This is a short post which I think I will come back to a few more times in the future about the quality of the "newer" codexes(i?) and army books.
Now I don't mean quality in terms of the rules or how they play but about the quality of the book itself.
I have been gone many moons and while some of it is rose tinted nostalgia for days gone by I do still think that the quality of the books is poor compared to how they used to be.
The Art
There is some great stuff in some of these books and by no means am I suggesting its all bad or that I am any kind of artist but I think overall the art is regurgitated and bland theses days. I don't look at any of it (or very little) and feel myself magically drawn into the place and time. I don't find my mind wandering off thinking about the setting and growing it.
The Writing
I love reading, I devour books.
The current novels being written are good (some are awful) and I wont knock them but in the codexes? No, no no. Get your writers working harder guys.
Dull. Limited. Repetitive.
The Fluff
This is a catch all of everything else missed above and while some of it is still great I do feel that more and more is really just page fillers and doesnt deserve to be in on its merits...
What do people think? I am I just a old grump who has got cynical and picking in old age?
I hear you Wanderer. Although I'm not as long in the hobby as you, I felt like, for example, the 5th edition codex of the Blood Angels was better than the 7th edition. 7th felt a pretty big rehash of the fluff, my favourite successor chapter the Lamenters was left out for no reason whatsoever, the artwork felt a bit flat and not really inspiring. Felt like GW just said "hey, just make some art of this particular model in a battle scene" then letting the artist do his thing. And it felt to me that they were more focussing on the models and the rules than the Space Marine chapter the bloody book was about! The Eldar codex though, so I've heard, was loaded with fluff. So GW has it's ups and downs, but I'm not really convinced it's getting better... and I fear a bit for AoS...
ReplyDeleteThe Forge World book on the other hand, are amazing! Excellent writing and stellar artwork!
I might have to check out teh Eldar codex then, I must admit over the years that often has some cool fluff.
DeleteI do worry for AoS, so far I have heard a lot negative comments about the quality of the writing. I have yet to check it out as I am hoping that it will settle out once they get past the need to be all about the sigmarines,