Review of Three Legend of the Five Rings Novels: Scorpion, Unicorn, and Crane

Wizards of the Coast

Credits:

Scorpion: Stephen D. Sullivan

Unicorn: A. L. Lassieur

Crane: Ree Soesbee

Price: $6.99 each

[Novels received as review copies, though not from rpg.net]

Grade: B

Reviewed by Lisa Padol

The first three clan novels are the purest example of the Quintessential Gaming Novel I have so far run across. They are fun if you are already familiar with the world. If you are GMing L5R and aren't quite sure you have a grasp on this whole Clan War plot, the novels are extremely useful.

Scorpion is perhaps the most useful, giving the clearest explanation and description of the famous Scorpion Coup. It focuses closely on the principle actors. This is good because it gives GMs wanting to run the Coup a clear idea of what is happening at the top level while leaving everything else open for their campaigns. GMs using Scorpion in conjunction with Otosan Uchi will find that the novel does not overlap much with Scorpion's Sting, leaving them free to run the scenario without merely rehashing the novel. Indeed, some events in the novel are changed in the scenario, which is as it should be. At the same time, the novel explains a few things which were confusing in the scenario, such as exactly what happened to Akodo Toturi during the coup and why.

The writing is mediocre, and occasionally verges on painful in the first part of the novel, as the author spells out every detail, in detail. The Indiana Jones dungeon crawl and monster fighting feels oddly flat. Fortunately, things pick up with a visit to Dragon lands, and by the time the Kachiko sets up an elaborate trap for Akodo Toturi and his geisha lover, the writing is reasonably subtle. Kachicko's plan was well thought out, and I could believe that she could convince Toturi's lover that his only hope was to be poisoned by her.

Some oddities mar the ending, but I suspect these are the ones the author was stuck with. It would have been nice to get one scene showing Kachiko's decision to abandon her husband's attempt to save the empire in favor of revenge at any cost. Or at least I assume that's her plan; I don't think I've figured it out.

Unicorn is my favorite of the three novels. I thought it would just mark time between Great Events, but the author uses this opportunity to show how events look to an average Unicorn samurai-ko. There is no pressure for the story to go to any particular place, and this helps the novel. More of the characters are likeable, and the overall writing is probably the best. The author does more showing and less telling, demonstrating the custom of refusing a gift twice before accepting it, but without laboriously explaining that this is the custom.

The Crane book falls in between Scorpion and Unicorn in terms of the quality of writing, having the occasional bad sentence but being decent overall. Important scenes are set up well, and characters are consistent, if not likeable, within the novel. The Crane are beautifully portrayed as manipulative as the Scorpion, and twice as condescending. I admired the former and saw the seeds of the clan's troubles in the latter.

Comparing the events of Crane to those of Unicorn reveals certain inconsistencies. I don't mind when it is clearly a matter of point of view, but when it is a question of chronology, I find it jarring. Isn't this what line editors are for?

Overall, I enjoyed the novels. They serve as fine supplements for the L5R rpg. However, I could not recommend them to people unfamiliar with the background. There are simply too many references that are never explained. This may be due, in part, to the way the story unfolds. It is clear that readers are expected to go through each volume of the series in sequence, and each novel is a chapter in the larger story. I confess I find this irritating. I would prefer the novels to be more self contained and, much as I enjoyed them, I found myself thinking as I finished Crane, "That's it?"

I recommend the novels as gaming novels, and they make no pretense of being anything else. As such, they deliver, as promised, an epic history for GMs and players of L5R to draw on, and they provide many examples of Rokugan culture which can be used to provide more depth to characters and campaigns.