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Ghoul Island
Five would-be heroes set out to protect the Hazel’s Folly on its voyage to the fabled Farzeen, but a storm of otherworldly power scuttles any hope of an easy job. Now stranded in paradise, they find that not all is as it seems, and old grudges left to simmer begin to boil over.
Darkness and rot bubbles up toward the surface, and madness looms over the island in the form of an ancient evil thought long extinct. And beneath it all, a beating, fiery heart whose course will not be denied.
A novelization of “Ghoul Island,” a Cthulthu Mythos Saga, now available from Petersen Games, creators of “Sandy Petersen’s Cthulhu Mythos” for 5e and Pathfinder!
Darkness and rot bubbles up toward the surface, and madness looms over the island in the form of an ancient evil thought long extinct. And beneath it all, a beating, fiery heart whose course will not be denied.
A novelization of “Ghoul Island,” a Cthulthu Mythos Saga, now available from Petersen Games, creators of “Sandy Petersen’s Cthulhu Mythos” for 5e and Pathfinder!
- GenresCthulhu MythosFantasy
272 pages, Kindle Edition
First published May 14, 2020
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22 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
December 31, 2023
It's quite transparently a novelization of some role-playing property, with all the flaws that concept suggests. Instead of parting out the source material, the author throws it all at the reader, even if the sheer quantity can't be squeezed into one novel. This leaves a lot of connective material on the floor as the story races through set pieces and boss battles. They're _impressive_ set pieces, but the impressiveness was lost on this reader in the onslaught of information: where did these Deep Ones come in? Why are we fighting nightgaunts now? And now in the Dreamlands? The overall effect is the name-dropping of references.
One of the protagonists is definitely nonbinary and also suggested to be neurovariant in some capacity, and this is such an unusual inclusion in the genre that this reader's mind kept picking at it as though the fact would become significant plotwise (spoiler: it isn't) and at the occasional misuse of pronouns. Much of the pronoun use reflects the character currently occupying the point of view--what gender does Torrin the stereotypical bard project onto Mandragora?--and this itself is an interesting reveal of the character doing the projection.
The apparently platonic love between Mandragora and Rogath felt like it cried out for explanation, yet in hindsight the lack of it is worthy of respect. The author conveyed the connection and affection without digressing into unnecessary backstory.
The halfling and her transformation, on the other hand...that I want some background on.
One of the protagonists is definitely nonbinary and also suggested to be neurovariant in some capacity, and this is such an unusual inclusion in the genre that this reader's mind kept picking at it as though the fact would become significant plotwise (spoiler: it isn't) and at the occasional misuse of pronouns. Much of the pronoun use reflects the character currently occupying the point of view--what gender does Torrin the stereotypical bard project onto Mandragora?--and this itself is an interesting reveal of the character doing the projection.
The apparently platonic love between Mandragora and Rogath felt like it cried out for explanation, yet in hindsight the lack of it is worthy of respect. The author conveyed the connection and affection without digressing into unnecessary backstory.
The halfling and her transformation, on the other hand...that I want some background on.
July 29, 2020
So, this is a bit of a weird book.
It is a full-length novelization that word for word follows a rather niche product, Ghoul Island Act 1: Voyage to Farzeen, a D&D adventure, or "module" in the parlance; the first act of the first RPG campaign for Sandy Petersen's Cthulhu Mythos for Fifth Edition (abbreviated "SPCM", itself a niche product, merging D&D with Cthulhu!). It is only offered as an ebook, as far as I know mainly as an add-on to the Ghoul Island kickstarter campaign - though it's also available as a Kindle book from Amazon. That's what I call a niche-in-niche product, although since it's offered as a standalone book it might garner some reads from those entirely unfamiliar with the RPG product it's based on.
And when I say "based on" and "word for word" the latter is far more indicative. I have the first Act of the module, which very closely corresponds to "Volume 1" (Chapter 1-7) in this book. NPC text given in the module is lifted directly to dialogue in the book in this part. If you think the book has a lot of weird, seemingly unnecessary scenes (like the encounter with Porphos Yogash, which somehow has moved to chapter 16) that's because it's an encounter in a room in the adventure. I have no idea if this word-for-word correspondence continues throughout, though I'd assume it does.
