Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, July 9, 1995 TAG: 9507070098
SECTION: BOOK PAGE: F-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: REVIEWED BY WENDY MORRIS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Edited by Edward E. Kramer. White Wolf Fiction. $19.99.
"The monster needs to prowl. It needs to feed. It needs to howl. It needs to grab us by the throat and let us know how bad things are. If we don't give the beast its due, it has no choice but to devour us."
So says John Mason Skipp in the introduction to this book of horror stories from White Wolf. His premise is that we use horror - fiction, movies, or gaming - as vicarious experiences so that we do not need the experience itself.
What began as loosely connected role-playing games created by White Wolf, including "Vampire: The Masquerade" and "Werewolf: The Apocalypse", has now expanded to include novels and anthologies of short fiction. These 22 stories (and occasional poems) of "Dark Destiny" take place in the "World of Darkness," a universe similar to our own but with werewolves and vampires and other sinister beings that lurk on the edges of sight.
Lucretia Borgia might have been a vampire, while Edgar Allen Poe devoted his life to exposing and destroying them. Soccer star Escobar's unfortunate score might have been the result of misguided meddling by a paranoid mage. A raging werewolf might descend upon Winnipeg tonight...
Unlike fiction published by other gaming companies, such as TSR's "Dungeons and Dragons," the stories of "Dark Destiny" are not so obviously game-derived. The anthology's main flaw is its reliance on the intricate game backgrounds. Some stories are more guilty of this than others. "The Love of Monsters," for example, tries so hard to "tie-in" to the game that it includes an intrusive and largely irrelevant 51/2 page history on one character.
On the other hand, the best stories, such as Harlan Ellison's "Sensible City," could stand perfectly well outside the context of the "World of Darkness"; and "The Scent of Vinegar," by Robert Bloch, is a finalist for this year's Bram Stoker Award. Nevertheless, "Dark Destiny's" best audience will be the reader already familiar with White Wolf and its games. The book is not nearly as enticing an invitation to play as the game reviews have been.
Lady of the Trillium.
By Marion Zimmer Bradley. Bantam Books. $22.95.
Mikayla lives in an isolated tower of enchanted harps and magic mirrors - and lessons in sorcery. For Mikayla, much to her dismay, is the apprentice of the aging Archimage Haramis. Haramis is reluctant to surrender her power, but will not let Mikayla return to her former life. Worse yet, the Archimage has been having seizures with disastrous results for the land to which she is bound, and her mind keeps wandering in the past. Mikayla must handle the Archimage's problems without the Archimage's powers - or her permission.
"Lady of the Trillium" is a lovely coming of age novel for both young Mikayla and the 200-year-old Haramis. The setting is exotic, the age difference extreme (16 vs. 200-something), but Bradley's characters and their confrontations are perfect: Mikayla, reasonable but goaded to rebellion; Haramis, arrogant, irascible, (and better portrayed than in "Black Trillium"), and considerably more set in her ways. The book should be marketed as a young adult novel, although it won't be.
In 1990, three major names in women's science fiction collaborated to produce a single novel, "Black Trillium". Marion Zimmer Bradley, Andre Norton and Julian May each created a character (Haramis is Bradley's) and presented their adventures as they try to protect their land from invaders.
Then May released "Blood Trillium", a single-effort novel, which was followed by Norton's "Golden Trillium" in 1993 and now Bradley's "Lady of the Trillium". Each of these books is a sequel to the original "Black Trillium", but they do not form a series themselves, going, as they do, is vastly different directions with too many inconsistencies to work together.
In fact, "Lady of the Trillium" is a better story by itself, although probably not uniquely strong enough to command any awards for the genre. "Lady" is not an "epic fantasy," but something smaller, and more endearing because of that.
The Sword of Bedwyr.
By R.A. Salvatore. Warner. $18.95.
The world is vaguely European, vaguely late Middle Ages.
It has suffered under the harsh rule of an evil, self-styled wizard-king. The Eorl of Bedwydrin no longer has the will to fight the king, and his son Luthien is too young to know life differently. But when events conspire to cast Luthien from his family home, he reluctantly sets out on a path that will bring him eventually to open rebellion. He joins the flamboyant thief Oliver de Burrows, falls in love with a half-elf slave, and acquires a crimson cloak with a reputation as mysterious as its abilities.
R.A. Salvatore has created a modestly ambitious plot for "The Sword of Bedwyr", the first of three books about the Crimson Shadow. "The Sword of Bedwyr" so obviously belongs to the projected larger series that is lacks a plot of its own until late, when it gradually becomes apparent that a revolution will rise against the local duke. The sword of Bedwyr itself features in a small fight scene toward the beginning and is not mentioned again until the last page where Luthien's former girlfriend Katerin presents it as a token of the Eorl's support. While the symbolism of receiving the sword and his father's support makes a good - even strong - ending, it does not quite justify the title of the book. The wizard-king, who was set up from the beginning as a villain, does not appear at all.
The point of view is murky, especially since this is supposed to be Luthien's story. And Oliver de Burrows, swashbuckling highway-halfling that he is, badly overshadows the hero. Any peaceful interludes are cut out - Salvatore goes straight for confrontation and action, with the impression that Luthien and Oliver live precariously from one surge adrenaline to the next. Then again, maybe they do. The sword fights, of which there are many, are reasonably accurate.
But constant action comes at the expense of other interesting and more subtle developments. Luthien's love affair with the half-elf Siobhan is hardly mentioned at all (we learn more about Oliver's romantic nature!), despite the fact that she is Luthien's principle motivation for the last third of the novel. And Salvatore does not even begin to touch the ramifications of Katerin's arrival at the end. Well, maybe in Book Two.
Wendy Morris lives in Blacksburg and works in Roanoke.
by CNB