The great granddaddy of them all

 So, one of the biggest releases in the Ravenloft line (I think it was the only one released in  Hardcover), and I can now say I've read it 30 years after the fact. 

I, Strahd by P. N. Elrod covers the Dark Lord himself, Strahd, and explains his life story in his own words. (There's a nifty framing device where Van Richten sneaks into Castle Ravenloft and reads Strahd's folio of recollections on Eternity.) 

And what do you know? It's actually both well written and entertaining and not wholesale ripping off other works for plot points!

We hear about it all. Strahd's conquest of the castle from a bad Baron, his brother the Paladin who fell in love with Tatyana, only to have Strahd kill him to make Tatyana love him instead, his deal with the Dark Powers that turned him into a vampire, the greedy soldier who slaughters almost everyone in the castle on the day of Sergei and Tatyana's wedding. We see Strahd bind the land to him, thus causing the mists to encroach...

Oh so much. And so juicy to read. While I assume Elrod had canon that had to be included/not changed for plot purposes, they do a great job keeping the sound of dice rolling in the background out of the plot, fleshing out a character who isn't exactly an anti-hero, but for whom evil is a way of life. 

Honestly, as much as I've avoided this one for a few decades (I thought there were more interesting Dark Lords; the only other P. N. Elrod book I ever tried reading I couldn't get in to), I kind of wish I had read it in release.

Finishing up

 I had hoped Planar Powers by J. Robert King would finish out the Blood Wars trilogy in a readable style, but sadly, it was not to be. 

Let's start with Aereas. As we found out through the last book, he's now a disembodied spirit working as a Judge-Excecutioner for the Lady of Pain. However, now he has a closet, a cantrip allowing him to shrink people and things. Which he uses to smuggle condemned prisoners out of the torture/execution rooms and create a world as The Closet Lord. 

Nina, on the other hand, is living in Celestia with Phaeton, as well as Aereas's kid Tara and Nina's son Aegis. The Devas aren't happy to have lesser beings among them, so we get a rehash of Milton as everyone gets kicked out of heaven. 

We also have Leonin, last seen standing in the Beastlands waiting on Nina to return, now realizing he's missing his ribs and picking up a hag and passing through the machine realm. (Which includes a parody of a Disney song that actually made me laugh. And we get a side story (a few paragraphs after every chapter) discussing the disposition of the door in Boffo's shop that opens on a Prime Material world. 

While this was the most cohesive of the series, it's also really really deeply...flakey? I mean, the wonder I felt reading the setting is nowhere to be found anywhere in the trilogy. Even the war the trilogy is named after really had nothing to do with much of anything in the series. 

While I'm not sorry about reading it, I don't think it rates a reread any time in the near future.

Speaking of Hell...

 So, I returned to Planescape with Book 2 of the Blood Wars Trilogy, Abyssal Warriors by J. Robert King.

While this one was much more entertaining than Volume 1, it suffers from a few issues. 

Anyway, Nina, last seen following a Tiefling into the Abyss, has gone looney and is raising an army to take over Layer 337 of the Abyss. Aereas, last seen being denied audience with The Lady of Pain, is still looking for her. The Dead God Leonin, who's sort of living his life as a cafe in Sigil, is instead being reanimated on the astral by insect demons. Before he loses all control, he does summon a Deva (Angelic being) name Phoeton to go help Nina and Aereas. 

Let me see if I can get this straight, since time in the Planes operates according to the needs of whomever is telling the story. Seems Uncle Artus adopted a girl in the Beast Lands, who was unbalanced with fire. That would be Nina. Using an artifact, Aereas tries to find Nina, but instead finds another girl like Nina, in similar straits. Whom he ends up mating with and having a daughter. 

In the mean time, Nina is raising 12 legions of demons/fiends/whateves and making her Tiefling love her. 

Eventually, the Lady summons Aereas to lead her armies into the Beastlands to defeat Nina's army. There's a lot going on here, and we get a few chapters of what amounts to Nina and Aereas flying through Sigil in giant acorns. We're also lead to believe Artus and Boffo traded bodies somewhere along the line. 

