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Review

Berserk (2016, S1) – Anime Review

November 6, 2016 by hpholo 4 Comments

Sometimes you just want to watch a grimdark drama where everything is a disaster and you can’t do anything about it so why bother? This year’s election coverage should sate that thirst.
But if it doesn’t, there’s Berserk.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yAkl2uJEuA4&w=560&h=315]
Note: I’m about to spoil a whole TV series and three movies and several volumes of the Berserk manga, so if you haven’t experienced any of these yet, consider this your SPOILER WARNING. Also might as well throw in every TRIGGER WARNING ever because if Berserk hasn’t made it to one yet, chances are it will eventually.
Berserk is basically “Everything sucks and then you die” given anime form. The series’ Golden Age arc, covered in a 1997 TV series, the 2012-2013 movies, and the manga (duh) is a medieval epic of warring nations, charismatic mercenary leaders, and badass swordsmen (and one swordswoman), but it ends with the infamous Eclipse Ceremony, wherein said leader sacrifices his whole mercenary band to become a god and everyone is eaten by grotesque hellish demons – except the main character, who loses one arm and one eye and has to use the other to watch his former-BFF-now-hella-enemy rape his girl until she literally goes insane.
Welcome to the Conviction Arc.
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This year’s bright and cheery series picks up where the Golden Age arc left off (*in the anime. In the manga, the Black Swordsman arc bridges the two). Protagonist Guts has left former-awesome-woman-soldier-now-witless-girlfriend Casca under the watch of the blacksmith Godo and is off to find and kill the Apostles of the evil God Hand. (Also Griffith because there’s no way a man can watch another man do that do his woman and not kill the heck out of him). Before he can accomplish this, though, he has to chop through all the evil spirits attracted by the cursed brand on his neck – and on Casca’s, once she inadvertently escapes from the safety of an enchanted cave. His search for her leads him to a refugee settlement surrounding the Tower of Conviction, where he is frequently thwarted by Mozgus, the Chief Inquisitor of the Holy See, and not really thwarted by Farnese de Vandimion of the Holy Iron Chain Knights, though she tries, bless her heart.
In case you haven’t figured it out yet, Berserk is absolutely an adult anime. There’s blood and gore galore, grotesque and disturbing situations, and thoroughly creepy character designs, though the much-needed comic relief of the fairy Puck serves to alleviate some of this.
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However, it’s also a fantastic medieval horror fantasy based upon what is possibly the best dark fantasy manga out there, and the strength of its characters and story is what keeps it from descending into torture porn.
Content aside, the first thing you should know about this Berserk series is that it seems to be made for existing Berserk fans, more so than newbies. Though the plot will make sense with minimal context, you absolutely need to have read the Golden Age arc in the manga or watched the 1997 TV series to appreciate the emotional baggage behind what goes on, especially regarding former-bro-now-evil-god Griffith, who is a likable, even admirable character in the Golden Age (until he’s not), and Casca, who is one of the best female characters in anime (until she loses her mind). I leave the movies out because, though they cover the same material, and though they’re entertaining, they aren’t so good at establishing the necessary emotional connections.
Once you know what you’re starting, you’re in for a pretty solid series. The pacing is good, and though some features of the story are exaggerated – pretty much every scene with Guts and that person-sized metal bludgeon he calls a sword; Mozgus; the horror elements in general – the story itself stays grounded with relatable side characters, in particular a group of prostitutes who take in the lost Casca:
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Luca is a motherly figure who just wants to keep her girls safe; Nina is well-meaning but also abundantly terrified by their situation, enough that she frequently flip-flops between loyalty to her friends and a sense of sheer panicked self-preservation (so, the most realistic character in this series). Outside of that group, Farnese is a flagellant who punishes herself for not living up to her position as leader of the Holy Iron Chain Knights, even as she struggles with the perceived rightness of the Holy See’s actions; and Jerome is a soldier who’s just tired of this sh*t but can’t say anything because really who’s going to challenge this guy?
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Still, if there weren’t characters like Guts to make this face back at Mozgus every once in a while, Berserk wouldn’t have a story – just pages and pages of carnage:

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Arguably, Guts is the weakest character in terms of development. He literally has about three expressions, which are angry, Resting Badass Face, and the iconic Berserk Grin above. It’s not that he isn’t a complex character. He is. It’s just that all his development happened in the previous arc, and with that out of the way – not to mention all the trauma he met at the hands of Griffith – all his personality has room to do is care for Casca and kill demons.
Likewise, the series’ antagonist is not very complex, either. Mozgus thinks he’s a good guy but he also keeps a lavish, bloody torture chamber and carries portable breaking wheels on his carriage in case he has to whip them out on the road. (You never know when you’ll have to do an impromptu holy scourging!) There are moments where he seems merciful, but nah, it’s a trap.
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Nothing in this series is good without 1) being a trap or 2) dying fast.
So far so good, but if anything in this series has been a point of contention for fans, it’s the animation. The movies’ blend of 2D and cel-shaded 3D was controversial when they released, and this series’ blend was no less so, largely because Berserk has a rough art style that suits its content, and you can’t achieve the same effect with CG (or at least the movies didn’t). Though the CG in the movies wasn’t necessarily bad, it was still robotic and clean enough to be distracting.

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An example of said animation. Also of how to end up hecka dead when dealing with Casca. #protip

This is still true of the 2016 series. However, it’s not quite as bad here, the reasons being that the series does a vastly better job of capturing the roughness of the manga’s art, and also that most of the series is CG, as opposed to the movies, which were roughly equal parts both. In fact, in this case, the hand drawn parts are the ones that stand out as inconsistent and strange.
Could the animation have been better? Yes. I’d have loved to see a fully hand-drawn Berserk series rendered with today’s animation technology. But given the complexity of the armor designs and the comparatively narrower audience to which a series as mature as Berserk appeals, hand drawn – i.e. more expensive – animation would likely not have been an economical choice.
Plus, the animation in the original Berserk anime was awful and it still made fans of us.
berserkfight
At this point we anime fans have just grown spoiled on a glut of really awesome animation, and frankly I’m so glad that the series even exists that the animation is only a minor bummer for me.
All in all, this year’s Berserk series is worthy of fans’ anticipation. If you can get past the animation (for fans), know the preceding story, and if you can stomach all the grotesquerie (for new watchers), it’s twelve episodes of time well spent.
***
Note: Holo Writing is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program and, as such, may earn a small commission from any product purchased through an affiliate link on this blog.

