William W. Connors

They're all gone now.

Newfoundland was settled by boat. It was fed by the cod and seals caught by its boats. People traveled between towns by boat. Without its boats, there would have been no Newfoundland -- at least not as we know it now. So when Newfoundland became an organized dominion, one of the tasks the government undertook was to set up a regular service of coastal steamers to get people from place to place. (This was in conjunction with the Newfoundland Railroad, which was one of the show more most improbable projects in the history of government boondoggles, but that's a story for another book.)

The boats became part of Newfoundland folklore, and even the language, as when people counted time by "Bruces" -- that is, the cycle of the transport steamer Bruce, one of the first of the coastal boats. But, eventually, the coastal boats (and the railroad) were abandoned; people used automobiles instead -- uglier, more polluting, and not much faster, given the nature of Newfoundland's highways. But since when has that stopped people from driving?

This is one attempt to memorialize the coastal boats. It contains pictures of many of them, with brief excerpts of their history, usually from newspapers.

If you just want the photos, this book is terrific. The photos are well-chosen and generally well-printed, and there are more of them than I have seen in any other book. The text... urf. It's short, of course, and it's mostly taken from contemporary newspaper accounts, which often were printed before all the facts came in. It's not really enough context to understand the stories of the coastal boats. For that, you need something like Maura Hanrahan's The Alphabet Fleet.

And not every ship is included. Where, for instance, is the famous Florizel? The Stephano?

These aren't quibbles. There are a lot of things not included in this book. The material in the book is worth five stars. But it's not all that should be included. I'd say the book has about 70% of the material it needs to have to be reasonably complete. So... three and a half stars. But, again, it's better than that for the material that it covers. show less

Being as Ravenloft is based on Victorian era gothic fiction the creation of this spinoff series seems like a forgone conclusion, why not bring the horror home to roost? It is a very good campagin package except for a few bruises and sore thumbs here and there. Some of the backstory is a bit shoddily written, and occasionally hackneyed. I don’t know about you but when I come across references to Merlin or Atlantis in a game book my mind kind of shuts down and I skim past it. If you can weed show more out the clichés you have a fine enjoyable game on your hands. I love the artwork, much of which is based on Victorian clip art. It’s different, but that’s not always a bad thing. show less

Ah, the heady days of 2nd Edition. This is an update of the various "Boxed" editions of the Ravenloft Campaign Setting, with a lot of extras thrown in. There's all sorts of essays and articles on the setting and many updates of the metaplot so I guess it's worth getting. TSR loves to sell you the same thing many many times and this is a prime example. Some of the artwork is a little hokey, but hey it's a game book for crying out loud and there's enough Stephen Fabian stuff to keep you happy.

There are some pretty good stories here, riffs off of gothic fiction novels like Phantom of the Opera and a ripping good pirate yarn. My biggest complaint is the misleading cover which has a sort of Aztec motif and is not reflected in the stories presented therein.