Geek Confessional Thread 2024 [NOW 2026!]

[Thomas Shey]

It certainly has longevity, which must say something. But if I never read the world "Lovecraftian" again it will be too soon.

Would you prefer "cosmic horror elements"? Sometimes they're used interchangeably.

 

[Thomas Shey]

Cosmic horror is fine. Existential dread is fine. But leave your Mythos at home.

Ah. Unfortunately for your preference, like the Tolkeinesque elements you see all over fantasy, there's been too long and solid a shadow there to get entirely away from it.

 

[Arnie_Wan_Kenobi]

May I suggest Schoolmancy .

While I agree this is the "right" answer (insomuch as there is a possibility of a "right" answer), I just finished "Omens of Chaos," so may I unseriously nominate "Strixhavenian"?

 

[Meech17]

While I agree this is the "right" answer (insomuch as there is a possibility of a "right" answer), I just finished "Omens of Chaos," so may I unseriously nominate "Strixhavenian"?

How was it?

 

[Arnie_Wan_Kenobi]

How was it?

It was...okay? Easy read, but the present-tense narrative voice took a minute to get used to (and I kept have to go back and make sure I wasn't missing a POV switch, very character-driven. The POV character is a barrier mage from New Capenna, with "interludes" from the other four mains' POV that develop them.

If you're an MtG lore fan, there's more on the Omenpaths and a tour of a few of the bigger planes from MtG's past, and a pretty good recap of how "sparks igniting" works and the effects of de-sparking. A little about Strixhaven, but remarkably not as much as I'd expect.

Probably not a spoiler, but maybe [representation-related]:

Spoiler: Spoiler

Each of the mains is neurodiverse and/or LQBTQIA+, so there's a lot of representation; it's a motif { I mean, it is a Seanan McGuire book], and depending on your point of view, I can predict people claiming it will come off as heavy-handed, but I didn't personally think it was.

Also probably not a spoiler, but in case you don't know she's there:

Spoiler: Spolier

Some amusing characterization of Lilliana Vess, especially if you like her heel-face turn. She's put in as a foil to Kasmina, who sponsors the students to Strixhaven. Since I'm spoiler-ing character info, Angrath's mentioned and given some off-screen characterization. As a fan of "minotaur" and "pirate," I was happy to see him pop up.

Overall, I'd place it at a solid middle-grade/YA read. There's one

Spoiler: spoiler: spicy bits

naughty bit with a reveal that I'd already seen coming, but nothing worse that, say Catcher in the Rye.

.

The magic battles are decently written, I always enjoy "seeing" how spellcasting can be described, but there are not many, they don't come until late in the book, and they do get a little repetitive.

So, if you really want an exclusive Commander Tower card, it's probably worth the buy. If you have a weekend and want and easy fantasy "Schoolomancy" read, check it out of the library.

 

[SkidAce]

There is nothing more tired in gaming and geek spaces than Lovecraft/Mythos/Cthulhu. Please retire it all.

I'm going to explain my sadness to you again...

Funny story...
Re: Overthulhu Saturation

When I created the basic outline of my campaign world in the mid 80s (and its secret history etc) I had read Lovecraft and Moorcock extensively.

So I created the campaign, and the gods were more like immortals from basic dnd, and not directly responsible for the creation of the cosmos.

So this set up uncaring forces of the lovecraft mythos versus the immortals .....almost like law versus chaos. A lot of my friends and acquaintances had good versus evil, Tolkien, or dragons versus giants, or FR or Dark Sun, Greyhawk etc campaigns.

Through the 80s and the 90s, and into the 00s, people played and loved the campaign setting. "Wow", "Innovative", "Cooool"

Of course I used Tharizdun and mind flayers and aboloeths to an extent, but it was a fairly deep campaigns with story and lore and fun!

Then, slowly...it turned. "What's your world like?" "Thats kinda played out", "How boring" etc.

Still the people who get past that and play grow to love the campaign, saying "everything fits together".

So I'm still good to go...and understand some folks might be "bored" of my "innovative" campaign.

I'm fine really...

/runs off sobbing into the void

 

[Ruin Explorer]

While I agree this is the "right" answer (insomuch as there is a possibility of a "right" answer), I just finished "Omens of Chaos," so may I unseriously nominate "Strixhavenian"?

This is a very good wind-up lol.

The whole thing were people suggest newer and newer and less and less accessible terminology for genres cuts me to my very soul lol. Like, I am 100% aware you are joking here but my god I wanna argue with it lol.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Back on confessions, I dunno if I confessed with before, but I was reminded by another thread - I'm a huge Trek fan, but when I first saw The Original Series, back in like 1985 or whenever, on UK TV (I think it was on Sunday mornings), I was told Star Trek was this big deal, but I guess I got unlucky on what episodes I saw, because I'm pretty sure based on the fragments I remember from when I was 7 or so lol, that they were Bread and Circuses and Assignment: Earth, i.e. the last two episodes of season 2. My overwhelming impression was thus that Star Trek was a dumb and confused show maybe about annoying people time-travelling or encountering time-travel-like situations. Like, what if Doctor Who was bad and American?

So I continued on with this belief until like 1990 when The Next Generation got on to the BBC, at which point I realized this show was actually awesome, and in 1992 the BBC started re-showing TOS again and I was actually able to appreciate it!

 

[Meech17]

It was...okay? Easy read, but the present-tense narrative voice took a minute to get used to (and I kept have to go back and make sure I wasn't missing a POV switch, very character-driven. The POV character is a barrier mage from New Capenna, with "interludes" from the other four mains' POV that develop them.

