And they said it couldn't be done! The Great Old Ones themselves are stirring in their sepulchers over the first official live-action version of Chaosium's acclaimed Call of Cthulhu role-playing game. Based on the short stories of Howard Phillips Lovecraft (1890-1937) and the expansive group of writers known as the "Lovecraft Circle," Call of Cthulhu took the gaming world by storm when it first appeared in 1981. Over the years, several organizations have created their own systems to bring Cthulhu gaming to life. This has been a challenging proposition at best.

Cthulhu Live is the first officially licensed live-action role-playing system for Call of Cthulhu. The book contains a tremendous amount of information, ranging from the game mechanics of character creation, skill use, and combat, to the more challenging tasks of make-up, costuming, monster building, prop construction, and running a live-action game.

Although it took 16 years for an official live-action Cthulhu to appear, it seems to have been well worth the wait. The basic rules structure is top-notch, streamlining the Call of Cthulhu rules into a simple, fast-playing system that is quickly mastered. I would rate the combat system as fair. It is one of the better non-contact systems I've seen for live-action gaming, but it's certainly the hardest element of the game for a new player to learn. We tried running a couple "practice battles" with all the players before starting the actual game, which seemed to help everyone later in the adventure.

The greatest challenge gamers might face is assembling a large enough group to run many of the adventures proposed in the rules. Eight to 10 players seem to be about the absolute minimum for Cthulhu Live, and some scripts call for 12 to 20 players. Obviously, such games lend themselves well to a convention setting, but some gamers may find a challenge recruiting that many players outside of a larger city or a college environment. Some challenges may also arise finding a suitable area to play the game, but the book includes tips on finding game locations and preparing houses and apartments for game play. Quite a bit of preparation is required for the games, and the game master, or "Keeper," needs to have not only a good imagination and narrative skills, but some leadership and organizational abilities as well. This said, a well run session with a good Keeper and NPCs is a great experience.

Fantasy Flight Games has published a second edition of Cthulhu Live that has rules updates and additions, an optional new combat system, and several new adventures. Several other projects are also in the works, to include a game support website and players' network. A lot of gamers will be looking forward to the continuing development of the Cthulhu Live system. I know that I am one of them.

--Bob Apelt for Skirmisher Online Gaming Magazine

For all those who have said that the game is cheezy and doesn't lend itself to the Cthulhu atmosphere doesn't know how to play right. With the right amount of effort and this book, you can make a cardboard Byakee, yet surround it with such an spooky story, some good lighting and surprise, and you'll have your players screaming at the top of their lungs. Those that complain about the combat system seem to LIKE combat. The change from the first edition simplified the combat making the dice-like battles simpler. This is not a combat game, it is a game of learning and discovering the horrible truth of the universe around you. If anyone want's to run a LARP, yet is sick of seeing guys in trenchcoats chasing each other with stakes, then this is the perfect game for you.

Cthulhu Live is so clearly a labor of love by those involved in its creation. There is a real sense of energy and enthusiasm throughout the entire book. The author obviously believes in the potential for the book and wants to pass that energy along to the readers. The creature creation and costuming tips inspire confidence that a truly memorable gaming experience is not only possible but easily achieved with this book's guidance. H.P. Lovecraft would be proud.

I cannot give a review of the entire book, as I have only read one of the short stories contained in it. I read the one entitled, "Rumpole of the Younger Generation." I felt like I was wasting my time, because all I was reading was a synopsis of a former triumph of this man. The case might have been exciting, but the author did not play fair, and the guilty party was obvious. I did not like this story very much, and can only hope that the rest of them are better than this one was.

The inaugural book in the Rumpole saga presents one of the great characters of British crime fiction. It's Holmes with humor (excuse me; humour), Bertie Wooster with brains. A collection of short stories, all revolve around Horace Rumpole, a self-described "Old Bailey hack". He practices (almost) exclusively as a defense barrister, specializing in hopeless causes, spouting poetry and cigar ash with equal gusto. The book provides the background for the accompanying series on "PBS", and it is at least as much a credit to Leo McKern's portrayal of Horace Rumpole as it is to author John Mortimer's skill that the stories--now contained in three massive omnibuses--have such deep appeal.

