Books

Minireview: The Lies of Locke Lamora, by Scott Lynch

Good, non-derivative fantasy books aren’t all that common, but in The Lies of Locke Lamora Scott Lynch manages to pull off a fairly impressive debut. I bought the book because it had been receiving a lot of praise on various sites on the ‘net, and now having read the thing I have to concur. It’s not flawless, but it is a good, rollicking tale of thievery, murder and suchlike mayhem.

Set in the city of Camorr, it’s the tale of Locke Lamora and his “Gentlemen Bastards”, a group of thieves in a city of thieves. Camorr is explicitly built on top of “alien” ruins and is a crazy mixture of fantasy Venice and China Miéville’s New Crobuzon (at least in “feel”). Is Camorr set on an alien world, and is this set in humanity’s future? Or is it “just” fantasy, with explicit alien elements? Who knows… that distinction does not matter to the story. The city is interesting and baroque, and while there is magic (or something called “magic”, at least), it’s firmly in the hands of a sinister group of people called “Bondmages”.

All that aside, this is Locke’s story. Starting out as an orphan thief who “steals too much”, he narrowly avoids execution by landing in the tender care of a local priest… who turns out to be anything but. Locke’s singular abilities as a thief eventually make him the leader of a merry band of thieves, and over the years they manage to accumulate quite a fortune. Locke cultivates a myth of himself as the “Thorn of Camorr”, a supernaturally good swordsman and master thief who can walk through walls, and who does the Robin Hood thing. In reality, Locke is a barely competent swordsman and his main gift is his brilliant mind and his ability with disguises. Also in reality, the poor don’t see a penny of what he steals.

The story is told as partial flashbacks to Locke’s childhood and training, and partly as “what is happening now”. When we get to the “now” part, Locke and his gang are planning the biggest heist of their career. Things proceed mostly on track… until a third party intrudes forcefully. Also at the same time, the mysterious “Grey King” is terrorizing the mafia-like thieves guilds of the the city, killing of “capos” one by one. Since Locke has sworn fealty to one of those capos, events conspire to entangle him in the same web of murder and conspiracy. What starts out as a pure cash-based heist takes a decidedly deadly turn, and suddenly Locke and his friends are fighting for their lives against an enemy nobody has even seen in person.

It’s a good tale, and quite a page-turner once it gets going. It’s a bit slow around the beginning and doesn’t quite flow smoothly at all times, but those are fairly small complaints. The city of Camorr is exotic and interesting, as are the inhabitants. While it starts out as a sort of “Ocean’s Eleven in fantasy Venice”, it slowly becomes more bloody and serious as events progress. Well worth reading, especially if you’re bored with “stock” fantasy. […]

Minireview: Infernals (Exalted)

This is an interesting book. So far, most of 2nd edition Exalted has concerned itself with providing 2nd edition updates of stuff that existed in 1st edition. Sure, there has been a lot of (good) extra material thrown in and lots of nice improvements, but still…

Infernals is the first major addition to the line that has no counterpart in 1st edition (other than by brief mention and hints). As can be guessed, the book describes the “Infernal Exalted”, the Exalt shards given to the Yozis in exchange for some… favors back in the world history (I’m trying to avoid too many spoilers here). There aren’t very many of them, but they are potent and quite delicious opponent material. As with all the Exalted major hardcovers, this book makes the Infernals playable as PCs. However, it’s likely that the major use for this book will be as an antagonist NPC creation toolkit.

Contrasting this book with Abyssals is a fun exercise. While at first glance the Infernals and the Abyssals may seem similiar, they are actually worlds apart in style and motivation. Abyssals serve their masters in trying to destroy the world, to push it over the brink into Oblivion. The Infernals, on the other hand, do not want to destroy the world. They want to ruin it, to make it as much like Hell (Malfeas) as they can. Why? That would be a spoiler. Where Abyssals may relish in pain and torture “just because” and because it reminds them of the comforts of the grave, the Infernals use atrocities as a deliberate tool. Oh, and because they find it “fun”, in many cases – most Infernals aren’t exactly 100% sane, and most are just plain evil at this point. The Infernals go through a nasty process in order to be “born”, and one that is designed to strip away any vestiges of morality they might have had.. The Yozis give “their” Infernals much more leeway than the typical Deathlord gives his/her Deathknights… but the leash does exist, and getting a tug on it is not pleasant.

On the power scale, the Infernals seem more or less on the same level as Solars. In other words, damn strong. They are also not as crippled in Creation as Abyssals are, not to mention the Fair Folk. This makes them extremely dangerous. However, the fact that they typically want to operate “under the radar” (because of Heavenly retribution, among other factors) and the fact that they are simply very few in number make them quite balanced. At least in theory.

