Wolf Hunt by Graham McNeill: A review

The thing with audiobooks is that you have to rely on somebody’s interpretation. With a classic book (whether it’s on paper or on a screen) it’s up to you to determine what the characters sound like and how they speak. With a book you only have the author’s descriptions to guide you but with an audiobook that decision is taken away from you and, depending on the acting, the story is either enhanced or spoiled. With Honour to the Dead by Gav Thorpe it was unfortunately the latter, the screeching and cackling spoil the production, which is a pity as parts of the story were obviously well written and would have been awesome if well acted. On the other hand I really enjoyed Butcher’s Nails, Censure and Deathwolf which were produced by the same company, Heavy Entertainment.

So, I was a bit worried when I saw that the cast for Wolf Hunt appeared to be the same as in Honour to the Dead. For the most part though I needn’t have worried. Wolf Hunt is a much better production with one glaring exception, which I’ll come to later.

Wolf Hunt is a sequel to McNeill’s Outcast Dead and deals with the last of that party, Severian the Luna Wolf, as he tries to make his escape from Terra to try and find out for himself what is going on. The story is good, it’s paced well and the characters are interesting and well written. Both the protagonist and the antagonist (and I’ll let you make up your own minds who is who) are likeable and the big reveal at the end is plausible.

So, the writing is good, how about the acting and direction? Well, there’s less screeching in this than there was in Honour to the Dead which is all to the good and overall the cast do better with one terrible and glaring exception, Nagasena’s accent. There is no excuse for playing the character with an accent last heard in The Talons of Weng Chiang! For some reason he’s been played with a fake Chinese/Japanese accent. He’s the only character in the audio drama to have a forced Asian accent and it really is unacceptable. I don’t know whether it is the fault of the director or the actor but not only is it unthinkingly racist (other Asian characters in the story are portrayed with neutral accents) it cheapens and spoils what would otherwise be an excellent character.

So, in conclusion, Wolf Hunt is a very good story and a fairly good production, spoiled by one very poor decision. It’s worth listening to for the story but if you are concerned at all, I’d recommend avoiding it until the prose/script version hopefully comes out.

Vulkan Lives by Nick Kyme: A review

I haven’t done many reviews recently but I felt that Vulkan Lives, the newest of the Horus Heresy novels, deserved one as I really enjoyed reading it. It won’t be a long review, it’s not a book that leads to easy reviewing (at least for me) as I have to be extra careful not to give away any spoilers as it’s a book where everything means something and so much is going on!

For all that’s going on, it’s all very clear, or at least as clear as the author wants it to be (and there’s a reason for that). There are at least four different plots from four different perspectives but Nick Kyme manages to keep everything clear and distinct. The separation of the two main plots into first and third person helps a lot here. What’s interesting is that the first person sections are from Vulkan’s perspective. He is the most human of the Primarchs and the book explores just what this means.

Of course, your average Necron looks human compared to Konrad Curze and in this book we see just how broken Curze is. You really can’t help but feel sorry for him, he’s so lost.

I like the Salamanders trilogy and I really enjoyed Promethean Sun but Kyme has really upped his game for Vulkan Lives, all the intertwining plots and strong characterisation used in the Salamanders trilogy has been pulled together in a dark and intriguing tale that asks more questions than it answers and still manages to move the Heresy along. I’m really interested to see where the story goes next and I’m wishing that I’d ordered Scorched Earth. Oh well, I’m sure that there will be plenty of Horus Heresy to fill my time until it’s finally released for those of us who forgot to order it but it’s a pity that it was up to order last week rather than this, as I doubt that I’d have dithered for a moment over ordering it if I’d have known just how good Kyme’s Salamanders were going to get!

Anyway, enough about books that I can’t read. I suppose that I should summarise this post by saying that Vulkan Lives is as epic as its cover and really, really worth a read.

L.o.F.

New Project: Exodite Eldar

This is the test model for a New Project. I picked up the Eldar codex when it came out and I thought that I might like to build a force as a side project. Of course, being me, I didn’t just go for a nice safe Craftworld army, I decided that I’d like to build Exodites… on dinosaurs!

