Adam
When Games Workshop was attempting to add some novels to expand on the lore of their franchises in the late 80's their first foray into Warhammer Fantasy Battle and Warhammer 40,000 only published novels of short stories to see if there was any interest in such novels. Dark Future a now rather defunct intellectual property was given the same treatment. Personally, I'm not a very big fan of the short story anthology and so, this would have been a bad idea to garner interest from someone like myself. However, I think there are loads of people that like the sci-fi/fantasy short story approach, meanwhile, I just think it's never enough of a story for such usually epic settings. Dark Future, while being post apocalyptic, suffers from a similar trait.The Dark Future setting is starkly different from the products that Games Workshop has mainly been built around. It's core game is a sort of Mad Max styled road warrior game. If anyone remembers an old game called Thunder Road from Milton Bradley this seems very similar. However, I think Thunder Road ripped off the Road Warrior in its car design a lot more. Dark Future's vehicles seem more rooted in a sort of high tech James Bond style with the secret embedded weapons while still being sports cars. Some cars are very post apocalyptic and Mad Max inspired in a modified dune buggy fashion. So, as with loads of other things Games Workshop does, it's a blend of lots of different things that have already existed. Another interesting aspect of the setting is that it takes place in the U.S. and focuses on life after the collapse. It also has a bit of a Judge Dredd flair in the cops vs. criminals aspect as well and probably some of the vehicle ideas, but loads of creators at Games Workshop were inspired by the “2000 AD” comic books. Unfortunately, the setting didn't get developed much more beyond the big box game. There was a single supplement created and it was not a major contribution to the game. After that the whole project was dropped and left to die, only to be resurrected in the form of a weird video game in the 2000's era. I have not played that video game, but it didn't look like much more than a racing game. Anyway, let's dive into the stories.
Route 666 by Jack YeovilThis is the first short story and it shares the same name as the book title, which is used again later as a full length book title, why they would do such a thing is baffling to me. Anyway, this story was not too bad, however, I felt like there was way too much being introduced to us and it feels like less of a short story than it should be. There are entirely too many characters and various factions brought into this story. It should have been more focused on the main people involved.The first group we are introduced to is this group of resettlers called the Josephites trying to make their way to Utah led by a guy named Elder Seth. Elder Seth and his group made me think of The Stand quite a bit. They made me think of the guy building the paradise out in the desert, but it was a hellish place and knowing that reference made everything predictable on my end.Amidst this world we are also introduced to a faction in the gang called the Psychopomps led by a crazy woman named Jessamyn. We first meet this gang while they are fighting with another gang called the Daughters of the American Revolution, so you can see some of the historical reference/comedic concepts that arise in this setting.The other group are the cops lead by Sergeant Quincannon and another important figure is clearly Leona Tyree. They first come across some dead bodies left behind by the Josephites and are then told become a police escort for the group. The challenge now was to catch up with them.All of these parties end up meeting up again in a small town, where Elder Seth runs into his previous assaulter in the Psychopomps. Apparently Jessamyn stole some magic glasses from him and he's taking them back. Here we learn that Elder Seth wields some strange powers and now the cops are a bit more scared. But once he gets his glasses back, Seth and his group start to move on and the story just ends... That's when we find out this was just an elaborate introduction and we'll see the story continue in the forthcoming novel Demon Download. I really hope all of the stories aren't like this in terms of an elaborate introduction to something else where I could just read a full novel.In the end, the story wasn't too bad. It just wound up being pretty cliche as far as anything else goes. Lots of references and styles that already existed and didn't feel all that unique.... maybe as the novels grow the setting it will get better.
When Games Workshop was attempting to add some novels to expand on the lore of their franchises in the late 80's their first foray into Warhammer Fantasy Battle and Warhammer 40,000 only published novels of short stories to see if there was any interest in such novels. Dark Future a now rather defunct intellectual property was given the same treatment. Personally, I'm not a very big fan of the short story anthology and so, this would have been a bad idea to garner interest from someone like myself. However, I think there are loads of people that like the sci-fi/fantasy short story approach, meanwhile, I just think it's never enough of a story for such usually epic settings. Dark Future, while being post apocalyptic, suffers from a similar trait.The Dark Future setting is starkly different from the products that Games Workshop has mainly been built around. It's core game is a sort of Mad Max styled road warrior game. If anyone remembers an old game called Thunder Road from Milton Bradley this seems very similar. However, I think Thunder Road ripped off the Road Warrior in its car design a lot more. Dark Future's vehicles seem more rooted in a sort of high tech James Bond style with the secret embedded weapons while still being sports cars. Some cars are very post apocalyptic and Mad Max inspired in a modified dune buggy fashion. So, as with loads of other things Games Workshop does, it's a blend of lots of different things that have already existed. Another interesting aspect of the setting is that it takes place in the U.S. and focuses on life after the collapse. It also has a bit of a Judge Dredd flair in the cops vs. criminals aspect as well and probably some of the vehicle ideas, but loads of creators at Games Workshop were inspired by the “2000 AD” comic books. Unfortunately, the setting didn't get developed much more beyond the big box game. There was a single supplement created and it was not a major contribution to the game. After that the whole project was dropped and left to die, only to be resurrected in the form of a weird video game in the 2000's era. I have not played that video game, but it didn't look like much more than a racing game. Anyway, let's dive into the stories.
Route 666 by Jack YeovilThis is the first short story and it shares the same name as the book title, which is used again later as a full length book title, why they would do such a thing is baffling to me. Anyway, this story was not too bad, however, I felt like there was way too much being introduced to us and it feels like less of a short story than it should be. There are entirely too many characters and various factions brought into this story. It should have been more focused on the main people involved.The first group we are introduced to is this group of resettlers called the Josephites trying to make their way to Utah led by a guy named Elder Seth. Elder Seth and his group made me think of The Stand quite a bit. They made me think of the guy building the paradise out in the desert, but it was a hellish place and knowing that reference made everything predictable on my end.Amidst this world we are also introduced to a faction in the gang called the Psychopomps led by a crazy woman named Jessamyn. We first meet this gang while they are fighting with another gang called the Daughters of the American Revolution, so you can see some of the historical reference/comedic concepts that arise in this setting.The other group are the cops lead by Sergeant Quincannon and another important figure is clearly Leona Tyree. They first come across some dead bodies left behind by the Josephites and are then told become a police escort for the group. The challenge now was to catch up with them.All of these parties end up meeting up again in a small town, where Elder Seth runs into his previous assaulter in the Psychopomps. Apparently Jessamyn stole some magic glasses from him and he's taking them back. Here we learn that Elder Seth wields some strange powers and now the cops are a bit more scared. But once he gets his glasses back, Seth and his group start to move on and the story just ends... That's when we find out this was just an elaborate introduction and we'll see the story continue in the forthcoming novel Demon Download. I really hope all of the stories aren't like this in terms of an elaborate introduction to something else where I could just read a full novel.In the end, the story wasn't too bad. It just wound up being pretty cliche as far as anything else goes. Lots of references and styles that already existed and didn't feel all that unique.... maybe as the novels grow the setting it will get better.