Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Geek Talk & Media
Simon R Green
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Cthulhudrew" data-source="post: 1288407" data-attributes="member: 4090"><p>I'm of a mixed opinion on Simon Green's stuff. Bear in mind here that I've read just about everything of his (all of his Deathstalker books, except the latest which I just picked up; his first Nightside book; all of the Hawk & Fisher including the two Blue Moon books).</p><p></p><p>On the one hand, I absolutely love him as a world builder. He creates these lavish landscapes, full of history and organizations that are truly amazing. The various planets of the Deathstalker series, the Families that vie for control behind and in front of the scenes in that book, the wondrous city of Haven- all of these things are truly awesome. (For the record, I've incorporated many if not most aspects of these things in the Alphatian Empire of Mystara in my own campaigns).</p><p></p><p>On the other hand, his characters are bland ciphers at best, and one-dimensional at worst. If you removed the names from them, you'd be hard pressed to distinguish one character from another, both due to dialogue as well as due to the character's interests. For instance (and I'm not giving anything away about the series here) the character of Owen Deathstalker is first introduced as a historian, not a warrior. And that's it. That's his entire character note. For the rest of the series we see him functioning as a warrior, and never once does he make use of his historic knowledge (which should, given the nature of the series, come in pretty handy in a lot of places). It's hardly even referenced again at all, except once or twice to point out that, hey, he's a historian, not a warrior. Most of his characters are like that. He gives a description of them, and lets that stand for their personality, regardless of their actual actions in the books. Hawk and Fisher were rather like that, too- they didn't seem to me to have distinguishable character traits- both bad cops.</p><p></p><p>That being said, I think you could do worse than to read the Deathstalker series. As I said, world wise, it's wonderfully rich and detailed, and may prompt you to come up with ideas for your campaigns (as it did me). Character wise, eh. There are certainly some memorable characters (Valentine Wolfe is a particularly memorable and devious one, and one of the few really rich ones). Probably the best Deathstalker book is the one that is a compilation of three short stories (Twilight of the Empire), and relates to the ongoing Deathstalker saga, even though it mostly takes place prior to the Deathstalker series. Can't recall if there are any real spoilers for the series in there (some of it was written before, I think) so you might want to start out with that one.</p><p></p><p>On another note, the first Nightside story features the single best written and developed protagonist of any of Green's stories that I've read, and I'm hoping the second one continues that trend, so maybe he's been working on his character development?</p><p></p><p>Hope this helps.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Cthulhudrew, post: 1288407, member: 4090"] I'm of a mixed opinion on Simon Green's stuff. Bear in mind here that I've read just about everything of his (all of his Deathstalker books, except the latest which I just picked up; his first Nightside book; all of the Hawk & Fisher including the two Blue Moon books). On the one hand, I absolutely love him as a world builder. He creates these lavish landscapes, full of history and organizations that are truly amazing. The various planets of the Deathstalker series, the Families that vie for control behind and in front of the scenes in that book, the wondrous city of Haven- all of these things are truly awesome. (For the record, I've incorporated many if not most aspects of these things in the Alphatian Empire of Mystara in my own campaigns). On the other hand, his characters are bland ciphers at best, and one-dimensional at worst. If you removed the names from them, you'd be hard pressed to distinguish one character from another, both due to dialogue as well as due to the character's interests. For instance (and I'm not giving anything away about the series here) the character of Owen Deathstalker is first introduced as a historian, not a warrior. And that's it. That's his entire character note. For the rest of the series we see him functioning as a warrior, and never once does he make use of his historic knowledge (which should, given the nature of the series, come in pretty handy in a lot of places). It's hardly even referenced again at all, except once or twice to point out that, hey, he's a historian, not a warrior. Most of his characters are like that. He gives a description of them, and lets that stand for their personality, regardless of their actual actions in the books. Hawk and Fisher were rather like that, too- they didn't seem to me to have distinguishable character traits- both bad cops. That being said, I think you could do worse than to read the Deathstalker series. As I said, world wise, it's wonderfully rich and detailed, and may prompt you to come up with ideas for your campaigns (as it did me). Character wise, eh. There are certainly some memorable characters (Valentine Wolfe is a particularly memorable and devious one, and one of the few really rich ones). Probably the best Deathstalker book is the one that is a compilation of three short stories (Twilight of the Empire), and relates to the ongoing Deathstalker saga, even though it mostly takes place prior to the Deathstalker series. Can't recall if there are any real spoilers for the series in there (some of it was written before, I think) so you might want to start out with that one. On another note, the first Nightside story features the single best written and developed protagonist of any of Green's stories that I've read, and I'm hoping the second one continues that trend, so maybe he's been working on his character development? Hope this helps. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Geek Talk & Media
Simon R Green
Top