Book Review: The New Death and Others

I don’t often review books although I’ve mentioned some that I like, mostly to point out inspirational sources for gaming. But I don’t consider it a strong suit of mine, what with lacking any formal training in the subject and no talent of my own. So a book review by me isn’t really worth all that much.

So it was quite the bit of surprised to be asked to review The New Death and Others by its author James Hutchings. But having written articles and the like, I can understand the desire for reviews and comments. It doesn’t even matter if the reviewer likes it, the feedback is worthwhile and both drive interest to the author.  It’s not easy to write a book, and doing so- no matter how badly, is to my mind something to respect.

Besided, maybe I'd get a idea or two for my games.

So it was in that mindset that I agreed, and promptly received (free I might add) the book formatted for the Kindle. I love my Kindle.

The New Death and Others is available for the Kindle or from Smashwords. It consists of a series of fantasy related short stories with some poems scattered through the book.  The Kindle version didn’t come with a page count, but it isn’t long- I was able to read it through in about four hours containing some significant breaks.

And now to the review, let’s start off with something positive… well… there’s… I sort of like the stories with cats.

Sigh, I want and can do better than that (if only by a bit). So let’s give it a go and I’ll put what I’ll hope is some constructive suggestions at the bottom.

First off, I don’t think I’m the type of reader this book is aimed at.  A number of the stories are left-wing politics at their worst, with a number of shots at Afghanistan, free enterprise, religion, etc. These are done with all the subtlety of an internet flame war due to the short length of the stories and the writing style.  For someone like me, things like that make it hard to judge the rest of the work. For a reader on the Left, it may be more enjoyable.

Stepping back from that, I think the collection suffers from a number of other problems.

The first is that there is no unifying theme to the works. There are the outright political comments, some fable like myths, some are intended to be pure parody, and others are just a pun fest.  The strongest repeating thread (besides the politics) is a common fantasy city used as a backdrop in the fable style stories. And Death, the author likes Death.

There are only two reasons to read a collection of short stories: because their common subject, theme, or setting appeals to you; or because you know and like the author’s writings. The New Death and Others doesn’t provide the former, and James Hutchings doesn’t have a body of work to provide the latter.


As to the individual stories…

The short story format is demanding as it gives little room for development of character and that in turn means that you have pull the reader in quickly in order to invest him in what you’re trying to say.  Not easy, and so IMO the short story can be short- but it can’t be too short.

Most of these are too short.  Some are little more than the plot idea with basically nothing else. This is most felt in the fable like stories, some of which I almost liked. But the shifts were too sudden, the pace too quick, the ending too pat.

Many of the stories indicate to me that the author is trying to mirror one of two styles. The HP Lovecraft descriptive near verse or the Twilight Zone style twist ending. I love both, but the former should be kept to an occasional appearance instead of battering the reader every sentence. And the latter needs to be built up to. It’s ok to twist the ending, even if it’s a predictable twist- IF we care about the characters being twisted. Here, we don’t.

He may also be going for Grimm Fairy tales style, a bunch of short ‘fables’ lumped together. But that can’t really work because the author isn’t the Brothers Grimm. He hasn’t had generations of parents making his tales live for children- he has to make do on his own and he’s not aiming this at children (I hope). That takes more work.

A good example is How the Isle of Cats Got Its Name.  I like cats; I like mystical cats even more. I should have loved this story. But we didn’t get to know any of the cats. And we didn’t get to know the villain Abi-simti.
We know she wants to learn all the magic there is, and after a bit we find out that she’s willing to do anything to do so. But we never find out why. Magic is a tool (especially to gamers, but it’s also the case in the genre), and what we’re being asked to take as the primary mover of a story is a lady who in practical terms wants the complete set of Craftsman Wrenches. Somehow that’s supposed to result in evil interesting enough to make a fable of.

A longer version of this story with a better goal for the villain (even the classic ‘quest for immortality through magic’), together with cats with real personalities that one would root for, would have worked much better.

Lastly, this book was a downer.  Except for the cats, the world of these stories is a dark place with only tears for company. Some people like that, so I won’t fault it other than to say it’s not my taste and thus may have colored some of my comments above.

Suggestions for the author:

Characters- make them more alive. I can’t write as well as you do, so I can’t make suggestions as to how to do this. But do it.

Patience- you have good ideas. Take time to build up to them. The trip is always worth more than the destination.

Subtlety- you can get away with being political, if the reader doesn’t notice. The best works are often those that both sides end up thinking reflects their views.

Theme or Setting- pick one or both, and use it for all the stories in your next attempt.

