The Horus Heresy Vol I : Visions of War

Rating:
Summary: Decent, but not outstanding
Review: For a book which carries a $29 list price, it was lacking in the depth of art it covered. As mentioned in the other review, the artwork was from the Warhammer Collectable Card Game (CCG) by Sabertooth games. There is nothing wrong with the art, but I would liked to have seen more work from Games Workshops own artists who done many excellent pieces. The text was really the high point for me. The background of the Horus Heresy was interesting and gave me some added understanding of the 40K universe. In short, a decent book but not a great one. Probably not worth buying at the list price.

Rating:
Summary: Some Good Art, Some Good Background Material
Review: This art book is the first of a series that will be released, providing artwork and background material covering the Horus Heresy era of Games Workshop's "Warhammer 40,000" game setting. The artwork comes from a related collectible card game, "The Horus Heresy," from Sabertooth Games.

Taken by itself, this book alone may not be all that impressive to some: the amount of artwork presented is limited, and even though there is a good amount of written background material it covers only a small slice of the "historical" era in question. But as this is only the first in what will presumably be a multi-part set of books covering the whole of the Horus Heresy, it isn't really meant to stand on its own. It's only the first chapter, as it were, and will undoubtedly look much better when accompanied by others in the set.

I myself enjoyed seeing the artwork presented, and the background material is an essential account of events that shaped the fictional "history" of the Imperium of Man in GW's "Warhammer 40K Universe." Granted, it could have contained more art and more background.... but then it would have cost more, too!

This is a must-have for anyone who's a die-hard fan of Warhammer 40K.

Rating:
Summary: Disappointing, but a good read...
Review: This book is merely a collection of artwork used in an upcoming CCG that Games Workshop is releasing. With the vast amount of artwork that GW has created on this subject over the last 15 years, I was hoping for a real in-depth visual history of the heresy. That is not what this is. It does contain work from John Blanche(of course), Adrian Smith, and many others. But there is no older artwork to speak of, just work related to the CCG. Not to say this book is a complete waste, the text is quite good. It is exhaustive in it's discussion of all aspects of the subject, but this is an art book, and in this regard I think it really lacks.