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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 4908203" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dragon Magazine Issue 139: November 1988part 4/5The dragon's bestiary: Ed Greenwood makes a random little contribution for the first time in rather too long.  Lock lurkers, like ear seekers, are one of those creatures specifically designed to annoy cautious adventurers. Much of their body is concealed on the ethereal plane, and usually they look like little coins. Ed wastes no time in reminding us he's the king of odd little ecological details, giving us tons of uses for these things, both alive and dead. Lybarde are another weird feline thing. Their tails slow opponents. When you consider their close relations are Displacer beasts and Nonafel, this makes perfect sense. What other ways can we manipulate time and space to give as their schtick? Metalmasters are not quite what you would expect. They do, however, mess with your equipment. Fun fun fun. The illustration is pretty damn good too. Serplar are another thing that keeps the infestations of slimes and oozes that threaten D&D worlds under control. Large pink wormy things, they're better avoided than fought, since they're dangerous but not too fast. Thylacine's are almost, but not quite like the real world creature. Filtered through the medieval bestiary mentality, they get intelligence and rudimentary shapeshifting, and some weird combat tactics. This has definitely felt like an old school Ed contribution. Nominally set in the Realms, but easily applicable to other games, and full of interesting little details, this is a great reminder how to pull this stuff off. How very pleasing. The role of books:Sheepfarmer's daughter by Elizabeth Moon is the start of the Paksenarrion books. A farmer's daughter flees an unwanted marriage by becoming a soldier, and then has lots of interesting adventures. Welcome to another pretty cool series. The three minute universe by Barbara Paul is a decidedly crappy star trek novel. It uses almost exactly the same bit of bad science as the plot driver as the new reboot movie, and then has a bunch of other irritating anvilicious elements. Avoid. The heavenly horse from the outermost west by Mary Stanton tries and fails to do for thoroughbred horses what watership down did for rabbits. While the story isn't bad, the worldbuilding doesn't convince the reviewer, and it all seems a little over-precious. When H.A.R.L.I.E was one: release 2.0 by David Gerrold is a nicely updated rerelease of a cool bit of hard sci-fi. The possibility of computers gaining sentience and exercising their powers over the world is a common one by now, and here's a good early example of the subgenre. Child of the grove by Tanya Huff gets an ambivalent review. While what is there is good, the big gaps in the narrative leave the reviewer wanting more. But there are many far worse flaws, really. The nightingale by Kara Dalkey is reviewed in a manner which imitates it's writing. How very droll. Seems good enough, though. The blind knight by Gail Van Asten mixes arthurian legend with later medieval setting. It manages to do so fairly well, putting it's own spin on what might happen next.</blockquote>

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