Some great short stories from The Crucible by an excellent and well-selected group of authors. Each tale shares with us a different viewpoint of the mixed up patchwork world of The Crucible and introduces us to the key players in the card game. Some stories are silly, some terrifying, and one or two will pull at your heartstrings.

Across nine stories from eight different authors, Aconyte Books’ short story anthology Tales From the Crucible explores the vibrant KeyForge setting and the characters who populate the immense world of the Crucible. A wild melting pot of races and archetypes – from elves, goblins and giants to demons, robots, martians and more – battling it out for the valuable resource known as Aember, as a setting it’s equal parts fantasy and science fiction, where anything is possible and nothing seems out of place. Heists, dirty dealings, historical reenactment, field trips, dangerous experiments, family struggles – everything is fair game, and despite the variety of styles, characters and approaches these stories are all united by an overarching sense of bold, colourful, fun storytelling.

There’s plenty to please readers looking for frantic battles, thrills and danger, but these are character-focused stories first and foremost, and exploring the Crucible involves getting to know a varied mixture of diverse, relatable and largely memorable characters. For anyone interested in bright, fun, satisfying sci-fi and fantasy stories, this anthology – and KeyForge as a setting – is well worth checking out.

I have to admit I didnt really know much of KeyForge before I read this, ither than it was a card game similar to Magic the Gathering. So i did know that the lore surrounding the Crucible (a world of thousands of pockets of different worlds) would be rich. I wasnt wrong!!

The stories on offer vary from action packed, frantic mayhem, to considered thoughtful tales and everything in between. Having the option to provide a story about any of of a thousand or so races opens infinite possibilities.

My favourite by far is perfect organism. About a mars scientist trying to perfect a weapon to beat a certain foe. Loved hiw the martians are portrayed as hating everyone but themsleves and are technologically superior.

The other favourite is Vaultheads. An insight into fan clubs that reenact the massive battles conducted by god like creatures knows a archons.

Well worth a read.

Thank you to Aconyte Books for providing me with an advance review copy

Tales From the Crucible is an anthology based in the universe of the succesful collectible card game: Keyforge. The Crucible is an ever-growing patchwork of random planets, where uncountable cultures and species have (mostly) learned to live together without descending into anarchy. On top of that there are the Archons, powerful beings who duel each other to stake their claim over one of the many vaults scattered across the crucible.

Functionally, what this means for the setting is that you could see a barbarian in a loincloth line dancing with a slime blob, and it wouldn't be out of place. While it never goes that far, I can happily confirm that this potential has been put to excellent use in Tales From the Crucible. From a bug person and an elf doing a research project on martians, to a librarian hoarding books to save her daughter who is trapped in the walls of her library; every single story in this anthology is incredibly creative and has surprisingly compelling characters.
With the decidedly lighter tone of Keyforge, I was expecting this anthology to be a fun romp through the setting. While that's mostly true, there are still a couple of emotional moments that make this a much more fulfilling experience than I was initially expecting.
While all of the stories are excellent, I can't help but highlight a story that really stood out to me. Useful Parasites by MK Hutchins is a much darker and profound take on the world about a tree person learning to cope with grief, and took me on a bit of an emotional rollercoaster; which is a sentence I never expected to write to be honest.

The one thing that disappointed me about Tales From the Crucible is that we never get to see a story from the perspective of an Archon. Sure there are a couple of stories about Archons and we even get to meet a few, but it still feels like a missed opportunity.

Tales From the Crucible is overall a very enjoyable collection of stories and I'm certainly interested to see some of these stories contiue, be sure to pick this one up if the setting sounds interesting!
A solid 4.5/5

Aconyte Books were kind enough to allow me to review a couple of books ahead of their general release and the first one I am doing is the first Keyforge book, Tales from the Crucible.

So couple of things I should get out of the way, I do have a causal work contract for Aconytes parent company Asmodee to demonstrate games, one of which is Keyforge.

I am also friends with three of the authors whose stories are featured in this book, David Guymer, CL Werner and Robbie MacNivan, but I have tried my best to not let those two things cloud my judgement.

