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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 4984866" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dragon Magazine Issue 153: January 1990part 3/5The game wizards: Elminster is back. Funny how we've actually seen less of him in the magazine since the realms got a full game line. But he's as mischievous as ever, taking time to mock things like Alias' attire on the front of Azure Bonds, and the upstart new gods of magic and superdickery. (What? <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f61b.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":p" title="Stick out tongue    :p"  data-smilie="7"data-shortname=":p" /> ) The events of the last few years require a big hardcover book to update things for those who haven't read all the novels, and give us a grab bag of new material, serving as a stop-gap until they can justify a full new boxed set. Spheres for speciality priests, updated 2nd edition changes (oh, those poor assassins guilds) lots of new geographical details, the works. Course, there's plenty more coming to make this stuff out of date again, with the Horde rapidly sweeping across the steppes, soon to hit the eastern realms, bringing massively increased OA crossovers in their wake. Jeff once again demonstrates that he can make pimping fun, and also that he finds Elminster rather more scary to deal with than Ed does by now. Still, it's obvious that the Realms is a healthy gameline at the moment. You're going to have to get running to keep up with this lot. The role of books is getting in on the theme this month. Which is somewhat unusual for them. How nice of them to join in. Quest for apollo by Michael Lahey has an interesting combination of elements, as serious story, humour, and huge numbers of literary and historical references get combined into the search for the sun god. (because without him, the sun won't work properly, which'll kinda put a crimp on the world. ) The result is fun but flawed, with a twist ending that doesn't quite work. Better luck next time. Darkunders way by Tom Deltz combines celtic and native american myth in low-key but well realized style, as his existing characters discover there's more than one alternate magical dimension out there. It looks like this series continues to build nicely. Tantras and Waterdeep by Richard Awlinson are of course parts two and three of the Avatar Trilogy. They don't get a particularly favourable review. Far too many events hinge on fiat. Elminster's death isn't convincing at all, the pairing of Midnight and Cyric works awkwardly as a party, and the whole thing feels driven by the bigger metaplot events rather than a proper story in it's own right. Such are the problems of writing to a preproscribed brief on a tight deadline. The barsoom project by Larry Niven and Steven Barnes is a sequel to Dream Park (reviewed in issue 52) It doesn't quite live up to it's predecessor, mainly due to a bloat of plotlines, but it's still interesting as both theoretical speculation and a multilayered suspense plot with impressive visuals. The jehovah contract by Victor Koman sees a private eye hired to assassinate God. (As Terry Pratchett would later parody in Hogfather) This contentious premise is mitigated by a likable protagonist, but it's logic runs out near the end, and it goes out with a whimper rather than a bang. The steerswoman by Rosemary Kierstein creates an interesting, deliberately atheistic world, divided by gender, and driven by technology as magic. Sharing information vs keeping it secret isn't the usual axis of conflict in these stories, and the other alien worldbuilding touches add up to create a quite distinctive story. Starbridge by A C Crispin sees her branch out from collaborative fiction and create her own world. A whole bunch of alien first contacts happen in quick succession, and our protagonists have to keep things from getting out of hand and manage peaceful diplomatic relations with some decidedly strange creatures. The setting established seems pretty good grounds for conversion to gaming. The ecology of the manticore: Ahh, this is much more like it. An ecology that both tells an entertaining tale, and lampshades a few mythological tropes. Why would a rampaging monster attack heavily armed and armoured knights over defenseless peasants? Well, in manticores case, it's so they can regrow their tail spikes. That iron's gotta come from somewhere, and unlike Xorn, they can't dig it out of the ground themselves. As they have strong feline components, trying to train them is a complete waste of time, but that doesn't stop people from trying. The story also uses a bunch of recognisable D&Disms such as wizards and clerics being for hire, and resurrection being treated as, if not commonplace, a purchasable commodity that most people are aware of. A thoroughly enjoyable ecology. Lets hope they've got their groove back for the new decade.</blockquote>

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