From rec.arts.sf-lovers Mon Jan 7 09:47:25 1991 Path: herkules.sssab.se!isy!liuida!sunic!mcsun!uunet!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!att!pacbell.com!ames!vsi1!zorch!xanthian From: xanthian@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG (Kent Paul Dolan) Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf-lovers Subject: Review: _Another Day, Another Dungeon_ Keywords: Sendup, Fantasy, AD&D Message-ID: <1991Jan6.061911.12333@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG> Date: 6 Jan 91 06:19:11 GMT Organization: SF-Bay Public-Access Unix Lines: 63 Another Day, Another Dungeon Book One of Cups and Sorcery by Greg Costikyan A Book Review by Kent Paul Dolan (This review is a public domain document.) Pricilla "Sidney" ("Call me 'Sid'!") Stollit has a cash flow problem in the breaking-and-entering business. She also has a problem with her ex-SO and still partner Nick Pratchitt, who's most likely to be found under some tavern girl's skirts, to Sid's vocal disgust. Timaes d'Asperge, newly graduated fire mage with a little control difficulty, is looking for a trade that will help him work off a pot gut and retain the respect of his professors while dodging the draft. Father Geoffrey Thwaite, priest of Dion, the god of drunkards, has been a little too zealous about practicing his religion, and is most likely to be found at dawn's rosy light basking in a nice warm gutter. Kraki Konarsson, barbarian swordsman and predestined Hero, is in a bit of a tiff with the tavern keeper about his bar bill, and is wrecking the place. Garni ben Grimi, exiled former dwarven prince, is three months behind on his rent and the landlady wants him out, out, out! Fate, necessity, and a campaign arranger (like a marriage broker, but for bigger groups) throws this bunch of misfits together into what is supposed to be a simple dungeon crawl, but ends up involving high magic and the fate of nations, in a novel that work on many levels. It is a send up of the D&D genre, a broad farce, a sustaining comedy, an adventure story, a treasure trove of rationalizations for D&D abilities and creatures, a tale of magic, a war novel, and more, and it all works as a seamless mesh. There are perhaps half a dozen real belly laughs throughout the book, but a high level of amusement holds throughout. The characters are anything but cardboard: they have motives, and motives behind the motives, and self doubts, and behavioral quirks, and yet each is an archtype of the D&D genre as well. Lessons we learn reading this story: 1) a good civil servant stays bought, again and again; 2) it's hard to cram a dozen warring armies into a downstairs flat guarded by an angry, umbrella weilding landlady; 3) some simple spells don't work at all well in a small room, if you happen to be in the room too; 4) even a perch on a basilisk's back isn't all that safe when the enemy starts turning to stone; 5) it's no use saving for your golden years if you're a fire mage; 6) even a cyclops swordsman likes marmelade with his tea and crumpets, 7) not every harmless senile bum in the street is a two millenium old liar, 8) once a backstabbing orc, always a backstabbing orc, and 9) rising from the manure pile to bed a baroness can be bad for your health even if you are a grand duke with a mushroom fixation. Lots of fun if you're looking for a light read. Recommended. I'm looking forward to the sequel, especially after the "Shameless Cliff Hanger Ending". Kent, the man from xanth. From rec.arts.sf-reviews Sun Oct 27 14:59:09 1991 Path: herkules.sssab.se!isy!liuida!sunic!seunet!mcsun!uunet!spool.mu.edu!uwm.edu!linac!att!pacbell.com!pacbell!pbhyc!djdaneh From: wex@pws.ma30.bull.com (Alan Wexelblat) Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf-reviews Subject: REVIEW: Another Day, Another Dungeon by Greg Costikiyan Message-ID: <6894@pbhyc.PacBell.COM> Date: 24 Oct 91 19:33:25 GMT Sender: djdaneh@PacBell.COM Lines: 51 Approved: djdaneh@pbhyc.pacbell.com Another Day, Another Dungeon by Greg Costikyan Review Copyright (c) 1991 Alan Wexelblat Greg Costikyan is one of the premiere game designers on the planet. For many years, his designs for historical, modern, and fantasy games kept SPI afloat. He also wrote a good number of modules for simulation and role-playing games of all varieties. Now he has turned his hand to writing a novel, and the result is one of the best pieces of humor I've seen in a while. Trying to describe the plot of "Another Day" is kind of beside the point, but here goes: A mage, Timaeus, seeking a quick buck assembles a group of adventurers to raid the Caverns of Cytorax. In the group are a pair of thieves who are constantly bickering, a dwarf who insists on carrying the entire world in his backpack, a dumb but strong barbarian and a drunk cleric. Now at this point, you can be having one of two reactions. If you're saying to yourself something like "Oh, ghod, that sounds like too many adventures I've seen," then you're on the right track. This book is for you. If you're saying "What's funny about that?" then you probably haven't played enough D&D or similar role-playing games to appreciate what's going on. You all are excused now. For those of us who recognize the stereotypes, though, Costikyan rewards us by both cleverly filling them out and by piling on one silly misadventure after another. Along the way, there are jokes only we RPG weirdos are going to find funny. Like when the fire-mage detonates a fireball in a too-small room, causing an incredible backwash and frying most of his own party. Or like when the dwarf, among his many other supplies, carries an eleven-foot pole. Why? "Because there are some things I wouldn't touch with a ten-foot pole." The entire book is full of in-jokes and good puns, but rather than let this get in the way (as some humor writers tend to do), Costikyan keeps the plot moving along at a satisfying pace. The characters remain true to their stereotypes, but they also have a life and an interest to the reader beyond their use as the butt of humor. The cover says that this is "Book one of Cups and Sorcery" but don't let that put you off. The immediate action is satisfactorily resolved in this volume while leaving openings for future volumes. %A Greg Costikyan %T Another Day, Another Dungeon %I TOR Fantasy %G ISBN 0-812-50140-3 %O $3.95 %D 1990