I bought a batch of new books for my Kindle reader. One of them was a collection of 50 books by H. Rider Haggard (only $1 for the entire set of 50 books). H. Rider Haggard was an adventure writer from the turn of the last century (i.e., around 1900), probably most famous for "King Solomon's Mines", which was made into movies on various occasions. He's a contemporary of Edgar Rice Burrows and a similar pulp-style adventure writer. So far, I'm finding them about equal. Haggard is a bit less fantastic, but is willing to have the occasional supernatural occurance, while the fantastic stuff in Burrows is more overblown, but always has some sort of "scientific" pseudo-explanation.
I'm reading the first book, "Allan and the Holy Flower" where the hero Allan Quartermain (the same hero as in King Solomon's mines) is leading another explanation into the wilds of Africa in the 19th century in quest of an orchid worth a fortune.
To tie it into gaming stuff, the expedition does remind me of putting together an old-school AD&D party. The expedition was led by Quartermain, and a wealthy young orchid fancier who financed the trip, and a crazy old American doctor and former missionary named Brother John. These would be our PC's. Additionally, Quartemain brought three of his long-term pals (Mavovo the Zulu witchdoctor, Sammy the cowardly, but well-educated Asian cook, and Hans the Hottentot) who were like "henchmen" and then hired a dozen Zulu hunters (like D&D mercenary soldiers) and later got a bunch of porters to carry stuff (lackey hirelings).
The expedition begins with a lot of normal real-world adventures, mostly dealing with Arabic slave dealers, and then with the witchdoctor of a tribe in their path who takes a dislike to them.
I've finally got to the bit where they're going to get into Pongo-land, where the quest is leading and things will start getting weird.
It's good stuff.
I found the first book in R.A Salvatore's latest series 'Transitions' used at a library book sale. Since basically his books (the Drizzt Do'Urden series of series of novels, pretty much) were the first fantasy series I ever read, and I've liked his other books, I figured I'd pick it up. Sad as it is to say, I really dislike it. Dammit, bad guys are supposed to be evil and good guys are supposed to be good. When the bad guys get turned into misunderstood noble savages, and the good guys are turned into blood thirsty jack booted thugs, I get a little disappointed. Almost as disappointed as when major heroes are turned into navel gazing pansies, contemplating the cruelty of life as they slaughter hundreds of the noble barbarian bad guys.
ReplyDeleteI also picked up my first non-Conan Robert Jordan novel 'Eye of the World'. I know it's a classic book, part of an incredibly large series. It's a very well written book. Perhaps a little too well written. I feel badly that I didn't enjoy it as much as I should have. It wasn't really fun or exciting, it was tedious, like the prologue from a 12 hour black and white Norwegian movie about sand. I finished the book, but I kept thinking what characters in other, snappier series would have done in the same situations (wuss-slapped the guy who's obviously supposed to end up being very important and refuses to accept the facts, slaughtered the bad guys to a man, and probably knocking up the couple of wanton ladies who directly offer themselves to the heroes). The series isn't bad, it's just kind of long winded, and I probably won't buy any more of the series for more than yard sale prices.