Skein of Shadows
Skein of Shadows by The Wandering Men
Published: September 1, 2007 by Dark Quest, LLC
At A Glance: A Storm is Brewing… On the eve of the Festival of the Long Night, a raucous holiday which commemorates the onset of the Demon Scourge, a mysterious ship has entered Crown, captained by an enigmatic elf in the service of the dreaded Ice Skull League. On board is a mysterious and evil relic that could bring ruin and despair to the proud city and forbidden power to the inscrutable Grey God. Beneath the waves, a stalwart alônn druid has begun a crusade to banish the relic, while in the city’s slums, a cunning elven assassin has been hired to kill the captain in cold blood. As the storm approaches, a celebrated dwarven gladiator is manipulated to kill for blood and the Grey God’s glory as a colossal oltreggan barbarian has been set free from prison and placed on a path with destiny. All the while, an etherean who serves as the Queen’s Intelligencer frantically pulls together the pieces, trying to discover the identity of the half-demon who is behind it all. In a race against time, the unlikely heroes come together in clash that could mean the end for them all. When the storm hits, will Crown survive?
What the Goose? While reading Skein of Shadows, I was forcibly reminded of Dragons of Autumn Twilight, by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman. The style of writing and changing viewpoints were very similar to that Dragonlance novel. Now, that’s to be expected, as this book is a collection of stories written by a variety of folks, each of the Wandering Men, in fact. But when that viewpoint changed within the story, it seemed a bit much. Now, I will make allowances as this is their first published work, that I know of at least. I hope to see more from them. But I also hope to see improvements in their writing style.
Please don’t get me wrong, the story itself has promise. There’s enough of something “new” in this book to make me want a bit more. The Men have the intention of turning this book into an RPG setting, which I think is a great idea. Yes, it has your basic tropes of elves, dwarves, assassins, and even dragons. But it’s got a few new things with Ethereans, Alônn, and Oltreggans that would make for a fairly unique setting.
But the book itself seemed incomplete, like this is the first part of a longer book. Each story ends with the destruction of an evil artifact and the ship that carried it well enough (from the viewpoint of the main character of that particular story), but there wasn’t enough of a climax to end them completely for me. I’m wanting a bit more.
So, let’s see more! I’ll read it. But give me some improvements and refinements in the craft as well, please.
Thanks, Goose for the review! I’m Brannon Hollingsworth, one of the Wandering Men and one of the authors of Skein of Shadows. Just a couple of notes: the change in perspective was intentional – we wanted each of the novellas within Skein to have its own feel and voice, so when you change from 3rd person to 1st in Tenet’s Tale, that was not an oops. ;)
Also, the book was already a gaming setting when we were contracted to write the novel – it’s called Crown: City of the Fallen and is available from Dark Quest Games on RPGNow and in stores. :) We were asked to expand the setting into the fiction genre.
Lastly, you mention that the book seems like the first part of a longer book – well, we’re currently writing the sequel… So – we hope you enjoy it as well!
Hey, Brannon! Thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment.
In response to the change of perspective. It wasn’t Tenet’s Tale that caused me discomfort. It was while in the others when things would switch back and forth between a couple of different folks. I understood that each story was supposed to be a separate viewpoint. It was when that viewpoint changed while within the story that I didn’t like. I know this is perhaps a small thing, but it was an honest response.
And I thought you guys were the folk behind the setting. I didn’t realize it was already out there and that you were basing off of that. Good to know and something to look for now on RPGnow.com.
Let me know when the sequel is out and I’ll definitely take a gander at it!
Heya Goose – thanks for the reply! I think I see what you’re saying and I’m completely cool with honest responses – that’s what we want, in fact! :)
I will definitely let ya know – we’ve got a hardback version of Skein due out in March, and then the sequel later in 2009. :) Also, there’s a ton of information on Crown, it’s characters and excerpts from the book that you don’t get, etc. at our website: http://wanderingmen.com – enjoy!