Sir Terry Pratchett, 1948-2015

I think I was quite late along to the party, as I first picked up one of the Discworld novels when at University. "Faust Eric" was the first one I read I think, then I went back to the start and read all the Discworld novels, and continued to do so, as soon as a new one was available in paperback (hard back books take up so much space).

There are a lot of funny authors out there, but I can list on one finger the number who could so consistently make me snigger and laugh out loud when reading his books. He had such a great way of looking at the world, then mirroring it back to us in a way that made the mundane seems absurd. Add to this the fact that it was not unknown for me to shed a few tears when reading his work to, and we have the sign, IMHO, of a truly great author.

The fact that he was always a genre writer always worked against his credibility, especially at the start, but the sheer number of people who read his work, and the way in which he spoke on the subject did so much, more than any other author in my mind, to bring works of Fantasy and Science fiction to light in more serious literary circles. I contest the works of the gazillionaire J. K. Rowling would never have received the attention they did if Sir Terry hadn't already broken the ground for her.

I searched for a pithy quote to put here, but there are just so goddamn many of them out there that are so witty and perfect, it just goes to show what a sharp mind he was, which makes the manner of his passing all the more poignant.

I am happy to say there are a couple of his books I have yet to read, but I am extremely sad that when they are done, there will be no more. But to ask for more in some ways would be greedy, as he has left so much of such a high quality, it is just churlish to think otherwise.

All that is left now is to pass the books on to the girls, and hope they get as much pleasure from them as their mum and I have.

New Sherlock Holmes Story Discovered

I was rather excited by this, and as such, I thought it would be something you , my reading public, may be interested in. There has been a new Sherlock Holmes story discovered, the first such discovery in 80 years. I'm not talking about one of the excellent novels of recent writing by modern authors, but by the Great Arhtur Conan Doyle himself!

I found the transcript, and posted it on my other blog, as it seemed more apt there. Please click through and have a read. The whole story of how it was found can be seen there too, so I won't rehash the same lonks here.

Holiday Book Buying

I always receive amazon vouchers for Christmas from some of my relatives, and this is a gift that I am always happy to get. This year, I used them to good hobby effect, with all three purchases being hobby related.

The first one was

 

Color, by Betty Edwards.

This was the recommendation of Meg Maples at her Masterclass, as the book to use to understand colour theory. I have yet to dive into this one, so I'll be holding back on further comment until I get a chance to read through it.

Lion Rampant, by Daniel Mersey

I've been aware of a steady increase in the number of blog posts relating to this game, with people using various medieval armies, as well as fantasy armies to play the game (Dwarves seem to be particularly popular). For one such excellent review, I'll point you to the Dice Bag Lady's blog. All this points to a good game with a healthy following. It will also give me another use for the Bretonnian and Empire armies I have, especially since I have been using a Medieval historic theme for my Bretonnians. It will also give me an excuse to buy into more Scottish minis, especially the Claymore Islander figs. Claymore have even released army bundles just for me! Now there's a forum for the game too, to go learn more about the rules.

 

Bannockburn 1314, Robert Bruce's Greatest Victory, by Peter Armstrong

My interest in this battle has been simmering away in the background, pretty much since for ever, being Scots born, however, with last year being the 700th anniversary of the battle, and the release of the rule set above, I finally bought this so I could learn more about it. Of this set of books, this is the one I read first, and it is a great example of the Osprey campaign series, and gave me lots of ideas as to what I want to do to make Lion Rampant forces for Medieval Scots and English to batter lumps out of each other over the table top.

In one final piece of news, in an attempt to make a little money from this blog, I joined as an Amazon Associate, so buy clicking on any of these links to buy these books (in the titles), you'll be doing a little to help fund my book buying habit. I will not become a millionaire through this by any means, but every little I earn is something I didn't make before, and for that, I am very thankful. I figures this was an inoffensive means of monetizing this site, as I'm not a fan of ads everywhere. Even if you don't buy aything, at least give me some clicks, so I can sit back and watch the pennies roll in!

