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The Suzerain rulebook is a slim fifty pages of very pretty plate artwork and a lot of apparent coffee spillage. Rather than being tied to a particular setting or world this Suzerain seems to be trying to pass itself off as a generic system with specific world books, though there are hints of the New Age mysticism and multiversal aspects in the fiction snippets and illustration explanations throughout the book. The immediate first impression is one of over-engineering for such a small book(let). For your money you get a brief introduction, basic rules, advanced rules, character creation and ‘Feats’ which covers the ground of skills, innate abilities (merits), innate failings (flaws) and special powers such as magic, cybernetics or SCIENCE!
For those of us who were geeks in high school, comparing prom to hell wasn’t much of a stretch. The same can absolutely be said of Maggie Quinn, who has no intention of getting conned into going to prom. She doesn’t have a boyfriend, so that’s not a concern, and her stalwart friends have mocked the dance as much as she has in the past. But as the dance nears, and supernatural danger strikes, all of Maggie’s plans are scattered. Welcome to Rosemary Clement-Moore’s Prom Dates from Hell.
Kristopher Reisz’s Unleashed sheds light on the steel city of Birmingham, with its cultural history and blue-collar community. Daniel Morning’s parents are far from rich: they struggle to make ends meet whilst doing everything they can to insure that Daniel and his brothers have a better future…even if it means cheating to get into an Ivy League college.
I’ll have to post something of a caveat up front: I’ve never read the first installment of the Morningstar Saga, Plague of the Dead. That will have to change pretty soon though, considering the quality of Thunder & Ashes.
The zombie apocalypse has come and gone, and a handful of survivors–some of them ex-military, and one a brilliant female scientist–are fighting to find a cure that will save the world. Yes, the plot isn’t exactly original, but the quality of the writing and the characters manage to elevate Thunder & Ashes above most novels that share this popular plot.
Scion is about the only recent output from White Wolf that I’ve really cared for other than Exalted. While the game overall seems to have been completed with Hero, Demigod and God it’s nice to see that it’s getting some ongoing support and even more nice to see that White Wolf seems to be one of the first companies to really start taking PDF publishing seriously. There’s still some imperfections, I believe the idea is to sell sections of the Scion companion bit by bit as complete PDF releases, but to omit some final sections which will only be present in the print version, but it’s a big step in the right direction and one that I hope will be followed up on by other companies. Incidentally, I was about to write a Celtic pantheon fan-offering up for Scion when this came along, so they just managed it in the nick of time!
In Dead to Me, reformed petty-crime naughty boy and psychometrist Simon Canderous (whose surname probably means something, but I haven’t checked the dictionary yet) works for New York’s Department of Extraordinary Affairs. Psychometry made me think of Kim Wilkins’s Gina Champion series, and the government made me think of Shane Maloney’s Murray Whelan series. But Anton Strout’s Simon Canderous is neither a teenage girl nor a political adviser (and not Australian, for that matter).
Cat Crawfield would love to kill her father. Literally. After raping her mother, he took off, leaving Cat as a reminder of the evening. Oh, and he’s a vampire, making Cat a weird sort of hybrid: living with but a vampire’s strength and speed. So as a way to get even, she starts hunting vamps, picking them up at clubs and staking them for all they’re worth. Every time she does it, there’s one less monster in the world. But then she meets Bones, a vampire far stronger than any she’s met before. When he threatens to kill her unless she studies under him, she challenges him to a duel of sorts–as the loser, she is forced to train with him, learning to be a better, more effective vampire hunter, ready to take on some of the big marks.
A few months ago I read the first three chapters of Jackie Kessler’s Hell’s Belles, but had to put it aside when I got caught up in library books and their due dates. My sieve of a memory left me doubtful of how well I could remember these opening stages when I picked the book up again the other day.
I needn’t have worried. I’m the first to admit that I’m very skeptical. Just because something is a best seller, or comes with gushy fangirlies, that doesn’t mean that it’ll automatically appeal to everyone. But I’m happy to report that this novel did appeal to me.
This is a collection of short stories by Jeff Vandermeer both tangentially and directly about a fictional fantasy city called Ambergris, noted for its somewhat piratical past, the presence of mysterious and sinister mushroom men and freshwater squid. It is also very, very, very weird and very, very, very surreal. I suppose, broadly, it fits into the general thrust of the urban fantasy movement but it is also a damn sight weirder, more Burroughs than Mieville. One story might be a more conventional fantasy story, another might play with the relationship between fantasy and reality and the other might leave you scratching your head and reaching for the dictionary just so you could read something fully comprehensible for a change.
The problem I have with anthologies is that the quality of the stories varies greatly, as far as I’ve read. Thus, I am not a big fan. Indeed, the authors in this collection are varied: some of them you know well from various paranormal novels, while others are dipping into the supernatural for the first time (they’re primarily mystery writers, on the cosy side, I think). Instead of judging the collection as a whole, let’s look at the stories individually:
The game of Dungeons & Dragons is, at its core, a game of epic fantasy. The characters we choose and role-play more closely resemble the mythological heroes of ancient times or modern fantasy literature. The nature of an epic fantasy adventure is that the hero(es) will face a great threat which will endanger the lives of innocents/family/the world. There will be a great struggle, but the outcome is never in question. Epic fantasy stories end with our protagonist overcoming the long odds and great trials to become a truly legendary hero. But this begs an interesting question.