I will start by saying that the software that is used to read these time limited books is absolutely awful on the iPhone 11, it’s very buggy, it misses off the top line of every page due to the notch, meaning you have to mess about a bit to read it, and it frequently skips forwards a few pages and very often crashes.

If you are going to buy these, do so in a format that can be read by any other program than Adobe Digital Editions.

Ok so with that out of the way, let’s dive in.

What Is The Crucible?
The Crucible is a giant word larger than the sun, an artificial planet that is constantly under construction by the the Architects.

They gather their materials by transporting them from other planets and worlds, often bringing that worlds inhabitants along for the ride.

The world contains every environment imaginable, from bustling urban sprawls, to deserts, to jungles, to meadows and everything in between.

The Architects communicate through the ethereal Archons who themselves are completely in the dark about the purpose behind the Crucible.

And so they gather bands of followers, to gather Æmber, a psychic substance that can be forged into keys that unlock the vaults if they architects.

Keyforge itself is a unique deck card game, developed by Richard Garfield, the developer best know for Magic: The Gathering and King of Tokyo.

It’s a really good game, you should go check it out, but I am not reviewing the game here, but I will soon.

The Book
Tales from the Crucible is a collection of nine stories from established authors the majority of whom have some experience writing for franchises.

The collection is expertly edited by Charlotte Llewelyn-Wells and I think she deserves a big mention here and the collection flows really well from one story into another with aspects of the universe introduced in earlier stories being built upon in later ones.

It probably does help to have a brief idea of the fluff and lore behind Keyforge, but it’s not exactly required.

So let’s take a look at the stories, we open up with Contract by Tristan Palgren and this is the tale of an elf assassin name Vira, hired to take out an Archon.

The Archons are godlike beings who are believed to be immortal so the story does touch on the contract being more trouble than it’s worth for the bother it might bring on the Shadows.

You get to see two Archons and their retinues battle it out over Æmber and the technology, magics and different cultures that make up the races of the Crucible.

This story is an amazing introduction to the world of Keyforge and the twist in the end is quite good.

I actually hope to see Vira feature in more stories as I rather like the character.

Then we have The Apprentice by Cath Lauria, which features Roz the titular apprentice to a Goblin mechanic.

Her whole purpose in life is to gather the parts and money to fix Tris, the only thing she has left of her parents, only thing is her boss has lost Tris in a bet.

This story follows her efforts to keep Tris by striking a deal with a Saurian, and her journey to get what he wants.

You get a great look at the Crucibles underworld and some of its most downtrodden inhabitants who live in an actual dump.

Personally I found this story to be the richest one in the book, the amount of world building it achieves is incredible and it’s a lovely quirky story and you can’t help but be touched with the ending.

After this we get Extermination Examination by Robbie MacNivan, who as I mentioned, is a friend.

This story follows a pair of students conducting fieldwork with the Martians, who are a fanatical, xenophobic and secretive race.

The Martians I found in the game to be a bit cliche and Robbie plays up all the cliches here, they even have heat rays! And it works, especially as he actually fleshes them out a lot and really digs into their paranoid nature.

The ending to this one caused me to laugh out loud, I was reading it in bed and it caused Megan to wake up frightened!

The Librarians Dual by M K Hutchins is about a librarian funnily enough, but she has a daughter whom is trapped in the walls of her library, and must be given books to read to prevent her from being fully absorbed into the walls.

Out on a journey one day to return some books to the central library, she encounters a gang of giant barbarian warriors and accidentally becomes their leader!

I was reading this and scratched my head as I wasn’t sure where it was leading, but oh my this story is hilarious, absolutely rip roaringly good, it kinda reminds me of Prachett a bit.

The next story, To Catch a Thief by Thomas Parrott concerns Nalea Wysasandoral an elven thief who whilst being excellent at what she does may have bitten off more than she can chew.

A notorious private detective, Talus the Thief-Taker a creature made of stone. Both of these are wonderful characters and despite only being a short story, you get to know a lot about them.

Another insight into the underworld of the Crucible and a twist at the end which was unexpected and very interesting.

