Yesterday marked the release of the 7th story
coming out of Privateer Press’ Skull Island eXpeditions digital |
| Skull Island eXpeditions |
“Extraordinary
Zoology” by Howard Taylor is the newest novella to join the SIX catalog.
The story revolves around Victor Pendrake and a group of his students
investigating the sudden destruction of a small Cygnaran village on the borders
of the Widowers Wood near Corvis. This is the first of the Skull Island
novellas to present us with non-human protagonists, in the form of Pendrakes
Iosan assistant and their trollkin guide. The story is quick an interesting,
with punchy action sequences and well-developed characters for the length. Not
only do we get some more detail into the workings of non-warcaster magic, but
we also get the chance to see some very interesting new monsters straight out
of the MKI Monsternomicon. In fact, the whole novella reads like a campaign out
of the RPG. If you’re looking for more detail on magic and monsters in the Iron
Kingdoms, or looking for a guide to interesting monster encounters for an IKRPG
campaign, “Extraordinary Zoology” is definitely worth a read. And look out for
the surprise cameo a little over halfway through!
 |
| Skull Island eXpeditions |
“The Butcher of
Khardov” by Dan Wells tells the long-hinted-at origin story of everyone’s
favorite madman, Orsus Zoktavir. Told through a series of flashbacks and time
skips culminating in the infamous hearing before Queen Ann that secured his place
as the watchdog of Khador, the tale gives us the first real look at the Butcher
before he was the Butcher. Though the story constantly shifts from one time
period to another, Wells manages to weave it into a cohesive and entertaining
plot that starkly contrasts Zoktavir against his past and future selves. We see
many of the major events that shaped Zoktavir into the man he is, from the
deadly Tharn raid when he was a child to the first time he realized his
warcaster ability. In the end the novella reads like an in-depth character
study and succeeds (at least for me) in making you actually care about Orsus as
a character instead of an archetype. Check this out if you want to learn what
made Zoktavir become the Butcher and learn some of the ins and outs of lesser
Kayazi gangs.
 |
| Skull Island eXpeditions |
“Dark Convergence”
by Dave Gross is the first and so far only full novel to come out of Skull Island
X and the follow-up to “The Devils Pay”. In it we see the first major battles
fought by the Convergence of Cyriss after their emergence onto the main scene
of the Iron Kingdoms. Starring Aurora and Nemo, this is the first time in the
SIX series’ that we’ve seen two full warcasters clash on the battlefield. The
action is excellent and the characters are well fleshed out, but the novel adds
little to the overall fiction of the Iron Kingdoms and is obviously built to
hype up the release of Convergence. We do get some new backstory on Nemo and
Aurora, most of the story is dedicated to showing off the Convergences new
toys. This isn’t to say the novel is bad, I quite enjoyed it from beginning to
end, but it simply has a different focus than the rest of the novellas released
so far, concerned with action instead of character backstory. It and The Devils Pay are also the only stories so far to take place
during the current timeline, all the others happen anywhere from a year to twenty
years ago. Take a look if you want to see warcasters and armies clashing on the
battlefield, but don’t expect too much new background or plot.
 |
| Skull Island eXpeditions |
“The Way of Caine”
by Miles Holmes takes us back to explore the history of everyone’s favorite Cygnaran rouge, Allistar Caine. Like the “Butcher of Khardov” and “Instruments
of War” the story is primarily focused on Caines rise from adolescents to
adulthood and the growth of his power. The first third or so covers Caines days
as a criminal youth and his recruitment by the now-infamous Magus into the
Arcane Tempest Gun Mages and eventually to the warcaster corps. The second half
covers one particular mission he undertook before the Khadoran invasion of
Llael and shows the unique ways in which the Cygnaran Reconnaissance Service
employs warcasters outside of the head-to-head combat and command positions we
usually see. The tale also explore the warcaster-warjack bond in more detail
than ever before, showing for the first time the procedure and effects of the
mental connection. While Caines backstory is interesting (and I especially
enjoyed the first time he accidently feated), the real meat of the story is his
mission to Llael. With just the right amount of intrigue and action this was
probably my favorite novella so far, and the twist at the end will surprise
those familiar with Llael. If you’re looking to learn more about Caine,
warjacks, or just see some fun James Bond-esc action then I highly recommend “The
Way of Caine”.
