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Caramel reviews Warhammer 40000: Core Book

Today Caramel is talking to Sprinkles about his new Warhammer 40,000: Core Book.

Sprinkles: So Caramel, today we are talking about your new Warhammer 40000: Core Book. So maybe start by telling us a bit about it?

Caramel: Sure, this book is a rule book for the Warhammer 40,000 game. It includes a description for every army in the game and tells you about some of the units in the army.

S: Wait, let us start a bit slower. I know you like this game but honestly I do not know much about it. On the book website I read “In the grim darkness of the far future, there is only war.” That sounds utterly terrifying.

C: Yeah, I suppose.

In the grim darkness of the far future, there is only war.

In the 41st Millennium, warring factions from ancient civilisations and upstart empires fight endless battles across innumerable worlds. Humanity stands alone, beset on all sides by the heretic, the mutant, and the alien. There is no mercy. There is no respite. Prepare yourself for battle.

– https://warhammer40000.com

S: So this is supposed to be the future of our universe, right?

C: Yes, we are in the 41st century

S: And there are no humans or bunnies, I presume?

C: No, there are humans, but they mainly worship the God Emperor of Mankind.

S: Hmm, not loving that at the moment, but okay. And are they based on Planet Earth or is the main scene elsewhere in the universe? And are they the main heroes or villains or just one among many other races?

C: They are somewhere in between, not too evil, but not great people, either. And they do inhabit thousands of planets but their civilization has stagnated. Not terribly optimistic.

S: I see. So the game you play takes place about forty thousand years in the future when there is constant war in the universe. So what is the game like? Do you role play individual heroes? Do you lead armies or nations or planets?

C: You lead a single army, and the size of the army is determined by a point system. You usually have 1000 points, but in some game rounds, you can have more or less.

S: And do you cooperate with friends when you are playing with them? Or are you usually battling one another?

C: Both. Occasionally you have allies. At other times, it is just you and your army against all the other players’ armies.

S: I see. So are the battles random battles for power over a resource or a planet? Or is there an overarching goal, like beating the main baddies of the galaxy or pushing back invaders and reestablishing the dominion of an empire?

C: I think usually it is a battle over resources or knowledge that causes battles.

S: So why do you like this game? Because it is a neat strategy game?

C: Yes, I like the strategy needed to win..

S: And you like having an excuse to hang out with friends for an extended period of time?

C: Yes.

Caramel and Aeldari friend are reading and enjoying Warhammer 40000: Core Book. — Caramel and Aeldari friend are reading and enjoying *Warhammer 40000: Core Book*.

S: Alright, let us get back to the book. So the book is the rule book for the game then, right? But you were playing the game without it, so it is not only a rule book, is it?

C: Oh, it is a rule book. The way I was playing was by asking my friends about the rules.

S: So this is more like the Dungeons and Dragons type of thing, where the rules are quite complex and there is a wide range of things you can do or types of beings you can be.

C: Yes, kind of, but in Warhammer you control an army, In D&D, you control one person.

S: I understand that, I think. Okay, so tell me more about the book. It is a large-format and full-color book, printed on rather nice paper and with solid binding. I am assuming you look a lot at the pictures.

C: Yes, that is what I do a lot, but I also read the rules and the descriptions.

S: So do you think you will keep it as a reference book as you continue to play the game with your friends?

C: Yes, I think I will.

S: But you have already read this whole book from cover to cover? How long is it? How many pages does it have? It does look pretty thick.

C: It has 220 pages.

S: Hmm, so not too thick, you have read much thicker books before. So maybe it is the high quality paper that makes it so thick. Okay. But you have not yet answered all my questions. Maybe I should have asked them one at a time. So I will ask again. Have you read the whole book from cover to cover yet?

C: Yes, many, many times.

S: Well, that sounds very much like a strong endorsement! So I am guessing you like the book then.

C: Yes, greatly.

S: Here is the hard question though: would you have enjoyed this book at all if you did not know about Warhammer or did not like to play it already?

C: Well, I probably wouldn’t have gotten the book if I didn’t like the game, but I think maybe, the pictures and stories might have drawn me in if i just got to look at the book a bit.