In fact, I've gone back through my old book posts, and updated all of the links, so if you were thinking about buying any of the books I have mentioned before (even the free ones) now is the time to go do it.

If any of you have had experience of this system , or others like it, let me know what you think.

Book Review: Churchill's First War

Young Winston and the Fight Against the Taliban.

Con Coughlin

The second of the books I picked up in Heathrow, along with this one I have already reviewed. For some reason, I find books cheaper in the UK than here in Canada, at least those on the Bestsellers shelf, but I digress.

The author of this book does not have a history as an author of historical biographies, but comes from the subject as a journalist in the field in Afganistan, and the 'fight against terror' in the middle east (he is currently the Defense Editor for the Telegraph).

At first the link between Chruchill and the Taliban seemed to me to be a stretch, just to get a modern tag-line on a historical book, however, at this particular time in Churchill's life, he was directly involved with the conflict on the North West Frontier, or the border between British India and Afghanistan. However, the links that I thought would be tenuous or forced between Churchill's experiences on the North-West Frontier and the modern conflict in the region turned out to be subtly and inextricably linked. The peace that was finally negotiated by the British Raj and the Pashtun tribesmen on the frontier was maintained under Pakistani rule, and only finally broken 100 years later with the interventions of the USA and Allied forces in recent years. The lifestyle of the tribesmen on the frontier, had changed little in that time, and the issues that were faced by Churchill, and the style of fighting of the tribesmen and the problems that caused an invading larger army had little changed, even with the technology that modern forces can muster. It was not for nothing that Churchill's account of the conflict The Story of the Malakand Field Force was reprinted at the time of the US/Afghanistan conflict, and read by all the major players in the theatre.

The book also gave an insight into the personality of Winston Churchill, specifically his early life. He was a great man, and a polymath, but not someone I have much studied, other than the information you pick up by osmosis being born and raised in the UK. His goal of always becoming a career politician, and how he went about achieving that goal, especially in his early military career, was interesting to read, and certailnly piqued my interest to find out more. I went on to watch the Gathering Storm, which is obviolusy a much later time in his life. It has also made me want to go find a copy of Young Winston, as it has been an age since I watched it.

Back to the book though. As a historical piece, and also as a book that puts a light on the current day happenings on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, I can but recommend this book.

Find it here on amazon.ca.

N.B. the book goes by the subtitle 'Young Winston at War with the Afghans' in North America.

Book Review: All the Countries We've Ever Invaded

All the Countries We've Ever Invaded.

...and a Few We Didn't Get Round To.

Stuart Laycock.

This is the first of two books I bought at Heathrow, when last passing through. The We in the title refers to the British, hence buying it in the UK, however, the title of the book remains unchanged for the North American release of the book.

For the purposes of this book, invaded also includes disputes and incursions in the territorial waters of a country, pirate/privateer activity, as well as the incursion of armed explorers, as long as they working under the approval of the government.

For a brief resume of the countries we have not invaded (obviously the shorter list) there were a couple of newspaper articles that appeared when the book was released. This one in the Telegraph has a handy map, and a list at the bottom.

Clearly, though, as wargamers, we're much more interested in the ones we did invade, and that's where this book comes into its own. Every country in the world is listed, and under each entry a quick run down of how the British (or English, if pre-union) army has been involved there. This obvioulsy includes a great deal of our Colonial past, as well as giving a more rounded apprecition of the many theatres of opperation during the two world wars.

The book is also a wealth of little gems that, when researched a little, should give wonderful historical gaming scenarios. For example, that time in Vietnam, after the war, where British and Indian Troops, and an attached Japanese Batallion, took on the communist Viet Minh forces. Or that other time, when Royalists and Parliamentarians duked it out in the Carribean (Barbados stayed loyal to the Crown, so Cromwell sent an invasion force). The book is full of such little tid-bits.

The book is laid out as an alphabetical list by country, and therefore is easy to pick up and put down whilst reading. It also means that it works as a reference book (there is also a full index).

