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Arkham Horror #9.5
The Dirge of Reason
LAKE HOUSE DESTROYED. 38 DEAD. CAUSE UNKNOWN.
Federal Agent Roland Banks has always done things by the book. It was the only way to avoid being dragged into the mire of corruption and quid pro quo that is government in Prohibition America. But when Agent Banks busts the wrong bootlegging operation in backwoods Virginia, his punishment is a bizarre assignment near Arkham, Massachusetts.
It is clear from the outset of his investigation that Arkham keeps its secrets close, and Roland isn’t going to break open this case if he sticks to SOP. But his agent’s handbook has nothing to say regarding ancient myths and wrathful gods. As the mystery and chaos surrounding the assignment threaten to unravel Roland, he must decide how much he’s willing to risk to uncover and confront the truth.
Federal Agent Roland Banks has always done things by the book. It was the only way to avoid being dragged into the mire of corruption and quid pro quo that is government in Prohibition America. But when Agent Banks busts the wrong bootlegging operation in backwoods Virginia, his punishment is a bizarre assignment near Arkham, Massachusetts.
It is clear from the outset of his investigation that Arkham keeps its secrets close, and Roland isn’t going to break open this case if he sticks to SOP. But his agent’s handbook has nothing to say regarding ancient myths and wrathful gods. As the mystery and chaos surrounding the assignment threaten to unravel Roland, he must decide how much he’s willing to risk to uncover and confront the truth.
112 pages, Hardcover
Published February 22, 2018
18 people are currently reading
181 people want to read
About the author
Graeme Davis
130 books79 followersGraeme Davis was born at an early age and has lived ever since.
His enduring fascination with creatures from myth and folklore can probably be blamed equally on Ray Harryhausen and Christopher Lee. He studied archaeology at the University of Durham before joining Games Workshop in 1986, where he co-wrote the acclaimed Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay game among others.
He has worked on over 40 video games, countless tabletop roleplaying game products, and a few more sensible books in the realms of history, mythology, and folklore. Most recently, he has written multiple titles for Osprey Publishing's Dark Osprey and Myths and Legends lines.
He blogs at graemedavis.wordpress.com and tweets as @GraemeJDavis. His Facebook author page is at https://www.facebook.com/Graeme-Davis...
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 41 reviews
September 14, 2020
Has all the charisma of the back of a box of Frosted Mini Wheats.
I buy these novellas for the special cards for Arkham Horror the living card game but I felt guilty having books in my house that I hadn't read. After reading The Dirge of Reason I feel totally fine leaving the rest of the novellas unread.
The writing feels, somehow, both stilted and extraordinarily verbose. Entire paragraphs, entire PAGES, were extraneous and repetitive. They felt like nothing more than filler. All in all, I think this novella could have been chopped down to a 20 page short story.
I buy these novellas for the special cards for Arkham Horror the living card game but I felt guilty having books in my house that I hadn't read. After reading The Dirge of Reason I feel totally fine leaving the rest of the novellas unread.
The writing feels, somehow, both stilted and extraordinarily verbose. Entire paragraphs, entire PAGES, were extraneous and repetitive. They felt like nothing more than filler. All in all, I think this novella could have been chopped down to a 20 page short story.
May 14, 2021
This novella is a dirge for the eyes. You might as well read TVTropes about the 1920s instead of reading this. At least on TVTropes, you don’t expect a plot between different tropes. Here, the plot is so incredibly thin, and so incredibly telegraphed that it is almost insulting. If you have never played an Arkham Files game, or read HP Lovecraft, do not read this, as it will turn you off to anything remotely related. You would probably leave this novella disliking Stephen King, Guillermo del Toro, and any number of people and media that draw inspiration from Lovecraft’s lore.