 |
| Skull Island eXpeditions |
“Moving Targets”
by C.L. Werner was one of the first three novellas released as a group back in
April to launch Skull Island eXpeditions. It puts us inside the heads of the
Iron Kingdoms poster children Rutger Shaw and Taryn di la Rovissi as they take
on a job to escort a Llaelese noble and escape fallen Llael. This story acts as
an excellent primer for the Iron Kingdoms setting, balancing enough of the
familiar with IK staples like gun mages, mechanika, and warjacks to tickle
newcomers interest without drowning them in in-universe references. A series of
excellent action sequences puts the power of gun mages and mechanika on display
and introduces the reader to gatormen and steamjacks in equal measure. That’s not
to say the story holds no interest for old fans of the Iron Kingdoms; the
nature of the noble’s mission ties closely with the fate of Llael, and Rutger
and Taryn prove excellent protagonists and interesting characters. As with any
of the novellas that touch more of the civilian life than we usually see in the
Warmachine/Hordes anthology books, “Moving Targets” can serve as a solid
reference for IKRPG GMs looking to breathe a little more life into the
non-exploding side of their campaigns.
 |
| Skull Island eXpeditions |
“The Devils Pay”
by Dave Gross follows the famous Devil Dogs as they take on a mission from the
Old Man himself to investigate strange sightings in the Wythmoor forest. Devils
Pay acts as a prologue to “Dark Convergence”, detailing the events leading up
to Nemo’s discovery of the Convergence forces in Cygnar. Of the first three
novellas, Devils Pay is probably the weakest. The biggest problem is the cast;
the Devil Dogs consists of almost two dozen members, and even narrowing it down
to the higher ranking member’s leaves us with a named cast of eight or so in a
relatively short span of time. With only a couple hundred pages it was
difficult to remember many of the characters names and backstories, making any
deaths less impactful than they could have been. Honestly, if there’s any
novella to skip it’s probably this one unless you are a completionist like me
or are a big fan of the Devil Dogs. Dark Convergence is a solid novel that can
stand without the prologue, so if you’re looking to see the Convergence in
action I’d say skip to that.
 |
| Skull Island eXpeditions |
“Instruments of War” by
Larry Correia is so far the only Hordes-focused novella in the Skull Island
lineup. It tells the story of Makeda’s rise to power and succeeds the one place
I was sure it couldn’t: it made me care about Makeda as a character. The Skorne
are an easy faction to hate and have been since the Witchfire Trilogy, but
Correia does an amazing job of humanizing Makeda and making the reader
understand why she does the things she does. We also get to look for the first
time at the culture of the Skorne at home and the complex code of honor they
follow. All this stands alongside the great action scenes and a few moments of
grade A badassadry to make a very fun and compelling story that I
wholeheartedly recommend to anyone. If you’re a Skorne player this is pretty
much required reading, but anyone interested in life outside of the Iron
Kingdoms should definitely take a look.
So that’s that, my thoughts on all the Skull Island books so
far. Not mentioned in the reviews themselves is that each of the novellas
include three pieces of artwork to accompany certain scenes. Some of these are
fantastic (the final scene of “The Devils Pay” is my favorite; I’m still
bugging them about selling it as a poster) while others fall a bit flat (“Moving
Targets” had the weakest artwork in my opinion) but they all do a nice job of
breaking up the text and giving a nice view of the look and feel of the Iron
Kingdoms and beyond.
It’s great to see Privateer finally taking fan demand to
heart with these stories. With the decline of print media and the ease of
digital distribution it’s become easier and easier for anyone to put their
stories out there and the monthly format is perfect for covering the huge world
PP has built over the last decade (to be fair, I’d love one every week but I
know full well that’s unreasonable). I can’t wait to see what kinds of stories
they’ve given us a year from now.
No comments:
Post a Comment