Rants & Raves

This has been an interesting week for me personally, so much so that there just wasn't any time for me to write a review. But, things have turned out well, so that this isn't going be a very rant-filled column, though I've been meaning to write about this first one for awhile and an e-mail from SQT this week reminded me why:











Rave - The Black Library (makers of Warhammer/WH40K books) sometimes uses a particular style for their hardcover books, like The Last Ditch (read an extract here). The cover I'm showing is not a dust-jacket - that's the actual hard cover of the book. I absolutely LOVE the way this looks. I've always hated dust-jackets (pointless), and while I'm more of a softcover person anyway, if it's going to be in hardcover, I'd much rather see the artwork printed right on that cover like this book. I've seen this with The Emperor's Finest as well - there may be other examples, and perhaps even from other publishing companies. Feel free to chime in and let me know if you've seen more like this and what you think about this kind of hardcover style.











Rave (and a little Rant) - I love Star Wars Insider magazine. Unlike most magazines, they actually often have exclusive info you find there first - interviews no one else gets, news about upcoming books and comics, plus new exclusive fiction (short stories) written by authors who normally write for the franchise. I highly recommend picking it up if you're a fan. So why a little Rant? Well, the subscription price is ridiculous, just insane. $40 for 8 issues. I try to justify it, but it's difficult at that price - if they threw in 4 issues of The Clone Wars magazine (which my kids enjoy) to make it an even 12 (lets face it, they could do that magazine quarterly instead of bi-monthly) I'd have an easier time convincing my wife (since the kids would enjoy getting that too).











Rave - so after having the chance to review Uglies: Shay's Story as a graphic novel (and really enjoying it), now I'm going to have the opportunity to do the same with A Game of Thrones. I watched the first couple of episodes of the HBO series, but my wife didn't really care for it, so it just never became a priority for me to watch - and let's face it, there's no way I'm ever reading these doorstopper books - but again, a graphic novel? I can do that. Expect a review here soon.









One more Rave I forgot - I was very excited to learn that Sniper Elite V2 (a videogame sequel) is coming out soon. I had no idea this game was even being made until I got the press release for the tie-in ebook Target: Hitler. Not that I played the original game, but I do remember it and I wanted to, it just never came together for me. I'm not sure if this is a "alternate reality" take on WWII (meaning you can change history with your actions in this game), but I look forward to finding out. Unlike so many mainstream game reviewers, I'm not tired of the WWII era games, and mixing it with Metal Gear Solid (which is similar to how the first Medal of Honor game worked as well) is a recipie for a game that I'm likely to really enjoy.