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Purple Phoenix Games (2266 KP) rated Seasons in Tabletop Games
Jul 6, 2019 (Updated Nov 4, 2021)
I have mentioned before that I have a bad habit. Well several, but this one pertains to board games. You see, I once had a collection of games that I loved, but was pulled into the BGG Auctions and would engage in auctioning off many of games that I deemed of good return value. But then I would start to miss them. And then I would start to reacquire them. Then my wife stepped in and made me see how foolish I was to rid myself of them in the first place. Well, next up in this line is a game I recently reacquired and never should have let go in the first place – Seasons!
Seasons is a fantastical dice rolling, card drafting, hand management game for two to four players. In it, players are sorcerers competing in a legendary magical tournament that spans three years in an attempt to be crowned the next Archmage of the kingdom. As the seasons change, sorcerers may draw power from changing mana sources, and utilizing these sources most efficiently and effectively will earn victory over all. So tighten up your belt and get to casting, young mage!
To setup, follow the rules in the rulebook (there are many steps, and I have feeble and weak fingers) until the table looks somewhat similar to the photo below – except for the obvious oversight in placing the orange cube on the zero space of bonus actions. The main areas of interest are the main game board where the years and seasons are tracked, the Crystal score track, and player board/tableau area. Players will be dealt a hand of nine cards to start, and then draft one card at a time, passing to their neighbor each time, and deciding which three cards they would like to start the game with, and assigning three more cards each into the Library for rounds two and three. The game begins in Winter, and the black cube is placed on the number 1 of the seasons board. The game is now setup and ready to begin with the first player!
Each turn the active player will roll all dice in the current season (this game is setup for two players, so three total dice are used each turn). They will choose one die to use for the turn, and other players will choose theirs. The players then gather the resources present on the die face. These could be element tokens, crystals (VP), summon gauge stars, cards drawn from the deck, or even transmutation powers. Once resources are gained, the active player may then choose to play a card from their hand to their personal tableau, given they have adequate summoning power (the number of cards that can be played) available on their board. The cost to play the card is found under the illustration, and is usually paid in crystals, element tokens, or a combination of both. These Power Cards may allow the player immediate benefits, ongoing benefits, or benefits that may be activated at certain times during the game.
Another option players have from their chosen die is the ability to transmutate. When a player chooses a die with this option, they are able to consult the current season on the main board and exchange element tokens for crystals, depending on the provided exchange system. For example, a player wishing to exchange earth tokens (the green plant) during Winter will be provided with three crystals each, while attempting the same transmutation during Spring will only provide one crystal each.
Once each player has taken their turn to collect their resources, complete their turn actions, and pass onto the next player, the unchosen die is resolved. Each die face also shows a number of dotted pips at the bottom. The number of pips shown on the unchosen die refers to the number of spaces the cube on the main board season tracker is to be moved forward around the board. One pip, one space forward. This could result in the current season continuing or progressing into the next season. When the cube progresses from Fall to Winter, players will collect their cards set aside for year two or three, respectively. These cards are added to their hand and available to be used immediately on their turn. If, however, on their turn a player has little they can do, or simply wish to boost their turn, they may use one of four bonus actions, as printed on their player board. These actions allow the player to trade two element tokens from their reserves for any other two element tokens from the main supply, allow transmutation if the symbol is not present on their chosen die face, increase their summoning gauge by one, or draw two power cards from the deck and choose one to add to their hand instead of drawing one, per their die face. Each player can use three total bonus actions for each game at a cost of crystals for each usage. Certainly a trade-off.
Play continues in this fashion of choosing and resolving dice, playing cards, and transmuting tokens for crystals until the cube has completed its three year journey around the main board. At that time crystals are scored from cards and added to the tracker, with five points deducted for each card remaining in hand and points deducted for the usage of bonus actions. The player with the most crystals at the end of the game is the winner!
Components. I have a lot to say here, but will attempt to be as succinct as I can. The components in Seasons are simply phenomenal. Yes, the boards, cards, and cubes are all fine quality and unimpressive. However, the art style throughout the game and those big chunky dice are the real standouts to me. I mean, who DOESN’T like to roll big, chunky dice? And the player colors? Oh man, I love them! Players can choose orange, purple, gray, or lime green. Those are some great color options, and such a simple upgrade from primary colors used on many other games. The dice are primary colors, but I still enjoy them and I will let it slide. No real complaints on components from me. I have heard complaints about people not vibing on the color choices associate with the elements/energy, but I applaud the mold-breaking here. Why can’t Fall be red and associated with a feather? Why can’t Summer be yellow and associated with a flame? Fire doesn’t always have to be red. Go on, Seasons! Be you!
Our thoughts on each game should never be a surprise. I will say this for Seasons – I believe that when I auctioned it off the first time, part of the reasoning was because I did not fully understand the rules. I was a newer gamer at the time and was lured in by colors and art style (which are still stunning). More than likely I thought I was smarter than I truly am and included all the cards in my first plays instead of heeding the suggestions given by the rulebook for easier first games. Now, being a more seasoned (I couldn’t resist) gamer, I can better appreciate what is in this box. The unique card play, the dice drafting for resources and actions, the progression of time as a result of the rejected die, all come together to make a very solid and different game. I am trying to think my way through my collection to find a parallel that uses all these mechanics together as well as Seasons does and I am finding it difficult. It is so easy to just throw mechanics into a blender and see the goo that results, but everything with Seasons feels right and I am just in love.
Why did I ever get rid of Seasons? I will claim young and dumb, though I wasn’t very young. Do not emulate my decision to shed this one out of your collection. You don’t have a copy? I would recommend visiting your FLGS to see if they might have a copy in stock. It’s a great one, and one that I will treasure from here on out. Purple Phoenix Games officially gives this one an amazingly colorful 5 / 6. I know the others will enjoy it too, but until they play it, I will be giddy with excitement each time I am able to play my copy. Why are you still here? Go get Seasons!
Seasons is a fantastical dice rolling, card drafting, hand management game for two to four players. In it, players are sorcerers competing in a legendary magical tournament that spans three years in an attempt to be crowned the next Archmage of the kingdom. As the seasons change, sorcerers may draw power from changing mana sources, and utilizing these sources most efficiently and effectively will earn victory over all. So tighten up your belt and get to casting, young mage!
To setup, follow the rules in the rulebook (there are many steps, and I have feeble and weak fingers) until the table looks somewhat similar to the photo below – except for the obvious oversight in placing the orange cube on the zero space of bonus actions. The main areas of interest are the main game board where the years and seasons are tracked, the Crystal score track, and player board/tableau area. Players will be dealt a hand of nine cards to start, and then draft one card at a time, passing to their neighbor each time, and deciding which three cards they would like to start the game with, and assigning three more cards each into the Library for rounds two and three. The game begins in Winter, and the black cube is placed on the number 1 of the seasons board. The game is now setup and ready to begin with the first player!
Each turn the active player will roll all dice in the current season (this game is setup for two players, so three total dice are used each turn). They will choose one die to use for the turn, and other players will choose theirs. The players then gather the resources present on the die face. These could be element tokens, crystals (VP), summon gauge stars, cards drawn from the deck, or even transmutation powers. Once resources are gained, the active player may then choose to play a card from their hand to their personal tableau, given they have adequate summoning power (the number of cards that can be played) available on their board. The cost to play the card is found under the illustration, and is usually paid in crystals, element tokens, or a combination of both. These Power Cards may allow the player immediate benefits, ongoing benefits, or benefits that may be activated at certain times during the game.
Another option players have from their chosen die is the ability to transmutate. When a player chooses a die with this option, they are able to consult the current season on the main board and exchange element tokens for crystals, depending on the provided exchange system. For example, a player wishing to exchange earth tokens (the green plant) during Winter will be provided with three crystals each, while attempting the same transmutation during Spring will only provide one crystal each.
Once each player has taken their turn to collect their resources, complete their turn actions, and pass onto the next player, the unchosen die is resolved. Each die face also shows a number of dotted pips at the bottom. The number of pips shown on the unchosen die refers to the number of spaces the cube on the main board season tracker is to be moved forward around the board. One pip, one space forward. This could result in the current season continuing or progressing into the next season. When the cube progresses from Fall to Winter, players will collect their cards set aside for year two or three, respectively. These cards are added to their hand and available to be used immediately on their turn. If, however, on their turn a player has little they can do, or simply wish to boost their turn, they may use one of four bonus actions, as printed on their player board. These actions allow the player to trade two element tokens from their reserves for any other two element tokens from the main supply, allow transmutation if the symbol is not present on their chosen die face, increase their summoning gauge by one, or draw two power cards from the deck and choose one to add to their hand instead of drawing one, per their die face. Each player can use three total bonus actions for each game at a cost of crystals for each usage. Certainly a trade-off.
Play continues in this fashion of choosing and resolving dice, playing cards, and transmuting tokens for crystals until the cube has completed its three year journey around the main board. At that time crystals are scored from cards and added to the tracker, with five points deducted for each card remaining in hand and points deducted for the usage of bonus actions. The player with the most crystals at the end of the game is the winner!
