I put off writing my review of Josiah Bancroft’s Senlin Ascends, partly because no words would accurately describe how unique this book is. I suppose I will fall back on quantitative analysis: On day one I read to page 8. On day two I read to page 26. On day three I read to…
This is my first attempt at making a custom grip wrap for a sword. I always wanted a dark blue grip like Glamdring from PJ’s LOTR, but not on a fantasy sword. For this project I picked a less expensive subject that I had really wanted a long time ago and saw back in stock…
This beer’s got so much head I wonder if Walker’s warging into it… I recently finished Cameron Johnston’s The Traitor God just in time for the second installment, God of Broken Things, to come out. I broke my personal rule not to pre-order things, though that’s mainly for games (looking at you Thi4f!) but…
I previously posted my attempt at recreating the Addermire Solution mana potion from Dishonored. Here’s another little project I did awhile back making another prop. The Runes bearing the Mark of the Outsider granted powers that were useful in the game. They were supposedly made from whale bone. In reality, trading in whale bones is…
Had to pull back to get the whole bottle in the shot. Also bought new ale glasses to drink it from! It’s easy to extol the virtues of a technically well-written book with a well-crafted story. A bit harder is to put into words one that’s all that and just plain, viscerally enjoyable to…
I know RJ likes taxidermy and antlers…I don’t have antlers but I have this bird skeleton and horn. RJ Barker’s entrancing fantasy-mystery Age of Assassins is a bit of an odd duck—there aren’t many actual assassinations in it, but it’s easy to forget that as the story of young apprentice assassin Girton unfolds. Apparently the age…
Update: Don’t look at these anymore, I’ve made much better ones using Wonderdraft. I’ve drawn several maps of the world of The Heron Kings in the past, all freehand and all terrible. Recently my wonderful agent Nathan asked me for a map in order to keep all the locations straight. When I went and dug…
There aren’t actually any pistols in this book, though there are cannons and grenades. Peter McLean has a brilliant ability to make the reader feel something for the characters, love or hate them. And I kinda hate Tomas Piety. Priest of Bones is a first-person low fantasy set in a world of vaguely Renaissance-level…
As an unabashed fan of the Dishonored series and a loser with way too much time on my hands, I’ve taken a few cracks at constructing props from the games. I think one of my favorite is this recreation of the Addermire Solution mana potion from D2. I used these concept sketches as a…
Pay no attention to that pretty sword and those conspicuously placed maps… Cameron Johnston’s debut novel The Traitor God is a flesh-rending fantasy where magic itself is the darkest villain, with a tone that will feel familiar to fans of Scott Lynch’s The Lies of Locke Lamora. No time is wasted orienting the reader…
