Review of Aztec Century by Christopher Evans

Despite the explosion of culture - the eruption of books, films, series, games, etc. the past decade, it remains far from a given that good, let alone great storytelling will be inherent to any of those efforts.  One would assume that lessons learned would have steadily accumulated to the point basic techniques would be the norm.  But such is not the case.  Most popular books these days feel like they have been peer workshopped into mediocrity.  Stories with a razor sharp plot edges that generate genuine momentum are few and far between.  These are great reasons to appreciate Christopher Evans' fantastically sustaining Aztec Century (1993).

Aztec Century is set in what was Evan's present day (early 90s), but with a major twist. Centuries ago Cortez was unable to subdue the Aztecs, and in the time since they have evolved to become an aggressive, global power. Occupying all of South and Central America and a lot of North America, the kingdom of Mexica, as they call themselves, sets its sights on Europe at the outset of Aztec Century. Taking England and Wales quickly, the Mexica force the British royal family to flee, including Princess Catherine. Despite being a woman with a backbone, she finds herself hiding out for months in a Welsh cottage, together with her sister, husband, and servants. But when the Aztecs learn their location and send gunships, Katherine is forced to flee, again. Trouble is, she doesn't get far.

Review of Wounds by Nathan Ballingrud

Discovering Nathan Ballingrud has been fresh and invigorating—a strange statement considering how dark and heavy most of his stories are. North American Lake Monsters was brilliant—something I still feel strongly about dozens of books and several months after having read it. In that mental 'best ever' list most bibliophiles keep, I've penciled it in. Not expecting lightning to strike twice but secretly hoping so, I jumped at the chance to read Wounds: Six Stories from the Border of Hell (2019) when the chance arose.

The stories bookending Wounds are its highest quality content as well as inter-related. The left bookend is “The Atlas of Hell”, a bloody, dark, Weird tale of the occult in the back alleys and bayous of New Orleans. About a rare book dealer who dabbles in old magick, his business dealings find him in over his head as a powerful buyer wants one of his artifacts returned. A trip to the deep swamp needed, things twist, then twist again. Savage, unflinching, and chilling in its skulls, candles, and encounters with the inexplicable, it nicely tightropes the fence between existential and body horror.

Review of Angel Exterminatus by Graham McNeill

If there is anything a lengthy series has a chance of pulling off, it's a good bad guy novel. No need to provide the hero's story in a paucity of pages, every little niche has potential for exploration when 50+ books are planned. Angel Exterminatus by Graham McNeill (2012), twenty-third volume in the Horus Heresy series, is just that. Conflicts within conflicts, it pushes ahead the main storyline of the series in dramatic, exciting, and occasionally twisting fashion with anti-heroes at the helm.

If the Horus Heresy is a tree, then Angel Exterminatus is a Fulgrim branch, with leaves of Emperor's Children, the Iron Warriors, Salamanders, Raven Guard, and Iron Hands. Set after the events of Fulgrim, it sees the narcissistic leader of the Emperor's Children approach Peturabo of the Iron Warriors looking for help locating an ancient weapon of immense power. The weapon located in a seething riot of Chaos in space, Peturabo agrees to help but keeps to himself his own secret plans for the weapon. Meanwhile, an assassin from the Raven Guard tracks Fulgrim, looking for an opportunity to avenge the death of his primarch.

Review of Lovedeath by Dan Simmons

Picking up a Dan Simmons book you never know what genre, or genres, you are getting. Capable of writing everything from science fiction to horror, fantasy to realist, past, present, to future, the only constants are clean prose, largely realistic characters, and an eye to perpetually engaging story. While the majority of Simmons' output is novel-length, he puts the same attention to quality into his short fiction. Capturing a particularly creative spurt in Simmons' productivity is the collection Lovedeath (1993).

There are only five stories in Lovedeath, but all are at least novelette-length, a couple being novellas, and one practically a novel. More importantly, each is sharp, distinct, and with a strong eye to character and story. The collection kicks off with a downer of a tale written in Simmons' smooth, effervescent voice. “Entropy's Bed at Midnight” tells of an insurance adjuster who has suffered a little more fate than the average person. From Vietnam to parenthood, the exigencies of life have dogged him, giving him a cynical view of the world. Save for one fine moment.

Review of Getting to Know You by David Marusek

David Marusek is one of many science fiction writers who holds down a day job to pay the bills. As a result, there can be years between published stories. The flip side is that each story is a considered, distinct piece of fiction that stands on its own. At least that's the idea. Getting to Know You (2007) is Marusek's one and only collection to date, and it contains a couple of the early 21st century's tip-top pieces of short science fiction.

Starting off the collection is one of Marusek's best received, and indeed best pieces of short fiction, “The Wedding Album.” A fractured narrative for a fractured reality, it is the story of Ann and Benjamin, ostensibly a newly married couple. Set in the late 23rd century, the couple have been making virtual copies of themselves at various points in their lives, and now that they are married, have agreed to make the copies available to one another. The variety of virtual selves covering a span of evolved technology, some pass sentience tests while others do not, and each is only half-certain of the difference between the virtual world they live in and the actual happenings in the original’s life since the last time they were copied or reset. A splintered view of life the result, Ann and Benjamin’s personal lives collide in virtual reality to the point their lives in reality are affected. Perception of identity and self-identity fractured enough as it is, the story is brilliant commentary on personality and identity in the digital age. (Longer review here.) A companion piece to “The Wedding Album” found in this collection is “A Boy in Cathyland”. An age-old human story about suppression (regardless by tech or something else), it is a brief tale but packs a proportional punch.

Cardboard Corner: Review of "Fortune & Folly" stand-alone expansion for Arkham Horror: The Card Game

The gift that keeps on giving, Arkham Horror: The Card Game is one of those rare expandable games that, despite dozens and dozens and dozens of releases (i.e. chances), has yet to produce a true dud. The game's principle rule set rigid enough to deliver a consistent, fun experience yet flexible and open enough to create new, evolutionary experiences with each release, the game has provided players hit after hit. I keep waiting for the shoe to drop, but it hasn't—including the most recent release, the stand-alone expansion “Fortune & Folly”.

Ocean's Eleven with cultists and something Eldritch waiting to be stolen from the casino's vault, “Fortune & Folly” is a rollicking, sophisticated bit of heist fun. As investigators, players are tasked with staking out the casino in part 1 of the scenario, trying to get as many advantages as possible, then executing the heist in part 2. Gambling an integral part of gameplay, players will be spinning the roulette wheel, hedging bets at the baccarat table, and playing poker on their way to stealing the strange Wellspring of Life artifact.

Review of Mark of Calth ed. by Laurie Goulding

The Horus Heresy series is one of the largest (fictional) narratives ever attempted. So large, in fact, Horus' rebellion against the Emperor needs be broken down into its key conflicts. The largest of these, kicked off on the planet Calth in Know No Fear, is the Ultramarines vs the Word Bearers—the emperor's most powerful legion versus the deeply infected source of Chaos. The 2013 anthology Mark of Calth ed. by Laurie Goulding expands and extends this conflict in both relevant and spurious fashion.

Mark of Calth kicks off with the origin story “The Shards of Erebus” by Guy Haley. Telling how the eight Chaos daggers came into being, it is a glimpse into the evil machinations or Erebus, and an explanation how Cor Phaeron escaped the end of Know No Fear. On top of being a solid opening, it likewise frames the anthology, specifically the role said daggers have to play in several of the stories which follow. Second story in the anthology is not only the best piece of Warhammer short fiction I have read (admittedly a relatively short list), it is also begging to be a movie. “Calth That Was” by Graham McNeil is a sub-layer of Know No Fear. Where Know No Fear focuses on the fight on Calth's surface and in its atmosphere, “Calth That Was” occurs underground. It is centered on Ventanus and his defense of the underground arcologies where the citizens of Calth have migrated due to the Word Bearer's attack, and runs an excellent gamut of scenes as the Word Bearers try one last trick up their sleeve to once and for all wipe out the planet. It ends on a massive, silent bang that will have the reader—at least this reader—exhaling hard. While a lengthy story (half a novel), it presonifies the crunchiness of what Warhammer and Horus Heresy have to offer. Twisty, turny, climactic, great HH stuff.

Review of Dark Benediction by Walter M. Miller Jr.