No dinosaurs in this post, I only picked up the relevant kits on the weekend, but I decided that, as I’m building an Exodite force, that Rangers would probably be the best troops unit to start with and the best models for testing out my colour scheme. I’m using an autumnal theme based round reds and greens and browns. For the green on the coat I started with Caliban Green, before washing it with a blend of Biel-tan Green and Nuln Oil. I then highlighted it with a 50:50 blend of Caliban Green and Warpstone Glow, Warpstone Glow, and finally Scorpion Green (Moot Green). For the red areas I started with Wazdakka Red, washed it with Baal Red (Carroburg Crimson) before highlighting with a 50:50 blend of Wazdakka Red and Blood Red (Evil Sunz Scarlet), Blood Red, a 50:50 Blend of Blood Red and Trollslayer Orange and then Trollslayer Orange. For the cloth areas and the gems I used two further highlights: 50:50 Trollslayer Orange and Yriel Yellow and finally Yriel Yellow.

For the wraithbone I used Bleached Bone (Ushbati Bone), washed it with Gryphonne Sepia (Seraphim Sepia), then highlighted it with Bleached Bone and a spot of Skull White (White Scar). The wood effect on the rifle was created by starting with a layer of Scorched Brown (Rinox Hide), washing the area with Nuln oil then highlighting it with a 50:50 blend of Scorched Brown and Snakebite Leather (Balor Brown) followed by Snakebite Leather and a touch of Tausept Ochre (GW says Balor Brown is its replacement but I think it’s more likely to be something like XV-88 or Tau Light Ochre but I’m not sure). I used a similar method for the backpack.

Maybe purple hair is a bit loud for an Exodite but I like it! I started with Xereus Purple which I washed with Nuln Oil before highlighting with more Xereus Purple, a 50:50 blend of Xereus Purple and Emperor’s Children, Emperor’s Children, a 50:50 blend of Emperor’s Children and Skull White and finally a touch of Skull White.

I need to paint the other four of these, but I think that I am pretty happy with the results and I want to go with this colour scheme.

My next job is to finish painting Captain Tycho for my boyfriend and a few Space Wolves for myself. Then I can get back to painting and modelling Eldar. I’m not building Eldar as an army to play, at least not initially, that’s what my Space Wolves are for, but I want another painting challenge and I think that the Exodites will fulfil this.

On a related note, I’ve just finished Promethean Sun, which I bought partly for the very relevant cover! I really enjoyed it. Nick Kyme is very good at writing Salamanders and he’s even better at writing about Vulkan himself. The story belongs with Feat of Iron which was published in The Primarchs anthology. It’s very short but it’s crammed full of information about Vulkan and Exodite Eldar (much more than the Eldar codex in the last case). It’s nice to see the limited edition books starting to be released at last and it looks like Promethean Sun has been released just in time for Vulkan to get his own book in the Horus Heresy series. I’m really looking forward to the release of Vulkan Lives, whenever that will be. If it’s at all like Promethean Sun, it will be very, very good.

L.o.F.

Angel Exterminatus by Graham McNeil: A review

So I caved and bought the hardback of Angel Exterminatus. I was in two minds whether I wanted to or not, but I’m glad that I did (my back was not after I’d lugged it, Betrayer and my copy of the 6th Ed. Rulebook back from my local GW and round the supermarket). Perturabo turned out to be far more interesting than I expected, and he has a unique reason for rebelling, both of which make him a compelling and strangely sympathetic protagonist.

Perturabo is definitely far more interesting as a protagonist than an antagonist. In The Crimson Fist he was The Bad Guy and only the negative side of his personality was revealed. In Angel Exterminatus he is one of the “heroes” and we have more reason to feel sympathetic to him, even when he’s throwing a tantrum.

What was nice, and surprising, is that McNeil has written Perturabo as a creative rather than a warlike (tactical or plain psychotic) Primarch. There is a broad streak of Leonardo da Vinci in the character and there is the impression that, like Lorgar and Magnus and even Corax (see Deliverance Lost), he would much rather be studying and building than laying waste to the galaxy. I’m beginning to think that the Primarch Project and the Great Crusade would have been very different if the Primarchs hadn’t been scattered. Magnus’s final role has been revealed, but the behaviour of Perturabo suggests to me that he was meant to be an Empire builder in a literal as well as a figurative way. It makes me wonder what the roles of Angron and Curze would have been had they had a kinder upbringing.

