Reviews and Comments

I read Beastmaster back in Junior High and loved it, I believe this is the first time I've read Lord of Thunder.

Both books are excellent science fiction adventures. Andre Norton is a master of old school world building, only providing enough information to make the plot work, and no more. Sometimes this can be a bit frustrating, as I want to know more about the universe the stories are set in, but it can also be a bit refreshing compared to the info-dump style of world-building that I've become more accustomed to with modern speculative fiction.

One complaint is the lack of female characters. These books were written as "juvenile" sci fi, which at the time meant tween and teen boys, a genre nearly devoid of female characters, aside from the occasional brief romantic interest, usually in the form of a prize the hero can earn.

These books are, sadly, no different despite being written by a woman. The first book has a minor love interest, and the second has literally no female characters at all. The only mention of women in the second book is a brief reminder that the protagonist is actually married (although we never see his wife, or even hear about what she is up to), and one scene where we are told that there are native alien women present to show the reader that an entire tribe is on the move, and not just the warriors.

Flint Dille was involved in some of the hottest of geek properties in the 80s, and this is his biography from those years. The main geek properties he had some connection to were GI Joe, Dungeons & Dragons, and The Transformers.

The narrative tends to jump around a bit throughout the book. While things move generally forwards in time, there’s a lot of bouncing back and forth that sometimes makes it difficult to know in just what order things happened.

I’m also not sure just how reliable a narrator the author is. He admits more than once to totally forgetting things that fans brought up as he was writing the book. He also claims that he tends to forget the bad stuff, and just remember the good stuff.

There’s also some problematic content, specifically concerning Kasey Kasem and his leaving the Transformers over a racist stereotype of an Arab man. The author implies that there was no intentional racism, but has this to say: “we didn’t know, nor honestly care, that Abdul was an Arab name and not a Libyan name.” It’s one thing to not realize you’re being racist, and it’s another thing entirely to not care that you’re being racist.

Even before this section, which is in the latter part of the book, I’d been struggling to work my way through. I just can’t recommend it.

Having already read multiple histories of TSR and Dungeons & Dragons, I wasn’t sure this book would really be worth reading, but it was!

The first couple of chapters weren’t anything new, but after that things got really interesting. The history of TSR West that made the “comic modules” that showed up briefly on bookstore shelves. The unearthing of the contract between TSR and Random House that helps illuminate what went wrong at TSR in the 90s. The driving away of creative talent. Details of the purchase of TSR by Wizard’s of the Coast. All of these topics had new details or anecdotes that I had not seen previously.

I particularly liked the author’s efforts to provide both sides of the story where things get contentious. Particularly when it came to stories involving Lorraine Williams, who would not grant an interview to the author; and Brian Thomsen, who is no longer alive to grant one. Both come under harsh criticism from others, and the author does a good job of trying to give them some defense while not taking sides.

He also gives multiple accounts of incidents where memories differ.

Overall, a well written history that was a joy to read, and a nice addition to my gaming history shelf.