Any rate, we're left with everyone mostly unhappy or dead. 

By far the biggest problem in here is that one of the big twists at the end makes zero sense. Like literally, it would involve on character being in two different states of being at the exact same time. 

But, like I said, it's easier to get through than the first one, so...

Not today, Satan!

 So, we return to dark academia and Leigh Barduga's follow up to Ninth House, Hell Bent. 

AKA how Alex got her Virgil back. 

So, again, we're kind of floating around the timeline, with the beginning chapter returning as present about 2/3 of the way through. Alex and Dawes are trying to figure out how to get Darlington out of Hell, made more difficult by the fact that the Emeritus members of Lethe don't want them fooling with Demonic Magic. That and a new Praetor who doesn't think women should be at Yale, let alone one of the Societies...

Anyway.

There's yet another unrelated murder everyone gets involved in prior to Alex and Dawes finding out the library actually has a portal to hell in it, requiring them to get Turner (AKA the cop who works with Lethe) and a random Bonesman who evidently failed out to descend into hell to free Darlington. Oh yes, and Alex is also dealing with her old California drug dealer, who wants her to be his enforcer, which in turn leads her to finding out Vampires are real, and generally don't like humans.

We also get into a bit of revelation as to what the hell Alex is, since the villain in the last book (and a few of the demons in the one) refer to her as a Wheel Walker. Mind you,l she can also call ghosts into herself for extra stat bonuses with a bit more ease now, so...

Any rate, I rather enjoyed this sequel more than, say, The Atlas Paradox, and even if it is getting in to an "eat the rich" message slowly, it's a hell of a lot of fun.

Through the tobacco stand

 As I may have mentioned previously, found a bunch of my old D&D novels recently, and got a wild hair and decided to try rereading J. Robert King's Blood Hostages, the first book in the Blood Wars trilogy, which is set in the Planescape setting. Let me preface this with saying while I at one point had a bunch of D&D boxed sets, I rarely if never actually played with any of them. I hate being a DM, and during the era, all anyone who wanted to game would play was Forgotten Realms. Planescape was cool, expanded a bunch on a supplement I loved, and basically really solidified an idea we're seeing a bunch of again in several fictional universes, The Multiverse.

Anyway, this particular novel either wants the reader to be as clueless as the main characters (cousins Nina and Aereas) or just assumes anyone picking it up has read the boxed set in the past 6 months. While some of it was still familiar to me, a heck of a lot of it had me checking different fan wikis trying to refresh my memory. 

Anyway...

Aereas and Nina live with her father/his uncle on a non-supplement detailed world. Artus, gives his journal on his travels over to Aereas at the outset, saying he's old enough to appreciate it now. A few pages later, Artus is being dragged through a portal in his tobacco stand by gargoyles, with Nina and Aereas jumping in behind them a few hours later. (Which, when they arrive in the city of Sigil, turns out to be a week later.)

We meet a gnome named Boffo, who in turn leads the pair through the city of Sigil first to the spirit of a Dead God, and then a Tiefling who knew Artus. (For the record: Sigil is/was the starting city for the setting. Basically a city that's an enclosed ring at the center of everything. Kind of like a pumpkin roll where the filling has buildings.) We find out Artus worked as a spy for the nominal ruler of Sigil, The Lady of Pain. And then, we follow the kidnappers through a fight in a foundry, which ends up with everyone falling through a portal into the 665th layer of the Abyss, which it seems is a bottomless hole.

Eventually, they wind up in Gehenna at the palace of Sung Chiang, who is the Power behind the kidnapping in the first place. Seems Artus had keys to all the portals to the planes from Sigil, and he's now on sale. Which brings in the Baatezu and Tanar'ri, two of the major factions fighting the not really defined in this volume Blood War. (If I remember the lore correctly, it was something about Demons on one plane fighting devils on another plane.) This again leads to another chase, where the wind up on the corpus of the dead Power they met early on. And then the tiefling and Nina wind up in the Abyss again, while Artus and Aereas wind up back in Sigil. 