Walter M. Miller Jr.'s name has gone down in history as the author of A Canticle for Leibowitz. 'Landmark' feels too strong a word to describe the novel, but it certainly is one of the noteworthy novels in the context of science fiction's evolution, particularly the genre's early period. Essentially Miller Jr.'s only novel (a sequel to Leibowitz would be released post-humously), however, most people overlook the fact the author published dozens and dozens of short stories prior to Leibowitz. Bringing some of the author's best work into one collection in 1980 is Dark Benediction (originally published as The Best of Walter M. Miller Jr.)

The collection kicks off with a nicely voiced story which ends on a note that reminds the reader this is old school sci-fi (or enhances the story, depending on expectations). “You Triflin' Skunk!” is an excellent mood piece built on bayou heebie jeebies of the uncanny variety. It tells of a scrappy loner and her son living in a swamp as a storm sweeps over their rickety home. Prior life choices (corn squeezin's!) come back—not to haunt the woman, but to challenge her. “The Will” is a heart-touching tale about a boy named Kenny with an illness doctors cannot cure. In love with a tv super hero named Captain Chronos, Kenny slowly becomes more obsessed with a cure existing in the future, and despite his parents protestations, is determined to get there. The ending rips your heart out with the claws of hope.

Review of Gaze Long into the Abyss by Dalan Musson

We all have different ways of internalizing stories while reading. I'm a visual reader/imaginer. Not only do descriptions and exposition put images into my head, but the author's style defines the backdrop and frames—the visual mood of the piece. Gaze Long into the Abyss by Dalan Musson (2023) was for me a graphic novel with a black and white simplicity to the panels.

Gaze Long into the Abyss tells of the cross-country journey taken by an old man and boy to challenge a mysterious evil. Set in an apocalyptic setting swathed in darkness, the two's foot quest has eyes in the shadows, strange noises, and an air of cosmic evil hanging over it. Their interaction full of contention, the pair attempt to come to terms with one another and their histories as they walk. It all leads to a black place where nothing is certain.

Review of Consider Pipnonia by David Marusek

Glassing the Orgachine, second book in the Upon this Rock series by David Marusek, was something of a semi-controlled explosion. Blowing the series' storyline in multiple directions and significantly expanding the possibilities of the setting, it was a jump from first to fifth gear. Getting a grip on the steering wheel, the third book in the series, Consider Pipnonia (2021), calms and soothes the series in satisfying fashion.

Picking up directly where Glassing the Orgachine left off, Consider Pipnonia opens with the world in uproar. The “little nudge” having failed, the rogue planetoid is still on a collision course with Earth. People are fleeing the lower 48 for Alaska, and local town leaders are taking the opportunity to implement new rules, rules that are harshly authoritarian resulting in civil bloodshed. The strange alien presence telling Jace he needs to go on an out-of-body trip to the planetoid to change its course, he recruits Deut Prophecy, and hand in hand in the pair take a trip into the unknown to try to save the world from Jace's bedroom.

Cardboard Corner: Review of Earthborne Rangers

Since the early 90s, expandable card games have become a major niche of table top gaming. But it wasn't until 2011 that the first cooperative game of the type came onto the market, Lord of the Rings: The Card Game. Slow to take off and slow to see iterations in other games, to date there are still very few cooperative card games using the expandable model. That being said, what few games that are available are extremely popular, Marvel Champions and Arkham Horror: The Card Game among them. Looking to expand this sub-genre in a unique way is Earthborne Rangers (2023).

A cooperative game for 1-4 players, Earthborne Rangers uses the base model of almost all expandable card games (deckbuilding, resource management, heroes, events, upgrades, etc.) but injects its own identity in a few key ways. First is the emphasis on storytelling. Where Lord of the Rings and Marvel Champions are primarily about using the game's mechanisms in effective and intelligent fashion, Earthborne Rangers gives players open-world choices for the direction in which they want to take the game/story. Like Choose Your Own Adventure, each round in the game is a day in which players encounter various beings, features, and obstacles as they try to complete main and side missions. Yes, Arkham Horror is also a narrative-based cooperative card game, but Earthborne provides more of an open world feel. It also places more emphasis on exploration and discovery.