S: Yeah, I can see that. You already like space-related things, you like Star Wars, you enjoy reading and learning about wars more generally, and you like fiction with aliens and spaceships. You also like role-playing games. I am guessing this has a lot of the things that you would like.

C: Yes, that is true. This Warhammer book has almost everything that I like: spaceships, robots, elves, and to top it all off, PICTURES!!!

S: There are elves?! That is awesome!

C: Well, technically they are called the Aeldari, but they are basically space elves with guns and cool armor, but I might be biased.

S: That does sound cool! But I think I know why you said almost everything though. There are no dragons!

C: Well, they have these things called heldrakes, which are robot dragons, but they are kind of sadistic.

S: I see. You probably prefer the dragons in Wings of Fire or How to Train Your Dragon. The ones who have different kinds of personalities, but can be kind and friendly and generous as well, right?

C: Yes, I do.

S: Okay, Caramel, I think this is already a very long post. So let us wrap things up. What would you like to tell our readers?

C: Stay tuned for more book bunny reviews!

Caramel and Aeldari friend will continue to read and enjoy Warhammer 40000: Core Book for many months and years to come. — Caramel and Aeldari friend will continue to read and enjoy *Warhammer 40000: Core Book* for many months and years to come.

Caramel reviews Oliver’s Great Big Universe by Jorge Cham

Caramel loves science and all sorts of factful books and documentaries. Today he is talking to Sprinkles about Oliver’s Great Big Universe by Jorge Cham, just published a couple weeks ago.

Sprinkles: So Caramel, tell us a bit about this book.

Caramel: This book is about a kid named Oliver. He is eleven and is starting middle school. He really likes science.

S: Kind of like you then, right?

C: Yes.

S: So is he anxious about starting a new school?

C: Yes he is. But he really really likes science, and he keeps talking about things he is learning. He talks about the universe, for example.

S: Tell me a fact he talks about that you did not know before.

C: He says the sun is squish-ploding.

S: What does that mean?

C: Essentially it means that the sun is squished by its huge gravity and then it explodes.

S: It keeps doing this?

C: Yes.

S: I wonder what the technical term for it is. Squish-ploding does not sound terribly technical. Anyways, what else did you learn?

C: If you lived in Mercury, you would be able to celebrate your birthday every three months!

S: I see. It is because the planet Mercury rotates around the sun much faster than our planet Earth?

C: Yep. Much faster.

Caramel is reading Oliver's Great Big Universe by Jorge Cham. — Caramel is reading *Oliver’s Great Big Universe* by Jorge Cham.

S: Okay, so I am guessing you like this book because it is full of facts.

C: Yes.

S: But it is not just a book of facts, is it? It is also about Oliver and how he is adjusting to his new school.

C: Yes.

S: Do you like Oliver?

C: Yes, he is cool. He knows a lot of scientific facts. In fact he wants to become an astrophysicist.

S: That is cool. So besides the science facts, is Oliver’s own story interesting, too?

C: Yes. He makes a friend eventually.

S: So I am guessing that this means the book has a happy ending.

C: Yep. Another reason why I liked the book!

S: I see. So if you were to describe the book in three words or so, how would you do that?

C: Factful, hilarious, science fun.

S: I think those work! So do you think any bunny could read this book and enjoy it?

C: I think so. There are many many funny pictures on each page, and I think the science is fun, but getting to know Oliver is really funny, too.

S: Yes, the author is the creator of a very successful web comic called Piled Higher and Deeper (also called PhD Comics). He was working on his doctoral degree at Stanford University when he began to publish these comic strips about graduate student life. Some of them are more like inside jokes than others, but a lot of them are really really hilarious.

C: I didn’t know that! But I can see he knows how to draw very funny things.

S: So I was curious about this book and now I know it is good. Thank you for sharing your thoughts about it. I will definitely want to read it myself too.

C: You should Sprinkles. I think you will really like it too.

S: I bet. So let us wrap up this review so I can grab the book from your paws and get started. What do you want to tell our readers?

