Games Workshop, 1991, $3.95, ISBN 0-425-13278-1, 246 pgs., paperback

I studiously avoid buying books branded by game titles. They are usually mediocre at best--the term I use is "milled," as in a production line in a mill. However, at a library book sale, Inquisitor was priced at 25 cents, so I succumbed to buying it.

Now, a new term comes to mind: "dreck."

Sorry Mr. Watson, but this is an incredibly poorly-written book with an inane plot about a giant hydra and some secret inner circle of madmen. Despite the glowing blurbs on the cover, I found the characters flat, the action flat, the plot muddled, and the resolution inconsistent with the environment. I mean, there's a cover quote from a British newspaper: "the most exciting writer since H.G. Wells." What genius! What skill! How about that! And here I thought Jules Verne wrote about giant squids grabbing ships. What dreck!

Inquisitor isn't the worst book I've ever read -- indeed, on a rare occasion, I have abandoned reading a novel because I detested wasting my time on it. However, I did skip quite a bit here and there due to increasing distaste for the work.

I wonder, do you think I can get my two hours of life back?

This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web.
Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com