Filed Under: Reviews Tagged With: Anime, Anime Review, Berserk, Review

Pokemon Go: Halloween Event – Game Review

November 3, 2016 by hpholo Leave a Comment

I’ve been a Pokemon Go player since day one, but when I first learned of this past weekend’s Halloween event, I was only cautiously excited. After all, for everything Pokemon Go does right, there are ten other features that amount to “could have been awesome but were ruined by stupid problems.”
It was a pleasant surprise, then, when the event turned out to be a rousing amount of fun – with very few problems to speak of! 😀
pogo-halloween
For the uninitiated, Pokemon Go’s Halloween event ran from Wednesday, October 26th through Monday, November 1st.
During it, players could earn twice as much candy for basically everything – catching Pokemon (which earned 6 candies vs. the normal 3), trading Pokemon (2 vs. 1), hatching eggs (variable numbers depending upon the egg distance), etc.
Buddy Pokemon also yielded candy 4x faster than usual, with 1km buddies finding candy at .25km, 3km at .75km, and 5km at 1.25km.
And of course, select Pokemon fitting the Halloween theme appeared in greater numbers.
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Oddly, though I imagine the increased Pokemon sightings were meant to be the big draw for the event, they were the least exciting part for me. Plus, I’m not sure why anyone at Niantic looked at Pokemon Go and said, “You know what this game needs? MORE ZUBATS.” 😐 Frankly, it’s not like any of the Pokemon featured were especially rare to begin with, but I went from having one wimpy Gastly and Meowth before the event to a whole army of Haunters and Persians during, so I can’t complain too much.
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The real success of the Pokemon offerings was not in the Pokemon featured, but the sheer number of sightings in general. In my neighborhood and favorite haunts (pun intended), I’m lucky to occasionally see a Pidgey. Heck, it is exciting to see a Pidgey. But for those few days, all those areas had Meowths and Drowzees and Cubones and Gastlies galore, such that I was actually able to play without making a special trip, which is what I usually have to do (a perk of being your own boss: scheduling dedicated Pokemon Go days). That said, thanks, Niantic, for making your game playable in suburbia, if only for a week.
As fun as that was, though, the best part of the event was its candy-related perks.
pogo-candy
Due to the aforementioned suburban lack of Pokemon, I use Pokemon Go as a glorified walking app, more than a game:
Each day I assign myself an egg or a certain number of candies and walk the distance necessary to hatch/find them. I’ve really enjoyed the introduction of the Buddy Pokemon system because it tricks me into walking more. After I hatch a 2km egg, I’ll usually see that I have 1km left to go on a Buddy candy; so I start a new egg, find a candy, see that I now have 1km on my new egg, etc… It is a vicious cycle that has resulted in some sweet leg muscles. Anyway, given the way Pokemon Go updates distances (in .2km-ish chunks rather than by step), the diminished distances introduced in this event led to A LOT of “Oh, just .1km to go” loops and resultant candies. Hooray for app-assisted health!
The candy perks had high strategic value, too (if the word “strategy” can be applied to a game like Pokemon Go). Prior to the Halloween event, I had several uncommon Pokemon that were within 10 or so candies of evolution – not a huge number, but no small amount of walking, either, given that most were egg-hatched Pokemon not common in my geographic area (and that I thus couldn’t evolve with candy from wild Pokemon). After a Halloween of plugging those Pokemon into the Buddy system, though, I evolved nearly all of them on walking alone! Combine those with all the Meowths and Zubats and Cubones and Gastlies (SO MANY GASTLIES) that I was able to evolve from catches, and this event made for an XPpalooza!

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SOOOOOOO MANY GASTLIES.

I can almost literally say that there was nothing wrong with this event.
Almost. It wouldn’t be Pokemon Go without a random problem.
Early in the week, I encountered a glitch that kept my distances walked from updating, but that was fixed within a day with a quick patch. More significantly, one of Pokemon Go’s new features/issues is that it dampens the sounds of programs running in the background of a device. Which, I guess, is cool if you need the extra quiet to concentrate on flicking Pokeballs at cute little monsters. Not so much if you want to listen to music while you play – or, as I do, listen to audiobooks while you walk. With Pokemon Go’s new sound settings, I have to turn my iPhone’s volume all the way up to even begin to hear my book. (I don’t run with headphones in for safety reasons, so the book has to compete with environmental noise.) It’s not a problem worthy of nerdrage, but it would be nice to have the option to turn it off.
But really, that was the biggest problem I had with this event. Overall, though Pokemon Go’s persistent general problems have gone unaddressed (WHERE IS TRACKING? TRADING? BATTLING YOUR FRIENDS?), the Halloween event was a huge step in the right direction, and I look forward to seeing what other seasonal events Niantic has up its sleeve.

Filed Under: Reviews Tagged With: App Review, Game Review, Halloween, Pokemon, Pokemon Go, Review

The Story of Owen – Book Review

December 29, 2015 by hpholo Leave a Comment

In an alternate version of the present day, the world has a dragon problem. Dragons are drawn to the carbon emitted by burning fuel, which means that wherever there’s a fire, a car, or any sort of industry, a dragon will come looking to feast. Fortunately, for as long as there have been dragons, there has been a proud tradition of dragon slayers.
These days, most dragon slayers work in cities, contracted by governments and corporations to protect the considerable interests in these carbon-heavy environments. This is awesome for people who live in cities (least of all because it results in cool, if ill-advised, iPhone videos. And, you know, safety from dragons).  People in the country don’t have it so easy.
This is why it’s “like freaking Mardi Gras” when injury brings Lottie Thorskard to her rural hometown of Trondheim. She’s the most famous dragon slayer of her day, and brings with her a fellow dragon-slayer brother and her sixteen-year-old nephew, Owen. Wimpy and bad at algebra and English, Owen is like many teenage boys, except for one big difference. When he’s not being tutored, he’s training to fight the dragons of rural Canada, and his tutor-turned-bard, Siobhan McQuaid, is ready to sing him into legend.
owencoverE. K. Johnston’s The Story of Owen: Dragon Slayer of Trondheim has Starred Reviews galore and won a Morris Award this year, so it has a lot going for it. However, despite its impressive pedigree, my reactions to it were mixed. Ultimately, I liked the idea of the novel more than I liked its execution. When it was at its best, though, I enjoyed it quite a lot.
Contrary to its title, The Story of Owen is less the story of Owen, more the-story-of-a-quirky-speculative-version-of-a-dragon-ravaged-world-but-mostly-rural-Canada. It’s obvious that Johnston had a lot of fun working dragons into the history of our world, as every other chapter takes a break from the story to pour new tidbits upon the reader. Take this excerpt, outlining one of the story’s conflicts, as an example:

Most postmodernists blame the decline of the dracono-bardic tradition on the sudden and soaring popularity of the Beatles. The Lads from Liverpool were exactly that: four guys with accents who sang about love and truth, who never once mentioned a dragon slayer. The world split around them. There were many who loved the simplicity of the music, the harmonies and the earnest quality of the lyrics. And there were many who were afraid of the example they were setting.
For the first time since Shakespeare…the English-speaking world was confronted by a cultural phenomenon that was insanely popular and entirely bereft of danger. An entire generation of young people…threw themselves at the Beatles, much to the concern of their elders, who worried about the effect listening to the Beatles’ music might incur.

