The First Law by Joe Abercrombie

Today I've finished reading Joe Abercrombie's trilogy and thought I'd write a few words about it.
I first learnt about it in an article I read somewhere that recommended it as an alternative to "Game of Thrones". There are some similarities; chapters show events taking place in different places and show actions of certain heroes (but unlike in Martin's works they are not presented from different characters' perspectives), motifs of war and invasion of hostile nation, dirty politics, etc. Howerer, Abercrombie's books read differently.
The book uses themes that can easily be associated with any fantasy book. There's an ancient wizard whose goals are mysterious, a veteran warrior whose past is filled with violent exploits, a dandy who irritates everyone but changes over time, a mysterious female warrior, etc. What I really liked was how these were presented in the story. Abercrombie uses these themes, adding unexpected twists and using a very practical, often even ironic approach.
The character that stood out the most to me was Glokta. A kind of anti-hero. A former fencing champion and an accomplished oficer, now a ruin of a man after two years of imprisonment and torture. He is an inquisitor and while doing his job dutifully, he often asks himself a question "Why do I do this?". Chapters that focused on him were my favorites, especially the dialogues. They were really nicely constructed as we could follow both the exchanges between Glokta and his interlocutors and read his thoughts interwoven between these, more than often showing that what he says and does is something completely different than what he thinks. Once again, it's hard to avoid comparing him with Tyrion Lannister from "Game of Thrones" (my favorite character in that series).
I really enjoyed reading these three, probably my first dive into fantasy since I've finished Martin's works. Abercrombie's narrative flows nicely as he describes events both small and great. The protagonists are not necessarily likable but they are quite complex, which makes them even more interesting. Overall, a very good series, I can highly recommend it to everyone who is anxiously waiting for The Winds of Winter and it gets a 4+/6 from me.

Some more orcs

Four more hunter orcs on wargs. I kept the colors in the same pattern that I had for those painted earlier. Now I need to add some more details to Yazneg and Azog...

Escape from Goblintown showcase #2

I forgot to put these up earlier so here they are now, Thorin's company in full glory and color ;)

It

I thought I'd start a new type of post here. These are not really going to be proper reviews, more like my random thoughts and a way for me to keep track of all the books I either read or listen to in audio version as I paint

Stephen King has been one of my favorites for a while now and much as I love his newer books, I like to return to his older works every now and then. Sometimes it can be disappointing ("Desperation" , "Needful Things") but in most cases it's an interesting journey.
What I see as one of King's greatest strengths as a writer is the ability to accurately portray extreme emotions. He uses various means for that, often choosing unusual imagery. In "It" the protagonists confront evil which often takes physical forms of their greatest fears, such as great bird, evil clown or abusive father. The image of clown is particularly striking.
What I really liked about "It" was how two different stories set apart in time by years. During most of the book we follow the story of a group of children who are described as "Losers". They form a group, set up a club and eventually discover that each of them has seen something unusual or scary and that no one else seems to be noticing these "things". In the end they face the evil and manage to defeat and banish it. 27 years later the children begin disappearing again in the town of Derry and the same group meets again, this time to destroy the evil completely. What makes it harder for then is that they are all suffering from some kind of amnesia and seem to have pushed the memories of their childhood away from their minds. So in order to defeat It, they must first remember what had actually happened when they were children.
The way in which these two stories are interwoven makes following the plot an interesting experience. Another strength of the book is the use of two different ways of perceiving reality - that of children and adults.While the first one may seem to be more naive and superficial, it also has certain merits that become essential in fight against It.
I also liked the way Derry was presented. The whole town was shown both as a place and a symbol in itself. A kind of organic being, deeply corrupted and evil. The same mechanism was used in some of King's other works (such as "Salem's Lot") but here it seemed more convincing.
I'm giving this one a solid 4/6

WIP shots of orc heroes and (another) GW FAIL

I've put together the new Azog miniature along with Yazneg - a character that was respelled by GW shortly after the Hobbit started out as a tabletop game. I guess the designers thought that they need to release a few named orc leaders/heroes to make up for lack of them in the evil forces. Good idea, not only from the marketing perspective but also from a hobbyist one as it gives a chance to work on more nicely designed miniatures.

I didn't really like Yazneg when I saw the codex picture. He seemed way too static and his armor lookes pretty ridiculous to me. I changed my mind after putting him together and mounting him on a larger rocky base with a slightly altered pose. I used a few pieces of cork and plenty of GS to make it look like one big boulder. You can see in the pictures below that the Warg's legs are stretched further than the edge of base so I needed to take that into account while putting the rocky base together.

Azog is a different story. I liked the miniature the moment I saw it, at least the mounted version. I had mixed feelings about the one on foot and still don't feel good about it. You'll notice in the pictures that he's much larger than the version mounted on a Warg, his chest in particular is significantly bigger. I also had some problems putting the large Warg together. The beast is cast in two halves and they didn't fit together well. I needed to put it in hot water, bend it to the proper shape and then out it in cold water to save it in the desired shape. It wasn't too much trouble but it's disappointing that more than two years after the introduction of Finecast (despite an overall improvement in quality) the same problems still make putting these miniatures harder and less enjoyable.

The mounted version of Azog features a base that is larger than a regular cavalry one. It seemed empty when I put the model on it so I added a ruined column. I think it fits the base nicely and it also can also make one think of ruins among which we see Azog in the movie. The foot version is much more static and less interesting. It's also so tall that I decided not to use any additional material on the base as it would make Azog look too tall. 

More Orcs

Finished the second batch of Hunter orcs along with some heroes. I followed the same color scheme I used with the previous ones. The only thing I've changed is the addition of warpaint on their faces.

Narzug is one of the best miniatures from LotR/Hobbit I've ever painted. His pose is  not too dynamic but the quality of the sculpt is impressive. I particularly like his face and chest as these parts are different than what you'd see on a human. Especially his chest, saggy but still muscular. The color of skin makes him look like a cousin of Uruk-Hai but I'm quite pleased with how it turned out as it makes him look unique.

Bolg, the big one in the front row, was a bit of a challenge. He's so much different from other orcs. He's much larger and has completely different physique. To make matters worse, his armor and weapon are also significantly different. The main challenge while painting him was to keep him coherent with the rest and make him stand out at least a little at the same time. All of that using predominantly dark colors.

Fimbul was also a bit tricky. The codex paintjob is... awful. What's more, the mounted version is painted differently than the one on foot. So that wasn't helpful at all as reference.
I wanted to make him stand out as a character so I chose to paint the warg using very dark colors and kept his clothes and cloak black with the fur trimming matching warg's mane. His skin color is also different than that of the other orcs. The picture doesn't show it well but there are differences in shades of black on warg, clothes and coat.

Late night WIP

I'm finishing off the second batch of Hunter Orcs, at this point I'm just adding static grass and other types of flock. These take a while to paint as there are plenty of shades of brown to use and getting them to work together is time-consuming and tiring. Fortunately I could count on some help.

 Also, Bolg was a big challenge. He is so much different from other miniatures in this range... I will take some pictures in good lighting tomorrow so stay tuned.