'MERICA!

57 here---

FUCK YEAH, AMERICA!!!!!

Needless to say I'm feeling patriotic today, AND WHAT'S WRONG WITH THAT? There's nothing wrong with loving your country, I dare any of you to tell me I'm wrong.

So you know what? Celebrate the birth of this great nation any fucking way you want. This is the land of freedom, right? So why do we have to celebrate the birth of this nation one way? Celebrate however you want, I don't think anyone is going to stop you (unless you're doing something blatantly illegal).

So, happy birthday America. Keep doing what you do best: Kicking ass.

Writing, WoW, Painting, and some other shit

57 here---

Man oh man, shit has been happening recently over on my end. A lot of shit went down.... and came up.... and around...... yeah. I mean, it's not like I got it hard or easy on my end, no, I'm just a college student bitching, whining, ranting and raging on the internet full of tweens/teens/college students bitching, whining, ranting and raging about shit that is non-consequential shit that don't effect anyone else in the slightest. Hell, to some people I might come off as a deranged sociopath.

...... With a cowboy hat.

Anyway, onto stuff that's happened.

Since the deadline for 40k pitches is July 31st, I have begun to haul ass and work on my pitch to Black Library. I know I'm one of thousands, hell maybe even millions of people, who are going to submit something to BL, but really I'm having fun. And that's what matters. I'm writing my pitch around the Thousand Sons, and am having fun working with them, or as much fun as I can with only three chapters. But hey, at least I got to write this:

‘We are all pawns in the game the Architect plays. All of us. From the weakest to the strongest, the smallest to the biggest, the loyal to the traitor. So Rejoice, my children, rejoice that if we die, we serve something bigger than we will ever be.’

-Magnus the Red

I just like that line. I really do. But really, I know I'm probably not going to win, but hey, it doesn't mean I'm not going to have fun.

Also.... I'm playing WoW again. Yes, I got back into it. I had an experience with WoW a few years back and it was.... well, draining. I first started playing when the first expansion, Burning Crusade, came out. Back when the game was a unending grind. When I first got into it, I was saying, "wow, hey, this is kind of cool." Then after six months I had lost any sense of connection with the game, and stopped playing.

I stopped playing for a few reasons: A) it really wasn't fun to level up anymore, it was a grind of killing monster after monster, and quests weren't cool anymore. B) It took me six months of this grind to get to level 33. C) I wanted people to play with, but no one was in sight.

But the new WoW has changed a lot of that. I've been playing for about two weeks, and already I'm level 44, and the quests are cool now. So, if anyone wants to play, my sever is Muradin, so let me know and we'll do..... Stuff.

In terms of painting, I'm starting a new 40k army, the Storm Wardens (their story be here, http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Storm_Wardens) and I'm trying some new painting styles, techniques, and paints. Firstly, I'm going for a fading from one color to another look to some swords, thunder hammers and storm shields. I'm not using citadel acrylic paints, or Vallejo paints, rather I'm using Winsor & Newton Artisan Water Mixable Oil color paints, a water soluble oil paint. No, I don't know how it works, but the clean up is great. It takes time to get the effect you want, and even longer for the paint to dry, but hey, when you get it down, it looks really cool.

Anywhoo, that's it for now, stay tuned people.

Yours,
57

Wait...... What?

57 here---

Wait, what? Did they....? No, they wouldn't, but...... why? How? Why? Damn it. Damn it! Oh, this is not going to be fun. This is absolutely not going to be fun. Shit. Oh, what am I talking about. That. Yeah.

Halo 4.

Yeah, Halo 4. Oh man, I thought the series could now just fucking die and we could go on to the next series Bungie has in store (next Oni game anyone?). But no, Microsoft is determined to rape as much out of this corpse as possible (Why am I getting an Activision vibe from this). The only developer I trust with a new Halo game is Bungie, but Reach was there last, and we all know Microsoft game studios can't produce shit unless they work really, REALLY hard at it. Personally I think they've only been working on this for about a year, so if they plan on releasing it soon they must be: A) Have a huge fucking team working in 24 hour shifts that also work on weekends or B) must be bribing a huge number of studios to do it for them. Take your pick.

This is not going to be fun.

---57

Some of the most stupidly overpowered fictional weapons...... And I want them

57 here---

Ok, let's face it, fiction from time to time just makes some of the most ridiculously overpowered weapons that are just, well, fucking awesome. We all know why they're fictional: because there is no way we could conceivably make them, and if we could they would be overused/poorly used and destroy us all. But let's face it: We want them. Really fucking badly. With that said, let's see what's out there.

The Destroyer Armor from Thor
Come on? It's called the Destroyer Armor for a reason. This thing destroys shit. Completely. You might be saying, "Oh, but in the Thor movie, Thor destroys it easily." Well A) that was a movie designed to make Thor look completely badass, and B) shut the fuck up. In comics nothing, NOTHING, can destroy this armor. Imagine Juggernaut, now imagine Juggernaut made of metal that breaths fire and can destroy worlds and cannot be paralyzed, frozen or what not. Once, Odin came to Thor, armored in the Destroyer Armor and guess what? Kicked the shit out of Thor and his buddies. And could Thor scratch him? Could Thor harm Odin? Nope, Mjolnir could harm Odin. No lightening, no hits, nothing could harm Odin while wearing this. The battle in the Thor movie? That was but a taste of what this this could do. Seriously.