Note all the ellipses. Then imagine another sentence or two in their places. This to say, for patient readers who enjoy intensely detailed world-building, The Story of Owen is a delightful read. All this world-building, though, presents a big hurdle to less patient readers; Johnston often builds her world at the expense of everything else in the story. Truly, the world is more of a character than the actual characters, and readers have to take in a lot of fictional history before they can begin to process the significance of what the characters are up to.
And for me, though the characters were interesting, they weren’t nearly as interesting as the world in which they live. For people who live in a world consumed by dragons, they’re all astonishingly normal. Here’s where my opinions become extremely mixed. On the one hand, it was cool to read that normalcy. In this world, dragons are just another problem occurring in nature, like tornadoes or bears wandering into the neighborhood. People have plans for how to handle them. This chillness in the face of scaly, fiery death is amusing at first; the downside is that it becomes a little boring to read about after a while. Also, whatever tension is created when Owen actually fights a dragon is often counteracted by the way Siobhan tells the stories, beginning by narrating the version that she told the media (which is heroic), and then telling readers what actually happened (which, while still heroic, is less climactic). The climax itself, too, runs so smoothly and with such little threat to the lives of the defended population that there’s not much tension even there. The characters are simply too competent! (However, this does render a tragic twist at the end that much more unexpected.)
All this said, though I was comparatively indifferent to the characters, and though I found the pacing a bit janky, the world was interesting enough that I plowed to the end of the novel on the momentum of it alone. Most of the other things that I enjoyed about the novel are subtler. You wouldn’t know it from the cover, but Owen is biracial—Venezuelan-Canadian—and a significant lesbian relationship within his family is classily handled. Also, Siobhan is intensely thoughtful about music in the way that only an enthusiastic teenager can be; though it reads awkwardly at times—as when she describes her emotions in terms of the instruments that would play them—it’s not unrealistic for a creative teenage narrator.
It also makes her a much more convincing bard. Character-wise, the novel is the Story of Siobhan learning to become a bard even more than it is the Story of Owen learning to slay dragons! The novel is even (loosely) structured in a way that harkens back to the oral traditions that conveyed Beowulf and monster-fighting epics like it, which was a neat touch, even if we never actually see any of Siobhan’s compositions.
The Story of Owen, then, is an ambitious novel. Sometimes it falters under the weight of its own ambitions. Still, overall it’s a noble and amusing effort. It’s not for everyone, but readers who have the patience to give it a chance will find it rewarding.
***
Note: Holo Writing is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program and, as such, may earn a small commission from any product purchased through an affiliate link on this blog.

Filed Under: Reviews Tagged With: Book Review, Dragons, E. K. Johnston, Fantasy, Review, The Story of Owen

Princess Knight, Part I – Graphic Novel Review

December 27, 2015 by hpholo Leave a Comment

Before God sends children down from Heaven, he gives them hearts. A child who swallows a blue heart will be a “brave boy,” while a child who swallows a red heart will be a “graceful girl.” However, when the mischievous angel Tink decides to play a trick, a child destined to be a girl ends up with both, and she’s on her way to being born before God can stop it. God thus curses Tink to life on Earth as a human; the only way for Tink to become an angel again is to reclaim the girl’s boy heart.
This task is not as easy as it seems, for the girl has just been born to the royal family of Silverland. This family needs a boy to continue the royal line, or else risk being usurped by the evil Duke Duralumin. The king and queen thus decide to keep her true gender secret, raising her as Prince Sapphire to protect their crown. Thus begins a fast-paced tale of adventure, mistaken genders, and the hijinks that ensue.
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I usually don’t enjoy gender-bender manga, as the gender-bending aspect is often played for silly humor, but Osamu Tezuka’s Princess Knight, Part I is a rare exception. It reads like a twist on even modern fairy tales, where the princess is both damsel in distress and literally her own prince, and where her ever-changing gender is a source of legitimate drama, rather than an amusing plot point.
This permeates nearly every conflict she faces. Most prominently, the constant threat of Duralumin finding out that she’s not really a prince looms heavily, not only because of what it means for her but what it could mean for the kingdom. This conflict affects her in even small, if convoluted ways, too. At one point, a prince of a neighboring kingdom falls in love with her female “disguise,” only to pledge to kill Prince Sapphire in a later (unrelated) plot twist, not realizing that he and “the flaxen-haired maiden” are one and the same. (Talk about a complicated relationship!)
Despite the gendered nature of its plot, though, the novel is surprisingly unconcerned with gender roles or politics (at least, beyond the basic OMG A GIRL CAN’T RULE A KINGDOM LET’s PANIC ABOUT THAT trope).  The closest it comes to commenting on such topics is in a scene where Sapphire briefly loses her boy heart and thus, with only the girl heart remaining, becomes weak. At first the scene inspires an “UGH of course she would become all faint and pansylike without her boy heart,” but upon rereading, it also begs the question, “Is it better to have the associated qualities of only one gender? Or is it better to have a combination of both?” Though it’s a small scene and a simple question, it’s thematically very relevant, and the whole book is a positive answer to this question.
Refreshingly, it’s also not loudly self-aware of its theme, like many Strong Female Character books can be. More than anything, the novel is concerned with taking readers on an adventuresome romp through a fairy-tale-inspired fantasy land, rather than offering any commentary at all. And romp it does! Sapphire teams up with pirates, fights evil witches, swordfights through pretty much everything, and never once stops being anything but a swashbuckling hero/heroine (even though she occasionally does stop to cry over stuff). At 346 pages, it’s a pretty good size for a graphic novel, and yet I was still surprised by how much action was packed into it.
Because of its structure, Princess Knight is bound to appeal to both male and female readers who like this kind of story. There are some hurdles to jump, though, especially for readers who are accustomed to modern manga. Tezuka’s art, while iconic, may look a bit too cartoony and dated for some readers today. In fact, I’d initially avoided his work myself for that reason. Something about the art in Princess Knight, though, was absolutely charming to me, perhaps because it matched the storybook flair of the setting so well. It should also be noted that the art is printed very cleanly, and though the style is simplistic, many of the panels are quite pretty to look at. Another hurdle is the themed naming of the bad guys—Duke Duralumin (a type of alloy), Lord Plastic, Lord Nylon—which doesn’t contribute anything to the story other than inexplicable goofiness. (There are plenty of other goofy elements in the story, but they’re much better handled than this.) Lord Nylon also has a lisp that is rather insensitively played for humor, but it also contributes to a significant early plot point, so it’s not like it’s there without a reason. Still, after that plot point happens, it does read a bit unkindly.
These bumps are minor compared to the delight that is the rest of the book, though. With plenty of adventure, several unexpected twists, and a fun storybook quality, Princess Knight has quickly become one of my favorites.

