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Swords: An Artist's Devotion
WarCry's Formal Review
Past Trick Funk

There's something just plain chill nigh swords.

Oh sure, they might not Be quite as effective arsenic, say, a scattergun, but that doesn't make them any to a lesser extent enthralling. The sword is a Thomas More elegant artillery of a dignified age – or whatever it was that Obi-Wan Kenobi used to tell – and nobelium other weapon has the history, variety, operating theater has captured the human imaginativeness quite an like the blade. From the samurai katana and the Roman gladius to the Jedi lightsaber, the sword has a place in the public consciousness unlike any other.

Ben Boos would agree. Many another gamers should be moderately acquainted with Boos' turn, as he was one of the Blizzard North artists behind the legendary Diablo II and its expansion pack, Lord of Destruction. During ontogenesis, Boos was responsible not only for sketching up concepts for the environments and characters, but for pieces of armor and arms also. Though Boos is zero longer employed in the computer game industry at the moment, he understandably hasn't lost his acquisition with a pen, as evidenced in his newly released 85-page book of illustrations, Swords: An Creative person's Cultism.

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"Idolatry" is certainly an first-class choice of lyric. As Boos himself notes, the book of account is "the resolution of a lifelong interest in the brand." He advance offers a disclaimer, avowing that helium is "an partisan," rather than a historian. While Boos mightiness non be an academic scholar on the nonexempt, he makes up for it with pure, ungoverned enthusiasm. Swords is, higher up all other, a true labor of have it away.

The book is divided into 14 chapters, each covering a different age or culture and the swords that came with it – from early Bronze Age warriors and Norse raiders, to European kings and knights, the Silla Knights of Korea, and the samurai of Japan. Every chapter has little tidbits and blurbs of cognition about the culture and history behind the swords, and finicky inside information about the weapons' construction and usage. The school tex is concise and, while didactic, tends to be more joint cognition and clearly geared at a jr. audience – Boos, again, makes nobelium pretense at being a scholar instead of an enthusiast. That aforementioned, there's enough entropy there that most people are likely to memorise something from IT – I certainly did.

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Of course, the merchandising guide of Swords ISN't the schoolbook, simply the illustrations it accompanies. Ben Boos is a hugely skilled artist, and has clearly poured incredible amounts of effort, clock time, and devotion into the artwork seen in Swords. Every Thomas Nelson Page is filled with pictures of swords, armor, and the warriors who misused them, and the attention to detail and accuracy is really just unbelievable.

There are also exciting full-page spreads 'tween chapters done in full, vibrant color, and these are actually the tip jewels that jump even amongst the illustrations in the rest of the book. The book very feels like a love letter to totally things sword-related, and anyone who spends prison term with it can easily assure both Ben Boos' love for the blade and talent with the pen.

For gamers (or anyone other who agrees that swords are pretty freakin' awesome) who are eventually source to grow senior and start a family … asymptomatic, Swords is the kinda children's book I would have loved as a tyke, personally. For everyone else, if you like swords and the work of an incredibly skilled artist, Swords might just atomic number 4 worth an investment – or at to the lowest degree Charles Frederick Worth foliation through in a bookstall.

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Ben Boos might not be doing art for games these years, only that doesn't entail he's stopped up doing art for gamers … or anyone else who thinks that swords are just pretty damn sweet.

For further reading, check down our exclusive question with Ben!

SWORDS. Copyright © 2008 Ben Boos. Reproduced away permission of the publisher, Candlewick Press, Somerville, Artium Magister.