Pulp of the Week - The Inexplicables

Cherie Priest
The Inexplicables
The Clockwork Century Book 5

The zombie filled, blight ridden, great-walled Seattle returns in this 5th book in the Clockwork Century series by Cherie Priest. The story focuses on the young Rector Sherman, a victim of the blight, though he grew up in the region of Seattle outside the walls. That giant wall did not protect him enough, as he grew into an addict of that most addictive byproduct of the blight, its distilled and cooked up form called sap.

I found this tale a delightful return to the city that we first saw in Boneshaker, the first and best of the series, and Priest picks up the characters lives farther down their road of life, but she focuses on the young'uns - Rector, Zeke, and the Chinese boy inventor, Huey. That trio of friends propel the book through several new mysteries that shake up the landscape of the walled city. Where are the rotters (the zombies) going? Who are the strange newcomers and what are they doing to the wall? What is the Inexplicable?

The answers to those questions power this highly enjoyable novel that begins taking the walled city into a new era, and provide hope for the future.

The amazing cover painting of The Inexplicables is by Cliff Nielsen and I was thrilled to find that it is an illustration of a scene in the book as opposed to a thematic piece. When Rector and his pals reach this point, I flipped the book to the cover and marveled at the view.

Now for the rating... In terms of this series (which I like quite a bit) I would rank The Inexplicables as third favorite of the series, right in the middle, though only by the smallest fraction above Clementine. I would rank the books in this order [the bracketed number is the series number] from best to least best (I won't say worse, because these books are all good.)

Boneshaker [1]
Ganymede [4]
Inexplicables [5]
Clementine [3]
Dreadnought [2]

With all that said, I give The Inexplicables an 8.75...

The Horn reviewed!

Comic Book and Pulp author, Ron Fortier, has posted a review of The Horn up on his blog and I appreciate the kind words. Among other nice things, he said: 

"This short thriller moves rapidly and is a real page turner.  Tyler, whom we last saw in the first Uchronic digest, “The Zeppelin,” is a likeable hero and I hope Miller has lots more of these mini pulps coming our way."

Well, there are at least 2 more Clark Tyler stories on the way. Uchronic Tales: The Studio Spectre and Uchronic Tales: The Claim should be released in the next few months...

And after that? I am working on a longer project featuring Clark... But those secrets will just have to wait...

Pulp of the Week - Catching Fire

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Warning - if you have not read The Hunger Games there are spoilers for that book contained herein. Be warned...

Catching Fire is the second book in the Hunger Games trilogy and Collins really steps it up a notch, with nearly six months having passed since the end of Katniss and Peeta's extraordinary double victory in the brutal Hunger Games.

Now, we find the pair midway through the year visiting each district on the Victory Tour. But Katniss senses trouble in the districts. Trouble instigated by her gaming the Hunger Games system by forcing the double win.

After seeing open rebellion and realizing that her mocking jay is being used as a symbol for the rebels she is sent home to a very changed District 12.

The novel heightens the stakes and choices that Katniss must make as she comes to understand that she is the catalyst for rebellion. She must maintain her facade of romance with Peeta, despite her attraction to Gale. She must decide how far to push against the Capitol.

Finally President Snow has had enough and pushes back. Katniss, Peeta, and Gale are all shocked by the President's announcement regarding the upcoming 75th Annual Hunger Games. Every twenty-five years there is a special Quarter Quell, each one designed to be more bloody than the last. But when the President says, "On the seventy-fifth anniversary, as a reminder to the rebels that even the strongest among them cannot overcome the power of the Capitol, the male and female tributes will be reaped from their existing pool of victors," Katniss' life is changed forever.

This middle book of the trilogy moves like a blitzkreig, hammering through a terrific plot and causing massive damage to the heroes and villians alike. Collins has crafted another terrific book and there is good reason this trilogy was on the bestseller lists for months. I am eager to read the finale. I can't imagine the impatience that those who read the books as they were released must have experienced in waiting for the next part.

While these books are published by Schoolastic as Yound Adult novels (I know first hand how much that audience loves these books - my son is 12 and my daughter is 14) there is little that makes them "kids books." Yes, there is no overly profane language or explicit sexual action, but neither of those are the measuring stick for great books and as an adult and a life-long fan of science fiction, I can attest without reservation that these are great books that any adult can enjoy.

Sometimes books become best sellers simply because they are great.

I give Catching Fire a 9.5 out of ten. I am withholding that half point due to my kids saying the last really is best. The cover art is by Tim O'Brien and the cover design is by Elizabeth B. Parisi.

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Pulp of the Week - Robin Hood: King of Sherwood

Robin Hood: King of Sherwood
by I. A. Watson

From Airship 27 Productions, Published by Cornerstone Books

So you think you know the story - the bandit king that steals from the rich and gives to the poor - but do you really? What do you really know?

Why did Robin i' th' Hood take up arms against the King?
Where did he come from?
How did he become the King of Sherwood?

Who is Maid Marion?
What drove her to join Robin?

I. A. Watson answers these questions and many others in his "Bold Retelling of a Classic Adventure." (That's what it says on the cover, and it's true.) Watson researched the countryside where the tale takes place as well as the history of the legend.

Watson picked through the literary history and blended the best parts into an exciting, surprising (really!), and romantic tale. The characters you know are all there: Robin, Marion, Little John, Will Scarlet, The Sheriff of Nottingham, and Friar Tuck along with several you don't. He also puts the story into historic context so that the reader understands why Robin had to be.

Under King John (while his brother Richard the Lionhearted was off fighting the crusades) an oppressive serfdom got even worse. John put the screws on the landowners who in turn clamped down on the peasants. The people were taxed into poverty and despair. The people needed a champion and due to a series of circumstances, Robin answered the call.

How Watson ties all the characters together and ends up with the ending we expect is nothing short of astonishing, but at the same time it all feels so right that I don't know why we haven't seen or read this Robin Hood before. The book is utterly charming and nicely graced with a beautiful Mike Manley cover. This Hood is more than worth a read. I give Robin Hood: King of Sherwood a 9 out of 10.