Sound like your kind of thing? Go look it up. I think it's worth the money.

Get it here on amazon.ca.

With the Night Mail, A Story of 2000AD

Not 2000AD, the comic, but a science fiction short story by Rudyard Kipling.

I downloaded a bunch of Rudyard Kipling novels, shorts and poetry after his story The Mark of the Beast was covered on the H.P.Podcraft literary podcast. I've been sifting through it slowly. I was familiar with Kipling, of course, due to The Jungle Book, and the associated Disney film, which was a favourite of mine as a kid, and i was aware of his colonial and military inspired fiction. What took me completely by surprise however, was this little trip into science fiction.

What's more, classic Victorian Sci-fi, complete with an alternative future and Zeppelins! It may not be rip-roaring adventure, but it's certainly worth a look.

For those looking for Victoriana, horror shorts, colonial military adventure and now, it seems sci-fi with zeppelins, and all for the grand price of $0, then you could do worse than heading over to your local amazon site and downloading Kipling's back-catalogue. He really was quite prolific!

Amazon.ca Kindle free eBook

Project Gutenberg eBook.

Text online, with Illustrations.


Whilst I'm posting about short stories, here's a link to a short story by published author, and good friend of mine, Michael Logan. Warlord of Aisle Nine.

Review: The Compleat Rifleman Harris

As part of my Amazon order, with vouchers I received for christmas, I bought "The Completat Rifleman Harris" (sic). I have recently finished this book, and I must say I liked it. I was aware before starting this was not going to be some Cornwell-esque romp through the Napoleonic era, but much more of a day to day story of the wars from a soldiers point of view. As such, I was pleasantly surprised to see that the tone of the book was much more of a conversational style, not as dry as I thought it might be, and the language not so dated as in, for example, Robert Roger's diary.

The anecdotes related within, whilst not all derring-do, were still interesting, and very informative. I for one knew nothing about the weird unknown disease that knocked out the whole of the rifles that were deployed as part of the Walcheren Expedition (not that I claim to be anything like a napoleonic scholar), but it does give a real insight into the problems the soldier of the time faced, apart from the enemies guns.

History from the soldiers point of view.

(You can find a summary of the contents here. But really, if you don't already have it, just go buy it).

Order it from Amazon here.

Amazon Order

I had some Amazon vouchers stacking up on my account, so I decided to order a couple of books. I thought to treat myself with some Osprey titles, so went for The Zulu War, by Angus McBride and The British Army on Campaign (3) by Michael Barthorp and Pierre Turner. I really wanted to get my hands on a copy of Canadian Campaigns 1860-70, but it seems to be rather hard to get a hold of, at least on Amazon or even directly from the Osprey site.

I'm quite looking forward to the McBride book, as I have been a fan of his work for a very long time (since I bought pretty much every book going for the MERP system back in the 80s and 90s), but this will be the first of historical books I own. I am rather surprised to see that he's down as the author of the book as well as the illustrator, I didn't think this was something he had done. It will be interesting to see how well the great man writes.

Why these ones in particular I hear you all ask, well really if you're asking that you haven't been paying attention at all recently, have you! It's all towards inspiration for my Britannian army for Dystopian Legions. Although, my steady rate of painting has meant I don't have much left to finish off, but the miniatures and the game itself have got me into looking up more on the era, which I must admit is one I know little about.

Another reason I went on to Amazon, was to look at the range of Osprey wargaming titles they have available there. In particular, and of special interest to this post, In Her Majesty's Name steampunk skirmish wargaming rules, which are available for pre-order. I did not pre-order them, but I think I'll most certainly be ordering them once they are released. It makes great sense to have another set of rules to use with minis I already have.

Prizes!

More on this guy soon.

I received a package in the post today. I was not expecting anything, as it's nowhere near Christmas, or my birthday. Parcels arriving for the kids at random from relatives abroad is not unknown, but not for me.

It had a German return address, which made me wonder even more.  When I got home and  opened it, I was more that pleasantly surprised by its contents. A book, and a little bag of minis. What a wonderful way to end the day!

