Book Review: ‘The Twilight Magus’ by Tim Pratt (Arkham Horror)
It’s time for another Arkham Horror adventure! Carl Sanford was the leader of the Silver Twilight Lodge until he was betrayed by the very people who had sworn to protect him. He survived, barely, thanks to his endless backup plans. Now he’s in Europe plotting his return to power, but even the best-laid plans can fail. And if Carl fails this time, he wouldn’t just lose power, and it wouldn’t only affect him. The entire world could be lost to evil in the latest Arkham Horror novel The Twilight Magus, by Tim Pratt.
[Note: While I am reviewing this novel independently and honestly, it should be noted that it has been provided to me by Aconyte for the purpose of this review. Warning: My review of The Twilight Magus contains some spoilers!]
The Twilight Magus’ Carl Sanford is down but never out
Carl Sanford was brought low in Tim Pratt’s The Herald of Ruin. Before that he was basically the king of Arkham, respected by everyone and running the whole show from his beloved Silver Twilight Lodge. But all of that is gone now. The Silver Twilight Lodge building is destroyed, and the society it housed is lost to infighting. Sanford is presumed dead, but a man like Sanford is hard to kill.
Thanks to his many contingency plans, Sanford managed to escape the collapse of the Silver Twilight Lodge and landed in Europe. Sanford is down, but don’t count him out yet. He has plans to regain power once again. He seeks out the Red Coterie. His plan is to work his way up through the Coterie until he has even more power than he had with the Silver Twilight Lodge.
But it’s never that easy; the Red Coterie isn’t really interested in having Sanford join. Still, they thought they might be able to use him. So they make an offer: if he can get rid of a member of the Coterie that they no longer trust, the Blood Moon and secure the keys that they hold, then he can join the Coterie.
The Coterie only made this offer because they didn’t think Sanford could win. But they don’t know Sanford. His sheer force of will can overcome just about anything. Sure, he lost his Silver Twilight Lodge, but that was because he became complacent and sloppy. A Sanford with a clear goal and a strong focus can do almost anything.
A more grounded evil to fight in this Arkham Horror
Most Arkham Horror novels have unnameable eldritch terrors as the ultimate bad guys. The Twilight Magus is different. The Blood Moon is an actual entity from our world. Sure they’re using powerful magical powers to do their evil, but they are ultimately a more grounded evil, not an incomprehensible terror from another dimension. In some ways this makes the story even better.
The Blood Moon is an actual character that is fleshed out and developed as the story goes. It also makes the ending even better because instead of the characters facing something that their minds can’t comprehend (I always feel these scenes are a bit of a cop-out for the authors) Sanford faces an actual enemy that can actually be defeated. It was a refreshing change for a series that relies heavily on terrors beyond our minds comprehension for villains.
Carl Sanford: The good guy?
The Twilight Magus isn’t our first introduction to Carl Sanford. He’s been in quite a few of the Arkham Horror books, but this is the first time he’s starred in one. In most of his other appearances he’s been the obvious villain. Occasionally he seems to be an antihero or maybe morally neutral. But mostly he’s been someone to hate. He’s the smug jerk who thinks he’s smarter than anyone else and always knows best. Admittedly, he is a smart guy, and he is very good at planning and staying a couple of steps ahead of everyone. But he’s so smug and selfish that it just makes you hate him more.
I don’t think I have ever been so confused in my whole life when reading a book. I knew Sanford was the “hero,” and so I wanted him to defeat the Blood Moon. But I really hated him, so I really wanted the Blood Moon to take him out. I had a hard time deciding how I wanted the story to turn out.
I knew the Blood Moon was evil and couldn’t win, but I didn’t think Sanford was a much better guy. Right down to the final battle I still wasn’t sure how I wanted it to work out, and I wasn’t sure how Pratt would work things out because of my own conflicted feelings. It made for a different experience to be sure.
The Twilight Magus is a solid addition to the Arkham Horror collection
The Twilight Magus takes a character that I’ve been happy to hate and tries to make me like him. Pratt failed miserably in this goal. I hate Carl Sanford just as much now as I did before I read The Twilight Magus, and I never really wanted him to win. But ultimately it doesn’t matter that I don’t like Sanford. The story was still good. And I loved that the evil-doer was a tangible enemy instead of an unfathomable terror.
My rating for this book: 8/10
I still hate Sanford, but I enjoyed The Twilight Magus and if you like the Arkham Horror series, you will too. The Twilight Magus is on sale now.
Also check out: Book Review: The Tides of Innsmouth by Jonathan Green an Arkham Horror Investigators Gamebook
