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The Gaming Magi #1
The Destiny Dice
The Fantasy Classic Returns for another Roll!
The Games are afoot in Mullshire, as Ian Farthing must trek into the horrific Dark Circle to discover the secrets of his past -- and save his world from an evil beyond imagination.
The Games are afoot in Mullshire, as Ian Farthing must trek into the horrific Dark Circle to discover the secrets of his past -- and save his world from an evil beyond imagination.
- GenresFantasyScience Fiction
238 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published March 10, 1985
3 people are currently reading
55 people want to read
About the author
David Bischoff
164 books103 followersaka Mark Grant (with Bruce King), Brad Quentin (with Terry Bisson)
Born in Washington D.C. and now living in Eugene, Oregon, David Bischoff writes science fiction books, short stories, and scripts for television. Though he has been writing since the early 1970s, and has had over 80 books published, David is best known for novelizations of popular movies and TV series including the Aliens, Gremlins, Star Trek: The Next Generation, and WarGames.
Born in Washington D.C. and now living in Eugene, Oregon, David Bischoff writes science fiction books, short stories, and scripts for television. Though he has been writing since the early 1970s, and has had over 80 books published, David is best known for novelizations of popular movies and TV series including the Aliens, Gremlins, Star Trek: The Next Generation, and WarGames.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
November 4, 2021
Back in the glory days of college and graduate school, I frequently raided used book stores and picked up paperbacks from the fantasy and science fiction section nearly at random. This approach brought me lots of obscure titles and authors and wide range of quality. I got plenty of mediocre books, and some terrible ones, but I also occasionally stumbled across a hidden gem. David Bischoff's The Destiny Dice is is not widely read or remembered. The few reviews that exist aren't great. But I'm going to stake out a contrarian position and say that this novel is good. Really, really good.
So what's it about? First, it's a spoof of gaming. A magus named Crowley Nilrem is playing a D&D-style game on a board with figurines and dice. The rules are vague but we're asked to accept that real magic is involved. Second, it's a send-up of formula fantasy, as we move into the magic kingdom where the game plays out, a land with knights, castles, monsters, damsels in distress, and the like. And third, it's about being an outsider and a loser. Ian Farthing, the main character, is poor and disabled, and also cowardly and not too smart. But the careful character development intertwined with the fast-paced plotting is a lot better than you'd expect in a novel with such a goofy premise.
Throughout the book, Bischoff has to walk a fine line between funny and serious, earnest and self-referential, heartfelt and ridiculous. And he does. He really does. The Destiny Dice isn't the best book that I've ever read, but it may be the one book that most surprised me by being good.
So what's it about? First, it's a spoof of gaming. A magus named Crowley Nilrem is playing a D&D-style game on a board with figurines and dice. The rules are vague but we're asked to accept that real magic is involved. Second, it's a send-up of formula fantasy, as we move into the magic kingdom where the game plays out, a land with knights, castles, monsters, damsels in distress, and the like. And third, it's about being an outsider and a loser. Ian Farthing, the main character, is poor and disabled, and also cowardly and not too smart. But the careful character development intertwined with the fast-paced plotting is a lot better than you'd expect in a novel with such a goofy premise.
Throughout the book, Bischoff has to walk a fine line between funny and serious, earnest and self-referential, heartfelt and ridiculous. And he does. He really does. The Destiny Dice isn't the best book that I've ever read, but it may be the one book that most surprised me by being good.
May 6, 2012
This book is not only beautifully written, but a very captivating fantasy novel with lots of humor. If you're looking for something different, I highly recommend you give this book a read.
July 23, 2023
Must have been a dearth of manuscripts this year. This book has an interesting concept but I feel like it is executed very poorly. There is nothing likeable about any of the characters, everyone seems miserable and most of the book seems to be taken up with describing over and over again what a useless person the main character is. There is also a several page scene that mentions God, Heaven, Lucifer, Jehovah etc which really felt out of place and pulled me out of the fantasy. I got half way through and had to put it down.
May 22, 2024
If you like Dungeons and Dragons, you will absolutely love this story. It makes you think about the way you treat your characters, and if they were real, how they would feel about how you write their destiny.
