Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes (read for fun)

The supplement that is a treasure trove of lore!  This book has been a fascinating read for me, as a reader of fantasy fiction and also as a Dungeon Master. I have written previously about its value as a lorebook, the inspiration it provides to a Dungeon Master. You can read that in my other post -  The Value of Lorebooks. This post is more of an overview of the book itself. 

As stated, this is a lorebook. It is mostly about lore. Its frame narrative is that the grand mage Mordenkainen has been studying multi-versal conflicts in his pursuit of maintaining what he considers to be an ideal balance of the cosmos. This tome is a collection of his research. So it contains information about the Blood War, the origin of the feud between dwarves and duergar, why the Githyanki and Gizerazi hunt each other, and how the elves split into so many subspecies, with the drow among them. Then there is a chapter about the gnomes and halflings, who are explicitly noted not to have evil counterparts or even any major conflicts in their histories. 

 A bestiary is included after these lore chapters. It contains more monster stat blocks, along with variants on the standard drow/duergar/etc. Reading them was fun because I can think about how they would function in a campaign, not optimizing but rather about roleplay; how would this particular creature act in a story given their stats and abilities? The sections for the demon lords and archdevils was particularly fun, because they are boss-level creatures and have certain scenario considerations that can make them tougher to fight or otherwise deal with. 

Between all this lore and the bestiary, this is mainly a book for Dungeon Masters. There are only a few thing for players, such as rules for playing as some of the races featured, like drow or duergar. It is still a fun book, so I imagine that players would still find it fun to read. 

The artwork continues to impress. The illustrations of the monsters range from magnificent to horrific, and the lore chapters include depictions of certain events, like the original Clan Duergar falling into the mindflayer's trap. Those are scary. The illustration of a happy dwarven family, by contrast, is heartwarming. A few sections even have full, two-page spreads. Those are impressive. 

Trickster Eric Novels gives "Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes" an A+

Click here for my next book review: Spiral - Bonds of Reasoning

Click here for my previous book review: So I'm a Spider , so what? volume 2

Brian Wilkerson is a independent novelist, freelance book reviewer, and writing advice blogger. He studied at the University of Minnesota and came away with bachelor degrees in English Literature and History (Classical Mediterranean Period concentration).

His fantasy series, Journey to Chaos, is currently available on Amazon as an ebook or paperback.

So I'm a Spider , so what? volume 2 (read for fun)

 This is the second volume of the manga adaptation. It depicts Kumoko's continuing struggle to survive in the Great Elroe Labyrinth. At the start of the volume, she has been chased into the Lower Stratum, which features more dangerous monsters than the Middle Stratum, where she started.

The first major event is intense. I don't think I've ever used the phrase "nail bitter" in my of my reviews before, but it is perfectly qualified to describe this event. Who would have thought that a spider hunting stray wasps over ten days could be so suspenseful? It also shows significant character development on Kumoko's part. 

She has learned that web nests can be used for more than insulating herself from the world. They can be offensive weapons as well; attack and defense at the same time shows her growing tactical mind. Indeed, she is becoming quite clever in how she uses her webbing and how she construct her nests. At one point, she camouflages a nest by building it near the ceiling and  sticking small rocks to its underside. 

She also experiments with other skills she gains, such as poison creation, web control and cutting threads. The fantasies she has about these skills are fun to see. One of them is a magical girl spider, and another is trapping thousands of knights in a razor floss trap. 

The final major event of the volume is both good and bad. It is exciting. It is well constructed among the panels to create a flowing sense of battle progression. It showcases all the skills and strategic ability that Kumoko has developed. However, one might question how an army of apes could exist in this one area, and why they are so determined to kill this one little spider. Kumoko herself wonders this, and the battle does not conclude in the volume, so the answer should presumably be answered in the next volume. 

As with the previous volume, this one ends on a cliffhanger, and like the previous volume, this one is still slice-of-life, so the volume could end anywhere and it is might still be a cliffhanger ending. Kumoko's daily struggle to survive is different from an adventurer's mission, after all. 

The artwork continues to be really good. 

The dragon that appears at the start is truly fearsome. No wonder Kumoko thinks "No way. No way" when she sees it. Not only is far bigger and stronger than anything she has seen so far but it is also far beyond anything she could hope to engage in combat. 

There is this enormous open cavern in the latter parts of the volume, and the reader truly gets a sense of how big it is and how small Kumoko feels in comparison to it. The battle that takes place here is dynamic, making use of its height and the stalagmites. 

Trickster Eric Novels gives "So I'm a Spider , so what? volume 2" an A+

Click here for my next book review: Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes

Click here for my previous book review:  So I'm a Spider So What? manga volume 1

Brian Wilkerson is a independent novelist, freelance book reviewer, and writing advice blogger. He studied at the University of Minnesota and came away with bachelor degrees in English Literature and History (Classical Mediterranean Period concentration).

His fantasy series, Journey to Chaos, is currently available on Amazon as an ebook or paperback.

So I'm a Spider So What? manga volume 1 (read for fun)

I heard about this on Tvtropes and so I found it at my local library and  decided to give it a shot. It's premise is what attracted me. It is a Reincarnation Isekai, but it has an intriguing twist to it.