Fortunately, Watson is planning further books in the series. I look forward to them.

I had the opportunity to interview I. A. Watson and ask about the story and his interest in the Robin Hood legend.

Savage Tales: Can you tell us a little about where you grew up and what your reading and pop culture history is?

IW: When I was around seven, growing up in England, going on a family holiday, I bought a second-hand hardbound comics annual called “The Fantastic Four”. It reprinted Lee and Kirby’s FF #84-87. This story blew my mind.

Not only was this the first superhero story I’d ever read apart from Super-Goof, it also featured the coolest villain in the history of cool villains. Victor von Doom ruled a whole country! His own people both loved and feared him! He had a terrible secret in his ruined face, and when he wasn’t villaining he played haunting beautiful music alone in his gothic but high-tech palace! And stunningly, he always kept his word, so that even his enemies the FF trusted him when he gave it, and he let the good guys go at the end because they’d helped him.

I realised then and there what my own future inevitably had to be. I would grow up to be Doctor Doom.

Pulp of the Week - Doc Savage #20

October 1934 - Death in Silver

This adventure has a limited cast, with Renny working in South Africa and Long Tom and Johnny in Europe. Death in Silver finds Doc, Monk, and Ham blasted into danger when an office under Monk's Manhattan laboratory is blown up by the mysterious and deadly Silver Death's-Heads.

A gang of silver clad thieves and murderers has been terrorizing New York City for a few weeks having robbed armored cars and astonishingly sank an ocean liner. With the explosion destroying a shipping office under Monk's lab, Doc Savage gets involved and immeadiately meets the dame. This time her name is Lorna Zane.

Doc wastes no time in dropping her off at his cousin Pat Savage's swanky Park Avenue Salon which is described as half salon, half gymnasium.

There are quite a number of items of interest in this novel.

- Ham uses the stuff coating the tip of his sword cane as a stimulant to wake up a knocked out character. This is quite different, since the stuff has previously indicated that the tiniest prick of the blade would produce instant unconciousness.

- Doc makes a bet with a cop.

- There is a description of an automatic elevator as if the average reader has not operated one before. There is also a comment about "zipper fasteners" being an efficient method of fastening clothes.

- Lester Dent describing Doc's car racing through the fog - "The machine chased the white funnels of its own headlights through the night, like a quite black ghost hurtling after some luminous siren."

The secret of the Silver Death's-Heads miraculous escapes is revealed and Doc puts the Helldiver into service again. When Monk questions why the Death's-Heads have a particular contraption on their vessel, Dent writes, "The answer to that did not come until later, after unpleasant things had happened."

Needless to say, Doc and his men wrap things up in the end, but was a pretty exciting and satisfying adventure. I'll give Death in Silver an 8.5 out of 10. 

 

The pulp cover is by Walter Baumhofer, the pulp interior art is by Paul Orban (and can be found at Chris Kalb's Doc Site), and the Bantam paperback cover is by James Bama. For this review I read my Bantam paperback, 1st edition, July 1968.

Pulp of the Week - Doc Savage #19

September 1934 - Fear Cay

The paperback cover of the astoundingly well titled nineteenth Doc Savage adventure, Fear Cay, shows Savage struggling on the beach of a desert island as he is getting wailed on by the 131 year old Dan Thunden. Fear Cay is great fun for a number of reasons.

First off is the already mentioned Dan Thunden. He is a spry, strong, tough SOB that claims to be well past a century old, putting his birth near 1800. He is a good match for Doc and is hiding a secret at the aforementioned Cay.

The book also marks the return of Pat Savage in a good featured role as she is mistaken for a starlet. Pat is also featured on the pulp cover with Doc. The real starlet is also a peach and it's a treat to get two strong female leads here. Strangely enough, the starlet is attracted to Doc.

A secret crime syndicate, Fountain of Youth, Inc. has been getting payments from the richest men in America and the gang behind it makes the mistake of getting Doc Savage involved. This takes him to the Caribbean to the titular Fear Cay.

As usual, Doc and his crew get captured, but this time Doc has a new trick. He unties himself by contorting his legs and then using his prehensile toes to untie the rope.

I'm sure I would not want to see that in a movie.

For this review I read my Bantam paperback, May 1966 (2nd printing.) I give Fear Cay and 9 out of 10. It is one of the better ones so far. The pulp was written by Lester Dent. Walter Baumhofer provided the (1934.09) original cover which features Doc and Pat. James Bama provided the great cover for the Bantam paperback.

Pulp of the Week - Doc Savage #18

The Squeaking Goblin - August 1934

This is a different kind of adventure for Doc Savage and the fabulous five. Instead of the usual tropical locale, it takes them to the less than exotic lands of Maine and the Appalacian Mountain country where a buckskin-clad ghostly figure is killing off the Raymond clan. Doc is called for help with solving the decades old mystery of the Squeaking Goblin.

An old hill-billy feud has restarted pitting the Raymonds against their nemesis, the Snows. Dozens have been killed in the mountain country and the phantom Goblin has terrorized the Raymond clan, leaving no tracks and no evidence of bullets. The shots are characterized by a sharp squeak when they are fired.

How the folk legend of the Squeaking Goblin is tied to European pirates is the mystery that Doc and crew must solve. Of course there is a beautiful young lady, one of the Raymonds, named Frosta Raymond. Like most of the women in these pulp tales, she is feisty as well as beautiful. Could she have taken up the mantle of the Goblin? Or is it the nastiest, lowdown snake of the Snows – a giant named Jug?

Renny gets featured the most of Doc's crew, with Ham the least. There is a mention of Long Tom having a gold front tooth. Some of the locals are the colorfully named Fatty Irvin, Jug Snow and Old Jude.

Doc's plane is mentioned as being bronze in color. He also makes use of an infrared searchlight on that plane.

The language of the period that caught my eye in this story included the phrase, "punk liars" that I like quite a bit. There was also a nickname for cigarettes that I thought was limited to England and is now considered a derogatory term. Additionally, there was an entertaining description of a hill-billy bedroom - "a corn husk mattress" and a "flour sack curtain."

