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Bookstooge’s Reviews on the Road will resume normal broadcasting again tomorrow with all new episodes of Imperatoris Chronicorum at 5am. Will our beloved Imperator survive the Pumpkin Festival with all its fair food and thousands of people crowded into one small town oval? Will said thousands survive the Imperator? Tune in and find out tomorrow!
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Title:
Brian Barr’s King in Yellow
Series: The
King in Yellow Anthology #14
Author: Brian
Barr
Rating: 4 of 5 Stars
Genre:
Cosmic Horror
Pages: 61
Words:
26K
Publish: 2019
It
has been almost two years since I last read some King in Yellow
stories (Under
Twin Suns in 2024)
and this collection by Brian Barr showcasing his own KiY stories was
a nice way to ease back into things.
It was confusing and gory and fatalistic and in the end, nobody wins or is in any way happy. It was distilled misery of the soul and that is how a KiY set of stories should feel like.
All four stories take place in the same world and use the same time frame. While some stories take place in the past, they all end up in our present day’ish.
What I did find interesting, and different, was the space age approach to the King in Yellow. Astronauts, in the space program successor to NASA, find spaceships with the yellow sign on them. Much is made of the physical side of Carcosa being in the Pleiades and how far it is from Earth. It was just a very different take on things and one that I appreciated. Barr’s writing fit right into the KiY mythos and I feel that he understood just what the KiY is all about.
I read the ebook version and some of the formatting was a bit wonky. I’m not sure if it was supposed to be like that, or if it was a conversion issue when I removed the drm from it and converted it to the format of my choice.
I
do like the cover immensely though. It has that fusion of yellow, red
and black that I think fits the mythos just right. It also some real
weirdness in the pictures themselves, which once again I find very
fitting. A cover like this fits The King in Yellow to a T.
★★★★☆
From Fandom.com
A Visage of Great Truths
A short prologue describes a group of astronauts salvaging a derelict shipyard who bear witness to the manifestation of a group of pallid yellow beings before being utterly destroyed by the newcomers.
The main story tells of a magician who has devoted years to serving the King in Yellow. When the truth of the entity is finally revealed to him, his mind is shattered and his body annihilated.
The Sacred House
A drug-addicted criminal steals a copy of The King in Yellow while committing a home invasion which results in the death of the targeted family. After reading the play he is visited by the spirits of the family, devoted to the King, who tear his body apart before his soul is brought into the service of their master.
Venusian Hell
When her former crewmates begin to mysteriously die, grounded astronaut Alicia Meadows begins to look into the government coverup of derelict alien spacecraft which they had discovered on their last mission. Discovering a link between the strange symbol etched into the craft and an ancient play called The King in Yellow, she manages to track down a copy. After reading it, Alicia embarks on a murder spree across America, slowly paving the way for her new master to establish a hold on Earth.
In 400BC Anatolia, a young Greek woman is inducted into a cult of the Yellow King known as the Cult of the Carians, receiving the mark of her new master.
In the modern day Robbie, a man completing his PhD on the cult, is is slowly consumed by his thirst for knowledge on the subject while simultaneously coming to realise that he may have unwittingly drawn the King's attention to him. Following the lead of a beautiful Greek woman who appears in his dreams, he begins to experiment with magical rituals. Unfortunately for the inhabitants of planet Earth, his work results in the opening of a breach in reality, allowing the armies of Hastur to pour through and begin their conquest.
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Title: The Death Giver
Series:
The Shadow #30
Authors: Maxwell Grant
Rating:
3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Crime Fiction
Pages:
160
Words: 50K
Publish: 1933
A disgruntled scyentist turns his ire against rich people to get their money, but also so he can get his jollies off by randomly killing people just for funsies.
Oh, this was fun! Thade, the Death Giver, who always refers to himself in the third person as “The Death Giver” (maybe a literary trick by the author to show he’s in opposition to “The Shadow”?), is dead set on killing a bunch of important people at a ticker tape parade in Manhattan. He has some practice runs on a couple of millionaires and that’s what puts him The Shadow’s radar. Also the police, but they are stumped as a Canadian forest, so they are essentially useless.