Vash's Angel Arm from Trigun
Now, Vash the Stampede is not a human. That's what allows his arm to be transformed into a normal, human looking arm into this thing. What does it do? Simple, it turns your arm into a giant fucking laser/energy cannon. This thing is so powerful it can completely destroy cities. Not to mention potentially destroy a planet, seeing how Vash used it to carve a huge fucking hole into one of their moons. What's the only thing that can stop one of these things? Another one. Yep, the only thing powerful enough to cancel out a blast from this is another blast from another one of these things.

Being Batman
Yeah. Enough said here.....

Cyclone Torpedoes from Warhammer 40K
The 41st millennium houses some pretty powerful weaponry. Metaguns, Plasma guns,Virus Bombs, yeah, nasty shit. Each one with their intended purposes, meltas kill tanks, plasmas kill heavily armored infantry, virus bombs kill--erm, preserve entire planets. But what if you just want to say "FUCK YOU" to an entire planet? Simple, Cyclone Torpedoes. These are when you just want to get a planet gone. So, they make the planet implode. Yes, implode. It damages the planet so much it collapses in on itself, killing anything and everything on the planet. How they created these, I don't know. But you know what they do when they don't much like your entire planet. Overkill; Because enough is never enough.

Idea

Ok, hear me out on this---

I just had the idea for a new army today, an army that would still be competitive and stuffs, but would just be so over the top and unnecessary that it would be so awesome. Just read the name of the army and tell me this wouldn't be awesome:

The Manly Marines of Manliness.

Tell that would not be awesome. I dare you, I double dog dare you motherfucker, tell me that wouldn't be awesome.

Anyway, for making this army, there must be some manly requirements that must be met. Listed below:

The Standard-bearer is standing atop a fallen enemy, ramming the banner-poll up it's ass (On the base it will be written "WHERE ARE YOUR GODS NOW?")

The chapter badge and banner will be the American flag (Really, why the fuck not?).

Most likely the Captain will be striking epic battle pose, and his cape with be the flag (See previous statement).

The Chaplain will be curb-stomping a Tau fire-warrior.

There will be a sergeant punching a missile.

All bare-headed sergeants will have cigars (Cigars make everything manly).

I have so many more ideas for these, and really I just want to start them just so I said I did made that army. Maybe I will....

Anyway, just needed to share that.

Cheers,
57

I mean, a Chaplain curb-stomping a tau.... How's that not cool?

The hardest line you've had to write

"What is the hardest thing you've ever had to write?"

I got that question a couple days back and it did get me thinking a little bit, what was/is the hardest thing I've had to write?

Now, this doesn't mean hardest as in most difficult and most challenging book a person could write, no it means what was the most emotionally trying thing that I've written. That was indeed a good question, what was the most difficult? Siege had a hard one or two, the main protagonist, of course goes through some trials and hardships, some were difficult to put down on paper, but they weren't the most difficult. Until recently they were, but not now.

The most difficult thing I've had to write came in the form of another book idea I had a few days back (damn me having a creative imagination). It was really between two of that book's main characters after the events of the book. It was a saying of the ultimate result of their actions, not the one they wanted but the one they got. It's full of bitterness, sorrow and the simple but brutal truth. That this was their fate, uttered by one of the two main protagonists knowing that even though they knew what they wanted, knew what everyone was wanting had tried for the simplest of things.

The phrase was simple: "It's over. We lost."

I answer questions

pitches, pitches, pitches

Hey all,

another quicky, here's an excerpt from another one of my pitches which I have decided to call [EXPONENTIALLY DELETED]. Enjoy!

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sweat beaded on the sorcerer’s brow as he concentrated on the on the archaic language of power he spoke along with his nine brother sorcerers standing in a perfect circle with him. Within the circle lay a complex map of ancient and powerful images and runes, each glowing brighter and brighter still with each word he and his brothers uttered. Few others within the galaxy would know the language they spoke now, fewer still would understand it. It is a forgotten tongue, a forbidden tongue. Once, he would have been repulsed by hearing or knowing the language, let alone speaking it. It’s sometimes amusing how things can change in ten thousand years.

But he wouldn’t focus on that now, he couldn’t. They were at the height at their ritual now, the most pivotal part. Now these few moments could equal triumph or disaster. One wavering tone, one slight mispronunciation on any word, even one so minuet and insignificant word could tear their bodies apart and fling their souls into the ever hungry and waiting warp. Or worse. For nearly an hour they had been standing there, on blood soaked earth of the battlefield chanting, uttering, praying and dealing. With each word the runes burned brighter, each syllable was one step closer to completion, each moment closer to their arrival.

