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Trail of Cthulhu RPG
Le Livre des Fourmis: The Book of Ants
From City of Lights to Palaces of Dream
Evocative, enigmatic, and haunted by airborne polyps, The Book of Ants, a.k.a Livre des Fourmis, gives Trail of Cthulhu Keepers and players an essential window into Paris of the 20s and 30s, and into the Dreamlands beyond.
From November 1918 to September 1929, the young poet Henri Salem fell in with the surrealists of Paris. Swept up by the imperious charisma of group leader André Breton, he rapidly found himself sharing cafe tables with the key figures of this most influential and fractious art movement of the pre-war period. According to this, his diary of the era, he traded quips with Marcel Duchamp, feared the madness of Antonin Artaud, and served as model for the famous shot of ants crawling from a hole in a man’s hand in Salvador Dalí and Luis Buñuel’s scandalous film Un Chien Andalou.
If his tale can be fully believed, he stepped with them from waking Paris to an ancient yet surprisingly malleable realm of dream. (Save for Breton, who could never make the leap.) There he walked alongside such Mythos figures as Randolph Carter, King Kuranes and the ghoul once known as Richard Pickman.
As such his diary serves as an indispensable guide to anyone wishing to explore the dangerous demimonde of the Parisian art scene, where disagreements over aesthetics are often settled with knife wounds and broken bones. Even more, it provides a rare look into the ever-shifting shores of the Dreamlands, just as its air of the fantastical gives way to horrific reflections of a world spinning into chaos and death.
SOURCE: http://pelgranepress.com/site/?p=16049
Evocative, enigmatic, and haunted by airborne polyps, The Book of Ants, a.k.a Livre des Fourmis, gives Trail of Cthulhu Keepers and players an essential window into Paris of the 20s and 30s, and into the Dreamlands beyond.
From November 1918 to September 1929, the young poet Henri Salem fell in with the surrealists of Paris. Swept up by the imperious charisma of group leader André Breton, he rapidly found himself sharing cafe tables with the key figures of this most influential and fractious art movement of the pre-war period. According to this, his diary of the era, he traded quips with Marcel Duchamp, feared the madness of Antonin Artaud, and served as model for the famous shot of ants crawling from a hole in a man’s hand in Salvador Dalí and Luis Buñuel’s scandalous film Un Chien Andalou.
If his tale can be fully believed, he stepped with them from waking Paris to an ancient yet surprisingly malleable realm of dream. (Save for Breton, who could never make the leap.) There he walked alongside such Mythos figures as Randolph Carter, King Kuranes and the ghoul once known as Richard Pickman.
As such his diary serves as an indispensable guide to anyone wishing to explore the dangerous demimonde of the Parisian art scene, where disagreements over aesthetics are often settled with knife wounds and broken bones. Even more, it provides a rare look into the ever-shifting shores of the Dreamlands, just as its air of the fantastical gives way to horrific reflections of a world spinning into chaos and death.
SOURCE: http://pelgranepress.com/site/?p=16049
168 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2014
About the author
Robin D. Laws
153 books195 followersWriter and game designer Robin D. Laws brought you such roleplaying games as Ashen Stars, The Esoterrorists, The Dying Earth, Heroquest and Feng Shui. He is the author of seven novels, most recently The Worldwound Gambit from Paizo. For Robin's much-praised works of gaming history and analysis, see Hamlet's Hit Points, Robin's Laws of Game Mastering and 40 Years of Gen Con.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
July 28, 2025
One of my favorite games is the old Surrealist game Exquisite Cadaver. I'm not only a proponent, I'm a teacher of the game. I spread the gospel of Exquisite Cadaver far and wide, whenever I have the opportunity. My primary reason for loving the game is that it breaks my brain and causes me to look at live in a whole new way. It's the cognitive equivalent of cubism - seeing objects (in this case, either grammatical objects, if you are playing the "sentence" version, or illustrative objects, if you're playing the "three part drawing" version). Through what appears to be an aleotory excercise, but is really a channeling of the sublimated unconscious, one discovers new ways of looking at (or reading or writing or drawing) Things. I capitalize "Things" because I think of those creations as entities - self-sufficient, complete entities created by a group of people exercising the collective unconscious in a double-blind experiment. These Things emerge as we take our disjointed thoughts or pieces of thoughts (memes, perhaps?) and force them into a relational structure that causes disparate bits of our processed perceptions to be ordered in a template that we would normally use to create "meaning" - sentences and/or drawings. Through this, we form a new "reality". Or, at least, we form a new perception of reality. And if perception is reality, well, you get the picture.
