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Jan. 3rd, 2003 09:24 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
yendiAs most of you know, I don't read High Fantasy. Brust and Pratchett are very notable exceptions, but other than those and the occasional book that slips through the crack (the last of which was Stoddard's The False House a few years ago), I just avoid it like the plague (and my reaction to most high fantasy is similar -- I break out in a rash, get achy, and eventually throw up; I suspect that I may be allergic to elves and dwarves).
I also don't like novels set in gaming worlds. Nothing against the concept -- I know more than one person who makes a living (or, more accurately, supplements a paycheck) by doing this. But such books usually rank below Trek and similar novels for me, because the world is usually so restrictive, and even the best authors usually have to rehash rules and settings, and attempt to translate some untranslatable events in novel form (unless they want to incur the wrath of irate gamer-geeks upset that the vampire didn't make a willpower check, or whatnot).
And I've already mentioned, in the past, my general dissatisfaction with vampire fiction in general, as, for every rich or interesting book, there are dozens of cliche-ridden pieces of crap that make Anne Rice seem readable.
So, guess what I read and loved yesterday?
Yup. A high-fantasy book set in a gaming universe, featuring a vampire.
It was Drachenfels, by Jack Yeovil. A Warhammer (as in, possibly the most clich-ridden universe not created by Gary Gygax) book.
Of course, that's cheating.
"Jack Yeovil" is actually Kim Newman. Kim "Anno Dracula" Newman. The man who had Tom Ripley and Clark Kent mixing it up with vampires in a Fellini film. The guy who (co-) wrote Back in the USSA. Just a damned talented and funny author. And someone who doesn't take the whole gaming world thing seriously at all.
The book is hysterical, and highly recommended. Lots of parody of gaming concepts and of theatre. And a damned good story to boot. And it (like the next two books in the series, only one of which is in my possession) tells the story of Genevieve, co-star of Anno Dracula. All of these books were written very early in his career, and Games Workshop is re-releasing them now (although, for some reason, they still put "Jack Yeovil" on the covers).
It's a book that I'll definitely be foisting on friends. Although I'll probably foist his Dracula books first.
I also don't like novels set in gaming worlds. Nothing against the concept -- I know more than one person who makes a living (or, more accurately, supplements a paycheck) by doing this. But such books usually rank below Trek and similar novels for me, because the world is usually so restrictive, and even the best authors usually have to rehash rules and settings, and attempt to translate some untranslatable events in novel form (unless they want to incur the wrath of irate gamer-geeks upset that the vampire didn't make a willpower check, or whatnot).
And I've already mentioned, in the past, my general dissatisfaction with vampire fiction in general, as, for every rich or interesting book, there are dozens of cliche-ridden pieces of crap that make Anne Rice seem readable.
So, guess what I read and loved yesterday?
Yup. A high-fantasy book set in a gaming universe, featuring a vampire.
It was Drachenfels, by Jack Yeovil. A Warhammer (as in, possibly the most clich-ridden universe not created by Gary Gygax) book.
Of course, that's cheating.
"Jack Yeovil" is actually Kim Newman. Kim "Anno Dracula" Newman. The man who had Tom Ripley and Clark Kent mixing it up with vampires in a Fellini film. The guy who (co-) wrote Back in the USSA. Just a damned talented and funny author. And someone who doesn't take the whole gaming world thing seriously at all.
The book is hysterical, and highly recommended. Lots of parody of gaming concepts and of theatre. And a damned good story to boot. And it (like the next two books in the series, only one of which is in my possession) tells the story of Genevieve, co-star of Anno Dracula. All of these books were written very early in his career, and Games Workshop is re-releasing them now (although, for some reason, they still put "Jack Yeovil" on the covers).
It's a book that I'll definitely be foisting on friends. Although I'll probably foist his Dracula books first.