Modern era fiction aka 'Nyarlathotep Now'
Posted: Tue Aug 28, 2012 12:19 am
This thread I'd like to dedicate to modern settings for mythos and otherworldly weirdness...
For the period 2000 to now and maybe a bit beyond - it includes the Laundry series by Charles Stross (soon to be reviewed) and Delta Green 2.0 which is yet to be fully unveiled - though I seem to recall reading somewhere that whereas DG 1990s tapped into the conspiratoriality of the X Files with secretive government agencies suppressing the truth, 2.0 will be more contemporaneous with big government and bigger business doing what they like with scant regard for exposure - how would Majestic 12 fare in a world with the Patriot Act? Better or worse?
Anyway... on to book review 1 for this time period: Kraken by China Meilville.
This book is complex. Not just the story... no this is more than just *story* complex. Indeed if you were minded to describe Kraken as possessing a rich tapestry of characters, plot points, settings and scenes - you'd be right... though actually you'd be likening it to the sort of tapestry that was woven by an insane genius who was forced to change colour of thread every 16th stitch and needle size every other yard and have to encompass both pointillism cubism and photorealism all at once.
I found that Kraken was not an easy book to read. The use of language requires of it's readership a level of sophistication that makes you (what I mean is 'me') have to go back and re-read prior chapters when later on you realise you misunderstood what you thought you'd read at the beginning... though this might just be down to my own thickness.
Stick with it though.
Seriously, this book has a great story to tell, with some very clever plot devises and characters that don't so much jump out of the page as carefully catapult themselves when no-one's looking.
That said it did leave me feeling somewhat unsatisfied at (or maybe even *with*) the end, and it is a dark tale of urban fantasy, that might seem a little too far fetched in places (gun farmers... for example), but in terms of original concepts it's overflowing.
The general premise is that a giant squid disappears from the London Natural History Museum... and one of it's curators has to find it before it causes the end of the world. Cue gangs of motorcycle helmeted monsters, a sociopathic Metropolitan Police witch, and a cult of Kraken worshipers... among many others.
If you can get around the syntax, read this story - especially for ideas on modern CoC oddness. It's a useful compendium of npcs cults and organisations that will flesh out any campaign or one shot with just the right level of oddity to keep players very entertained [as you gently lower their sanity roll by roll].
For Kraken I managed to summon 7 nightgaunts out of a possible 10 and those that bothered to manifest themselves enjoyed this book.
For the period 2000 to now and maybe a bit beyond - it includes the Laundry series by Charles Stross (soon to be reviewed) and Delta Green 2.0 which is yet to be fully unveiled - though I seem to recall reading somewhere that whereas DG 1990s tapped into the conspiratoriality of the X Files with secretive government agencies suppressing the truth, 2.0 will be more contemporaneous with big government and bigger business doing what they like with scant regard for exposure - how would Majestic 12 fare in a world with the Patriot Act? Better or worse?
Anyway... on to book review 1 for this time period: Kraken by China Meilville.
This book is complex. Not just the story... no this is more than just *story* complex. Indeed if you were minded to describe Kraken as possessing a rich tapestry of characters, plot points, settings and scenes - you'd be right... though actually you'd be likening it to the sort of tapestry that was woven by an insane genius who was forced to change colour of thread every 16th stitch and needle size every other yard and have to encompass both pointillism cubism and photorealism all at once.
I found that Kraken was not an easy book to read. The use of language requires of it's readership a level of sophistication that makes you (what I mean is 'me') have to go back and re-read prior chapters when later on you realise you misunderstood what you thought you'd read at the beginning... though this might just be down to my own thickness.
Stick with it though.
Seriously, this book has a great story to tell, with some very clever plot devises and characters that don't so much jump out of the page as carefully catapult themselves when no-one's looking.
That said it did leave me feeling somewhat unsatisfied at (or maybe even *with*) the end, and it is a dark tale of urban fantasy, that might seem a little too far fetched in places (gun farmers... for example), but in terms of original concepts it's overflowing.
The general premise is that a giant squid disappears from the London Natural History Museum... and one of it's curators has to find it before it causes the end of the world. Cue gangs of motorcycle helmeted monsters, a sociopathic Metropolitan Police witch, and a cult of Kraken worshipers... among many others.
If you can get around the syntax, read this story - especially for ideas on modern CoC oddness. It's a useful compendium of npcs cults and organisations that will flesh out any campaign or one shot with just the right level of oddity to keep players very entertained [as you gently lower their sanity roll by roll].
For Kraken I managed to summon 7 nightgaunts out of a possible 10 and those that bothered to manifest themselves enjoyed this book.