In The Book of Ants (I will use the English title, because, to be honest, there is very, very little French in the book, even though most of the protagonists are French Surrealists), we are introduced to all the most famous of the surrealist cadre, and quite a few minor, even peripheral players of that artistic/poetic era. The book is told from the viewpoint of one Henri Salem, but don't go researching him, he's not real. At least not in this reality. In the reality of The Book of Ants, however, he is a young poet who develops relationships (and rivalries, and sometimes downright mutual loathing) with Breton, Dali, Bataille, Magrite, and many others you have likely never heard of, who keeps a diary set in two worlds: The world of the Great War and the interwar years of Paris, and the strange "place" underlying the conscious world, The Dreamlands.
As others have pointed out, this book serves as a sort of addendum to an RPG book, The Dreamhounds of Paris (which I shall review at some future point), written for the Trail of Cthulhu gaming system. It is referenced in the rulebook as a possible history from which players and game-masters might leverage for their own game play.
That said, there is nothing game-specific about the book at all. It reads quite well (outside of some annoying typos). The style is sparse, at times elegant, but not "purple," which is a bit surprising when the narrator and many of the characters are French poets and artists and even more surprising when once considers the overly-ornamented prose of H.P. Lovecraft, who brought The Dreamlands into the popular conscience. It helps to know the Cthulhu mythos and The Dreamlands, specifically, but those aren't absolutely necessary to understanding and enjoying the story, in fact, that knowledge isn't necessary at all. There's enough context and explication to allow the reader "in," though some references, such as the names of certain creatures that inhabit The Dreamland, might miss their full impact. In summary, no experience with the game or the subgenre is necessary, though knowing the subgenre is helpful.
I acknowledged the annoying typos. And I've edited and written enough books to know that eliminating all typos from a manuscript is a herculean task and, in many cases, nearly impossible. But the number of typos in the book can throw one out of the "dreamstate" of the book, which is a real shame. One might be luxuriating in the strangeness of it all, only to be suddenly jettisoned back to grammatical reality by obviously missing words (or obviously "extra" words). Can this be forgiven? Sure, but not without losing a star on my rating.
But when it's flowing, this story will capture you, slowly at first, intriguing you through the historical relationships of the surrealists one to another, then accelerating with the discovery that many of those sensitive enough (note: Breton was not) might enter the dreamlands, then, with the discovery that the surrealists could not only enter that place, they could manipulate it, create, and destroy, the pace becomes almost frantic. A new reality is discovered, then it is manipulated, subverted altogether, and disintegrated by those who have crossed over. There is a strong thread of the responsibility of those who colonize and the heinousness of the erasure of another's culture. Some serious ethical questions are asked and the answers to those questions affect not only The Dreamlands, or early-20th-Century Paris, but our own waking reality today. This isn't a book about strangeness and horrific caricatures of monstrosities - it really is about what it means to have influence, and about the consequences of one's actions, intended or not. This takes the work a step further than any other book I've read that was based on a roleplaying game. This isn't a "real play". It's much more than that. It will cause something that roleplaying games rarely do, and which the best gamemasters will engender in their players: introspection.
It's not just a book based on a game. It has, dare I say it? Meaning.
