Andre Norton’s 1978 QUAG KEEP (cover by Jack Gaughan) fascinated me as a kid — the idea of tie-in Dungeons and Dragons novels was several years in the future so a story where a group of D&D players are mysteriously transported into Greyhawk (the original setting) and turned into their characters was something different. Rereading now, I find myself wondering how this came to pass — was Norton a fan? Did Gary Gygax or someone at DAW Books pitch her on the idea?
As far as the execution goes, it’s a mixed bag; overall, I enjoyed it but the worldbuilding is very fuzzy. We don’t learn the evil DM’s agenda in trying to fuse Earth and Greyhawk, don’t learn how the magic dice on the PC’s wrists work to alter their luck, and the characters are largely written as stock figures (cleric, ranger, bard, etc.) — I might have liked it better if the players’ personalities had carried over. There’s also stuff that feels odd because I started playing with Advanced Dungeons and Dragons and there’s stuff here that doesn’t make sense by those rules. That said, Norton’s a good writer and she wrote the book so it plays to her strengths. Like her Witch World books we have characters under strange compulsions, shadowy forces of evil, standing stones as places of power — it works well enough.
OVER HER DEAD BODY: Death, Femininity and the Aesthetic by Elisabeth Bronfen ponders the appeal of dead women as ta subject for art (Poe wrote that the death of a beautiful woman was a natural subject for poetry). That seemed like it would fit with my interests but Bronfen’s writing style is heavy academese and the first chapter reveals she’s approaching the topic from a Freudian perspective; as so much of Freud has been discredited, I gave up after a couple of chapters.
SHADOW OF THE LION by Mercedes Lackey, Eric Flint and David Freer has potential too: Venice in the days when it was a major European power is a fascinating city so a historical fantasy of magic and skullduggery in 16th century Venice sounded promising. However the doorstop book lost me after 60 of its 700 pages. Like a lot of historical novels the story is buried under the period details to the point I have no idea what the story is, who the protagonists are or what the threat they have to fight is. Another DNF.
I did finish ILL WIND: Weather Warden Book One by Rachel Caine but it never particularly engaged me. This urban fantasy series is set in a world where nature wants us all dead and only the Wardens can shield humanity from the impact of hostile weather, earthquakes, floods, etc. Weather Warden Joanna is now on the run for being a)demon-possessed and b)having killed her mentor for causing the possession; now she’s heading across the country to ask a former lover for an exorcism. I found the backstory of Joanna and her lover confusing and inconsistent and the story’s villain is a disability stereotype (she turned to evil because evil could cure her horribly scarred face!).
The problem with BULLIES, BASTARDS AND BITCHES: How to Write the Bad Guys of Fiction by Jessica Page Morrell, is primarily a reader/book mismatch: the advice (even villains should have humanity!) might have been useful back when I started writing but that was a long time ago. There’s nothing terribly novel in her approach (e.g., give each character six defining traits) but most writing books I’ve read over the years aren’t offering anything radically new.
That said, Morrell’s analysis of specific fictional characters often falls flat. Conan, for example, is hardly an alpha male who can’t take orders (and of course, “alpha male” isn’t the biological reality Morrell assumes) — several stories show he’s willing to work as a soldier in the ranks. Nor does an argument that Lolita is morally complex fly (Lolita’s not a nice thirteen year old, therefore an adult having sex with her isn’t black-and-white wrong. Uh, yes it is).
Batman art by Jerry Robinson. All rights to images remain with current holders.