Doc is getting more and more in control of his emotions – "... the bronze man whose emotions were schooled until they did not show..." – but he still feels the pain of the death of those around him. He is not a robot.

There was a place in the story when Doc and his men were worried that the bad guys were monitoring their radio conversations so Doc cut off the conversation. I wondered why they just didn't speak Mayan.

I liked The Squeaking Goblin. It was nice to see Doc in a different setting and the descriptions of the rural mountains and the folks living conditions were interesting. The people either walk or ride horses. There are very few cars on the rutted dirt roads. The accents were phonetically spelled out, as usual, and quite entertaining.

I give The Squeaking Goblin an 8 of of 10. The pulp cover is by Walter Baumhofer and the Bantam paperback is by James Bama. The Paul Orban interior illustrations came from the 86th Floor website.

Pulp of the Week - Doc Savage #17

The Thousand-Headed Man - July 1934

This rousing and interesting Lester Dent penned tale takes Doc and Co. to the jungles of Indo-China. The story picks up in Europe after the events of  The King Maker, with Doc arriving in London by plane. His arrival attracts photographers and autograph hounds. This is the kind of scene with Doc that we really haven't seen before. He is trying to dodge the fans and reporters. A man accosts Doc at the airport and throws a package at the Man of Bronze. Well, it seems that everyone wants the package, or at least its contents – three innocuous black rectangles the size of a cigarette pack that are said to be keys. Keys to reaching the ancient city of the Thousand-Headed Man.

Doc is framed for murder and uses an inflatable head and shoulders of himself to escape from a particularly tight spot (neat trick). He also has a secret code name with Scotland Yard - SX73182 - that gets telephone assistance without questions.

Doc and crew head to the jungle and encounter some of the most interesting scenery and ruins to date in a Savage novel. The first of these is a temple made entirely of carved hands. The others are equally interesting. The atmosphere and action are particularly good in this novel. The thrills and challenges are top notch. And, of course, there is a beautiful girl in the thick of the action.

I give The Thousand-Headed Man an 8.5 out of 10. The pulp cover is by Walter Baumhofer and the iconic Bantam #2 paperback cover is by James Bama. A portion of Bama's painting was also used for issue #1 of the Gold Key Comic. The pulp interior art is by Paul Orban.

Again, it is due to the efforts of Chris Kalb that the interior illustrations are able to be included in this review. His great site is worth a visit.

Pulp of the Week - Cherie Priest's Clementine

Clementine
Written By Cherie Priest
Cover Art By John Foster
Published By Subterranean Press

Clementine is the second novel in the Clockwork Century series written by Cherie Priest. It is about half the size of Boneshaker (the first novel), but it is a terrific read and if you have read Boneshaker, you will want to read this new book.

The next book in the Clockwork Century series, Dreadnought, is due out at the end of September so I wanted to have this one done so I can read that one when it comes out.

But this isn't much of a review so far, so here goes... Spoiler Alert for those who have not read Boneshaker. Don't read this review.

Clementine follows two characters and what happens when they meet and their destinies intertwine. Like Boneshaker, it has dirigibles, shoot outs, adventure, intrigue and a boy in trouble. But the similarity stops there, well except that Clementine is also an awesome book.

The first character is Captain Croggon Beauregard Hainey, whose airship, the Free Crow, is stolen at the end of Boneshaker. Hainey has taken off in another airship in hot pursuit. He is determined to get his ship back (even though he stole it in the first place) at nearly any cost.

Maria Isabella Boyd is a former Confederate spy who in desperation has taken on a job as a Pinkerton agent. Her first assignment is to be sure that whatever is on the  Free Crow makes it to its destination and to keep Hainey from getting his ship back.

Belle Boyd and Captain Hainey are great characters that I couldn't help but root for. Their unlikely alliance is the heart of the book and I loved their relationship as much as the ass-kicking both of these people deliver to their enemies.

What Clementine doesn't have is Zombies. Boneshaker was a Seattle story and because of the conditions there, there are zombies. The new book has plenty of action and thrills to take the place of the creeping undead. Hainey and his all black crew have to risk heading East to the heart of the Civil War where they are unwelcome by either side.

Cherie Priest is on a roll and writing some awesome pulp action. Even if you think you don't like steampunk, read the Clockwork Century books because they are big fun, full of pulpy action and awesome characters. Personally, I find Steampunk to be a weird label. I just call it pulp, or if you must  - alternate history SF.

I give Clementine an 8.5 out of 10. It is a lean 200 pages of pulp adventure. I can't wait for Dreadnought which releases on Sept 28. If you like the sound of this hurry over to Subterranean Press before they sell out. If you miss it there, it will be out in a trade paperback in 2011.

Pulp of the Week - Cherie Priest's Boneshaker

Boneshaker
Cherie Priest

One of the most talked about SF novels of last year, Cherie Priest's Boneshaker is a terrific adventure novel and could be the blueprint for a fantastic movie. The characters are great, the setting is unique and cinematic, and the action is fast, dangerous, and inspiringly original.

This is my first time reading a 'Steampunk" novel and I guess that just means alternate history, late 1800s SF. I have read quite a bit of "Cyberpunk" and a little "Splatterpunk" and I guess that people just like labels. Especially ones with the word 'punk' in them.

Based on the appearance of Steampunk fans at the San Diego, Comic Con, wood and brass gadgetry are an important visual piece of the puzzle of Steampunk, and Priest gets all that stuff into the book, but (for example) her goggles are so absolutely vital to the setting that I couldn't imagine the characters not wearing them.

Oh, yeah, and the airships. They're here too, and I love them, and again, they work beautifully.

The story is about a mother and son and the tragic events that lead to them being outcasts in an alternate history zombified Seattle near the turn of the century (from 19th to 20th.) Seattle, it seems, underwent a horrible tragedy that released a continuous font of toxic gas called The Blight upon the land. The Blight caused the zombies. They are a relentless horde that swarms and eats humans. Because the gas is still emanating from the ground a 200 foot tall wall was built around the city, and the city was left for dead.

The mother, Briar Wilkes, knows far more about the Blight than she has told her son. The boy, Zeke, was born just after the gas was released and has never know his father - the man everyone holds responsible for unleashing the Blight gas.