If you're an MtG lore fan, there's more on the Omenpaths and a tour of a few of the bigger planes from MtG's past, and a pretty good recap of how "sparks igniting" works and the effects of de-sparking. A little about Strixhaven, but remarkably not as much as I'd expect.

Probably not a spoiler, but maybe [representation-related]:

Spoiler: Spoiler

Each of the mains is neurodiverse and/or LQBTQIA+, so there's a lot of representation; it's a motif { I mean, it is a Seanan McGuire book], and depending on your point of view, I can predict people claiming it will come off as heavy-handed, but I didn't personally think it was.

Also probably not a spoiler, but in case you don't know she's there:

Spoiler: Spolier

Some amusing characterization of Lilliana Vess, especially if you like her heel-face turn. She's put in as a foil to Kasmina, who sponsors the students to Strixhaven. Since I'm spoiler-ing character info, Angrath's mentioned and given some off-screen characterization. As a fan of "minotaur" and "pirate," I was happy to see him pop up.

Overall, I'd place it at a solid middle-grade/YA read. There's one

Spoiler: spoiler: spicy bits

naughty bit with a reveal that I'd already seen coming, but nothing worse that, say Catcher in the Rye.

.

The magic battles are decently written, I always enjoy "seeing" how spellcasting can be described, but there are not many, they don't come until late in the book, and they do get a little repetitive.

So, if you really want an exclusive Commander Tower card, it's probably worth the buy. If you have a weekend and want and easy fantasy "Schoolomancy" read, check it out of the library.

Do they talk any about the destruction of the school and it's recovery from the invasion? I was hoping to see some of that covered in the Lorwyn story since it starts at Strixhaven, but they just kind of glossed over all of it.

I was thinking about picking it up. I don't really play commander much, but I do want to vote with my wallet, and say that "Yes, novels are cool, please make more"

Regardless, Thanks for the review. I may wait and see if it pops up at any local shops

 

[Arnie_Wan_Kenobi]

This is a very good wind-up lol.

The whole thing were people suggest newer and newer and less and less accessible terminology for genres cuts me to my very soul lol. Like, I am 100% aware you are joking here but my god I wanna argue with it lol.

I walked into a party supply store on Halloween and thought "Dark Academia, that's gotta be made up to capitalize on popular fiction, right?" and sent a picture of the display to my department chat (I teach English). The responses were all straight "Yeah, that's really a genre," and I left bewildered. Here's a Geek Confession: I almost miss when "Magical Realism" was what you called a book when you didn't want it shelved in the "Sci-Fi/Fantasy" section at the back of the bookstore /s. On the other hand, I DO appreciate the growth of the SF/F over-genre, and it's nice having a whole wall at my local Barnes and Nobel instead of a four-foot section of paperbacks at Waldenbooks, as it once was.

Do they talk any about the destruction of the school and it's recovery from the invasion? I was hoping to see some of that covered in the Lorwyn story since it starts at Strixhaven, but they just kind of glossed over all of it.

I was thinking about picking it up. I don't really play commander much, but I do want to vote with my wallet, and say that "Yes, novels are cool, please make more"

Regardless, Thanks for the review. I may wait and see if it pops up at any local shops

I think, for $20, which it's going for on Amazon, it's probably worth it. I paid cover price to support brick-and-mortar ("I'm doing MY part!"), and I don't regret the cost. But my "clientele" is the target demo for this book, so there's a bunch of misfits that play D&D the in next classroom over on Fridays that I may recommend it to.

I don't play Commander either, but "Free Bookmark Included" usually gets my attention.

Talking ABOUT the Invasion and its effects:

Spoiler: I don't think I'm really giving anything away here, but you might want to skip this if you really want to go in unspoiled. If you just want to know more about characters and setting without plot spoilers, click here.

it's in the background. I was actually, genuinely surprised by the plot point that Strixhaven U. is NOT really connected to the Greater Magic Multiverse (before Omenpaths); the five main characters are the first class of off-planar students at Good Ol' Strix. That's aside from the known Planeswalkers that have popped up: the Kenriths, and of course, Kasmina and Vess as profs. It's probably worth mentioning that Ral is unmentioned in the novel. To get to your actual question: there's mention of a memorial statue garden that emotionally moves the POV character and they seeing lingering damage on the buildings, but since the mains are all off-world characters they don't really "feel" the effects of the damage. By making the mains off-worlders who were all touched by the Invasion on their home planes, in their own way, the whole Invasion storyline doesn't need to be rehashed in context of Strixhaven/Arcevos. The post-invasion trauma comes from and in the form of students: the university has established a student patrol for the Omenpaths (e.g. Pathwardens), and there's growing, but minority and cross-college anti-off-planar/anti-Omenpath sentiment among the student body who is native to Arcevos. Dominaria gets a ton of flack that borders on "lampshade hanging."

ETA: Oh, and if you enjoyed Phantom Menace's look at trade blockades and tariffs, there's a whole running commentary on the planes that have started charging for access to the Omenpaths.

So, geek confession with the book (so I don't get accused of threadjacking): it was as good, if not better, than most mid-range Dragonlance books/collections in the 90s. I'm glad I bought it, I bought the Fallbacks novels and I'll buy Fallbacks #3, and I'll buy The Feywild Job when it drops. I did not, however, buy Ravenloft: Heir of Strahd, and I'm not sad about that at all. I checked it out from my library, though. It just didn't click for me, overall. I though the tressym was the most interesting character.