His body trembled with the effort of keeping immobile while he forced the words from his lips. Even after nearly a hundred centuries and hundred more times repeating this ritual, the words still felt wrong, felt unnatural. Indeed, they felt alive. Each time he had to make himself repeat the words taught to him many years ago by his lord he felt numb, he felt cold, he felt his soul growing closer and closer to the eternal damnation of the warp that awaited them all. Once he was taught to close his mind to the warp, even believed that they themselves could master it. Their arrogance, it seemed, had blinded them to the truth. The beasts of man had taught them error. An error they would never repeat by spilling the blood of the empire where they once made their claim.

Slowly, he and his brother’s voice grew louder and louder, calling out to the heavens and hells of the galaxy, to the deepest and most violent of the warp, calling the beasts to the slaughter they were to unleash upon the fools. The tyrant had wanted something so terrible and mortifying that the fools would drop to their knees as their sanity shattered along with their bodies. They would just that, so long as the tyrant held his part of the bargain.

The skies above them darkened to a horrifying shape of crimson, pulsing and convulsing bright fire and lightening, energy that swirled and changed color within a blink of an eye. The very ground at their feet cracked and twisted, nature itself was rejecting the words of power they spoke but was helpless to stop them. The blood soaked for so long within the earth rose up now and boiled at their feet, hissing and spitting at them, knowing what’s coming and rejoicing.

The sorcerer had never liked these beings, too barbaric, too simplistic, too damn pathetic. But the tyrant wanted them, or at least some version of them. If he really wanted to make a deal with them he should have been move specific, his loss. Wind whipped around them now, cruel and malevolent as the rest of the world around them now, changed like the sky and earth around them into a being of malice. The sorcerer shed no tear for they had done to this world, after all they brought it on themselves the fools.

The wind shrieking around them in a such a pitch a banshee would be deafened, the sorcerer and his brothers raised their hands and heads high, shouting even above the wind, the language of power’s volume surpassing even this minor annoyance as finally their ritual reach its crescendo. The runes burned a blinding red and golden light streaking above them and blasting through the blood red sky, a beacon of pure hate and rage, guiding their guests to their place of honor on the world. The sorcerer opened his eyes in unison with his brothers and roared one final phrase.

‘Tarreacky she’takcae!’

The beacon of light before them burst, cascading light over them. Winds whipped by them as the light exploded around them, sending their robes flying across their chests, but they stood firm. The sorcerer knew everything had gone perfectly, and that should have brought some feeling of satisfaction, but nothing came. He had long stopped feeling joy or pride at completing this ritual. No, it was too easy, nothing to be learned and nothing to be gained anymore from this. After ten thousand years this was no more an experience, it was a chore.

As quickly as the light came, it vanished along with the wind. Where there was an intricate circle of runes and symbols lay a scorched creator, still smoking from the completed ritual. The sorcerer lowered his arms, scowling. He had grown tired of this, for the last two centuries he had done nothing but this ritual over and over with his brothers. There was no challenge anymore, no real foe, just a chore. Their lord, however, had promised that soon they would face a good enemy, challenging one, an old one. Whether or not the sorcerer believed that he did not know, but it was convincing.

Real quick

Hey all,

Just a quick tid-bit of one of the pitches I'm working on currently. Check back for more..... Eventually.

----------------------------------------------------

I kneel before the shrine of our lord and primarch, hands clasped together as I still mouth silent prayers and litanies of purification. It had been a long while, I know, since my brothers left to attend the proper rites prior to donning their sacred power armor. I know I should be among them, preparing my own and readying my soul and body to become one with the armor, as I have done countless times before since earning the red adamantium of a Blood Angel almost two centuries ago.

But yet my soul cries out for more purification, more sense of righteous blessing from my lord Sanguinius and the Emperor, Beloved by all. Time has been a blur here as I kneel before his angelic effigy, doing little justice to the angel that it is supposed to represent. I know not how long I have knelt, but my soul begs for more, no matter how long I pray, no matter how long I beseech Sanguinius for the righteous sense of duty held so high and strong by my brothers.

To a normal human attempting to praise the Emperor for as long as I have now, they would surely need to stand and turn away for food or water. But now I require no such needs so often as they. I open my eyes and raise them to the perfect cream-white marble statue of Sanguinius at the heart of the shrine.

‘I am Astartes,’ I intone. ‘I am the Emperor’s wrath made manifest, to smite the foes of the Imperium, be him traitor, xeno, or heretic. For I am Francesi Castigon, a son of Sanguinius, a protector of Mankind. Aye, I am indeed an Angel of Death.’

Stuffs....

57 here---

Well, that was a rather long hiatus.....

Kind of busy on my end, but since this is spring break I have enough time now to actually do shit. Hoo-ray.

Anyway, Let's discuss the biggest news (currently) in gamesworkshop land: Grey Knights.

Well, these guys have been needing a new codex for a while now (almost as bad as Dark Eldar and look what happened to then recently). And in true GW style they're getting a whole new model line, and they still look pretty damn good. With the addition of the Storm Raven into their ranks, not to mention a lot of their regular troops get the deep strike ability it's easy to say that these guys are now going to be fairly fast on the battlefield.