Events take a turn that finds Zeke trapped in the walled city and Briar is off to the rescue. But in a world of zombies and air pirates and people living underground beneath a city of slavering zombies, who will rescue her?

I really like the setting and the characters and the way Cherie Priest works the emotional story of both Briar and her son and everyone else they meet. Hopefully I will learn from this book and make sure that I create a satisfying emotional arc to parallel the story in my own fiction.

I give Boneshaker a 9 out of 10. The evocative Tor paperback cover is by Jon Foster.

I snatched Jon Foster's preliminary sketches from the BSC site.

Pulp of the Week - Doc Savage #11

January, 1934 - Brand of the Werewolf

The major impact of this eleventh outing of Doc Savage and his band of adventurers is the introduction of Patricia Savage, Doc's cousin. Her father, Alex Savage, according to Doc, "He is an Uncle. I have never met either him or his daughter... Age about 18."

It is never said, but given that his last name is Savage, this uncle must be Clark Savage, Sr's brother. The words, "an Uncle" bring to mind the probability that Doc had other uncles. Interestingly, the Bantam back cover refers to Doc "Seeking to avenge his brother's murder," which is obviously not true. We can surmise that Alex Savage is Doc's father's brother, but not Doc's brother.

Pat Savage is described by Lester Dent as. "She had a wealth of bronze hair -- hair very closely akin in hue to that of Doc Savage... She was tall; her form was molded along lines that left nothing to be desired. Her features were as perfect as though a magazine-cover artist had designed them."

Pat is also wearing a six-shooter on her hip and carrying a rifle when we meet her. She is young, impetuous, and beautiful. Sounds like a great girl.

In this tale it is also stated that Doc Savage does not kill, although actions often lead to the villains falling victim to their own traps. This is in spite of the dozens of killings in earlier novels. The rapid-firers shoot mercy bullets exclusively, though it is stated they could kill at short range.

In the paperback, the words clue and clew are used interchangeably and I wonder if that is true to the original text or just a Bantam typesetter's doing. "Clew" is actually the preferred spelling (as of my 1986 dictionary).

In the story, the public is starting to know who Doc is and he really doesn't like the Hero Worship that some exhibit. The five aids really have become really defined. The Vest of Many Pockets is now in full use.

I read my Bantam Paperback, published April 1965, eighth printing, and give this one a 7 out of 10. While it was nice to meet Pat, the story said nothing about Doc's uncle, Alex Savage, and I was quite unsatisfied with the resolution of the story. "The Brand of the Werewolf" was Bantam's best selling Doc reprint with over 185,000 copies printed.

The Bantam cover is by Mort Kunstler and the pulp cover is by Walter Baumhofer.

Pulp of the Week - Tomorrow Now

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Tomorrow Now: Envisioning the Next 50 Years
Bruce Sterling - 2002

This book is a fascinating look at our possible future circa 2002. Now that we are in that books future, there are a few things that seem dated, but much of the stuff here is a solid bucket of futurism.

Sterling's first chapter is about biotech, and this is really the main place that his SF roots show. In his future, there is hardly an aspect of our lives that won't be impacted by the advent of advanced biotech, genetic engineering or both.

Later chapters discuss the narco-terrorist, new world disorder fighters that are the real enemies of peace. They are sometimes of nations, but are ultimately destabilizing and destructive. The stories of three men that changed that personify this trend and fascinating, particularly the rise of power of Shamil Basaev in Chechnya. He was always about making money and made a lot in the disorder of the the Chechen revolution. Sterling calls him, "an idealistic college dropout with a minor in arms smuggling."

I was quite fascinated as Sterling wrote how a band of thieves and cutthroats defeated a Soviet tank battalion with RPGs and cel phones.

There is a lot of thought provoking material in this book. The final sections are about climate change and the disappearance of glacial ice and its implications for the future.

Sterling proposes that we are at the beginning of one of the periodic mass extinctions that the earth undergoes every few hundred million years. Historically these have been caused by outside factors, mainly meteors, comets, and the like. But this extinction will be caused by human intervention in the worlds climate.

I have never heard anyone put it quite like that before. That our actions could kill off 60-75% of the species on the planet.

Yeah, us.


I read the hardcover and give this book a 7 out of 10. There are some very good sections, but there are also a few that go nowhere for me. All in all, an interesting read.

Game Spotlight - Summoner Wars

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Summoner Wars
Lead Game Design - Colby Dauch
Assistant Game Design - Jake Ollervides
Illustration - John Ariosa
Graphic Design - David Richards
Plaid Hat Games
$24.95
2-4 Players

I am very excited to finally be able to play Summoner Wars with the finished, beautiful components. I had the pleasure of playing an early prototype with the designer a couple of years ago. Additionally, I helped out with copy editing the rules. Because of that involvement, Plaid Hat Games send me copies of both Summoner Wars Starter Packs.

The quality of the game components are top notch. Sturdy boxes, nice art, clean design, and good quality cards all support a great game. Colby Dauch designed Summoner Wars and created a company to publish it. Colby is well known to Heroscape players for running the most popular Heroscape fan site, Heroscapers. Colby also has a big part in the design of Heroscapes recent expansion sets. Colby Dauch is a huge advocate for Heroscape and a good family man as well.

Summoner Wars is a terrific card / board game hybrid for 2 - 4 players that plays in about 30-45 minutes. Each player's main card is their Summoner, a powerful mage that can bring armies to their aid or cast spells upon their army or their opponent. The object of the game is to kill your opponent's Summoner.

Guild Dwarves Summoner, Oldin

You play a single faction in Summoner Wars and there will also (in the future) be Mercenaries that can play with any army. In fact, if you buy from Plaid Hat now, there is a bonus mercenary card they are giving away.

Each side gets their Summoner, a bunch of units (these vary by faction), some spells, and some walls. The walls are important because you can only summon new forces adjacent to a wall. If you destroy an opponent's wall, they cannot summon new forces until they bring in a new wall.

One of the cards that comes with each faction is a player's aid that includes the Summoner's starting forces, the turn order, the spells available and such. This reference makes the set up fast and easy. Just set your cards and start.

The reference card shows the starting set-up as you can see above, and below the cards on the actual board.

The forces move and battle on the paper mat (serviceable, but not as amazing as this demo board.)

BGG.con photo courtesy of Colby Dauch

The wound markers.

Plaid Hat is hoping to publish a mounted, folding game board.

Combat is very simple, you roll a number of dice equal to the attacking unit's attack value. Each die that gets a 3 or better counts as a hit. Twenty double-sided thick cardboard damage counters are provided. You stack them on the unit cards to track the damage. Five dice are also included with the game.

Summoning your forces is accomplished by spending cards in your magic pile and putting them in your discard pile. However, you start the game with no cards in your magic pile. There are two ways to get cards into the magic pile. The first is simply discarding from your hand. The second way is one of the great bits of the game. If you defeat an opponent in combat, that card goes into your magic pile, for you to use to summon more forces.

Tundra Orc Champion Krung

While it may seem that the playing area is small, this limitation forces many difficult decisions, as does the limited amount of magic to be had. It can be a very tough decision wether you take those good cards you have in hand and burn them into the magic pile or keep them hoping that you will kill enough units to build your magic.

There are ranged and hand-to-hand units and each card has a special power. This keeps the game fresh as there are many possible combinations that arise in the course of a game.

The two Starter sets can be combined to allow games with up to four players. You can play two on two or play two on one, where the single player has 2 decks and takes 2 seperate turns. Even with just four factions available, there is a lot of play value.

Plaid Hat Games has already designed and play-tested the first wave of expansions and I really hope that the game will be supported enough to see some expansions get made. There is a lot of play even with just one Starter Pack. I can't recommend Summoner Wars more highly.

Summoner Wars is available now through Plaid Hat Games online or, starting in mid December, at game shops around the world.


I interviewed Colby Dauch via email and I think his answers are quite interesting. Stay tuned all the way to the end because he discusses the future of the game in detail as well.

Did you play board games as a child?
Just your standard Hasbro stuff. I don't have any particularly fond memories of it, but my mom claims that I really enjoyed them. In Junior High School I really enjoyed my first read through of the Lord of the Rings. Living in a small town, I didn't even know something like hobby gaming existed, and yet I spent a number of days sitting down with a friend at a study hall table and inventing fantasy-themed, complex (to us), board games.



Can you tell the readers a little bit about your background and how you got involved in Hobby Games? Was Heroscape the beginning or did you play other games?
Well, as I mentioned, I had a love affair with the Lord of the Rings when I was younger. When the movies came out my love was made new all over again. I would scour the shelves at the bookstore looking for new Tolkien to read.

One day when looking over the newly expanded Tolkien section, at the height of the movie popularity, I came across a book for Lord of the Rings roleplay. I didn't really know what roleplay was, but after thumbing through the book I decided it was awesome. So I banded my friends together and for the next couple of years we went on adventures throughout middle earth.

Roleplay, as most of you know, requires that all of the player characters show up to have a really good experience. Well, interest was slowly waning among some, and our roleplay group dissolved. I missed it. Months later I saw an ad for Heroscape on television. I was immediately convinced that I was looking at exactly the kind of game I wanted to be playing. The game consumed me. I wanted more. I went searching online for details about expansions that might be coming. I found an online community for Heroscape and I dove in. From there I was introduced to the wide world of hobby gaming and I've never looked back.




Many of us know you from the Heroscape community. When you decided to take over the Heroscape fansite were you ready for the amount of time that would take?
I didn’t even think about it. I already devoted a lot of time to the Heroscape community. I just shifted my focus from talking about the game to running a site about the game so that others could talk about it. I also knew that I would have a staff of people I could draw from. The leaders of the Heroscape community were already firmly established by then.



Does Scapers ever feel like a burden, or is there enough help there now that it kind of runs itself?
There is a network of help. I don’t feel burdened.



When did you get involved in the behind the scenes of Heroscape and are you still involved with that?
I became friends with Hero, the guy who ran the first Heroscape fansite, and he was friends with the designers. I ended up meeting Craig and Rob at a GenCon. I started play testing. Then I started writing bios. Then I started designing card powers.

Then Hasbro sent the game over to Wizards of the Coast, and I went along with it. That changed everything pretty dramatically. Now I am among just a few freelancers who work to keep the original spirit of the game alive. Of course we don’t have a whole lot of executive power, but we do have a voice, and we do get to do the design work for whatever they decide to do (thus far). I’m glad they kept us around.



Have you and Jerry Hawthorne designed any other new sets past D&D Scape Master Set?
Yes. Chris Dupuis is working with us, too.



After getting involved in Scape, what steps led you to designing games of your own?
After Scape went to Wizards, Craig found other work for me to do at Hasbro. So I was doing these different kinds of design work but, as with all freelance work, there were gaps in activity. In the down time I started playing around with some ideas of my own.



Did you always plan to publish Summoner Wars yourself, or did you try to find other publishers?
I talked to Hasbro. They said they weren’t interested in striking out with a new IP, but they sent the design idea over to licensed games, thinking that perhaps it could be made into a Star Wars or G.I. Joe or My Little Ponies game, I’m not sure. I guess that it is still a possibility that they could make me an offer to use the design on a licensed game, but I’m not holding my breath.

I also tried to get in touch with Fantasy Flight games. They never got back to me about even looking at the idea. And those are pretty much the only options I wanted to explore for getting it published by another company. I felt that the game was good enough to sell well, maybe even good enough to start building a company on, if I was going to give it away to another company, it had to be one of the big names.

If I was going to give the game to another company, that company had to have the marketing power and influence to make up for the fact that they would also be taking the lion’s share of the profit. In the end, I’m glad I did it on my own. I’ve enjoyed the management end of putting out a game almost as much as I enjoy designing games.


Summoner Wars. How did you come up with that idea and when did you know that one was going to be your debut product?
I had a couple of ideas brewing back when I first started working on game design ideas of my own. Summoner Wars was something that’s core concepts really just hit me kind of suddenly one night in bed. The ideas were so strong in me that I got out of bed in the middle of the night and started typing them up in a Word document.

