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Numenera #2
Numenera: The Night Clave
Science fiction adventure in a decaying far future setting in the new tie-in novel from the popular Numenera tabletop and PC roleplaying games.
In the far-future Ninth World, claves of Aeon Priests help their community understand and use the mysterious technologies of the past. But what happens when a group of these priests uses this knowledge and power to exploit the people who depend on them?
In the region of Steremoss, a group of brave individuals are determined to resist this oppression from the shadows. They call themselves the Night Clave.
File Under : Fantasy [ Protect the Clave | Devices & Designs | Death Walkers | World's End ]
In the far-future Ninth World, claves of Aeon Priests help their community understand and use the mysterious technologies of the past. But what happens when a group of these priests uses this knowledge and power to exploit the people who depend on them?
In the region of Steremoss, a group of brave individuals are determined to resist this oppression from the shadows. They call themselves the Night Clave.
File Under : Fantasy [ Protect the Clave | Devices & Designs | Death Walkers | World's End ]
- GenresScience FictionFantasy
361 pages, Paperback
Published November 7, 2017
15 people are currently reading
69 people want to read
About the author
Monte Cook
211 books123 followers
The game designer
Monte Cook started working professionally in the game industry in 1988. In the employ of Iron Crown Enterprises, he worked with the Rolemaster and Champions games as an editor, developer, and designer. In 1994, Monte came to TSR, Inc., as a game designer and wrote for the Planescape and core D&D lines. When that company was purchased by Wizards of the Coast, he moved to the Seattle area and eventually became a senior game designer. At Wizards, he wrote the 3rd Edition Dungeon Master's Guide and served as codesigner of the new edition of the Dungeons & Dragons game. In 2001, he left Wizards to start his own design studio, Malhavoc Press, with his wife Sue. Although in his career he has worked on over 100 game titles, some of his other credits include Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil, The Book of Eldritch Might series, the d20 Call of Cthulhu Roleplaying Game, The Book of Vile Darkness, Monte Cook’s Arcana Evolved, Ptolus, Monte Cook's World of Darkness, and Dungeonaday.com. He was a longtime author of the Dungeoncraft column in Dungeon Magazine. In recent years, Monte has been recognized many times by game fans in the ENnies Awards, the Pen & Paper fan awards, the Nigel D. Findley Memorial Award, the Origins Awards, and more.
The author
A graduate of the 1999 Clarion West writer's workshop, Monte has published two novels, The Glass Prison and Of Aged Angels. Also, he has published the short stories "Born in Secrets" (in the magazine Amazing Stories), "The Rose Window" (in the anthology Realms of Mystery), and "A Narrowed Gaze" (in the anthology Realms of the Arcane). His stories have appeared in the Malhavoc Press anthologies Children of the Rune and The Dragons' Return, and his comic book writing can be found in the Ptolus: City by the Spire series from DBPro/Marvel. His fantasy fiction series, "Saga of the Blade," appeared in Game Trade Magazine from 2005–2006.
The geek
In his spare time, Monte runs games, plays with his dog, watches DVDs, builds vast dioramas out of LEGO building bricks, paints miniatures, and reads a lot of comics.
Monte Cook started working professionally in the game industry in 1988. In the employ of Iron Crown Enterprises, he worked with the Rolemaster and Champions games as an editor, developer, and designer. In 1994, Monte came to TSR, Inc., as a game designer and wrote for the Planescape and core D&D lines. When that company was purchased by Wizards of the Coast, he moved to the Seattle area and eventually became a senior game designer. At Wizards, he wrote the 3rd Edition Dungeon Master's Guide and served as codesigner of the new edition of the Dungeons & Dragons game. In 2001, he left Wizards to start his own design studio, Malhavoc Press, with his wife Sue. Although in his career he has worked on over 100 game titles, some of his other credits include Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil, The Book of Eldritch Might series, the d20 Call of Cthulhu Roleplaying Game, The Book of Vile Darkness, Monte Cook’s Arcana Evolved, Ptolus, Monte Cook's World of Darkness, and Dungeonaday.com. He was a longtime author of the Dungeoncraft column in Dungeon Magazine. In recent years, Monte has been recognized many times by game fans in the ENnies Awards, the Pen & Paper fan awards, the Nigel D. Findley Memorial Award, the Origins Awards, and more.
