Jason Waltz’s Reviews > Appendix N: The Eldritch Roots of Dungeons and Dragons > Status Update

Well here I'd thought I'd read Joiry's adventure "Black God's Kiss" and turns out I never had. Super descriptive & evocative, and Joiry is a pistol of a fun read. I enjoyed the tale, though it is another of those super long in the telling of the buildup but then too short a climax with no or little denouement.

Well I guess one shouldn't sell cordage to gnoles, eh?

My first contact with Kardios...he's quite the card, eh? Or thinks he is. And thinks quite highly of himself. Still a bit uncertain on how to take him, or if I even wish to. Funnish tale though one with much ado about not all that much.

David Madison's "Tower of Darkness" was a blast of adventure. Nice inclusion.

"Where light and life are, night and death were and will be again." David Madison, whose new-to-me tale only half read is more entertaining than HPL's preceding descriptive historical no matter how colorful its telling words.

Elric and I just never rightly cottoned to one another. I mostly enjoy Moorcock's writing style and storytelling, but I'll take Conan and Kane over this fellow every time. This story was epic, its components clicked and whirred, its characters danced and performed well. Elric lived up to his doomed and doom-ladened role.

Howard's "Tower of the Elephant" is, of course, the best tale presented, not only thus far. It's been a slow build to this apex short story, but one can somewhat see the hand and footholds chiseled into the cliff beneath. Here's to more and better thrills yet to come.

Ah, thank Tanith Lee for the spectacle of grand heroic fantasy in "A Hero at the Gates"!

Jack Vance is a writer whose works do little for me. However, I was enthralled with this "Turjan of Miir" and quite intrigued - until turning the final page and finding no ending other than a period following abruptness and followed by nothing. A waste, no return on the time invested.

CAS's "Empire of the Necromancers" is excellently gothic and morbid and purple. While heroic deeds are done, this really is not so much a tale of heroes as it is of survivalists (despite funnily enough not surviving). Neat tale but nothing inspiring or that would suck me into reading further CAS or heroic fantasy.