Book Review: “Assassination! – The Brick Chronicle of Attempts on the Lives of Twelve US Presidents”
If the name Brendan Powell Smith doesn’t ring a bell, “The Brick Testament” certainly should. This LEGO rendering of the most important passages of the bible was turned into “The Brick Bible” in two volumes and has turned out to be a bestseller.
In the wake of this success Brendan Powell Smith now presents “Assassination!—The Brick Chronicle of Attempts on the Lives of Twelve US Presidents”. The publishing of the book coincides with the 50th anniversary of the assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy. To be quite honest that assassination and president Lincoln’s were the only two “successful” attempts I could remember, plus a failed attempt on the life of Ronald Reagan. However, the book records no less than 15 assassination attempts, including one on Barack Obama that I completely failed to missed—up until now—and does so in great detail.
The book documents every major step in the preparation and execution of these 15 attempts on 12 different presidents, in over 400 scenes, some of which even I recognized as recreations of famous photographs or pictures related to these assassination attempts. While practically everything in every scene is built with LEGO Except for a few painted backdrops) and a number of interesting techniques are used, not all of them are 100% legal—occasionally a piece appears to have been glued in place and I have spotted a few modifications as well as “compatible” parts. Even so, the scenes have a very LEGO feel, albeit a bit more violent than your standard LEGO set, but that can only be expected given the title of the book.
The chapters are entertaining to read and a full biography is provided at the back for anyone wanting to delve deeper into the subject.
This hard cover book has 272 pages of thick glossy paper with full colour photographs which take up about half of the space in the book. Considering the time and effort that went into publishing this book and the quality of its finishing, it comes at a surprisingly low price of $19,99. If you prefer, the publisher, Skyhorse Publishing also has an ebook of this title.
Thanks to Skyhorse Publishing for the book and the official pictures.
2040