Let’s talk about the walking trope Roland Banks, the lead character. You’ve seen this character a thousand times. The lawman who holds duty above all else, who gets burned doing the right thing by people above him who have some moral flexibility. In this punishment assignment on occasion Roland throws his weight around, testing out the moral flexibility of the unnamed/unseen characters that wronged him, and while he enjoys it a bit, he has to come to terms with his actions and his beliefs. This story arc wouldn’t be so bad if Roland didn’t go from 1 to 100 in turn of a page. In the first couple of chapters, he is reasonable, trying to work with the local police force in Arkham. Then someone doesn’t give him all the information he wants, he flies off the handle and starts screaming at orderlies at an asylum, looking like, and reading like, a total ass. To top it all off, this plotline is completely dropped and then mentioned briefly in the final chapter. Frankly, whenever I play Arkham games in the future and I randomly selected Roland, I am putting him back and choosing another character.
My biggest critique of the novella is voice. This was written in 2017, but almost everything is littered with 1920’s vernacular. Obviously, you want the characters to talk in a way that sounds like the 20s. I have no problem with that. Furthermore, when we have Roland’s internal voice, again, the 20s vernacular is appropriate. There is no reason, in 2017, to describe anything with 1920s vernacular that is not in the voice of a character. Seeing skedaddled being used as a verb, and not being said or thought by a character broke me. The entire time I was on that page, my eyes kept darting back to “skedaddled”. Skadadled is now seared in my brain. The constant use of G-man, mug, join, and constant mentions of J. Edgar Hoover were overwhelming enough but skedaddled… that is tough to get over.
Tropes are unavoidable. And in a novella, I understand it's tough to have room to really innovate on anything, but innovation isn’t even attempted, instead of going for an overdose of quantity, while disregarding all quality. The first three chapters beat you over the head with 1920’s tropes and cliches such as prohibition and bootleggers, along with tired noir and mystery elements such as the federal agent coming into town and taking a case away from the local law enforcement. To give weight to how a character is feeling, expect some exaggerated metaphor regarding WWI.
When I read Hour of the Huntress, I knew it was a cult, I knew Jenny Barns’ sister was in their clutches, and I knew that Jenny would not reunite with her sister because that’s how these tie-ins work. You cant resolve the central tenet of a character in something that is not the main medium; and in this case, the main medium is a board game. Maybe something was compelling about the constant chase that made Jenny more enjoyable, maybe it was that Jenny didn’t have extreme radical changes of characterization, maybe it was the overall structure of Hour of the Huntress, I do not know, but something about Hour of the Huntress worked to make a good-not-great pulp novel, while the Dirge of Reason is almost totally unenjoyable to read.
There are some bright spots that I really did enjoy. In particular, Roland’s interactions at Miskatonic University were fun to read. Maybe it is my background in Higher Ed that informs this enjoyment, but it remains just the same. Pairing Roland’s mystery with the knowledge from one of the professors is fun, and that’s the first indication for Roland where there may be something bigger than bootleggers affecting his investigation.
I do these reviews as a creative release. I’m not deluding myself that I have any real critical weight. But I really struggled writing this because I was so thoroughly down on this novella. I cannot help but feel that the author was bound by the criteria set on them, a tie-in to a board game, where the character cannot grow too much, that is set in a super pulpy 1920’s environment, that has to have some adjacency to an unspeakable horror, that is 150 pages or less. The author hit those criteria admirably, but that does not make the content good. 1/5.
Let’s talk about the walking trope Roland Banks, the lead character. You’ve seen this character a thousand times. The lawman who holds duty above all else, who gets burned doing the right thing by people above him who have some moral flexibility. In this punishment assignment on occasion Roland throws his weight around, testing out the moral flexibility of the unnamed/unseen characters that wronged him, and while he enjoys it a bit, he has to come to terms with his actions and his beliefs. This story arc wouldn’t be so bad if Roland didn’t go from 1 to 100 in turn of a page. In the first couple of chapters, he is reasonable, trying to work with the local police force in Arkham. Then someone doesn’t give him all the information he wants, he flies off the handle and starts screaming at orderlies at an asylum, looking like, and reading like, a total ass. To top it all off, this plotline is completely dropped and then mentioned briefly in the final chapter. Frankly, whenever I play Arkham games in the future and I randomly selected Roland, I am putting him back and choosing another character.
