Delta Green: The Rules of Engagement (Call of Cthulhu Mythos fiction) [Paperback]

John Tynes (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 14, 2000

Delta Green: The Rules of Engagement is the first Delta Green novel, following the release of the short story collection Delta Green: Alien Intelligence. Delta Green weaves the comic terrors of the Cthulhu Mythos seamlessly with the paranoia and shadowy forces of conspiracy theory, updating the stories of jazz era horror writer H. P. Lovecraft to the modern day.

Editorial Reviews

Review

In his new (and first, I believe) novel Delta Green: The Rules of Engagement, John Tynes grabs the Delta Green conspiracy like a rabid dog and gives it a few vicious, neck-snapping shakes. . . . If you're a fan of the Mythos fiction of H.P. Lovecraft and his followers, or if you enjoy action-packed spy novels, then the answer is "probably" (worth your money); if you're already a Delta Green devotee, then the answer is "hoo baby!" --it's stealth technology, slipping a payload of fin-de-siecle angst and Mythos horror right past your radar and dropping it smack into your cerebrum. --this is Mythos fiction 90's style, HPL meets John Woo....Delta Green: The Rules of Engagement is a fast, gripping read, easily as worthy of taking to the beach as anything from Stephen King or Tom Clancy. -- Chris Womack on 08/27/99 for RPG.net

From the Back Cover

Born of the federal government's 1928 raid on the degenerate coastal town of Innsmouth, Massachusetts, the covert agency known as Delta Green spent four decades opposing the forces of darkness with honor, but without glory. Stripped of sanction after a disastrous 1969 operation in Cambodia, Delta Green's leaders made a secret pact: to continue their work without authority, without support, and without fear. Delta Green agents slip through the system, manipulating the federal bureaucracy while pushing the darkness back for another day- but often at a shattering personal cost.

When an agent vanishes, leaving behind a lifetime of mystery and igniting a future of peril, a Delta Green Team is pulled into a vortex of horror and deception, destiny and betrayal. From the Smokey Mountains of eastern Tennessee to the snow covered beltway of Washington, from the depths of Fort Leavenworth prison to the sunny tropics of Puerto Rico, from the sky over China to the jungles of Cambodia, we are there, following a scarlet skein of tangled causality through time and space that threatens to ignite a war between Delta Green and its bitterest enemy. The dancers at the soul of time are calling across the gulf of infinity. Won't you join the dance?

Product Details

• Paperback: 229 pages
• Publisher: Tynes Cowan Corp (February 14, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1887797165
• ISBN-13: 978-1887797160
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.4 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,905,850 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Superior mythos fiction, June 6, 2005

By 

Matthew T. Carpenter (Peoria, IL, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Delta Green: The Rules of Engagement (Call of Cthulhu Mythos fiction) (Paperback)

I just finished this novel yesterday. It was a rollicking good read. Before I had found it I didn't know anything about Delta Green, as my RPG days are way behind me. Now I am finding a whole sub genre of modern technothriller mythos action horror. So far I have been blown away by Stross' story A Colder War, Goodfellow's novel Radiant Dawn and now Tynes' The Rules Of Engagement. And it's not even the subject matter that's so good, it's the terrific writing that makes these such
fun. In all of them, the prose crackles particularly the dialogue, the plot whips along and the characters have depth and believability. And I also like the way in ROE that they don't specifically mention any monsters by name. I don't think there was an 'Ia' in the whole book. When Tynes describes the horrific encounter in the jungles of Cambodia as a flashback, the terror felt by the survivor is palpable.

Verdict: rave review!

Oh yes, there is one disturbing and unnecessary reference to a
character named Matthew Carpenter who gets gunned down. But other than that...

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great book!, March 28, 2000

By 

Martin Andersson (Ugglarp, Sweden) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Delta Green: The Rules of Engagement (Call of Cthulhu Mythos fiction) (Paperback)

I was very impressed with this book, which is a great mix of spy thriller and Cthulhu Mythos horror. It's got an intriguing plot; memorable characters with depth and personality; a lot of detail (especially on technological stuff and the jargon of the intelligence community); and it is well-written and easy to read. The Cthulhu Mythos is an important element, but it is handled with wonderful subtlety and seldom appears center-stage. There's absolutely no name-dropping of the kind that mars so many Cthulhu stories; all references to the Mythos are made without using revealing terms like "ghouls" or "Deep Ones".

The book's greatest strength is that it is an *extremely* useful source of inspiration if you're a Keeper of the Delta Green campaign for the RPG *Call of Cthulhu*. Want to know how DG agents cover up an operation? Read this book. Want to know exactly how relations are between DG and ... er, the competition? Read this book. Want to know what DG's leaders' idea of a thorough debriefing is? Read this ... well, you get the picture. If you're a DG Keeper, you should already own this book.

Curiously enough, this is also the book's only weakness, in my opinion. There are several instances when someone familiar with the DG sourcebook will see more in the text than the casual reader will. For example, when certain characters known from the DG sourcebook appear, the initiated reader will have a pretty good idea of what is going on, whereas other readers might miss it. But that's just me. If you liked the earlier Delta Green anthology, *Delta Green: Alien Intelligence*, there's a good chance you'll like this one too.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good book; great source of inspiration, May 11, 2000

By 

Neal Kaplan (California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Delta Green: The Rules of Engagement (Call of Cthulhu Mythos fiction) (Paperback)

I vastly enjoyed this book. I have to agree that knowledge of Delta Green adds a lot to the book, as characters from other Delta Green books make appearances. That said, if you run Delta Green games you really should read this. If I could run a game that was half as exciting and well- paced as this book, I'd be a very happy Game Master, indeed.