Amazon.in:Customer reviews: The Other: Encounters With The Cthulhu Mythos Book One (The Other: The Nyarlathotep Cycle 1)

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Interesting tales

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on 31 October 2022

Each chapter is a stand alone story. The book ends in a cliffhanger, leaving an opening for more one chapter stories in future books. This makes the size of the book manageable. I would probably read more of this story, but won't go out of my way, having that "been there done that" feeling.

One person found this helpful

Elim Horton

Reads like a Delta Green campaign

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on 5 December 2021

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This has the hallmarks of a Delta Green (or maybe a vanilla Call of Cthulhu) RPG campaign, perhaps played by people not well versed in the Mythos and run by someone with only a passing knowledge. Maybe more a series of one-shots than a campaign, really. I mean, I've -played- in games like this.

In-dialogue exposition of the encounters were a little stilted and read like someone reading from a manual explaining what a Cthulhu is. Filled with... tropes? of the mythos, like "ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn" coming up several times; character introductions and stories carried out as one-off side-missions, rather than a cohesive plot; references to Alhazred and stories like the Call of Cthulhu and At the Mountains of Madness; and mentioning there are sooo many Great Old Ones, but only Cthulhu, Shub-Niggurath, Yog-Sothoth, and Nyarlothotep are called by name--and multiple times, listed just like that. Except when they mentioned all the other names Nya goes by. And throw in a shoggoth and a reference to a Yithian for good measure.

Those side-missions were a little inconsistent, too... stories that included Dr. Adele were longer and almost excruciatingly more detailed compared to stories with Joe and Pete, sans her. I might think she was played by the DM's pet player by the way it was written, except she also took a hell of a lot more brutal beatings! Actually, that sounds like the DM's pet that the DM doesn't want you to know is his pet. Been in those games, too...

Portrayals of Mythos-induced madness were almost verbatim the SAN loss mechanics in DG/CoC, including the famous mechanic of being all but guaranteed to go mad. The irrationality another reviewer mentioned the play... erm, characters displayed was that mechanic being played out. The ending smacked of: your characters' SAN scores are so bad that you can't meaningfully play another adventure, sooooooo *shriiiiiick*. Oh and again with Adele being given favourable treatment (if you could call it that).

Still, it was interesting enough to read. I wouldn't have minded playing it at the table, even! I would have liked a bit more consistency and a better ending from a book, though.

Anyway, on to book 2!

6 people found this helpful

reads like a first draft

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on 24 March 2023

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This book reads like an admittedly decent first draft. The characters are there, the action is there in the sense that the characters go from point A to point B, the dialog is decent.
Unfortunately, it's missing what would make it a fully fledged book. The physical aspect of the characters is unknown, no distinctive characteristics are given. The protagonists travel Canada far and wide, but other than the first story, we learn nothing about the places. The mental state of the characters is reduced to nightmares, and worrying about having been tainted by what they saw. They all leave their previous life behind, but we don't know what that life is. These details make people and places real, make us care about them, add atmosphere and flavor to a book. Reading this was like eating emergency rations: they fill your stomach but leave you feeling like you ate cardboard.
I see there are more books in the series but i think I'll pass in favor of a more flavorful read.

Mr. E. Inston

Excellent first book

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 20 December 2022

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This is an excellent first book in the series.
After reading it, it leaves you wanting more.
Good job there is another 2 books.

Johann ginn

The Feeling of Dread...but in a good way

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on 20 August 2022

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Harjit Sinhg is a witness to what he has called, "the Other" and works for a shadow organization that tries to keep the Other from destroying us. His job requires many duties, one of which, is recruiting. But how does one recruit a person to get them to believe that there are things that should not exist that want to kill you?
Joe and Adele are such people when based on their job titles get called in to a small coastal town to examine,what appears to be, a sea monster.
When Harjit offers them to come work for him, both Joe and Adele feel that really have no choice. You see, when you have witnessed the Other, your sanity takes a hit.
Will this crazy job make them even more insane then they already feel or will it simply kill them?

Loved this book, LovecraftIan Mythos all the way, but done extremely well.
Enjoy how this guy writes, definitely checking out more of his stuff!!

2 people found this helpful

Mark Wilde

Great buy. Good read!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 16 April 2021

Verified Purchase

I'm a big fan of Cthulhu and have read, or tried to read a fair amount of novels written by other authors and have been disappointed. Not so with this first book. It's a great read, with some good characters you can really like and empathise with.
They're not superheroes, or pathetic idiots who make inexplicable decisions.
They're very human. I'd like to know more about the Agency they work for, but I suspect that that's the point.
This reminds me of role-playing the Cthulhu game way back in the late 80s, which is no bad thing at all. For less than 3 English pounds it's a bargain. I hope to read more by the author. Very, very good.
It would have got 5 stars if it was a bit scarier though.

One person found this helpful

Mark J. Kettlewell

Enjoyable and inventive.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 25 October 2020

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I read a lot of mythos tales, some good, some bad and some just tangential. This is one of the better ones. It keeps an up to date feel without sacrificing too much the mythos’ ‘pulp’ origins and character. The stories improved over the course of the book as they seemed a little stilted in dialogue at the outset. Toward the end they became polished and I could sense the author’s voice coming through. Nice to have a tale set in Canada for once. I have some minor irks. There are occasional typos but I have persevered with stories that had many. My main issue was the misspelling of ‘Tekeli-li’ in one tale written as ‘Telkeli- li’. Minor and forgivable except to this pedantic Mythos fan. But don’t let my niggles put you off. This is a great read with many inventive stories.

3 people found this helpful

Andy Raff

Mixed Feelings

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 22 June 2021

Verified Purchase

I like a nice anthology but I have mixed feelings. In places it feels like someone writing up Call of Cthulhu tabletop sessions. Bits feel clunky and the dialogue often sounds off to my ears. But, that said, I didn't hate these stories. I gave it an extra star for the ending, although it was a wee bit abrupt.

3 people found this helpful

Kindle Customer

Grounded and Canadian!

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on 19 April 2022

Verified Purchase

Very cool to see Lovecraft style stories set in Canada, I was in Halifax a couple of years ago and it was eerie how easily I could picture the streets around Dalhousie! When I saw Edmonton mentioned (my home) I literally had shivers down my spine!

The writing is very different from Lovecraft's style, it's very grounded and modern, and my I like the way Lovecraft himself writes, Young's voice is much more natural for a modern audience.

SAL

The Great Wyrd North

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on 14 September 2021

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Wyrd is a concept of Anglo-Saxon culture corresponding to fate or personal destiny from which is derived the word weird, as in Weird Tales. The Other takes place for the most part in various locals in Canada and/or with Canadian characters whose destiny or fate brings them into contact with entities from The Cthulhu Mythos and links them with other characters in a series of interconnected episodes. Hidden from the eyes of the vast majority of humanity is an ultra secret Canadian government organization which recruits individuals from every walk of life who have encountered The Other. This organization provides the egregore which binds these characters together and in which they fulfill their wyrd.

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5 star		49%
4 star		34%
3 star		12%
2 star		3%
1 star		2%

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The Other: Encounters With The Cthulhu Mythos Book One (The Other: The Nyarlathotep Cycle 1)

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