An interesting facet of the whole thing is that each “splat” of Infernals serves a specific different Yozi. This gives them a concrete reason for being very different and for having extremely varied operational modes, and it also opens up an avenue for expanding the lineup if the GM wants to. Very nice. Kudos must also be given to the mechanical side of things… since the Infernals are meant to act in typically “villanous” ways, they have been given various mechanical bonuses to encourage such. For example, an Infernal may get a bonus if he/she actually acts like a typical James Bond villian (prepares elaborate deathtraps, gives long speeches describing her Ultimate Evil Masterplan, etc). To be sure, this is not the first time Exalted does this; the idea that game mechanics should try to encourage a certain “style” is an old one and has existed from the get go in the game line (“stunts”, “limit”, etc). Still, I found the mechanics here to be especially fun and suitable for creating a certain type of Evil Bastard for your PCs to face.

I’d say this is a very good addition to the Exalted lineup, and having yet another canonical group of bad guys to throw at your players is never a bad thing. Especially since this group is wonderfully colorful and bizarrely motivated.

And then there is that certain upcoming wedding, which has everyone just shivering with anticip..p…pation… […]

Minireview: Tactical Space Support: Space Warfare (Heavy Gear)

Up to around this book, most of the Heavy Gear game line has been quite planetbound. This is a deliberate design decision, and a good one imho. However, at this point in the storyline things are starting to heat up in space, too, with the Black Talon teams doing missions to Caprice and the CEF continuing to send spies and resources to Terra Nova via micro-Tannhauser gates. As a result, the game starts to need rules for space operations and combat… and that’s exactly what this book provides. Despite the title, Tactical Space Support isn’t a miniatures supplement (the word “tactical” usually means that in HG books), it’s a rules supplement for the roleplaying game.

Despite being a fairly thin book, it’s crammed full of info – like most Heavy Gear books. We’re given details on the most common ships in the Terra Novan fleet, some basic details on gate travel, and lots of nitty gritty about equiment, operational detail and training. Also included are additional rules on how to handle vacuum exposure, microgravity environments and such. As par for the course for Heavy Gear, it’s firmly in the “hard scifi” department and fairly realistic – well, assuming you allow for “physics cheats” like the Tannhauser Gates that make interstellar travel possible in this game. There is no artificial gravity, and space is utterly deadly to those without proper equiment and/or proper training.

This is a fairly straightforward book. Very useful if you want to send your PCs into orbital environments or even further out, and in the “interesting read” category even if you intend to stay planetbound. […]

Minireview: The Great SF Stories 11 (1949), edited by Isaac Asimov & Martin Greenberg

Great SF Stories 11 is the last book I have in this series, the series itself being a one-book-per-year look at “classic SF”, as picked by Asimov & Greenberg. The quality of the stories has varied among the books, but I’ve usually found at least a few stories to really like in each. Sure, these are old stories, but many of these “later” (1950-ish) stories are actually ones that I’ve read before, in lots of other anthologies. In fact, I grew up reading a lot of these, so there’s quite a bit of nostalgia factor – and of course it’s interesting to read these now as an adult, I’m pretty sure I’m interpreting many of them differently now. Or at least I hope I am.

Anyway, this is one of the better books in this series (of the limited number I have and have read). Theodore Sturgeon, Lewis Padgett (i.e. Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore), James H. Schmitz’s classic romp “The Witches of Karres”, Clifford D. Simak… all the stories here are at least enjoyable, some are excellent. Asimov’s editorial “voice” is still as self-centered and annoying as ever, but Greenberg compensates for that.

For people interested in classic SF stories, this anthology series is a good bet. Not all of the stories are brilliant (the “SF” field was still developing and “pulpy” at the time) and the cultural mores of the times can lend bizarre extra weirdness at times… but that’s part of the charm. Out of print now, though, so used-book stores or eBay is the way to go. […]

Minireview: Pathfinder #20, House of the Beast

…and so we have the new Legacy of Fire adventure path swinging into gear, with House of the Beast (by Tim Hitchcock) forming part two of six.

It’s a dungeon crawl… but it’s a fairly interesting one, partly because it’s not really a “dungeon” crawl, more of a “temple crawl”. Some thought has been put into making the temple at least somewhat realistic, so instead of random monsters forming encounter after another, you instead get a living society (which is not necessarily 100% hostile towards the PCs) with multiple factions. This, to my mind, adds considerably to the interest level. In a somewhat unusual move, a long period of downtime is specified to have happened before this installment. The idea is that the PCs have “liberated” a small town from the clutches of gnoll raiders, and now they have actually been given time to build on that – build reputations, perhaps help govern the place, make friends (or enemies). Another nice touch.

