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Review: The Maker’s Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse
The inevitable zombie apocalypse will be upon us sooner than we think. Many of us think about what weapons we’ll use to battle them when it happens, and sometimes think about where we might hold up to defend ourselves from them, but what happens after that? How will we communicate with other survivors? Where will we get electricity? Luckily Simon Monk thought about these things and put them in The Maker’s Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse for us to have at the ready when the time comes.
Review: The LEGO Adventure Book Volume 3
I previously reviewed The LEGO Adventure Book Volume 1 and Volume 2. Both were excellent resources for building and learning how to build original creations with LEGO, so when I was offered The LEGO Adventure Book Volume 3, I had to check it out and see more of Megan Rothrock’s excellent work.
Review: The LEGO Architect
Walk around any major city and you’ll see people looking up at the buildings and admiring the architecture that surrounds them. Buildings of all shapes and sizes capture the imagination of those that look up at them. LEGO has even put out an architecture line to capture many of these famous buildings in their tiny plastic bricks, so it made sense for No Starch books to put out The LEGO Architect by Tom Alphin.
Review: Medieval LEGO by Greyson Beights
The medieval period of English history is often romanticized. There have been a myriad of movies of the period and people attend renaissance festivals in attempts to reenact the period, and people often build castles out of LEGO, so a book combining the two makes perfect sense. Medieval LEGO by Greyson Beights from No Starch Press brings it all together to be a simple history book illustrated by LEGO creations.
Review: Ultimate Star Wars
The internet has taken what was initially a play on words and turned May the Fourth into a day of celebration called Star Wars Day. It has gone beyond the initial holiday and it has further been coopted to be adopted by consumer culture. To participate in yesterday’s “holiday,” DK Publishing released a comprehensive encyclopedia of all things within the Star Wars universe entitled Ultimate Star Wars.
LEGO Star Wars in 100 Scenes
Growing up, movies weren’t so readily available. When I couldn’t watch Star Wars, I would read books and look at Topps cards to relive the story, when I wasn’t making my own adventures with my toys. DK Publishing is merging the adventures created with toys with the storybooks in LEGO Star Wars in 100 Scenes.
Review: The LEGO MINDSTORMS EV3 Discovery Book
The LEGO Mindstorms EV3 system is a great way to build robots or other autonomous creations, but it can have a steep learning curve. For those not familiar with Technic or Mindstorms, it is a different type of building experience than the LEGO System and the programming can be a new experience for a lot of people. For those beginners who need a place to start, The LEGO MINDSTORMS EV3 Discovery Book by Laurens Valk is a possible starting point.
Review: Incredible LEGO Technic: Cars, Trucks, Robots & More!
When most people think of LEGO, they think of the brick based building system that they grew up with, but LEGO has a second building system started in 1977 that is still going just as strong. The Technic system uses beams rather than bricks to create more complex machine based builds. While Technic has a more mechanical feel to its builds, the book Incredible LEGO Technic: Cars, Trucks, Robots & More! by Pawel “Sariel” Kmiec shows some of the more creative and advanced builds that utilize the Technic system.
Review: Steampunk LEGO
In the 1980’s, Steampunk was developed as a reaction to the growing Cyberpunk movement. Rather than the dystopian future fiction that was being developed, a reactionary fiction wherein the Industrial Revolution never came to pass and culture became stuck in the Victorian Era and all machines were steam powered. With time, the Steampunk movement grew and art and costumers created their own interpretations, including LEGO builders. In the new book Steampunk LEGO, Guy Himber shows off some of the Steampunk LEGO creations.
Review: The Art of LEGO MINDSTORMS EV3 Programming
Many Mindstorms books teach how to use the kit by teaching how to make particular robots which work in a particular way. While this is a good way to learn how to build a Mindstorms robot, it is limiting the kinds of robots you learn to build and how the knowledge can be applied beyond those limited projects. Alternatively, there is The Art of LEGO MINDSTORMS EV3 Programming, a book focused primarily on the actual programming of the Mindstorms EV3 rather than overall robots.
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