C: Stay tuned for more book bunny reviews!

Caramel enjoyed reading Oliver's Great Big Universe by Jorge Cham and recommends it to all young bunnies who are curious about the world (and the universe!) around them. — Caramel enjoyed reading *Oliver’s Great Big Universe* by Jorge Cham and recommends it to all young bunnies who are curious about the world (and the universe!) around them.

Caramel reviews Star Wars: Complete Vehicles – New Edition

As it must be obvious by now, Caramel loves the Star Wars universe. And he has already reviewed a few related books for the book bunnies blog. (You might enjoy his reviews of Star Wars Encyclopedia of Starfighters and Other Vehicles by Landry Q. Walker, Ultimate Star Wars: New Edition, and 5-Minute Star Wars Stories by LucasFilm Press, if you have the time.) Today he reviews a 2021 book he received this week as a gift: Star Wars: Complete Vehicles, written by Kerrie Dougherty, Jason Fry, Pablo Hidalgo, David West Reynolds, Curtis Saxton, and Ryder Windham, and illustrated by Richard Chasemore, Hans Jenssen, John Mullaney, Kemp Remillard, and Jon Hall. As usual, Sprinkles is taking notes and asking questions.

Sprinkles: So Caramel, you seem to have found yet another book about Star Wars, and also about spaceships!

Caramel: Yep, I have. I am a lucky bunny!

S: I can see you are happy. So tell me a bit about this book.

C: Sure. It is a book about the ships in the Star Wars universe. So they have one or two pages about every single spaceship that appears in all the movies and each of the series, animated or not. Most of them are spread over two pages actually, and for each vehicle, there is a big cross sectional sketch of the inside of the vehicle, and then some text that gives a lot of facts about it, too.

S: I can see why you would love this book!

C: Yes, I guess I am a simple bunny with simple taste. I just like everything with Star Wars or spaceships or robots in it.

S: So tell me about your favorite ships then.

C: I think my favorite is the vulture droid, no question. Wait, no that is my second favorite. My real very first favorite is the Treadspeeder. It is a First Order ship, and it is a speeder, which means it goes on land.

S: Hmm, I can see it has a tank-like appearance but is for individual use.

C: Yes. And so I posed with that page open, so our readers can see it too.

Caramel is reading Star Wars: Complete Vehicles - New Edition, written by Kerrie Dougherty, Jason Fry, Pablo Hidalgo, David West Reynolds, Curtis Saxton, and Ryder Windham, and illustrated by Richard Chasemore, Hans Jenssen, John Mullaney, Kemp Remillard, and Jon Hall. He is looking at the page on the treadspeeder, his favorite Star Wars vehicle. — Caramel is reading *Star Wars: Complete Vehicles – New Edition*, written by Kerrie Dougherty, Jason Fry, Pablo Hidalgo, David West Reynolds, Curtis Saxton, and Ryder Windham, and illustrated by Richard Chasemore, Hans Jenssen, John Mullaney, Kemp Remillard, and Jon Hall. He is looking at the page on the treadspeeder, his favorite Star Wars vehicle.

S: Hmm, so what about the vulture droid?

C: Well it is a flying object, but it is also a droid …

S: So more like a robot.

C: Yes.

S: And you love robots, so I can see why you would love a droid, but why this one?

C: It’s a ship and a walker, so essentially a two-in-one thing, and it is just cool, you know?

S: I can see that. Okay. So if you were to summarize this book in three words, what would you say?

C: Blueprint-full, Star Wars-y, hmm…

S: I think you are just making up words now.

C: Yes.

S: Okay, how about a phrase or something that describes the book?

C: Amazing! Cool space ships and cool speeders, and cool other Star Wars stuff.

S: I see. All around cool then.

C: Yep.

S: I can see you really enjoyed this book Caramel. I am glad. Okay, let us wrap up this review. What would you like to tell our readers?

C: Stay tuned for more book bunny reviews!

