Customer Reviews

PARANOIA Y1 Traitor Hangout

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

MOST IMPORTANTLY if you can do not read the little paragraph giving the plot overview, it gives away the ending to the book, which would have been a lot better for me if I hadn't already read the punch line. Also its a sequel to a short story in "PARANOIA A1 The Computer is Your Friend" or the short story is a prequel. I don't know.

Note: This book follows IntSec more than Troubleshooters. In fact troubleshooters are only mentioned a few times and never shown. Story has two protagonists and a mouse.

For the Non-RPG fan, you will find this to be an entertaining book about mistaken identity and discovery of mistaken identity and then being branded with a new secret identity. Faster read than I expected, and while I didn't get lost I did feel as though there was too much detail. Has a few satisfying twists, but if your a fan of this comedic style you might see them coming.

For the RPG Fan, this book is probably good for a read, though it is not the best franchise novel I read, it is definitely not the worst. It follows the RPG setting pretty well. Has the best examples of conflicting factions and how to tell who is who in a faction.

For those that read Reality Optional, to compare this to Reality Optional is a dis-service. The authors have different views on how Alpha Complex is structured and slightly different senses of humor. What Reality Optional did with conspiracies though, Traitors Hangout does it with Secret Societies.

For the GM looking for some inspiration, this book could help with portraying the Secret Societies, but I would not use it myself as a source material.

If Traitor Hangout were made into a film, Rowan Atkinson would play the protagonist - a Mr Bean type character (Johnny English at least knew what he was trying to do) bumbling out of the frying pan, into the fire, then into the nuclear reactor core, without ever realising the danger he was in and somehow surviving it all. Traitor Hangout even alludes to this extraordinary level of ignorance and luck in a way that appears to be the book poking fun at itself.

Whilst the series aims to revive the style of Philip K. Dick, the series' authors admit this particular piece is furthest from that goal, as more of a Wodehousian offering. Having read the works of neither author, this reviewer will have to settle for likening it to the Red Dwarf novels, albeit lacking the grossly over-proportioned tangents in which they successfully revelled. To clarify, the text is mostly action and dialogue - far more so than the earlier Red Dwarf novels - almost entirely devoid of emotion, visual description, imagery or back-story. Whilst the absence of each of these could be explained and in many ways makes sense given the setting, it results in a far less colourful, engaging piece. Yet somehow Traitor Hangout remains compelling and generally maintains a good pace.

Part way through Traitor Hangout one may become concerned that the novel will try to regurgitate all the major concepts and mainstays of the PARANOIA setting, and in doing so do none of them justice. Thankfully it does not. In fact, there are some very key concepts of the original role playing game that are not even hinted at in Traitor Hangout. Cloning, for example, which alone could easily spawn myriad different sci-fi plots, has been completely disregarded. This is much to the author's credit as it raises the stakes significantly, be it for newcomers or PARANOIA veterans alike.

The book lacks polish in various ways: one to two dozen mistakes ranging from the occasional misspelled word to dialogue that appears to be missing several lines; a lack of distinct voice for most characters - a shame, given that where characters have been given unique voices they have been implemented very well; and above all a general sense that with a stricter publisher the author would have been forced to draw deeper and could have achieved so much more.

Unlike most stories where one generally assumes everything will eventually work out well for the protagonist, anyone with experience of PARANOIA will expect quite the opposite. This gives Traitor Hangout a genuine sense of not knowing how things will turn out, which the book maintains right up until the climax.

Note that Traitor Hangout should not be judged on its first chapter, which does not accurately reflect the style of the rest of the book; give it two chapters. Bizarrely, the first chapter is more entertaining yet simultaneously less compelling.

In summary, if you seek a gritty, emotive, engaging read you should look elsewhere - hopefully to the other books in the series. If you are looking for something humorous, light-hearted and over-the-top, Traitor Hangout should be of interest.

This was wonderful! I highly recommend it. A little crazy but I really enjoyed it. I would tell everyone to buy, buy, buy!!

The grim world of the Alpha Complex is back; as this time Clarence-Y risks every thing he cares about to get the job done. His new pet mouse Ignatius may be his only chance to live to see the next day-cycle. With a lot of luck he just may. The grim setting that the Alpha Complex, and Friend Computer make only serve to keep you in suspense when the next citizen will die. The dark humor is simply soaking this book, and I could not love it more.

There are three suggested ways to run a Paranoia game: Cartoon mayhem (where plausibility is thrown out the window), darkly humorous slapstick (funny yet making a surreal kind of sense), and disturbingly serious (1984 with uncomfortable laughs). This book clearly went for a mixture of the second and third versions; most all the material involving the main character stumbling his way blindly from treason to treason is rather goofy, but some of the things the supporting characters do really aren't funny at all. An early scene of psychological and physical torture of a known innocent took my laughter away and it never quite returned.

I can certainly recommend parts of this book. We get plenty of detail about the crazed tangle of life in the post-apocalyptic city, and watching Clarence-Y vainly try to enforce Alpha Complex mandates while completing his 'secret missions' was great fun. I'd like to see more of his adventures, even if I'd prefer a lighter touch on the nasty bits. Folks who don't mind a little horror mixed into their comedy will probably enjoy the whole thing. And I hope that some day I will learn more about his mouse!