Extraordinary Zoology, a novella by Howard Tayler
I have confessed before to being a big-time Iron Kingdoms fanboy. I love the setting that Privateer Press has created for their Hordes and Warmachine tabletop games. My introduction to it was through The Witchfire Trilogy, the RPG campaign that initially put Privateer Press on the map.
One of my favorite characters from that setting is Professor Viktor Pendrake, head of Corvis University's Department of Extraordinary Zoology. He's an iconic, archetypical hero, the adventuring scholar who wrote the actual book on Western Immoren's more dangerous flora and fauna - Monsternomicon.
Obviously, then, I'm delighted to have been given the opportunity to write close to 40,000 words in that setting, and featuring Viktor Pendrake himself. Better still, I was invited to bring to life (and then place in mortal peril, of course) the Professor's assistants, Lynus Wesselbaum and Edrea Lloryrr.
Monsters, steam power, magic, and primeval horror all feature prominently. It would be going too far to say "this book has it all," but this book definitely has all of those, and lots of other stuff, including (though I did not draw any of them myself) spot illustrations!
Extraordinary Zoology is available now! You can get it from Privateer Press directly (Skull Island eXpeditions is their imprint), or you can pick it up on Amazon. It's only available electronically, but it's also only $4.99, and you don't have to pay any shipping!
If you like it, please take the time to say so. You can comment here, but there's also a page for the Skull Island eXpeditions imprint on Facebook.