Post 30s pre modern era fiction

Tariq · Post by **Tariq** » Sat Aug 25, 2012 10:18 am

Okay, so this might seem a touch specific, but it's as good as any method of slicing the Lovecraftian pie...

What I propose is a thread dedicated to fiction that substantially covers the time period from WW2 to the late 1990s / early 2000's - which many might consider the classic Delta Green 1.0 time frame. This is not the more modern or futuristic settings that some novels are set in (for example Charles Stross' Laundry series, which I'd place as more modern).

Book 1 on my review list:

Declare by Tim Powers.

Following the exploits of a young man with an interesting set of talents as he embarks on a very secret service for King and Country during the Second World War and thereafter.

This book has been meticulously researched... The level of detail is quite astonishing - but doesn't get in the way of a very good story.

The characters are for the most part unique, believable and very engaging... With my only criticism over the handling of the female characters who could have done with a little more... maybe support, maybe realism?

The otherworldly aspect that makes this of interest to Lovecraft aficionados is both exquisitely and subtly handled. This isn't your typical horror monster that comes out to grab you with the brave hero cutting it down. No the horror implied is far less tangible and far more complex. This book has more than just shades of unknown menaces from beyond human understanding.

The main hook however is that this story is first and foremost a Cold War spy thriller... and one which works at a level of Machiavellian amorality when looking at the main sides involved and seeming helplessness of the main protagonists caught up in integues beyond their ability to control.

All in all I found this to be a great story, and one which could very easily be tweaked into a DG campaign or for significant aspects to be incorporated into stand alone games for almost any CoC era.

For me 7.5 nightgaunts out of a possible 10.

Post by **Keeper Dan** » Sat Aug 25, 2012 3:06 pm

Excellent review sir, and fantastic idea for a topic. I think I'm going to look at my local library to see if they have a copy of that.
I'll go through my books and see what fits the general timeframe.

**Edit**
Yep, they have it. It's now been reserved and sent to my local library branch.

Tariq · Post by **Tariq** » Sat Aug 25, 2012 11:16 pm

You're in for a treat...

Anyway, on with the thread.

Book 2 on my list is slightly less lovecraft but belongs in the weird fiction category in a good way.

Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman

I'll be honest, I love most urban fantasy... and if the urbs in question relate to my home city of London then I'm a very happy bunny. Neverwhere was one of my first experiences of this interesting (sub?)genre - but I ended up seeing the TV series before I'd read the book (I've done this with several films - which i've watched then gone to the book and never been dissapointed).

Neverwhere follows the story of a recently orphaned young lady called Door... and her interactions with a certain Mr Mayhew. Mayhew's story is our intro to this universe, as we follow as his life gets turned inside out when he inadvertently gets himself involved in the other London... The one of secret passageways between museum galleries and abandoned riverbeds stalked by monsters; it is a rich world full of the familiar tweaked garishly - the floating market a cross between a Parisian flea market an antique dealership and every bazar from the Arabian nights - where you can buy anything (including a dead body).

This story has more colourful characters with hinted at back stories than you'd get in most author's trilogy equivalent. There are more unique vistas - all of which beautifully rendered in text - than you think would work in a single novel (but they do work). Though most interesting for me are the myriad of legends, customs, and distinct cultures that Gaiman weaves into life effortlessly.

Think of this book as a London source book for your campaign. Not strictly CoC but close enough and beautiful enough to warrant reading.

The comic DC Vertigo came out with was okay and the TV series seems very dated now, but both are fun.

Get the book though.

Tariq · Post by **Tariq** » Sat Aug 25, 2012 11:35 pm

Oops, I forgot to score Neverwhere!

8.5 Nightguants... And they're flying in formation.

More book reviews on the way - next up the Dumas Club

Keeper Jon · Post by **Keeper Jon** » Sat Aug 25, 2012 11:55 pm

The Repairman Jack series, by F. Paul Wilson

This is a great series that really feels like it is related to the Mythos. Our hero, Jack, is a guy who can fix problems... problems that the straight authorities can't, (or won't), handle. He's been doing it since he was a kid in high school, right around the time when his mother was killed in a freak accident... or was it?

Ever since then, Jack has engineered his life so that he is truly "off the grid." He doesn't have a Social Security Number, all of his identifications are fake, and he works on a cash and barter system only. If the entire series was just based on this uber-cool fix-it guy, that would be enough, but there is so much more.

There is an Otherness that has an agent of pure evil, and that agent is a puppet master that is pulling the strings to bring about the end of human life as we know it. Jack is the puppet, (not the master), for some other force that opposes the evil from the Otherness. That force has been manipulating Jack's life to hone him into a weapon that can go toe-to-toe with the evil. And there are some cool things that Jack has to encounter due to the evil.

I love this series. I give it 8 tickling Nightgaunts!

Repairman Jack Wiki

Dr. Gerard · Post by **Dr. Gerard** » Sun Aug 26, 2012 1:02 am

Tariq wrote:Oops, I forgot to score Neverwhere!

