Category: Reviews

The Odyssey of Gilthanas: A Review

The Odyssey of Gilthanas is an older Dragonlance novel. My book was a gift from a friend and now cannot recall the occasion for it. Written by Douglas Niles, Steve Miller, and Stan, the Odyssey of Gilthanas attempts to please both readers and game fans of the setting by combining a collection of stories and a large appendix with gaming information.

The Odyssey is about Prince Gilthanas Kanan, brother to Laurana and Porthios of Qualinost. Based on the main character of the story, I was hesitant to read the book. Here was a character I barely recalled reading about in the Chronicles. All that I could remember of Gilthanas was the beef he had with Tanis over Laurana. I had forgotten his involvement with Silvara, Icewall, and the Draconians. The Legend of Huma changed that. After reading about Huma’s Sacrifice, I needed a fix. I looked at my stack of unread novels and the Odyssey was on top. “What the hell,” I thought; I would try it regardless of what I had read in reviews. I was hooked after the first page.

The Odyssey is a “What is Eating Gilthanas?” type tale. A story of a bizarre life, the opening pages set the tone for me. Here was a noble elf, stripped of everything, his freedom, and his possessions but not broken. When Gilthanas began to recount his tale, he drew me into his story. The author(s) did their job here by pulling back the layers of Gilthanas life and taking the reader to a moment that was both interesting and a great starting point: Prison, again, but by elves. Very cool indeed.

The story unfolds with Gilthanas a prisoner of Konnal, Military Governor of Silvanesti. Before long, he escapes his captors, rescued by griffons. This is a start of an epic journey for Gilthanas, one that will take him from one of Ansalon to another. Along the way, the reader encounters numerous creatures, beings, and places, both mundane and exotic.

In places like Ruined Purstal, Gilthanas befriends the cockroaches of Dragonlance, Gully Dwarves and leaves gifted with more than filth, actual treasures.

From there, Gilthanas struggles with his soul and mind as he tries to reconcile duty and love. These two forces tear at our elven prince and it is not until he reaches a place of firm beauty and fairy tale weather that he makes up his mind to chase after his True Heart: Silvara, The Silver Dragon. It is here that the tone of the story changes from a simple mans’ story to one of an epic journey that encompasses all emotions. Love and hate.

The book fails on some parts for me though. While I liked the Appendix, it could have used stats for all the characters Gilthanas encounters throughout his Odyssey. Peak of Clouds was another issue for me. Here was a place supposedly steeped in magical energies and yet we get nothing. Only fluff. Do the magical energies provide bonuses; enhance spells of certain schools or what?

As for the novel side of things, I disliked the Linsha story. It was not very interesting and still to this day I have problems with a clandestine Solamnic knight. Perhaps my feelings are coloring my perspective on this story.

Over all the authors did an amazing job relating to the reader what Gilthanas is going through and what he was up to until his appearance in Dragons of New Age. While the book has its faults, it does not deserve the stigma it has received. I give it a 4 out of 5.

Cover of Gilthanas
Cover of The Odyssey of Gilthanas

Blame!: A Review of Tsutomu Nihei Cyberpunk Masterpiece

Blame! by Tsutomu Nihei, first hitting the scene 20 years ago is getting a lot of attention these days with a new Master edition release from Vertical comics and a Netflix movie.

Image of Blame Cover
Cover of Blame Vol 1

On the surface Blame! appears to be your stock-level dystopian, cyberpunk action-adventure, complete with hero that goes by the name Killy and his sidekick, Chiba. Looking closer though, you can see this is a story about a man and woman trying to overcome the oppression of the culture they were born into. Nihei chronicles this journey though beautiful illustrations of architecture and mechanical scenery, swaddled in transhumanism horror.

Killy, a Cyberpunk version of Blondie from The Good, Bad and The Ugly, fits as an avatar of what a Japanese male finds himself facing after college. In the real world it’s called shuukatsu, which is the hellish job-hunting process of newly minted college graduates. Instead of a job, Killy is hunting for something called the Net Terminal Gene. If he, and later Chiba when she joins him, can find it then they will have found a way to succeed in The City.

The City is an endless megastructure, separated by seemingly impenetrable barriers with leviathan sized levels in-between. One could argue this is Nihei’s way to illustrate the monolithic culture of Japanese corporations. To overcome these barriers, Killy uses the Graviton Beam Emitter, a crazy powerful gun about the size of a pistol. Think the Noisy Cricket from the MIB movies.

The Graviton Beam Emitter may even be an incarnation of Nihei’s talent for art. Like his creator, Killy uses this to climb or ascend to the next step in the endless ladder that is the City. Along the way the hero encounters obstacles to impede his quest. These take the form of everything from regular humans to horrific technorganic beings that may or may not be transhumans. These so-called “Silicon Life” bear the name Safeguards and operate in the same manner as real-world Japanese corporate bureaucrats. Like the bureaucrats, the Safeguards try to keep Killy in his place. However, he dispatches these creatures with his gun just as easily as he does with the barriers. Most of the time, anyway.

If there is a weakness to Blame! it is Nihei’s vague explanations of what is going on. There should be some sign posts, clearer info dumps when the pair get to a new level. There are little to no hints to what is going on except a mute badass blowing holes in roofs so he can climb upwards. At least that seems to be the case for most of the first volume of the series. Towards the end, things began to clear up a bit.

Nihei makes it all work – warts and all- though with his achingly detailed and surreal art. His architecture background shows through in the way he designs structures. The Silicone Life are Giger-esque and would fit in with a sci-fi Lovecraftian tale. Again, he doesn’t do as well with dialogue but his body language designs shore that up. Besides, Killy does a superb job of blowing things up in amazing fashion so no big loss. Chiba does this equally well but uses cyberspace and hacking in place of a gun.

Blame! hits all the right notes for a Cyberpunk/Transhumanism action story and if that is your jam, then you can’t go wrong by picking this up. If not, you still can’t beat it what with the gorgeous art and design. It’s a worthy addition to the likes of Blade Runner, Ghost in the Shell and Neuromancer.