Review of 'Tales of the Lost Isles' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
I really wanted to like this more than I did. None of the stories in this anthology are bad, but none of them really stand out either. While Joseph McCullough has created a fun game with Frostgrave, and an interesting setting for it, I never felt like the authors shared the same mental image of what that setting is, only the broad brush strokes of it.
And sadly I felt the scenario based on one of the stories picked the least interesting of the stories, though it is a dramatic location for a scenario.
I think this book might have been better off by allowing fewer authors to tell longer stories. Trying to introduce half a dozen plus characters, antagonists, challenges, a twist, and resolution in each story, and get it done in under 30 pages. It certainly would have allowed for more fleshing out of both the characters and …
I really wanted to like this more than I did. None of the stories in this anthology are bad, but none of them really stand out either. While Joseph McCullough has created a fun game with Frostgrave, and an interesting setting for it, I never felt like the authors shared the same mental image of what that setting is, only the broad brush strokes of it.
And sadly I felt the scenario based on one of the stories picked the least interesting of the stories, though it is a dramatic location for a scenario.
I think this book might have been better off by allowing fewer authors to tell longer stories. Trying to introduce half a dozen plus characters, antagonists, challenges, a twist, and resolution in each story, and get it done in under 30 pages. It certainly would have allowed for more fleshing out of both the characters and the setting.
On the other hand, it did get me writing to see if I could manage to accomplish the same thing in the same amount of space.