The story, this time, starts when a wandering priest enters town limits and warns of a new growing gnoll war horde gathering at a far-off temple, under the leadership of the self-styled Carrion King responsible for the earlier raids. The PCs could just wait for them to attack or they could take the fight to them. It’s assumed that PCs choose the latter option, which to be honest is quite likely; especially so since the priest has some additional information which makes attack a tempting option…

I mostly liked this. Even though it’s a “dungeon crawl” as noted, it’s a fairly interesting one and there are lots of opportunities to make the PCs’ overland voyage to the “House of the Beast” an interesting one. I actually have only one niggle here: the planned actual goal of the module (which isn’t what the PCs/players imagine it is). Without giving away spoilers: the plot assumes that the PCs find something at the temple, something that is of key importance to the rest of the adventure path. What if the PCs just do the usual “kill & loot” routing and don’t find/notice the critical thing? At that point, some creative GM juggling will be required. To its credit, the adventure does note that this is an issue, and that the GM needs to have some alternate plans ready.

So, with 2 installments accounted for, Legacy of Fire looks like a very fun “Arabian Nights” -style adventure so far. […]

Minireview: Death Masks, by Jim Butcher

Death Masks is the fifth installment in the generally excellent and entertaining Dresden Files series. It’s a bit of a mixed bag, this time around.

On the plus side, the “metaplot” (if you will) seems to be slipping into gear; a lot of hints from the earlier books are given flesh here, and the world is becoming more complex and interconnected. Events from the previous book come back to haunt our hero, particularly a certain vampiric war he semi-inadvertently started, together with his almost-vampire ex-girlfriend. The Red Court wants to settle things and gives Harry a choice: duel their representative (to the death), or see his loved ones murdered. In case that wasn’t complication enough, a priest approaches Harry for help in recovering a stolen artifact. Oh, and some major-class demons are loose, too. Not to mention a headless body, which isn’t “loose” as such but is unidentified and possibly connected.

So yeah, it’s a page-turner like the previous books and a fun read. However, there were some niggles here that dropped it to less than perfect in my view. First off, while these books (and this sort of genre) always contains a certain number of “lucky escapes” and fortunate timings that stop the hero from getting splattered all across the room, here I feel there were a bit too many “last minutes saves” to feel believable. Well, as “believable” as a tale about mages, vampires, werewolves, ghosts and what have you will ever be, of course. Second, the artifact relating to one of the central plots here is the actual Shroud of Turin. Which has been stolen, and now somehow appears in Chicago. Well, sure, anything is possible… but really… the Shroud of frigging Turin? In Chicago?

In any case, it’s a fun read despite some small faults and I like how the Susan storyline advanced – lots of future possibilities there. […]

Minireview: Graceful Wicked Masques - The Fair Folk (Exalted)

Fun to read Exalted material that I wasn’t too familiar with before. Sure, 1st edition had the Fair Folk, but that’s one of the (few) 1st ed books I haven’t read – so while I cannot compare this new incarnation with the previous one, it was an interesting read with lots of new info (for me, that is).

So, Graceful Wicked Masques updates the “Fair Folk” (or Raksha, at they call themselves) to Exalted 2nd edition. First off, I love that they used the “Graceful Wicked Masques” title; as far as I understand, it was the working title for the 1st ed book but they decided to scrap it for the more mundane “Fair Folk” at some point. Fans objected, and now it’s the main title of the new book. This is a hardbound “exalt” book in the fashion of the previous books, so while the major use for this book will no doubt be in fleshing out NPCs, creating Fair Folk PCs is quite possible… if not exactly easy, due to the alien nature of the Fair Folk. The implications of this are discussed in the book.

To people coming from other games: the “fair folk” of Exalted are far from “elves”/”fae” in most other games. These are alien creatures who don’t really strictly exist as such; in “pure” form they are just matrices of Essence (energy) with one of more “feeding maws”… which can eat things like memories, feelings, and your will to live. In order to come over to Creation they need to create a physical “shell” for themselves, but that (often beautiful) apparition has nothing much to do with the real creature. Or it does, since most Raksha create shells which embody concepts which they are associated with – and concepts & drama is what the Raksha live on. In a way, they are imaginary, brain-sucking LARPers from hell. They wear their virtues as physical objects, and are absolute lords over their domain in the Wyld. In Creation… they are still dangerous, but more limited. As alien as they are to humanity, they are also alien to their original kin, the “unshaped” Raksha dwelling in the chaos of the Deep Wyld. The Unshaped, now, are again something different and bizarre. More intelligent “locations” (to use the word losely) than single creatures, with shattered multiple souls, they bear some similarity to the Yozis… without the malignant history found there.

