With Fighting Fantasy Fest just around the corner (Tickets for the fest are available HERE) and You Are The Hero! gnawing at its heels, I thought now would be an appropriate time to get to know the man who has brought both of these exciting projects to life. Jonathan Green is a familiar name to many of our readers having written broadly in the realms of fantasy and science fiction. He has written SEVEN Fighting Fantasy game books as well as an impressive number of novels and short stories set in the grim 40K and Warhammer backgrounds for Black Library. Jonathans highly regarded Steampunk series, Pax Britannia, continues to draw a rabid fan base and there’s even some Cthulhu short stories on the way, right on!
Big thanks to Jon for taking the time out to answer my questions and everyone look out for You Are The Hero! in the very near future. Continue reading
Category Archives: Book Review
The Art of Ian Miller: Studies in Transmogrification
‘Twitch once, Miller and you are king of the heap.
Twitch twice and you’re inconsolably lost.
Carry on and remember the twitch’
Last year as part of our Jagged Visions series, I wrote a gushing account of my personal experiences with Ian Millers work. Shortly after, Titan Books contacted me to say they’d read the piece and would I be interested in taking a look at a retrospective volume of Ian’s work that they had recently published. Naturally I leapt at the opportunity and given my current obsession with surfing the Fighting Fantasy zeitgeist, it seemed an appropriate time to post this review of a man who’s cover to House Of Hell caused me many sleepless nights all those years ago.
Fighting Fantasy Fest 2014: YOU Are The Hero!!!!
The 7th of September 2014 marks the date of the first EVER Fighting Fantasy Convention. An event solely dedicated to the zealous and joyful celebration of Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstones wonderful creation. I have spouted frequently and fondly about my deep and abiding love for these books, the worlds they created and the doors they opened for me and a whole generation of lonely misfits and smart arses who didn’t have enough mates to play Dungeons & Dragons with…. Continue reading
The Ritual by Adam Nevill
I’m going to have to split this article in to two parts to do this book justice, its a rare book that leaves me feeling cheated, even annoyed, but this managed to do it with aplomb.
You can go read the blurb on Amazon or the writer, Adam Nevill’s own blog, there’s little point in my going in to any depth here. 4 blokes go on a walking holiday in Sweden, get lost, end up in a forest, bad shit happens. Continue reading
Macragge’s Honour Review
I recently wrote an article for The Black Library Weekender I attended last weekend and gave it a very favourable review. It was a shining example of how an event should and could be handled by the higher up’s of BL. Great staff, great experience, great weekend. As I mentioned in that review the centrepiece of the weekend was the new addition to The Horus Heresy, Macragge’s Honour. It’s not often that BL dip into the realm of the illustrated story these days but in the past what I’ve picked up I have enjoyed. However this is the first time they’ve delved into that particular medium for The Heresy, so when I first got wind of this I was rather excited and had greatexpectations. Ahead of the event a little bird told me about the price to expect, the creative team behind it, Dan Abnett writing and Neil Roberts handling the art and finally that it was going to be Ultramarines based. Whilst I wasn’t overly put off by the fact that the smurfs were running the show after Abnett showed how well he can handle them, I was disconcerted by the price, 85 fucking quid and the fact that Roberts was doing the artwork. The real issue though is the price and here is going to be the fulcrum upon which the scales balance.
Mark Of Calth – Book review
The Mark Of Calth is the latest Horus Heresy offering from the increasingly prolific audio wing of The Black Library. It’s also been just been released in paperback format which in all honesty works better as TMOC is a collection of short stories. The anthology is set in and around the events that comprised the infamous Siege Of Calth, whereupon the zealous Word Bearers (now revealed as traitors), prosecute a campaign of extermination against their old rivals the righteous Ultramarines. Their fiendish plan? To catch the Ultramarines slipping and scour the 500 Worlds Of Ultramar with fire, sword and a shit ton of warp spawned black magic.
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VULKAN LIVES – BY NICK KYME
I’ve been eagerly awaiting this novel, since Vulkan literally vanished under a mushroom cloud on the black sands of Isstvan V, courtesy of an epic barrage from the Iron Warriors, as they cruelly betrayed the warriors of Nocturne. We’ve been teased with a couple of hints that he may have survived, and as the synopsis confirms, he’s become a plaything of Konrad Curze, and as the story pans out, we’re treated to a fascinating insight into both Primarch’s minds. With any book review, it’s difficult to get into details without spoiling the plot twists, but as a general view the book is split intotwo main stories, each with its own flashbacks and points of view from various characters.
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In Darkness We Stand, Divided We Fall – A Review of Corax: Soulforge
I’ve had a sabbatical from the Heresy series for the past six months or so due to Black Library changing the publishing formats of the books, and the tragic collector in me wanting to keep everything on my shelf the same size. Rather than spend my time crying about it on the Internet though (if the size of a book’s initial print run format has “killed your love for the series” you need to get a grip), I just caught up with other things like the Wheel of Time (which I didn’t get on with, but I digress) and WWII novels about the Nazis.
The Horus Heresy series for me has on the whole been a great success. I’ve loved how they’ve used it to explore some of the more obscure areas of the background, such as the Mechanicum, Sisters of Silence, Custodes, Thunder Warriors and so on that have been teased about for years, and to be honest they can take as long as they like to get to the Siege of Terra.
Heresy Novella Collection