 The protagonist does not reincarnate as a human, or any sort of humanoid. She reincarnates as a spider; a small spider monster that would likely fit into a human's palm with room to spare. This is the story of her struggle to survive in the dungeon that is her birthplace, a natural underground cavern inhabited by many other creatures. Many of them are bigger than her, and all of them so far are carnivorous. 

It is a story that is both funny and serious. Surviving in this dungeon is no joke. The first scene is Komoko's frantic escape from her "siblings", who are killing and eating each other, as well as her "mother", who is also killing and eating her siblings. She almost starves to death because she doesn't know how to hunt as a spider. The moment she resolves to do whatever it takes to survive in her new life is a powerful moment. There is a great deal of emotional build up here. 

The reader is regularly reminded how precarious her situation can be.  Komoko learns quickly that her spider thread is her greatest asset, and so she works best as an ambush hunter. When she attacks head-on or is surprised, she is at a severe disadvantage and has to flee or innovate quickly. What happens to her first major nest is particularly devastating to her because of the unexpected threat. It was devastating to me as well. That was a REALLY powerful moment, vividly expressing the raw emotion of this tragedy. Then the story follows through on this moment, developing the story further. 

I also said it was funny, and it is. Komoko has a fun personality, lively and cute. Kudos for the author for devising her personality and melding it to her situation, and kudos for the artist for expressing this in the manga adaptation. The pose Komko strikes when she tries to use her "heretical magic" or her attempt to gain a dancer title are both funny. Then there are running gags about how Komoko's prey and how gross they taste, and the one about her Appraisal skill. 

This volume ends with a cliffhanger, and I normally don't like that, but in this case I'm willing to give it a pass. This whole volume has been slice of life so there is always more trouble. Indeed, several of the chapters here end in "cliffhangers" so the volume itself was likely to as well. Nothing is left "unresolved".  Not really, since this is about Komoko's daily struggle for survival. 

I like the art. Komoko's spider form is cute and expressive. The other monsters look good as well but more fearsome. The human adventurers look just as threatening as they should to a small spider monster. The dungeon cavern itself is set up and established effectively. One gets a sense of how Komoko can use the cave to her advantage as an ambush hunter, and also a sense of the size of the cavern. This is a large dungeon, filled with things that would happily eat our protagonist if given the chance. 

Trickster Eric Novels gives So I'm a Spider So What? manga volume 1 an A+

Click here for my previous book review:  Enola Holmes and the case of the Missing Marquis

Click here for my next  book review: So I'm a Spider , so what? volume 2 (read for fun)

Brian Wilkerson is a independent novelist, freelance book reviewer, and writing advice blogger. He studied at the University of Minnesota and came away with bachelor degrees in English Literature and History (Classical Mediterranean Period concentration).

His fantasy series, Journey to Chaos, is currently available on Amazon as an ebook or paperback.

Big News! Milestone Reached on the Journey to Chaos (The Highest Power)

 Just last night, I completed the most recent draft for Journey to Chaos book 5 - The Highest Power. This is the second rewrite of the fourth draft. So I am closer to publishing it now, but the journey is still far from over. 

Why do I call this the "second rewrite" of the fourth draft? Wouldn't that be the sixth draft? Normally, that would be the case. The fourth draft is the one that I started after got feedback from beta readers. So I read it, and considered it and incorporated it into revisions. Then I got about 2/3 of the way through the book and the draft collapsed in on itself. 

What I had been writing wasn't working. The plot wasn't working. The events themselves were fine but they were not interlinking with each other. I reached this point and it was like I had stumbled upon the edge of a cliff. There was nothing beyond this point. Fatal Error -  you must restart. So you see, this was the first rewrite of the fourth draft because it was not a valid draft. It was not valid because I couldn't reach the end of it. 

So I started over from the beginning, trying to address the cause of the fatal error. I did a little better, made things more cohesive. However, the problems continued. Instead of a large scale problem, this was a small scale problem. A problem of word craft that affected paragraphs and pages instead of chapters. I figured out the solution after muddling through about six chapters. So I applied that solution to the remaining chapters necessary to reach the ending. 

What I need to do now is take a break from Journey to Chaos book 5 - The Highest Power. I need some distance to get perspective on this new draft. Then I will bring the 6 or so chapters that I mentioned in line with the rest of the story. That will bring the second rewrite of the fourth draft to true completion. Then I will start the fifth draft. 

In the meantime, I will revise an anthology of short stories. These short stories focus on major characters from the Journey to Chaos series. It explores what their lives were like shortly before Eric entered them. There are five stories in total; Annala, Kallen, Basilard, Nolien and Tiza are the focus characters for these stories. I will most likely publish this before The Highest Power because it is so much shorter, and so the turn-around time for drafts and editing etc. is also shorter. 

So The Highest Power will not be published this year. I don't really know when it will be published. I'm hoping it will be published next year. I will keep you posted. 

UPDATE! That thing about "keeping you posted"? You can find it here --> News from my Journey to Chaos! (June 2021)

Brian Wilkerson is a independent novelist, freelance book reviewer, and writing advice blogger. He studied at the University of Minnesota and came away with bachelor degrees in English Literature and History (Classical Mediterranean Period concentration).

His fantasy series, Journey to Chaos, is currently available on Amazon as an ebook or paperback.