Pon Para and the Great Southern Labyrinth Reviews

[h2] Introduction / TLDR [/h2] Pon Para and the Great Southern Labyrinth is a high fantasy, interactive novel written by the author Night Road and The Book of Hungry Names. While Kyle Marquis certainly has grown as an author in-between this work and the later World of Darkness novels, I think this start to an as of yet unfinished trilogy really delivers a substantial and fantastical epic fantasy story. If you do not mind that the book is written in a way that you feel like the player character has rather little drive, and you don't mind a bit of monotony in character interactions I think the setting when it really shines makes this a really enjoyable fantasy novel. It has also been really fun reading this in light of being a fan of the World of Darkness CoG novels, to see similarities and differences in Marquis's writing. [h2] Reading overview [/h2] The Great Southern Labyrinth is a relatively linear and dense read, presenting a pretty vivid and rich fantasy world as the main character and their companions find themselves trying to outrun an invasion. The main sense I get is that it is a very cohesive and well paced story, if a bit dense at times. We're not quite at the levels of pacing excellence where the later WoD works are, but the Great Southern Labyrinth doesn't feel like there are any huge pacing hiccups where you'd be left wondering how you got where you are. ...Apart from maybe the very last parts after the final story climax, which could have really used a bit more substance to let you land emotionally after the Big Cool Action Scenario and digest the story in its entirety. Interaction is pretty linear. Overall story layout is a pretty straight line with some deviations and a pretty fun murder investigation chapter that breaks things up with a hub and subareas that you visit in any order. The prose also makes the narrative feel pretty static as the player character seems to be more of a reactive force than an active agent in the world. Personally I don't mind, I think you could write an excellent interactive novel from the point of view of an entirely inert object that just has different stuff happen to it, but I can see other reviewers have not enjoyed this. (Dang, I'm a generator of excellent free ideas, someone should write that book.) It's been pretty surprising just how different this book has felt from Marquis' World of Darkness works that feel [i]very[/i] player-driven. Mechanically the game also feels a bit imbalanced. I must confess, I'm a filthy cheater that reads the script/code as I read, so I really cannot speak on how it is to play this novel blind to the underlying logic. But when it comes to the different skills that are in the game some are very seldom used while others are really frequently useful. I suspect it can feel pretty darn unsatisfying when you realize after 25 hours of reading that your build is useless. If you go for scholar and diplomacy with some bearing, wisdom and resolve for stats you're golden for a less fighty playthrough, but if you build Boat Guy Pon Para who only does boats and maybe a little archery sometimes you're fucked. The only way you can figure out how bad an idea being that boat guy is, is through intuition or having read the book already. And while I really enjoy a role playing game that lets you run an absolute mess of a build, I am not so sure it's a good fit for an e-book that doesn't let you load saves. Or maybe it is, now I kinda wanna see how far boat guy can sail... [h2] Setting and characters [/h2] I have to confess I have pretty limited experience with epic fantasy novels; last time I read anything in the genre was Pratchett when he was still alive. I do however think this is a pretty exciting and well put together fantasy world that delivers what I would be expecting from an epic fantasy setting. Oh God what am I writing? Not only am I evaluating this by trying to judge how well it lives up to genre expectations, due to inexperience I'm kinda having to guess what that might be. This is horrible reviewing. My main gripe this book is that characters suffer from always speaking in the Epic Fantasy Dialogue Register. One of the highlights of Night Road and The Book of Hungry Names is the diverse and insanely memorable character portrayals Marquis delivers, and that is really something that is missing here. There are some standout characters that feel like personalities who get to almost break free from Speaking Like A Fantasy Guy, but for the most part when people speak in this novel it's feeling somewhat flat and monotonous. Environments and world description however have really kept me interested while reading. The Titular Labyrinth is a great set piece, and Marquis really delivers on the Big Cool Thing as well as many smaller spaces and moments that are really quite memorable. I do wish we would have gotten them described a bit more vividly in how the player character experiences them, but in particular sense of scale is really delivered in a sense that honestly kinda invokes the sublime in the last quarter of this book. Kinda wish I had more to say than "this pleases my libidinal desires", but big good. Big bigly good.