Katrina Ostrander

This novella anthology includes 4 stories. I was worried that they might all have similar plots, but each one was totally different and I liked them all.

Ice and Snow by Katrina Ostrander - no magic or monsters, but some well written political intrigue, some action, and a little romance. I get they're emulating an Asian culture, but I'm always hoping they're going to change things up a bit, but this didn't. There was something strange going on with gender that wasn't described, but one of the characters was called "he" once, maybe by accident, but the rest of the time used "they/them" as their pronouns. Seemed strange because you only know if someone identifies as "they/them" if they (or someone else) tells you. The author didn't give a lot of description about the character, so it was kind of confusing. 6.5

The Sword and the Spirits by Robert Denton III - This one had a bunch of magic and monsters. Would make a cool D&D adventure. I don't like underconfident/reluctant heroes and this one was especially annoying, but I guess that was kind of the story - her finding her confidence. 6.5

Whispers of Shadow and Steel by Mari Murdock - I like how each of these have been totally different. This one had a little magic, a very complicated plot with lots of background characters and different factions and motivations. 7.0

Across the Burning Sands by Daniel Lovat Clark - Diplomacy at the edge of the empire. Djinn and ghuls, sorcerers and sword fighting. Good stuff, though the self-hate of the main character got a little old. 7.0… (mer)

I have argued (unsuccessfully, via a database submission at BoardGameGeek) that this book should be considered a game accessory. As a collection of weird fiction, it is passable at best. But as a "bootstrapping" instrument to orient players to their characters in the Arkham Files games, it is excellent. Each investigator has a vignette, typically four or five pages in length, to supply them with psychological orientation and biographical details. The book is huge, full of art reproduced from the games at a more generous scale on glossy paper, with a sewn binding to keep the thing together. (It's so heavy that glue binding would surely break in short order.) The cover art is beautiful, but there's no dust jacket.

Maybe you wouldn't bother to read four pages of character background for an evening's play of Elder Sign or Eldritch Horror. But for the multi-session campaign play of Arkham Horror: The Card Game (which requires out-of-play time for deck construction anyhow), the sort of extra consideration given here to individual investigators is terrific.

This book is obviously intended to provide the framework for a narrative canon, and several of the episodes here have provided points of departure for the subsequent novellas. I was especially gratified by some of the stories for investigators who have had little exposure in other Arkham Files fiction, such as Minh Thi Phan and William Yorick. I think my favorite story for the story's sake out of the dozens here was the one about the prestidigitator and occultist Dexter Drake.… (mer)