Oh, almost forgot. Did get any ideas for my games?  Not really, I already knew I wanted to do something with cats and this did reinforce that.

I also picked up a good Sherlock Holmes pun for the next time I want my players to throw dice at me.

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Note: I was hoping I'd find more that I'd like. I'm quite straight forward on game theory and other subjects and normally not shy about tearing into something. But tastes in fiction are very subjective.

I was inclined as a result to not post this review and offered to let James off the hook for it. But his word was to go ahead. Rather impressive. Here's hoping he keeps at it and that his writing skills grow. It's a field that one can only learn by doing, taking the lumps along the way. I couldn't do it.

Well Then, What Next?

I'm still on a bit of high after finishing Age of Heroes. Just completed the appendices that include designer notes, and a short overview of the history of RPGs and where AoH fits in. So nothing left to do but await the proof readers.

Dang slow proof readers. But we love them.

So I'm sitting here trying to decide what to do next. I think I read a book first, yet another Urban Fantasy novel looking for something as good as the Dresden Files. It will likely be horrid, so far only the October Daye books have been worth any effort at all (mix lot those, but good enough).

After that I'll likely finish up the Claymore Campaign Supplement. It's rather far along.

And then... beats me. There's not like there's a demand for this sort of stuff. But I'll likely work on the Magic Expansion next. Or maybe the Firearms Expansion. It will likely be driven by what we're playing after we finish our current Claymore campaign.

And It's Done...

Finished the play test draft of Age of Heroes last night. The wonderful wife did her proof reading, I created the PDF and sent it off to my other two proof readers.

But I'm counting it as effectively complete, the first time ever that *all* the core rules have been assembled in one place and formatted for prestentation and use. Previously there was a spiral bound copy of the very most imporant core rules. Nice but about half the size.

It ended up a bit longer than planned, 242 Pages with 116,030 words. Nearly all of it rules although a bit of our settings got in the Bestiary with the creature descriptions.

From here I'll let my two remainingg proof readers point out any lasting typos they can find (knowing they'll never find them all of course) and then order a couple of bound copies for final playtest. I'll give it a few months mostly to make sure I didn't screw up something mechanically as there is some new stuff (in detail, not in concept) in there before I call it really really done, remove the playtest stamp, add the designer notes and handout hardcopies to the players in our groups.

Interesting feeling to be here, even with something I don't intend to market. Likely due to my never imagining that I'd write anything that would result in a bound hardcover. When I was born, it was just something out of the realm of possiblity for the typical person, and is only reasonable now due to Print on Demand.

Just a Few Pages More

Still working on Age of Heroes, and it's looking like I'll finish the proof and play test draft this week and send it off to Lulu.It's currently at 230 pages with only five more creatures to write up (and a few paragraphs in the intro).

Exciting times, well at least for my gaming groups. It only took 31 years, although before print on demand there was almost no reason do it.

Infinity: An Example of a Bad Die Mechanic

One of my kids was into Warhammer 40K. He's realized now just how bad of a game it really is, and we've been looking for a replacement.

In this search, he came across a game called Infinity and I decided to take a look at it. It's not a very good game, and there's a lot to take apart as a result. In fact, I consider 40K better than it. It's not a RPG and so I won't delve too deep into it. But it so happens to have a rather brain dead stupid core die mechanic that I've seen in RPGs before. And that deserves a comment.

Basically the system resolves things with each player making a opposed d20 roll. Whoever rolls higher but still under his skill rating wins. So a skill of 14 with range weapons might fire at a defender with a skill of 12, whoever rolls higher wins, as long as the first guy doesn't roll a 15+ and the second roll a 13+.

There's some other minor details, but they don't significantly modify my core point that this system manages to meet the Two S Rule: Simple and Stupid.

Just consider it for a moment. In a game you don't want things missing most of the time, that's not fun for most players. But if you're using dice, you don't want to hit all the time either.

So what does that mean for the range of possible skill numbers? That's right, it's very narrow. I would expect them to range from... oh 12 up to about 16. And sure enough, that's where most of the units in the game fall (you can look at a number of them online at the link above). There's some exceptions (especially for cannon fodder type units), but most of the standard units fall right into that line.

To make that narrow range even worse, the game uses a linear die d20 die roll.

The end result is to make unit skill of minor importance, i.e. it's very difficult to move far away from a coin flip in your chances unless you really pile the modifiers on.

Makes for a very limited game, basically only those settings where everyone is roughly equal. That hardly seems the point of games like this but then I'm not a member in good standing with the modern wargame crowd. Maybe they dig pointless differences.

Combined with other issues, we quickly discarded it as a option.

Vortex however is looking interesting...