The Gameshouse (The Gameshouse #1-3)

Posted on 17 September 2017 by Claire North

The World Fantasy Award winning author of The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August presents a mesmerizing tale of a gambling house whose deadly games of chance and skill control the fate of empires.Everyone has heard of the Gameshouse But few know all its secretsIt is the place where fortunes can be made and lost through chess, backgammon every game under the sun.But those whom fortune favors may be invited to compete in the higher league a league where the games played are of politics and empires, of economics and kings It is a league where Capture the Castle involves real castles, where hide and seek takes place on the scale of a continent.Among those worthy of competing in the higher league, three unusually talented contestants play for the highest stakes of allThis novel was originally published as three digital only novellas The Serpent, The Thief, and The Master. Previous books by Claire North The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August Touch The Sudden Appearance of Hope The End of the Day 84KBy the same author, writing as Kate Griffin A Madness of Angels The Midnight Mayor The Neon Court The Minority Council The Glass God Stray Souls Free Download The Gameshouse (The Gameshouse #1-3) by Claire North For Kindle ePUB or eBook – kino-fada.fr I had to waffle between 3 and 4 stars, so call this 3.5.But WHY It s Claire North You ve never read anything of hers that you ve disliked Well, I didn t exactly dislike this one The first of the three novellas was pretty raveworthy, like a Machiavellian back stabby game of thrones for people in Venice a couple hundred years ago, making and breaking kings in the Great Game they play.It s smart, it s almost over the top, and it s quite delicious for an alternate history high stakes secret socie I had to waffle between 3 and 4 stars, so call this 3.5.But WHY It s Claire North You ve never read anything of hers that you ve disliked Well, I didn t exactly dislike this one The first of the three novellas was pretty raveworthy, like a Machiavellian back stabby game of thrones for people in Venice a couple hundred years ago, making and breaking kings in the Great Game they play.It s smart, it s almost over the top, and it s quite delicious for an alternate history high stakes secret society story.The second, by contrast, was good for its cool setting of 30 s Thailand with rather deep descriptions But, it just didn t have the same impact OR importance that developed in the first For, after all, the winner of THAT game became the head of the order The rewards were somewhat unspecified except that it s so much better than kingships, etc This one was okay T...The Gameshouse has an excellent premise executed with some beautifully absorbing and quirky writing, telling a fascinating story of games played at a level that the most ardent of gamer s would struggle to comprehend..Imagine if you will that most of the turmoil in our world is caused not by chance, or random people and things but is, in fact, a series of challenges enacted by players and pieces on the biggest chess board available that of the world This then is the setting into which Claire N The Gameshouse has an excellent premise executed with some beautifully absorbing and quirky writing, telling a fascinating story of games played at a level that the most ardent of gamer s would struggle to comprehend..Imagine if you will that most of the turmoil in our world is caused not by chance, or random people and things but is, in fact, a series of challenges enacted by players and pieces on the biggest chess board available that of the world This then is the setting into which Claire North places her pieces, sets the scene and the reader embarks on a thought provoking, thrilling journey through centuries.A play for political power followed by a cat and mouse game of hide and seek leads us to the final showdown, all the way the sm...Book 1 The Serpent was a 5 star novella I love my intrigue books and this one drew me into its world and had me on the edge of my seat throughout I loved the concept of the gameshouse, the setting and was actively cheering for our main character Thenie I could not wait to read the other novellas.Book 2 The Thief I give 1 star It is quite literally a step by step recount of a game of hide and seek I hid in a village then I hid in the jungle Then I caught a boat and hid in another jungle Book 1 The Serpent was a 5 star novella I love my intrigue books and this one drew me into its world and had me on the edge of my seat throughout I loved the concept of the gameshouse, the setting and was actively cheering for our main character Thenie I could not wait to read the other novellas.Book 2 The Thief I give 1 star It is quite literally a step by step recount of a game of hide and seek I hid in a village then I hid in the jungle Then I caught a boat and hid in another jungle We have no reason to care about our protagonist Hard to believe this is from the same author as The Serpent The only redeeming feature was Peter Kenny performing a series of authentic sounding and humorous Thai accents Book 3 The Master 2 stars A game in modern times for all the marbles While the main characters of the previous 2 stories are referenced there wasn t a significant or meaningful payoff from them Like book 2 this felt like...Combined review of a Superb novella series The SerpentThe ThiefThe MasterAs usual with my reviews, please first read the publisher s blurb summary of the book Thank you. Once again Claire North provides superb prose, great intellect, astounding knowledge of foreign places and times, and a growing insight into the human heart.I was astounded at her intimate knowledge of Renaissance Venice and pre WW 2 Thailand These are living places and peoples The rural areas of Thailand are beautifully pai Combined review of a Superb novella series The SerpentThe ThiefThe MasterAs usual with my reviews, please first read the publisher s blurb summary of the book Thank you. Once again Claire North provides superb prose, great intellect, astounding knowledge of foreign places and times, and a growing insight into the human heart.I was astounded at her intimate knowledge of Renaissance Venice and pre WW 2 Thailand These are living places and peoples The rural areas of Thailand are beautifully painted, and the common people are alive and fascinating.Overall, a fine series, but not quite as good as her other novels Once again, Claire North challenges me with a new concept, a new style, a fascinating adventure She never fails This is an interesting novella, nicely plotted with good pacing, but with perhaps a bit too formal a prose style I will be reading the sequelsAs usual with my reviews, please first read the publisher s blurb summary...I m a huge fan of Claire North s writing and mind and The Gameshouse is a masterpiece Originally published as three novellas and now, finally, they fit together perfectly as one with each of the three sections building on the others to present the staggering power of the Gameshouse, the astonishing lengths to which players will pursue their games, and the slavery of the pieces that they manipulate, manouevre and sacrifice Really, really excellent review to follow shortly on For Winter Night I m a huge fan of Claire North s writing and mind and The Gameshouse is a masterpiece Originally published as three novellas and now, finally, they fit together perfectly as one with each of the three sections building on the others to present the staggering power ...3 novellas combined Let me say first off that North has beautiful prose She has a style which is unique and you can immediately tell its her writing Novella 1 was great Awesome idea and characters 2 and 3 not so much The protagonists just werent explored as well.Review to come atThe Gameshouse is a collected edition of three previously published e novellas The Serpent, The Thief and The Master.The Serpent follows a woman called Thene who plays the game of Kings in seventeenth century Venice In a place where politics has become an art form, is it possible for the least powerful player to outsmart her rivals As Thene learns the rules that govern this most exclusive of clubs, it acts as an ideal introduction for the reader The power plays and underhanded tactics of com The Gameshouse is a collected edition of three previously published e novellas The Serpent, The Thief and The Master.The Serpent follows a woman called Thene who plays the game of Kings in seventeenth century Venice In a place where politics has become an art form, is it possible for the least powerful player to outsmart her rivals As Thene learns the rules that govern this most exclusive of clubs, it acts as an ideal introduction for the reader The power plays and underhanded tactics of competitors p...I enjoyed all three of these novellas and would definitely recommend them, though I must say I enjoyed the first onethan the other two by a small margin.It s not that the latter two are bad, it s just that there s so muchworldbuilding going on in the first novella where we get introduced to it all We learn the about how the Gameshouse works in the first story, what it can bring to a person s life alongside some risks.In the second story we see a desperate struggle to avoid some risk I enjoyed all three of these novellas and would definitely recommend them, though I must say I enjoyed the first onethan the other two by a small margin.It s not that the latter two are bad, it s just that there s so muchworldbuilding going on in the first novella where we get introduced to it all We learn the about how the Gameshouse works in the first story, what it can bring to a person s life alongside some risks.In the second story we see a desperate struggle to avoid some risks that was enjoyable but it doesn t add as much as the first story did.In the third we see the height of which the gameshouse can go to and how far a certain character is willing to go, but the ending is left intentionally open and I expectedtying up of all the themes, but instead they re just kind of left there....This is a 3.5 rating.I absolutely loved the first book The setup of the gameshouse was very intriguing I wanted to know who these characters were and how the games worked Thene was also a great character I like how she essentially had her mask on before she was ever invited to the game The game itself reminded me a lot of Liar s game The tension and pacing were great I like how even the most insignificant pieces had meaningful dialogue The second game was a bit of a bore The character This is a 3.5 rating.I absolutely loved the first book The setup of the gameshouse was very intriguing I wanted to know who these characters were and how the games worked Thene was also a great character I like how she essentially had her mask on before she was ever invited to the game The game itself reminded me a lot of Liar s game The tension and pacing