The we have Useful Parasites by MK Hutchins which takes place in the Lesser Uncanny Forest and features a Taryx who is a creature a bit like an Ent, who acts as a healer for the creatures of the forest.

The story is about him taking care of a creature that crashes into his vegetable garden , whom he calls Burble, and tending it back to health for it to become a companion and assistant.

But noting on the Crucible is quite what it seems and the assistance that Burble gives him in his work to care for the creatures of the forest comes at a price.

It’s a slow story and the ending is what I would describe as bittersweet, but it’s really well written and very enjoyable all round.

The Perfect Organism is a contribution by CL Werner and this Godzilla inspired tale is about a Martian scientist called Briiilp and his efforts to make Creature 647 the perfect genetically adapted war machine.

Sending him out to face a an abomination known as the Tyrant, this tale really shows off Werners ability to write such horrible creatures and the way they act and battle and also really explores the character of the fanatical Martians.

Wibble and Pplimz, Investigators for Hire from M Darusha Wehm is a delightful story starting with the classification detective story trope of a missing person.

This most unusual story in the collection it sees the protagonist venture into the lawless zone accompanied by a classic odd couple of Wibble and Pplimz, who have some, shall we say erratic personalities.

The ending was a twist I really didn’t see coming and in a way was slightly disturbing.

I am not sure what to say about David Guymers Vaultheads, it was a really entertaining romp which looked at the idea that LARP is something that might also exist in the universes of speculative fictions.

It’s a really engaging story and I saw lots of aspects of role players, LARPers and gamers I know.

To be honest it was practically perfect as a means to end the collection as it’s kinda subversive and I liked that, and I think the ending was actually quite upbeat and emotionally satisfying.

Conclusion
This was a really good collection, I was already reasonably familiar with the lore behind Keyforge and this was a great way to explore the universe a bit further.

But now I want more, there are some characters in there that I really need to read more about, and I think that Charlotte Llewelyn-Wells has frankly done a superb job in getting the right authors to write the right stories.

I will absolutely be buying this as soon as it’s released in September.

The only reasons I took so long to read this was the dreadfulness of the software that I had to use to read it, plus during the reading of it I came down with COVID-19 and struggled to actually concentrate on reading in the way I would have liked to.

This is why I was sadly unable to read Wrath of N’Kai by Josh Reynolds, before my load of the file ran out which is a real shame

Thanks to Aconyte Books and Netgalley for the digtial ARC

This was a fun anthology set in the world of the KeyForge CCG. If you have readers who like Terry Pratchett or Asprin's Myth series they may very much enjoy this title. The diversity of storytelling in this book is awesome and helps make a world only usually seen in single lines of texts on cards shine into a new dimension.
I would highly recommend this for my patrons; especially games or those who enjoy golden era short story collections.

The book is (for KeyForge fans anyway), an anticipated anthology of nine stories set within the realm of the Crucible, the setting of the game KeyForge, from which these stories draw their inspiration.

What is KeyForge? If you already know the answer feel free to pass the next paragraph and this. However those who do not, here’s a brief. It’s a fantasy card game where players use a unique composition of cards found only in the deck they bought. Each deck contains 36 cards with 12 cards from each house (or suite – think hearts, spades etc). From there players compete to reach the win condition as quickly as possible in the two player head to head game.

The setting of the game is the crucible where various beings and cultures from civilizations across the universe have been “stolen”. A fantastical realm of science, magic and wonders ‘where anything is possible”.

I am absolutely the target demographic of the book. I have been playing KeyForge both casually and competitively since April 2019 (around 6 months after it’s original release). I’ve played at many venues in the North of England with team mates the Steel City Snufflegators. I’ve been awaiting the book’s arrival for some time.

The Stories are:

Contract

This is a perfect opening to the book. Why? Because it is pretty much the story of a game of KeyForge! It’s told in first person from the perspective of a Svarr Elf attempting to assassinate one of the Archons during a “Vault Battle”. A pulsating, high-octane start to the anthology that I thoroughly enjoyed.