In The Book of Ants (I will use the English title, because, to be honest, there is very, very little French in the book, even though most of the protagonists are French Surrealists), we are introduced to all the most famous of the surrealist cadre, and quite a few minor, even peripheral players of that artistic/poetic era. The book is told from the viewpoint of one Henri Salem, but don't go researching him, he's not real. At least not in this reality. In the reality of The Book of Ants, however, he is a young poet who develops relationships (and rivalries, and sometimes downright mutual loathing) with Breton, Dali, Bataille, Magrite, and many others you have likely never heard of, who keeps a diary set in two worlds: The world of the Great War and the interwar years of Paris, and the strange "place" underlying the conscious world, The Dreamlands.
As others have pointed out, this book serves as a sort of addendum to an RPG book, The Dreamhounds of Paris (which I shall review at some future point), written for the Trail of Cthulhu gaming system. It is referenced in the rulebook as a possible history from which players and game-masters might leverage for their own game play.
That said, there is nothing game-specific about the book at all. It reads quite well (outside of some annoying typos). The style is sparse, at times elegant, but not "purple," which is a bit surprising when the narrator and many of the characters are French poets and artists and even more surprising when once considers the overly-ornamented prose of H.P. Lovecraft, who brought The Dreamlands into the popular conscience. It helps to know the Cthulhu mythos and The Dreamlands, specifically, but those aren't absolutely necessary to understanding and enjoying the story, in fact, that knowledge isn't necessary at all. There's enough context and explication to allow the reader "in," though some references, such as the names of certain creatures that inhabit The Dreamland, might miss their full impact. In summary, no experience with the game or the subgenre is necessary, though knowing the subgenre is helpful.
I acknowledged the annoying typos. And I've edited and written enough books to know that eliminating all typos from a manuscript is a herculean task and, in many cases, nearly impossible. But the number of typos in the book can throw one out of the "dreamstate" of the book, which is a real shame. One might be luxuriating in the strangeness of it all, only to be suddenly jettisoned back to grammatical reality by obviously missing words (or obviously "extra" words). Can this be forgiven? Sure, but not without losing a star on my rating.
But when it's flowing, this story will capture you, slowly at first, intriguing you through the historical relationships of the surrealists one to another, then accelerating with the discovery that many of those sensitive enough (note: Breton was not) might enter the dreamlands, then, with the discovery that the surrealists could not only enter that place, they could manipulate it, create, and destroy, the pace becomes almost frantic. A new reality is discovered, then it is manipulated, subverted altogether, and disintegrated by those who have crossed over. There is a strong thread of the responsibility of those who colonize and the heinousness of the erasure of another's culture. Some serious ethical questions are asked and the answers to those questions affect not only The Dreamlands, or early-20th-Century Paris, but our own waking reality today. This isn't a book about strangeness and horrific caricatures of monstrosities - it really is about what it means to have influence, and about the consequences of one's actions, intended or not. This takes the work a step further than any other book I've read that was based on a roleplaying game. This isn't a "real play". It's much more than that. It will cause something that roleplaying games rarely do, and which the best gamemasters will engender in their players: introspection.
It's not just a book based on a game. It has, dare I say it? Meaning.
March 13, 2015
An incredibly entertaining read, but what is it? There is nothing here specific to a game, just a great story embedded in a fictional diary wedding the Cthulhu mythos with the history of the surrealist movement in Paris. Having had some exposure to Dada, and being a fan of Lovecraft's Dreamlands, I thoroughly enjoyed the intersection of the two.
January 10, 2018
This is a pretty high-concept book. It combines the major personalities of the Surrealist movement in Paris in the 1920s with the Dreamlands from H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos. It's a companion volume to the Trail of Cthulhu sourcebook "Dreamhounds of Paris," which provides background, story hooks, and character sheets for the surrealists in order to play through the same idea.
The book is written in a spare, sharp style. It's in a diary format and reads more like an actual diary than a novel in many places. That is - entries are often short and to the point and the viewpoint character (Henri Salem) does not repeat information that he already knows. I enjoyed seeing the decadent and baroque worlds of the Dreamlands cut to the essential details by this fictional poet, but don't expect Lovecraft's heavy use of adjectives. Henri Salem doesn't find much to be indescribable and is focused on his goals.