While the settings are fun, the characters are all kind of flat, beyond Sung Chiang (who as a God of thievery has a bunch of stuff to do) and Jandau (the tiefling, who is playing his own game.) We get lots of Aereas trying to justify incest with his cousin (who may not actually be his cousin, but still, EWWWWWWW), Nina falling for the shady Tiefling, and in what may be the best supporting character in here, Krim, the Wizard with the body of a hovering Manta Ray. 

I'm hoping the next two volumes improve a bit on this, leaving us a bit less confused as to what is actually going on. 

Whne crazy meets crazy

 One of the major themes running through Seana McGuire's new InCrypted nove Backpacking Through Bedlam revolves around the difficulty of reintegrating during homecoming, and it kind of struck a nerve, particularly in the bonus novella tucked in at the end of the book. 

We pick up where the last volume ended, with Alice, Thomas, and Sally leading refugees from the Crossroads bottle dimension to hopefully a new home dimension. Which involves Alice and Thomas learning to love each other again after 50 years apart, and Alice learning to find a way to deal with Sally, who was more or less adopted by Thomas during the exile. 

About halfway through, after visiting the dimension where Sarah ended up dropping a college, they wind up back on Earth, where Rose and Mary wind up sending the trio to New York to help Verity and Dominic chase The Covenant out of New York and away from the dragons. 

The novella concerns James learning that Sally has been rescued, and dealing with his feelings therein. 

While the first half of the novel really doesn't quite feel as intense as previous novels in the series, the second half and the novella strike the chords I've come to love from this particular series. Really fun read.

They're building landing strips for gay alien martians!

 So, I technically finished Stuff The Don't Want You to Know by Ben Bowlin, Matt Frederick, and Noel Brown yesterday, but it's been a week. 

The setup is almost opposite what we normally see in conspiracy compilations, as they move from downright preposterous (with roots in what is real) into very real, provable discussions. 

But honestly, it's fun to go through, since some of it is a fuller story on things I knew already (Tuskeegee in particular.) 

Honestly, there isn't that much to say here, beyond it being a fun if occasionally disturbing discussion on things that increasingly are being presented as truth, and why it is people are inclined to believe them. (Case in point, one of the reviews I read about it spent a paragraph complaining that the debunk of one theory was false, since a particular cable news station said differently.)

So yeah, if you want an exploration of modern folklore, it's worth reading.

In the Lich of time....

 As a warning, along with sporadic library reserves, I found a bunch of old RPG novels among the remnants of mom's house, then found a few other volumes on used book sites, so expect some really odd entries over time. 

Today was King of the Dead by Gene De Weese, which is more or less the origin of Azalin, who's later stories are found in Lord of the Necropolis. (If you click that link, there's an awesome picture attached to the post.) For those not versed in such esoterica, Azalin is a lich who rules the Ravenloft Domain of Darkon, and is pretty much the arch nemesis of Strahd, the Vampire Lord around whom the entire setting is based. Firan, as he was known as a human, started in Oerth, aka the Greyhawk setting, middle son of a King who thoughts magic users were evil. So, because of course he does, Firan learns the arcane arts, manages to get his younger brother possessed, then runs off to follow his mentor somewhere outKingdom. 

He learns tricks to siphon off the life force of those he kills, and becomes king after his eldest brother dies. Firan rules by executing anyone who breaks his laws. He marries, finds out the wife cursed him, erases the curse, and she bears him a son. Irik, named after his possessed younger brother, ends up commiting treason against daddy dearest, since he doesn't agree with Firan's policies. Firan beheads Irik, and then regrets it, thinking he should raise his son and teach him to be more like his father. Well, that doesn't quite go as planned, and Firan starts hearing taunting voices of those he cared about, which in turn leads him to turn himself into a lich. (An observation: most of the art depicting Azalin makes him look a bit like Skeletor right before He-Man kicks his ass.) 