The Apprentice

The second tale is in the third person where we learn about a human called Roz and her robot TRIS. TRIS hasn’t quite functioned correctly since it saved Roz from a radioactive booby trap while she was a child. She is desperate to repair the droid. In her efforts to do so, she’ll find herself in a tense and claustrophobic adventure against the clock.

Extermination Examination

In the third story we get to know Nal’ai a Krxix & Kolli her roomate and “party elf”. Both students of Martian Studies Hub University. We’ll join them on their fieldwork trip to the Borreal enclave where we’ll all learn a lot about house Mars. With both laughs and unexpected turns I found this entertaining.

The Librarians Duel

What parent wouldn’t do whatever they could to protect their child? Library owner Arash is certainly no exception. On her way to Hub Central in the process of doing this she encounters Chief Goldenbeard and his Brobnar clan who make a nuisance of themselves. Despite her human shoulder only being level with his knee, she doesn’t back down from them. The most heart warming of the bunch. A tale of family and friendship across species.

To Catch a Thief

Nalea Wysasandoral is a “purple skinned” elf who loves luxury. We meet her in the process of enjoying the “hospitality” of a High Councillor by taking raw æmber. A tale of daring recounts her pursuit of the items that will secure the life of luxury she so desires. Trying to prevent her, the forces of law do their upmost to catch “the slip” and bring to an end her infamous deeds.

Useful Parasites

A more serene affair. We meet Taryx who lives in the “Lesser Uncanny Forest” spending his time healing and helping the wounded. One day he finds an injured entity he goes on to call Burble. Burble proves to be both an impressive and helpful assistant, along with very familiar for players. For a short story, it’s no mean feat that this is both pensive and thought-provoking.

The Perfect Organism

Briilip is like most good Martians – devoted to the needs of Mars. He is endeavoring to create to create the titular “Perfect Organism” and will test in in combat against the dweller of Anomaly Epsilon 54 – Tyrant. We discover that Martians are note very forgiving when it comes to failure so only the utter destruction of Tyrant will be deemed a success. In victory or defeat; “Mars Lives On”. Will Briilip’s creation?

Wibble and Pplimz. Investigators For Hire

If you have a problem, if no-one else can help – You will be able to find them. Then you can hire Wibble and Pplimz. An odd (or maybe not for the Crucible) duo of Private investigators. They take on the case of Margie our narrator whose sister Kristina is missing. Equal measures comedy and thriller. I found the title duo and their interactions the most engaging in the anthology.

Vaultheads

Just as I thought the opener was the perfect start, this is a raucous and fitting conclusion. We’ll follow Battle Re-enactors playing the parts of famous “Vault Warriors” of the past, like Raymon D’arco. These characters are just as geeky as we are and their devotion to their favourite Archon and Vault Battle are unfaltering and highly appealing to the reader a likely fan of the game. A swashbuckling escapade that was a joy to finish despite it signaling the end of the collection.

My Conclusion

I really enjoyed the book. From its fast-paced, action-packed opener to its frolicking and fun ending. I was engaged throughout. There are multiple references to cards from the game. There’s a lot of variety in the stories and there are so many things we discover about the crucible. Location names. Its social media. Its popular spectator sports and most surprisingly of all; QUITE POSSIBLY THE NAME OF A NEW HOUSE! I may be wrong about that final statement, only time will tell. However you can see if you agree or not when Tales From The Crucible releases on the following dates:

Worldwide Ebook: 5 May 2020

US Trade Paperback: 5 May 2020

UK Paperback: 11 June 2020


Review by Peter Broughton via Rae Reads

KeyForge: Tales from the Crucible, not bad just failed for me by not holding my interest. I had to keep coming back to it in order to finish.