Filed Under: Reviews Tagged With: Book Review, Fantasy, Graphic Novel, Graphic Novel Review, Osamu Tezuka, Princess Knight, Review

The Rites and Wrongs of Janice Wills – Book Review

December 27, 2015 by hpholo 1 Comment

I picked up Joanna Pearson’s The Rites and Wrongs of Janice Wills because the audiobook is short, but also because it met my “Read a not-fantasy every now and then” goal. In it, Janice Wills is a high school junior in rural Melva, North Carolina who looks forward to getting out so she can study anthropology. Until then, though, all she has to look forward to is the whirlwind of culture that is the Livermush Festival, fend off her mom’s determination to enter her in the Miss Livermush pageant, and generally survive the perils of high school.
ritescoverThe Rites and Wrongs of Janice Wills is cute, light, and uniquely suited to small town academic teen readers who feel smarter than the world around them. Beyond that, it’s a pretty standard coming-of-age-in-high-school story, complete with mean girls, parties, friend troubles, first loves, disagreements with parents, and a climactic dance. However, the execution makes it stand out a little further than other novels of its type.
The book’s most unique detail—and what attracted me to it in the first place—is the anthropological lens through which Janice views her world. After all, how many books feature teen anthropologists? In North Carolina? Janice makes life in Melva tolerable by viewing it like a research project on a strange, unique culture. Sometimes the book pushes this interest a little too hard, but just when it becomes annoying, the book turns it from a teenage quirk into a legitimate piece of character development. Janice loves anthropology for what it is, sure, but she also uses her place as an “anthropological observer” to stay on the sidelines and make snarky comments (i.e. “truthful observations”) about her surroundings. For the first half of the book, she’s a queen of wallflower wit, but twists in the second half lead her to discover that her friends sometimes find her observations condescending, overly critical, and even mean, which was not how she perceived herself at all. She also discovers that, because she has only observed the world around her, rather than interacting with it, she has missed out on many important details that end up coloring Melva and its people a little more positively. I hadn’t expected that type of character development out of this type of book, and its presence was refreshing, even meaningful.
It was also neat to read about a self-professed geek who, though geeky, doesn’t understand the appeal of standard geek fare like Dungeons & Dragons and Cheetos. It’s not often that one reads about geeks who tend toward the semi-normal side of the teenage social spectrum, so that was a welcome surprise.
Speaking of positivity, said positivity was another element of this novel that I quite enjoyed. The book does have its dramatic spots—the school’s queen bee is a genuine queen b*tch; Janice goes to a party, has a few beers, and stuff almost happens —but overall it’s a very heartening book to read. Most of the relationships in the book are positive, if occasionally-challenged ones, and most of the interpersonal conflicts introduced have meaningful resolutions. Most notable is Janice’s relationship with her mother, which becomes a significant and amusing part of the climax, and the love triangle—well, like triangle—well, complicated maybe-like triangle between Janice and an old childhood friend and the school’s cool, depressed loner boy who doesn’t know she exists, was thoughtfully-executed. Some coarse language keeps it from being a truly clean read, but that combined with Janice’s story of self-realization (and resultant confidence) makes it a good read for any geeky teen girl facing similar conflicts.
Overall, The Rites and Wrongs of Janice Wills is not a must-read. However, its positive elements definitely move it up the maybe-read list, especially for teen girls who can relate to its main character’s quirks.

Filed Under: Reviews, Uncategorized Tagged With: Book Review, Fiction, Joanna Pearson, Review, The Rites and Wrongs of Janice Wills

Eyes Like Stars – Book Review

December 23, 2015 by hpholo 1 Comment

eyeslikestarscoverBeatrice Shakespeare Smith is in trouble. She’s always been notorious for the mischief she creates around the Theatre Illuminata, but after an incident involving a cannon, the destruction of several set pieces, and a spectacular fire, she finds herself stuck with two options—make herself useful, or leave the Theatre forever. Bertie isn’t like other members of the Theatre Illuminata. Everyone else has a defined purpose—They are all characters in famous plays, and without them at the Theatre, the plays cannot be enacted. Bertie was a foundling, with no written purpose, and for her, leaving the Theatre means leaving the only home she’s ever known. She decides, then, to give herself a purpose by restaging Shakespeare’s famous Hamlet, setting it in Egypt rather than Denmark. Her efforts begin roughly. Further complicating her problem is a plot surrounding The Complete Works of the Stage, otherwise known as The Book, a magical tome containing every play ever written, and the force that holds the Theatre Illuminata together. Without its influence, the characters are free to leave the Theatre, and one handsome and cunning player (and close friend) wants to escape at any cost, even if it means sending the Theatre into chaos…
Eyes Like Stars by Lisa Mantchev is a unique book. While I’ve encountered plenty of novels about the re-written or reinterpreted doings of famous literary characters, I’ve never before read one where the world was set up quite as creatively as this one. The experience of it is a bit disorienting at first—The Theatre Illuminata is not only a theatre populated by famous characters, but a theatre in which the set pieces are more wonderful than even the most imaginative set pieces in our world. Sets change themselves, as if by magic. Underwater scenes literally take place underwater. The sets themselves are also fully functional pieces of setting, rather than the mere suggestion of place that real-world sets tend to be, which means that if a character wants to take a break in a decadent Turkish bath, she only has to pull up the set piece for it, and Ta-Da! Instant luxury. Because of these elements, the Theatre Illuminata easily falls among the more interestingly established worlds in teen fantasy, and is bound to appeal particularly to theatre geeks.
The author herself had years of theatrical experience upon which to build the world in this novel, and it shows in both the details of the plot and the writing style itself. Bertie’s dealings with the various department managers—from props to scenery to wardrobe—read like fictionalized versions of actual experience, as does the energetic chaos surrounding every action requiring the cooperation of cast and crew. In clever keeping with its subject matter, the novel is also presented in both prose and script form. The switches are a little infrequent—the script format is only used early in the novel, despite there being several places later in the novel where it could have appeared—but they serve their purpose, and help to establish the theatrical setting of the story with greater clarity.
Mantchev’s personal love of theatrical literature is also apparent, as she packs a number of detailed theatrical references into the novel, mainly in the form of familiar characters. Said characters are mostly Shakespearean, which is a little bothersome, given that the Theatre is supposed to gather characters from every play ever. (A few characters, one a major character, hail from other plays, but the dominance of the Shakespearean characters makes the non-Shakespeareans feel out of place.) However, the characters are depicted well enough to compensate for this imbalance, especially Hamlet’s Ophelia and A Midsummer Night’s Dream’s fairy quartet, the latter of which, despite being minor characters in Shakespeare’s play, are amusingly written as main characters here, and through their mischief and snark are bound to become reader favorites. In further homage to the Bard, Mantchev also works in some elegant bits of wordplay. While she never goes so far as to write entire scenes in iambic pentameter, she frequently slips in little jewels of almost-poetry, which, combined with the imagination behind the setting, renders the novel an inventive read on several levels.
Unfortunately, the novel does struggle with a small, yet notable set of flaws. Its largest is that it juggles more major conflicts than it should have, and the conflict that it seems to set up as the major one—Bertie’s restaging of Hamlet—ends up falling by the wayside as trouble ensues with The Book. In fact, the Egyptian Hamlet is never actually staged in the novel, and though the play that replaces it is vastly more interesting and relevant to the narrative, the absence of Egyptian Hamlet made the novel feel incomplete. (Though I could be biased, since Hamlet is one of my favorite Shakespeare plays, and I like seeing neat interpretations of it). It also isn’t clear until the end of the story whether the Theatre Illuminata is a theatre in our world, a theatre in a fictional world, or a universe unto itself, which, though only a minor detail, was nonetheless one that I found annoyingly distracting for the first half of the book.
Still, for its flaws, the novel does have charm.  It also has sequels!  It’s a trilogy completed by Perchance to Dream and So Silver Bright, so readers who love this first book have more to look forward to!