The author
A graduate of the 1999 Clarion West writer's workshop, Monte has published two novels, The Glass Prison and Of Aged Angels. Also, he has published the short stories "Born in Secrets" (in the magazine Amazing Stories), "The Rose Window" (in the anthology Realms of Mystery), and "A Narrowed Gaze" (in the anthology Realms of the Arcane). His stories have appeared in the Malhavoc Press anthologies Children of the Rune and The Dragons' Return, and his comic book writing can be found in the Ptolus: City by the Spire series from DBPro/Marvel. His fantasy fiction series, "Saga of the Blade," appeared in Game Trade Magazine from 2005–2006.
The geek
In his spare time, Monte runs games, plays with his dog, watches DVDs, builds vast dioramas out of LEGO building bricks, paints miniatures, and reads a lot of comics.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
March 11, 2018
The Night Clave tells the story of a small band of rebels (the titular Night Clave) seeking to remove a despot from power. Kyre and Aviend live in the Steremoss forest, some of the last who haven't joined the new priest Rillent's cult. Rillent has either convinced people to join him willingly, or killed or captured the rest. Either way, he's put them all to work excavating ancient relics of the past to increase his power.
In the world of Numenera, there's a long history of high tech relics, over a billion years of history, with multiple ruined civilizations built upon those of the past, and all of their old tech still exists, even if poorly understood. Rillent has found some and is able to tap into the might power that runs through 5 monolithic structures. Kyre and Aviend and the few others not under Rillent's sway have planned to kill him and end his tyranny. Unfortunately, Kyre is at heart a pacifist and doesn't want to pull the trigger. When an escaping slave disrupts their assassination plan, he saves them instead of taking the killshot.
With that choice, the Night Clave is thrown into a desperate last chance to find another way to remove Rillent from power, as they see evidence he's closing in on the final discoveries he needs to fully control the old power he's discovered. Much of the book is focused on discovering the truth of the ancient machines surrounding the region, and using that knowledge of their true purpose to stop Rillent. However, another large part of the book is internal agonizing on what the right course of action should be, which is drawn out far longer than is entertaining. The pasts of the characters has a huge impact on their present actions, but it's rationed out to the reader in dribs and drabs, which makes the characters seem annoyingly indecisive, instead of empathetic. Some of the supporting characters without as strong roles or grappling with self-doubt are more engaging, in large part because the full extent of their personality is shared with the reader up front and they can be enjoyed for who they are.
Furthermore, I simply couldn't buy that Kyre is such a strong pacifist in a world that's mostly ruled by those with the power to do so. In the game setting the book is based on, the tone is a mix of pulp action and discovering lost technology, however, this book largely ignores the pulp action roots of the game, making the majority of the read relatively come across as pondering and slow, with little stakes, despite being told there are. The core of the real story of the re-discovered technology is somewhat interesting, but not enough so to carry the plot forward in an interesting way.
In the world of Numenera, there's a long history of high tech relics, over a billion years of history, with multiple ruined civilizations built upon those of the past, and all of their old tech still exists, even if poorly understood. Rillent has found some and is able to tap into the might power that runs through 5 monolithic structures. Kyre and Aviend and the few others not under Rillent's sway have planned to kill him and end his tyranny. Unfortunately, Kyre is at heart a pacifist and doesn't want to pull the trigger. When an escaping slave disrupts their assassination plan, he saves them instead of taking the killshot.
With that choice, the Night Clave is thrown into a desperate last chance to find another way to remove Rillent from power, as they see evidence he's closing in on the final discoveries he needs to fully control the old power he's discovered. Much of the book is focused on discovering the truth of the ancient machines surrounding the region, and using that knowledge of their true purpose to stop Rillent. However, another large part of the book is internal agonizing on what the right course of action should be, which is drawn out far longer than is entertaining. The pasts of the characters has a huge impact on their present actions, but it's rationed out to the reader in dribs and drabs, which makes the characters seem annoyingly indecisive, instead of empathetic. Some of the supporting characters without as strong roles or grappling with self-doubt are more engaging, in large part because the full extent of their personality is shared with the reader up front and they can be enjoyed for who they are.
Furthermore, I simply couldn't buy that Kyre is such a strong pacifist in a world that's mostly ruled by those with the power to do so. In the game setting the book is based on, the tone is a mix of pulp action and discovering lost technology, however, this book largely ignores the pulp action roots of the game, making the majority of the read relatively come across as pondering and slow, with little stakes, despite being told there are. The core of the real story of the re-discovered technology is somewhat interesting, but not enough so to carry the plot forward in an interesting way.
December 25, 2017
I love Monte Cook and Shanna Germain, but man this book was a slog. It’s got good opening and closing sequences, but everything in-between is a muddle. The plot in unconnected, there is a lack of drama or conflict, the main villain of the piece barely shows up, and it’s never really clear why anyone is doing anything. RPG tie-in books are notoriously hard to do well and/or bad but both Cook and Germain have done good work in the past (I enjoyed and recommend The Poison Eater, and the old short fiction anthologies for Arcana Unearthed and Arcana Evolved were fun reads). Numenera is a promising world for fiction of both the written and gameable variety, but this just isn’t it.
Buy Numenera and Predation and the authors’ and MCG’s other wonderful games, but give this a miss.
Buy Numenera and Predation and the authors’ and MCG’s other wonderful games, but give this a miss.
September 14, 2017
Numenera is a franchise which includes both a pen-and-paper RPG and PC game, two things I really like. And, now, it seems that the creators have some idea about getting into novelizations - much like Dungeons and Dragons, Dragonlance, and, for a little while, Magic: The Gathering. The idea is great, I love when a franchise based on a book-contained game works to expand its universe and express the function of character classes and their places within this imagined world. Sadly sometimes the idea and vision doesn't always translate well or is handled badly by the writer at hand. I couldn't tell you which is the case with Numenera: The Night Clave, as it's co-written, apparently, by the creator, but for everything this book strives to be - it fails to do much more than be annoying.
No doubt, there is a lot of passion behind this novel. A lot of attention to the details of the world, but that all falls flat as the story is utterly forgettable. It all begins with an assassination plot, of a man who may or may not be evil, or maybe he is just evil to the characters at hand. It is honestly hard to tell what the motivations or exact goings-ons are as the writing tends to be over bloated and circular in execution. If a character has even one indication of a prior event, even something as mundane as preparation, then you are immediately presented with a bulk of expository information about something else that happened, or paragraphs upon paragraphs of equipment descriptions. The first chapter took me almost an hour to read, page upon page of this - meanwhile the characters at hand have literally done nothing besides move to a position and fire. There is just way too much exposition and, sadly, things do not get better.
Continuing on, viewpoints switch, and you have to deal with a character who is written in spotty sentences. For. Some. Reason. I think it’s to provide a sense of urgency, but I didn’t feel it worked at all. Not to mention, there are still expository instances abound and it’s a layered event - the same thing is still going on as before, just another character is coming to make some change in that particular instance. Worse yet, the same details are mentioned over and over again, merely paragraphs from each other: he’s about to fire the launcher, he’s going to fire the launcher, I can’t watch him firing that launcher, I got to go the guy with the launcher. As much as I want to get into this book, I’m just pulled out completely by redundancy and poor stylistic choices.
Horrible writing and pacing aside, the characters are not much more than generic slates and flat, blank, characters. Perhaps this is due to the RPG being based on character creation and classes, but characters cannot just be the weapons and things they carry, or the powers they have. They need to have some real substance, and being mad at the bad guy, the only dilemma being if he’s truly good or bad, is weak at best. The setting, as well, is all over the place. Everything but the kitchen sink is thrown into the equation, and when the given writer can’t explain something, they simply say that whatever an element is, the character didn’t understand the purpose - so it just can’t be explained (didn’t stop every single other little thing from being explained). You can tell that, whomever the cover artist was, they really couldn’t get past the fatty boring chapters and instead opted to describe the setting of the first chapter. Why not, it’s there for way longer than it should be anyhow.
Numenera, what a place I’d like to learn about! But I couldn’t with this book, instances of the game's mechanics are here but they are the peanut butter on a hair sandwich. Yes, that metaphor was bad - but at least you didn’t have to read about for an eternity. I’ll take the sandwich over this book any day.
No doubt, there is a lot of passion behind this novel. A lot of attention to the details of the world, but that all falls flat as the story is utterly forgettable. It all begins with an assassination plot, of a man who may or may not be evil, or maybe he is just evil to the characters at hand. It is honestly hard to tell what the motivations or exact goings-ons are as the writing tends to be over bloated and circular in execution. If a character has even one indication of a prior event, even something as mundane as preparation, then you are immediately presented with a bulk of expository information about something else that happened, or paragraphs upon paragraphs of equipment descriptions. The first chapter took me almost an hour to read, page upon page of this - meanwhile the characters at hand have literally done nothing besides move to a position and fire. There is just way too much exposition and, sadly, things do not get better.
Continuing on, viewpoints switch, and you have to deal with a character who is written in spotty sentences. For. Some. Reason. I think it’s to provide a sense of urgency, but I didn’t feel it worked at all. Not to mention, there are still expository instances abound and it’s a layered event - the same thing is still going on as before, just another character is coming to make some change in that particular instance. Worse yet, the same details are mentioned over and over again, merely paragraphs from each other: he’s about to fire the launcher, he’s going to fire the launcher, I can’t watch him firing that launcher, I got to go the guy with the launcher. As much as I want to get into this book, I’m just pulled out completely by redundancy and poor stylistic choices.
Horrible writing and pacing aside, the characters are not much more than generic slates and flat, blank, characters. Perhaps this is due to the RPG being based on character creation and classes, but characters cannot just be the weapons and things they carry, or the powers they have. They need to have some real substance, and being mad at the bad guy, the only dilemma being if he’s truly good or bad, is weak at best. The setting, as well, is all over the place. Everything but the kitchen sink is thrown into the equation, and when the given writer can’t explain something, they simply say that whatever an element is, the character didn’t understand the purpose - so it just can’t be explained (didn’t stop every single other little thing from being explained). You can tell that, whomever the cover artist was, they really couldn’t get past the fatty boring chapters and instead opted to describe the setting of the first chapter. Why not, it’s there for way longer than it should be anyhow.
Numenera, what a place I’d like to learn about! But I couldn’t with this book, instances of the game's mechanics are here but they are the peanut butter on a hair sandwich. Yes, that metaphor was bad - but at least you didn’t have to read about for an eternity. I’ll take the sandwich over this book any day.
April 26, 2019
This review originally published in Looking For a Good Book. Rated 1.5 of 5
Whereas I enjoyed Shanna Germain's The Poison Eater ... also a Numenera novel ... The Night Clave, by Germain and Monte Cook just doesn't engage at all. It reads like a story that's from a different medium ... oh, wait...that's exactly what this is - this is an RPG and PC-game series.
Normally I'd give you a brief, one-paragraph rundown of the plot, but I'm honestly not sure that I can. This book mostly gives us the background of something - I presume the video game series, but since I don't play video games, I'm not entirely sure. It seems as though a group of people - a religious order - understand a long-forgotten technology. They use this knowledge to force their followers to continue to follow them. But a another group of individuals is trying to stop the corruption. That's a pretty generic description, but there you have it.
The biggest problem here is that authors Germain and Cook seem to understand that they are writing to an audience (they hope) wider than those who are already familiar with the gaming series and so they dump a lot of background information on us. A lot.
But because there is so much constant info-dumping, the story gets lost behind all the information we are getting.
There's always a chance that this could all be redeemed by strong characters that keep us interested, but even here we are left with very little. We are not pulled in by these characters, who we are told do some things (in rather chaotic sentences that are supposed to generate a sense of action but actually slow us down), in a world that we get a lot of info about, but it's too late ... we don't care.
Looking for a good book? The Night Clave by Monte Cook and Shanna Germain is a volume in the Numenera series and is just not worth the effort to read.
I receive a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.
Whereas I enjoyed Shanna Germain's The Poison Eater ... also a Numenera novel ... The Night Clave, by Germain and Monte Cook just doesn't engage at all. It reads like a story that's from a different medium ... oh, wait...that's exactly what this is - this is an RPG and PC-game series.
Normally I'd give you a brief, one-paragraph rundown of the plot, but I'm honestly not sure that I can. This book mostly gives us the background of something - I presume the video game series, but since I don't play video games, I'm not entirely sure. It seems as though a group of people - a religious order - understand a long-forgotten technology. They use this knowledge to force their followers to continue to follow them. But a another group of individuals is trying to stop the corruption. That's a pretty generic description, but there you have it.
The biggest problem here is that authors Germain and Cook seem to understand that they are writing to an audience (they hope) wider than those who are already familiar with the gaming series and so they dump a lot of background information on us. A lot.
But because there is so much constant info-dumping, the story gets lost behind all the information we are getting.
There's always a chance that this could all be redeemed by strong characters that keep us interested, but even here we are left with very little. We are not pulled in by these characters, who we are told do some things (in rather chaotic sentences that are supposed to generate a sense of action but actually slow us down), in a world that we get a lot of info about, but it's too late ... we don't care.
Looking for a good book? The Night Clave by Monte Cook and Shanna Germain is a volume in the Numenera series and is just not worth the effort to read.
I receive a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.
November 21, 2023
This book had a few good ideas, but overall it kinda sucked. I read it primarily because I'm interested in the Numenera campaign setting for tabletop RPGing, and figured reading a novel set in that universe would be a fun and useful way to get to know the setting better. Unfortunately this book didn't deliver. The story felt sort of aimless, even though there was a very clear goal of killing the super mindcontrolling Aeon Priest. I think the author probably had some good ideas and a good story in mind, but was given many constraints and maybe rushed the deadlines or some shit, resulting in a shitty book.
The story is about a team of people who are hiding at a safe house, and they try to kill an Aeon Priest (who is basically a super villain with mind control powers). Well when they're on their way to execute their assassination plans, they find a boy who has escaped his imprisonment by the Aeon Priest and abort the assassination mission to save the boy. They're conflicted because saving the boy was the right thing to do, but they've left the Aeon Priest alive which leads to much greater suffering. This happens in the first part of the book. Then the bulk of the book is spent with the characters of the 'Night Clave' sort of dealing with the emotional aftermath of having failed a mission, then coming up with a new mission. This part could have been interesting, but it takes up the majority of the book which made the other exciting stuff feel unimportant. In the end they kill the Aeon Priest but I found it somewhat contrived and unsatisfying.
The story is about a team of people who are hiding at a safe house, and they try to kill an Aeon Priest (who is basically a super villain with mind control powers). Well when they're on their way to execute their assassination plans, they find a boy who has escaped his imprisonment by the Aeon Priest and abort the assassination mission to save the boy. They're conflicted because saving the boy was the right thing to do, but they've left the Aeon Priest alive which leads to much greater suffering. This happens in the first part of the book. Then the bulk of the book is spent with the characters of the 'Night Clave' sort of dealing with the emotional aftermath of having failed a mission, then coming up with a new mission. This part could have been interesting, but it takes up the majority of the book which made the other exciting stuff feel unimportant. In the end they kill the Aeon Priest but I found it somewhat contrived and unsatisfying.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
dnf
April 25, 2021DNF at 75 pages, 21%.
I couldn't do it anymore. I just don't care about the characters and I have no real idea what is going on. I feel like it somewhat relies already having a knowledge of the world and that made it feel a bit 'new reader' unfriendly, but that's just how I felt about it.
The world itself did seem interesting with a sort of blend of fantasy and sci-fi, which I love, but I couldn't click with it at all to the point where I would avoid reading it.
The cover is gorgeous and I picked it up about a year ago on a whim. I tried it. I failed.
Time to cut my losses and move on.
I couldn't do it anymore. I just don't care about the characters and I have no real idea what is going on. I feel like it somewhat relies already having a knowledge of the world and that made it feel a bit 'new reader' unfriendly, but that's just how I felt about it.
The world itself did seem interesting with a sort of blend of fantasy and sci-fi, which I love, but I couldn't click with it at all to the point where I would avoid reading it.
The cover is gorgeous and I picked it up about a year ago on a whim. I tried it. I failed.
Time to cut my losses and move on.
December 6, 2017
A fun yet sometimes broken journey
I loved the characters and the setting. I feel the villain was underdeveloped. The story is mostly good but on few ocations feels incomplete and sometimes broken.
I loved the characters and the setting. I feel the villain was underdeveloped. The story is mostly good but on few ocations feels incomplete and sometimes broken.
January 27, 2018
I really enjoyed the relationships between the characters. The relationship and banter between the two main characters just made me so happy.
September 2, 2020
A solid numenera story with a well put together plot. I highly recommend it.
Read
September 26, 2017No rating because proofread job.
December 12, 2017
While there is little doubt Shanna can help design a world and can make use of stylish prose, she seems less able to write an entertaining story. Much like the last Numenera novel, most of the best action happens off of the page. I get that Numenera is not a hack and slash type of setting, but this story was simply meh. it started as a cool caper and just fumbled the rest of the time. It also, like her last novel, just kind of stopped without any satisfying climax or ending. While licensed settings can often produce mediocre works, I would have killed for a more interesting and simple story.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews