War-Gamers' World

Magira #1

by Hugh Walker

Minor crease in cover. Sticker residue on cover.

Genres: Fantasy, Pulp, Science Fiction

160 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published November 7, 1975

About the author

Hugh Walker is the pen name of Hubert Straßl, an Austrian Science Fiction and Fantasy author.

For the British scholar, see Hugh Walker.

Reviews

[Charles · Rating 4 out of 5]

Magira is a sword and sorcery game world created in Europe. Hugh Walker wrote this novel based on that world, bu tsend a human player into the living game for the story. Although I didn't think I'd like this idea because I thought the concept kind of weak, I really enjoyed this book, and the two sequels even more.

[A. · Rating 1 out of 5]

Giant. Pile. Of. Barbarian. Suck.

[Scott Nieradka · Rating 1 out of 5]

Just what i wanted to read a craptastic episodic barbarian novel based around the authors and his friends table top wargame. Ugh.

[Jay · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not sure if it is the translation or the original text, but there's a lot of exposition that could be shown instead. Still, it's a nice idea and I plan to see what happens in the next two books that (hopefully) complete the series.

[Todd · Rating 1 out of 5]

Back in the day I got suckered in with the subtle Tolkien references, the wargamer references, and the implied D&D-style references.

Gah. Frankly, this book was damned-near unreadable garbage, I'm sorry to say.

[Tony · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is a fast read and a rare glimpse into Armageddon, a German fantasy wargame campaign that predates Dungeons & Dragons. It was written by one of the game's creators, unlike Andre Norton's D&D-based novel Quag Keep.

Aspects of the game show up in the novel, such as the six compass directions (to match the six directions one can move on a game board of hexagonal spaces). The book's introduction includes a map and game description, both of which are expanded on in later novels in the series.

However, the story is amateurish and suffers from a lackluster translation. The world is well developed, but is little more than vanilla fantasy. I can only recommend it to gamers interested in the Armageddon game (a.k.a. Magira, Midgard, Midgard II, and other variations).