Firstly, a disclaimer: I cannot claim to be unbiased about this project. A Tower Made of Sky has long been close to my heart, and indeed, one of the monsters within is, at least in part, my own.
With that said, here is my pitch for why I believe this is a novel and worthy bestiary.
A Tower Made of Sky owes much to the academic humanities, the social sciences, and the fields of philosophy, psychology, and monstrosity studies. The creatures described are not traditional TTRPG monsters, designed to be slain and encountered bereft of context in a cold grey dungeon. Neither are they plausible animals. Rather, these monsters are fragmented reflections of psychological and philosophical concepts, anxieties both newborn and primeval, and statements which embody and transgress the boundaries of epistemology. Each of them is an uncanny being, gesturing towards the parts of ourselves and our worlds that we yearn to destroy, and to embrace, in equal measure. They are vivid, substantive pieces of ether, layered in metaphor and yet affixed so tightly to the concepts they express that reality in all its messiness seems vague and distant by comparison. They are Kafkaesque nightmares - (ir)reverently ironic existential commentaries given form, flesh, and spirit.
These are monsters someone could build a world around.
I am awestruck with what Sam has accomplished - the strength of the prose, the guiding vision, the ways he reconciles the conceptual origin of these creatures with the materiality of their existence in their own world. Thus creating a vision of a space in which monsters are both and neither flesh and ideal, and thereby something greater than either.
A Tower Made of Sky is an evocative and cerebral work. It is a challenge to the way that we, as TTRPG players, have conditioned ourselves to understand monsters. It is poetic, beautifully illustrated, and furthermore radically unpretentious. A Tower Made of Sky is not a manifesto. Like all the finest bestiaries setting manuals, this is a book of stories waiting to be told. And I believe it is a book of stories worth telling.
Thanks for the lovely and in-depth review, Maiden Wonderland (who collaborated on "The Nameless Beast," one of the monsters that appears early in the book, for anyone reading this). You highlighted several of the goals of the book here—I'm glad that it has succeeded at them for you :)
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Firstly, a disclaimer: I cannot claim to be unbiased about this project. A Tower Made of Sky has long been close to my heart, and indeed, one of the monsters within is, at least in part, my own.
With that said, here is my pitch for why I believe this is a novel and worthy bestiary.
A Tower Made of Sky owes much to the academic humanities, the social sciences, and the fields of philosophy, psychology, and monstrosity studies. The creatures described are not traditional TTRPG monsters, designed to be slain and encountered bereft of context in a cold grey dungeon. Neither are they plausible animals. Rather, these monsters are fragmented reflections of psychological and philosophical concepts, anxieties both newborn and primeval, and statements which embody and transgress the boundaries of epistemology. Each of them is an uncanny being, gesturing towards the parts of ourselves and our worlds that we yearn to destroy, and to embrace, in equal measure. They are vivid, substantive pieces of ether, layered in metaphor and yet affixed so tightly to the concepts they express that reality in all its messiness seems vague and distant by comparison. They are Kafkaesque nightmares - (ir)reverently ironic existential commentaries given form, flesh, and spirit.
These are monsters someone could build a world around.
I am awestruck with what Sam has accomplished - the strength of the prose, the guiding vision, the ways he reconciles the conceptual origin of these creatures with the materiality of their existence in their own world. Thus creating a vision of a space in which monsters are both and neither flesh and ideal, and thereby something greater than either.
A Tower Made of Sky is an evocative and cerebral work. It is a challenge to the way that we, as TTRPG players, have conditioned ourselves to understand monsters. It is poetic, beautifully illustrated, and furthermore radically unpretentious. A Tower Made of Sky is not a manifesto. Like all the finest bestiaries setting manuals, this is a book of stories waiting to be told. And I believe it is a book of stories worth telling.
Thanks for the lovely and in-depth review, Maiden Wonderland (who collaborated on "The Nameless Beast," one of the monsters that appears early in the book, for anyone reading this). You highlighted several of the goals of the book here—I'm glad that it has succeeded at them for you :)
Great bestiary! Inventive in ways that you can build multiple campaigns around.
Thank you, Gamesail, glad you've enjoyed it!