Anyway, back to the book. The Iron Warriors themselves are a mixed bunch, and you can see the scheming that will ultimately split the Chaos Legions into Warbands. I like the unique take on the lodges. The Iron Warriors are renegades rather than Chaos followers and it shows in their behaviour and their attitudes, something that is shown into sharp relief by the actions of the book’s antagonists, The Emperor’s Children, who have fallen almost as far as it is possible to go. The third party in the story are a group of survivors from Isstvaan V, mostly Iron Hands. Two of them, Wayland of the Iron Hands (where else) and Sharrowkyn of the Raven Guard turned up in the short story Kryptos (which you should read if you haven’t yet!), but Angel Exteriminatus introduces more of the group including  Frater Thamatica, a mad Iron Father (think Tesla in power armour), Captain Branthan, the dying captain held in stasis, Tarsa, the Salamander’s apothecary caring for him and Branthan’s Equerry, Cadmus Tyro, who is actually running things. The Iron Hands in this book are more human than in other books, but they work really well. I really, really hope that we see a lot more of these guys in future.

I was a bit grumpy about the idea of moving to hardback but the book itself is not too clunky (and will therefore still sit on my Horus Heresy shelf) and Neil Robert’s cover artwork is great as always. My only niggle is that Karl Richardson’s internal artwork feels a bit out of place. The way the illustrations are scattered through the book feels a bit Young Adult and doesn’t really do the illustrations themselves justice. I wonder if they would have been better as a section on glossy paper like the maps in the Space Marine Battles series.

I’m not sure that I’ll go back and buy the hardback re-releases of the new books, even the possibility of pictures of Loken, Tarvitz, Garro etc. isn’t enough to negate the fact that we have perfectly good paperback copies at home already. I’ll certainly buy Mark of Calth in hardback when it’s released though, for sure.

Anyway, sorry for the delay in posting. If you haven’t read Angel Exterminatus yet, you should, and if you like e books you should really also read Kryptos too. Neither are placeholder stories and both are excellent reads.

L.o.F.

On the tenth day of Christmas the hobby meant to me…

Ten thousand years past…

So, the Horus Heresy. It’s quite important to me as a hobbyist as it’s part of how I got interested in 40 (and 30) K. Therefore, when they announced that Forgeworld were releasing rules and models for the Heresy I was quite excited. Or at least I was until I saw the price! I can afford Betrayal, I just find that I don’t need a shiny, shiny book that costs quite that much, particularly as it covers such a tiny part (time wise not importance wise of course) of the Heresy.

Forgeworld is obviously on to a money maker here, and I know that what they produce is and will be spectacular, and I don’t begrudge them, or anybody who plays the game, a single little bit of it, it’s just that I caught myself working out what potential models there were in Angel Exterminatus the other evening (yes, I did fork out for the hardcover in the end) and I found that it was beginning to spoil the book for me.

Of course, whenever they get round to releasing rules and models for the Battle of Prospero I will probably cave in and, even if I don’t buy the rules, buy any pretty Space wolf models or upgrades that they happen to produce! I imagine that it won’t be for a while though, so my wallet’s (relatively) safe for now!

L.o.F.

 

…Nine different tools…

…Eight books to look at…

…Seven days of hobbying…

… Learning sixth edition…

…Fifth Edition!…

…Four more excuses…

…Three things to think of…

… Two different opinions…

…And a gift under the Christmas Tree

On the eighth day of Christmas the hobby meant to me…

Eight books to look at…

Hi,

Sorry that I missed yesterday’s post, but here it is now. I was thinking about what less usual books and websites and things might be of interest to 40k players. Here are eight assorted books, websites and poems, some directly 40k related, some not, that are possibly of interest. There’s no particular order to the items, but below each item, I’ve tried to explain why I think that they may be of use or interest.

 1) The first Horus Heresy trilogy: Horus Rising, False Gods, Galaxy in Flames

I know, I know, they’re rather obvious, but the Horus Heresy books are a big part of how I got into the hobby and, if you haven’t read or listened to the audio versions of these, you’re missing out on some cracking fiction!

2) Deathwing

I know that I reviewed this the other week, but it does contrast well with the Horus Heresy books in that it’s some of the earliest 40k fiction out there. As somebody fairly new to the whole 40k universe it’s interesting to see how things have changed.