Filed Under: Reviews Tagged With: Book Review, Eyes Like Stars, Fantasy, Lisa Mantchev, Review

Princeless, Volume 1 – Graphic Novel Review

December 21, 2015 by hpholo Leave a Comment

I came across Princeless by Jeremy Whitley and M. Goodwin at a local comic convention and didn’t have to think twice before picking it up. The cover alone promised all kick-butt girls, dragons, and adventure galore. It did not disappoint.
princelesscoverIn Volume 1, when Princess Adrienne comes of age, she’s locked in a dragon-guarded tower because that’s A Thing That Happens to Princesses. Between the boredom of waiting and the dim-witted knights who show up to rescue her, she tires of this quickly. She decides that she’s going to be her own knight and so, with the aid of her dragon pal Sparky, rescues herself and embarks on a quest to free her sisters from their own towers.
A blurb on the front of this book calls it “the story Disney should’ve been telling for the past twenty years.” It’s entirely true. Adrienne is smart; the first few pages show a younger Adrienne tearing apart the plot holes in a traditional fairy tale. She’s also resourceful, and though she admittedly has a lot to learn about adventuring, she’s a capable heroine, well worth admiring.
Granted, she is entirely the “Not the Typical Princess” trope – a trope which, given that nearly every fictional princess these days is “Not the Typical Princess,” is becoming somewhat tired. However, Princeless makes this work by surrounding her with inversions of many other medieval fantasy tropes. Most obviously, despite the European-inspired setting, nearly every character in the main cast is a person of color. Likewise, Adrienne’s prince brother, who would normally be a heroic manly man in this sort of story, is meek and hesitant to inherit the throne, to the point where his father tells him to “stop being a woman.” Instead, his strength is found in his loyalty to his family and, unbeknownst to Adrienne, he plays a small but significant role in the beginning of her adventure.
Even the adventuresome elements are somewhat inverted. While it is all rollicking and fun, Adrienne encounters several practical bumps on her way to saving her sisters, discovering that dragons are hard to ride without saddles, and that it’s hard to fight in jangly armor that isn’t fitted to one’s body type. Though I usually prefer over-the-top adventure, it’s a nice change of pace to read about an adventurer whose problems are more mundane (well, for a person who has a dragon as a friend).
The comic is not without its flaws. However, most of them are minor. For some reason, the quality of the third chapter’s art falters in comparison to the art around it. It’s never off enough to be distracting, though. A bigger problem for me was that there are points where it feels like it’s trying too hard to be a commentary on sexist fantasy tropes. One chapter (also the third, in fact) is blatantly titled “On Sexism in the Armor Industry.” As relevant as the chapter is, I found it hard to believe that the female blacksmith introduced here designed and hand-made a whole line of armor for women without once realizing how impractical battlekinis are for protection—at least until Adrienne points it out. Throw in some stereotypical piggish behavior on the part of nearly every male in the scene, and the chapter reads like it was constructed solely to make a point. Fortunately, though, its actiony bits maintain the rest of the book’s sense of fun. And even with this forced point, it never reads like a preachy political pamphlet. Ultimately it treats its messages with the same sense of fun that it does its adventure.
That said, Princeless is a must-read for those who like to read about heroines with no time for princes. Still, casual readers of fantasy, comics and non, will find much to like in it, too.

Filed Under: Reviews Tagged With: Book Review, Comic, Comic Review, Fantasy, Graphic Novel, Graphic Novel Review, Princeless, Review

Buzz – Graphic Novel Review

December 18, 2015 by hpholo 2 Comments

If you’re part of that rampant, raving crowd looking for books about illicit underground spelling bees, boy are you in luck!
buzzcoverIn Buzz! by Ananth Panagariya and Tessa Stone, Webster just wants to survive his first day of high school. But on the way, he stumbles upon a street brawl of a spelling bee and is quickly flung into a world of spelling battle royales, where spoken letters transform into explosions of force, where champion spellers must go by aliases, lest they be swamped by overzealous fans, and where the secret Spelluminati has darker plans that may involve Webster himself…
Buzz! might be the most fun piece of print material that I’ve read, ever, y’all. It takes talent to take a concept as ridiculous as this and turn it into something more than a B-grade guilty pleasure, and Panagariya and Stone, combined, are that talent.
As one would expect (or at least hope) of a story that is centered on words and wordplay, Panagariya has a blast with all the potential inherent in his topic. Some of his plays are obvious (The main character’s name is Webster. His sister is Merriam.), but the words chosen for the characters to battle-spell are often thematically relevant to the area of the story in which they appear. Beyond that, Panagariya recognizes the basic silliness of his concept, and he runs crazy with it. His story reads like a spelling-bee-turned-Hollywood-action-movie. Webster’s opponents, in particular, become increasingly outlandish in the best way as the story progresses. My favorite was The Cosmonaut, a combat-trained Russian cosmonaut who, through an accident, was left adrift in space with nothing to do but read books and play word games until he was rescued, at which point we’re treated to this delicious description:
“After a while, when he looked into the darkness, the stars themselves seemed to take on the shapes of letters. He was rescued six months later. They said you could see stars in his eyes, carrying messages only for him.”
P-O-E-T-R-Y
Stone’s artwork is a massive delight on its own. I was familiar with Stone’s work prior to this book, having followed her delightful (if incomplete) webcomic Hanna is Not a Boy’s Name. (In fact, I discovered this book when researching what exactly happened to the webcomic.) The exuberance established in Hanna continues here. Energy bursts palpably off of every page, facilitated in no small part by the coloring of the artwork. In a clever color design choice, the art is in black, white, and selective uses of golden-yellow—perhaps a visual pun on the “bee” in “spelling bee?” Relatedly, her illustrations of the bees themselves are giddily wonderful to look at. Letters spring dynamically off the page in the early battles, or are illustrated in ways reflective of their word’s meaning. Later battles are illustrated with fun absurdity matching Panagariya’s writing. Especially adept spellers can manipulate the words they spell to have physical effects on their targets, or speak letters into existence for use as weapons, and Stone has as much fun with this as Panagariya does with his plot.
Granted, for all its goodness, it does take a certain sense of humor to appreciate this book. If you see “spectacular spelling battle royale” and instantly think “omg that is so stupid,” you’re definitely not the audience for it. But if you have just enough curiosity to pick it up and flip through it, that’s all you need. After that, you’ll be H-O-O-K-E-D.
***
Note: Holo Writing is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program and, as such, may earn a small commission from any product purchased through an affiliate link on this blog.