My biggest critique of the novella is voice. This was written in 2017, but almost everything is littered with 1920’s vernacular. Obviously, you want the characters to talk in a way that sounds like the 20s. I have no problem with that. Furthermore, when we have Roland’s internal voice, again, the 20s vernacular is appropriate. There is no reason, in 2017, to describe anything with 1920s vernacular that is not in the voice of a character. Seeing skedaddled being used as a verb, and not being said or thought by a character broke me. The entire time I was on that page, my eyes kept darting back to “skedaddled”. Skadadled is now seared in my brain. The constant use of G-man, mug, join, and constant mentions of J. Edgar Hoover were overwhelming enough but skedaddled… that is tough to get over.
Tropes are unavoidable. And in a novella, I understand it's tough to have room to really innovate on anything, but innovation isn’t even attempted, instead of going for an overdose of quantity, while disregarding all quality. The first three chapters beat you over the head with 1920’s tropes and cliches such as prohibition and bootleggers, along with tired noir and mystery elements such as the federal agent coming into town and taking a case away from the local law enforcement. To give weight to how a character is feeling, expect some exaggerated metaphor regarding WWI.
When I read Hour of the Huntress, I knew it was a cult, I knew Jenny Barns’ sister was in their clutches, and I knew that Jenny would not reunite with her sister because that’s how these tie-ins work. You cant resolve the central tenet of a character in something that is not the main medium; and in this case, the main medium is a board game. Maybe something was compelling about the constant chase that made Jenny more enjoyable, maybe it was that Jenny didn’t have extreme radical changes of characterization, maybe it was the overall structure of Hour of the Huntress, I do not know, but something about Hour of the Huntress worked to make a good-not-great pulp novel, while the Dirge of Reason is almost totally unenjoyable to read.
There are some bright spots that I really did enjoy. In particular, Roland’s interactions at Miskatonic University were fun to read. Maybe it is my background in Higher Ed that informs this enjoyment, but it remains just the same. Pairing Roland’s mystery with the knowledge from one of the professors is fun, and that’s the first indication for Roland where there may be something bigger than bootleggers affecting his investigation.
I do these reviews as a creative release. I’m not deluding myself that I have any real critical weight. But I really struggled writing this because I was so thoroughly down on this novella. I cannot help but feel that the author was bound by the criteria set on them, a tie-in to a board game, where the character cannot grow too much, that is set in a super pulpy 1920’s environment, that has to have some adjacency to an unspeakable horror, that is 150 pages or less. The author hit those criteria admirably, but that does not make the content good. 1/5.
August 10, 2018
Pulp fiction of an agreeably lowbrow caliber. That's not a slam. It's exactly what I wanted, and exactly what I got. I am obsessed with the various Lovecraft games from Fantasy Flight, and it was fun to read a new adventure starring one of my favorite investigators. The writing felt authentic to the genre, without ever rising above it. I'll read more of these.
May 7, 2020
Dynamické a dobře napsané.
October 20, 2020
Agent Roland Banks was NOT enjoying his day. He had just been pulled off a big case in Virginia and sent into the wilds of Massachusetts to a the town of ARKHAM at the request of Mrs. Edith van Dreesen who, apparently, knew someone in the Bureau to get such immediate and specialized attention. But...then...it's not everyday an entire house simply disappears as if sheared off its foundation. Plus, Banks knows that he had been stepping on some powerful toes in pursuing the criminals he had in Virginia so it wasn't too much of a wonder that he was dispatched to the hinterlands. Soon though, his investigations uncover some strange and startling clues as he tries to get a quick resolution to the mystery. But that resolution may not be grounded in the same world that he is and soon strange noises and terrible sightings take him into a horror that he...and the town of Arkham...were not ready for.
Graeme Davis writes the latest entry in the Fantasy Flight Games novellas set in the shadows of Arkham (These novellas were written as companion adventures and supporting background information for FFG's Arkham Horror card game. Each book comes with a set of playing cards that can be added to the primary game itself and featuring the main character from each new novella as a player character). Davis twists and turns the story as he weaves clues and misdirection for the reader who always realizes that there will be an eventual supernatural power behind the story. His story telling is solid enough that the reader still wonders through most of the story what truly is behind the occurrence until it stands in all its glory in the final reveal.