Kate Daniels is a down-on-her-luck merc who has enough trouble paying the bills that the last thing she needs is taking on a charity case. But when her guardian, a member of a magical group of public defenders known as the Order, is murdered, she’s determined to see the last of her family given justice. In order to do so, she has to play nice with the Order, which she left years ago due to her problems accepting authority. When it turns out that both the People–necromancers who use vampires as spies and assassins when it’s good for business–and the shape-changing members of the Pack may be involved, things quickly move from complicated to delicate. And delicate isn’t a word that anyone would associate with Kate Daniels.
Sometimes rolling the dice or holding the controller just isn’t enough…This week’s Flash Fire Mini-Reviews will be exploring some of the different Live Action Role Playing options folks have for getting in character and having some fun.
Whether you are part of an ongoing global campaign like the Camarilla or just looking for a fun party game for a few friends, LARP is available in a vareity of products.
The Tower is a supernatural horror story that reworks the traditional haunted house fable. In true demonic fashion Simon Clark takes a fledgling band to a secluded house in Yorkshire and proceeds to terrorize them. This is the kind of book where you don’t think of the participants as characters but a group of victims shuffling along to their demise.
The protagonist is Fisher, the bass player, who at first is only concerned with Fabian, the disruptive presence in the band. Fabian has ambitious plans and it seems nothing will put him off pushing the group towards stardom. It’s decided that the band need a quiet place to rehearse some new songs and a month long house sitting job is secured. However, The Tower has plans of it’s own and Fisher’s concerns suddenly become more tangible than just keeping the band together.
Some of the stories have interesting premises, but sabotage themselves with clunky writing or clumsy execution (the first two stories, Adam and Eve Versus the Human Race by Alexander Zelenyj and Waking Finnegan by Joseph Benton are prime examples of this). Other stories have competent but unremarkable writing but tired, clichéd plots–A New Year’s Tale by Dave Bartlett starts off promising, but quickly turns into something extremely similar to The Hills Have Eyes.
There are a few pieces that are quite good. The two opening poems by Guy Belleranti are atmospheric and effective. Unfortunately, the rest of the poetry included in this anthology doesn’t work quite as well. But, it has to be said, revenants aren’t the most inspiring subjects when it comes to poetry.
Axiom-Man is a superhero whose true identity is a bumbling social introvert named Gabriel Garrison. Gabriel works in an office and he’s madly in love with Valerie Vaughn, the gorgeous coworker who predictably won’t give him the time of day. Axiom-Man’s conduit to the rest of the world, especially its seedy underbelly, is Sgt. Jack Gunn, an old school lawman with whom he shares a love-hate-love relationship of mutual necessity. If you’re keeping track, that’s one Superman, a Clark Kent, Lois Lane with a twist of Vicky Vale, and a generous helping of Commissioner Gordon. These clichés don’t exactly stop this story dead, but they certainly don’t make for the most compelling read either.
The subtitle is The Book of Undead and that accurately captures the thrust of this entire work. For me, this work was long coming as I still have my copy of the 2nd Edition Necromancer’s Handbook on my gaming shelf (okay, shelves). That book allowed us to live out our darker desires in D&D; a game whose objective morality often prevents those who want a little taste of the dark side from enjoying themselves. That handbook, like Libris Mortis promises us the chance to peer deeper into the unlife of undead from every angle. Let’s face it, who doesn’t sit at work some days, when your boss is breathing down your neck, and Sheila from accounting is emailing you thirteen times an hour for the TPS reports, and dream of summoning a horde of the undead to wipe them all out.
We’ve covered vampires, zombies, magic and more in past Flash Fire Mini-Reviews. This week we’re going to take a look at a genre that often blends Sci-Fi with Horror and Adventure with Mystery…sometimes all at once.
Post-Apocalypse stories often show a bleak future, but can offer a bit hope as well.
The civilized world has come to an end, in the rubble the survivors battle horrors and each other in an attempt to gather resources and perhaps to rebuild their world. Post Apocalyptic settings are the subject of this week’s Flash Fire Mini-Reviews.
We’ve got a mix of games, fiction and a movie to explore this week. Each with a different spin on just what Post-Apocalypse means…
A great follow-up tale to Stolze’s earlier Requiem novel A Hunger like Fire, this time we learn about some new members of Chicago’s undead society. Most of the characters in this book, with two notable exceptions, are members of the Lancea Sanctum Covenant. The two exceptions are “Earth” Baines and Aurora…but I’ll get to them a little later.
Events in A Hunger like Fire have put Solomon Birch, the ranking member of the Lancea Sanctum, in a dangerous position. A few members of the Covenant feel he is no longer fit to lead them and begin planning his removal as Bishop. Deals are made, gossip is whispered, and pawns are set into motion.
This is it, all your Conan stories all in one spot accompanied by an able and long article on the author, a nice long introduction to the world of Hyboria and a smattering of black and white art – both endpieces and plates – to bring some of the old feel of the mystery magazines back in. This is what it says on the tin, a full on compilation of everything Conan behind a nice looking inlaid cover.
The Suzerain rulebook is a slim fifty pages of very pretty plate artwork and a lot of apparent coffee spillage. Rather than being tied to a particular setting or world this Suzerain seems to be trying to pass itself off as a generic system with specific world books, though there are hints of the New Age mysticism and multiversal aspects in the fiction snippets and illustration explanations throughout the book. The immediate first impression is one of over-engineering for such a small book(let). For your money you get a brief introduction, basic rules, advanced rules, character creation and ‘Feats’ which covers the ground of skills, innate abilities (merits), innate failings (flaws) and special powers such as magic, cybernetics or SCIENCE!