were great I like how even the most insignificant pieces had meaningful dialogue The second game was a bit of a bore The character just zigzagged through Thailand And I know that was the point of the game but it was so boring to watch him go from one place to the next I think the fact that there weren t a lot of characters contributed to this feeling view spoiler I wish they had elaborated on him cheating in h...This was one of those fortunate finds It was on an offer and I wanted to find three books to take advantage of it The blurb for this one sounded interesting.Actually this is three shorter books rolled into one It consists of The Serpent, The Thief and The Master.The first follows a woman in seventeenth century Venice as she plays a game to elect a ruler The second is about a Frenchman playing hide and seek across 1930s Thailand The last concerns an old player challenging the owner of The Ga This was one of those fortunate finds It was on an offer and I wanted to find three books to take advantage of it The blurb for this one sounded interesting.Actually this is three shorter books rolled into one It consists of The Serpent, The Thief and The Master.The first follows a woman in seventeenth century Venice as she plays a game to elect a ruler The second is about a Frenchman playing hide and seek across 1930s Thailand The last concerns an old player challenging the owner of The Gameshouse.It s a very novel idea, and tickled the part of me that suspects there s a game behind the game one that only a few people know is being played yet encompasses the planet An idea I think appeals to many.All of the stories have great characters, wonderfully rendered by Peter Kenny Some appear so briefly they are stereotypes but lovable ones The backgrounds are wonderful in their detail as well, especially well drawn was Thailand to someone who hasn t...More excellent work from Claire North And these stories were written back in 2015 when she still mostly used full sentences as well.There s decent variety here in the three novellas we have presented to us the first is a tale of intrigue and backstabbing in 1600s Venice, and probably is the strongest of the three The second is an intense, drawn out game of cat and mouse across the countryside of Thailand, which is relentless in it s action but still has a great host of memorable characters More excellent work from Claire North And these stories were written back in 2015 when she still mostly used full sentences as well.There s decent variety here in the three novellas we have presented to us the first is a tale of intrigue and backstabbing in 1600s Venice, and probably is the strongest of the three The second is an intense, drawn out game of cat and mouse across the countryside of Thailand, which is relentless in it s action but still has a great host of memorable characters The third is the least focused, despite or perhaps because of it s larger scope.All three focus around the mystical Gamesh...A combination of three novellas, the first two are successful while the last one can t quite bring it home The Gameshouse exists outside of time and space People who play there start in the lower league and then, if deemed worthy, are invited to join the higher league, where the stakes of the games include armies, countries, and empires as well as years of your life, illness or health In the first novella, Thene, a Venetian Jew married to a gentile, plays a political game with the government A combination of three novellas, the first two are successful while the last one can t quite bring it home The Gameshouse exists outside of time and space People who play there start in the lower league and then, if deemed worthy, are invited to join the higher league, where the stakes of the games include armies, countries, and empires as well as years of your life, illness or health In the first novella, Thene, a Venetian Jew married to a gentile, plays a political game with the government of the city in order to win her freedom In the second, Remy Burke, a player with centuries of experience, has lost his edge so a young up and comer challenges him to a game of hide and seek in Thailand with all of Remy s memories as his forfeit In the third novella, Silver, a character in the first two, challenges the Gamesmaster herself for control of ...Claire North asks interesting questions in her books What if the justice system resembled the insurance industry, and every crime had a settled price 84K What if when you died, you were born again into the same life with all the knowledge from your previous attempts at that life The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August What if a person s existence was forgotten by everyone she was with, ten minutes after she left their presence The Sudden Appearance of Hope In this book, the question is a v Claire North asks interesting questions in her books What if the justice system resembled the insurance industry, and every crime had a settled price 84K What if when you died, you were born again into the same life with all the knowledge from your previous attempts at that life The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August What if a person s existence was forgotten by everyone she was with, ten minutes after she left their presence The Sudden Appearance of Hope In this book, the question is a variation of an old one What if there really was a secret organization controlling the fate of people and nations North s ...

17 September 2017

Claire North