On a side note, I do wonder if law enforcement ever read these stories in the 1930’s and what they thought of them? Sadly, the kind of people who were buying these pulp magazines and reading them usually weren’t the sort to go home and write their thoughts out in beautiful journals meant to stand the test of time. They had stuff like food and rent to worry about. But it leaves me curious because the police are truly inept in this case.
The Shadow does his usual “clew” investigating and Harry Vincent gets into trouble yet again. This time he almost gets blown up but The Shadow throws him like a bag of garbage out of a garage and saves his life. I just laughed. Good ol’ Harry, our comedic “I almost died!” bit character. The Shadow stories just wouldn’t be the same without his hijinks.
I enjoyed the villain’s ending too. He runs into an elevator shaft trying to escape, only the elevator car isn’t there and he plummets multiple stories to his messy death. I think I raised a fist and went “Booyah!” when that happened :-D
This was the final story in the sixth Shadow omnibus that I have and it feels like it is time for a little break from The Shadow. I’ll be putting this series on hiatus until sometime next year, but don’t worry, I’m not permanently stopping. There are just too many clews to check out after all ;-)
★★★✬☆
From the Internet
The Main Villain:
The story follows a sadistic criminal mastermind named Lucius Olney—better known as Thade, "The Death Giver".
The Conflict:
Unlike villains motivated strictly by financial gain or political power, Thade spreads murder and terror purely for the dark pleasure of killing. He uses cunning schemes, blackmail, and fatal traps (infamously featuring his calling card of "bubbles of death") to eliminate victims and even dispose of his own henchmen.
The Shadow's Intervention:
As Thade's web of terror tightens across New York City, The Shadow steps in from the shadows. Utilizing his trademark stealth, disguises, and network of agents, he unravels the mastermind's plots, outwits the deadly traps, and brings down the killer.
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Title:
The Icarus Plot
Series: The Icarus Saga
#2
Author: Timothy Zahn
Rating: 3.5 of
5 Stars
Genre: SF
Pages: 287
Words:
114K
Publish: 2023
So
twisty, so fun. By this time in my association with Zahn, I’ve
realized my brain just can’t keep up with the twists and turns and
so I don’t try. I just sit back and hang on while Zahn rockets me
forward on the ride. It was a good ride too.
I’d like to talk more about the book, but really, I just had fun. It is part of a series and the series is going well. I’m good with that.
★★★✬☆
From the Internet
For
years Gregory Roarke and his Kadolian partner Selene worked as
crocketts, combing through the atmospheres of uninhabited worlds for
places that might be colonized or hold valuable resources. Now, they
quietly work for the Icarus Group, a top-secret government
organization hunting for portals created by a long-vanished alien
race, portals that can teleport a person hundreds or thousands of
light-years in the blink of an eye.
Roarke and Selene are
searching one such possibility when they find that someone appears to
be stalking them. They evade their pursuers and return to find that a
man named Easton Dent has been searching the Spiral’s databases for
the names Gregory Roarke and Icarus.
Roarke reluctantly
agrees to meet with him. But that first contact is cut short, and
hours later Roarke is arrested and accused of Dent’s murder.
More
importantly to Roarke’s Icarus Group overseers, that brief meeting
also confirms that Dent was in recent contact with a portal.
But
the alien Patth are also searching for such portals, and they are
also on the trail. It’s now a race . . . and the Patth have
resources and ruthlessness far beyond anything Roarke and Selene can
match.
In a universe where transportation is subsumed by the Paath monopoly, Gregory Roarke and his partner Selena have been hired by the Icarus program to find interstellar gates that allow instantaneous transportation between any two points in the galaxy. But when a conman and thief named Easton Dent continuously searches for “Gregory Roarke” and “Icarus,” everyone wants to hunt Dent down. The con man will only make contact with Roarke.