KeyForge – Tales from the Crucible

Aconyte Books

Charlotte Llewelyn-Wells

I cannot even begin to describe how happy the cover art to Tales from the Crucible actually made me when I first laid my eyes on the review copy publishers Aconyte Books kindly sent to me. Genuinely, unabashedly happy. Submerged in the grimdark universe of Warhammer 40,000, and the Horror genre in general, I actually think I had forgotten for quite some time that science-fiction doesn’t always have to be nothing but different shades of black and grey, speckled with arterial red. The anthology’s cover is a joyous and unapologetic riot of colours that bring to life half a dozen different species of alien creatures, all framed against a gorgeous blue sky with weird alien craft zooming through it. It is genuinely beautiful to look at, and the perfect piece of cover art: not only does it succinctly demonstrate what the reader will be getting into upon opening up the anthology, it also makes the book’s content look vibrant and appealing. Indeed, I had no idea what the Crucible was, who the aliens were or what their motives were, or even what the KeyForge system was. Yet all I wanted to do was to dive into that book and get reading, and the fact that the Table of Contents was stuffed full of recognizable names didn’t hurt either: a mixture of sci-fi veterans like Robbie MacNiven and David Guymer, as well as up and coming authors I’d only recently discovered, like the hugely talented Thomas Parrott.

[I did decide to do a little bit of research about KeyForge and the titular Crucible before I started reading, just to ensure I wasn’t going in completely blind. KeyForge is an intriguing-sounding Collectable Card Game (CCG) that sounds like exactly the sort of thing I’d be into if I didn’t have children and therefore no disposable income. The Crucible itself, setting for these tales, is a gigantic artificial planet that has a whole mess of biomes, cultures, societies and technological levels stolen from a variety of universes by a mythical race called the Archons. There’s a whole load more background reading that sounds rather interesting that I’ll dive into when I have more time, but honestly it just sounds like a fantastic excuse to have a whole load of sci-fi and fantasy fun, which is exactly what I’m looking for at the moment]

The collection opens with Contract by Tristan Palmgren, which follows Vira, an elvish assassin who’s taken the titular contract against an Archon, those incredibly powerful and godlike beings who inhabit the Crucible and try and unlock its secrets. Their power is amply demonstrated in the opening pages, where the assassin and various other ‘vaultheads’ watch as two Archons brawl chronically across the landscape. They’re supposedly immortal, which you’d think would make assassination impossible; it would also bring down undue attention on the shadowguild, which results in the guild trying to kill Vira to prevent the contract being fulfilled. They fail, fortunately, allowing the assassin to watch the Archons brawl and plan her attack accordingly. Palmgren has penned a fantastic introductory story, not just for the collection, but for the Crucible in general. Vira is an elf ripped from another universe, her friends and family slaughtered by Martians when they first appeared on the Crucible, leaving her to rapidly adjust to life on the planet; this in turn allows us as readers to see through her eyes and comprehend the Crucible as a setting. We can see the wonderfully bizarre and random blending of cultures, technology and magic systems as she attempts to execute Archon Ponderous Url, and the fact that the only thing to be expected in the Crucible is the unexpected and the chaotic. Vira is a fascinating character with some surprising depth, and I’d like to see more from her in future KeyForge titles. Action-packed, fast-paced and deftly bringing out the chaotic nature of the Crucible, Contract is the perfect start to the anthology.

We then move onto The Apprentice by Cath Lauria, in which our protagonist is Roz, an apprentice mechanic to a popular Goblin mechanic who repairs and creates many of the weapons, jetpack and other jury-rigged, often lethal pieces of equipment used throughout the Crucible. She’s damn good at her job, but still dreams of following in her dead parents footsteps and becoming an explorer. She just has to fix TRIS, an adorable and intriguing robot that can ferry treasure and equipment. And to fix TRIS, she needs to complete her apprenticeship and earn money. Simple, right? Well, equipment in the Crucible is never simple, as the jetpack Roz is trying to fix at the beginning of the story demonstrates; not a huge fan of safety features, goblins, it seems. And when a poor decision by her master affects her personally, it’s up to Roz to cut a new deal in the cutthroat world of the Crucible to try and survive. Lauria obviously has a technical mind, because the descriptions of the various things Roz encounters are bursting with imagination and merge perfectly with the bonkers reality of the Crucible and its inhabitants. In addition, we get some fascinating insights into the criminal underworld, and the illegal habits of the various species on the planet, such as goblins and saurians, and even a glimpse of things like the Nexian junk heap, a mobile trash depository plagued by terrifying (yet awesome) cyber rats. Once again I’m deeply impressed by the richness and depth of imagination invested in the KeyForge setting and the Crucible, and Lauria has done a tremendous job utilising various elements of that setting to write a quirky, engaging story with a surprisingly touching ending.

