VURT YOUR ENTHUSIASM (10)
By:
August 4, 2024
One in a series of 25 enthusiastic posts, contributed by 25 HILOBROW friends and regulars, on the topic of science fiction novels and comics from the Eighties (1984–1993, in our periodization schema). Series edited by Josh Glenn.
THE RIDDLING REAVER | PAUL MASON & STEVE WILLIAMS | 1986
The blizzard of find-your-own-fate novels that hit ’80s Britain was dominated by (more lime- than) slime-green paperbacks. The Fighting Fantasy series, by Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone, evoked a post-Tolkien realm. The world of Titan, similarly populated by elves, dwarves, whatnot, was also seething with a depthless menagerie of equally compelling and vivid bogies. There existed a fantasy version of Japan, complete with Tengu, ghosts and Oni. What differentiated the series vastly from its competitors (and perhaps even Tolkien, at times) was not only its unbridled depth, but its sense of the absurd. By 1986, the franchise was so successful that creative risks could be taken. The Riddling Reaver is less of a serial block and more of a spin-off. Not a find-you-own-fate book at all, but a cohesive story in four-acts designed to be read by a Game Master, who would then translate the book into a role-playing game. Now, one would expect the run-of-the-mill post-Dungeons and Dragons fare that saturated the market at the time – but The Riddling Reaver was something else entirely.
Edited by Steve Jackson and written by Paul Mason and Steve Williams, The Riddling Reaver departs into a realm of wicked nonsense and ’80s pop surrealism. Reading it, the stylistic differentiation is enhanced by the writing style, which is set up to be user-friendly. The episodes contained within the book’s four acts read like bizarre dream diaries, open for re-interpretation. It is a book that simply could not have occurred in the pedestrian gaming spheres of America, which were all sticklers for the rules and systems that came out of Gary Gygax’s empire of multi-faceted dice. Indeed, the Reaver seems to flount systemisation — encouraging a maverick, almost punk (within the medium) approach to re-interpretation.
Fine for me, because although I enjoy the aesthetic, I have zero patience for dice or gaming systems of any kind. I’m here for the concept. And, in this aspect, The Riddling Reaver is rich. There is a Terry Gilliam-esque sense of the bizarre and cockamamie that is inherently British. The Reaver himself was no doubt modelled on the ’80s era Joker from Batman – transposed into a fantasy setting, decked out like an insane sultan. In thrall to the Trickster gods and living out his games of chance on some nightmare-nonsense island in the tropics of Allanasia (or thereabouts). His realm echoes his jester absurdity. A vision box aboard a strange galleon called The Twice-Shy, presenting different realities, where one may encounter a giant mouse more fearsome than a dinosaur. A jungle shrine made up of living internal organs. Nefarious obsessions with taxidermy. Living skeletons encased in translucent jelly. The Riddling Reaver himself, in countless disguises. Bathhouse intrigue. Invisible bridges. Upside-down waterfalls. Leprechauns surrounded by gigantic butterflies, feasting on scuttling, miniature dinosaurs. Powdered creatures (just add water). Etcetera, etcetera.
The fact that the book is not linear in any way, shape, or form only adds to the ‘Monty Python on mescaline’ insanity of it.
VURT YOUR ENTHUSIASM: INTRODUCTION by Josh Glenn | Mark Kingwell on SNOW CRASH | Mandy Keifetz on THE GENOCIDAL HEALER | Matthew De Abaitua on SWAMP THING | Carlo Rotella on THE PLAYER OF GAMES | Lynn Peril on GEEK LOVE | Stephanie Burt on THE CARPATHIANS | Josh Glenn on DAL TOKYO | Deb Chachra on THE HYPERION CANTOS | Adam McGovern on KID ETERNITY | Nikhil Singh on THE RIDDLING REAVER | Judith Zissman on RANDOM ACTS OF SENSELESS VIOLENCE | Ramona Lyons on PARABLE OF THE SOWER | Jessamyn West on the MARS TRILOGY | Flourish Klink on DOOMSDAY BOOK | Matthew Battles on THE INTEGRAL TREES | Tom Nealon on CLAY’S ARK | Sara Ryan on SARAH CANARY | Gordon Dahlquist on CONSIDER PHLEBAS | Alex Brook Lynn on VURT | Miranda Mellis on STARS IN MY POCKET LIKE GRAINS OF SAND | Nicholas Rombes on RADIO FREE ALBEMUTH | Adelina Vaca on NEUROMANCER | Marc Weidenbaum on AMERICAN FLAGG! | Peggy Nelson on VIRTUAL LIGHT | Michael Grasso on WILD PALMS.
JACK KIRBY PANELS | CAPTAIN KIRK SCENES | OLD-SCHOOL HIP HOP | TYPEFACES | NEW WAVE | SQUADS | PUNK | NEO-NOIR MOVIES | COMICS | SCI-FI MOVIES | SIDEKICKS | CARTOONS | TV DEATHS | COUNTRY | PROTO-PUNK | METAL | & more enthusiasms!