But when a body drops near the contact point, with Roarke’s wallet near the corpse, the problems expand exponentially. The Paath are after the portal. Roarke’s old mob boss employer is after Roarke and Dent. Icarus has secrets of its own, and playing its own long game. On top of everything else is Easton Dent’s brother, Weston—an omnipresent threat that always watches Easton’s back. Worst of all: The badgemen are after Roarke for the murder of Easton Dent.
Having a handful of cards is what gives you options in Magic the Gathering. If you don't have any cards in your hand, you can't do anything and your opponent can just wale on you while you sit there and take it.
This card removes those cards from your opponent's hand. Remove his ability to play or fight back and you've got the game all sewn up. Unless he's a blue player, in which case he'll probably screw you over instead :-/
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Title:
Goddess of the Ice Realm
Series: Lord of the
Isles #5
Author: David Drake
Rating:
3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Epic Fantasy
Pages:
533
Words: 190K
Publish: 2003
I
read this Book
in 2006, twenty years ago. It doesn’t feel that long at all.
Crap. I guess I have to acknowledge that I’ve fully entered into
the next stage of my life. Or I can keep denying it and be “amazed
and astounded” every time it is rubbed into my face. I’ll let you
guess which is the more likely outcome ;-)
I enjoyed the story but I have to admit, having an “alternate” Ilna (one of the main characters) being the villainous goddess set on multiverse domination wasn’t leaned into nearly as hard as it could be. It was interesting to see how the demon tree was involved but there wasn’t enough detail given to make it feel like a real alternate Ilna. And the real Ilna disposing of her goddess level alternate? It felt almost accidental. I mean, our Ilna cracks the ice beneath goddess Ilna’s throne and the goddess falls into the water and is devoured by hungry creatures. That is it. It felt like Drake had a very good idea and then puffed it out to about 500 pages and then decided enough was enough and just killed the badguys as needed. But to be honest, I think that’s been how things have gone in every book so far and I’m just now really noticing it.
The artist Donato has done previous Lord of the Isles covers and I showcased a slightly more full picture for Queen of Demons. For this book, I tracked down the original drawing and I’d like to showcase it here. It is a portrayal of the royal guards and army pushing into the Ice Realm and using long spears, etc to fend off giant magical creatures long enough for those with axes to get in close and do the dirty work. Donato has captured that spirit of the soldier fighting against something unspeakable, by not showing the horrors but showing the soldiers faces. I was pretty impressed.
I think the guy in the silver cuirass is supposed to be Prince Garric and the man to the left, with the very prominent ear-ring, is supposed to be Chalcus. I’m not sure if there are other named characters surrounding Garric or not. It’s a busy scene depicting a very busy part of the story, so I’m happy to just recognize two of the main characters :-D
★★★✬☆
From Grokipedia
Goddess of the Ice Realm opens with Garric and his retinue arriving at the island city of Carcosa as part of his ongoing campaign to reunite the island kingdoms into a single empire, where the wizard Tenoctris immediately perceives a powerful supernatural assault directed against them. Concurrently, Ilna and her beloved Chalcus are dispatched to investigate a magical threat disrupting shipping in the northern regions. Soon afterward, Cashel is translated to another world through evil magic, while Sharina is sent to yet a separate world, separating the main protagonists amid the heightened cosmic forces that empower even minor wizards during this thousand-year magical peak. In their respective realms, the separated characters confront deadly dangers and challenges: Cashel finds himself in an alien world where he must protect native inhabitants from a powerful inter-dimensional threat, while Sharina navigates a world involving wizards pursuing magical artifacts, and Ilna and Chalcus encounter the titular goddess more directly in the north. Garric contends with the supernatural assault and related threats in Carcosa, with the goddess exerting a potent, sinister influence throughout the narrative even when not physically present. Each overcomes their individual perils through courage, skill, and resourcefulness before the storylines converge. The protagonists reunite in a terrifying and dramatic climax centered on the goddess, resulting in a grand and compelling resolution that propels forward the overarching quest to reunify the Isles despite the intensified magical energies and human evils they amplify. This installment maintains the series pattern of separation and reunion while escalating the stakes through these parallel adventures and the direct confrontation with the title entity.
