N7: The Fallible Fiend by L. Sprague de Camp

Book Review!

N7: The Fallible Fiend by L. Sprague de Camp

Gary Gygax specifically recommended L. Sprague de Camp’s novel The Fallible Fiend. In reading this tale, I clearly see the influence of the work as it gives the first-person point of view of a fiend named Zdim summoned to serve a wizard on the prime material plane on a contract with a one year term. The story develops with the contract sold to someone else, as the chapters detail Zdim serving different masters and getting caught up in the problems of the local town. I read the 152-page paperback with copyright years of 1972, 1973, and 1981.

The Good

*The author delivers the story from a fun, interesting point of view with Zdim providing “outsider” commentary on the humans.

*The fantasy names sound realistic for the setting.

*Zdim came across as a sympathetic protagonist despite his fiendish identity.

The Bad

*MILD SPOILERS: Just as I began to like the wizard’s apprentice, he *ahem* died; unfortunately, I saw that coming since the back cover of the book gave away that spoiler.

D&D Connections & Inspirations

*The setting felt very much like a D&D world; in fact, I easily see Gygax reading this story and modeling a setting after the characters and situations within the book’s pages.

*I know some modern realists complain about the leather armor in D&D, but this book gives an example in fantasy context with the town’s defenders using boiled leather for headpiece and cuirass.

*The fiend in this story came across as dragon-like, even called a dragon-man; I always wondered about Tiamat reigning as one of the fiend-lords of the 9 Hells and the original concept connecting dragons/lizardkin with the fiends. This story at least provides some insight for why the evil leader of dragons rested in the fiend-spectrum in old D&D lore.
*The governments operated as city-states, likely inspiring the early D&D settings.

Overall

I give the work a 8/10 rating because of its unique point of view and captivating evolving story structure.

N7-8: The Carnelian Cube by L. Sprague de Camp & Fletcher Pratt

Book Review!

N7-8: The Carnelian Cube by L. Sprague de Camp & Fletcher Pratt

Since de Camp and Pratt appeared both collectively and individually In “Appendix N,” I want to present a work co-authored by them and explore their stories as individual authors. First up, I give you a team effort; Gary Gygax recommended The Carnelian Cube by L. Sprague de Camp & Fletcher Pratt, a work that very much contains an Inception-like tale published by in 1948. The paperback book I read contained a secondary copyright date of 1967. The protagonist of this story ends up in a dream within a dream within a dream within… you get the idea.

The Good

*The first time Arthur Cleveland Finch wakes up in a new reality, the authors created a vibrant, engaging false reality for him.

*I enjoyed reading how Finch adapted to each new setting/reality.

*The witty political satire with each new reality came across really well.

The Bad

*I felt each new setting generated less interest to me until the final one, but that likely stems from the first dream setting coming across so strongly.

*Some readers might dislike how easily Finch comprehends each new reality, expecting him to struggle more.

D&D Connections & Inspirations

*The Carnelian Cube clearly inspired the D&D magic item called a Cubic Gate, which plane-shifts its wielder to a different world/plane for each side of the cube.

*This book, like several others, clearly provides alternate Earths/realities.

Overall

While the beginning and ending of the story greatly captivated me, the middle section thrilled me less; thus I give this book a 7/10 rating.

N6: Giant of Worlds End by Lin Carter

Book Review!

N6: Giant of Worlds End by Lin Carter

The legendary writer and editor Lin Carter appeared on Gary Gygax’s “Appendix N” with a specific mentioning of the “World’s End series.” For today, I present a review of the 141-page novel Giant of World’s End.

The Good

*While many of the classic fantasy stories start out with a slow pace, this book captured by attention from the first page.

*The chapters always ended with some type of cliffhanger or suspension-creator.

*The wizard Zelobion uses a mix of magic and science since this story included a dying world aspect.

*The inclusion of words like “borogoves” added some extra wow factor.

The Bad

*I easily predicted the “twist” at the end, but I only include that here because I feel bad if I leave this section blank.

D&D Connections & Inspirations

*The main characters consist of a giant fighter and a half-nixie/human wizard.

*The description of the giant Ganelon emphasized his strength and constitution.

*The story felt like a D&D campaign with two players on a world exploration journey, who eventually add a third player to the team.

Overall

This book captivated me when I read through it. I give the work a 9/10 rating and highly recommend the story.

N4:“Armageddon” by Frederic Brown

Story Review!

N4:“Armageddon” by Frederic Brown

In “Appendix N” from the AD&D Dungeon Master’s Guide, Gary Gygax recommended Frederic Brown’s work. I own a large hardbound book called From the Ashes: The Complete Short SF of Frederic Brown and decided to review my favorite Brown short story “Armageddon.” Even at only four pages, this 1941 story really packs a punch.

The Good

*I love irony and paradox, especially when delivered as surprises.

*The childlike wonder and mischievousness came across really well.

*The short flashback/explanation from the father at the end worked perfectly. Flashbacks often annoy me, but this one comes across and short and sweet.

The Bad

*I felt slightly confused in the middle of the story, but not for long.

D&D Connections & Inspirations

*SPOILERS: The story involved summoning a fiend.

*SPOILERS: Holy water was used to stop the fiend.

Overall

This story truly delivers and gave me a delightful feeling with the narrative twists and turns. Thus I give Brown’s story a 9/10 rating.

N3: “The Jewel of Bas” by Leigh Brackett

Story Review!

N3: “The Jewel of Bas” by Leigh Brackett

For the “Appendix N” entry in which Gary Gygax recommended Leigh Brackett, he provided no specific titles. In The Best of Leigh Brackett edited by Edmond Hamilton, I found several really interesting stories. For this review I decided to focus on the 50-page short story  “The Jewel of Bas” since the tale contains some unique and bizarre elements.

The Good

*The story began with two sympathetic characters (desperate, starving, and on the run).

*Foreshadowing foretold the answers to the mysteries before they happened.

*I really enjoy the mix of science-fiction and fantasy, which many younger readers of modern fantasy fail to realize even exists; many of the best fantasy stories that helped inspire not only D&D, but future mainstream fantasy fiction, really started as post-apocalyptic science-fiction or stories about the decline of the/a world.

*The antagonist’s philosophy/goals made sense and came across well in the story.

The Bad

*At times, I felt confused about the events unfolding in a scene; while Brackett likely wanted the atmosphere to feel mysterious, I sometimes wanted to understand more about the creatures and actions.
*In my mind, the story deserved fleshing out as a full novel and that extra length might fix the rushed feeling while also providing more background about the world or depth to additional characters.

D&D Connections & Inspirations

*When the characters kept getting overpowers and captured, I very much thought about the D&D 2E game I played in back in high school and college.

*Even with the aliens and technology, I easily envisioned classes and stat blocks for all of the characters.

Overall

Reflecting back on the story, I give the work a 6/10 rating and highly recommend checking out additional stories by this author.

N2: The Face in the Frost by John Bellairs

Book Review!

N2: The Face in the Frost by John Bellairs

Gygax’s “Appendix N” recommended John Bellairs’ 1969 novel Face in the Frost. I read a 174-page paperback version with a secondary copyright of 1978. For a second reading (to remind myself of several elements of the book to help me write this review), I listened to an audiobook version of the book. Bellairs wrote this novel after reading The Lord of the Rings and wanted to create a wizard who exhibited human flaws and phobias to contrast the mighty character of Gandalf.

The Good

*The hook contains wizards in danger and mysterious creatures in the forest.

*Bellairs created an atmosphere with a sense of danger.

*Wizard battles and magic items appeared in multiple places in the story.

The Bad

*The talking/singing magic mirror seemed a bit too silly for my tastes.

*The baseball references felt out of place and emphasized the odd fantasy-inclusive modern setting.

*While Bellairs gave one of the two main characters the wonderful literary-rich name of Prospero, he unfortunately named the other man Roger Bacon.

*The ending felt less rewarding than what I wanted for the characters.

D&D Connections & Inspirations

*The story shows the intense studies of translating old magical books to decipher a spell, thus lining up with the D&D system for wizard’s learning spells.

*Upon casting a spell, a wizard had to maintain concentration; the longer the chanting/concentration, the more powerful the spell (like the different levels of spells in D&D).

*Several D&D/LOTR-style monsters were mentioned.

*Prospero discovered wizard runes that equated to D&D wizards leaving arcane traps.

Overall

This book scores a 4/10 rating from me because I struggled to really care about what happened to Prospero and Roger until about a third of the way through the story. I actually sat the book down at one point and waited weeks before picking up the paperback again.

N1: Three Hearts and Three Lions by Poul Anderson

Book Review!

N1: Three Hearts and Three Lions by Poul Anderson

In “Appendix N” Gary Gygax recommended Poul Anderson, specifically mentioning the novels Three Hearts and Three Lions, The High Crusade, and The Broken Sword. For the sake of this review I want to focus on Three Hearts and Three Lions. I read a 160-page paperback version of the book with copyright years listed as 1953 and 1961.

The Good

*The book’s structure contains a travel-oriented plot with the characters adventuring from place to place to solve a mystery and save the day.

*I enjoy stories that focus on only a few core characters and Anderson masterfully keeps the core team down to the main character (a human paladin-esque man who ends up displaced in time/reality) and a couple of sidekicks (a dwarf and a “swan-maiden” shapeshifter).

*The scenes with monsters really stood out well.

The Bad

*The romance element in the story felt really odd at times.

*For its time, the “man out of time” concept likely stood out, but today’s audience probably knows of several movies and books that employ the technique and thus may feel turned off by the core premise of the novel.

*The chapters felt serial at times, especially when the group ended up in a “monster of the week” scenario fighting a werewolf in a village.

D&D Connections & Inspirations

*Anderson clearly gives Gygax and his crew the inspiration for a linear “law versus chaos” alignment system. Understanding how Anderson uses that concept in his story stands as enough of a reason for any true D&D buff to want to read this tale; in this story, the fey represent chaos and humanity exists to establish law/order.

*The story contains a regenerating troll that tests the book’s hero with riddles; this troll probably provided the inspiration for the D&D regenerating trolls. Strangely though, the book’s troll suffers from a weakness that sunlight petrifies him and D&D fails to reflect that characteristic.

*The book discusses different versions of the planet Earth and, what stands out to me as an example of what likely inspired D&D’s “Plane of Faerie” (which eventually turned into D&D’s Feywild). Gygax used the multiple-Earths concept throughout his RPG career, but even early Greyhawk’s Oerth stood out as an example.

*The narrator mentions several popular D&D monsters, including the manticore, dragons, the troll, the nixie, wargs, and griffins.

Overall

For my tastes, I give the work a 5/10 rating. I forced myself to push through the beginning of the book, but felt well-rewarded for staying the course.