Winter is Coming....Again

OK I admit that I couldn't think of a suitable title outside of the obvious, but this post is not about Game of Thrones. It is in fact about another series of novels that Cakebread & Walton are working hard to transform into a classy RPG.

 Winter of the World is a series written by Michael Scott Rohan (No relation to LOTR) that was brought to my attention by the boys at C&W for their upcoming release. I was lucky enough to find a set of the original printed versions and now I'm hooked. I am a slow reader so I've only covered book 1, Anvil of Ice, but it has all the marks of a good old fashioned fantasy story set in a rich and detailed land filled with monsters, magic and strange folk.

 If you've never heard of the series I recommend giving them a read. Regrettably the changing times has made the series into an ebook only format, so any hard copies, you know... actual books, will generally be second hand. Thankfully the internet does provide that option too with a little bit of searching. For anyone that enjoyed reading Lord of the Rings, Winter of the World has that Tolkienesque style of writing. Everything is spoken in proper English and even in the heat of battle a character's dialogue seems more eloquent than a 20 year old meeting his girlfriend's Ex-Cage fighter father for the first time. This is by know means a bad thing and just like Tolkien, the series also boasts a sizeable Appendix to flush out the world a bit further. As I said, I'm only through the first book so far, but I can't wait to finish the series and find out what happens.

Now, on to the arty bit. Book reviews were never my strong point. I was always doodling in English class and inevitably getting in trouble for it. Times have changed in that regards however, now I get to draw what ever I want and my English don't suffer none for it.

Below is a few spot illustrations from the upcoming RPG's bestiary. As Winter of the World is set in a fantasy ice age, a lot of the critters have been set around pre-historic animals. Beasts like giant beavers and mammoths are a feature, but so are the classic fantasy monsters like dragons.

 This is a taster of things to come. I'll be working on a series of illustrations from the books themselves next, but they aren't likely to be seen for a while. Until next time......