Those goals - along with the other surrealists - are to reshape the waking world by using their artistic powers of creation to change the Dreamlands to their liking. This idea of psychic revolution fits perfectly with the stated goals of the historical surrealists. But things don't go entirely to plan, of course.
Overall, I felt that the book assumes a pretty strong level of familiarity with Lovecraft's Dreamlands. If you're not sure what about the differences between a ghoul, a ghast, a gug, and a zoog are, I'd recommend reading a bit more Lovecraft first. But for someone who's not familiar with the surrealists, the book really brings them to life in an engaging way. Most of the figures i the surrealist movement defy belief with their unusual histories and behaviors, and the book gradually introduces you to many of the major players and provides a feel for how they squabbled along the way. I enjoyed that aspect a great deal.
There are a fair number of people to keep track of in the book. If you are reading it as a companion to Dreamhounds of Paris, the publisher (Pelgrane Press) and a fan have helpfully provided a set of character sheets for the most prominent surrealists, available here: http://site.pelgranepress.com/?tag=do... Even if you're not going to run the game, they might be a useful reference for reading.
I had a lot of fun looking up artists online as they were mentioned to see some of their work. I highly recommend keeping a computer handy so that you can (for instance) see exactly what Salem means when he talks about a de Chirico plaza. If this sounds like too much work ... you might not be into this book as much.
I am playing a surrealist character in a Call of Cthulhu game, so this was an enjoyable way to get to know many of the surrealists and their work. If you were thinking of running the Dreamhounds of Paris setting for your players, this would be a useful resource. I don't think it's essential - the main book is quite strong. But it provides many compelling ideas on how reshaping the Dreamlands can go awry, along with a strong sense of the time and place.
For me, the book was an excellent journey through surrealist history and the Dreamlands. I don't want to say anything to spoil the ending, which was my favorite part.
The book is written in a spare, sharp style. It's in a diary format and reads more like an actual diary than a novel in many places. That is - entries are often short and to the point and the viewpoint character (Henri Salem) does not repeat information that he already knows. I enjoyed seeing the decadent and baroque worlds of the Dreamlands cut to the essential details by this fictional poet, but don't expect Lovecraft's heavy use of adjectives. Henri Salem doesn't find much to be indescribable and is focused on his goals.
Those goals - along with the other surrealists - are to reshape the waking world by using their artistic powers of creation to change the Dreamlands to their liking. This idea of psychic revolution fits perfectly with the stated goals of the historical surrealists. But things don't go entirely to plan, of course.
Overall, I felt that the book assumes a pretty strong level of familiarity with Lovecraft's Dreamlands. If you're not sure what about the differences between a ghoul, a ghast, a gug, and a zoog are, I'd recommend reading a bit more Lovecraft first. But for someone who's not familiar with the surrealists, the book really brings them to life in an engaging way. Most of the figures i the surrealist movement defy belief with their unusual histories and behaviors, and the book gradually introduces you to many of the major players and provides a feel for how they squabbled along the way. I enjoyed that aspect a great deal.
There are a fair number of people to keep track of in the book. If you are reading it as a companion to Dreamhounds of Paris, the publisher (Pelgrane Press) and a fan have helpfully provided a set of character sheets for the most prominent surrealists, available here: http://site.pelgranepress.com/?tag=do... Even if you're not going to run the game, they might be a useful reference for reading.
I had a lot of fun looking up artists online as they were mentioned to see some of their work. I highly recommend keeping a computer handy so that you can (for instance) see exactly what Salem means when he talks about a de Chirico plaza. If this sounds like too much work ... you might not be into this book as much.
I am playing a surrealist character in a Call of Cthulhu game, so this was an enjoyable way to get to know many of the surrealists and their work. If you were thinking of running the Dreamhounds of Paris setting for your players, this would be a useful resource. I don't think it's essential - the main book is quite strong. But it provides many compelling ideas on how reshaping the Dreamlands can go awry, along with a strong sense of the time and place.