But let's break a few of these guys down, shall we?

First we have the "Strike Squad." These are basically the regular troops with nemesis weapons (probably going to do something that isn't being a power weapon) with the ability to deep strike onto the table. Big shock, for every five guys in a squad they can take a special weapon keeping true to the regular SM squad layout. The only difference here is that they can be giving "Psybolt ammunition," which increases their bolter strength by 1 (probably 5-10pts per guy).

Next is the "Interceptor Squad." The only cute things these guys can do is once per game make a jump to any point on the table within 30''. This will really piss some opponents off when at the last point in the game they suddenly jump and contest or claim an objective. It also looks like some can take special close combat weapons (Thunder Hammers, etc.).

Right after we have the "Purifier Squad." These appear to be the Grey Knight equivalent of the old SM veterans, 2 attacks each, can take special weapons (close or ranged I assume) and are fearless. They do have an exclusive (until I see other wise) psychic power where if passed every enemy in close combat will be wounded on a 4+.

Finally, in terms of troops/infantry is the "Purgation Squad." In short, devastators. They can take the heavy/special weapons offered to the army and put them in one squad (though of course you can have multiples of said squad). They do have a power that let's them shoot at enemies regardless of line of sight.

Finally, for new units, we have the.... Interesting "Dread Knight." It says in its cannon that these things were made to take out monstrous creatures/Greater Daemons. And it looks like it could, it could either have two things called the "Nemesis Daemon Hammer" or the "Nemesis Great Sword." It has three choices for a ranged weapon, which I'm not going to get in to, but still this thing looks fucking scary. Most Monstrous creatures you don't want in close combat with you, and this guy looks like no exception. I'm saying this thing can't cost more than 120-150pts base.

As for SC's there's only one new one called "Lord Kaldor Draigo." Apparently he's a "grand master," which sounds like the equivalent of a chapter master, but Grey Knights have to be different. The only thing this guy's got going right now is a strength 5 sword that turns strength 10 when fighting daemons and a storm shield. I'm expecting this guy to cost at least 225pts.

That's it for Grey Knights right now, I'll let people know when I hear more.

Cheers---
57

That was annoying

57 here---

Remember my last post, "I hate my computer sometimes"?

Probably, because really, something amazingly bad and annoying happened over the last week that incapacitated for the better part of a week. Something that prevented me from checking any of my regular news and caused me to get really, really behind on my writing.

I was on stumbleupon.com, just doing what one does on stumbleupon.com does. It was..... going. I was rather surprised when, suddenly all my browsers close, and this one "program" opened up telling me I was horribly infected with spyware. Well, I tried a few things (system restore, trying to use norton, etc.) and they didn't work.

It was at this point really I realized that this wasn't an anti-spyware program, no, it was a god damn virus.

So, I had to take it into a repair shop and get it fixed, which took a whole week. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm thankful to the guy for fixing it (not to mention having his shop here in Delaware), it was just annoying not having my computer to get to work on a few things.

Well, that's really it, I'll have more stuff coming over the next few days, just to keep content going, like maybe a review for bulletstorm, but we'll see what we see.

Cheers,
57

I hate my computer somtimes

I really do.

Albeit, it's probably my one connection to the outside world sometimes, since I'm stuck here in the middle of fucking nowhere Ohio, with no car and the urge to use my phone on the same level as punching a fucking grizzly bear. So, it is the only way I communicate with people, even at the minimum level it is.

But you know what happened today that just pissed me off? Of course not, that's why you're reading this. Anyway, here's what happened.

If you've been following the weather, then you'll know that a major snow storm has been raging through the midwest in recent times, and by that I mean its been shitting snow and rain. First it rained, the rain froze on the ground and created a sheet on ice on the ground about an inch or so thick.

Kind of a good thing in my book, since my classes were canceled today. So, I got up at noon (something I haven't done on a weekday in a while) got some food, chilled and what not. While walking back to my dorm, the weather shitting snow on my face, I realized this would be a good day to catch up on the pitches I've been writing (or not) and just relax until ten when I go out again to party.

So, I get back to my dorm and open up the Space Marine battle novel that's going to be one of my pitches to BL (The Blood on Khartas) and I was going to start writing. There was one problem.

It opened up in Microsoft Word 2007.

Now, that may not be a big deal to you normal people, but it was to me. Why? Because I still use 2003 because I got it for free (and as a college student I do not like paying more than $60 for something). I do not know why it did this, I don't have 2007 on here, so it baffled me. Whatever, I thought, Easy fix.

But a little voice in the back of my head told me, Check siege.

So I did. And low and behold, they're all in 2007. Now, being the computer moron I am, I didn't know how to decode this back into 2003, and I failed at downloading open office on here a while back. So, I then spent an hour converting those files into PDF format and copying and pasting them into another 2003 document.

I have no idea how this fucking happened, I don't have 2007, nor opened anything recent in 2007, even then when I did when I went back to my writing they were still in 2003. But really, what the fuck?

