A review by pastathief
Tales from the Ninth World by Shanna Germain, Monte Cook

3.0

This is a collection of just a few short stories, and in that sense it feels a little "light". Still, it's also inexpensive, so there's a limit to how far that complaint goes. Still, these stories are great introductions to the feel and overall "vibe" of the world of Numenera, and could also certainly serve as inspiration for Numenera GMs who wanted to add their own flavour to their campaigns. Do they stand up as short stories in their own right? Yes and no. They're all somewhat fragmentary, in ways that mostly make sense if you're looking at them as accessories to the game, but which I think make less sense if you were reading this as a totally separate thing. Other than giving you some neat background on the game, they would seem to lack the overall arc of a truly independent story, and I think readers taking them that way would be left slightly unsatisfied. Still, as accessories to a role playing game, they're much better than they really had to be. So I'd put them kind of between the two, and I happily enough sought out the next two short volumes as soon as I finished this one.