So, Firan eventually gets sucked into the mists and winds up in Barovia. He refers to himself by his old title on Oerth (Aza'Lin), which the Barovians take to be his name. We get a short chapter on his working with and against Strahd, before Azalin enters the mists again, and eventually becomes the leader of his own Dark Domain, and his punishments of never being able to learn new magic, and finding the only way he could fully resurrect his son is to torment himself. Or, he could forgive himself, but that would mean him admitting he was wrong. 

It's fun, and frankly, Azalin more than Strahd understand the nature of the realm and its torments. He's probably the only Darklord who understands how to end his imprisonment, but is too stubborn to do so. 

It's a tad silly in places, but it's a fun read none the less.

Let's split up! That always works!

 So, Cradle of Ice, the second book in what's allegedly going to be a trilogy, opens with our team of intrepid protagonists splitting up to accomplish different goals. 

Nyx, our major heroine, is accompanied across the Frozen wastes in the dark side of Urth by Shiya, Rhaif, Graylin, and a company of pirates, as well as her friend Jace to discover one of the places where they can get the Urth rotating again. Along the way, they discover The Cradle, an area under the ice that is warm that supports human life. A different race of the hive mind bats live there, but they're under the control of something else.

In the meantime, Prince Kanthe and Freyll have gone to the southern Crown to the Empire of Klashe, where intrigues abound. Kanthe winds up engaged to the Emperor's daughter, who is in love with the leader of the faction that opposes the caste system in place in the Empire. (Not that Kanthe doesn't have his own suitors, the Princess's brother makes his desire failrly clear, as does on of the female assassins running around. 

By the end, the plot has advanced as several goals are met, we have much more information as to what Shiya is (courtesy of a "lesser" bronze being who's been disguised on Klashe for a few centuries), and we have a set up for the next book which suggests either it's probably going to be rushed to a conclusion or expanded into 5 books. (Between the private war between Kanthe and his Twin brother, who now rules the Northern kingdom, the fact that they still have to go to the center of the desert wasteland on the always sun facing side of Urth, and they have to get a third relic from the now rather hostile Northern Kingdom....)

Yeah, I've gotten sucked into this series. I look forward to seeing what the next volume brings.

On a midnight dark and dreary

And we're back in Sithicus, as Lord Soth faces down his own misrule of the dark domain in Spectre of the Black Rose. In my last post, I mentioned how Soth's imprisonment by the dark powers was mildly controversial, and here, we see his release back to Krynn. (Theoretically for a second time, if one takes the adventure World of Krynn as canon.) 

Essentially, Soth has sat on his armored ass for a very long time letting Sithicus run itself. His torment on Krynn has changed, as his Keep in Sithicus is not quite the same as Dargaard Keep in Ansalon. His skeletal knights and banshee tormentors also change number, as memory in Sithicus is an illusion. 

Which has left Azreal the Dwarven Werebadger to run the country as he sees fit, annoying Magda's daughter Inza. (Magda is alive for the first part of the novel, but we quickly find out her daughter doesn't much like her.) War threatens with Invidia, as the ruler (not the actual Lord) wishes to exterminate the Vistani. 

We also have the mysterious Cobbler, who cuts off people's feet who publicly break oaths; The Whispering Beast, who calls those who break oaths to him as food; and the mysterious White Rose, who has her own connections with Soth. We have Azreal trying to take control of all the shadows of Sithicus, and Inza, who ultimately wants Soth's throne. Almost everyone is plotting with and against everyone else. 

In other words, Gothic Horror.

In the end, Soth regains his memory and returns to Krynn, and we see again how his pride prevents his redemption. Pretty much every other character gets an unhappy ending, which works just as well. 

This was actually a heck of a lot more fun than the first volume, since by this point, we know everyone in here is up to no good, which makes the ending that much more satisfying. Soth is home, so he can find his redemption a few years down the road. (I ordered the War of Souls trilogy today, so I'll eventually get to relive that silliness. Although given that plot line involved Takhisis moving Krynn across the universe, I feel like Soth's sojourn into Ravenloft kind of foreshadowed that plot twist, although I think most readers tend to think of that trilogy as an apology for Dragons of Summer Flame, which seems to be pretty universally despised.) 

If you can find a copy, this is one of the fun ones.