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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 5341887" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dragon Magazine Issue 203: March 1994part 5/6Rumblings: A second new column starts up this month. Gossip time! Because if anything flourishes in hard times, it's telling tales of how other people are doing even worse, and bitching about the few that are profiting. Particularly screwed are mayfair games, who have just dropped their entire RPG department to focus on board games. So much for DC heroes, Chill, et all. Funny that the comic licences for both big companies have died within a year of each other. Beyond that, we have a whole bunch of hirings and firings, which don't seem too controversial. Larry Elmore has decided he can make more money freelancing again. Willie Walsh is back, Lynn Abbey is joining us, Ken Rolston has moved over to White Wolf, Jonathan Tweet has just joined WotC. Nope, no big dirt this time round. Is there anything people who know what was happening between the lines can tell me about the politics that led to these changes? The role of books: The iron thane by Jason Henderson takes a minor character from Macbeth, and then continues his story, weaving in further shakespearean supernatural elements, including a faerie invasion. The result is interesting but a bit choppy. The case of the toxic spell dump by Harry Turtledove is another of his somewhat comic alternate history fantasy tales. This time mixed with mystery story. As usual, even though he's quite playful, he's also put some serious work into the worldbuilding. I suppose like Ed Greenwood, adding fun bits helps keep you around and paying attention for the serious stuff. Under the eye of god by David Gerrold gets picked apart. It's various elements combine badly, making this less than the sum of it's parts. Not really worth the effort. Guilty pleasures by Laurell K Hamilton sees our good friend Anita Blake start her adventures by proclaiming "I don't date vampires, I kill them." Yeah, I bet you make that resolution at the start of every year. How long before you fall prey to the sweet temptation of having your cervix bumped again? It's easy to be cynical, but it's important to remember that this is another series that started off pretty good, and has been fairly influential in horror over the past decade or two. There are far worse places to start reading. Dark Mirror by Diane Duane sends the next generation characters into the mirror universe to meet their goateed counterparts. This gives her a chance to put distinct dark spins on all the regular crew, including a few minor ones, and expand on how history is different here. Hopefully it'll please the fanboys who recall the original mirror universe episode. A wizard's dozen, edited by Michael Stearns tries to create a set of new fairytales to tell your children. Plenty of familiar names contribute, with Will Shetterly's The princess who kicked butt seeming like the obvious standout. This is very much one for getting for your kids, or at least, someone's kids anyway. Fiction: Spenser's peace by Kurt Giambastani. Being top wizard is like being a gunslinger. There's always some upstart punk who thinks they can take you on, that cosmic power is a limited resource, and any competitors need to be eliminated, not worked with. And when you've got immortality, and age will not slow you down, this may get easier to handle, but ever more tiresome, and the knowledge that you will slip up at some point can come to weigh heavy. It's no wonder many liches turn to constructing ever more elaborate many-leveled deathtraps, despite the fact that this actually often attracts even more adventurers just for the challenge. Don't you just wish you could give it all up sometimes. Yeah, not likely. As a certain prime minister once said, the worst day in power was better than the best days after it. But some people manage the strength to give it all up. And when you do, you can find it isn't so bad after all. A nice bit of dramatic irony here, as is often the case in this department. Whether it'll get PC's to follow the example I very much doubt, but it's still a reasonably successful bit of fiction. Dragonmirth puns it's way through the day again. Ralph has abandonment angst in Yamara. Shandara has just enough strength for one final strike in twilight war. Will someone have to die before the end?</blockquote>

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