3) Dark Angel by Lionel Johnson

If you haven’t read the actual Dark Angel poem by Lionel Johnson, you should. I have to admit that it’s not really to my taste, but it gives you something to think about regarding the nature of the Dark Angels. Especially as despite Gav Thorpe managing to add some sort of personality to El’Jonson the primarch beyond a massive ego and and even bigger capacity for jealousy in The Lion, I still find it very hard to like the character!

4) The Hornblower books (CS Forester)

Long, long before I had ever heard about Games Workshop and 40k, I was reading the Hornblower books. CS Forester did create some rather odd characters, but the books are good and they’re certainly grim and dark in places.

 5) The Spanish Bride by Georgette Heyer

Wait a moment! This book is not what it looks like. Georgette Heyer is best known for Regency romances, yes, but this book is a meticulously researched account of the Napoleonic Wars, in particular the Peninsular War and Waterloo, from the point of view of an officer and his wife. The book is based on two real characters and it does not stint on describing all the horrors of war. If you are thinking about giving a Guard list some Napoleonic charm, I’d really consider reading this first.

 6) Celtic Design Coloring Book by Ed Sibbett Jr.

Another odd one I guess. However, I like to add freehand work to my Wolves and, while there are some differences between Insular art and Viking art, they are close enough that I happily use Insular, or Celtic, art such as that found in this book, as an inspiration.. I’ve had this book for years and I dug it out of my bookcase at home this Christmas and I’m taking it back with me when I return to The Netherlands this weekend. It’s a really good source of images, and as it’s a colouring book, the designs are clear and easy to follow.

 7) Wikipedia

I know, this isn’t a book at all, it’s not even one thing, but, if you want cool names or help with a nice bit of fluff, there are worse places to go. I play Space Wolves, which have a wolfy, Vikingy feel and live on an Arctic like deathworld. If I want inspiration I search round these areas on Wikipedia. If I were playing Raven Guard I might look up ravens or other corvids. If I were playing WW2 themed guard I might look up Operation Market Garden, the Eastern Front or the Chindits. It’s a big place, so go and explore

 8) The blogosphere

There are many, many good 40K, Games Workshop and even more general hobby blogs out there and they are a brilliant source of inspiration. Just go and look!

I hope that this has inspired you!

L.o.F.

…Seven days of hobbying…

… Learning sixth edition…

…Fifth Edition!…

…Four more excuses…

…Three things to think of…

… Two different opinions…

…And a gift under the Christmas Tree

Home for the holidays

So, the last few weeks have been rather hectic for me, with all the chaos culminating in a trip home. All the fuss and the visitors (all of whom were very welcome) meant that I had no time to myself though, which meant no painting or modelling or even much reading. Actually, I had fifteen blissful minutes painting red onto my latest Swiftclaw, but it ended far too quickly.

I decided that I’d bring some painting home with me for the holidays as I’d really wanted to finish my latest project before Christmas and failed miserably. I’m always surprised just how many paints I need just to finish a project. I filled a litre ice cream tub with paints, and I still forgot one.

I’ve picked up a few of the Black Library Advent stories to read at home. I’ve just listened to Strike and Fade by Guy Haley, it’s only ten minutes long but it is excellent! I’m now listening to Warmaster by John French. I’m probably not going to buy all of the stories, but the ones that I have read/ listened to already have been top quality. I like the addition of audio stories to the flash fiction shorts. A thousand words/ ten minutes is very short, but it’s long enough to get a good atmosphere going and some character into the protagonists.

I still have a few to read and I guess that I’ll pick up some more once advent is over, so that I can read the ones that I’ve missed.

For now though I get to share the audiobooks with the dog, and I don’t think he’s a fan of Horus Lupercal!

L.o.F.

Chaotic Thinking

Another short update with no pictures I’m afraid. On the upside though I only have one of my original Long Fangs to go. The only problem is whether I’ll get it finished for Thursday’s post or if I’ll be distracted by Helsreach, which I’ve finally got round to buying.

The rumour sites are busy talking about the upcoming Warriors of Chaos models. I guess that I’ll take a good look at the new White Dwarf when it comes out on Saturday. I don’t want to branch out into Warhammer Fantasy just yet but ever since I read Valkia the Bloody I’ve wanted to build my own Valkia, just for the fun of it. The trouble is that now there’s going to be an official one and so I feel that all my plotting and scheming and trying to figure out how to make a slimmer, more streamlined Daemon Prince/Princess may have been wasted.