I hate my computer sometimes.

40k characters (specifically marines)

57 here---

A day or two ago a classmate of mine found out I played 40k and then proceeded to ask me a series of annoying questions about me playing wolves and what I thought about them and the other marine special characters.

More on that later.

Here's the Q&A of him asking me about wolves:

Q: Do you like playing wolves?
A: If I didn't I wouldn't play them.

Q: Blood Claws seem really good, since they have 4 attacks on the charge!
A: No they're not good.
Q: There not?
A: No. Because sure they get 4 attacks on the charge, but they will always be hitting on 4's or 5's, you can't re-roll those, not to mention if they're within 6-12 inches of an enemy unit they can't shoot unless there's an independent character or a pack leader with them, which is a stupid thing to do. The only way I'd use them is in a pack of 15 with a wolf priest in a land raider crusader, but then I'd be paying over 600 points for one unit, which is a fucking stupid thing to do.
Q: So, Grey Hunters are better?
A: Duh. In 40k you want units that can "Hold the hill," and Grey Hunters are fucking great at that. They're like Space Marines, but have more perks and the load-out of a Chaos Marine (which is damn good). So you're next question is going to be about Pack Leaders, which I will answer is stupid, if you have a unit of 10, you pay cheaply for a special weapon and the next one is free. The extra point to leadership isn't too bad since they have ATSKNF.

Q: Are Long Fangs good?
A: A bear shits in woods. Yes they're good. They can get 5 heavy weapons for cheap and each one can fire at a different target. Does that sound good to you, cause it sounds good to me.

Q: Do you take powerfists?
A: Yeah, because I want at least one thing in a unit to be able to take down a wraithlord in close combat.

(Wolves special characters time)
Q: I think Njal in terminator armor is pretty good, what do you think?
A: No, he's not good in terminator armor, or in general. Why? He's too expensive and doesn't do enough. With terminator armor he's 270 points, I could get a pack of Grey Hunters and unit of Wolf Scouts for that. His one thing, the changing weather shit, is not good because it's too small and doesn't do enough. Sure, he knows all the wolves psychic powers, but most of those aren't really good, and the few that are only really work against certain armies. He's not worth it. Period.

Q: What about Blackmane?
A: Too generic and too expensive for what he does. Enough said.

Q: Then what SC's do you like?
A: Cainis and Bjorn. Cainis because I run two units of thunderwolves and I want someone other than a Wolflord to lead the second, he does a good job of doing that, I've killed wraith lords with him. Bjorn because he's a fucking dreadnought, chances are in close combat enemies won't be able to hit him because they'll need 6's, and unless they have melta bombs or a power fist chances are they won't be able to hurt him either. Every time I've used him he's earned his points back. And then some.

(Blood Angels and Vanilla marines SC time)
Q: What do you think about Calgar?
A: He's alright. Expensive, but alright. The "God of War" rule is fucking stupid since it's chapter tactics, they just felt the need to make him seem better and put "God of War" in there.

Q: Ko'Sarro Khan is pretty good, I've used him, what do you think?
A: You're an idiot, but what else is new? Probably the only reason he's been good to you is the people you play against are morons, because he's an easy character to get killed, and expensive again. The only way to make him good is to put him on a bike, which is 45 points and does shit. I just need to unload with missile launchers and lascannons into his squad and he'll die.

Q: Ok, um, Blood Angels, what do you think about the sanguinor?
A: First off, his name is fucking stupid. Second off, he's too expensive and lacks the Independent Character rule, meaning he will get shot at a lot and die. If he had IC, he'd be a little more worth it, but he doesn't so he's not.

Q: Tycho?
A: Too fucking boring. I'd rather take a nameless character.

Q: Seth?
A: The one character I'd use, because he could kill a land raider and he's 160 points. I'm sorry, that's fucking good.

If I seemed rude it's because this guy was an idiot, asking me a bunch of stupid questions, getting the 40k fluff wrong (It was half the Raven Guard that turned, why do you think they're gene seed is so mutated?) and wouldn't leave me alone.

Piece of advise about talking or playing 40k, know what to do and know about what you're talking about, seriously. This really annoyed me, and chances are it'll annoy any other 40k player.

Blood Angels Second Wave

"The Storm Raven is here and it's not looking quite as ugly as we first thought."
-- Space Wolves Blog

No, sir, it's still ugly, they just added some landing gear and a couple new weapons.

Listen, I'm not going to tell my thoughts on how the Storm Raven looks, I've already been over that in an earlier post, so bashing on it again is blatantly idiotic. Look, if you like it fine, if you don't just use a Valkyrie like any sane person who doesn't want to pay sixty bucks for a hunk of plastic.

Anyway, the other two things coming in the second wave are the Blood Angels Battleforce and the Furioso Dreadnought.

The Battleforce first. Look, just buy a regular marines Battleforce and you'll get the same result, the only thing here of interest is the death company, but chances are any good Blood Angels player will have bought two boxes of them already so they don't need them. I'm surprised (or unsurprised) that GW took so long to put together a battle force that is nearly a complete copy of the Marine one. Whatever, if you want to pay $100 for a Battleforce, I won't stop you.

