A few years ago, a quirky illustrated book entitled A Practical Guide to Monsters was published, authored by a now-missing wizard named Zendric. Within this tome the description of a number of shapeshifters, goblinoids, and aberrations could be found, explaining their weaknesses, strengths, and general lifestyle.
Now this Practical Guide is being used as the source material for a young adult novel, Monster Slayers, a fantasy adventure about two teenage boys and an elf girl questing to save friends and family from a band of gnolls. But be prepared – in a world infused with magic, things are often not what they seem!
Chimera's are awesome! =D
Monster Slayers is told from the perspective of Evin, a boy who has been training with his older brother in the ways of thievery – picking pockets, finding and disabling security measures, and picking locks – as well as some fancy dagger throwing. He’s managed to talk his buddy Jorick (a hot-headed youth whose fighting talent thankfully makes up for his lack of imagination) into running away and going on an adventure with him. But as the two return home to make plans to flee, adventure finds them; a band of dog-men (gnolls) burn their village down and capture all the people within. Evin grabs a short sword and daggers, Jorick recovers the family broadsword he was supposed to inherit, and the friends begin their quest.
Gnolls are pretty cool, too!
For players of Dungeons & Dragons, you’ll recognize all of the monsters utilized. I was a little disappointed by a certain magical process detailed in the story; granted, the details of the process are scant in the current edition of D&D, but the original idea (found in a very old Dragon magazine) was much cooler. Also, I’ll have to look in my 4th edition Monster Manual to check, but I’m pretty sure a fire breath weapon just incinerates people, not causing the low-budget movie explosion effect (ground explodes, causing the affected people to dive to the ground with a yelp). And despite being described as a rogue, Evin doesn’t seem to do any sneak attacking. But again, Monster Slayers is meant for younger readers, so I guess some punches need to be pulled. It’s not to say the book is bloodless – the boys do get to use their blades, which was a pleasant surprise.
Bonus points for anyone who knows what this obscure beastie is called!
As much as I’d like to avoid talking about superficial things, I must point out the physical dimensions of Monster Slayers. The first thing anyone is going to notice about this book is the beautiful cover illustration by Jesper Ejsing, featuring a chimera and one of the main characters. I like the fact it’s about paperback-sized, but still hardcover. It may be a subjective thing, but this book just looks and feels nice. The author, Lukas Ritter, does a nice job of describing monsters and magic. The monsters all act and look just like they’re supposed to, while that magic is both very free-form, but not to the point where the spellcasters are doing things they shouldn’t be able to do.
I had fun with this book. It reminded me of reading as a child, blown away by all the cool creatures and action in the book that you just can’t get in a visual medium. The connections to the Dungeons & Dragons game is subtle – there are no ads in the back of the book telling kids to go out and buy a Player’s Handbook, Starter Kit, or Essential guide, a move I appreciate. The novel does work best if you’ve got a copy of the Practical Guide to Monsters though, so readers can flip to the pages the characters are on, another quirky touch I enjoyed.
If you know a kid who likes fantasy, Monster Slayers is a pretty good choice. And if you’re a big kid who would like to see what a D&D world would look like from a different perspective than an adult adventurer, it works pretty well in that regard too.
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