Filed Under: Reviews Tagged With: Book Review, Graphic Novel, Review, spelling bee

Hordes Exigence Review: Legion of Everblight

November 21, 2014 by holojacob 2 Comments

Hordes Exigence Rulebook Cover
IN SHORT: Hordes Exigence is here, so let’s take a look. As with previous releases, every Hordes army receives a host of new toys, this time throwing out powerful character warbeasts, lesser warlocks, and two of the new warbeast packs. Like all Privateer Press releases, the book is printed in full color with page after page of impressive new artwork.
So, let’s take a look at the new Legion of Everblight models.
ABSYLONIA, DAUGHTER OF EVERBLIGHT: Absylonia comes with plenty of ways to enhance Legion’s powerful arsenal of warbeasts. First, her warbeasts can charge or make power attacks without being forced. Second, if Absylonia kills something, those warbeasts get +2 SPD and +2 MAT. Third, her feat hands out +2 STR, Flight, and Reach to her battlegroup. Fourth, she can heal her entire battlegroup for d3+1 damage points at a cost of 2 Fury. That’s enough to guarantee every warbeast has every aspect active. Fifth, she can hand out Return Fire at 1 Fury per cast to allow her warbeasts to … return fire. Sixth, she can Fortify a model in her battlegroup with +2 ARM.
Oh yeah, Absylonia comes stocked with ways to make warbeasts an absolutely terror. She can also Teleport up to 8” away, which allows her to be played more aggressively, moving forward to get a kill in, then teleporting out of danger. She is an incredibly focused warlock, with basically nothing to give supporting infantry. But with a list of enhancements like the one above, why waste points on infantry?
BLIGHT WASPS: I tried. Honestly, I tried to figure out what these guys are good for. Blight Wasps are one of the two new warbeast packs, so they should be exciting, right? Well, not so much.
I mean, they’re not bad. I’m sure skilled players can put them to good use. They’re just underwhelming. There’s no wow factor here. Plus the Hunting Pack rule and Overwhelm animus don’t seem to mesh. Hunting Pack makes them a threat when they work together as a group, but Overwhelm can easily have them swinging bonus attacks at MAT 5 and P+S 8. Not exactly scary stuff here.
Meh.
NERAPH: This flying warbeast is fairly scrawny for a heavy warbeast and is instead geared to taking down high DEF enemies. A single hit with its Grasping Tail means every following attack automatically hits. After that, just keep headbutting the enemy with a P+S 16 Hammerhead. Plenty of light warjacks and warbeasts have very impressive DEF stats, but suffer with low ARM. The Neraph is an excellent counter to those models, and a flurry of P+S 16 attacks can certainly do work on tougher opponents.
ZURIEL: With a solid stat line, Flight, two P+S 16 daggers, and two spray attacks that set targets on fire, Zuriel means business! His Chain Attack allows him to get in a free spray if both his initial attacks hit the same target, and his animus is powerful when used right.
Predator’s Instinct is SELF only and costs 1 Fury. It gives Zuriel an additional die to all attacks against warrior models (excluding warlocks and warcasters). This allows Zuriel to tear through enemy infantry with ease using both spray attacks (RAT 5 with a bonus attack die should not be underestimated), but can also be used by numerous warlocks to great effect.
Given his affinities (Rhyas and Saeryn), he fits in well with both of them. He gets Stealth when with Rhyas and can channel spells for Saeryn.  But by no means do I think he should be restricted to their lists. Just imagine putting Predator’s Instinct on the Lylyth’s bow or Thagrosh’s spray attacks, just to name a few possibilities. Yeah, I think those combos would create quite the mess.
STRIDER BLIGHTBLADES: An ambushing unit for Legion? Apparently so!
The Strider Blightblades look pretty straightforward. Ambush allows them to enter the battle from the table side edges. They have high DEF and Stealth to help them survive long enough to actually do something, and they have Combined Melee Attack and two attacks each to give them some extra hitting power.
Like other ambushing units, you pay for that ability and suffer elsewhere in the unit’s capabilities. These blighted killers cost a point a model, so your mileage may vary.
FYANNA THE LASH: Okay, I have to admit something here. I really do like seeing models with varying attack types. I enjoy having that level of flexibility built right into the model’s rules, and Fyanna can execute three different attack types. She can beat enemies back 1” at a time, gain additional damage dies against warbeasts, or throw enemy models around. With Chain Strike and SPD 7, she has 14” threat range and can attack twice a turn. To keep her safe, she can Prowl in terrain to gain Stealth, is immune to free strikes, and gets a free 2” move when shots miss her.
That all pretty awesome. But is she 3 points worth of awesome? With only 12 ARM and 5 damage boxes? Umm … maybe?
SUMMARY: Privateer Press introduces another set of new models that bring fresh possibilities to each faction. Less warlocks and warbeast packs may not be as exciting as gargantuans, but there are still plenty of fun releases in this book.
Check out the complete list of Warmachine and Hordes articles here.

Filed Under: Hordes Tagged With: Exigence, Fantasy, Legion, Privateer Press, Review, Steampunk, Tabletop Games

