2025 Reading Challenge 03 The King in Yellow
Robert W Chambers described The King in Yellow as “…a work of cosmic horror fantasy that explores the sinister nature of human curiosity.”
It is book three and week three of my reading challenge, and this is a triple whammy, to progress the challenge, prepare for a Grognard Files bookclub, and refresh my mind on the Yellow King RPG.
The book is divided into multiple stories, but I focused only on the supernatural ones.
The Repairer of Reputations
The Mask
In the Court of the Dragon
The Yellow Sign
Each story is linked by certain themes, such as the play, The King in Yellow; depraved, beautiful, horrific and mind-shattering. Many of the protagonists mention reading the play and therefore there is always the chance their recounting of the tale is unreliable.
Most enjoyable for me has been In the Court of the Dragon, really simplistic as are most of the stories, The Repairer of Reputations aside, it’s been a lot of fun to retrace the actual locations in Paris that are mentioned and find “The Dragon” itself. The final line, “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God!” keeps playing on my mind.
I’ve read The King in Yellow several times, and its effect is now diluted on me somewhat, though I bizarrely found The Repairer of Reputations completely different to how I remember it, it’s at turns government propaganda, the crazed ramblings of a madman and an absurdist, Lewis Carrollesque dreamscape. Maybe I am the unreliable reader?
Completing this in a week was straightforward only a hundred pages or so, but again, it’s got its hooks into me, perhaps the minimalist elements of horror that get the tendrils of imagination seeping into your mind to fill in the unknown elements.
I rated it 8.9 out of 10, partly for nostalgia and the many excellent nights of gaming it’s given me.
TTRPG Thoughts:
This feels a little pointless, as I can’t say much more than Robin D. Laws so please, just make a well-worth investment in this truly wonderful RPG, The Yellow King RPG and you’ll discover what I have.