8.5 Nightguants... And they're flying in formation.

More book reviews on the way - next up the Dumas Club

Loved Dumas Club. I think the Bookhounds series from Pelgrane was largely inspired by that book. I ripped off plenty of clue details from that story to use in a bookish campaign. Just a great read. It's the book The DaVinci Code wanted to be. Hope you agree, but I'm looking forward to your take on it!

Tariq · Post by **Tariq** » Mon Aug 27, 2012 2:17 pm

Thanks for the review of Repairman Jack, this one's completely new to me - and on the order list.

On to Book 3...

The Dumas Club by Arturo Perez-Reverte.

As the good Doctor has mentioned, this story appears to have influenced the very excellent Bookhounds of London source book for ToC. I too loved this story from former Spanish journalist turned crime / fantasy / mystery / historical thriller author Perez-Reverte. I found this amazing story after I saw the film it inspired (The Ninth Gate with Johnny Depp)... which I loved, then read the book which I found a lot better, and discovered this amazing author's other gems which I'll review later.

Lucas Corso is a dealer in rare books. Only I use the term in the same way you would for some one who assists in the top end sourcing and supply of those hard to find narcotics favoured by the ultra rich. Corso is a very cunning wolf who can easily pass himself off as a friendly Rabbit - as he scams the naive and desperate alike out of mouldy old tomes or worthless paperback (read ancient texts and rare first editions) that he resells for a massive mark up... possibly even more than their actual worth. This amoral anti-hero is our main character... both believable and nuanced - the jaded investigator brought in to work On two literary projects: to identify the authenticity of one of three books that may or not have been co-authored by a genius burned at the stake for heresy (oh and possibly try to figure out who the other author was too), and his second task relates to some original manuscripts by Alexandre Dumas that came into his possession after the death of the previous owner.

The story is very well crafted, though it verges on being *almost* too complex in it's knotty mystery, it's *almost* too nerdy and academic in it's manifold treatment of rare and expensive books, it's *almost* too cavalier in the way it treats the unknown and supernatural elements of the tale - Almost... but not quite, instead this novel actually succeeds in telling a gripping story that works very well as a detective novel for bibliophiles with a penchant for the esoteric (and there aren't that many out there, mores the pity).

CoC-wise: Read this book if you ever want to create a bookhound style character. Read it twice if as keeper you're running a game that places emphasis on books.

8.5 nightgaunts out of ten said they'd recommend this book to a friend or family member.

[if you enjoyed this book as much as I did then consider the author's other work especially the Flanders Panel a classic detective novel cleverly disguised as a book about fine art from the 16th century with a generous slice of chess thrown in for good measure... sadly low on Lovecraft but a great source of ideas and a great story]

Tariq · Post by **Tariq** » Mon Aug 27, 2012 2:36 pm

Dr. Gerard wrote:
Loved Dumas Club. I think the Bookhounds series from Pelgrane was largely inspired by that book. I ripped off plenty of clue details from that story to use in a bookish campaign. Just a great read. It's the book The DaVinci Code wanted to be. Hope you agree, but I'm looking forward to your take on it!

I think that this story was the rationale behind bookhounds... and that's not necessarily a bad thing. Though what bookhounds lacks as a source book that this novel has plenty of is contextual background to the wider industry. Perez-Reverte has researched this story to the point where it can act as an instruction to keepers on the parts that bookhounds glosses over (the role of auctions, the legacies of estates, the different players and their motivations, examining the provenance of a book - who wrote it, who published, when, where, who's owned it ect... real investigative work that a former investigative journalist would appreciate when writing this story).

As to the Da Vinci Code, I would suggest that for all his successes Mr Brown would have fared better if he'd read this story and Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco and not Holy Blood Holy Grail.

If I could kidnap the author of this book (Misery style), I'd get him to write a sequel that tied into The Flanders Panel... and maybe touches of the Nautical Chart - but with Mythos added for good measure! Hmmmm maybe this is a topic for another thread...

Tariq · Post by **Tariq** » Mon Aug 27, 2012 5:29 pm

IMPORTANT NOTE

If anyone disagrees with my review of any of the books in this thread, or feels I've missed out something important then PLEASE post your comment - preferably with your own review of the book.

I don't have any more right to critique any book than anyone else who's read it, all I ask is that we keep this thread on topic of reviewing books and not digress into flame wars and personal attacks (unless necessitated by the review itself).

Many thanks.

Dr. Gerard · Post by **Dr. Gerard** » Mon Aug 27, 2012 5:44 pm

Tariq wrote:
If I could kidnap the author of this book (Misery style), I'd get him to write a sequel that tied into The Flanders Panel... and maybe touches of the Nautical Chart - but with Mythos added for good measure! Hmmmm maybe this is a topic for another thread...

You've completely sold me on The Flanders Panel...sounds fantastic.

I'd second your thoughts on how much depth you can get from Club Dumas. Amazing details on all aspects of the seedy underbelly of the book-collecting world. Corso and the ink-stained printing (and forgery) experts, the Ceniza Brothers, are particularly great models for bookhound NPCs.

Thanks for the thorough review!