up every so often. Great place to start for WH40K newbies...

I must say that this one was better than Chasms of Malice though the difficulty factor was not all that high. It appears that you can complete this particular book without actually finding anything that is necessary to complete the adventure. In fact when you get to the final battle, it doesn't actually matter if you have missed something because it lands up with you anyway. However, like Chasms of Malice, this one seems to be more of a maze with a few monsters than anything else.
Mind you, the story is a little more believable in that you are not the long lost heir to some great king who happens to be working in a kitchen but rather the crown prince of one of the southern cities of Alansia. The city is under siege by a horde of lizard men, and you are pretty much on the verge of defeat. However, you have a dream and your god says that they are also facing a war in heaven and victory on the ground will effect a victory in heaven.
This idea is a very ancient idea stemming back to the ancient near east. The belief was that when one went to war against temporal enemies the gods of these particular people would also go to war with each other as well. However victory on the ground usually suggested that it was achieved because there was victory in heaven. Basically it was a slanging match between gods and the followers of powerful gods would generally necessitate victory for the followers.
It is interesting that this idea does come out of the Old Testament, and even then God did not necessarily play by the rules of the day. Take for instance the event with Senacerib. When he is up against Jerusalem they mock Israel's god for being weak and powerless, only to wake up and discover that their army had been decimated. Once again, the belief was that a god of a large empire was necessarily more powerful than the god of a small nation.
Another biblical incident takes place in the early parts of the book of Samuel. Here we have the Philistines and the Israelites going at each other, and at one point the Israelites take the Ark of the Covenant, the symbol of God dwelling with his people, out into the battle and lose. The Philistines capture the Ark and the Israelites are left to ponder whether the god that freed them from Egypt was really as powerful as he said he was. However, as it turns out he was because when the Ark was put beneath the statue of Dagon, the Philistine god, the Philistines discovered the next morning that the statue had been defiled. Then a plague struck their cities, and they learned that it was because they possed the ark, so they sent it back to the Israelites.
As we come further towards our time, we find that this ancient practice pretty much went the way of the telegraph. It seems that as we enter into the Greco-Roman world the idea of a single god fighting for a nation was no longer the in thing. Alexander considered himself a god, as did the Roman emperors, and the gods had pretty much been relegated to somebody you paid lip service too. If we read Herodotus we notice that the victories against the Persians are not attributed to a god, or gods, but rather to the tenacity of the Greeks to fight to keep their freedom to rule themselves.½

Ever wanted to enforce the laws in Mega-City One? Ride your department-issued warbike and use a Lawgiver in the name of the Law? Well, probably not; but if you did, this would be the game to play. Based on the popular UK comic book, the Judge Dredd game is long on action and gear, and rather short on characterization (just like the source material). It's a good simulation of the source material.½

A collection of short stories detailing the struggle between humankind and the Chaos powers in the old world of Warhammer. Colorful and makes good use of the massive amount of background material in the Warhammer world. The writing varies from story to story with some being quite good, the majority being average and a few somewhat bad. A quick read.

A great deal of good stuff here, but be warned many of the stories were taken from earlier anthologies including 'Laughter of Dark Gods','Lords of Valour' and others.

I own most of the previous anthologies, and doing a comparison you are still left with about 15 new short stories/novellas here, so still an okay deal.

In total there are 36 stories, and it is a rather hefty tome.½

Anthologies are always a mixed bag.

Contains a Matthias Thulmann Witch Hunter story by C. L. Werner, though if you have the more recent anthology of stories about that character you will already have it.

It also contains a Dan Abnett story, which is pretty good, although Abnetts other Warhammer Fantasy works have been unreliable.

Short Tales focused on the Military of the Old World.

3.5 Stars.

Anthologies are always a mixed bag.

This one does have an enjoyable Matthias Thulmann Witch Hunter story, although it was also included in the more recent Omnibus gathering all the stories about that character.

Themed around Valour/Honour, it does manage to push all the right Warhammer buttons.

The least enjoyable story is the William King penned item at the end, which is more of a fragment.

3.5 Stars.