So, to my subjective opinion of the book as a "book experience". I do generally like the main characters - the PC party as it would be in the module. The genderlessness of Mandragora, the fact that Torrin internally genders Mandragora, the "romance" between Mandra and Rogath and of course the indomitable murderhobo Setha are all fantastic elements. I found the idea that the narrative vision cleaves so extremely close to the D&D very interesting. I've never read anything like this before! It's pretty clear when the party levels up, gaining new spells etc, and to a degree you can even guess some technical details like class progression. Using technical elements of a roleplaying game as fundament for dramatic progression is pretty cool! The encounter with the "perfect image of Ghatanatoa", the Dreamlands sequence and the very ending were really nice. However, unfortunately, most of the time it's rote, dull and boring. I literally kept yawning myself through maybe 75% of this book. I'm happy I'm finally done with it so I can move on to more entertaining stuff.
One more thing I must add - for me, this book is mainly an addition to the RPG module. And when viewed solely as that, it's actually a bit handy for me as a Dungeon Master. It gave me a complete and detailed overview of the entire campaign arc, and apparently very very closely matched to how it would be run by most groups. That's nice. However, I don't think the campaign itself is interesting enough to run. But that, as they say, is a story for another review.
It is a full-length novelization that word for word follows a rather niche product, Ghoul Island Act 1: Voyage to Farzeen, a D&D adventure, or "module" in the parlance; the first act of the first RPG campaign for Sandy Petersen's Cthulhu Mythos for Fifth Edition (abbreviated "SPCM", itself a niche product, merging D&D with Cthulhu!). It is only offered as an ebook, as far as I know mainly as an add-on to the Ghoul Island kickstarter campaign - though it's also available as a Kindle book from Amazon. That's what I call a niche-in-niche product, although since it's offered as a standalone book it might garner some reads from those entirely unfamiliar with the RPG product it's based on.
And when I say "based on" and "word for word" the latter is far more indicative. I have the first Act of the module, which very closely corresponds to "Volume 1" (Chapter 1-7) in this book. NPC text given in the module is lifted directly to dialogue in the book in this part. If you think the book has a lot of weird, seemingly unnecessary scenes (like the encounter with Porphos Yogash, which somehow has moved to chapter 16) that's because it's an encounter in a room in the adventure. I have no idea if this word-for-word correspondence continues throughout, though I'd assume it does.
So, to my subjective opinion of the book as a "book experience". I do generally like the main characters - the PC party as it would be in the module. The genderlessness of Mandragora, the fact that Torrin internally genders Mandragora, the "romance" between Mandra and Rogath and of course the indomitable murderhobo Setha are all fantastic elements. I found the idea that the narrative vision cleaves so extremely close to the D&D very interesting. I've never read anything like this before! It's pretty clear when the party levels up, gaining new spells etc, and to a degree you can even guess some technical details like class progression. Using technical elements of a roleplaying game as fundament for dramatic progression is pretty cool! The encounter with the "perfect image of Ghatanatoa", the Dreamlands sequence and the very ending were really nice. However, unfortunately, most of the time it's rote, dull and boring. I literally kept yawning myself through maybe 75% of this book. I'm happy I'm finally done with it so I can move on to more entertaining stuff.
One more thing I must add - for me, this book is mainly an addition to the RPG module. And when viewed solely as that, it's actually a bit handy for me as a Dungeon Master. It gave me a complete and detailed overview of the entire campaign arc, and apparently very very closely matched to how it would be run by most groups. That's nice. However, I don't think the campaign itself is interesting enough to run. But that, as they say, is a story for another review.
August 7, 2020
3.5 stars.
While Im enjoying reading the adventure path this us based on, the novelization itself left me surprisingly lukewarm.
Maybe it's because it took away some of the excitement I have over seeing what kinds of characters my players intend to create for this campaign...
Maybe I should have read the novel AFTER running the campaign.
Not sure if this is an objective rating, but I'll generous and give a 3.5 for this.
While Im enjoying reading the adventure path this us based on, the novelization itself left me surprisingly lukewarm.
Maybe it's because it took away some of the excitement I have over seeing what kinds of characters my players intend to create for this campaign...
Maybe I should have read the novel AFTER running the campaign.
Not sure if this is an objective rating, but I'll generous and give a 3.5 for this.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews