Time to Rage!

So, last night I finally finished Bloodstone, by Karl Edward Wagner. Once I got past the extensive info-dumps it’s a pretty rollicking good tale. I would label it 60% horror, 40% heroic fantasy. Kane is a right bastard, but, unlike some such characters, it’s justified in his case, based on who and what he is. All in all, a good book, and I’m glad to have finally read it.

Which brings me to what I am reading next. The other day I found myself hanging out in the library with the two younger kids while the wife took care of some work-related stuff (the library has a branch in the strip mall where her salon is). So, while Connor occupied himself in the kid’s section, and Sydney sat in a chair and started reading The Hunger Games, I wandered about, eyeballing all kinds of stuff.

While in the sci fi/fantasy section, my eye spied a Dragonlance novel that I wasn’t sure if I had read. For those who don’t know, Dragonlance is one of the various gaming worlds that the D&D game has been set in. It kind of put the whole sub-genre of “gaming fiction” on the map with Dragonlance Chronicles back in the early 80’s. I have read that trilogy four times. This book was set during that trilogy, and covers a short period that was glassed over originally. I didn’t check it out, because it sounded familiar, and I wasn’t sure if I had read it. Turns out, I’m pretty sure I have.

But that got me to thinking about gaming fiction, and I suddenly had a hankering to read some. I hit up the used book store yesterday, and while I saw a lot there, nothing grabbed me (that I hadn’t already read), so when I got home I looked through what I have on my shelf. A few D&D-related titles, but not much anymore. However, I did see that I had recently bought a copy of a short novel based on the Rage Collectible Card Game, which is in turn based on Werewolf: The Apocalypse, my favorite of the World of Darkness family of RPGs from White Wolf.

I started reading The Silver Crown today, and I am immediately being drawn back into that whole world. Familiar terms like cairn, moot, and fetish, when taken in context, bring about some good memories. Names like Get of Fenris and Silver Fangs do as well. And like I said, it’s a pretty short novel (249 pages), so I hope it rushes by.

Of course, this has my brain thinking about gaming in the WoD, as well as writing some modern gothic horror of my own…