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Everygnome's Review on Dreaming About Other Worlds!

9/23/2013

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Thank you, Aaron, for taking the time to share a bit of my wacky world!

As you alluded to in the final comments on world-building, the EA'AE book series are guides one might happen upon within the larger multiverse created in the Chronicles of the Fists trilogy...  fantasy books giving farcical advice for professions that don't exist (even if we may want for them to... or not).


Short review: A humorous book giving farcical tips on how to be a better  gnomish paratechnologist and avoid blowing yourself up. Or blow yourself up with  style.

Haiku
An essential guide
To paratechnology
A bit  silly too

Disclosure: I received this book as a review copy. Some  people think this may bias a reviewer so I am making sure to put this  information up front. I don't think it biases my
reviews, but I'll let others be  the judge of that.

Full review:
Everygnome's Guide to  Paratechnology is an incredibly silly book.  This isn't a pejorative  statement. Featuring discussions about how not to blow yourself up while  experimenting, how to select what incredibly esoteric branch of inquiry to  follow, including the development of hovering tool boxes, lintless shirts,  anti-plaque dental force fields, and polymorphic,
polychromatic, self-applying  tattoos, as well as tips on proper beard and mustache care, Everygnome's  Guide to Paratechnology is clearly meant to be a completely, gloriously,  unreservedly silly book. And this book hits directly on the funny bone,  resulting in an always absurd and frequently hilarious work.

The book is  very similar in subject matter, tone, and format to Bailey's other book Mulogo's Treatise on Wizardry, consisting of a series of short, pithy  pieces of advice for gnomish paratechnologists, who might best be described as  diminutive mad scientists with access to magic, on topics ranging from "Making  the Perfect Laboratory" to "Shiny Is Better" to the
"Proper Disposition of  Minions". Each mini-chapter is one or two pages long and written in a staccato  style with short, punchy sentences laying out snippets of somewhat misguided  advice, complete with frequent footnotes that serve to make the twisted advice  even more twisted, and funnier.

Everygnome's Guide to Paratechnology is somewhat longer than Mulogo's Guide to Wizardry,  and that is somewhat unfortunate because that means that the jokes wear thin  before the end of the volume. There are only so many ways one can warn the  reader against lab mishaps and give advice concerning odd beard grooming habits  and devices before what were once funny lines become just a little repetitive.  The book also suffers somewhat because the fictional author "Spreesprocket  Goldulley" is not nearly as well drawn as the cowardly and somewhat duplicitous  wizard Mulogo. Further, there is no equivalent to the character of Mulogo's  assistant Ludaceous, whose somewhat contentious relationship with the  egotistical Mulogo drove a large chunk of the humor found in the footnotes of  the book. Without these two personalities to focus on, the book feels  directionless at times.

Even so, this is a delightfully  absurd book  filled with piles of hilariously insane suggestions and comically obsessive  interest in bizarre and probably completely impractical inventions.
The final  section of the book turns slightly away from this humorous tone and provides a  glossary that outlines what appears to be an interesting fantasy setting,  suitable for use as the backdrop for some interesting fantasy novels or for use  in a role-playing campaign, making the book more interesting than it would have  been if it were just a collection of farcical advice.

The final product  is a book that aims to be funny that is, in fact, consistently funny that also  packages some interesting world-building on the side. Excepting the minor caveat  that the book runs just a little bit longer than the jokes stay fresh, this is a  delightfully silly and enjoyable look into the comical side of a fantasy  world.
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    Joe Bailey

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