The Furioso Dreadnought. Ok, this is actually pretty cool. I've always liked the look of dreadnoughts, and here we have three potential variants in one box. Now, this is still the same basic layout for a dreadnought, but just the amount of extra bits and pieces offered in it really appeal to me. The three variants are the regular Furioso, the librarian dreadnought and the death company dreadnought, all have their own bit that contribute. Out of all the second wave, this is the one I would pick up.

Cheers,
57

Prospero Burns Book Review

57 here,

Now there are few things that when I finish them I just sit back in awe for a moment and just think over the very thing, about how great it was, how well it was done and so on and so forth. The first thing I remember doing that was after reading David Gemmel's Waylander and it just blew me away. Just the epic story telling, the tales of pure heroics, just all of it. That happened again to me recently. I put down Prospero Burns and I just said, "Wow, just..... Wow." Easily I can say this is one of the best books I have ever read and the best Black Library has ever published.

The story is the other half, the Space Wolves half, of Graham McNeill's A Thousand Sons and everything that has happened is put from the Wolves perspective of the fall of Prospero. The story as McNeill and Abnett said was a tragedy, about two loyal legions pitted against one another in a battle crafted to be by the Primordial Annihilator, Chaos. And it all climax's in a suitable and amazingly crafted fitting and epic ending.

The story, unlike past Horus Heresy novels does not follow one direct Astartes, I use Astartes not space marine because "space Marine" just sounds bland and generic to me, and not once are the Wolves or Sons called that. But no, it doesn't follow one Astartes (I.E. Horus Rising, A Thousand Sons, The First Herectic) but follows the life of Kasper Hawser, a pseudo remembrancer/skjald that was interested in following the Wolves, is one of the few that is allowed to and slowly turns from a Terran-born man to very much like and similar to the Wolves.

The story slowly and very discreetly turns from his adventures with the Wolves to a darker spy/manipulation plot where he and the Wolves learn of the treachery during the Council of Nikaea and the sack of Prospero. It's refreshing to hear a story not based on the Superhuman Astartes, but with a character readers can relate with. With him there's much more confusion in the heat of battle, many more secrets from him, and a whole other mystery that he slowly unravels.

I will say it's a tad confusing when you start reading it, but that can be said about most books, and slowly Abnett works the reader into the story, keeping information until the last moment and unraveling the events in a way that keeps the reader involved and interested until the dust settles and the last sentence ends in a work of near mastery.

Prospero Burns is a book that will blow many people away with its grand story telling, its mystery, epic characters, and its plot that has indeed shown why Prospero is an event worthy of telling in the Horus Heresy series. Easily, this is Dan Abentt's best work and the best book ever to be printed by the Black Library.

57's score: 5/5

Read it. You won't regret it.

Zodiac Bullshit

57 here,

So, now everyone is freaking out about how the earth has wobbled and changed what their Zodiac sign is now, huh? Odd, my sign changed and I find it really hard to care.

Why? Simple, I don't really believe the Greek Zodiacs very much. I used to be an Aquarius, which means my personality should have been like so:

Poor, unhappy, unlucky, unsuccessful, medium height, rare faculties, self-esteem.

Well, I'm not poor (outside of being a college student) I'm not unhappy, I have pretty good luck, I'd like to think I'm successful, I'm 6'1'', rare faculties=bullshit, the only thing here that makes sense is the self-esteem. Well, that's crap.

Now, I'm a Capricorn, which now means I should be this:

Mean-minded, stubborn, ignorant, miserly, pushful, unhappy, boring, active, meddlesome, obliging, humorous, witty, affable, prudent, firm.

Well, I try to be nice a lot of the time, I'm slightly stubborn at not doing what I don't want to, fuck no I am not ignorant, still not unhappy (though I'm not happy either, I.E. I'm neither happy nor unhappy), I'm not pushful, I take offense to being called boring, sure I try to be active, I steer clear of other people's business (unless it affects me), I try to be convenient, Humorous and boring together here makes no fucking sense, sure I'm witty I guess, prudent or affable make no sense, and firm, not really most of the time.

Wow, sounds a lot like garbage to me.

The Greek Zodiac is based on constellations, not any earthly thing, that's why I don't trust it. The only Zodiac I trust is the Chinese. Why? I like the Greeks and all, but the Chinese Zodiac has been around for much, much longer, therefore it has a better chance and better accuracy to predict people. Sorry, I'll take the more ancient and more accurate Chinese philosophy over the younger Greek.

So, in the Chinese Zodiac I'm a monkey, meaning:

Joker, up for a good time, has a hard time showing self, can understand things and adapt well to them, and helpful.

Yeah that's really more accurate.

Look, I don't get why people are so keen to know what their future holds. To prepare for it? Hey, one of the fun things about life is to live and take whatever is thrown at you, be it good or bad. If you prepare for one apparently bad thing, and it turns out something bad happens, then you feel worse.

The Fun things in life are living and experiencing what live gives you, adapting and having fun. Knowing the future takes that away, takes away the surprise and potential it has. I generally don't worry about the future that much, aside from where I'm going to work and eat and all that, and I have fun.

If we knew everything about the future and the universe, that wouldn't be fun, we'd all just sit around and be bored, moaning about the meteors coming tomorrow or how we know this or that won't last. Taking in the unknown is fun, a new adventure every day. And that's what matters.

I know this is off topic, but hearing about the Zodiac change got me thinking about the future and how little we know. Sometimes there's a reason for us not knowing something, true knowledge, after all, is knowing we know nothing. And there's a good reason for that.

My advise, if you choose to take it, is live by the day. Sure, think about tomorrow, but don't worry about it. We adapt and change to whatever is thrown our way, and that's what makes life fun and partly why its worth living.

Just think about it, that's all I'm asking.

Chaos codex thoughts

So, I was reading through the Bell of Lost Souls forum earlier and saw that they allowed people to post on what they wanted out of a new Chaos Marine codex and this got me thinking. It's no lie to say that the Chaos codex rather blows right now, and I really liked how the old one allowed you to do Legion specific chaos legions. So I thought why not bring that back? It was fun, if lacking a bit sure, but then you could have an army that could do what you wanted to do, right? Right. So, I thought for a bit, and this is what I came up with:

Give HQ's and infantry point upgrades to outfit them more properly to their specific legion, such as space wolves (I.E. lord gets a 15pt upgrade, or so, to allow troops to benefit from legion specific rule). Such as the following:

Emperor's Children: High initiative assault/shooting units. If lord has Emperor's Children mark, sonic weapons can be bought for a cheaper price (though still available for units who bear Children's mark, but slightly more expensive).

Iron Warriors: Anti-Tank upgrades for infantry. A mere maybe couple points upgrade to them granting a tank hunter rule, or something along those lines for Melta/Lascannon weapons. For the lord he can choose to fortify one piece of terrain for better cover save (like master of the forge) showing the Warriors use of trenches.

Night Lords: Assault troops. Gain night fight and move through cover rules if infantry buy upgrade. If the lord purchases the upgrade, then raptors gain the hit and run special rule to represent their fast moving terror tactics.

World Eaters: Infantry gain Extra number of attacks and fearless. Lord allows them to also gain hate and possibly blood frenzy and maybe an Epidimius style counter system for however many kills they make. If lord takes upgrade, no sorcerers can be included.

Death Guard: Squads lose most special weapons (Flamers, Meltas, Plasmas, etc.) but gain higher toughness and increased accuracy. Lord Grants army Feel no pain. Limit one havoc choice at higher cost showing the Death Guard's lack of heavy weapons.

Thousand Sons: Gain AP 3 bolters but lose any and all special weapons, still lead by sorcerer and still slow and purposeful. Lord grants a lower price on sorcerer upgrades and gives 4+ invulnerable to all thousand son units. No units of the World Eaters can be taken.

Black Legion: Squads gain ATSKNF. Abaddon turns units fearless and grants (at cost) relentless.

Word Bears: Squads given fearless and can re-roll failed moral tests. Lords give maybe two or three sergeants the ability to re-roll EITHER failed to hit or to wound roll to their entire squad. Can take daemon allies.

Alpha Legion: Squads can infiltrate, and guard platoons can be taken at maximum 15 model squads. Lord Grants the ability to outflank, even from opponents side of table (still needs to roll to see where they enter).

I'm sure there are problems people will have with this, but it's just something I thought up. So, why don't you all comment on how you'd want the new Chaos codex to work. Seems fun.

Cheers,
57

A moral dilemma

Wow, this has bee a busy few days, hasn't it?

Well, today I come to talk about a moral dilemma: What should I do?

I'm not talking about a current no win situation regarding a significant other, or such other nonsense, no, what should I do for a living?

I want to be a lawyer, I want to take cases to court and defend my candidate, or prosecute someone else along those lines.

I, also, want to be a writer. I am currently working on a book and looking for a publisher to, well, publish it.

The problem is, in light of current findings, I can't do both. Both demand almost, if not all, of one's time, leaving none for the other, as I have hoped previously. The only reason I have found any time at all to write Siege is because I have some degree of focus and time during the week while at college to write it. But I know this will change in times to come, I know, for two simple reasons:

A). Graduate school

B). I know being a full time writer is a bad idea

What do I mean by B? Simple, all of your income now relies on things that have a very, very high chance of failure. And if your book tanks, well, you're shit out of luck. Thing is, I've never liked putting all my books in one basket, which is what (from my point of view) writing is, unless I'm amazingly popular, which, again, is seriously unlikely.

Would I like to get The Siege of Midgar published? Yeah, I would love to. Could I make a series out of it? I think so, I'm not sure, but I think so. Could I become a full fledged because of it and the pitch I'm going to make to the Black Library in May? I don't know, I just don't know.

