Series: Dark Matter (Novels Wizards of the Coast) | Publication Date: July 1, 2001
The Dark-Matter books are set in a world of paranormal conspiratorial horror. Fans of horror will find these books edgy, unique, and engaging, and the series design emphasizes the contemporary nature of the books.
Escorting a mystic computer hacker to the Hoffman Institute plunges Jeane, Fitz, and Ngan into a desperate life-or-death struggle to recover the legendary, long-lost Holy Grail.
The game designer Monte Cook started working professionally in the game industry in 1988. In the employ of Iron Crown Enterprises, he worked with the Rolemaster and Champions games as an editor, developer, and designer. In 1994, Monte came to TSR, Inc., as a game designer and wrote for the Planescape and core D&D lines. When that company was purchased by Wizards of the Coast, he moved to the Seattle area and eventually became a senior game designer. At Wizards, he wrote the 3rd Edition Dungeon Master's Guide and served as codesigner of the new edition of the Dungeons & Dragons game. In 2001, he left Wizards to start his own design studio, Malhavoc Press, with his wife Sue. Although in his career he has worked on over 100 game titles, some of his other credits include Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil, The Book of Eldritch Might series, the d20 Call of Cthulhu Roleplaying Game, The Book of Vile Darkness, Monte Cook's Arcana Evolved, Ptolus, Monte Cook's World of Darkness, and Dungeonaday.com. He was a longtime author of the Dungeoncraft column in Dungeon Magazine. In recent years, Monte has been recognized many times by game fans in the ENnies Awards, the Pen & Paper fan awards, the Nigel D. Findley Memorial Award, the Origins Awards, and more.
The author A graduate of the 1999 Clarion West writer's workshop, Monte has published two novels, The Glass Prison and Of Aged Angels. Also, he has published the short stories "Born in Secrets" (in the magazine Amazing Stories), "The Rose Window" (in the anthology Realms of Mystery), and "A Narrowed Gaze" (in the anthology Realms of the Arcane). His stories have appeared in the Malhavoc Press anthologies Children of the Rune and The Dragons' Return, and his comic book writing can be found in the Ptolus: City by the Spire series from DBPro/Marvel. His fantasy fiction series, "Saga of the Blade," appeared in Game Trade Magazine from 2005-2006.
The geek In his spare time, Monte runs games, plays with his dog, watches DVDs, builds vast dioramas out of LEGO building bricks, paints miniatures, and reads a lot of comics.
This review is from: Of Aged Angels (Mass Market Paperback)
Of Aged Angels is an intelligent, faced-paced read with some great action sequences and a treasure trove of fascinating fringe phenomenon to ruminate on. If you like UFOs, conspiracy theories, the Knights Templar, and whisperings of occult goings-on, then this book is for you. Cook delivers a taut novel of suspense around a fascinating premise, the return of mysterious beings to our world and a deadly struggle for power. With brilliant hackers, men in black, beings with mysterious technology, cryptid creatures and excellent writing, this book has it all.
You can tell Cook has put a lot of work into maintaining accuracy in this book. The conspiracy theories, UFOs, and other fascinating fringe theory he uses in this book are all carefully researched. I read another book of his on the subject, "The Skeptic's Guide To Conspiracies," and it was a great read, chock-full of information on men in black and other theories highlighted in Of Aged Angels.
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This review is from: Of Aged Angels (Mass Market Paperback)
This was the last book published in the series. There's a book 5 floating around the internet somewhere - it was only available as a download from the Wizards of the Coast.
That's understandable as this book is only average. The character development was sub-par, the action was bland, and the plot was only average. I really had higher hops for this since Monte Cook helped write the Dark Matter setting. I see where he was trying to tie together some ultraterrestrials with the Hoffman Institute and run some action from Roslyn Chapel to Rennes le Chateau to Oak Island. Somehow, though, it didn't come together too well.
Nonetheless, I think this would make a great Dark Matter scenario if your Game Master is so inclined to work it out.
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