The Book Thread

[Voros]

Similar to the movie thread I thought it would be nice to have a thread to chat about RPG relevant books that aren't rulebooks that we may be reading. Fantasy, horror and sf are obviously welcome but so are crime or western novels and anything else that's been turned into an RPG.

Right now I just started the second book in Barbara Hambly's James Asher/vampire novels from the 90s. There were only two books in the 'series' and this is the sequel. The first, Those Who Hunt the Night, is a lot of fun, Asher is a detective in turn of the century London hired by a vampire to track down someone who is knocking off vampires. Hambly is a sturdy prose writer but even better plotter and no slouch when it comes to characterization either.

Hambly's vampires are few in number, have powerful sway over humans they use to get by as they are literally living corpses and need to disguise that they don't breathe or eat and give off a faint scent of rot.

Too early to tell if this will live up to the original, I usually avoid series or sequels for that reason, but if it is half as good it will still be worth my time.

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[Spike]

Once again I'll contribute Audio Books, since I just got back from a road trip to Kaneda.  

I bought and listened to two of the Alex Archer Rogue Angel books (there are at least 52 currently, based on the highest title number I saw), making for three total. These are... bad, but frankly I've done all the Travis McGee audiobooks, so all my choices tend to be bad now.  

The Setup is Archeologist and Celebrity (archeologist) Annja Creed is the chosen/sacred bearer of Joan of Arc's broadsword, which she magically summons to her hand from 'the otherwhere' as needed.  While travelling the world filming her cheesy Archeology hit-show, Chasing Histories Monsters (river monsters?) she inevitibly scooby-doo's into some sort of horrific plot that requires that someone gets a swording.

The Good:  The history, which almost always includes an opening chapter set in the past, is excellent. I'm guessing the research into other aspects (such as language) are generally excellent as well, at least it seems that way to me.  Note that this is true even when the plot setup is patently absurd (such as: Having a lost mayan city in Wisconsin...)

The Bad: Despite having two immortals she can call up for favors and a sword that teleports, there is very little supernatural in the three books I've read.  The sword seems to have no real special magic powers other than its 'elsewhere' ability and possibly indestructibility.   The plots are Scooby-Doo levels of mundanity dressed up as spooky... though there are some freakish to the point of supernatural things going on... such as an entire living Incan city off the coast of Costa Rica that no one knows about, the afforementioned lost Mayan city protected by generations of psychotic little girls with an obsidian sacrificial dagger and so forth.  Lastly the books are formulaic as hell in the smallest of ways. Annja will use her sword at least once to open a locked door while people are in the next room, she'll get her head knocked in by an ambush at some point (and/or drugged) just to make the fight's harder. She'll probably be knocked out several times and will be captured at least once (to solve the plot, since she apparently sucks at solving mysteries in any other way...), etc.  Oh, and she will be betrayed at least once in a big way.

In fact in the last book (I read) she was betrayed twice.  When travelling to an exotic island they were attacked by pirates who, it turned out, were working FOR the boat captain they'd chartered. This was chapter two, people!  Oh, and the pirates wanted the treasure supposedly buried on the island they were travelling too... so why attack on the way TOO the island???  Sigh.  Later the woman who hired her, and who was a likeable character for most of the book, turns out to be a sociopathic monster/rival treasure hunter who had hired Annja under false pretenses.

The Ugly:

Annja Creed is the worst sort of Mary-Sue character... even more unforgivable as "Alex Archer" is actually a half dozen or so authors (including at least one named Alex Archer... weird...).  She's worst than most Mary Sue's in fact, because she is a crazy bitch.  Two or three times per book she will have to 'one up' some random character by kicking their ass over some minor slight to prove how bad ass she is. Most of the supporting characters are written to be the worst sort of incompetent cowards, until they inevitably betray her and suddenly become nigh indestructable rage-machines who will, inevitably, run straight onto her sword when its time for them to finally die and be forgotten.  I should point out that luring bad-guys to charge her and impale themselves on her sword is her favorite move, which may indicate how awful the action can be, though it isn't always.  She snarks and antagonizes everyone around her and is usually as good, if not better, than the experts around her in various things.

Then there is the fact that these very short books (five hours on CD, vs 10~ for the Travis McGee mysteries or the Deathlands books, neither of which was known for being doorstoppers) tend to be dragged out by a combination of repetition of plot information, universally poor decision making from the main character (Plot driven by Stupidity) and other nonsense, which makes it hard to simply relax and let the story flow.

All in all, I think I'll give this series a pass moving forwards, and I'd recommend the same.

[Dumarest]

I'm not familiar with those books or that genre. But if anyone wants to talk about Ian Fleming, Frederick Nebel, Edward Aarons, E.C. Tubb, or Louis L'Amour, let me know.

[kosmos1214]

I'm not familiar with those books or that genre. But if anyone wants to talk about Ian Fleming, Frederick Nebel, Edward Aarons, E.C. Tubb, or Louis L'Amour, let me know.

those are 100 % valid and are defiantly good sources to mine for gaming stuff feel free to post on them.

[Voros]

Thanks for the review Spike, those books sound odd.

Fleming and Tubb are quality stuff. What's your favourite of each Dumarest?

For me, Fleming hasn't topped Casino Royale which almost reads like a Robbe-Grillett novel with its focus on surfaces, physicality and barely suppressed perversity. But then Grillett was influenced by Cain and Chandler, maybe even Fleming so I guess it makes sense. Second favourite Fleming is From Russia With Love.

E.C. Tubb seems to get a lot more love in his native England. I've only read three so far: Kalin,  Eloise and Jondelle. What would be your favourite? Have you read any of his work outside of the Dumarest series? Those are harder to find.

[Spike]

Thanks for the review Spike, those books sound odd.

.

Heh. I barely touched on the oddities.  In two of the three books I 'read', the 'big bad' actually escapes only to be shot in the face by one of the aforementioned Immortal Buddies in a coda chapter, which is oddly specific (like the sword-door-opening).   Also, I noticed the audio-book versions (which are 'directed' by the main voice actress) actually include a moment when the actress/director actually flubs a line and says 'Oops' in at least two of the three books, and its just left in there.

The Deadlands ones are better, mostly. I disagree with some of the choices for voice talent, but only a little. I just sorta got hung up on one that was more a 'clip show' reminiscence book rather than a fully plotted story and I just couldn't bring myself to continue. I'd rather read them than listen anyway, and I found I preferred the spin-off series set in either an alternate post-apoc, or the future of the deadlands post-apoc, I'm not sure which.

[Dumarest]

Thanks for the review Spike, those books sound odd.

Fleming and Tubb are quality stuff. What's your favourite of each Dumarest?

E.C. Tubb seems to get a lot more love in his native England. I've only read three so far: Kalin,  Eloise and Jondelle. What would be your favourite? Have you read any of his work outside of the Dumarest series? Those are harder to find.

I'll have to check my shelf and remember which story is which, there are so many. The only two I don't have are the last two, which are hard to find (at least, that is, at a price I'm willing to pay).

As for the Bond novels, I'm currently re-reading them in sequence and am just about at the end of Goldfinger, which is 7th out of 12 novels (not counting two collections of shorts). Of the seven I've re-read, so far I liked From Russia with Love and Goldfinger best. Casino Royale was good but I found it felt like Fleming was still feeling out what Bond was going to be about and the scope is very small and inconsequential. From Russia with Love is especially interesting because of the sheer number of bad mistakes Bond makes. My least favorite was Diamonds Are Forever, mainly because of the improbable mobsters used as the bad guys (the private train and ghost town just felt silly and unlikely to me).

I also have a non-Bond Fleming novel called The Diamond Smugglers but haven't had a chance to read it yet. As for Tubb, I haven't read any of his books outside the Dumarest series so I would be interested in knowing more about them.

[Voros]

From Russia with Love is my second favourite Bond novel. He makes a lot of mistakes in CR too, is this intentional by Fleming or just a way to advance the plot? If your protagonist is perfect then the plot should grind to a halt.

Apparently Tubb's 50s space opera and his short stories are all worthwhile.

[Dumarest]

Well, I certainly find Bond more interesting because he is fallible and sometimes distracted. Imagine how boring it would be if he were always right. Another secret agent character/series I really like is the Sam Durell books by Edward S. Aarons. I find them more realistic (or realistic feeling, anyway) and grounded than the Bond novels, although I find his relationship with Deirdre to be dull for the most part and think things always pick up once she is off the page.

[Voros]

Eric Ambler's spy novels from the 30s are absolutely fantastic. Many were turned into very entertaining Peter Lorre/Sydney Greenstreet films in the 40s during the war.

[Dumarest]

Eric Ambler's spy novels from the 30s are absolutely fantastic. Many were turned into very entertaining Peter Lorre/Sydney Greenstreet films in the 40s during the war.

I don't know him at all; I'll have to see what the library has. What's a good one to start with?

 Another writer I need to get around to is Wodehouse as I hear the Jeeves & Wooster stories are good.

Not spies, but I love the Nero Wolfe / Archie Goodwin books by Rex Stout as well. I keep hoping for the chance to rip off some of the plots and mix them with Frederick Nebel's South Seas stories for a pulp game rife  with mysteries and cliffhangers and air action in the South Pacific. Probably use Daredevils for that just because even Justice Inc. sometimes feels too record- eeping-heavy in the Hero Games tradition. Maybe GURPS.

[Voros]

Nero Wolfe use to pop up on PBS all the time no?

[Dumarest]

Nero Wolfe use to pop up on PBS all the time no?

I have no idea! But they did a series on some cable channel with Maury Chaykin as Wolfe and he was really good.  Timothy Hutton played Archie. It only ran for two seasons. Might have been AMC or A&E or something like that. I remember it being well done but haven't seen it in a long time. Maybe ten or fifteen years ago?

[Voros]

Yeah that must be it. Thanks I'll check it out.

[Spike]

Well, I did mention upthread that I have "read" John Macdonald's Travis McGee novels. All of them.  They are classics for a reason, though I will admit that binge "reading" them like I did is not really good for your opinion on anything... the seams start to show when you're mainlining all 24 books.

Still, they are ripping good books. I'd say mysteries, but really there rarely is a real mystery in them (that is Travis generally knows whodunnit from the first chapter...), and... far more interestingly... as they were written over two of the most... exciting? culturally variant?... decades ever, they make for a curious slice of life.  Macdonald would have been in his fifties when he started writing them in 1964, so he's an outsider to the youth culture that sprung up and carried through the seventies, which weirdly makes him a sympathetic witness for the audience (er, in the literary sense that we can identify with him and see things through his eyes... not the more common use of sympathetic).