Do I have dreams of success through writing? Of course, without dreams, ambition, we'd get nowhere in life. I would love to one year have the 2010 of Graham McNeill, who this year got both the David Gemmell fantasy award for Time of Legends: Empire, The Legend of Sigmar and got on the New York times Best seller list for A Thousand Sons. Not to mention he had a kid in 2010, so we can all agree McNeill had the Best Year Evar.

So, long story short, I don't know what I'm going to do. Both have their ups and downs, both are appealing and both have things that make me hesitant about doing them. Problem is I want to do them both, but can't.

I've considered writing to both McNeill and Abnett asking for their opinion, but I don't want to bother them because of a no-name college freshman having a life crisis.

In the end, I know it's my decision, and I know I don't have to make it now, but I know for the next few days I'm going to lose sleep over it. And coming from an insomniac, I need all the sleep I can get. Shit.

Cheers,
57

There we go

Ok, that's much better don't you think?

Alright, it's not that much different, but it looks better and includes more stuffs right? Right.

Well, now I have links to other blogs and such that I like (many of them authors I like) as well as a link to my other site that will include various short stories that I've written. Though few are going to be 40k related, but hey beggars can't be choosers, right?

If you want to read the first one I've written, click the link that says "My stories" or go here http://allthebloodismine.blogspot.com/

Hope you enjoy it, because I had fun writing it.

Cheers,
57

Happy new year..... I guess.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, happy new year.

Really, I've never seen any damn point to this "Holiday," but hey I've always gotten a day off for it, so I guess that overrides my opinion of it.

But, really, celebrating a new year...... Okay?

Look, chance are it's just going to be like last year, just as bad, just as good. Oh, and that "New years resolution" you made? Chances are you're going to forget about it about two months in, and fail at it (unless you resolved to get to the next year, then power to you).

Okay, I'm being a jerk here. Holidays are holidays. Ones like these only come around once a year, and with the world being in the shitter it is today, it's never hurt to just sit back and enjoy them. So, you know what? Happy holidays. Just sit back with the people you love and relax. Really, enjoy this time, everyone needs a break now and then, and this is our break.

And in celebration, here's another excerpt from my book, which I have decided to call The Siege of Midgar.

Enjoy.
-------------------------------------------------------------

It took Ulrick moments to break free from the paralyzing grip of shock. Before he realized it, Ulrick rushed to Njal’s torso and fell to his knees by him. He looked even worse from close up. Ulrick could see the various cuts and bruises from fighting Jorin. The three puncture wounds from where Jorin had punched his claws through Njal’s breast plate were gushing blood. A mixture of blood and bile poured from Njal’s mouth. Coughing and spluttering, Njal was clinging desperately to life. But all in vain. Ulrick knew that Njal was gone.

Slowly Njal’s eyes moved to Ulrick, and slowly he smiled.

“Ulrick….” Njal spluttered through a mouthful of blood.

“Njal,” Ulrick replied softly. “Why? Why did you peruse him? Why didn’t you stay with the rest of us? You could have left it to the more experienced soldiers”

“I thought I could….” Njal coughed. “Stop him….. Handle him….”

He was going fast.

“I’m going to….. to…. make it?” Njal asked, whispering now. “Aren’t I?”

Njal let go of his shield and lifted his right hand up to Ulrick.

Ulrick looked at the feeble gesture, and finally reached over and grasped Njal’s hand holding it up in front of them.

“Yes,” Ulrick answered softly. “It’s going to be alright.”

“I knew it,” Njal whispered. “I knew you’d save me…. I knew it….”

His grip slackened. His eyes glazed, and finally died.

Ulrick lowered the boy’s hand down, slowly. Ulrick looked at his face for a moment, and finally placed his hand over the face and closed his eyes.

The dead should not sleep with eyes open, Ulrick recalled someone long ago saying to him.

Anger flared through Ulrick like a Firestorm. It surged through his body, giving his limbs power like white hot lightening. He reached down and grasped up Njal’s sword, as well as drawing his own blade.

Ulrick Rose to his full height, power flowing through his limbs. Slowly he turned to face Jorin.

For the most part Jorin had not moved. He had just stood there, watching the exchange. Now, like a dog after a wash, he shook Njal’s blood from his head. He took in Ulrick, staring him down. Ulrick met Jorin’s gaze with his own, even with Ulrick’s hood, his gaze was too strong for Jorin, who looked away, briefly.

Jorin let loose a bestial howl and dropped to a fighting stance, standing low over the ground, claws held in front of him. Teeth, sharpened to fang, bared at Ulrick.

Ulrick, in turn, spread his legs, back leg bent, and front held slightly. In front of him he held his own blade, slightly out-stretched, while Njal’s blade was held in guard at his side. Slowly, Jorin and Ulrick began to circle each other like wolves, waiting for the other to make a move.

Slowly, a white dot appeared falling between Ulrick and Jorin. It had begun to snow, softly. Jorin and Ulrick watched the flack float slowly to the ground. Finally, quietly, the flack landed in the middle a one patch of blood, making almost a target, a white island in the midst of an ocean of blood.