A few days ago, I popped a comment onto Großbeeren 1813's post on reaching 25K hits. Looking at the archive of posts does not take long, but it is no wonder that he has had so many hits, the miniatures he sculpts are truly amazing, and even in the flooded market of Napoleonics, he makes interesting, fun and characterful sculpts. I will be sure to pick up copies of the rude highlanders minis once they are finally released (I'm on the waiting list).

As to the gifts (I cannot with any clear conscious call them prizes, as I did nothing to win them). First off was this rather nifty book. This will surely fill a hole in my small but growing Napoleonic Library, which has so far concentrated on the British side of the Alliance, and on the French, to the neglect of the other countries involved.

The second item in the parcel (as if the book was not enough of a give-away prize) was a little bag of 4 miniatures. But not just any old minis, these minis. I was pretty gobsmacked.

Go to the link above for better pictures.

As miniatures go, they are wonderfully detailed and flash free. If ever you get a chance to get your hands on these minis (or any others that these guys produce) don't hesitate. I think I may also now have the start of my Napoleonic vignette.

I had received an email asking for my address for this, but had suggested that Kawe wait till I had purchased the Highlanders, at least then I would be contributing to the postage, but no, it was not to be, and I must admit I'm grateful he didn't wait.

Do you think that's enough links back to Großbeeren 1813? Well, one last one won't hurt!

Robert Roger's Rangers II

Having now finished the book, I can say that my initial disappointment was misplaced. The action het up near the end as the war moved up a gear. Many mentions of Quebec, Quebec city and Montreal as the British invasion if Canada got into full swing, and many ideas for scenarios to be sure.

I did feel a need for more research on my part during and after reading it, so I could place the actions in geography. I feel the book would do well to have either a companion book, or an expanded edition, where maps of the areas spoken of were supplied, and possibly also more information on the actions mentioned to give a broader context. I'm sure these books do exist, but if they don't, they should. Ah, a job for another day. Maybe once I'm retired and have more time on my hands than I know what to do with.

I should (re)mention here, in terms of other blogs covering the era, Flintlock and Tomahawk does a fine job. No, I'm not being paid commission, but I do think it's an apt journal to link to, especially since there's a recent post about a re-enactment of the "Battle on Snowshoes".

Buy your copy from Amazon here.

Robert Roger's Rangers

This book has been on my amazon wish list for quite a while, but renewed interest on my part in historical gaming, linked to my interest in local (to where I now am) history, has meant that this one moved up the list, and was bought last week.

I'm not finished, so this is not a complete review, but more a gateway to a link-fest on the subject. Though I must mention here, he sticks to the bare facts when retelling the skirmishes and battle she fought in, so if you're looking for romance, it ain't here.

The French and Indian War (the Seven Years War in the American Theatre), as us Brits and Anglos call it,  (Guerre de la Conquête en français) seems to me to be perfect for skirmish gaming. The fact that both side of this conflict are represented in the local gaming community (or at least their cultural ancestors) mean that it should not be too hard to find opponents, once I am more at liberty to look.  To that end, I note here some links on the subject.

First off, we cannot go any further without mentioning Galloing Major miniatures. These guys base their line on Roger's Rangers, and have expanded from there. 28mm, being my favourite scale for skirmish (and other) gaming, I'll be sure to make this my first stop when I get round to buying these guys.

For the background of the era, of course start with Wikipedia, but there are a few more specific sites. like here, and a blog more widely aimed at the F&I war here. This blog has all you would ever need to know to get you started in miniature gaming for the period. There is a similar french language blog, but I seem to have lost track of it.

Next up, buy some minis and pick a rule set. I hear good things about Sharp Practice, but have yet to give it a go. Also, there's Song of Drums and Shakos, which although based on Napoleonics, is modular enough in its troop building to be flexible enough to cover a wide range of eras. This one I do have, although have yet to play. For the large scale battle, I hear that Black Powder by Warlord games is highly though of.

Buy your copy from Amazon here.