Exalted “cosmology” is both surprisingly internally consistent (for a high fantasy game) and complicated. The Fair Folk form part of the more complicated section, simply due to what they are. In case your brain doesn’t start to overload from trying to understand the “base” Fair Folk and how they operate, we also have the Shinma. What they are… is anyone’s guess. Some of them form critical junction points “between” the Wyld and Creation, but other than that… hard to say. One Shinma is a gate through which a Raksha can recreate itself in a form suitable for Creation… but it’s not quite that simple. And it’s not a “gate” in a physical sense.

So, like I said, complicated. I’m not complaining, since the convoluted nature of Exalted metaphysics is one of many the reasons I like the game. I’m given to understand that this 2nd edition is easier to understand than the 1st edition, which is famous for RSB’s typical style of graceful but convoluted descriptive text. My brain is still complaining from trying to understand the Forest Witches from the 1st edition description…

This was an interesting book to read, and gave me lots of ideas on how to (better) use the Fair Folk in Exalted. I’ll have to re-read portions if I ever do anything more complicated with them, though, understanding things like Shaping Combat isn’t totally trivial. Or, to be more exact: I get the idea (I think), but would need serious think time to figure out how to run it in a game.

The reaction to this book has been pretty positive among people who have read the 1st edition version, so apparently this is another successful update book. […]

Minireview: Black Talon, Mission To Caprice (Heavy Gear)

The Black Talon book is the second of DP9’s tie-in books with an Activision computer game; this time, it’s a tie-in for the game Heavy Gear 2. I never played that one (or the first one), and apparently it doesn’t run well in Windows XP or later… I’ll just have to hope GOG or some such makes it available at some point. Anyway, like the first tie-in book this provides rpg background for the computer game and also acts as a campaign setting for a tabletop rpg game. It’s a pretty nifty setup, since it works both for people wanting background on the computer game and for people who just want a new campaign starting point.

This time round, things revolve around the new “Black Talon” program, the ultra-secret special ops teams that are sent to infiltrate Caprice and meddle with CEF forces there. So unlike most earlier HG stuff, this setting is deep into high-tech, high-skill special ops territory, with a space-based and off-world angle – deep insertion into hostile territory far from support, small teams which need to be extremely versatile and improvise and they go… in other words, a pretty great setup for an rpg campaign. Assuming you want to run a game where all the PCs are high-skill professionals right from the start, that is.

As a book, it’s pretty solid. It describes the events that lead up to the formation of the Black Talons and describes their (ever-evolving) methods of operation, methods of recruiting, and staging areas. A bunch of example NPCs (and possible player characters) are given, and there is also the customary long list of possible plot seeds and complications to them. The book finishes off with a list of technical specs for some new high-tech gears ( the “Dark” series), vehicles and other equipment.

Not bad at all. With this and some of the Caprice setting books, you could probably run a nifty “special ops commandos” game set on Caprice. There is also the option of including some space warfare (something that HG hasn’t had much of as a game line, previously), in case you want to either include some complications in transit to Caprice or if you want to focus on Talon missions in the Terra Novan system. […]

Minireview: Summer Knight, by Jim Butcher

The Dresden Files series just keeps on getting better (at least so far). Summer Knight is easily the best installment I’ve read yet.

Things just keep on getting worse for Harry Dresden. His girlfriend has vanished (on purpose) due to unfortunate events in the previous book, the vampire Red Court has a kill order out on him, and Harry himself is spiraling downwards fast. His friends try to intervene to little avail… until he is pursuaded to take on a new client. Who (to Harry’s horror) turns out to be the Winter Queen of the Faerie. Now, the faerie in these books are far, far from friendly Tinkerbelle territory – these have more in common with Exalted’s brain-sucking LARPers-from-hell and the new WoD’s “True Fae”. In other words: totally alien creatures who mimic humanity when and if it amuses them. And one of the most powerful among them requires help from Harry, and has a offer which is very hard to refuse.

I don’t want to give any other plot details away at this point, other than to say it involves messy Faerie internal politics and lots else besides. The plot twists are numerous and the action continuous. All in all I really liked this one. Some new characters are introduced and some old ones make an appearance, and the ending leaves lots of interesting plot possibilities open.

This series is progressively getting more complex and adding more “mythology” to itself. Will be interesting to see how long Butcher can keep it up, or if things will become repetitive at some point. So far, the books have avoided falling too deep into formula; while there are repeating events in each book, to date they have been varied enough to be interesting. […]