Though the "death" of the World of Greyhawk fantasy setting was predicated by many unfortunate circumstances and horribly miopic marketing decisions, one person perhaps has the best claim to the phrase "I killed Greyhawk." That person, of course, is treasured children's author Rose Estes, who, over the course of a handful of novels, managed to make a mockery of the most popular Role-Playing setting at the time. With her introduction to TSR's "Greyhawk Adventures" series, the novels plunged from New York Times best-sellers to bargin-bin refuse. Though we cannot saddle her with all of Greyhawk's failures, it is certainly amusing to try.

But don't take our word for it. Gaze upon the following literary treasures. Read the words of the Prophetess of Putresence, Rose Estes herself. . .

"Mika grasped the single crystal bead that hung from a fine gold chain around his neck and quickly uttered the words to a simple globe of invulnerability spell.

This spell, which he had taken special care to master, created a magical buffer around his body for five feet in all directions and protected him from spells up to the fourth level of ability.

It seemed unlikely that the old man's abilities would exceed third level spells."
Master Wolf, p. 115.

"It seemed apparent that somehow the nomad had persuaded the giant to let him have his way with her, although such a thing seemed unlikely, for the giant loved her too and would never have let another man touch her, unless. . . ! No! It all seemed too terrible to consider! Mika AND the giant?

Hary's mind whirled. Yet think as he might, his thoughts kept returning to the same conclusion."
Master Wolf, p. 222.

"'And just look at me! I'm dirty! I'm filthy! My hair's a mess! My dress. . . my dress, or what little there is left of it, is totally ruined! I even smell bad, if you can even imagine such a thing!'

'I find out I'm not even a virgin anymore, and I don't even remember what happened!'

The princess dispatched Iuz with ease, knocking him to the floor at Hornsbuck's feet, where he lay stunned. Mika almost felt sorry for Iuz. He could have told him even a demon has something to fear from an angry woman."
Master Wolf, p. 308.

Want an unbiased, over-arching review of the work of the Mistress, herself?

Reviews the Work of Rose Estes
(from an old message posted on America Online)

Ah, the Mika novels. Roger, let me thank you for giving me an opportunity to go into this. As some of you might know, I've made it a habit to tread through the Greyhawk novels and take notes which are later placed into my computer. These notes in part comprise the gigantic CANONSAVER (TM), that I have to pull out every once in a great while when its knowledge is needed here. I started with Saga of Old City, and I have since taken notes on nearly all of the 10+ novels that have something to do with the WoG. Some of Gygax's later books engendered 15-25 pages of detailed notes. Master Wolf Rose Estes' first attempt at anything other than and Endless Quest book, left me with four pages.

In all fairness, Estes is an average children's writer. I've read her Endless Quest work and, as I was quite young when they came out, I seem to remember liking them quite a bit. Now, of course, I fail to see the attraction, but (in part because of the enormous success of the original Endless Quest books) it's clear to see that the designers of the line were doing something right. Namely, stealing an idea wholesale from the folks over at Choose Your Own Adventure.

As a writer of "adult" literature (in so far as a fantasy novel set in a role-playing game world can fit into this genre), Ms. Estes is perhaps one of the worst authors I have ever had the misfortune of reading. Her prose is weak and unexciting (i.e. "His loose flesh hung loosely") and her main character, Mika-Oba of the Wolf Nomads, is one of the most lamentable figures in western literature. And I do not mean this in a good way.

It's a good thing that TSR adopted its much laughed-about "Code of Ethics" after the days of Rose Estes, because her "hero" is raped on a pretty much regular basis throughout the series. Other not so kosher topics focused upon in Estes work: masturbation, bestiality, rape, and the infamous cross-species rape. In one of gaming feminism's lowest points in history, a defiant princess is transformed into a wolf, who is then raped by Mika's actual wolf companion. If this were not bad enough, this encounter produces half-wolf children who later turn out to become major characters. Mika is raped mid-air by a harpy. In a later book, he is sexually abused by a magical image of a beautiful woman. This character is given no depth, and exists solely as a power piece in a male-dominated struggle. This wouldn't be so bad (given earth history it certainly isn't difficult to imagine these circumstances), but Estes is so glum and superficial in her writing that all women are nothing but stage dressing. Mika is a stupid, sexist, contemptible fool, and Estes does little (throughout an entire _five_ book run) to redeem his sorely lacking character.

These books are so poorly written, their characters so thin and ridiculous, that it isn't too far fetched to assume that "Rose Estes" doesn't even exist, and that the entire project was just an attempt to sully Gygax's game. Clearly, however, this is not the case. If it were, one would assume to find jokes about Gygax's world. In actuality, I very much doubt Rose Estes even read the original World of Greyhawk Boxed Set.

