God King

God King, the third and given the tropes of fantasy writing I assume the final Sigmar book in Black Library’s ‘Time of Legends’ series, tells of Sigmar’s war against and ultimate defeat of Nagash.

If you have read either of the previous volumes,Heldenhammer or Empire you will know what to expect, and this book doesn’t break the mold. In my last review I complained that Dan Abnett was perhaps trying too hard to come up with new ways of telling the Heresy Story, here is I had a small complaint it is that Graham McNeill has not tried hard enough. Sigmar is emporer, he must face down a threat to his realm, and surrounded by his friends and counts, some of whom are more noble than others but none of whom are as great and noble as Sigmar, he does so. Some characters die, some don’t and in the end the Empire endures.

That is not to say it isn’t a great book, it is just the same book as the first two. McNeil is a really fun writer, and as a book on its own this book is probably a 7 out of ten, as the third book in a trilogy, and as a repeat of the first two it can’t get more than a six though.

No Time for Games

Saturday is my gaming day. On Saturday, I roll dice and push models around a tabletop in an attempt (often unsuccessful)  to prove that my toy soldiers are superior to the toy soldiers of my opponent. Yesterday I didn’t go gaming.

You see Brisbane, my home town, a city of just over 2 Million has just seen the waters go down after the worst flood in 37 years, and is starting to add up the cost in dollars lives and heartbreak. I figured my toy soldiers could stay in the bag this week.

The Aftermath of Brisbane Flooding

Thats not to say that I didn’t get to play with toys. Like thousands of Brisbane residents whose home was not affected by the flood, my family and I decided to go to the affected suburbs to see what help we could offer with the clean up. My daughter and i spent three hours yesterday cleaning mud and silt and stench from children’s toys.

My 11 year old daughter made it her personal mission to ‘save’ a little girl’s doll house, whilst I did what i could for games of chinese checkers, and chess and connect four. When I sadly told my daughter that I thought the doll house she was cleaning might be too damaged to recover and may need to be thrown out, she kept going and wisely told me, “Maybe but that is not my call, I will clean it and the little girl who owns it can decided if she keeps it.” So we kept cleaning.

So whilst high pressure hoses, blasted the muck off the walls, and whists others ripped up carpets and removed sodden walls, (A) and I cleaned trophies, and swimming ribbons, and toy tea sets, and saved what we could. As it was we had to throw out too much. 36 hours under water will do for cardboard and paper, but every toy we washed was an item that those kids would still have tomorrow, and whether it was their favourite or merely something that will go back to sitting at the back of the cupboard, well at least they still have that option.

Foreign Minister Keven Rudd cleaning up after the floods.

The 2011 south east Queensland floods have been devastating. At last report 16 people have been confirmed dead as a result of flooding or flash flooding and more than two Dozen remain missing. 28,000.00 homes have been affected, many, completely inundated. Over 6.000.00 people are now or have been living in evacuation centres around Brisbane. Many have lost their homes, and an enormous chunk of the lives they have spent years building.

If you are a gamer, or if you stumbled onto this blog through some other tag, could I ask in the first instance that you take a few minutes, to think, read and consider the victims of this flooding. And then consider if you could make a donation to the flood recovery appeal, here:   Qld Government Flood Appeal Maybe that bit of money you were going tp spend on some new toy soldiers, might be able to buy toys for some one else this time.

Geek at 73

Prospero Burns

Dan Abnett is one of the best of the Black Library writers, and if the line for his autograph at the various games days anything to go by he is probably the most popular. Having said all that Prospero Burns, was a bit disappointing.

Abnett tells the story of the Space Wolves, and their ‘cleansing’ of Prospero, largely through the eyes of a human, and as a consequence we never really get under the skin of the legion. This was a technique he had used in the Alpha Legion Heresy novel, and for that Legion who are mysterious, inscrutable and unknowable it made sense. For the emporer’s executioners and for Leman Russ it is less successful. As a general rule I pick up a Horus Heresy novel to read about primarchs and 30th century astartes, not remembrances and human hangers on.

Perhaps most tellingly I put down the book and had no desire to collect a Space Wolves army.

Geek at 73