I need to go to my local GW on Saturday as, not only do I want to get this month’s White Dwarf, I finally need to replace my Chaos Black which is pretty much empty. I’m not too bothered about swapping to the “new” black as it’s not exactly going to have any colour matching problems and so far the new paints that I have used have been perfectly fine.

I’m currently trying to consider whether I really want Angel Exterminatus now, or if I want to wait until it comes out in paperback. On one hand it’s a shiny new Horus Heresy book, on the other hand it won’t fit on the shelf with the others. I’m also wondering if this was the right book to start the new “special” versions with. If it had been Fear to Tread that had been released in hardback then I think we probably would have ordered it without thinking, as the episode is an important one in the Horus Heresy and for the Blood Angels. The trouble is that I know very little about Perturabo. He turned up as the bad guy in The Crimson Fist, but his portrayal there did nothing to warm him to me. It’s been relatively easy to feel some sympathy for most of the other fallen Primarchs and perhaps all that Perturabo needs is his own book in order to rank up there with Lorgar or Magnus or Fulgrim but I’m not gripped with curiosity about him at the moment.  Maybe the internal illustrations by Karl Richardson will sway me, I loved his work in Lone Wolves after all. However I’m still wondering if that and the mystery that is Perturabo is enough to make me pay out the extra euros in order to get the hardback, or whether I’d rather buy a couple of paperbacks instead.

Burden of Duty by James Swallow: A Review

I have to say that I am quite fond of the character of Nathaniel Garro. He first appears in The Flight of the Eisenstein, which is one of my favourite books from the Horus Heresy series, and then stars in his own series of audio books produced by Black Library and Big Finish.

Burden of Duty also features another of my favourite characters, that of Rogal Dorn. It’s odd but I find it very easy to feel sympathy for Dorn. Yes, he is a bit stiff and formal, he is after all a Primarch, but while he hasn’t the easy likeability of Sanguinius or Horus he is very easy to feel sympathy for. He is loyal, and, no matter what he might like to do, he will do his duty.

Duty is the theme of this audiobook, Garro’s duty to Malcador the Sigillite, Dorn’s duty to the Emperor, a Librarian’s duty to his Primarch and all of their duties to the Imperium. These audiobooks, like the short stories in the anthologies, offer little vignettes into the thoughts of characters both large and small, beyond those offered in the books. They offer a really good way of both getting under the skin of a character and exploring what’s going on away from the main plot.

Both Swallow and John French, who wrote The Crimson Fist, have really brought Dorn to life. He is a pivotal character in the Horus Heresy despite and because of his role as the defender, the guy at home providing the last line of defence in a war that he knows is coming and is powerless to stop. Perhaps that’s one of the reasons why I like Rogal Dorn as a character. He’s not showy or impulsive, he doesn’t run off and get revenge or carve empires for himself or any number of other equally justifiable but incredibly short-sighted things that he’s doubtless tempted to do. He’s been told to stay put and prepare Terra for war and that’s what he’ll do.

Burden of Duty is, while short, a very good story. It’s not a fast paced story, it’s not about bolters and bloodshed, it’s about duty and understanding what that means for the three main characters. For Garro, it’s about doing the Sigillite’s duty, to build up the Knights Errant in order to protect the Imperiun. For Dorn it is about building a fortress, about protecting Terra itself, and for the Librarians of the Seventh Legion, ah, well that’s the whole point of the story and I’m not going to give away the plot twist.

Burden of Duty is well written and it’s also well acted. Toby Longworth has a very strange way of saying “aquilla” but the acting is on the whole very good. Big Finish appear to have dug into their box of Doctor Who sound effects for the servitor’s voice, but that was kind of cute (and if you haven’t heard any of Big Finish’s Doctor Who audio dramas you really should do) and the sound effects don’t intrude too much into the story.

To conclude, Burden of Duty is excellent. I really hope that James Swallow gets to write some more about Rogal Dorn. It’s kind of unfortunate that he’s so good at both Rogal Dorn and Sanguinius as I’d love to see his take on both characters whenever Black Library get round to the Siege of Terra. One other thing that I’d like is to have these stories in print form. I know that I was complaining about this very same thing a few weeks back, but as long as I knew that that was what I was getting, I’d be very happy to actually read these stories as the language is so good. I’d even buy a special edition if I had to!