Another fun chapter in these short trips into the world of the old gods and everything supernatural.
Graeme Davis writes the latest entry in the Fantasy Flight Games novellas set in the shadows of Arkham (These novellas were written as companion adventures and supporting background information for FFG's Arkham Horror card game. Each book comes with a set of playing cards that can be added to the primary game itself and featuring the main character from each new novella as a player character). Davis twists and turns the story as he weaves clues and misdirection for the reader who always realizes that there will be an eventual supernatural power behind the story. His story telling is solid enough that the reader still wonders through most of the story what truly is behind the occurrence until it stands in all its glory in the final reveal.
Another fun chapter in these short trips into the world of the old gods and everything supernatural.
July 20, 2022
This is the second novella of a series of 7 or 8 created years ago (back in 2017 I believe). I am reading this in the novel printed by Aconyte (Dark Origins). But I Am reading only one novella per month.
So was this good story? Nah. It's bad. Basically we follow Roland Banks which is a character in the Arkham Horror; Eldritch Horror and Mansion of Madness universe. It's one character that I really enjoy but unfortunately everything that made that character good in the game was absent here.
If you don't know he is a lawman that never bends the true and holds duty above all. I believe the author didn't knew that much about the character. We know that he changed since he came to Arkham but in the novella in the beginning he is reasonable and then go to a loony bin and becomes a complete different person.
The story is nothing too interesting BUT as the previous tale and the ones coming these tales, you know, if you play the games know basically how they will play out. Per example in the last tale you know that Jenny (I believe that was her name) was searching for her sister and not get find it. Here we know that he will change views/actions and so on... but it was too rapid. Oh and the plot was boring...
So was this good story? Nah. It's bad. Basically we follow Roland Banks which is a character in the Arkham Horror; Eldritch Horror and Mansion of Madness universe. It's one character that I really enjoy but unfortunately everything that made that character good in the game was absent here.
If you don't know he is a lawman that never bends the true and holds duty above all. I believe the author didn't knew that much about the character. We know that he changed since he came to Arkham but in the novella in the beginning he is reasonable and then go to a loony bin and becomes a complete different person.
The story is nothing too interesting BUT as the previous tale and the ones coming these tales, you know, if you play the games know basically how they will play out. Per example in the last tale you know that Jenny (I believe that was her name) was searching for her sister and not get find it. Here we know that he will change views/actions and so on... but it was too rapid. Oh and the plot was boring...
November 4, 2020
A great introduction to Roland from the Arkham universe. Well written and paced well. However as with the last Novella (The Hour of the Huntress) the Novella format leaves a lot unsaid. Both could have been worked into a full short novel format with more space to delve into the mythos and ramp up the tension.
Overall I really enjoyed this short lived but fun story
Overall I really enjoyed this short lived but fun story
August 20, 2024
Full Roland novel please
April 8, 2019
"The Dirge of Reason" is another in the series of Arkham Horror Universe (courtesy of Fantasy Flight Games) novellas about the varied Investigators working to solve the Cthulhu Mythos. This time around, it's Roland Banks. Roland is a Federal Agent working for what would become the FBI. He gets sent to Arkham as a punishment for uncovering a little too much corruption in West Virginia.
Arkham has many charms, including a lot of bizarre murders and unexplained disappearances and other phenomena. The events of "The Dirge of Reason" fall clearly into the "other phenomena" category. A mansion built on the shore of a nearby lake is destroyed, killing an orchestra of nearly 40 people who were using it as a rehearsal space. What were they rehearsing? A new piece of music based on an ancient invocation to an evil god. What could go wrong? The lone eyewitness says a giant tongue with teeth came down out of the sky and smote the mansion to splinters, killing all inside. He ended up in a rubber room at Arkham Asylum.
Like a logical person, Roland Banks looks for obvious causes for the mansion's destruction, but finds none. He tries to find his "bomber" as a result of a local war between bootleggers (this story takes place during Prohibition). While he does find conflict going on, it seems to have nothing to do with the destruction of the mansion. Even the wreckage itself seems strange and lacking in evidence that should be there. And what's worse, the force that destroyed the mansion also allowed some kind of unearthly creature to come through as well.
Roland Banks has to accept the supernatural and fight it with no special training or foreknowledge of what he was getting into. They never name the monster in question, but I think it might either be a Shoggoth or a Servitor of the Outer Gods. A nasty beastie, to be sure.
The story telling is crisp and interesting. It felt very much in the spirit of H.P. Lovecraft and Arkham Horror. The one word that tripped me up early on was "fug." I thought it was a typo at first, but it's a British colloquial term. The author, Graeme Davis, handles his human characters very well and even makes the monster "realistic" in its lack of understandable motivation.
If you're a fan of Lovecraft or Lovecraft gaming or the Arkham Horror Universe, this is a good book to actually read--instead of just taking the game cards out of and selling the book on eBay.
Arkham has many charms, including a lot of bizarre murders and unexplained disappearances and other phenomena. The events of "The Dirge of Reason" fall clearly into the "other phenomena" category. A mansion built on the shore of a nearby lake is destroyed, killing an orchestra of nearly 40 people who were using it as a rehearsal space. What were they rehearsing? A new piece of music based on an ancient invocation to an evil god. What could go wrong? The lone eyewitness says a giant tongue with teeth came down out of the sky and smote the mansion to splinters, killing all inside. He ended up in a rubber room at Arkham Asylum.
Like a logical person, Roland Banks looks for obvious causes for the mansion's destruction, but finds none. He tries to find his "bomber" as a result of a local war between bootleggers (this story takes place during Prohibition). While he does find conflict going on, it seems to have nothing to do with the destruction of the mansion. Even the wreckage itself seems strange and lacking in evidence that should be there. And what's worse, the force that destroyed the mansion also allowed some kind of unearthly creature to come through as well.
Roland Banks has to accept the supernatural and fight it with no special training or foreknowledge of what he was getting into. They never name the monster in question, but I think it might either be a Shoggoth or a Servitor of the Outer Gods. A nasty beastie, to be sure.
The story telling is crisp and interesting. It felt very much in the spirit of H.P. Lovecraft and Arkham Horror. The one word that tripped me up early on was "fug." I thought it was a typo at first, but it's a British colloquial term. The author, Graeme Davis, handles his human characters very well and even makes the monster "realistic" in its lack of understandable motivation.
If you're a fan of Lovecraft or Lovecraft gaming or the Arkham Horror Universe, this is a good book to actually read--instead of just taking the game cards out of and selling the book on eBay.
June 19, 2022
I have the longstanding prejudice that book-tie-ins to franchises are not usually very good; a story is a fragile thing and needs to pull you in with its own voice, not bear the weight of needing to reference things from a game or an episode, and can easily feel like a betrayal of tone if the writing does not make you FEEL the same way you felt from the original product.
If I had to be perfectly honest, I think all of these novellas that I've thus far read which tie in to the 'Arkham Horror LCG' game follow that rule, and are not very good; their understanding of the 1920's seems about on par with a good weekend of research, they all feel compelled to mention certain highlight locations in Arkham with a none-too-subtle wink, and their characters have that good wholesome feeling of having been born in modern day rather than the 1920's.
But maybe, like a cheap carnival hot dog they're just my particular flavor of 'bad', because I can't seem to get enough of them.
The Dirge of Reason felt like a quick and easy read. I might have liked it to have been a little longer so as to get a bit more supernatural payoff on the mystery and to pace out the development of Mr. Roland Banks more evenly, but for a fiend of that special flavor of pulp shoot-'em-up + lovecraft that Fantasy Flight's Arkham File's peddles, it'll keep you happy for a day or so while you wait for your friends to gather so you can play Eldritch Horror, or start a new Campaign of the LCG.
