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2024 fantasy mystery. A high-ranking Imperial officer has been murdered, in a particularly grotesque way. But why was he even staying at a house belonging to one of the richest families in the Empire? And what does this have to do with the breach in the Wall? Dinias Kol, apprentice Investigator to the great but eccentric Ana Dolabra, investigates…
2022 historical thriller, seventh of its series. A Missing Heir has shown up. Well, maybe. Veronica knew the real man back in the day, and is asked to see if she recognises him…
2025 whodunnit, dir. Rian Johnson, Daniel Craig, Josh O'Connor: IMDb. We'll need an old priest and a young priest…
I’ve been doing the Weekly Challenges. The latest involved string searching. (Note that this ends today.)
At Åcon 14 in Mariehamn recently, there was a panel on "Romanscify": by analogy with "Romantasy", is there a subgenre that provides both a satisfying romance and a satisfying SF story? The answer is "yes" of course, but the panelists didn't seem to have many recommendations from outside the relatively well-known SF space (Bujold, McCaffrey, The Ministry of Time) and so I thought I'd mention some more here.
2023 SF, second of its series. OK, now we know some of what's going on. What should we do about it?
2023 romantic fantasy. Marguerite the spy has heard of a new invention which will change the shape of the world's economies. Unable to trust any old friends or colleagues, she needs bodyguards from the White Rat…
2025 paranormal fantasy, last of a nine-book series. Lorelei is in supernatural prison, and her boyfriend is being tortured by Lucifer in person. How to give everyone a happy ending?
We can look up what services are available at a starport in an SF game, but what is the feel of the place?
1953 classic SF, collection of shorter works. The Mule is still building his empire. Obviously that has to be stopped. Spoilers for a 73-year-old book.
I’ve been doing the Weekly Challenges. The latest involved poking about with lists. (Note that this ends today.)
Back to the boardgame café after a gap caused by illness.
2025 Victorian romance. Miles Quincey, a crusading newspaper editor, has been looking too hard into the Academy, so its deputy headmistress, Nell Trewlove, is sent to fob him off. An incident with a cat caught in her crinoline, and an accidental witness ready to believe the worst, leaves her fatally compromised, and all she can do is marry Miles…
You can't have random character generation in GURPS. There are just too many things to take into account. Well, up to a point.
2022 mystery, third in its series. Pentecost and Parker are back in New York, where three murders have been committed in the style of a particular crime writer.
The Oxford Meeples had another quarterly games day, and I had a great time again.
1944 noir, dir. Otto Preminger, Gene Tierney, Dana Andrews: IMDb. The dame is dead, blown away with a shotgun at her front door. But who would have done it?
I’ve been doing the Weekly Challenges. The latest involved various sorts of string mangling. (Note that this ends today.)
2025 fantasy novella in the World of the Five Gods (formerly known as Chalion). Early in Pen's career, when he's still a sorcerer-physician in Martensbridge, he's attached to his archdivine's party as she travels to judge a temple dispute as the administration adjusts following a transfer of territory in a local war.
Leaping from tree to tree is easy. I encountered something in a game which should be rather harder.
The first issue of Of Dice and Meeples is now out.
2021 urban fantasy romance, first of a trilogy. Nine years ago Vivienne had a summer thing with Rhys, youngest son of the Welsh family that founded the small and magical Georgia town of Grave Glen. It ended badly in vodka and cursing. Now Rhys is coming back for the Founder's Day festivities, and it seems that the curse may have had some effect…
UK Games Expo is coming up again. I've been going to it since 2009, when it was in the Masonic Hall (now I think demolished) and very much smaller, and I think I have some potentially useful suggestions on how to get the most out of it.
2016 non-fiction, aviation history. Wrigley looks into a number of aircraft incidents.
I’ve been doing the Weekly Challenges. The latest involved pattern matching and a subset search. (Note that this ends today.)
And more to the point, how can you convert it to something useful?
2026 romance/SF/mystery; 62nd novel of Robb's In Death series (SF police procedurals). After a burglary, the multimillionaire is dead, and his secret vault of stolen treasures has had just one thing taken from it. Eve Dallas investigates.
More gaming with nearby friends.
The Imperial Russian monitor Novgorod, sole ship of her class, was in service from 1874 until 1903; Popov, similarly, from 1876 to 1903.
1941 mystery/thriller, fourth in the Miss Silver series. Lisle Jerningham is newly married, but nervy; someone who knows her husband's family has been talking meaningly about how convenient for him it would be if she died in an accident like his first wife, and she has just had a near-fatal accident… US vt In the Balance.