Hordes Exigence Review: Skorne

November 20, 2014 by holojacob 2 Comments

Hordes Exigence Rulebook Cover
IN SHORT: Hordes Exigence is here, so let’s take a look. As with previous releases, every Hordes army receives a host of new toys, this time throwing out powerful character warbeasts, lesser warlocks, and two of the new warbeast packs. Like all Privateer Press releases, the book is printed in full color with page after page of impressive new artwork.
So, let’s take a look at the new Skorne models.
XERXIS, FURY OF HALAAK: Here comes Xerxis, back for more and riding a … rhinoceros … sort of thing. Whatever it is, it looks impressive.
Xerxis himself is fast and hard hitting. With SPD 7, MAT 8, and a P+S 15 weapon, Xerxis is hitting like a ton of bricks even before his special rules kick in. Add in cavalry charge rules, Brutal Charge, Ignite, then Mobility, and suddenly you have a 14”threat range with the first attack slamming home with effective MAT 10, P+S 19. That, I think, will leave a mark.
As a cavalry battle engine warlock, he comes with a long list of built in rules, some good, some not. His huge base is his main liability. Solid defensive stats help there, and he has access to the Basilisk Krea’s animus if more protection from shooting is required. In fact, the Krea’s animus goes very well with Xerxis regardless. Not only does it give him an extra +2 to DEF and ARM against shooting, but it also drops enemy DEF by -2 if they’re within 2” of him. Remember that huge base? Yeah, that’s a lot of tabletop he’s covering with that aura.
Oh, and Xerxis gets to cast an animus spell for free once per turn thanks to his Warbeast Bond with a warbeast in his battlegroup. Plenty of applications for this beyond the Krea too.
Xerxis is also a very warbeast-friendly warlock, despite his low Fury of 5. Mobility gives +2 SPD and Pathfinder to his entire battlegroup and his feat turns the entire tabletop into his control area, allowing warbeasts to be forced far afield if necessary while giving them an additional die for attack and damage rolls (dropping a die of the player’s choice).
Xerxis is a fairly straightforward caster, but he definitely looks fun to play. Who doesn’t like a speeding horde of Skorne titans led by someone riding a rhinoceros?
SCARAB PACK: Now here’s one of the two new warbeast packs, and an interesting one at that.
Scarabs have low base stats, but they also have a lot of rules and features that help them perform beyond their raw numbers. For example, they come with poor DEF and ARM stats, but also have a lot of hit boxes to soak up damage as well as the ability to Dig In for cover and eat enemy models for health. Same with their MAT and P+S. Not very impressive, but they have built-in ways to enhance them.
Also, with the number of attacks the pack can put out (along with buying additional attacks or boosting attack rolls), that Critical Paralysis becomes a lot more likely to land. All in all, a very interesting addition to Skorne, and definitely one I think is worth trying out.
ARADUS SOLDIER: With SPD 3, the Aradus Soldier is slow. However, a combination of Advanced Deploy and Reach give it surprising threat potential early in the game, and P+S 18 on its Mandibles is no joke. That’s even higher than a Bronzeback, and can easily be pushed up to P+S 20 with beast handlers. After all, this is Skorne we’re talking about.
The Mandibles don’t have Reach, but the attacks that do come with Pull to suck enemies in for those Mandibles. Also, good luck killing this guy with shooting. Its Carapace rule takes its base ARM of 19 and turns it into 23 against ranged attacks and free strikes.
A fairly interesting setup here. It has more of a defensive feel to it than other Skorne heavies. Once it gets somewhere, it’s going to be a pain to shift. Though, you still have to get it there.
ARADUS SENTINEL: Similar to the Aradus Soldier, the Aradus Sentinel has the same low speed, Carapace rule, and Advanced Deployment. What the Sentinel brings on top of this is a powerful AOE attack with Poison! And given its Carapace rule, it’s difficult to tie up. It can back away from being engaged, take its lumps with ARM 23, and keep firing. The Poison rule on its ranged attack makes it particularly effective against other Hordes armies.
By the way, this guy goes great with a Mortitheurge Willbreaker. Two Poison AOEs per turn? Yes please!
PRAETORIAN KELTARII: Here’s another flavor of Praetorians for Skorne, this one with some solid defensive rules. Blade Shield gives them +2 DEF against ranged attacks, bumping them up to a very respectable DEF 15 ARM 14 when shot at. Parry makes them immune to free strikes, and Reform gives them a free 3” advance at the end of the unit’s actions.
Throw in Combined Melee Attack for some harder hitting when needed, and you have a solid block of infantry that can easily rush in and jam up the enemy’s ranks or help screen friendly force. Overall, a nice new unit.
TYRANT ZAADESH: So here’s Skorne’s lesser warlock and immediately something is different. Unlike the other factions, Zaadesh has no restriction on what he can include in his battlegroup. He comes with a decent defensive ability in Protective Battlegroup (letting a warbeast he controls take a ranged or magic shot for him), and he enhances his battlegroup with Tag Team.
When active, Tag Team gives his battlegroup +2 melee attack and damage as long as the target is engaged by another member of the battlegroup. Zaadesh’s abilities mesh well because Protective Battlegroup and Tag Team both keep his warbeasts close. And it doesn’t take much to turn him into a nasty killing machine. With his warbeast(s) nearby, Zaadesh can hit at MAT 8, P+S 14 repeatedly until his Fury runs dry.
He can also be used as an animus battery, dishing out multiple copies of Sprint from an Archidon, just as an example. Or Rush from a Gladiator. Or … well, I think you get the point.
But yeah, I like this little tyrant.
SUMMARY: Privateer Press introduces another set of new models that bring fresh possibilities to each faction. Less warlocks and warbeast packs may not be as exciting as gargantuans, but there are still plenty of fun releases in this book.
Check out the complete list of Warmachine and Hordes articles here.

Filed Under: Hordes Tagged With: Exigence, Fantasy, Privateer Press, Review, Skorne, Steampunk, Tabletop Games

Hordes Exigence Review: Circle of Orboros

November 19, 2014 by holojacob Leave a Comment

Hordes Exigence Rulebook Cover
IN SHORT: Hordes Exigence is here, so let’s take a look. As with previous releases, every Hordes army receives a host of new toys, this time throwing out powerful character warbeasts, lesser warlocks, and two of the new warbeast packs. Like all Privateer Press releases, the book is printed in full color with page after page of impressive new artwork.
So, let’s take a look at the new Circle of Orboros models.
BRADIGUS THORLE THE RUNECARVER: Bradigus is a dedicated Construct warlock through and through, and boy does he bring the tools to get it done. First, all of his warbeasts (which must be Constructs) get a 1 Fury discount on their animus casting. Second, he can repair said Warbeasts d6 damage points with a skill check.
Synergize goes great with a healthy number of Woldwatchers, and allowing them to quickly boost melee attack and damage for the rest of the battlegroup. Rift gives Woldwardens an impressive 4” AOE spell to chuck out en masse.  The spell even leaves rough terrain behind as an added insult. And speaking of insult, this guy can shut down enemy casting, channeling, and upkeeping within 5” of his whole battlegroup. Ouch!
Now, Bradigus is on a large base and his defensive stats aren’t particularly stellar. However, this is a manageable problem. Between Woldwatchers soaking up hits for him and/or Bradigus using a Wold Guardian’s animus to reduce ranged damage, Circle players have the tools to keep him safe at range.
The biggest downside I see (more about the hobby than the gameplay) is that Bradigus doesn’t synergize well with the Woldwrath. Given what an awesome centerpiece model the gargantuan is, it’s a little sad to see how poor a fit it is for Circle’s new dedicated Construct warlock.
ARGUS MOONHOUND: Want to field a Circle army with lots of shooting? Well, here’s the warbeast for you! First, the Argus Moonhound can Mark Targets, granting other Circle models +2 to ranged attack rolls against enemies within 5” of him. He can also perform a special action that strips Camouflage and Stealth from those same nearby enemies. It’s a perfect one-two punch prepping the enemy for a rain of incoming fire.
With Pathfinder and SPD 7, the Argus Moonhound can easily reach those targets and get them ready for the incoming fusillade. All this for only 4 points? Not bad at all.
ROTTERHORN GRIFFON: Here’s another 4-point light warbeast, but one with wings and a more offensive tilt to it. The Rotterhorn Griffon’s most notable feature is its Shrill Shriek special action. This hits all models (friend or foe) within 2” of it with POW 8.
Okay, so it’s just POW 8. But, it auto-hits and it can potentially affect a large number of clumped up models. With average damage rolls, the Rotterhorn can take out ARM 14 models half the time. This guy is tailored for eliminating high DEF models, and most of those won’t have much armor.
BRENNOS THE ELDERHORN: Brennos is not meant to go toe-to-toe with enemy heavies. With low health, ARM, and really bad DEF for a Circle non-Construct heavy, he’ll get torn to pieces by pretty much any enemy heavy in the game. But that’s not why you’d take him. Instead, he’s meant to hang back and support the rest of the army, with the epic version of Morvahna being the clear favorite given his affinity for her.
Brennos can heal Morvahna when he kills something (preferably with his ranged attack!) or when he takes damage. Given how much of a yo-yo Morvahna the Dawnshadow’s health can be, these extra damage points can be a big deal.
With his 1-Fury animus, this character satyr can reduce the cost of friend warbeast animus casting by 1 Fury, as long as they’re within his 8” command range. Not bad. He can also cast those same animus spells himself. Sacred Ward helps keep him safe at range, and his ranged attack comes with d3” knockback and a critical knockdown.
All in all, Brennos brings some interesting tools for Morvahna’s game. Just make sure he doesn’t get obliterated before he can use them.
THE DEATH WOLVES: The main currency of this 3-model character unit is corpse tokens. They each start with one, gain one when they kill a living enemy model, and can spend those tokens for boosts, extra attacks, or to reduce incoming damage to 1 point. They also grant each other Overtake (for their PacMan impersonations), Prowl (to help keep them safe), and Gang (for some extra hitting power when they need it).
They’re a character unit that can absolutely mulch through living light infantry. Not exactly the most exciting of jobs. There’s plenty out there that can grind through living light infantry, but the Death Wolves do what they do very well.
UNA THE FALCONER: Una is a lesser warlock who likes griffons. Really, really likes griffons. In fact, if it can’t fly, she can’t take it. But if it can, she gets it for a 1-point discount (3-point Rotterhorns, anyone?).
That said, she doesn’t really bring much to the table to enhance those griffons. She also doesn’t come with much in the way of defensive abilities. Bird’s Eye allows her to see everything in her control area, so hiding her behind terrain doesn’t hinder her. With those two facts, I’m thinking Una and a single griffon (maybe two) is probably the best route to take.
With RAT 6, three boostable birds of prey to “fire” at the enemy, and clear line of sight within her (admittedly small) control area, she can provide some decent ranged support. And with Black Penny, she can fire into melee without penalty. Nothing too special, but not bad either.
SUMMARY: Privateer Press introduces another set of new models that bring fresh possibilities to each faction. Less warlocks and warbeast packs may not be as exciting as gargantuans, but there are still plenty of fun releases in this book.
Check out the complete list of Warmachine and Hordes articles here.

