I came across this old review I wrote for The Dark One by Bill Purcell and it got me thinking. How many now obscure books have I reviewed over the years? First novels, small press, vanity press books, the lot. And of the many, I still have a fondness for this one. I don’t know if Bill is still at it. (I suspect not.) I’m not sure how you could get a copy without spending a few bucks. It is on Amazon.com but it isn’t cheap.
Anyway, here is the original review from back in 2001:
I started off wanting to hate The Dark One by Bill Purcell. Let me explain why. My generation could be called the D&D generation. We were young; we were into role-playing games. TSR, and later, other companies in the 1980s published many paperbacks of “game fantasy”. These books were awful, unreadable books of poor fantasy, based on games. The word “product” comes to mind, rather than “literature”. I thought, as I read the opening chapters of The Dark One that I was in for another dull game fantasy. I threw the book into my bookshelf and ignored it for a day.
Bill is a friend. I didn’t want to disappoint him. So I tried again. A few more chapters and back into the bookshelf. But this time it wasn’t friendship that pulled me back. It was the character of Roger Jensen. I took it up again and that book didn’t leave my nightstand until it was finished. Yes, The Dark One is based on a world of RPGs. (Bill tells me Wizards of the Coast has shown an interest in the book.) Is it crap? Not at all. Bill Purcell is an amazing storyteller and once (and if) you get passed the D&Disms you fall into a great novel of heroism, love, deceit and excitement. Though the setting is somewhat generic, Purcell envisions it and makes it all acceptable and fun to the reader.
The plot of The Dark One is the quintessential plot of all 1980’s fantasy. A man from our reality, like the children in the Narnia novels, comes to a world of dragons and orcs. Like John Carter of Mars, he has gifts that no one else possesses, great strength and a pure heart. He gathers friends about him like Jarde, the swordsmaster, Thesa, the assassin, Olan the Orc cleric, and the love-interest, Elaina, the magician. Of course, there is a prophecy, a war with the orcs, plotting wizards and villains. Stating it like this you might think the story is a hopeless pile of clichés that clunk along with cardboard characters and all the charm of a Gor film. But it doesn’t. It works. Bill Purcell makes it work.
I want to highly recommend this book to certain people. (Anybody who likes Fantasy will enjoy it but these people can get something extra.) First, to anyone who has never tried Fantasy fiction before. This book is so readable it carries you along, gets you excited. Second, to anyone who wants help with their Fantasy role-playing. The Dark One is a crash course in how to set up a winning campaign. And thirdly, to my generation that used to read Fantasy but has moved on to other things. Bill’s novel will rekindle an interest that may have lain dormant for a decade or two.
If some future critic were to look back at the fantasy of the last part of the 20th Century, I would hope they would choose this novel to represent my generation, the D&D Generation. The Dark One is a worthy representative of the fun we had staying up late, rolling those dice, and living the adventure. Thanks, Bill. You’ve written our swan song.
There have been many AD&D books, and heroic fantasy books written since 2001. Have I read any of them? Very few. I haven’t even re-read The Lord of the Rings since 2001. Do I still play Dungeons & Dragons, no. (I prefer Call of Cthulhu anyway.) I wish I could re-read The Dark One and see if I still like it this much. But after twenty years and two moves, I no longer have my copy. (There goes a quick $40 bucks!) I seem to think I lent it to someone who would appreciate it and never got it back. I hope they read it…
And now that I have piqued your interest, you may haunt bookstores for the rest of your life looking for a paper copy. While you at it, here’s another: New Traditions in Terror (2001) that Bill edited. This one has a Kindle version at least. Do you remember this one, Ken Goldman?