Over the next couple of months I developed Summoner Wars to the point of a playable prototype along with another adventure/tile laying type game. You, Doc Savage, were in Ohio visiting your mom and you stopped in at my place for a visit. We played Heroscape and then we played through both of the game prototypes I had at the time. It was your insightful comments on those games that I chewed on for the next couple of weeks and decided that Summoner Wars was going to be my focus.



You financed or found financing to publish Summoner Wars yourself. Once you had the design, how long did it take to see it through the graphic design phase and production phase?
The production phases are all kind of tied up together. I designed the game on and off for a couple of years, and then over the past year or so I got really serious about getting the money and the art and the graphic design together, spending a lot of time fine-tuning and play testing the game to get it ready for release, bringing on outside play-testers, exploring printing options, and all of that good stuff.


Tell us about the hat. When did you get it and when did you realize that it had become part of your identity?
I found a stereotypical plaid golf hat at a Goodwill. I believe I was there picking up prop clothing for a play or something, and I saw that hat and thought it was silly and fun, so I bought it. I went through a phase where I wore it quite a bit. During that phase I had an illustration done of me in the hat for use on a blog-style website I was doing at the time. I ended up using the illustration as my avatar around the web as well. And so the hat became part of my identity, and when discussing starting a game company, John Clowdus of Small Box Games pitched the idea of calling my company Plaid Hat Games. My go-to online gamer buddies all liked the name, and so I ran with it.



When will we know if any expansion decks will be published?
I fully intend to release expansions. A time-frame for release is really dependant on how quickly sales provide the funding for printing expansions. I will tell you that I just commissioned my artist to start work on illustrations for the Fallen Kingdom, a faction of undead that will be among the first expansions released. So look for previews of that art soon.



What are the first expansion decks going to be?
The Fallen Kingdom - An undead Faction Deck. The Vanguards - A righteous, knightly, human order Faction Deck. A Reinforcement Pack with more Guild Dwarves, Cave Goblins and mercenaries. A Reinforcement Pack with more Phoenix Elves, Tundra Orcs and mercenaries.



What is the next game in the Plaid Hat line?
I’ve started playing around with some other ideas. I have a friend that I’d like to bring on staff, when/if the company grows to that point, who has some excellent game designs. I’m not really sure. Right now my focus is on Summoner Wars and its expansions.



Besides games, work, and family do you have any passions or interests that you'd like to share with us?
That’s pretty much it man. Family, work, and games. And sometimes games and work are the same thing… which is delicious.



Do you have any other game designs coming up that you can tell us about, perhaps for other companies?
Other companies like me to stay quiet about what may or may not be coming up. There are games that I have worked on that could/should come out. ‘When?’ is a question that not even I can really answer. Sometimes when working on something for a company as big as Hasbro, they’ll take a game as far as fully developed and then leave it in that stage, unprinted, for an indeterminate amount of time.


What game that you don't work on do you play the most?
The game I play the most is Summoner Wars. Lots and lots of Summoner Wars. Of course I play games that I’m not working on but those stay varied. Our recent ‘games I’m not working on’ play list looks something like: Betrayal at the House on the Hill Tomb Last Night on Earth Rush ‘n Crush

So we will be getting an Undead faction, a Human faction, Mercenaries, and more cards for the existing factions. Wow, that is cool news. I'd like to thank Colby Dauch for taking the time to share this info with us.

Pulp of the Week - Doc Savage #10

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December, 1933 - The Phantom City

The Phantom City, the tenth Doc Savage adventure, opens with Doc getting hijacked by Arabs looking to steal the Helldiver, the under-the-polar-ice submarine that has already been featured in two earlier adventures. Needless to say, the villains do not steal Doc's sub, but instead he uses it to follow them back to the African coast where Doc and his men learn why Mohallet and his men wanted the Helldiver so badly. They discover an ancient hidden city carved whole out of the rock.

The action is good, the stereotyping of the Arabs is only mildly horrible, and once again there is a beautiful girl that falls for Doc. This time she is a lovely native of the Phantom City and as usual, falls for Doc. He knows his effect on women by now and tries to avoid her, but she falls anyway.

This novel features a few firsts.

The villains secret weapon is a railgun, a rifle that fires 1 inch diameter steel projectiles via a series of powerful electro magnets that pull the steel projectiles out of the gun at a blinding pace. It is virtually silent, as well. This weapon is still science fiction today.

The Phantom City also features the first appearance of the recurring 'character' Habeas Corpus, a pig that Monk gets in Bustan. The animal is described as a razorback with dog-like legs and "ears so big that they resembled wings." Additionally, Monk tells Ham, "I paid the Arab owner one qirsh for him. That's about 4 cents American money." Monk dresses the pig up in one of Ham's ties, setting the lawyer off on a rage - which amuses Monk to no end. Monk takes Habeas out of the desert with him at the end of the novel.

I have to say that I am not a big fan of the pig. He was fine here, but I remember as a kid growing tired of the porker with repeated exposure.

This novel also contains the first reference to "Mercy Bullets," thinly jacketed rounds that contain a powerful anesthetic. Doc's men will use these almost exclusively from here on out. I find it interesting that in less than a year, Doc has gone from killing many, many people to using the Mercy Bullets. I wonder if they had more kids reading the stories than they thought or if they were getting complaints about the level of violence in the magazine. Doc is getting less savage.


I read my Bantam Paperback March 1966 second edition copy and give this one an 8 out of 10.

The Bantam Cover by James Bama is one of my favorites and the pulp cover is by Walter Baumhofer.

Pulp of the Week - Batman / Doc Savage

Batman / Doc Savage Special
DC Comics
Written by Brian Azzarello, Illustrated by Phil Noto

Cover by J.G. Jones

Alternate cover by Rags Morales

This Review Contains Spoilers!

This one shot is meant as a publicity vehicle to promote DC's "First Wave" line of comic books. Unfortunately, despite beautiful art, the book falls flat. There is neither adventure nor excitement in this tale called, "Bronze Night." This story's sole purpose is to let Doc Savage and The Batman meet.

