I think “cyberpunk” is a suitable word for Kieran Shea’s “Koko Takes a Holiday”. It’s not a perfect fit. It’s hard to put tropical islands and furries into that particular genre but they’re there along with the dystopian future, body modification, gangs and corporate culture in this holiday. I struggled with the start of Koko […]
Dark Shepherd: A review of The Art of Fred Gambino
It’s been about 15 years since Fred Gambino’s last book, Ground Zero, and that alone tells you how established Gambino is in the world of concept art. Most recently Fred Gambino has been working with game and film studios. Gamers will certainly recognise some of the themes here. The companies Fred Gambino’s worked for are […]
Hacker culture: A review of The Art of Watch_Dogs
Ubisoft’s Watch_Dogs is proving to be very popular. Aiden Pearce is a vigilante (or criminal) with a talent set that speaks to geeks. There’s no doubt that Ubisoft Montreal have created an engaging and clever game; mixing hacking with a gorgeous open world. It is also true that part of Watch_Dog’s appeal is that it […]
Expert advice: How to manage magic and mystery without annoying your players
Ari Marmell, aka Mouseferatu, is a novelist that many gamers know well. He’s written novels for the likes of Wizards of the Coast and White Wolf as well as RPG material supporting D&D 4E for Expeditious Retreat Press, Pathfinder for Adamant Entertainment and plenty of World of Darkness game material for White Wolf. The Rodent […]
Steampunk science and elemental magic: A Silver Mirrors review
Silver Mirrors is the sequel to A.A. Aguirre’s Bronze Gods. The Apparatus Infernum series blends some steampunk concepts and imagery with fairy concepts and imagery. As a result you have trains powered by elementals that criss-cross a busy city on an island now sealed off by magic. In the first book our two detectives (a […]
Dinosaurs! A review of the Paleoart of Julius Csotonyi
Csotonyi won the Lazendorf PaleoArt prize for his illustrations in 2010 and 2012. He’s both an artist and a scientist. He has a PhD in Microbiology. There’s a lot of reasons to be jealous of his talent but the summary is this – he’s very good. If you’ve Titan Books’ Dinosaur Art: The World’s Greatest […]
A video tour of Godzilla: The Art of Destruction
The hardback Godzilla – The Art of Destruction from Titan Books is a 168-paged geeky compliment to the newly released Godzilla film. The news today is that a sequel is on the way. Godzilla did well at the box office and this Toho fan gives the movie two thumbs up. Sure, there’s mixed reviews about […]
Freda Warrington’s Top Ten supernatural novels for vampire lovers… and weird house fanatics
Freda Warrington is a British author of vampire, fantasy and supernatural novels. Born in Leicester, Warrington has created such favourites as the Blackbird series, the Blood Wine series, Dark Cathedral series, The Jewelfire Trilogy and Aetherial Tales series. The British Fantasy Society have nominated four of her stories for Best Novel awards and Elfland took […]
Out of that world: A review of Ecko Rising
Ecko Rising starts off as a near future cyberpunk. We’re dealing with a dystopian society, evil corporations, the resistance and medical treatments that can make you believe you’re in a totally different world. The story genre-hops. It flicks to a totally different world. Is it real? Is it virtual reality? There are touches of the […]
Lurking in the shadows: The Art of Thief
Thief is a game where you sneak around. Thief is a game of atmosphere and to that extent it makes sense to have an accompanying hardback of art. The problem The Art of Thief faces is what to include? If it goes the “mythos” route that art books sometimes take and explores characters and story […]