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The Fragile Path is intended as in-world artifact for Mage: The Ascension and represents Porthos Fitz-Empress's attempts at using the testaments of the members of the First Cabal to pull together the Traditions. The book consists of an overview of the Cabal members, their eventual fates, a timeline, a copy of the founding documents for the Traditions and the Technocratic Union, and the five testaments of those that initially survived Heylel's Betrayal. The book struggles to cover everything and create the space for the fully written testaments, but ultimately, I think the book largely pulls off what it needs to.
The opening consists of two contrasts, the first being elderly Porthos talk about how in awe he was of Heylel (the master talking about how wide-eyed he was as a young mage) and the second being the time it took to assemble and get to work on the Ascension War between the Order of Reason (weeks, took over world in five centuries), and the Council (nine years of meetings, onl...
Rating: [5 of 5 Stars!] |
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The four stories in this book are all quite different, yet they are all based in the same fictional universe - one where Einstein, Tesla, and Goddard invented an interplanetary rocket in 1931, and humans have expanded to the planets and moons around them. Of course, being in the pulp planetary romance genre, the Solar System is teeming with intelligent life. And, being set in 1938, there are Nazis to use as the villains (as well as non-humans on occasion).
None of the four short stories was terrible, but only one really grabbed me - Emancipation Knights by Ken Spencer, which is a strong homage to The Maltese Falcon - the rest were good, but not exceptional. And I think perhaps Nazis were overused as villains - in the setting they have created, there are plenty of areas for conflict without having to have Nazis involved in all the skulduggery.
If you're a fan of the role-playing game that it's based on, this is worth a read, and it's not going to damage your hip pocket nerve eithe...
Rating: [3 of 5 Stars!] |
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Okay, looks like it is letting me write a review now.
This is a wonderful look at the world of Flying Circus which manages to explore quite a few interesting themes along the way. Expect something more eposodic rather than driven by a single, overarching plot, but with things still tied together into a real narrative rather than completely disconnected. There's a large scale story here, but it's one of Isa and Arren finding their place in the world, and of the people they meet along the way.I think it works well, but it is perhaps not what everyone expects out of a novel. The writing is excellent, the humor is on point, and Erika has a wonderful gift for inducing a sort of emotional whiplash that makes the heavy stuff just that much more compelling.
There's only so much I can say without spoilers, but generally expect some quality worldbuilding, well done and positive representation of a number of groups that are often not featured in this kind of setting, entertaining dialog, an...
Rating: [5 of 5 Stars!] |
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It is entertaining the first time, but then you realize that there is no choice whatsoever, and not even an illusion of choice. Essentially you roll a die a million times and then you die. I understand the author's intention, but it just doesn't work. Here are the issues:
- The mechanics are extremely simplistic, but in a bad way. You have just one stat - HP - and it doubles as your combat skill (you roll under or equal HP to hit). So as soon as you start losing HP, you get worse - you hit less often, so you get hit more often. If you get hit, you are pretty much dead.
- Starting out is extremely harsh. You start with just 2 HP with a weak weapon, and right away you can encounter an enemy that can one-shot you, because he deals 2 damage with each hit. You can also randomly step into traps, and there is no option to spot them or avoid them or anything - you just take damage. If you are lucky, they won't one shot you.
- And you don't have any control over what happens. You just roll...
Rating: [2 of 5 Stars!] |
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