Filed Under: Hordes Tagged With: Circle, Exigence, Fantasy, Privateer Press, Review, Steampunk, Tabletop Games

Hordes Exigence Review: Trollbloods

November 18, 2014 by holojacob Leave a Comment

Hordes Exigence Rulebook Cover
IN SHORT: Hordes Exigence is here, so let’s take a look. As with previous releases, every Hordes army receives a host of new toys, this time throwing out powerful character warbeasts, lesser warlocks, and two of the new warbeast packs. Like all Privateer Press releases, the book is printed in full color with page after page of impressive new artwork.
So, let’s take a look at the new Trollblood models.
BORKA, VENGEANCE OF THE RIMSHAWS: Borka is back and he’s riding a bear! With solid offensive and defensive stats, Borka is all about getting in your opponent’s face and then pounding said face. His large base does bring the usual vulnerabilities, and his Fury stat is low, so he certainly isn’t without weaknesses. But what he really brings is ways to penalize an opponent’s aggression.
First, his spell Battle Charged grants his whole battlegroup Counter Charge, allowing them a free charge when enemies stop within 6” of them (with a few restrictions). Second, he also grants his battlegroup Immunity: Cold, which isn’t a big deal until you see his feat.
With Ice Storm, Borka gives his whole army Stealth (again a tool to deliver his army to the opponent’s face). That’s nice, but this feat’s kicker is when an enemy lands a melee attack against his Immunity: Cold model. They suffer Stationary! Warmachine and Hordes often comes down to whoever hits first and hardest. With Borka’s feat, he’s going to penalize the heck out of any army trying to strike before him.
Have fun!
DOZER & SMIGG: Start with a Dire Troll Blitzer and replace the gun with a powerful but inaccurate AOE attack. This character warbeast brings a lot of support to ranged troll armies. First, it grants friendly Blitzers +2 to all of their attack rolls while they can see Dozer & Smigg. Very nice! Second, its animus gives +2 to ranged attack rolls and also allows the deviation and / or distance of deviation to be rerolled. Third, if you take Dozer & Smigg with Gunnbjorn, then this warbeast gets boosted blast damage rolls, making its ranged attack even more interesting.
Taking Dozer & Smigg is kind of like taking Blitzer Premium Plus for ranged armies. By itself, it’s not super special. But put it in the right army, and that Premium Plus can be a game changer.
NORTHKIN FIRE EATERS: Sometimes I come across models that make me love this game even more.
So, the Northkin Fire Eaters come with what you’d expect from fire eating trolls. Namely, spray attacks that set people on fire. They also get +5 ARM when receiving fire damage, and actually power up when they’re burning (boosted attack and damage rolls, among other buffs).
So what can you do with this unit? Well, have one of the models set the other two on fire, of course! Then go to town with two fully boosted spray attacks.
I love this game.
TROLLKIN HIGHWAYMEN: A solid no-nonsense unit built around using combined ranged attacks or putting out an impressive number of shots (2 per model). They also come with Gunfighter so they can keep fighting with their pistols in melee, Camouflage to help keep them safe from enemy shooting, and Swift Hunter for a little extra mobility when they kill something.
A nice addition to the Trollblood arsenal.
HORGLE IRONSTRIKE: Horgle is a lesser warlock who focuses solely on Pyre Trolls and Slag Trolls. But that’s okay, because he makes both of them cheaper by 1 point and can enhance their ranged attacks with Hot Shot, granting boosted ranged damage rolls to one battlegroup warbeast.
Horgle can also team up with either warbeast and pump out multiple +2 melee damage buffs to nearby models. He’s no slouch in melee either, with easy access to those same buffs and a sword that inflicts Continuous Fire.
So, yeah. This is one solid lesser warlock.
BRAYLEN WANDERHEART, TROLLKIN OUTLAW: Braylen is a solo that comes with everything the Trollkin Highwaymen have, only better. Better guns, better stats, better defensive abilities, and so on. With Luck, she can reroll misses for her twin POW 12 heavy pistols, and with Gun & Run, she can kill something and then back away to safety.
She’s also an Opportunist, granting additional attack and damage dies when in something’s back arc, and she grants this ability to Trollkin Highwaymen that can see her. Definitely worth consider alone or with a posse of Highwaymen.
SUMMARY: Privateer Press introduces another set of new models that bring fresh possibilities to each faction. Less warlocks and warbeast packs may not be as exciting as gargantuans, but there are still plenty of fun releases in this book.
Check out the complete list of Warmachine and Hordes articles here.

Filed Under: Hordes Tagged With: Exigence, Fantasy, Privateer Press, Review, Steampunk, Tabletop Games, Trollbloods

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