The book has two well balanced storylines. One about the lonely magician and his playing bord, the other about the life of his 'board pieces'.
The book has two well balanced storylines. One about the lonely magician and his playing bord, the other about the life of his 'board pieces'.
November 15, 2020
This is an incredible concept, a game within a game, with the two games interacting with each other. The Destiny Dice and Wraith Board are fantastic, but the last book, The Unicorn Gambit, is just too silly to be taken seriously.
February 3, 2015
This series by Bischoff - The Gaming Magi - was written in the 1980s and if I had read this first book then, I might have been charmed. As it is, I found myself perplexed. Or, I may just be falling out of love with some types of fantasy, especially hero quests.
The world was interesting; maybe too interesting, if there can be such a thing. It starts with a part of the galaxy waking up and continues with a mage readying himself for his big dice throw in a game that is determining the state of a particular world. Heady stuff. From there we move to the world itself and the unlikely hero of the story. From the description, and the way he reacts to being in a dangerous spot, we can already tell he's not going to be the typical rises-to-the-occasion kind of guy.
The writing itself was interesting and not the usual third person point of view. Here's a sample:
"Three miles he traipsed in surprisingly short time, through forest and over hill, not stopping to listen to robins chirp or watch squirrel dances. No, he beelined for a view of the Dark Circle, the Black Land, the Magic Hole. Perhaps he would even have the nerve to cross the border today, he reasoned. A blasted heath, a boggy moor, misty, mushy, and full of fetidness! Just the thing! A fitting cobbler's son's holiday!
Hurrah!"
But maybe it was all too out of the ordinary. So much to try to make sense of before the reader has even got a bit of the story straight.
I stayed with Ian Farthing, the hero, through his disappointing introduction to the princess, to Norx, and to sundry knights and came to understand that Ian's efforts were always to be crowned with somewhat unintentional and mystifying comedy as well as constant misunderstandings due to a speech impediment.'
Eventually, I came to feel caught up in a maelstrom of the author's devising and not one I had any impetus to survive. Using a magic of my own, I closed the book. And am not likely to pick it up again.
The world was interesting; maybe too interesting, if there can be such a thing. It starts with a part of the galaxy waking up and continues with a mage readying himself for his big dice throw in a game that is determining the state of a particular world. Heady stuff. From there we move to the world itself and the unlikely hero of the story. From the description, and the way he reacts to being in a dangerous spot, we can already tell he's not going to be the typical rises-to-the-occasion kind of guy.
The writing itself was interesting and not the usual third person point of view. Here's a sample:
"Three miles he traipsed in surprisingly short time, through forest and over hill, not stopping to listen to robins chirp or watch squirrel dances. No, he beelined for a view of the Dark Circle, the Black Land, the Magic Hole. Perhaps he would even have the nerve to cross the border today, he reasoned. A blasted heath, a boggy moor, misty, mushy, and full of fetidness! Just the thing! A fitting cobbler's son's holiday!
Hurrah!"
But maybe it was all too out of the ordinary. So much to try to make sense of before the reader has even got a bit of the story straight.
I stayed with Ian Farthing, the hero, through his disappointing introduction to the princess, to Norx, and to sundry knights and came to understand that Ian's efforts were always to be crowned with somewhat unintentional and mystifying comedy as well as constant misunderstandings due to a speech impediment.'
Eventually, I came to feel caught up in a maelstrom of the author's devising and not one I had any impetus to survive. Using a magic of my own, I closed the book. And am not likely to pick it up again.
February 9, 2016
Honestly not a very appealing book, at least for me. The idea of mages playing on a table in some very difficult to understand game, and the story of some strange (cannot say differently) man who saves a sort of princess from some demon like guards and then tries to save her again when she is apprehended again is not very easy to follow. It is understood that the boy / man is something strange, and unaccounted for, but I personally did not like the development of the story.
March 4, 2011
Grade C+. Book Gm1 (Gaming Magi).
Read
August 24, 2011It has been so long since I read this one, I can't remember it well. Time to read it again.
January 7, 2016
Twas a silly book
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews