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Truth Beyond Paradox:
Passion. Loss. Laughter. Fear.
Truth is a paradox, especially when magick is involved. To get beyond illusions of reality, then, a person must reach beyond what we think is possible and find what’s really there.
Set in the award-winning world of Mage: The Ascension, the 17 tales featured in this collection span from the bizarre humor of “The Theogenesis Gimmick” to the aching loss of “Life,” the tangled passions of “Toxic” love, and the grim assurance that “Nothing Important Happened Today.”
Hope, betrayal, fury, lust, even the lack of feeling for another’s pain – it’s all part of a realm where magick is real, and reality is magickal.
Mage: the Ascension and World of Darkness are registered trademarks of White Wolf Entertainment AB.
Truth is a paradox, especially when magick is involved. To get beyond illusions of reality, then, a person must reach beyond what we think is possible and find what’s really there.
Set in the award-winning world of Mage: The Ascension, the 17 tales featured in this collection span from the bizarre humor of “The Theogenesis Gimmick” to the aching loss of “Life,” the tangled passions of “Toxic” love, and the grim assurance that “Nothing Important Happened Today.”
Hope, betrayal, fury, lust, even the lack of feeling for another’s pain – it’s all part of a realm where magick is real, and reality is magickal.
Mage: the Ascension and World of Darkness are registered trademarks of White Wolf Entertainment AB.
- GenresFantasy
291 pages, Kindle Edition
First published February 3, 2016
36 people are currently reading
91 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
March 5, 2016
This book succeeds where most role playing anthology texts fall flat, in the area of experimentation and authenticity. Normally when I pick up a fiction text attached to a piece of major existing IP the quality of the narrative is less than stellar. There have certainly been exceptions to this rule (P.N. Elrod's I Stradh stands as the greatest exception I can think of), but generally speaking RPG products lean on formulaic predictable fiction in their products. While the stories in Truth Beyond Paradox are not necessarily wildly experimental in broader scope of literature, they are varied and exceptionally out of the box for a series of texts meant to evoke an existing world. Not every story necessarily grabs the reader immediately, but there is a sense of emotional urgency in several of the stories, and the authors were clearly allowed to focus on the human experiences of their characters over representing a specific slice of the world they were writing within.
I would go so far as to say that the anthology is at it's best when it is breaking the rules of the world of Mage the Ascension, and it's few stale spots are when the stories stay too true to the narrative in the game books themselves. My favorite stories in the collection are "Well Played" and "A Firm Place to Stand", both of which accomplish a similar feat in that they focus on a deeply human experience, and if you knew nothing about the world of Mage you could easily read and experience the stories through other lenses. While there are details and nuance that is made more rich by knowledge of Mage the Ascension, these authors understood that it is a universal human experience that must be tapped, and that the rest of the trappings while important, must serve that human story, not the other way around.
The remaining stories achieve varied levels of success even some of the rough spots are excellent in their own right because it's clear that they are the result of authors pushing the format, and perhaps not completely succeeding. I for one would much rather see a story that is rough from experimentation, than a perfectly polished duplicate of what I can find in a dozen other anthologies in a dozen other urban fantasy worlds.
Overall, this anthology is worth reading if for nothing else than the varied perspective on urban fantasy. While this genre may seem superficial to some this set of stories shows that it is capable of expressing a wide array of deep human experiences, with stakes that are immediate, and epic in scope, even if only to the person who's eyes you are borrowing for your brief read.
I would go so far as to say that the anthology is at it's best when it is breaking the rules of the world of Mage the Ascension, and it's few stale spots are when the stories stay too true to the narrative in the game books themselves. My favorite stories in the collection are "Well Played" and "A Firm Place to Stand", both of which accomplish a similar feat in that they focus on a deeply human experience, and if you knew nothing about the world of Mage you could easily read and experience the stories through other lenses. While there are details and nuance that is made more rich by knowledge of Mage the Ascension, these authors understood that it is a universal human experience that must be tapped, and that the rest of the trappings while important, must serve that human story, not the other way around.
The remaining stories achieve varied levels of success even some of the rough spots are excellent in their own right because it's clear that they are the result of authors pushing the format, and perhaps not completely succeeding. I for one would much rather see a story that is rough from experimentation, than a perfectly polished duplicate of what I can find in a dozen other anthologies in a dozen other urban fantasy worlds.
Overall, this anthology is worth reading if for nothing else than the varied perspective on urban fantasy. While this genre may seem superficial to some this set of stories shows that it is capable of expressing a wide array of deep human experiences, with stakes that are immediate, and epic in scope, even if only to the person who's eyes you are borrowing for your brief read.
August 9, 2016
I'm looking forward to delving into this book full of secrets.
So far:
We Are the Shadows Cast by the Memory of Giants - A really fun story. An interesting story about Hermetic Order's training.
A Secret Place - A fantastic story with an interesting secret. The descriptions in this are very visceral and vivid.
So far:
We Are the Shadows Cast by the Memory of Giants - A really fun story. An interesting story about Hermetic Order's training.
A Secret Place - A fantastic story with an interesting secret. The descriptions in this are very visceral and vivid.
March 26, 2016
I was blown away by the stories in this book and am honored to be in the company of such talented storytellers.
December 18, 2019
As a HUGE fan of the original Mage the Ascension game, I have to say I was super excited when I this book pop up in my recommended books on Goodreads.
However... it's just okay. It's like a lot of the writers were just trying too hard. Mage stories should flow smoothly and have a bit of flair to them. A lot of these just seemed like they were trying too hard to be mysterious and mind blowing. But really they were just confusing and hard to follow.
The best story in the bunch in my opinion was the one about the scambaiter who awakened. Another good one was the girl who was collecting old pulp magazines and ended up writing them herself by the end of the story. The others were just okay or uninteresting.
Hardcore fans of the genre like myself will enjoy it, but it's nothing overly special.
However... it's just okay. It's like a lot of the writers were just trying too hard. Mage stories should flow smoothly and have a bit of flair to them. A lot of these just seemed like they were trying too hard to be mysterious and mind blowing. But really they were just confusing and hard to follow.
The best story in the bunch in my opinion was the one about the scambaiter who awakened. Another good one was the girl who was collecting old pulp magazines and ended up writing them herself by the end of the story. The others were just okay or uninteresting.
Hardcore fans of the genre like myself will enjoy it, but it's nothing overly special.
August 14, 2017
Aun espero encontrar un setting (¿cosmovisión?) mejor que el de Mage: The Ascension, no sólo hablando de juegos de rol, sino de cualquier mundo ficticio en libro, película o cómic, y esta recopilación de cuentos realizada al marco de la edición del 20 aniversario me lo recuerda; empieza con una historia de La Orden de Hermes y termina con una de la Tecnocracia, en una simetría de los muchos y distintos frentes opuestos desde donde se pelea por el control de La Realidad (el Tellurian).
Los.cuentos en sí no sólo los mejores, aunque ninguno es malo, pero son un pretexto muy disfrutable para regresar al World of Darkness.
Los.cuentos en sí no sólo los mejores, aunque ninguno es malo, pero son un pretexto muy disfrutable para regresar al World of Darkness.
February 22, 2022
“We are the Shadows Cast by the Memory of Giants” by Seanan McGuire
April 6, 2022
Colorful stories, all about one kind of magic or another.
May 26, 2016
The stories that had something to do with Mage were enjoyable, but a surprising number could have taken place in just about any Urban Fantasy setting. Most of them were good too, but they felt out of place here.
March 17, 2016
A nifty collection of stories, somewhat subdued compared to the rampant wackiness of "Truth Until Paradox" . . . but very enjoyable, and much more in the spirit of what Mage: The Ascension turned out to be . . .
April 6, 2017
From a multitude of experiencies, the Magic is alive.
Either as a personal, intimate drama, or an spiritual confrontation, the the Awakened world is here.
The short tales depicted in this book offer an excellent referencial materialto understand much of the game of Mage: the Ascencion, either as a inner game of personal growth of the mage, focused in their Art, or as an struggle against outer ideas and inescrutable antagonists, where magc makes the diffference between survival or annihilation.
A must for any Mage: the Ascencion, either as a player, for inspiration, or for a Storyteller, a tour du force of the Realities that lie inside this World of Darkness.
Loved the tecnocratic tale, and the drifter tale.
Either as a personal, intimate drama, or an spiritual confrontation, the the Awakened world is here.
The short tales depicted in this book offer an excellent referencial materialto understand much of the game of Mage: the Ascencion, either as a inner game of personal growth of the mage, focused in their Art, or as an struggle against outer ideas and inescrutable antagonists, where magc makes the diffference between survival or annihilation.
A must for any Mage: the Ascencion, either as a player, for inspiration, or for a Storyteller, a tour du force of the Realities that lie inside this World of Darkness.
Loved the tecnocratic tale, and the drifter tale.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews