ISAAC'S BOOKBLOG

      This is a post for my Ad Astra campaign, kind of. Not really. You can read it if you're in the campaign, or you can choose not to. This is just my definition of evil. Richard Stark      Some of our best works of fiction are by people who are fictions themselves. Mark Twain never existed, nor Lewis Carroll, nor George Orwell, George Elliot, Richard Bachman, or Richard Stark.     Richard Stark was the pseudonym used by Donald E. Westlake to write the character Parker. I don't know why he used a pseudonym. Probably because he didn't want to get any of Parker on his hands.     (This post will contain minor spoilers for the first three Parker novels: The Hunter, The Man with the Getaway Face, and The Outfit.)      Parker is never given a first name, because he doesn't need one. He doesn't have any friends to call him by it. He had a wife. He killed her (more or less.) He has no past, except banks he's robbed, armored cars...

 If you're playing in my Ad Astra campaign, you are forbidden to read the Hey Mister Jackal Man post at this time. That means you, with the fox for a head. And you, over there with the halberd. Jackalmen     I want to give you an evil humanoid. Something to fill a niche that isn't yet filled by goblins.     Goblins are an unforgettable concept. They are savage, and cruel, and supernatural. They live in forests, the mountains. They manifest our fears of the wilderness. Their theme is crazy. They steal babies, and worship dark gods, and have horrible goblin names, and horrible goblin dogs, and horrible goblin tortures.     For this reason, it never made sense to me that you would go to a dungeon somewhere inside of civilization---a ruined library, say---and find goblins. To my way of thinking, goblins exist strictly outside the border of civilization. They are like a barbarian army. They can be fought. They can be kept out. But when you venture outside, ...