Of all of the things I was potentially expecting, a tale of higher academia in the Crucible certainly wasn’t anywhere on the list, and the novelty of the scenario depicted by Robbie MacNiven in Extermination Examination quickly won me over. Though as the story progressed, that sense of gleeful, barely-constrained chaos that seems endemic to the Crucible (and KeyForge) soon came to the fore. Graduate student Nal’ai is stunned to find herself woefully (and dangerously) unprepared for a surprise assessment. In an attempt to salvage her academic career, Nal’ai and her roommate must conduct fieldwork with a fanatical and secretive Martian subsect with only the vaguest idea of what to do. It’s a darkly hilarious set-up for a story, aided by MacNiven’s ability to create likeable characters in the form of Nal’ai and Kolli, two university student stereotypes that I couldn’t help but empathise with from my own years of studying. I enjoyed the Martian’s portrayal as full-on, War of the Worlds-style militarists complete with heat rays, force-fields and dome-like habitats, and their homicidal and intensely paranoid nature acts as an excellent foil to the two students, who find themselves undertaking a research trip from hell. But MacNiven also introduces some deft and skilful examination of the Martians and their society that fleshes them out and ensures they don’t remain crude stereotypes; I was particularly intrigued by the concept of ‘rogue’ Martian enclaves and their relationship with the central Martian bastion of Nova Hellas. It all comes together in an action-packed and delightfully unexpected ending that had me laughing out loud, ensuring that this was one of my favourite stories in the anthology.

The Librarian’s Duel by M K Hutchins starts with a mother dealing with the fact that her daughter’s soul is trapped in the walls of her library, another unique story opening that I’m coming to expect from tales set on the Crucible. The more, and better quality, books that the library has, the more that the daughter’s soul is able to manifest and be with her mother. On a journey to return books to a central library, a particularly dangerous book causes a lethal incident – and an incredibly surprising change of circumstances that once again had me laughing. What could have been the setup for a disastrous, grimdark and downheartening story in another anthology, based on another setting, here becomes the basis for a fun, raucous and hugely enjoyable story that blends together a band of giant, clumsy barbarian warriors, a ghost girl, and a cautious librarian thrust into an unexpected, unwanted yet strangely fulfilling new role. It’s a truly heartwarming tale, and one I plan to read to my own children at bedtime.

We then come to Thomas Parrott’s entry, To Catch A Thief, my most anticipated story in the collection; Parrott is a new author, but one that deeply impressed me with his Black Library novella Isha’s Lament, and I looked forward to seeing what he would produce. Parrott introduces Nalea Wysasandoral, elvish thief, who as the story begins is in the midst of burgling a wealthy person’s house, delighting in sampling and stealing various luxurious items. She’s excellent at her job, fleeing a highly-guarded mansion with various expensive goods before guards can even be alerted, and all without the violence she abhors. Frustrating the local police, famous detective Talus the Thief-Taker is hired to catch Nalea. Parrott has a knack for creating original, memorable characters and does it again with this story; Nalea is a wonderful protagonist, and Talus is a delight, a stone-like creature that wears only a top hat and carries a cane as an affection. The cat and mouse chase between them is a light, fast-paced and effortlessly entertaining affair, allowing Parrott to deploy his imagination as he weaves a picture of the criminal underworld in Hub City and the intriguing Lawless Zone; and there’s a twist towards the end that caught me unawares, and which I hope leads to a sequel. Indeed, I really do hope Mr Parrott is contracted to do more stories for KeyForge; he seems like a natural fit for the universe, much like with Black Library and Warhammer 40,000.