Caramel loves reading Star Wars: Complete Vehicles - New Edition, written by Kerrie Dougherty, Jason Fry, Pablo Hidalgo, David West Reynolds, Curtis Saxton, and Ryder Windham, and illustrated by Richard Chasemore, Hans Jenssen, John Mullaney, Kemp Remillard, and Jon Hall, and recommends it strongly to any other hard-core Star Wars fans, as well as any other bunnies who like to think about spaceships. — Caramel loves reading *Star Wars: Complete Vehicles – New Edition*, written by Kerrie Dougherty, Jason Fry, Pablo Hidalgo, David West Reynolds, Curtis Saxton, and Ryder Windham, and illustrated by Richard Chasemore, Hans Jenssen, John Mullaney, Kemp Remillard, and Jon Hall, and recommends it strongly to any other hard-core Star Wars fans, as well as any other bunnies who like to think about spaceships.

Caramel reviews Make Your Own Press-Out Spaceships by David Hawcock

Today Caramel reviews a recent favorite, Make Your own Press-Out Spaceships, by David Hawcock. As usual, Sprinkles is taking notes and asking questions.

Sprinkles: So Caramel, as soon as you saw this book in a catalog, you wanted to get your paws on it. But it took us a while to get a copy. Was it worth the wait?

Caramel: Yes. It most certainly was.

S: So tell us a bit about the book.

C: This book has a lot of fun facts about space, and in between, there are special pages you push out and make spaceships with. As you can imagine, this made me very happy.

S: I can imagine. But I don’t have to. I saw you happily building a rover and a space shuttle already.

C: Yep. And next I’m going to build the purple spaceship at the end. I will call it the Dark Star.

S: That sounds cool!

C: It is!

Caramel is reading Make Your Own Press-Out Spaceships by David Hawcock. — Caramel is reading *Make Your Own Press-Out Spaceships* by David Hawcock.

S: So you said the book is full of facts. And we know you love facts and have a lot of them in your head already. Can you tell me one new fact you learned?

C: I learned about dark matter. Apparently it is “an invisible component of matter that makes up most of the universe.” According to the NASA website we found, “dark matter is composed of particles that do not absorb, reflect, or emit light, so they cannot be detected by observing electromagnetic radiation. Dark matter is material that cannot be seen directly. We know that dark matter exists because of the effect it has on objects that we can observe directly.” That is pretty awesome!

S: I agree, it is pretty awesome!

C: I also learned that it takes Mercury eighty-eight days to orbit the sun, but it takes Pluto 247 Earth-years! That is kind of sad!

S: Yes, so if we lived on Pluto, years would probably not be too useful as units of time, right?

C: I guess you could use them to measure things that take a longer time.

S: But our lifetimes would be less than a Pluto-year.

C: Unless we would be different there, and our lives would last about the same number but in Pluto-years.

S: Those lives would be long!

C: Yes, and they would be excellent!

S: Okay, let us not get too carried away. So I know the book has cool facts and cool spaceship models, but when you remove the pages to make the models, what remains of the book? Do you still have something left over?

C: Yes. They were clever and put the model pages separately from the main book pages with the facts and the pictures. Did I tell you about the pictures yet?

S: No.

C: Okay, let me tell you now then. On every page there are a lot of colorful illustrations of astronauts and spaceships and so on. The book is really fun to look at.

S: That’s neat Caramel. So can you describe the book to me in three words?

C: Colorful, factful, and craftful.

S: Okay, I know I have accepted “factful” before even though it is kind of a stretch, but I have never heard of “craftful”.

C: Well, I created it so it now exists. You do know what I mean.

S: Yes, I suppose you mean that the book is a book of paper crafts.

C: Yep. You got it.

S: Okay, let us say it works then. So maybe this is a good time to wrap up the review. What do you want to tell our readers?

C: Stay tuned for more book bunny reviews!

Caramel enjoyed reading Make Your Own Press-Out Spaceships by David Hawcock and made several of the spaceships already. Here he is posing with Rover the Rover and Kevin the Space Shuttle. — Caramel enjoyed reading *Make Your Own Press-Out Spaceships* by David Hawcock and made several of the spaceships already. Here he is posing with Rover the Rover and Kevin the Space Shuttle.