The New York Review of Science Fiction

The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman, reviewed by Darrell Schweitzer

New York: William Morrow; 2013; $25.99 hc; 181 pages

Have you noticed how inimitable Neil Gaiman seems to be? He is one of the biggest names in publishing now. I have heard it suggested that we have passed from the Age of Stephen King to the Age of Gaiman. But, whereas King rapidly spawned whole shelves of readily recognizable kinglets, and J.K. Rowling certainly inspired the publication of other series books about juvenile wizards, there does not seem to be any actual Neil Gaiman imitator despite the amount of money that could conceivably be made by one. Could it be that his talent is just too diverse, too protean, for the active ingredient to be synthesized in repeatable units of book-product?

Potion, A Play in Three Cocktails, conceived by Kiran Rikhye and Jon Stancato, directed by Jon Stancato, reviewed by Jen Gunnels

featuring Natalie Hegg, Noah Schultz, and Raife Baker; music by Sean Cronin produced by Stolen Chair, People Lounge, New York City, April 2014

Potions. Transformative, magical, sometimes lethal—they always take the drinker from one state or form to another. The potion is a fix-all. Need to live forever—drink this. Need to be beautiful—quaff this. Need invisibility—no problem. But what if you really could go to a tiny, out-of-the-way bar on the Lower East Side and for an hour or so be what you wish, have what you don’t. Would you?

Jargon and the Naming of Things (Editorial, NYRSF 308)

I’ve been thinking a lot about names and jargons of late, and how they shade into each other. Both are powerful tools, names more obviously. I’m thinking here of Brian Stableford’s “The French Origin of the Science Fiction Genre” (NYRSF #283, <www.nyrsf.com/2012/02/the-origins-of-the-science-fiction-genre-by-brian-stableford.html>), where Stableford described a Parisian literary community from the 1880s to the early 1900s that had enormous congruities to the American science fiction community that formed in the 1920s. The French futurist fiction had a fan population, letter column debates, anthologies—but it never cohered, possibly because it never had a label to serve as the fixed center point around which to wrap itself.

NYRSF Issue 308 (April 2014): Table of Contents

• Poul Anderson: Memories from My Golden Age
• Masks of Nyarlathotep by Larry DiTillo and Lynn Willis, reviewed by Lisa Padol
• Kill Shakespeare, conceived and written by Anthony Del Col and Conor McCreery, directed by Jordana Williams, reviewed by Marcy Arlin
• Return to the Forbidden Planet, written by Bob Carlton, directed by John Shearin, reviewed by Dale Knickerbocker
• Brian Stableford: The Prospect of the Future in the Wake of Queen Mab’s Vision
• The Restoration Game by Ken MacLeod, reviewed by D. Douglas Fratz
• Potion, A Play in Three Cocktails, conceived by Kiran Rikhye and Jon Stancato, directed by Jon Stancato, reviewed by Jen Gunnels
• The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman, reviewed by Darrell Schweitzer
• Editorial: Jargon and the Naming of Things
• Photos

Masks of Nyarlathotep by Larry DiTillo and Lynn Willis, reviewed by Lisa Padol

Albany, California: Chaosium, Inc., 1984–2010: in four editions

Masks of Nyarlathotep, the legendary role-playing game campaign (legendary within the Call of Cthulhu gaming community, anyway), celebrated its thirtieth anniversary last year. First published in 1984, the revised third edition won the 1996 Origins Award for Best Role-Playing Adventure. This campaign—a series of linked adventures that are all part of one overarching plot—raised the bar for what an RPG campaign could be. It was and remains important because of this and is still a model for RPG authors and game masters. It is not without flaws, and it is definitely a product of its time; however, it is finely crafted and well researched, given that it needed to be done in one draft without the benefit of the Internet (barefoot and uphill both ways, et cetera). It also demonstrated that one can indeed have an exciting game set not in a purely imaginary world or in a vaguely Tolkienesque magical medieval world but in the “real” world, albeit a world where Lovecraft’s stories are true.