Off Duty Gamer: Introduction and the First Review

Pyr Books

Welcome to the first installment of Off Duty Gamer, my weekly segment on the culture surrounding the hobbies the rest of the DtD crew talks about. In this segment I'll take a look at all sorts of things that I feel fall within the "nerd/geek" realm, like book and game reviews, science, and cultural topics. For this first week I'm going to talk about the first novel to come out of Privateer Press' partnership with Pyr books, The Fall of Llael Book 1: In Thunder Forged.

In Thunder Forged: A book review

Privateer Press/Pyr Books

This month marked a monumental occasion for lovers of the Iron Kingdoms setting; the release of the first print novel published by Pyr books and written by Ari Marmell in partnership with Privateer Press. While Skull Island eXpeditions has put out a total of four novellas and a novel in the last few months (all of which I quite enjoyed), this is the first novel to be released in print form, which brings a different sort of legitimacy to it; this is a book that random people may see on the shelf at a store and pick up having never heard of Warmachine, which is the sort of people who may not pick up the SIX books. (To be fair, I don’t know the numbers on Kindle users that may see the SIX books show up vs the number of people buying books at a book store these days, so I’m making assumptions).

Now, let’s get started.

They say you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, but we all do anyway so I’ll start there. The book has some interesting dimensions; it’s quite a bit taller than most paperbacks on my shelf and a bit wider (8.9x6 inches according to Amazon), which does a great job of showing of the fantastic cover art. I think the choices for the focus of the art were really well done; showcasing the warjacks, gunmages, and galvanic tech that are unique to the setting is a great way to grab the attention of non-players (because who doesn't love robots). The back cover has a short blurb about Warmachine and the Iron Kingdoms along with the standard plot teaser (I’m sure there’s a word for that but I don’t remember what it is).

Opening the book up we get a nice little map of the Iron Kingdoms which appears to have been taking from the MKI rule book. While it’s a great thing to have in the book, I think it may be worth the time for Privateer to make a new map with the novels in mind; the significant scale-down from the rulebook leaves the map really cluttered and a bit hard to read, to the point where I couldn't really distinguish things like borders and rivers. In the back we have a 1-2 page overview of each of the nations of the Iron Kingdoms plus a breakdown of the Morrowan calendar. The story itself clocks in at 278 pages, which is a bit on the short side (for comparison, the Dresden Files books are in the 320-380 range). Hopefully they just kept it short for the early books and we’ll see more in later releases.

Now to the meat of the matter. The book quickly introduces us to our three main character groups; a spy in the Cygnaran Reconnaissance Service (CRS), Katherine Laddermore, and a Cygnaran Unorthodox Engagement team. Each of the characters are given their own introductory action scene, all of which are quick and punchy and give a nice taste of things to come. I was very happy that Laddermore was not the only main character, as it meant there was actually tension throughout the book over the fates of the rest of the main cast.

Overall the book was very good. The pacing and action scenes were very well done, with enough down time to give us a great view from the ground of the war that players have only seen from high above. The characters are well written and each manages to have their own unique voice, though I would have loved to get to see more of them. The plot keeps you interested and moves along, with just enough spacing between the different characters to give everyone their time in the spotlight without making you forget about the others.

Privateer Press

Ari also does a very nice job building the characters of the light warjacks that work with the UE team. Each has a distinct personality and really acts like a seperate living entity rather than a mindless machine. One of the most exciting parts of the IK setting for me is the warjacks and their interactions with people, but until recently we had seen very little of warjacks working outside the direct control of a warcaster, and even less of them doing anything besides combat. With the SIX and Pyr books we've gotten to start seeing a lot more of these unique machines and so far I've been very happy with the way they've been portrayed.

There were, however, a couple points that bothered me. One is the obvious fact that any player will know Laddermore is never in any real danger. This is actually handled pretty well, but still takes a bit of the tension away from her action scenes. The minor twist near the halfway point is also going to leave players with an overall idea of how part of the plot will end, but given this is a book about the invasion of Llael that’s pretty much expected. My only other gripe was that over the course of the book secondary characters kept talking about escaping to Cygnar by way of Rhul, which is on the opposite side of Llael from Cygnar. Given that there’s a map in the book this seems a bit sloppy (unless I’m missing something, in which case I’ll correct myself) since it won’t be just fluffbunnies like me who notice but anyone who looked at the map. It doesn’t have a huge impact on anything but it is annoying.

So overall I really enjoyed the book and would quickly recommend it to any of my friends, players or not. It’s quick and fun with some absolutely fantastic action scenes and good dialogue. The decision to make two-thirds of the main cast characters that don’t exist in the game (unlike SIX, which so far has entirely been from the point of view of existing characters) was a very good one in my opinion and should be done as often as possible.

On a side note, I love the idea of the Unorthodox Engagement team; a bunch of soldiers given extra training so that when the need arises they can do the missions the regular army can’t. For those who play the Iron Kingdoms RPG I wrote up a set of Adventuring Company rules for playing a UE team on the forums. Almost as soon as I posted it, Seacat chimed in to say that UE Teams will have their own rules in the second Iron Kingdoms RPG book, so that's awesome.