North Africa snowbound, time for literature

Actually there was a Bolt Action game sheduled for Friday evening, but unfortunately heavy snowfall started to haunt the Rhine area on Friday morning. Therefore our host -who is living a bit rurally outside of Düsseldorf- decided to cancel this meeting because his home was snowbound temporarily and he judged it to unsave to visit him. On the one hand I was a bit disappointed because I was eager for playing with the recently finished Indians, but on the other he was completely right: Weather is more powerful than plans of battle.

However the Ruhr-area where I live was hit during the night from Friday to Saturday. Since the streets in the middle of the city where covered with a thick white blanket on Saturday morning, I can imagine how countryside might have looked...

Bochum covered with snow... A view outside our daughter's window.

However thereby I was able to do a little reading on Friday evening and finished the fantasy novel I was reading recently:


"Elfenwinter" (engl.: Elven Winter) is the second part of Bernhard Hennen's excellent saga about the elfish realm "Albenmark" and the elfish people that lives there and their widely ramified web of allies and foes.
In this volume he describes an episode which was a side event in this first part "Die Elfen" (The Elves): The last war between the Elves and the Trolls. The author describes the events from the point of view of different main characters on the different side:
- Ollowain an elfish knight and captain of the guard of Queen Emerelle

- Alfadas a duke from the Nordic Fjordland which is allied with the Elves of Albenmark

- Ogrim a trollish leader who fights in the army of King Branbard and ascends during the campaign

All characters are well designed and each and every of them has his good and bad features. I enjoyed the passages about Alfadas and his army most. The mixed host of fierce, Nordic warriors and pledged peasants and workmen is presented so impressively that I took those Norsemen in my heart. But the other passages of the book are equally enjoyable. The elvish queen is obscure and her aims unclear, while the Trolls are not a crowd of brainless man-easters, but a people with a prfound background. They don't wage that war because of bare bloodthirst but to avenge a crime which was done to their people ages ago...

In any case I honestly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in epic fantasy stories. Unfortunately it isn't available in English, but as far as I know it's translated into Italian, Dutch, Czech and Ukrainian. In German it's available as book (of course...), as e-book and a audio book (which is probably shortend I fear). The book is from 2005 and since then Bernhard wrote several sequels and coherent stories about Albenmark.
"Elfenlicht" (Elven Light) which is the next episode is definitely one of the next books on my list. Actually I started reading it last week but another book forged ahead:

For my collection of Napoleonic miniatures I've been working on a conversion miniatures for Major General (later Lt. Gen.) Sir Richard Hussey Vivian. Some weeks ago I found a biography about him on Amazon and ordered it right away. It was originally published by Claude Vivian, the 5th baron Vivian, one of the general's descendants. Mainly it's a collection of letters from General Vivian furnished with historical notes from the author.
Although I have only finished the first twenty pages or so it seems to be good reading material and gives an interesting view into the life of an officer during the Napoleonic wars.

The book is available as hardcover and softcover from Leonaur Ltd. I decided to buy the cheaper paperback and enclose it with self-adhesive foil to protect it. Unfortunately I bought a very low prized product for that and the process of applying it caused several ugly wrinkles and some nasty curses. But however it doesn't endamage the pleasure of reading too much.

Well then... I hope you enjoyed that somehow unusual post and perhaps you became interested in one (or each) of the books I've enjoyed a lot. Later this week I plan to post a short tutorial about painting kilts.