Tuesday, August 13, 2013

Sorcery 2: Khare: Cityport of Traps

Sorcery 2: Khare: Cityport of TrapsSorcery 2: Khare: Cityport of Traps by Steve Jackson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

1984, I think it was, when I picked this book up at a store called "The Book Professor" in Papillion, NE. Truth be told, Mom bought it for me as a consolation for JC Penny not having the Star Wars jersey I wanted in stock. If you haven't figured it out yet, I was a bit of a nerd. But I was a nerd going into regression. The metalhead/punk was, instead, coming out. So this book, being an easily-hideable nerd manual, was perfect. Part solo role playing module (think Tunnels & Trolls), part choose-your-own-adventure book (though much better than it's more famous cousins), the sorcery books were two-fists-full-of-six-sided-dice worth of awesome! Now, it was good that I had fairly low self-esteem at that time, too, since the narration could get a little condescending, at times. If you did something dumb, the book let you know it. But, hey, I lived through it, even if my character didn't, and I'm stronger for it. One important caveat: This Steve Jackson (of Games Workshop) is not the same as the Steve Jackson of Steve Jackson Games (Gurps, Car Wars, Ogre, etc). I just want you to know so that you don't make the same mistake I made while talking to the American Steve Jackson: Me: "Hey, I really liked your Sorcery books. Are you going to do any more of those?" Mr. Jackson (if you're nasty): "Huh?"

I failed my saving throw for putting my foot in my mouth on that one. Temporary loss of dexterity, permanent loss of charisma . . . believe me, you don't want it to happen to you. Thankfully, I've had my share of limited wishes to undo the damage.

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2 comments:

  1. I'm older than you so I missed that one but Dad always handed down his best sci-fi and fantasy books. The foot in the mouth thing? I'm with you.
    have a marvelous day Forrest.

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    1. I know how that works! I was fed on a steady diet of "last month's" Asimov's and Analog as a kid. My dad was even more thrilled than I was when I had a story published in Asimov's!

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