The Missing and the Lost

Technician #1

by Robin D. Laws

Imperial America has fallen.

Emperor Castaigne, who ruled the nation with secret police and even more secret sorcery, has fled. The portals that connected him to his rumored source of power, the alien realm of Carcosa, have been destroyed.

After a century of tyranny, democracy has returned to the USA—if those who fought for it have what it takes to keep it.

Along with his loyal crew, the man they called the Technician helped win the struggle. Now he seeks a return to civilian life.

Specifically, he wants to eliminate his job. He repairs the suicide machines known as the Government Lethal Chambers.

His determination to decommission these instruments of death brings him to the People’s Hall. There a generation of political pioneers works to jumpstart a disarrayed provisional administration into a fairly and freely elected government.

But when the body of a murder victim shows up in flagship Lethal Chamber in Washington Square, the Technician sees that the skill set of his crew hasn’t quite gone out of fashion.

The ensuing investigation takes him on a journey through the secrets of the old regime, with fugitive war criminals, haunted hide-outs, urban firefights and dread parageometrical rituals along the way.

Genres: Horror, Fiction

208 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2019

About the author

Writer and game designer Robin D. Laws brought you such roleplaying games as Ashen Stars, The Esoterrorists, The Dying Earth, Heroquest and Feng Shui. He is the author of seven novels, most recently The Worldwound Gambit from Paizo. For Robin's much-praised works of gaming history and analysis, see Hamlet's Hit Points, Robin's Laws of Game Mastering and 40 Years of Gen Con.

Reviews

[Justin · Rating 4 out of 5]

For the first time I wondered “how will someone who doesn’t know about the game world which inspired this engage with it?” I’m familiar with it, having played in a Yellow King: Aftermath game but it’s a lot. An alternate history which goes layers deep.

And it sets up a sequel, which is coming out next year. I hope we might see a quicker publication cycle for future books in the series.

[Frances · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really interesting combination of adventure, horror, and worldbuilding, with a satisfying resolution that honestly makes me wish there was more to read.

[Cat Tobin]

(no review due to partiality!)

[Benjamin]

I'm interested in the purpose -- and reach -- of all sorts of tie-in fiction and novelizations. Like, in the old days (i.e., the 80s), you might want to buy a Star Wars novel that retold the movie simply because it was the only way to experience it again. (When I was growing up, we had an 18-minute reel of the highlights of the movie.) Then, of course, there's the expanded universe books: you like Luke and Leia? Let me tell you about the time they tangled with Admiral Thrawn.

And then there's game fiction, which seems to me to occupy a slightly different avenue and purpose. After all, the first wave of tie-in fiction is usually "You like this character -- now you get to spend more time with them." (It scratches the same or really similar itch as fan-fiction, I think.) The second-wave, let's say, is "you enjoy the world -- now you get to see more of it."

So, most of the time, game tie-in fiction isn't going to be the first -- the whole point of games being that you are the. most interesting character, and at least in RPGs, it's hard to find a character that will attract readers. It might be the second -- say, if you like the story of clans fighting with giant mechs, here's a line of Battletech novels for you.

But it also seems to me that one purpose of at least some game fiction is to show you what a story in this game would be like. And that's pretty much exactly what this book does. Heck, in the promo copy for it on their website, Pelgrane Press notes

Read The Missing and the Lost as a thrilling, thought-provoking mystery of a dread-drenched alternate reality.

Or use it as a model for your sessions of The Yellow King Roleplaying Game when you play in its mind-bending Aftermath setting.

Now I have to say, as a model for a story in the Aftermath setting -- where Yellow Sign-backed emperor of America has been dethroned, but deadly monarchists are left behind -- this book really bats a thousand for me: we see a crew of ex-revolutionaries dealing with a political goal, the ragtag current government, the fallout from a corrupt fascist government, and also some deadly magics from Carcosa. If you know the game, you can practically hear the players: "I use coptalk to figure out the situation," "I spend two points on shooting," etc.

And as that, I really enjoyed it. I really liked reading the Yellow King RPG, and Aftermath is probably my favorite setting.

But how does this hold up as a book? Honestly, if you don't know the RPG, I don't know what you would get out of this; and even knowing the book, there were some times when Laws purposely stretches out some actions (a phone is ringing in someone's apartment, we hear that they opened the door, put down their package, etc.) and I couldn't figure out what effect he was intending, but what he goes was a little boredom.

(Also, as much as I enjoyed this as "model for a game," a bunch of stuff happens in it where I had to remind myself, "this is one version of how the story could go, not a canonical statement about what's real in this game.")

[Peter De Kinder · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book is an ok read, but it takes a bit too much time setting things up and clarifying the world that it is placed in, leaving the actual development of the story for the last 50 or so pages. It took a bit too long to get going in my opinion.

[Tom Lawson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good novel of reality horror.

[YogScott · Rating 4 out of 5]

A well written, well paced political thriller with occult aspects set in an alternate today, in the aftermath of an overthrow of the oppressive political order. I'm excited to read the sequel!