There is little else in this tale. As an introduction to DC's pulp universe, there isn't much happening. The art is lovely. There are some character bits with Batman and Doc, but these are expressed mostly in 1st person narrative. Doc and Batman find common ground - they have both lost their fathers and are crimefighters because of it. While Doc doesn't like Batman's methods, as long as Batman isn't a killer, he seems OK with it. Batman thinks Doc may not be as squeaky clean as his public persona.

Batman lives in Gotham City and Doc Savage lives in New York City. They are not the same in the First Wave Universe, so these characters may have limited interaction.

I like the way Bruce Wayne and Batman are handled here, Batman is a rookie, operating as a vigilante. He is packing twin .45s ala The Shadow and is a bit reckless.

Some of Phil Noto's incredible art

On the other hand, Doc Savage served in the War and has had some adventures. Doc operates with the cooperation of the police and has his five aids intact. I think that Doc was presented well, a person admired by many. He is the physical and intellectual peak of humanity. As in the novels, he has a dry sense of humor and is self depreciating. Doc is described as being "mixed-race", perhaps in tribute to a oft held belief among fans that his mother was Mayan.

Renny is the only one of his aids to appear in this story, and it is a brief appearance. Renny catches Batman searching Doc's hotel room and decks him.

This story doesn't alter the Doc Savage as much as many have feared. His character and mission seem intact. His father has just died at the start of this story.

In the back of the book are eight pages of character bios by Azzarello that are illustrated by the regular series artist Rags Morales that introduce of some of the other characters in the "First Wave" universe. Doc's Crew gets a full page. Their characters are described and I can only assume that their professions remain intact.

Only Long Tom is described by his profession - a master of electricity. Monk is assigned a bully role and isn't opposed to using lethal force. Monk and Ham retain their good natured arguing and status as best friends.

The Avenger and The Spirit share the next page. Richard Benson is described as a master of disguise and a man blinded by the tragedy of his family's slaughter.

The Spirit will appear as well as Ebony White who will be a "brash girl" in this series.

Black Canary is another New Yorker in this universe, and she is so enamored of Doc Savage that she goes out at night and fights crime.

Rima the Jungle Girl is a South American that is a mysterious "catalyst that drags the real main characters along to their inevitable fates." She may not be real...

The Blackhawks are the second generation, the originals have all either retired, or were killed in the war. They are ethnically diverse and are the best pilots from all over the world.

Finally, there are the villains of this world. They will be "diverse and come from different angles." "There should be major conflict between the crime factions." There are three main factions: The Syndicate, The Golden Tree, and No School.

Anton Colossi, Greek shipping magnate and war profiteer will be one of the main villains. He has a robot bodyguard and lives on the coast of Hidalgo in South America.

John Sunlight will also have some part in these stories.

All in all, I had feared that the changes to the classic characters may have been too much, but Doc Savage certainly is treated respectfully here, and I will buy the new books as they come out to see how the others fare.

Hopefully there will be more story and more adventure in the regular First Wave comics.

Game Spotlight - Scrappers

Scrappers from Privateer Press

Scrappers is a 2-4 player game where each player is a Bodger working in a factory trying to complete a machine. Parts roll down the assembly line and if they are not taken, they fall into the scrap heap. Players want to position their Bodgers in front of the part they want, but the other Bodgers can move the assembly line forward or back, move their Bodgers, or move the other player's Bodgers. Action Cards represent all these options. The Part Cards are smaller squares and the Bodgers are represented by sturdy tokens. There is also a folding game board that shows the factory floor and the conveyor belt assembly line.

Each player starts each round with three cards. On your turn you must either play a card or pass. In a very clever bit of design, if all three players pass, the round ends and you take the part on the assembly line that is in front of your Bodger. This forces all kinds of decisions. Do you pass, hoping to play your card last, positioning your Bodger in front of the part you need to win the game? If you do and the other players pass, then you are stuck with the part in front of you that you don't need. On the other hand, if you play that card now, one of the other players can mess you up.

Scrappers is a great family game that offers a give and take mechanic that requires pre-planning your turn knowing full well that the other players may completely destroy your plans. There are plenty of twists and turns on the way to victory, and plenty of laughs, too.

There are 2 additional tokens and extra cards for an advanced game that adds more chaos to the factory floor.

My kids and I really enjoy Scrappers.

SCRAPPERS

Publisher: Privateer Press, 2009

Game Concept and Design: Michael Faciane, Erik-Jason Yaple

Behind The Game

In February of 2008, Privateer Press, the publisher of War Machine and Monsterpocalypse, made an announcement that they were looking to hire a game designer. This was big news among the the creative types in the gaming community. Privateer is a young company that has made a major splash in the gaming scene with their outstanding game designs and beautiful game components. However, Privateer was only accepting applications for a short time and a big part of the application process was the inclusion of an original game design, with the winning applicant getting the game published as part of Privateer's Bodgers line of games.

I mentioned the contest in an online forum and several of the members there (a terribly creative bunch) were interested. One of my friends, Michael Faciane set to work on a design. He hammered out some concepts and came up with a card game he called Bodger Mines.

I was among those helping Michael with the playtesting of his design. He made the first cut and further refined his design. He interviewed. Then, in November 2008, Michael Faciane was chosen to be on the design team at Privateer Press. Michael relocated to Bellevue, Washington and got to work. The fruits of that work are arriving at stores this fall. Scrappers, now a board game, is first up. Grind is next.

I recently interviewed (via email) Michael Faciane, Privateer's guiding force Matt Wilson, and Game Developement Manager Erik-Jason Yaple.

What lead you to fill a game design position by having a game design contest in the first place?

Matt Wilson - Game design skill isn't something you can evaluate by looking at a resume. And for that matter, it's often very hard to evaluate by looking at a published game. When you play a game off the shelf, you really don't have full knowledge of what kind of development that product went through and how many people contributed to the final design. My belief is that game design is about 20% good ideas and know how, 30% experience, and about 50% tenacity and hard work. So, we constructed a contest that would filter applicants based on a short timeline with rigid requirements that would show us if they were the kind of people that could produce good work under pressure. We wanted someone new and unpublished that we could bring up in our own environment, as well. Experienced, working game designers weren't going to submit to this kind of contest, so we were able to hone in on what we were looking for: undiscovered talent.

