These are a wonderful collection of short stories. Short in length but long in inagination. The capture the diverse wonder of Freeport extreemly well. for a compelation I was suprised that there was no weak link. Sure some sang to me more than others but none were regretful. I'd love to see some of these characters and stories expanded into full novels.
This is a great collection of holiday stories. Some sci-fi, mystery, romance, and pulp, but all related to Christmas. The best (my favorite at least) is "Christmas After the End of the World". Such a beautiful and touching story! I look forward to more holiday stories from the author.
This is a great series of short stories set in Hallowind Cove, Harbour of the Weird. Fun, eccentric characters. In fact, the town itself, is the main character. I hope to see more stories about this strange little town. It's like Twilight Zone meets Garrison Keillor.
This is a really terrific value (how many hundreds of pages are here??? wow) and a great source of inspiration for RPGers. I read a little bit of an old haunted house story to my daughter and she loved it. Sending our best to Gideon (who we are informed via newsletter is a pet pig belonging to the publisher), a good boy recently overtaken by difficult life events.
So far I've read about 15 of Buhlert's stories, and by far this is one of my favorites. And that's saying something, considering I've enjoyed all of the ones I've read. A perfect mix of Post-apocalyptic goodness and a Christmas story.
I've been reading the series in order and this is my favorite to date. I love the space opera genre and this one adds a bit of romance to it and makes it even better. A very tense story, you never know what might happen next. Pietro seems to be a fun character to write. Looking forward to reading the rest of the series.
CAUTION: SPOILERS BELOW!
One issue I found was the story repeatedly mentions a spy seen at the Plasma Cafe (detailed in the previous story, "Collision Course"). In this story, however, Anjali states the spy at the Plasma Cafe didn't recognize them, when it is clear in the previous story that the spy, Fritz, recognized Mikhail right away, because they worked together. The only explanation I see is that this was written before "Collision Course", and was not updated to take Fritz into account. ...
Publisher: Kobold Press
Date Added: 10/20/2020 06:54:12
Some fantastic articles in the book. I was really enjoying it when I got to an article about basing your world on real world cultures that just felt awful. The author argues that your audience wants a world based on European mythologies because that's what they know, and that you can make your setting more exotic by adding Asian tropes and stereotypes.
Considering how I got this book to hopefully get some good advice on building a world based on a real-world non-european civilization, I found this advice very insulting and problematic.
I checked the author of the article to avoid any other articles by him and found that literally 1/3 of the book was written by the same person.
I had been enjoying the book up to that point (hence the 2 stars rather than 1) but that article really took all the excitement of the rest of the book away from me....
Good story but shame on Onyx Path for not editing the manuscript before publishing it. Innumerable spelling mistakes, random spacing or lack of spacing, and formatting errors plague this book, taking the reader out of what would otherwise be an engrossing story.
A surprisingly fun read that mixes the practical and the fantastical, even if you don't get the cards (which you should), read the book! It's a good time.
In *Valhalla with a Twist of Lethe, and Other Strange Tales*, Satyros Phil Brucato proves that he can sit a seat at The Great Desk beside the likes of Neil Gaiman and Roger Zelazny with words and stories that carry the reader through the emotional sense experience of any moment. The text is magick; a tapestry woven where on its face is the literal story and by looking closer a reader can find mythic threads that allude to older stories that have been told throughout human history.
Philis well known by roleplayers as the developer of Mage: The Ascension, one of the most versatile RPGs ever created, and one who delves deep into a charecter relationships with the world and with the fantasy realm. You can expect that and more inside this anthology of his short stories. His particular signature is the seamlessly transitions between everyday reality and the fantastic, in a way that it's impossible not to get related to. His characters breathe, are diverse, have a lot of conflicts, and Phil doesn't restrain to push them to their limits. Absolutely stunning tales....
This collection of stories are all well written and fully manage to draw you in the world of each. Though the book is called Valhalla with a twist of Lethe and other strange tales, the longest and to us the most fastinating story in the collection was Dream Along the Edge. We also really like Drinking the Moon.
Publisher: White Wolf
Date Added: 09/23/2020 22:31:59
*(Deleted my original review after reading another that helped partially resolve a major issue I'd had on my order! Thank you to Van W.!)*
**Card quality:** Very good. Sturdy.
**Art quality:** Exceedingly good. Exceeds expectations. Evokes the Rider-Waite Tarot aesthetic while still putting a Mage spin on things.
**Tuck box: **Good. A teeny bit flimsy, but it's still quite lovely.
The product page says it comes with instructions though, which I thought meant I'd get an actual physical instructional book to help me with my readings and storytelling for chronicles. It didn't, though, but I did find the instructions in the Storyteller's Vault as a pdf. Was saddened at lack of a physical copy though; that was something that I'd factored into whether or not I wanted to purchase. So just be aware that while the product page says it comes with a book, it actually doesn't; you'll have to find the pdf in the Vault. I knocked off a star for that, as I f...