If I had to be perfectly honest, I think all of these novellas that I've thus far read which tie in to the 'Arkham Horror LCG' game follow that rule, and are not very good; their understanding of the 1920's seems about on par with a good weekend of research, they all feel compelled to mention certain highlight locations in Arkham with a none-too-subtle wink, and their characters have that good wholesome feeling of having been born in modern day rather than the 1920's.
But maybe, like a cheap carnival hot dog they're just my particular flavor of 'bad', because I can't seem to get enough of them.
The Dirge of Reason felt like a quick and easy read. I might have liked it to have been a little longer so as to get a bit more supernatural payoff on the mystery and to pace out the development of Mr. Roland Banks more evenly, but for a fiend of that special flavor of pulp shoot-'em-up + lovecraft that Fantasy Flight's Arkham File's peddles, it'll keep you happy for a day or so while you wait for your friends to gather so you can play Eldritch Horror, or start a new Campaign of the LCG.
November 18, 2024
Despite some issues, I thought this was pretty entertaining. I really like the world of Arkham Horror even if I don't think it ever really actually taps into the cosmic horror it shares a universe with, and it was fun seeing Roland Banks and Leo De Luca solve a mystery. I found myself a little disappointed by the mystery itself - if you've had any exposure to occult fiction in general it doesn't take much to assume the culprit of the inciting incident is something supernatural, and the novella doesn't really do much beyond that extremely straightforward storyline. It ends up feeling a little more like a backstory someone would come up with for a game of Call of Cthulhu - something we don't really need to read BECAUSE of how straightforward it is. nevertheless, I'm a sucker for hard-boiled detective stories and I'm a sucker for Arkham Horror, so it was still pretty fun.
March 30, 2018
Licensed book set in the Fantasy Flight Games Arkham Horror (Lovecraft) universe.
This is an adequate short story text that centers around an investigation of a strange explosion in prohibition era MA that ends up (surprise) having supernatural causes. Most the text reads like a standard potboiler, and though the text does incorporate some nods to the Lovecraftian mythos it has none of the atmosphere or sense of foreboding that either Lovecraft or his better imitators would incorporate. For fans of the card / board game universe who want to know more background only.
This is an adequate short story text that centers around an investigation of a strange explosion in prohibition era MA that ends up (surprise) having supernatural causes. Most the text reads like a standard potboiler, and though the text does incorporate some nods to the Lovecraftian mythos it has none of the atmosphere or sense of foreboding that either Lovecraft or his better imitators would incorporate. For fans of the card / board game universe who want to know more background only.
September 14, 2018
I'm really loving these FFG Arkham novellas. I think Ire of the Void is still my favorite so far, but this was really good, and gives more context for Roland being in the sleepy New England town of Arkham.
It was also cool to see Leo De Luca take a strong supporting role. He's a great (and very useful) ally from the card game, and getting to see the main character interact with him, and help give him a personality was really great.
These books consistently make me want to dive back into the game and play more.
It was also cool to see Leo De Luca take a strong supporting role. He's a great (and very useful) ally from the card game, and getting to see the main character interact with him, and help give him a personality was really great.
These books consistently make me want to dive back into the game and play more.
October 22, 2022
3 stars. For a novella it sure does do a LOT of set up. It's almost the 75% mark before things starts getting...weird. it's not a bad book and it's actually written really well. It was easy for me to slip into the 1920s and picture these seedy secret speakeasys and the spooky town of arkham. Buuuut...it's just so slow. I feel like this should have been a full length book as it seems like the author was forced to leave some things on the chopping block. Once again not a BAD book but there's better spooky options for a Halloween read.
June 4, 2023
One of a series of novellas released as tie-ins for the ARKHAM HORROR card game. I thought this was surprisingly good. Any limitations, such as the super-fast pacing and rushed feeling, come down to the short length and are not the author's fault. There's a good mix of detective work and classic horror, the latter descriptions suitably eerie and atmospheric. The author has done a good job of making a game character likeable. The only part I didn't like was the lengthy explanation at the climax as I prefer my mysteries more ambiguous.
October 3, 2020
To be honest, the only reason that I liked it is that it kind of expands the lore of Arkham Horror. Apart from that, it's rather average if not weak read.
The story is full of quick developments without more explanation or mystery.
It requires a lot of forgiving attitude to be treated seriously, so I wouldn't recommend it apart from getting new cards for AH and reading it as an additional afternoon thing.
The story is full of quick developments without more explanation or mystery.
It requires a lot of forgiving attitude to be treated seriously, so I wouldn't recommend it apart from getting new cards for AH and reading it as an additional afternoon thing.
April 8, 2020
I enjoyed this book immensely. It started out as just a normal mystery/thriller with an FBI agent trying to determine the cause. Then you throw in Lovecraftian elements such as the city of Arkham, Misktonic University and supernatural things happening in the woods. Let's not forget the bootleggers at the center of it all. Very good book, I would have actually liked it to be longer.
July 19, 2020
Roland Banks is by far one of the most well know characters within the Arkham Horror Files Universe. So, it is quite an obligation to read about his first encounter with the Mythos.
The Novella itself is really easy to read, if you like the Gangster genre you will enjoy it, and if you want to meet Leo De Luca, then you will have a good bonus...
The Novella itself is really easy to read, if you like the Gangster genre you will enjoy it, and if you want to meet Leo De Luca, then you will have a good bonus...
August 21, 2020
A great Lovecraftian horror story that will really be enjoy by Call of Cthulu RPG players or Arkham Horror Card Game. Gansters, speakeasys and Arkham Asylum, all condensed in this short story that could be easily adapted into a oneshot adventure. Really enjoy this reading. Another great entry in the Arkham Horror universe.
May 27, 2021
Rating between 3 & 3.5
A quick read set in the word of the Cthulhu mythos using a lead character from some of the FFG games.
Novella length but I thought this was a good introduction to the universe. It felt like an introductory story that should have led into another full length novel or even series. Unfortunately not though.
Still a definite recommendation.
A quick read set in the word of the Cthulhu mythos using a lead character from some of the FFG games.
Novella length but I thought this was a good introduction to the universe. It felt like an introductory story that should have led into another full length novel or even series. Unfortunately not though.
Still a definite recommendation.
July 9, 2018
An interesting novel. I think Black Wind rises felt a little more Lovecraftian and there was some accelerated character personality shifting in this one that seemed a little forced but still an enjoyable read.
August 25, 2019
A fun horror themed detective pulp-style novel. It's a nice backstory to Roland from the Arkham Horror LCG from Fantasy Flight Games.
Recommend reading if you play or if you just like Lovecraftian mythology.
Recommend reading if you play or if you just like Lovecraftian mythology.
October 14, 2019
Pretty good, very quick, and provides a bit of insight to a character well known in the FFG Cthulhu Mythos. Would recommend to anyone interested in adding some background to their Arkham Horror files games.
May 9, 2020
Self conscious and well written pulp read - with a nice touch of all the story documents produced at the end of the book (inside would be much better, but I get the higher production costs). Recomended for fans of Arkham Horror LCG.
December 31, 2021
Not sure why some reviews are so harsh on this novella. If you are reading it, you are likely familiar with the game and thus know what it will be like. It's another fun pulpy story and fits into the rest of the framework nicely. I rate it as more of a 3.5, but I am giving it 4 instead of 3.
April 14, 2022
The Arkham Horror series is cool because of the recurring background characters and locations. This is a good action filled read following a detective and of course a twisted and dark path. This is an enjoyable series of shorts, I look forward to delving into the novels next. Check it out.
May 5, 2025
Enjoyable enough, but the problem here is that the story kinda meanders around a lot without very much happening. It feels more like the setup to a series than a stand-alone piece. Still, it’s always good to get more background on Arkham Horror!
March 27, 2018
Another Arkham Horror Files adventure that helps me enjoy the card game more.
I enjoyed this read and introduction into the Roland character.
I enjoyed this read and introduction into the Roland character.
February 25, 2019
Another great little read from the events in Arkham!
August 5, 2019
Another solid but otherwise unexciting addition to the Arkham Horror universe.
Nice to see some of the background characters from the game universe get some page time.
Nice to see some of the background characters from the game universe get some page time.
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