N14: Hiero’s Journey by Sterling Lanier

Book Review!

N14: Hiero’s Journey by Sterling Lanier

In “Appendix N” Gary Gygax recommended Hiero’s Journey by Sterling Lanier. My paperback copy of the book contained 325 pages with copyright dates of 1973 and 1983. At first appearance this story looks like a fantasy tale, but the story actually contains post-apocalyptic science-fiction because the setting involves a future version of Earth millions of years after a nuclear annihilation that wipes out civilization and mutates the creatures of our world.

The Good

*I really enjoy post-apocalyptic science-fiction fantasy; we need more unique literature in this genre.

*The story stands out as an interesting exploration quest because Heiro’s people lack knowledge of what happened in the south. He discovers different mutated monsters and technology/magic on the way.

*The telepathic abilities in the story involve interesting rules and provide a uniqueness for this type of literature.

*Lanier masterfully narrates the combat sequences, taking into consideration the speed of the weapons and the ferociousness of the mutated monsters.

*When some monsters injured Hiero, he actually spent time healing and recovering.

The Bad

*Some readers might consider the main character too powerful since he comes across as a paladin/cleric/druid/ranger/warrior/psionicist with many innate skills and abilities.

D&D Connections & Inspirations

*Hiero, his mutant moose mount, and his sentient bear friend form an adventuring party engaged in an exploration quest.

*They fight evil wizards and monsters.

*The scene after the group kills the first wizard they fight involves a very typical D&D-style looting of the wizard's dead body, taking his magic/tech items.

Overall

I really enjoyed reading this book, not wanting to put down the text while reading. I give the work a 8/10 rating.

N13: Conan: “The Tower of the Elephant” by Robert E. Howard

Book Review!

N13: Conan: “The Tower of the Elephant” by Robert E. Howard

In “Appendix N” Gary Gygax recommended Robert E. Howard’s work, mentioning the Conan series by name. My favorite Conan story remains “The Tower of the Elephant.” Originally published in 1933 in Weird Tales, this story also appears in The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian book in which it includes 21 pages (with some amazing art as well).

The Good

*Conan impressively takes on multiple threats in his quest.

*The basic premise works great: the story includes Conan on a simple quest to break into a wizard’s tower and steal treasure.

*A surprise twist in this story ends up showing the more heart-touching, philosophical side of Conan.

The Bad

*None. Seriously.

D&D Connections & Inspirations

*A DM with a little time might easily turn this story into a D&D adventure.

*Even though Conan’s popular name includes “the Barbarian” as a title, I think he deserves some multi-classing into rogue.

*The creatures in the story all felt like D&D monsters.

Overall

For my tastes, I give the work a 10/10 rating. Robert E. Howard crafted fantasy perfection.

N12: Kothar: Barbarian Swordsman by Gardner F. Fox

Book Review!

N12: Kothar: Barbarian Swordsman by Gardner Fox

I chose Kothar: Barbarian Swordsman by Gardner F. Fox to represent the Kothar series recommended by Gary Gygax in “Appendix N” of the AD&D Dungeon Master’s Guide since this book comes first in the series. For this review, I flipped back through one of my favorite paperback novels. My copy of Kothar comes in at 153 pages with a copyright of 1969.

The Good

*I love science-fiction-based fantasy and the 2-page introduction to this book explained that Kothar lives on one of many worlds left behind by a massive civilization in the future. Apparently humanity moved out into the stars and colonized many worlds, but left them behind without technology due to some sort of apocalyptic event. Thus, what looks like a fantasy novel actually provides a post-apocalypse twist. Of course, after those 2 pages that element really disappears - but I like the concept.

*The book works as a collection of adventure stories.

*Fox created an interesting concept by making Kothar decide between keeping his powerful magic sword (with its curse that he never gets to keep his treasure) or becoming a rich man.

The Bad

*Many people accuse Kothar of existing as a literary “clone” of Conan the Barbarian; for the record, I feel the similarities between the characters create familiarity and the differences allow them enough uniqueness to know the difference between them.

*The parts of the book act more like a collection of short stories than as a cohesive novel. A reader not knowing this going into the work might feel let down by a lack of much overarching plot from one part of the book to another.

D&D Connections & Inspirations

*The fact that Ed Greenwood named his D&D setting the “Forgotten Realms” makes me think he embraced the same science-fiction based concept as the Kothar series since the fallen intergalactic society left “forgotten” worlds behind when it collapsed; many D&D authors likely established their worlds as a futuristic post-apocalyptic setting disguised as fantasy and the majority of fans simply missed the clues. Gary Gygax clearly embraced this concept with crashed spaceships and such in the Greyhawk setting.

*In the beginning of the story, an old lich give Kothar his magic sword.

*The story resembles a solo quest of a barbarian player plagued by an evil sorcerer, with some interesting NPCs involved along the way.

Overall

For whatever reason I love this simple adventure story. For my tastes, the book gets a 8/10 rating. This book exemplifies what I want to read to relax on the weekend, even if the text lacks literary merit.

N11: The Maker of the Universes by P. J. Farmer

Book Review!

N11: The Maker of the Universes by P. J. Farmer

In “Appendix N” Gary Gygax recommended P. J. Farmer’s World of Tiers series. For this review I read the first book in the series, from 1965, The Maker of the Universes. Philip Jose Farmer immediately captured my attention within the first 2 pages of the 150-page book.

The Good

*I like when authors quickly establish sympathetic protagonists and this book wasted no time in achieving that goal.

*Normally the trope of taking a modern man and putting him in a fantasy setting annoys me, but this time I enjoyed the trick.

The Bad

*After the first 80 pages of the book, I grew annoyed with the next 30ish pages because I felt the plot complications became repetitive.

*I easily predicted the twist at the end and felt it took away from the main character.

D&D Connections & Inspirations

*The travel story came across like a 1-player D&D campaign focused on exploration and combat.

*The monsters included axebeaks, giant eagles, and altered creatures.

*After reading this book, I developed a theory that the characters inspired the concepts of some of Greyhawk's ancient Suel wizards who created their own planes of existence.

Overall

I greatly enjoyed 70% of the book; thus a rating of 7/10 feels appropriate.

N10: The King of Elfland's Daughter by Lord Dunsany

Book Review!

N10: The King of Elfland's Daughter by Lord Dunsany

In “Appendix N” Gary Gygax recommended the writings of Lord Dunsany without specifically identifying any of his stories so I chose the 1924 novel The King of Elfland's Daughter for my review today. This story struck me as a strange tale of fantasy romance and established a clear vision of the potential sadness of elves/half-elves living in a less interesting human realm.

The Good

*The point of view switched which character the narrator followed, starting with Alveric and changing as the story evolved.

*Lord Dunsany created a great sense of intrigue, leaving me wanting to know the ending of the story and thus propelling me to continue reading this book at a rapid pace.

The Bad

*The archaic language bothered me for the first few pages, but I eventually adjusted to the poetic style of the prose.

*The middle section dragged on some.

*About ¾ of the way through the tale, the narrator revealed that the Elf King actually married a mortal as well, which made me question whether or not that made the elf princess a half-elf (instead of the elf I imagined) and the new child a quarter-elf (instead of a half-elf).

*I disliked the sudden ending, even with the foreshadowing from earlier, I wanted a less happy way for the story to close out. Why not let the characters suffer from their mistakes? With a slightly different ending, this fairy tale could end as a didactic moral tragedy.

D&D Connections & Inspirations

*The Elfland of this book reminds me of the fairy realm in Poul Anderson’s Three Hearts and Three Lions, establishing yet another link to the eventual D&D Feywild.

*The trolls in this story come across more like D&D goblins or gnomes than the typical monstrous trolls in D&D stories.

*One of the characters in this story hunts unicorns.

*The story included “the will-o'-the-wisps” that dwelled in the marshes.

Overall

For my tastes, I give the work a 3/10 rating because I like the concept of the story and respect its place in the history of fantasy as a genre even though the language, the ending, and the lack of character depth annoyed me.

N9: The Lurker at the Threshold by August Derleth

Book Review!

N9: The Lurker at the Threshold by August Derleth

Some of today’s scholars view August Derleth’s works with controversy because he “collaborated with” H. P. Lovecraft and “co-authored” works by using Lovecraft’s notes and writing his own books from them. Despite that, I assume Gary Gygax appreciated Derleth’s contributions and thus included him in our “Appendix N” list. While The Lurker at the Threshold lists H. P. Lovecraft as the primary author, we know Derleth wrote the book himself. My paperback copy of the book totaled 160 pages and included copyright years of 1945 and 1971.

The Good

*Derleth establishes a suspenseful sense of mystery and horror.

*The different points of view work to piece the story together.

The Bad

*Readers unfamiliar with the Cthulhu mythos might not know what to expect of the ending and thus suffer some disappointment. MILD SPOILERS: Characters involved in these tales usually end up insane and/or dead.

D&D Connections & Inspirations

*The Cthulhu mythos provides the Far Realms with the Great Old Ones who serve as monsters, demigods, and alien patrons for warlocks, etc.

Overall

For my tastes, I give the work a 6/10 rating.

N8: The Well of the Unicorn by Fletcher Pratt

Book Review!

N8: The Well of the Unicorn by Fletcher Pratt

For my quest to review all the authors Gary Gygax recommended in “Appendix N” to AD&D’s Dungeon Master’s Guide I already covered the team-up novel The Carnelian Cube by L. Sprague de Camp & Fletcher Pratt, but I wanted to cover Pratt as an individual author as well. Thus today I present my thoughts about The Well of the Unicorn by Fletcher Pratt. My copy of this novel comes in at 388 pages with copyright dates of 1948 and 1976. The graphic on the cover looks like something out of a D&D adventure.

The Good

*The setting, which Pratt says he borrowed from Lord Dunsany and aged a couple of generations, perfectly fits a political D&D-style world.

*With political intrigue driving the main character, he manages to go out into the larger world and explore; the mix of politics, exploration, and intrigue provides good plot movement.

*Moral ambiguity and the philosophy of leadership comes into play.

The Bad

*Some of the language comes across as difficult to follow. Sometimes I found myself at the end of a page asking myself, “What just happened?” or “Who said that?”

*The initial confusion about allegiances, while surely intentional by the author, might turn off some readers for the first 35 pages or so.

D&D Connections & Inspirations

*After the protagonist finds himself homeless, due to political taxation, a wizard meets him in the woods and sends him on a quest.

*The inns, dwarves, guards, and adventures perfectly sound like a D&D world.

*Sea-demons are mentioned as threatening monsters.

*I actually named one of my D&D characters Alvar, which comes from this story.

Overall

With some difficult-to-follow language causing some confusion, I find myself conflicted in rating this title because I enjoyed the main character and plot so much; since I force myself into a 10-point scale, for my tastes, I give this book a 5/10 rating.