Raining Sideways

Blades in the Dark is my favorite RPG system by a long shot, so I was very much looking forward to this unofficial novel. Unfortunately, the best I can say is that it’s distinctly mid.

Uppercut and Scarecrow are a pair of scoundrels trying to make it big in Duskvol’s underworld. Uppercut is a former cop who can command ghosts. Scarecrow is a sniper and aspiring revolutionary. The two of them get sucked into intrigues way above their level involving a powerful witch named Shimmer and ancient forbidden magics which enable ghosts to stay sane over centuries, as contrasted against the shadowy plots of the official ghost hunters.

The pace is frantic, our two protagonists constantly plotting and heisting and being betrayed and double-crossing, but it comes to a lot less than the sum of its parts.

Ultimately, I wish I’d reread The Lies of Locke Lamora. Been a while since I read that one.