L.o.F.

Shadows of Treachery: A review

I don’t know how I missed the release of this one (actually I do- it’s the announcement of a special limited edition at around the same time as this was released) but the local GW had it on the shelves on Saturday when my boyfriend and I went to pick up this month’s White Dwarf so we bought it then.

To be honest, I’m not sure what to make of this book, the stories are all very good but I could have told you that about three of them months ago as the book includes three stories that have previously been released as audiobooks: The Dark King, The Lightning Tower and Raven’s Flight. All three are excellent stories and I really enjoyed reading them but I have to admit feeling more than a little bit cheated when I realised that they were re-releases of existing material.

The Crimson Fist by John French is the first story in the anthology and is one of two novellas included. It is the story of the fleet that Rogal Dorn sends to Isstvan and its leader Alexis Polux. The fleet does not reach Isstvan, instead it is trapped in an abandoned star system, Phall, following a Warp storm, the escaping of which destroys a large part of the fleet, leaving the injured Polux the  Master of the Fleet. The marooned Imperial Fists cannot get any message out or receive any in turn.

The story switches between the fleet and interactions between Rogal Dorn and Sigismund back on Terra.

I really, really enjoyed this story. The doubt of Polux is very well written, the arm motif throughout the story is present but not jarring and weaves together Polux’s past and present (and I guess future). Meanwhile the tension that grows between Dorn and Sigismund is believable and understandable and is a microcosm of the general sense of tension and betrayal that the Horus Heresy has brought. The Crimson Fist is an excellent start to the anthology and a brilliant story in its own right.

Despite The Dark King and The Lightning Tower being disappointing in that they were previously available as audiobooks, they are both good stories and I enjoyed reading rather than listening to them. They don’t lose anything from the translation to paper and are gripping reads.

The next story is The Kaban Project by Graham McNeill and it is a prologue of sorts to Mechanicum. It involves some of the same characters and a certain artificial intelligence. It’s an interesting story, nicely written and adds to the lore surrounding the Mechanicum. It reminded me a little of the classic robot stories by Asimov in tone although the conclusion is considerably darker.

This is followed by another former audiobook story, Raven’s Flight by Gav Thorpe. I really like this story as an audiobook and it holds up very well as a printed story. It doesn’t quite fit in with the other stories character wise but tonally it does work well with the other stories in this anthology.

Unfortunately Death of a Silversmith fits in less well. It feels like it would have fitted in better in one of the earlier anthologies, or even as just a stand alone download from Black Library. It’s not a bad story per se, it’s just missing something. As a stand alone story it may have shone, but in this book it just fades away in comparison to the other offerings.

The anthology finishes with another novella, Death of Crows by Aaron Dembski-Bowden. You can pretty much guarantee that any story by Dembski-Bowden will be good and that any Night Lords story will be excellent and this one does not disappoint. The story follows Sevatar, the aforementioned Prince of Crows just after Curze has been wounded, apparently fatally by the Lion.  Dembski-Bowden has made the Night Lords his own and the portrayal of the legion as a band of dysfunctional, antisocial, sociopathic killers is in sharp contrast to portrayals of other legions elsewhere. The only slight niggle with the novella is the Dark Knight like portrayal of Curze. It is inevitable though, given the back story and the similarity is not always unwelcome as it gives an anchoring point when trying to understand the Primarch. I could have happily read a novel length retelling of this story but I also can see that it is the right length as it is so I’m not going to sulk. This novella alone makes Shadows of Treachery worth buying.

In the end, despite my disappointment with the inclusion of three previously published stories (I’m not counting Crimson Fist here as although it was available as an e-book a few weeks back, it’s not been available as easily as the others), I honestly enjoyed this anthology. I feel that Death of a Silversmith really did not fit with the other stories, although it does technically fill the brief as a shadow of treachery. However it isn’t a bad story. What bothered me more was a slight lack of variety in the choice of stories. McNeill wrote three of the stories: The Dark King, The Kaban Project and Death of a Silversmith, and while they were all well written, it may have been nice to have had a story written by somebody else. Black Library has a large pool of really good authors and their anthology collections are a perfect way of showcasing their talents. It’s a pity that Shadows of Treachery does not do this. However nearly all the issues that I have with this collection are editorial, the stories themselves are all very much worth reading and for that reason I can strongly recommend this book.