This book just doesn't compare with the rest of the series. The quality of the prose is, as usual, excellent, however O'Brian's treatment of his characters leaves a lot to be desired. It is almost as if his publisher has pressured him into producing the book to a deadline.

To someone who has not read all the others the book would seem excellent (and rate a higher number of stars). To a diehard fan of Aubrey and Maturin this novel just doesn't cut it.

While we are, as usual, treated to a good deal of the two principal character's thoughts and feelings it is done in solitary isolation. In addition O'Brian falls down in his treatment of many old friends such as Bonden and Diana. As another reviewer says above it is absurd that their characters (who we have learned to know so well from the excellent in depth description in his other novels) are rubbed out in approximately one line each. It is also wholly inconsistent with the prior volumes in the series. How can O'Brian expect us to believe that Jack Aubrey showed no reaction whatsoever to the death of Bonden, his loal coxswain over whose injuries we see him fretting in earlier volumes.

Essentially O'Brian has lost the fantastic level of analysis of the many intertwined relationships between the characters that made the earlier novels so superb.

The story is still exciting and very well written, but to any new readers contemplating dipping into the series DON'T start with this book. Buy the other nineteen, read them four times over (like I have) and then enjoy this as a good book in isolation.

I sincerely hope that the last novel returns to the standard we (perhaps unfairly) have come to expect - perhaps O'Brian can dream up some believable way to reincarnate Diana (Bonden was probably too decisively cut out of the picture in a colourless one liner). Maybe, Mr O'Brien, you can use your wonderful skill to rectify this state of affairs).

I have no problem with characters being killed off but let's hope that the author brings back his wonderfully sensitive treatment of the characters and their relationships with each other in the 20th book. It is the character treatment combined with the authenticity, great writing and the setting that makes these books so delightful.

To those who have followed this series from the first novel, as I have, The Hundred Days is curiously affronting. We have followed Jack and Stephen down the years and learned to love not only the author's erudition and grasp of historical detail, but also the delicate web of human relationships he has contructed with such a deft touch. Now, suddenly, with half a paragraph, he disposes of Diana Maturin, the guiding star of Stephen's life thus far, and with two half sentences passes Barret Bonden, Jack's coxwain since the early days, into glory. This abruptness is all the more shocking as in the recent novels O'Brian had been examining the relationships of his principal characters with greater depth and and reflection. What we have left is the finely crafted and researched plot that is the O'Brian hallmark, with the human touch strangely attenuate. I pray that the final volume we are promised will recapture the magic which another reviewer so well described as "putting a spark into the sawdust of history"

Scanning through the other customer reviews of "The Hundred Days", I am struck by the chasm between those who condemn the book (sometimes in startlingly harsh terms) and those who applaud it. I count myself firmly among the latter, but acknowledge that this volume differs significantly from earlier entries in the series. What some readers apparently view as an absence of skill and spirit on O'Brian's part, I find instead to be the product of a subtle and masterful command of the literary art. Death is a central theme, Death is a chief character of "The Hundred Days", and I find it not surprising at all that O'Brian has elected to use a style in keeping with that particular focus. I have seen numerous comments from dissatisfied readers decrying O'Brian's "failure" to deal with the deaths of major characters at length. With all due respect, I think that view misses the whole point of what and how O'Brian has written. The cheapest, most false piece of writing produced by any hack would have lavished sorrow upon these deaths; shedding shallow tears would have been the easy thing to do. The abruptness of these deaths, even the absence of healing mourning, heightens the pain and the sense of loss we feel. O'Brian has not written a book to make us "feel good". Instead he has painted for us a portrait of emotional constraint, the hues of the world washed over with the grey of an unexpressed grief. Only at rare moments are we pernitted to see the black gulf beneath Stephen's determined insistence to continue on after Diana's death. He is a man who is hiding even -- or, especially -- from himself the depth of his loss, while we see that grief has dulled his usual acuity. O'Brian has not tried to "entertain" us here, and those seeking light diversion would do better to look elsewhere. No, "The Hundred Days" is not an easy book, but it evidences an undiminished literary skill. I believe this novel to be O'Brian's finest writing in several years. Long after finishing it, "The Hundred Days" haunts me.

I thought it a very difficult book to read. The sentences are long and complicated; they jump about from dates and times; and it is sometimes unclear who is what(partly because the names change their peerages titles).