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Customer Reviews of Book of Dark Wisdom

Quality Dark Fiction 'Zine
I found the magazine at a local bookstore and decided to pick it up. I was immediately engaged by the Lovecraftian slant that the stories were focused on. However, as I have read the magazine over a number of issues, it is expanding to encompass the fuzzy area called dark fiction. In their efforts, William Jones and his staff are doing an excellent job. They have well-known and up and coming authors featured, and the magazine has a reasonable amount of advertising, indicating that there are other businesses that recognize the quality of the magazine. <
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>The magazine also features regular nonfiction articles. They are as follows: <
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>WRITER AT LARGE - A combination memoir and article about writing, Lupoff has been the one writing the ones I have seen. I have found them engaging and able to take away useful information from the articles. <
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>STRANGE HAPPENINGS - I would say that this is the magazine's dark trivia corner. I have seen them talk about Sedna and the Exploding Planet Hypothesis, Paganism and the Sumerian Shadow Queen. The articles are short and to the point, not wandering around the topic. I have found them intriguing and a nice introduction to their subject matter. They include bibliographies if you want to find out more. <
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>INTERVIEWS - Occasionally, they have interviews. I have seen one with Ramsey Campbell. They do not grace every issue, but they are a good read. <
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>FILM VAULT - A newer addition to the magazine, here they get three different people to review the same movie. Neither get to know what the other says. I have seen them do Equilibrium and Shadow of the Vampire. Overall, I like the concept though the movies tend to be off the beaten path. I believe that is purposely done to expand the horizons of their readers. <
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>DARK LIBRARY - This is their book review section. It is rather expansive concentrating on small press releases. They also cover a lot of Chaosium (Call of Cthulhu) releases as well. This one of the longest nonfiction sections of the 'zine. <
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>The magazine is nicely bound and formatted. I have not seen any glaring mistakes I have seen in other small literary magazines. I would definitely recommend a look through if not a subscription. You can always check out [...] for further information.

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Book of Dark Wisdom
The Book of Dark Wisdom is a new Call of Cthulhu Gaming magazine from Elder Signs Press. It's digest sized (5 ½" by 8 ½") coming in at 64 pages with full colour glossy covers, the first issue front cover features a suitably chaotic piece of artwork by veteran mythos artist John Coulthart.

The contents of issue 1 have already been listed in a previous news item, rather than systematically going through each again, what follows are aspects that struck me about this first issue from a new publisher.

Issue 1 starts with 'Reflections from Leng' by Chaosium Staffer, Dustin Wright. In a couple of pages Dustin details the ups and downs of Chaosium in recent years and promises a brighter future for the company and the game in the next 12 months. The news is cheery to hear and it's good to see what Chaosium has planned, as told directly from the horse's mouth. 'Reflections from Leng' looks to become a regular feature, which will hopefully fill a spot vacated by Sandy Petersen in a similar column for the fanzine DAGON back in the 80's.

The next few pages (and a few beyond) cover three more Departments: Dark Library, Strange Beings and Relics - dealing with new tomes, NPCs/Monsters and artefacts respectively. Well written and concise. The 'Multidimensional Transgressor' machine certainly looks like fun. :)

Under 'Adventures, Articles, Fiction and Poetry' there's an eclectic mix of material including a couple of 'unanticpated encounters' including the ultra-modern 'Ghost Mail' by David Conyers, some short poetic prose works, part one of a multi-part history of the FBI, mythos fiction: Program of the Elder Gods and perhaps my favourite piece of the lot 'Only After Dark' - a scenario and tour of Greenwich Village in the 1920s (for both BRP & d20). What's particularly nice about the latter is that in a short amount of space it manages to convey some of the history and feeling of this bohemian locale along with words of advice for the Keeper and a suitably engaging scenario. While the maps are functional, it's also nice to see the use of period photographs to illustrate many of the discussed locations.

A rather entertaining find in the magazine was the 'Cthulhu Word Circle' puzzle, identifying given words in the criss-cross text. Dark Wisdom very kindly also provide the solution later on the magazine, although I wonder if the space could have been better used elsewhere, with perhaps the solution provided on the web site instead. It's a fun thing and I'd like to see more of such in the future (crosswords, word games, insane dot-to-dots!).

The Book of Dark Wisdom also features some good interior artwork by the likes of Allen Koszowski, Bryan Reagan and Cathy Buburuz along with nice spot pieces throughout.

One of the things that especially appeals to me about the magazine is the decision to use the Digest format rather than the more typical A4/US letter size. For me at least, it makes it easier to carry around and peruse at leisure. I remember DAGON magazine's growth in popularity once it changed to this format, and I can't help but associate 'The Unspeakable Oath's' major slowdown in publication when it moved away from Digest format. None of these may be related, but it does stick in my mind!

The Book of Dark Wisdom is a good, solid first issue from Elder Signs Press, and I'm already looking forward to the next issue, which I hear will have an increased page count (to 88 pages for a dollar extra). The only additional recommendations I would make would be to have an editorial page to give the magazine a voice.

All in all a worthwhile read, and for only $5 (US) per issue, a bargain to boot.