For this reason, her novels aren't even useful from a research point of view. The problem is less apparent at first. Indeed, the opening of Master Wolf seems very much in the spirit of Greyhawk. Though the setting is in the isolated lands of the Wolf Nomads, the front pages include a map of the surrounding area. Iuz is mentioned by name. It goes downhill from there. In the first novel, Mika follows a caravan laden with a magical gem to the city of Yecha (which Estes seems to think is the capital of the Wolf Nomads--who curiously are never in five books referred to as the Weigwur.). The caravan is led by an individual named Hary. Later, Mika will meet other so-named characters including, unless I'm mistaken, an individual named "Frank."

Halfway through the novel Hary, who seems very logical and is perhaps the most interesting character of the entire series, suddenly attacks his fellow wagon guards and is killed. There is, of course, an explanation for this, but it is so sudden and unsupported by previous events in the novel that it becomes laughable.

Let's get back to Greyhawk. In order to avoid any research, Estes invents the mystical and stupidly-named island kingdom of Dramidja. The society that once inhabited this area are dwarves directly descended from, you guessed it, Slerotin. This revelation (in the second book) surprised me not only because Slerotin is not a dwarf and belongs nowhere in the heart of Baklunish territory, but because it proves Estes actually looked at the books. Of course, she didn't spend enough time doing it.

Later books discuss the rulership of Ket and Tusmit without mentioning the word "Baklunish." As has been said before, Iuz (yes, the demigod) is killed by a first level mage using a dagger. How do I know he was first level, well, because Estes tells us, of course. I'm not lying, here. She refers to certain spells both by game name and by level, and then explains that Mika cannot learn the spells because he is not of high enough level. She gives numbers, for god's sake. And here I thought it was pushing the envelope a little too much when Gygax referred to Alignment in his books. . .

The last straw, of course, is The Eyes Have It which, in terms of keeping with published continuity is probably the worst piece of trash ever published by TSR. It's really sad to see that this book was published within one or two years of the publication of the excellent Nightwatch by Robin Wayne Bailey, which I cannot recommend enough. By the time of Bailey's book, however, Estes had already killed the Greyhawk adventures novel line, and the latter was released as a "generic" TSR novel.

What makes The Eyes Have It so bad? In truth, it's probably Estes finest work. Though not on par with the quality shown in an average college creative writing class for non-majors, Estes here chooses a first person narrative style that seems to work well for her. Though far from proficient, her usage of the language in The Eyes Have It is considerably more advanced than in her previous work. What makes this novel so laughably bad (and it would probably be funnier, if the failure of the novel line hadn't in part resulted in the unpopularity of Greyhawk in general) is the wildly divergent path in which she weaves Oerth's past history. [Just as a note here, it should not escape notice that Estes never once used the word "Oerth," even though it was written in 40-point type on the back of Artifact of Evil. Apparently, to Estes, the entire planet was called Greyhawk, and she used the word in this manner on several occasions.]

The Yeomanry is perhaps the most mangled of all the states of the Flanaess [another term that escapes usage in her work], as it is changed from what amounts to a human-based representative democracy to an ancient elven kingdom that sponsors a "Queen for Life." This is perhaps the worst perversion of actual Greyhawk material ever written, but then, there is ample evidence that she never read the books in the first place. Furthermore, the borders of this new Yeomanry expand all the way to the coast of Jeklea Bay, which makes one wonder what happened to the Sea Princes.

In short, Estes work contributes nothing to a Greyhawk campaign. Not only does she avoid all of the above information, but she never once mentions any gods save Iuz, who she kills off right away. Her main antagonist, the demon Maelfesh, could probably have been interesting if handled by a more skillful writer. In Este's hands, of course, he is nothing more than a stereotype. Compare this to Gygax's cold, calculating Vuron, and I think you'll see what I mean. Of course, the AD&D multiverse already had a hierarchy of demons (Graz'zt, Demogorgon, Orcus, etc.), but Estes seems to have missed this, as well.

So, don't get them if you see them. While I personally am glad to own the novels, (a leftover of my completist comic collecting days, no doubt) I would not recommend them to anyone. In fact, I'd place them in the bottom of the Greyhawk kitty litter, where the modules "Childsplay," "Gargoyles" and "Puppets" are already taking up space.

After all is said and done, I simply cannot fault Rose Estes. She is, very simply, a horrible, awful writer. The real villain here is whoever let this trash see print. I don't know who was in charge of the Greyhawk Adventures novel line, but that person should be ashamed of himself. For all the accusations about who caused Greyhawk to fail as an economically viable gaming line, I think this individual deserves a place in the front of the line.

I leave you with the following information. Master Wolf, published on the heels of Gygax's Artifact of Evil, reached the best-seller lists. Every subsequent Greyhawk book failed to accomplish this.

I'd say the above statement speaks for itself.