How many entries were there?

Matt - It's been a while now and I don't recall. I think we had between 60-100 entries. It blew my mind. I would have been impressed if we had received 12 playable entries, but dozens and dozens came in. It was staggering.

Once you decided to enter the Privateer Game Designer Contest, how long did you have to create an original card game and what was that process like?

Michael Faciane - I had about a month to design and had a blast doing so. I started by getting familiar with the Bodgers and their wacky mechanikal endeavors by diving into Infernal Contraption. Chris Walton's excellent artwork made it easy for me to grasp the feel of the little gobbers. So I brainstormed a bunch of themes that would fit them well. After getting the theme narrowed down, I needed to develop the game mechanics. My thinking here was, "What kind of game could I get my wife to play?" She is a big gin rummy fan so that's where I began my development from. Once I had a playable deck, the real development began through playtesting. I had a good group of players that really helped this process along. One thing I learned early on is that the more minds you can get involved with your vision, the clearer it becomes.

Were you involved in the contest judging, and if so, how hard was it to make a choice?

Erik-Jason Yaple - I came on board in March of 2008 and Bryan, our Project Director who was originally handling the submissions, was quick to put the entries into my hands. There were something like 93 entries. Each entry had its own presentation and packaging. Some you could instantly tell were thrown together last minute, while others really deserved some attention.

I set some standards that would place entries into a "Maybe Pile" and a "No Pile" - I looked for things like interaction between players, originality in design, knowledge of the Bodgers brand and an answer to the question: "Does the game work?" After running all of the designs through that filter I boiled the list down to a selection of about 15 games. From there, I selected what I thought were the best 5 and brought them to Matt. We chose three of those to move to the interview round and from there, Michael was chosen.

When you heard the contest results, how did you feel?

Michael - I felt like dancing. So I did.

You lived in Southern California at the time. How long did you have to relocate, and how has that experience been?

Michael - Well, I hitched a trailer to my car and took a 2 day trip up the west coast with my son and nephew. We stopped at a friend's along the way and camped out in his backyard, which is right next to a railroad track. Two trains that night (thanks again, John :) ). We reached Seattle on the weekend of PAX 2008 so I started work there. For about a week we stayed in hotels while I looked for a place then found some cousin's in Tacoma who took us in. A month later my wife and daughters fly in then we settle in Renton. We are enjoying Washington and all of its rain.

What qualities in the design lead you to choose Michael?

Matt - Michael greatly impressed us at multiple stages through the application process, demonstrating a huge commitment to the contest and a fantastic work ethic with a willingness to adapt to new situations as well as get a job done, no matter what it took. Game design is hard work. It's not about sitting around playing games all day, and Michael showed us that he knew what it would take. He also had one of the best submissions and made it through a fairly rigorous application process designed to weed out people who couldn't follow directions. Game design is all about being precise, and if you can't put your name in the right place on the application, you're probably not going to double check your rules writing either.

What led to Michael's original card game changing to a board game?

Matt - Every game goes through many stages of evolution and rarely does the initial concept closely resemble the final product. This is one such case. Once the rest of the Privateer development team became involved in evaluating the initial game design, we began exploring new directions and refining concepts until what was eventually produced was Scrappers.

Michael - Well, the conveyor idea came from our game development manager, Erik Yaple (the baddest man in gaming). The game went through quite a few iterations before getting to that point. I learned a lot during the development of Scrappers.

After the upcoming Grind, do you have any other game designs in development you can tell us about?

Michael - There are other game designs I have in development but none that I can tell about ;).

Now that you have been with Privateer about a year, how has your job developed and what is it like to work for a game company?

Michael - It's great! We get to play games all day and eat candy! Really it is a good time for me. I love to create so game design and development is a nice fit for me. I have also been utilized in other areas here like helping out in the graphics department. Seeing games produced that I have had a hand in is definitely a joy to me.

How many game designs are you overseeing at any given time?

Erik-Jason - Products move through the department in various stages. At any one time, we may have a couple games in a concept stage, the pitch stage (where it is run past Matt for approval to proceed), the prototyping and playtest stage and the final review and production stage. Right now we have one or more games/expansions/sets in each of those stages.

What are the main differences and challenges between designing for a collectable game like Monsterpocalypse and a stand alone game like Scrappers?

Erik-Jason - It's the difference between "tricking-out" a car and building a car. In a collectible game, the game is set, and you are just making new elements to add to the game. With a stand alone game, you are building everything from the ground up. With a collectible game you have to design to the play environment, providing them with answers and solutions to the challenges they come across. Where a stand alone game requires greater diligence in development as players will not have the opportunity to counter dominant strategies just by changing their deck or army list. Developing one type of game over another is not necessarily easier, but it does require a few different skill sets; although a good development philosophy will guide you in the right direction as you transition from one to the other.

Grind is following closely on Scrappers heels. Are there any other upcoming board games coming from Privateer?

Matt - Definitely. We're working on several different product designs right now, some of which are board games. We'll announce those at the appropriate times in the future when we have a more clear idea of when they'll release.

Are there any other Privateer projects or upcoming items you would like my readers to know about?

Matt - Well, we've got a slew of products coming out over the next year, including the MkII editions of WARMACHINE and HORDES as well as all of their supporting products, such as card decks, force books, and amazing new models released monthly. This is a really exciting time for those games because it's a great opportunity for new players to get involved at this sort of new-beginning-reset period. As well, Series 4: Monsterpocalypse NOW, just released on October 9th. This starts a whole new year's worth of brand new monster factions. Again, it's the perfect entry point for new players, and it's giving our Monsterpocalypse community a mountain of new options to integrate into existing armies. We'll also be seeing the Monsterpocalypse edition of Voltron sometime next year, which is really a little dream come true. That product is currently in process with our manufacturer and I can't wait to get my own hands on it.

So, make sure there's room on your game shelf because we're going to be filling it up in the coming months!