The central protagonists of Goddess of the Ice Realm are the young brother-sister pairs Garric or-Reise and Sharina os-Reise, along with Cashel or-Kenset and Ilna os-Kenset, who continue their roles as key figures navigating supernatural threats in the Isles. Garric or-Reise exercises leadership over his retinue and stands central to events in the island city of Carcosa, where he confronts mounting dangers alongside his companions. The wizard Tenoctris, serving in an advisory capacity, detects a powerful supernatural assault directed against the group upon their arrival in Carcosa.Sharina os-Reise experiences displacement to another world through magical means, encountering personal dangers that test her resilience and contribute to her development amid unfamiliar perils. Cashel or-Kenset is likewise translated to a separate world by evil magic, where he draws upon his physical strength and combat prowess to meet substantial challenges. Ilna os-Kenset, characterized by her strong-willed determination, undertakes an investigation into a magical threat disrupting northern shipping, joined by her beloved partner Chalcus. Chalcus, an action-oriented companion skilled in seafaring and combat, forms a close partnership with Ilna during this mission. These narratives underscore supporting dynamics such as the sibling bonds between Garric and Sharina as well as Cashel and Ilna, complemented by the romantic relationship between Ilna and Chalcus.
If you have followed me for a couple of weeks, you'll have noticed that each Monday I post a picture of a Magic the Gathering card and usually some of my thoughts on it. Today there is the internet which will tell you all you need to know about the various cards, from price to all the info about it. However back in the 90's the internet was just getting off the ground and we still relied on magazines to give us previews of upcoming cards, sets and any price changes.
I used the magazine Scrye as my fount of knowledge. It came out a couple of times a year and it was usually a pretty thick publication. It had to be, since it was a big old price guide. If you look at the cover featuring the Star Wars cards, you can see the blurb in the upper left corner "Complete Price List for Mirage", which was the latest MtG set. Scrye also covered a multitude of other CCG's (collectable card games), as you can see from the cover. There was Star Wars, X-Files, Middle Earth, Legends of the Five Rings, Star Trek, Netrunner, DC comics and other various card games that came and then usually went. It was the Wild West time of the CCG's.
While the price list part of the magazine was the biggest draw for me (it did take up about 3/4's of the magazine), the articles were a good read too, especially if you weren't into a particular other card game. You could learn about the game, see some of the cards and in most issues, get some promo cards. They were all mass produced junk, but it still gave you an idea of what the game was like and how it differed from Magic.
I think I only ever bought two, maybe three of these magazines. They were expensive (compared to a comic book that cost you $1.25) and only came out every couple of months. I know I bought the one in the featured image (the greenman impression) and I'm pretty sure I also bought this Star Wars one. So I bought two in a row and realized Magic prices didn't change THAT much in a couple of months and the articles didn't really apply to the type of Magic me and my friends played, ie, casual kitchen table Magic while the articles were more about Competitive Magic. I didn't want to dominate my gaming circle, I just wanted to have fun. And when all you focus on is winning, the fun goes right out the door.
I do remember though seeing one of my cards having gone up 5 or 10 cents and that I had like 10 of them. I was elated! I had just made a whole dollar without doing anything. Man, the sky was the limit at that point, hahahahahaa. I hadn't yet realized that those prices were what the cards were selling for in a store, not what "I" could sell them for. But what it did do was help me and my friends when we were trading. It was not a 1 for 1 trade. The prices took into account how good the cards were and since we didn't really understand that, it helped us to keep parity.
That is about all I have to write here. Enjoy your weekend :-)
beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep………… Bookstooge’s Reviews on the Road will resume normal broadcasting again tomorrow with all new e...
