MAR Barker and Tekumel

[Old Scratch]

No spoilers please, but I just recently found two of his books at a used book store, Flamesong and the Man of Gold. I don't want any particular details about the contents of the book, but I'd like to get a little oriented as to where these novels fit into the bigger scheme of things. How many novels are there? Which book should I read first or should I wait and hunt down another first? Are they any good? How were the recieved critically? What influence have they played? Are they worth reading and in what order?

I know a little about Tekumel and the rpgs, but I'd like to get a sense of the series... Thanks in advance!

[Khelbiros]

Let's see - if you're running a Tekumel game, Man of Gold is invaluable. I got six sessions worth of plot by ripping off bits from the novel and it's good to read as a working model of Tsolyani society. Having said that, Flamesong is much stronger novel. Man of Gold has an ending that kind of peters out whereas Flamesong is an exciting action/adventure plot that really holds together.

MAR Barker has written three later novels - Lords of Tsamra, Prince of Skulls and Death of Kings. Of all those, Prince of Skulls was the best. These three later novels feature Harsan and the lead character from Flamesong. There are rumours of another novel, but I was told this was delayed when someone "guessed the ending" on the main Tekumel yahoo group, causing Barker to come up with a rewrite.

You can obtain the new novels from www.tekumel.com

Overall, really good if you're into the world Tekumel itself; good resource/background material. Also interesting if you like a lot of exoticness in your settings. As novels, I feel Barker is a much stronger essay writer than novelist, and sometimes his action/adventure plots get in bogged down in the world background. This can contrast sharply when he goes through abrupt scene transitions to "hurry things up", including interventions by powerful NPCs, er, background characters. The characterisations also feel a bit pulpy to me, especially the women, but this makes sense if you consider Barker's influences.

I'd recommend them, but then I'm quite interesting in the world-building aspects of Tekumel.

[Old Scratch]

Thanks for the feedback, maybe I'll start with Man of Gold and go on to Flamesong. I'm a huge CAS fan, would you say there's a similar feel for the exotic there?

[ShannonA]

Man of Gold then Flamesong, which was the order of publication should be entirely fine. Note that those books were written as a set in the 1980s and everything else is much newer, from the 2000s or so. They're the only two I've actually read.

I don't remember feeling like they were particularly CAS-like, but it's been a while since I read them. I did enjoy them quite a bit.

[Khelbiros]

Flamesong and Man of Gold have different protagonists and don't have any connections to each other. It's only in Lords of Tsamra and the later novels that Harsan and the main character of Flamesong meet up.

CAS? No. The exoticness is more of an academic sort of exoticness, with side lectures on languages, magic and other background features awkwardly woven into conversations. And a lot of it comes from the languages and exploration of the different cultures.

[Old Scratch]

Well, I finished both of them a short while ago.

Initial impressions: I liked them overall. Entertaining reads, even if they seemed a bit of a travelogue at times and overly-lengthy. I never thought the dungeon romp in Man of Gold would ever end...

The alienish races never came through much, but I found the politics of the empire fairly interesting and I enjoyed the use of technology in the books, it gave it more than just a mere fantasy world feel.

Anyone care to give me a bit more non-spoiler info on the next three books? I'm not real crazy about visiting the same protagonists, I'd rather see a different dimension of the world. How do these compare? I'm enjoyed the books in a fun sort of way, but I'm not sure if I want to spend 20 bucks for each of them...

[Khelbiros]

Hmm, next three books, let me try and recall. All of them are travelogues, but take place in different parts of the world, showing off new things.

Lords of Tsamra took MAR Barker 15 years to write - I think it shows. It's a slow book, another travelogue, but I enjoyed Korukka, the lead character, with his snideness and smugness. There's a plague and the heroes are guilty of spreading it and do lots of walking and visiting things. Some interesting bits when they visit a spaceship. And there's an evil interdimensional merchant group!

Prince of Skulls was my favourite of these last three books. A bit of skullduggery, politics, a barbarian princess as a companion. The evil prince that was in Man of Gold is the lead villain doing some sort of terrible ritual, and Harsan has to stop him. They use the subway system and get lost. Dragons (Tekumel style) show up. It had a rushed ending, which I didn't like.

Death of Kings is a bit of an excursion into foreign politics, with Harsan visiting a crumbling empire collapsing into chaos. This one didn't stick in my mind as much as the others. I think there is a lady temptress who tried to tempt Harsan...

Hopefully, some of this helps. I did enjoy reading them, despite their flaws. For ranking them, I'd go:

Flamesong
Man of Gold
Prince of Skulls
Lords of Tsamra
Death of Kings

Allegedly, there's a final book coming out that will wrap up the sequence, although it was delayed slightly when apparently someone guessed the ending on the Tekumel mailing list and the Professor had to think of something else...