Components. I have a lot to say here, but will attempt to be as succinct as I can. The components in Seasons are simply phenomenal. Yes, the boards, cards, and cubes are all fine quality and unimpressive. However, the art style throughout the game and those big chunky dice are the real standouts to me. I mean, who DOESN’T like to roll big, chunky dice? And the player colors? Oh man, I love them! Players can choose orange, purple, gray, or lime green. Those are some great color options, and such a simple upgrade from primary colors used on many other games. The dice are primary colors, but I still enjoy them and I will let it slide. No real complaints on components from me. I have heard complaints about people not vibing on the color choices associate with the elements/energy, but I applaud the mold-breaking here. Why can’t Fall be red and associated with a feather? Why can’t Summer be yellow and associated with a flame? Fire doesn’t always have to be red. Go on, Seasons! Be you!
Our thoughts on each game should never be a surprise. I will say this for Seasons – I believe that when I auctioned it off the first time, part of the reasoning was because I did not fully understand the rules. I was a newer gamer at the time and was lured in by colors and art style (which are still stunning). More than likely I thought I was smarter than I truly am and included all the cards in my first plays instead of heeding the suggestions given by the rulebook for easier first games. Now, being a more seasoned (I couldn’t resist) gamer, I can better appreciate what is in this box. The unique card play, the dice drafting for resources and actions, the progression of time as a result of the rejected die, all come together to make a very solid and different game. I am trying to think my way through my collection to find a parallel that uses all these mechanics together as well as Seasons does and I am finding it difficult. It is so easy to just throw mechanics into a blender and see the goo that results, but everything with Seasons feels right and I am just in love.
Why did I ever get rid of Seasons? I will claim young and dumb, though I wasn’t very young. Do not emulate my decision to shed this one out of your collection. You don’t have a copy? I would recommend visiting your FLGS to see if they might have a copy in stock. It’s a great one, and one that I will treasure from here on out. Purple Phoenix Games officially gives this one an amazingly colorful 5 / 6. I know the others will enjoy it too, but until they play it, I will be giddy with excitement each time I am able to play my copy. Why are you still here? Go get Seasons!
Paul Kellett (118 KP) rated Lifeform in Tabletop Games
May 1, 2019
I demoed this at Fan Boy 3 in Manchester during the Kickstarter campaign and was really excited to get to try this out.
So, what is the game?
Basically, it is Alien: The Board Game. A highly thematic one against many survival game where some of you play the crew of the mining ship Valley Forge trying to escape the clutches of an unknown alien killer before the ship self-destructs. Sound familiar? You bet, and it captures the tension of that well-known film perfectly.
I arrived part way through a game and Tristan kindly gave up his seat to let Me jump in. I basically new nothing about how to play, having only watched a couple of demo videos earlier in the week but with a crib sheet in front of Me explaining the card icons and a quick run down of what you can do in a turn, it didn't feel overwhelming and I was able to take over quite seamlessly. The game was close to the end and the alien player had already taken out most of the crew and was set up very nicely to ambush the rest of us. It wasn't long before the ship was adrift with just one deadly occupant...
How does it work?
We played a basic game, so some of the more meatier options were not included and we just had the simple task of gathering enough equipment and escaping in the shuttlecraft.
In the full game, players will be assigned personal objectives like downloading the ship's log from the data core or gathering specific equipment. This will add much more depth to the game as each player will be striving to achieve these goals as well as trying to avoid the alien and reaching the escape shuttle.
In the simple game however, we just had to focus on escaping. To do this, you need to collect the equipment tokens that are arranged in various rooms on the board. These are then placed on a track at the side of the board in various slots for coolant, energy cells, weapons, space suits and halon canisters. Most of these tracks have a minimum number of tokens needed before you can attempt to escape and any extra will grant bonuses like drawing extra cards or gaining a flame thrower.
In your turn, you get to perform one action so the downtime is minimal and the turns fair zip around the table, often before you've had a chance to take a breath and plan your next move.
All the actions are played from the cards you have in your hand, so you feel the tension of needing to get somewhere but having to wait until you draw a card that lets you run through multiple rooms.
Drawing cards. Now there's a thing. The ship's self destruct has been activated (naturally) and you only have 30 minutes until the ship blows up. Each time you choose to draw more cards into your hand, you slide the marker up the track, closer to the big bang.
I can't say too much about what the alien player can do as I didn't get to study that side of things too much but it certainly has some devious tricks up it's sleeve.
The alien player starts with two standees on the board. They look identical besides a little coloured sticker (this will be a set of symbols in the final game). He also has a corresponding set of tokens next to his player board and he will choose one of these to be the alien. The other standee (or standees, as later in the game there is the chance to get a third standee out) is a decoy so the crew, essentially seeing these as blips on their trackers, never know which is the real threat until it's too late.
There is a nice twist here, as, after making a kill, the alien player get's to reset his tokens and choose again which one will be the decoy and which will be the real killer. The alien player can also choose whether the kill was silent, offing the victim quickly and cleanly, or whether it is a nasty, brutal affair with lots of screaming. If the latter, then the other crew members hear this and all have to make a panic move into an adjacent room. This can be really useful if the crew are about to pick up equipment or possibly achieve an objective (I'm not sure if the personal objectives will be common knowledge or not sat this point).
The alien has various little trackers it can use from hatching more eggs letting it increase the amount of cards it holds, to taking control of the android on the crew which will then get placed on the board and follow a programmed track, killing any crew in it's way until it gets to the escape shuttle where it will start sabotaging various systems.
The alien also gets to place terror tokens and power out tokens on the board. If you enter a space with a terror token, you have to draw a card from the terror deck and these are always bad. A room with a power outage is dark and you can't run through it, you must stop your movement there. Other bad things can happen in the dark too.
What if I die?
Another neat thing this game does is avoid player elimination by cycling the crew. In our game, there were two of us controlling two characters each and when both of My characters died, I took one from the other player so we had one each. When that character was also killed (yes, I was not doing well...), rather than being forced to sit out the rest of the game, I could choose one of two secondary roles to play.
I could take control of the ship's mainframe computer which would allow me to do things like open and close bulkhead doors, slowing the alien down, allow the other players to draw more cards and various other useful things.
Or I could play the ship's cat. This was the option I went for and it was great. I could distract the alien, destroy some of it's eggs (so reducing it's hand size), place additional equipment tokens on the board or assist the other crew by letting them draw more cards.
It was this that that actually gave us the win as it was looking pretty bleak towards the end, but the cat actually managed to guide the last remaining crew member to a flamethrower and distract the alien long enough to make our escape.
What do I think?
This game is superb. Easy to pick up, but very thematic and definitely very tense. The decisions can be easy at times, but then you will hit a situation where the alien has you cornered and you must make some hard choices.
As I said, the theme just drips off every part of this game like a slightly corrosive drool. Our game started off really well - we managed to quickly gather a massive chunk of the equipment we needed to escape but the alien had been cutting the power and placing terror tokens closer to the escape shuttle ready for our eventual arrival and by the mid-game, we were feeling trapped and the alien was using the ventilation ducts to spring out and take us down one by one.
We were down to one surviving crew member and the ship's cat who, as I already mentioned managed to lead the human to the safety of the shuttle and espace.
Just getting to the shuttle isn't the end, however, there is one last twist (as in all good stories). At around the mid-point of the self destruct track, the alien get's to pick a card which is his estimate on what point prior to the ship blowing up we will reach the shuttle. If he has guessed correctly, then as we leave the stricken mining vessel, we find out that the shuttle has one extra occupant...
We were lucky and the alien player had guessed incorrectly, but had he been right, then there would have been a final battle aboard the escape shuttle and we may have been sending some deadly cargo back to Earth...
I can highly recommend this game and best of all, there is an expansion that adds an AI deck and a whole other set of objectives for solo play. I had a quick look at this and it looks like it will make for a very tense and really exciting solo game as well as a cool multiplayer experience.
So, what is the game?
Basically, it is Alien: The Board Game. A highly thematic one against many survival game where some of you play the crew of the mining ship Valley Forge trying to escape the clutches of an unknown alien killer before the ship self-destructs. Sound familiar? You bet, and it captures the tension of that well-known film perfectly.
I arrived part way through a game and Tristan kindly gave up his seat to let Me jump in. I basically new nothing about how to play, having only watched a couple of demo videos earlier in the week but with a crib sheet in front of Me explaining the card icons and a quick run down of what you can do in a turn, it didn't feel overwhelming and I was able to take over quite seamlessly. The game was close to the end and the alien player had already taken out most of the crew and was set up very nicely to ambush the rest of us. It wasn't long before the ship was adrift with just one deadly occupant...
How does it work?
We played a basic game, so some of the more meatier options were not included and we just had the simple task of gathering enough equipment and escaping in the shuttlecraft.
In the full game, players will be assigned personal objectives like downloading the ship's log from the data core or gathering specific equipment. This will add much more depth to the game as each player will be striving to achieve these goals as well as trying to avoid the alien and reaching the escape shuttle.
In the simple game however, we just had to focus on escaping. To do this, you need to collect the equipment tokens that are arranged in various rooms on the board. These are then placed on a track at the side of the board in various slots for coolant, energy cells, weapons, space suits and halon canisters. Most of these tracks have a minimum number of tokens needed before you can attempt to escape and any extra will grant bonuses like drawing extra cards or gaining a flame thrower.
In your turn, you get to perform one action so the downtime is minimal and the turns fair zip around the table, often before you've had a chance to take a breath and plan your next move.
All the actions are played from the cards you have in your hand, so you feel the tension of needing to get somewhere but having to wait until you draw a card that lets you run through multiple rooms.
Drawing cards. Now there's a thing. The ship's self destruct has been activated (naturally) and you only have 30 minutes until the ship blows up. Each time you choose to draw more cards into your hand, you slide the marker up the track, closer to the big bang.
I can't say too much about what the alien player can do as I didn't get to study that side of things too much but it certainly has some devious tricks up it's sleeve.
The alien player starts with two standees on the board. They look identical besides a little coloured sticker (this will be a set of symbols in the final game). He also has a corresponding set of tokens next to his player board and he will choose one of these to be the alien. The other standee (or standees, as later in the game there is the chance to get a third standee out) is a decoy so the crew, essentially seeing these as blips on their trackers, never know which is the real threat until it's too late.
There is a nice twist here, as, after making a kill, the alien player get's to reset his tokens and choose again which one will be the decoy and which will be the real killer. The alien player can also choose whether the kill was silent, offing the victim quickly and cleanly, or whether it is a nasty, brutal affair with lots of screaming. If the latter, then the other crew members hear this and all have to make a panic move into an adjacent room. This can be really useful if the crew are about to pick up equipment or possibly achieve an objective (I'm not sure if the personal objectives will be common knowledge or not sat this point).
The alien has various little trackers it can use from hatching more eggs letting it increase the amount of cards it holds, to taking control of the android on the crew which will then get placed on the board and follow a programmed track, killing any crew in it's way until it gets to the escape shuttle where it will start sabotaging various systems.
The alien also gets to place terror tokens and power out tokens on the board. If you enter a space with a terror token, you have to draw a card from the terror deck and these are always bad. A room with a power outage is dark and you can't run through it, you must stop your movement there. Other bad things can happen in the dark too.
What if I die?
Another neat thing this game does is avoid player elimination by cycling the crew. In our game, there were two of us controlling two characters each and when both of My characters died, I took one from the other player so we had one each. When that character was also killed (yes, I was not doing well...), rather than being forced to sit out the rest of the game, I could choose one of two secondary roles to play.
I could take control of the ship's mainframe computer which would allow me to do things like open and close bulkhead doors, slowing the alien down, allow the other players to draw more cards and various other useful things.
Or I could play the ship's cat. This was the option I went for and it was great. I could distract the alien, destroy some of it's eggs (so reducing it's hand size), place additional equipment tokens on the board or assist the other crew by letting them draw more cards.
It was this that that actually gave us the win as it was looking pretty bleak towards the end, but the cat actually managed to guide the last remaining crew member to a flamethrower and distract the alien long enough to make our escape.
What do I think?
This game is superb. Easy to pick up, but very thematic and definitely very tense. The decisions can be easy at times, but then you will hit a situation where the alien has you cornered and you must make some hard choices.
As I said, the theme just drips off every part of this game like a slightly corrosive drool. Our game started off really well - we managed to quickly gather a massive chunk of the equipment we needed to escape but the alien had been cutting the power and placing terror tokens closer to the escape shuttle ready for our eventual arrival and by the mid-game, we were feeling trapped and the alien was using the ventilation ducts to spring out and take us down one by one.
We were down to one surviving crew member and the ship's cat who, as I already mentioned managed to lead the human to the safety of the shuttle and espace.
Just getting to the shuttle isn't the end, however, there is one last twist (as in all good stories). At around the mid-point of the self destruct track, the alien get's to pick a card which is his estimate on what point prior to the ship blowing up we will reach the shuttle. If he has guessed correctly, then as we leave the stricken mining vessel, we find out that the shuttle has one extra occupant...
We were lucky and the alien player had guessed incorrectly, but had he been right, then there would have been a final battle aboard the escape shuttle and we may have been sending some deadly cargo back to Earth...
I can highly recommend this game and best of all, there is an expansion that adds an AI deck and a whole other set of objectives for solo play. I had a quick look at this and it looks like it will make for a very tense and really exciting solo game as well as a cool multiplayer experience.
Hadley (567 KP) rated Those Bones Are Not My Child in Books
Nov 12, 2019
A different type of True Crime book (1 more)
Things you probably didn't know about the case
Writing transitions are confusing (1 more)
Smash poetry breaks up the flow
Toni Cade Bambara, a writer, documentary filmmaker and screenwriter, gives True Crime readers a unique viewpoint of the real Atlanta Child Murders. Bambara mostly writes from the eyes of Marzala, a mother of three whose oldest son goes missing during one of the worst murder sprees in Atlanta's history. Marzala and her family were not actual people during this time- - - all of them are based off of parents and siblings of the real victims. Not soon after Marzala does everything she can with the police to find her son, she joins a group of African-Americans that are outraged by the lack of progress to catch who is killing Atlanta's black children. This group forms what is called STOP (a citizen-run task force). For the majority of the book, Marzala with most of the black community in the area typed out letters to prominent government officials asking for help to stop the murders, also using Vietnam vets in the area to use their tracking skills to keep an eye on suspects, and investigating buildings that police refused to believe had anything to do with the childrens' disappearances and/or murders, which Bambara did an amazing job putting all the real facts together of the actual community members that were involved with this at the time. This story is upsetting, but enlightening on how politics may have caused so many children to be murdered. This is a story no reader will ever forget.
Bambara writes not in a normal narrative - - - just telling a story from specific viewpoints, but she often breaks off into smash poetry to depict a character's state-of-mind, which, sometimes can be off putting for the reader, breaking the flow of the story. Yet, the use of smash poetry combined with the era and the heart breaking subject at hand, separates Those Bones Are Not My Child from every True Crime book I have ever read. But a note for fans of True Crime, this story is from the view point of the victims' families and the search they went through to try and catch the murderer(s), unlike most TC books, which follow the police through the investigation leading to, usually, the capture of the perpetrator. From living in Atlanta during the time of the murders, Bambara was able to reconstruct the life of a black family in 1980's Georgia, while focusing on the effect these terrible crimes had on the surrounding community. Bambara did an amazing job on what most writers cannot.
The amount of characters, specifically the fictional ones, are very well created. She describes just enough to give readers the ability to tell them apart, showing every now and then from their own viewpoints. Out of all the characters, I came to really like Zala's two other children: Kenti and Kofi. One particular scene shows the strain of Sonny's disappearance on their family: " Zala parked the comb again and sat back. 'Listen, you two.' Kofi dropped down onto his knees. 'The police and the newspapers don't know what the hell is going on, so they feel stupid, because they're supposed to know, they're trained to know, they're paid to know. It's their job. Understand? But it's hard for grown-ups to admit they're stupid, especially if they're professionals like police and reporters. So they blame the children. Or they ignore them and fill up the papers with the hostages in Iran. Understand? And now... Jesus... they've got people calling those kids juvenile delinquents.'
'Don't cry.' Kenti tried to lean into her lap and got pushed away.
'They don't know a damn thing and they act like they don't want to know. So they blame the kids 'cause they can't speak up for themselves. They say the kids had no business being outdoors, getting themselves in trouble.'
'You let us go outdoors.'
'Of course I do, baby. We go lots of places, 'cause a lot of people fought hard for our right to go any damn where we please. But when the children go out like they've a right to and some maniac grabs them, then it's the children's fault or the parents who should've been watching every minute, like we don't have to work like dogs just to put food on the table.'
Kofi walked on his knees towards the bed, but he didn't lean on her like he wanted 'cause she might push him away. So he just put his hand on the mattress next to hers."
During the Atlanta Child Murders, victims were random, except for that they were children from the same neighborhood, and they were African-American. At first, police didn't believe a serial murderer was going around abducting children, but rather that 'poor, broken' families were killing their own. In the Prologue, Bambara shows that the victims' families and private detectives came up with more ideas of the motive than the police did:
" White cops taking license in Black neighborhoods.
The Klan and other Nazi thugs on the rampage.
Diabolical scientists experimenting on Third World people.
Demonic cults engaging in human sacrifices.
A 'Nam vet unable to make the transition.
UFO aliens conducting exploratory surgery.
Whites avenging Dewey Baugus, a white youth beaten to death in spring '79, allegedly by Black youths.
Parents of a raped child running amok with 'justice.'
Porno filmmakers doing snuff flicks for entertainment.
A band of child molesters covering their tracks.
New drug forces killing the young (unwitting?) couriers of the old in a bid for turf.
Unreconstructed peckerwoods trying to topple the Black administration.
Plantation kidnappers of slave labor issuing the pink slip.
White mercenaries using Black targets to train death squadrons for overseas jobs and for domestic wars to come. "
All of these theories are explored with evidence in Those Bones Are Not My Child. One scene in Part III, Zala's cop friend, B.J. shows up to her house to tell her to stop bringing attention to the investigation, " 'That Eubanks woman - - - your husband's friend? - - - she said you were bringing in the TV networks to blow the case open. I thought we had an agreement to keep each other informed. This morning I find out through the grapevine that you parents got a medium stashed in a hotel here in town, some woman who's been making headlines up north with cases that supposedly have the authorities stumped. If you knew how much work has been done on this case - - - no, listen, don't interrupt me. Then I find out - - - and not from you - - - that some of you parents are planning to tour the country cracking on the investigation. That's not too smart. And you should have told me.' " These two may have been fictional characters, but in Bambara's Acknowledgments, she states that all scenarios were true, and that she made B.J. to tell about the actual police officers who were involved with the investigation.
The tension between the police and the public is felt throughout the entire story. Despite all of the work the citizen task force put in, police arrested a man named Wayne Williams for the murder of two adult victims (who, due to their mental age, which was stated to be that of children, were placed on the victims' list of the Atlanta Child Murders): " Wayne Williams, charged with the murder of twenty-seven-year-old Nathaniel Cater and implicated in the murder of the other adults and children on the official list..." Zala, having worked for almost a year at the STOP offices, she, along with most of the community, doubt that Williams was a lone killer or even the killer at all. Williams never stood trial for the childrens' murders, but the police informed the public that he did it, case closed - - - although, after Williams' arrest, children were still being abducted and their bodies were still being found. Even after Williams' trial and the guilty verdict for two adult victims, some people stuck around to continue to investigate and claim Williams a 'scapegoat' of politics: " There were still pockets of interest and people who wouldn't let the case go. James Baldwin had been coming to town off and on; a book was rumored. Sondra O'Neale, the Emory University professor, hadn't abandoned her research, either. From time to time, TV and movie types were in the city poking around for an angle. Camille Bell was moving to Tallahassee to write up the case from the point of view of the STOP committee. The vets had taken over The Call now that Speaker was working full-time with the Central American Committee. The Revolutionary Communist Party kept running pieces on the case in the Revolutionary Worker. Whenever Abby Mann sent down a point man for his proposed TV docudrama, the Atlanta officials and civil rights leaders would go off the deep end. " At the end of it all, the questions still remain: did Williams kill all of those children by himself? Was he part of a pornographic cult that killed the children? Or is Williams completely innocent, and the murderer(s) are still out there? In Those Bones Are Not My Child, I guarantee you will be left questioning if the police were right.
All in all, the writing transitions can become confusing sometimes, especially the interludes of smash poetry, but I highly recommend this book to people who like the True Crime genre, especially of any interest in this specific case.
Bambara writes not in a normal narrative - - - just telling a story from specific viewpoints, but she often breaks off into smash poetry to depict a character's state-of-mind, which, sometimes can be off putting for the reader, breaking the flow of the story. Yet, the use of smash poetry combined with the era and the heart breaking subject at hand, separates Those Bones Are Not My Child from every True Crime book I have ever read. But a note for fans of True Crime, this story is from the view point of the victims' families and the search they went through to try and catch the murderer(s), unlike most TC books, which follow the police through the investigation leading to, usually, the capture of the perpetrator. From living in Atlanta during the time of the murders, Bambara was able to reconstruct the life of a black family in 1980's Georgia, while focusing on the effect these terrible crimes had on the surrounding community. Bambara did an amazing job on what most writers cannot.
The amount of characters, specifically the fictional ones, are very well created. She describes just enough to give readers the ability to tell them apart, showing every now and then from their own viewpoints. Out of all the characters, I came to really like Zala's two other children: Kenti and Kofi. One particular scene shows the strain of Sonny's disappearance on their family: " Zala parked the comb again and sat back. 'Listen, you two.' Kofi dropped down onto his knees. 'The police and the newspapers don't know what the hell is going on, so they feel stupid, because they're supposed to know, they're trained to know, they're paid to know. It's their job. Understand? But it's hard for grown-ups to admit they're stupid, especially if they're professionals like police and reporters. So they blame the children. Or they ignore them and fill up the papers with the hostages in Iran. Understand? And now... Jesus... they've got people calling those kids juvenile delinquents.'
'Don't cry.' Kenti tried to lean into her lap and got pushed away.
'They don't know a damn thing and they act like they don't want to know. So they blame the kids 'cause they can't speak up for themselves. They say the kids had no business being outdoors, getting themselves in trouble.'
'You let us go outdoors.'
'Of course I do, baby. We go lots of places, 'cause a lot of people fought hard for our right to go any damn where we please. But when the children go out like they've a right to and some maniac grabs them, then it's the children's fault or the parents who should've been watching every minute, like we don't have to work like dogs just to put food on the table.'
Kofi walked on his knees towards the bed, but he didn't lean on her like he wanted 'cause she might push him away. So he just put his hand on the mattress next to hers."
During the Atlanta Child Murders, victims were random, except for that they were children from the same neighborhood, and they were African-American. At first, police didn't believe a serial murderer was going around abducting children, but rather that 'poor, broken' families were killing their own. In the Prologue, Bambara shows that the victims' families and private detectives came up with more ideas of the motive than the police did:
" White cops taking license in Black neighborhoods.
The Klan and other Nazi thugs on the rampage.
Diabolical scientists experimenting on Third World people.
Demonic cults engaging in human sacrifices.
A 'Nam vet unable to make the transition.
UFO aliens conducting exploratory surgery.
Whites avenging Dewey Baugus, a white youth beaten to death in spring '79, allegedly by Black youths.
Parents of a raped child running amok with 'justice.'
Porno filmmakers doing snuff flicks for entertainment.
A band of child molesters covering their tracks.
New drug forces killing the young (unwitting?) couriers of the old in a bid for turf.
Unreconstructed peckerwoods trying to topple the Black administration.
Plantation kidnappers of slave labor issuing the pink slip.
White mercenaries using Black targets to train death squadrons for overseas jobs and for domestic wars to come. "
All of these theories are explored with evidence in Those Bones Are Not My Child. One scene in Part III, Zala's cop friend, B.J. shows up to her house to tell her to stop bringing attention to the investigation, " 'That Eubanks woman - - - your husband's friend? - - - she said you were bringing in the TV networks to blow the case open. I thought we had an agreement to keep each other informed. This morning I find out through the grapevine that you parents got a medium stashed in a hotel here in town, some woman who's been making headlines up north with cases that supposedly have the authorities stumped. If you knew how much work has been done on this case - - - no, listen, don't interrupt me. Then I find out - - - and not from you - - - that some of you parents are planning to tour the country cracking on the investigation. That's not too smart. And you should have told me.' " These two may have been fictional characters, but in Bambara's Acknowledgments, she states that all scenarios were true, and that she made B.J. to tell about the actual police officers who were involved with the investigation.
The tension between the police and the public is felt throughout the entire story. Despite all of the work the citizen task force put in, police arrested a man named Wayne Williams for the murder of two adult victims (who, due to their mental age, which was stated to be that of children, were placed on the victims' list of the Atlanta Child Murders): " Wayne Williams, charged with the murder of twenty-seven-year-old Nathaniel Cater and implicated in the murder of the other adults and children on the official list..." Zala, having worked for almost a year at the STOP offices, she, along with most of the community, doubt that Williams was a lone killer or even the killer at all. Williams never stood trial for the childrens' murders, but the police informed the public that he did it, case closed - - - although, after Williams' arrest, children were still being abducted and their bodies were still being found. Even after Williams' trial and the guilty verdict for two adult victims, some people stuck around to continue to investigate and claim Williams a 'scapegoat' of politics: " There were still pockets of interest and people who wouldn't let the case go. James Baldwin had been coming to town off and on; a book was rumored. Sondra O'Neale, the Emory University professor, hadn't abandoned her research, either. From time to time, TV and movie types were in the city poking around for an angle. Camille Bell was moving to Tallahassee to write up the case from the point of view of the STOP committee. The vets had taken over The Call now that Speaker was working full-time with the Central American Committee. The Revolutionary Communist Party kept running pieces on the case in the Revolutionary Worker. Whenever Abby Mann sent down a point man for his proposed TV docudrama, the Atlanta officials and civil rights leaders would go off the deep end. " At the end of it all, the questions still remain: did Williams kill all of those children by himself? Was he part of a pornographic cult that killed the children? Or is Williams completely innocent, and the murderer(s) are still out there? In Those Bones Are Not My Child, I guarantee you will be left questioning if the police were right.
All in all, the writing transitions can become confusing sometimes, especially the interludes of smash poetry, but I highly recommend this book to people who like the True Crime genre, especially of any interest in this specific case.