For me, the book was an excellent journey through surrealist history and the Dreamlands. I don't want to say anything to spoil the ending, which was my favorite part.
March 21, 2017
A secret history of the surrealist art movement, with all its philosophical fistfights and petty social machinations, plus the nightmare realm which the poets and artists accessed via trance and dream. As the artists flex their creative power over the dreamlands, they attract the attention of fell powers there, endangering both the dreaming and waking worlds.
A tour de force of 1920s European art history. This book's every personality and major event is footnoted. If you want to know what Cocteau and Bréton feuded over, how Dalì's art threatened the world, and what happens if you die while dreaming, this book is for you.
The tale is presented as a series of journal entries, and the writing style accurately mimics that of a diarist: short passages with little preamble and no segue. Scenes end abruptly, as the narrator records only the salient points of an event.
However, the account feels a bit directionless at times, as the reader loses a sense of what the protagonist wants or what the central conflict is. There are a lot of characters (of necessity), with continually shifting agenda, alliances and trivial pursuits. Halfway through the book, I started reading again at the beginning, and constructed a dramatis personae list as I went. I have to admit, I was relieved to reach the end.
There are lots of call-outs to the established Lovecraftian mythos, which will delight readers in the know; but this book is by no means a re-hash of tales already told, nor is prior knowledge of the mythos a requirement. It is an entirely original and fascinating (if sometimes confusing) composition. On balance, I recommend it... to patient readers.
A tour de force of 1920s European art history. This book's every personality and major event is footnoted. If you want to know what Cocteau and Bréton feuded over, how Dalì's art threatened the world, and what happens if you die while dreaming, this book is for you.
The tale is presented as a series of journal entries, and the writing style accurately mimics that of a diarist: short passages with little preamble and no segue. Scenes end abruptly, as the narrator records only the salient points of an event.
However, the account feels a bit directionless at times, as the reader loses a sense of what the protagonist wants or what the central conflict is. There are a lot of characters (of necessity), with continually shifting agenda, alliances and trivial pursuits. Halfway through the book, I started reading again at the beginning, and constructed a dramatis personae list as I went. I have to admit, I was relieved to reach the end.
There are lots of call-outs to the established Lovecraftian mythos, which will delight readers in the know; but this book is by no means a re-hash of tales already told, nor is prior knowledge of the mythos a requirement. It is an entirely original and fascinating (if sometimes confusing) composition. On balance, I recommend it... to patient readers.
July 8, 2017
Surrealists and the Dream Lands, what could possibly go wrong? I fully admit that I haven't studied the Surrealists in any depth at all, so without any knowledge about them, except knowing the names and some of the works, I really enjoyed this. I expect that if you were an expert there would be bits you found wrong. But it was really neat to see people go into the Dreamlands and not be instantly horrified by it, but instead kinda in awe, kinda in love and wanting to change it and shape it into their own fantasies. It was neat to see the way they interacted between the real and dream, each inspiring the other in different ways. It made it less spooky but still fascinating. As such the descent into madness seem much less mad and much more magical. I'm really enjoying the fiction that goes along with this RPG series. I really want to run an adventure in this world!
March 6, 2015
A companion to the Trail of Cthulhu sourcebook Dreamhounds of Paris. This book presents itself as the collected journals of Henri Salem, a fictional member of the Surrealist movement who finds himself able to enter the Dreamlands.
The book describes what he sees there and how it changes as he and his fellow surrealists make their impact upon it.
I think it's probably essential for anyone planning to run a Dreamhounds of Paris campaign to first read this book, serving as something akin to an "actual play" type account to describe how such a campaign could go.
It's also an entertaining Cthulhu Mythos story on its own.
The book describes what he sees there and how it changes as he and his fellow surrealists make their impact upon it.
I think it's probably essential for anyone planning to run a Dreamhounds of Paris campaign to first read this book, serving as something akin to an "actual play" type account to describe how such a campaign could go.
It's also an entertaining Cthulhu Mythos story on its own.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews