The Joy of Erudition’s Reviews > Beyond the Pool of Stars > Status Update

This book was so much better than the Ravenloft book it's like night and day. Both were RPG-licensed books, but this one was written by a writer.

There's a character named Chilton in this book, and every time he shows up, I get the song "Alex Chilton" by the Replacements in my head.

I'm enjoying the character development and cultural details. Many other books with this many characters make it hard for me to distinguish them, but these characters are all clear and easy to distinguish.

"Still, it was always a pleasure to soak in Kindler’s prose. He’d give a lot to write with such luscious, evocative phrases. Every time he tried, though, it sounded too forced, as though he were a child jumping and waving his arms to get attention."

Knowing Howard Andrew Jones was a fan of Raymond Chandler's writing and had praised his prose, I'm sure this writer-character's esteem of "Kindler" is a sly nod.

Very family-oriented. I like it.