M K Hutchins’ Useful Parasites introduces Taryx, a tree-like creature that lives in the Lesser Uncanny Forest (another awesome and evocative placename) and tends to the creatures there with some considerable skill. As the story opens, he’s confronted with a mysterious creature that crash-lands in his vegetable plot. Tending to it is a useful distraction from his heartbreak, and also a chance for Hutchins to bring to life the lush, verdant flora and fauna of the Forest in all of its glory. The creature, which Taryx nicknames Burble, slowly gets better and becomes something between a pet and companion, cheering Taryx up immensely. Unfortunately, this being the Crucible, mysterious things are often dangerous, and Hutchins does a fantastic job of slowly, insidiously, demonstrating the two sides of Burble and how it affects Taryx and those around him. It’s a slow, measured tale that weaves in some thoughtful takes on love, loss and guilt, with a bittersweet ending that perfectly caps off the story.

CL Werner is another Black Library author contributing to this anthology, and his offering is The Perfect Organism, focused on the Martians and their obsession with technology and genetic manipulation. Briilip is a Martian Elder and scientist, who believes that their creature Number 647 is the ultimate genetically-adapted war machine that will be able to conquer the entire Crucible, once testing has been finished. That test is to fight, and hopefully defeat, the eldritch abomination known as Tyrant, an opportunity for Werner to utilise his Warhammer experience to create two horrifically impressive abominations. And when even more genetic creations are required, Briilip becomes more and more obsessive, with Werner cleverly highlighting just how fanatical and determined the Martians can become when riled up and presented with an obstacle. Obviously inspired by old 1950s and 1960s kaiju movies, The Perfect Organism is a hugely enjoyable monster romp.

The delightfully named Wibble and Pplimz, Investigators for Hire from M Darusha Wehm is the penultimate story in the collection and opens with that classic of the detective genre: a missing persons case. Our protagonist approaches Wibble and Pplimz to find their sister, who was last seen being chased by a pack of horrific, bladed monstrosities. Finding her means venturing into the Lawless Zone, accompanied by the worryingly over enthusiastic Wibble and the taciturn Pplimz. I thoroughly enjoyed the two detectives and their Odd Couple-vibe, sharing the protagonist’s bemusement at their eccentric behaviour (and hilarious outfits) as they followed the trail to the kidnapped sister. Finishing with a twist that completely changes the direction of the story and leads to an unsettling and rather disturbing conclusion, Wibble and Pplimz, Investigators for Hire is evocative, cunningly plotted and the most unusual stories in the anthology.

Finally, we close with David Guymer’s Vaultheads, which is a frankly brilliant and subversive take on both the KeyForge game specifically, and the scifi and fantasy in general. I’ll try not to give too much away, but Guymer makes the interesting observation that there’s absolutely no reason that roleplaying and LARPing would be confined solely to humanity’s reality. Guymer has a real eye for engaging, original characters, and the story is as much a character study of various re-enactors – or the titular Vaultheads – as it is an adventure story, getting into their heads and the various motivations one might have to join such a dedicated hobby. It’s got a surprisingly upbeat and emotionally resonant ending, even for a collection full of fun and engaging tales, and is the perfect way to finish the anthology.

Usually in any anthology there’s one or two stories I skip because they just don’t engage with me for some reason, but as the length of this review suggests, this didn’t happen with Tales from the Crucible. Each story is a unique look at a different aspect of the world that acts as the setting for KeyForge, and the various species that populate it, and I absolutely loved every minute of reading this anthology. There’s a real sense of fun and enjoyment that runs through each of its stories, all which mix action with heart and an often sly sense of humour, as well as a surprising amount of depth; and it rapidly becomes obvious that each author was carefully chosen by editor Charlotte Llewelyn-Wells because of how well they engaged with the setting, in addition to their high quality of writing skills. If KeyForge as a game is even a tenth as fun, enjoyable and heartening as this anthology, then it will have found a dedicated fan in me and, I’m certain, many other readers.

When you read an anthology it can quite difficult to actually enjoy or even like every story as by its nature it is multiple authors telling their tales which the reader may or may not enjoy, I found the creativity shown by the authors in this book to be outstanding and they let their imaginations run riot building a world full of very complex characters that the reader invests in, very enjoyable read indeed