Category: Books

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Books Misc

Recent reads and listens 3/6

This last week I’ve read Fate Core (the PDF), in preparation for my The Tower of the Serpents game at this weekend’s upcoming Bookwyrm Con. It’s still a solid system, mostly familiar; the new iteration strips out some of the less commonly used terminology (like tagging for effect) and generally reflects another few years of experience with the system. I look forward to my game–though Sunday, 8 am, is pretty cruel.

I also read a book I was gifted for Christmas this week, Brenda Cooper’s The Creative Fire. I really like the setting, which is a well worn generation ship, several generations in. My lack of deep-seated emotional understanding of music led Ruby, the book’s heroine, to not quite resonate correctly to me. I got that she was popular…. but it’s hard for me to imagine folk singing having such power. Anyway, I enjoyed her characterization, along with Onor, the other predominant POV. The system that developed on the ship makes sense, and the diagnosis (that comes late in the book) seems reasonable too. It’s clearly the beginning of a series–that, despite enjoying the characters, I hope is short.

This week’s listens were fewer; I listened to a pair of TJ hours and enjoyed RoleplayDNA Episode 18. The episode was middling and wandered quite a bit, but was still interesting to listen to. The central question was about handling vampires and creatures of the night as central players–either PC or NPC.

The Jefferson Hour shows were both interesting. Episode 1012 – War in Virginia, was a very interesting discussion about the challenges of being a wartime governor in Virginia during the revolutionary war, when the war finally came south. It was interesting to hear Jefferson defend his skills as an administrator, while disavowing himself as a leader of men. The strangely crippled executive branch of this era was something I’d never heard about before. All in all, a fascinating hour.

Show 1013 – Boundaries of Authority was familiar, since it covered topics that the other guest hosts were also interested by, especially the Louisiana Purchase and how it comported with Jefferson’s limited government stance. What made it work was the strong line of questioning from the guest host; since we talked about the purchase only two episodes ago (in 1011), the difference in questions and, particularly, Jefferson’s contrast of his actions to Hamilton’s made the episode distinct. But I can see the purchase coming up very frequently if each guest host indulges their curiosity about Jefferson’s justification every two episodes.

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Books Misc

Recent Media 2/28

It’s been a while since I last updated, so here’s what I’ve listened to over the last 3 weeks–about 18 hours of travel.

The Dice Tower: 291, 292, and 293
Ask Me Another: Fifty Shades Of Dr. Ruth and Once A Jersey Girl…, 1/18 and 1/25
This American Life: 188 [kid logic], 486
Wait Wait: 2/2/13, 2/9/13
TJ Hour: 1009 Quotable, about misattributions to TJ
1010 Church and State, about Virginia Statute of religious freedom, state of State churches in 1700s, etc.
1011 Of Historical Significance, about TJ reconciling himself to slavery and bending the rules for the Louisiana Purchase

I’ve also read a few books, in between bouts of being sick:
The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making [by Catherynne M. Valente] was very interesting, told in an unusual style harkening back to omniscient narrators. I really enjoyed the struggles of our heroine, the curious logic of the faeries, and the nicely stitched together view of the world. The final reveals about the villainess are dramatic and worth the quest.

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Books Misc

Recent Media 2-5

Books
Thieftaker by D.B. Jackson. It turned out to be a good novel, set in an interesting time; I haven’t read a lot of revolutionary era historical fiction. The magic system is interesting, but I do wonder about the lack of limitations… as the final battle revealed. Still, it was good, and I’m looking forward to the sequel, Thieves’ Quarry, due in July.

Directive 51 by John Barnes. I’m about halfway through. It’s very interesting so far; sympathetic to all sides. I do wonder about a department of the future and why it had to be introduced… though it sounds gimmicky enough that I can buy it. I like the idea of the mutually incompatible passions getting tied together into Daybreak.

Podcasts
The Dice Tower Episode 290: A solid episode.

TJ Hour: Episode 1007 – The Art of Power, part 2. I’m very much looking forward to reading the matching book; it sounds like a good generalist book with an interesting skew.

TJ Hour: Episode 1008 – Commonwealth: Mostly listener mail, with the first in a series of guest hosts. The first three minutes were rough adjusting to the new voice, but it went along fine.

Wait Wait: 1/12 and 1/19. They were fine, but didn’t really stand out for good or bad. It’s good to be past the repeats.

Nathan Lowell’s Talking on My Morning Walk 1-20: Vaguely interesting, but I don’t know him, so his offhanded references to his books are mostly lost on me. I won’t be downloading more.

This American Life #173: Three Kinds of Deception. Interesting stories, but not revelatory. It felt like a filler episode.

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Books Misc Roleplaying

Recent Media

Books:
Till We Have Faces: A Myth Retold is a 1956 novel by C. S. Lewis. It’s quite good, and seems like a very unusual approach to both Cupid and Psyche. The self reflection, particularly of Orual, is amazing. He does a good job of capturing the inward directed nature of our thoughts and musings; Orual is convincing both as a relatively selfless person and as someone who turns her back on difficult knowledge.

Cold Magic by Kate Elliot. I really enjoyed her writing; the book was compelling through. Cat and Bee seem authentic as young women from the striving class in an industrial age analog. A nice job is done mixing industry and magic without stretching into steampunk; the airship that amazes everyone is off screen.

Dresden Files: Cold Days by Jim Butcher. (Book 14) A good continuation of the series; Harry recovers, and it’s quite a journey. The Winter Fae are cruel (as we’ve seen before) and complex; Winter’s deep purpose is revealed and its machinations threaten to strangle everyone. It’s very good, but leans heavily on previous books–after 14 books, I don’t think he expects you to start with this one. (It’s still very accessible, but more than before, it will lack depth and meaning without prior books.)

Something Like Normal by Trish Doller. An incredibly interesting book, set in the real world, today. The lives of the characters feel realistic–and further from my experience than a fantasy hero. Engaging, amazing, well done.

Love in the Time of Seið was designed by Jason Morningstar and Matthijs Holter, and is based on Matthijs’ excellent game Archipelago II. It’s an interesting game–or at least an interesting, very bare bones, scenario. I can imagine it running for a long session, or a few short ones. The mechanics are mostly consensus seeking, hinging on application of six ritual phrases. Very cutting edge; I look forward to trying it. Online resources are available, so you don’t have to cut up your book.

I also read Hollowpoint, which was intriguing. It deserves another read; it looks to do hyper competence well, with a strong emphasis on violence and its consequences.

I’m currently beginning Thieftaker by D.B. Jackson. Set in Boston, 1765, it’s a window on a period where I’ve done little novel reading.

Podcasts:
Dice Tower 289: The first non-special episode in a while. Several good games; a good comparison of super hero games [avoid DC, Legendary and Sentinels are both excellent].

Board Games to Go:
131 – An rambling session, mostly talking between friends about other friends. I came away knowing that there’s an online show called Game Night, similar to a less slickly produced Tabletop.

132- The first in a series, a count down of a top 100 board games, as rated by 60+ designers and reviewers. Mark Jackson was one of the presenters, a big part of why I picked this series up. Well done; I look forward to the top 85, which will come in future episodes.

Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff:
21 – Interesting; I particularly liked the first segment on Showing up to Play vs. Showing up to be Entertained. They also wandered into the fields of fudging. The topic was well covered, with divergent views.

22 – The discussion of the roles of mapper and caller was quirky, particularly as we transitioned to their modern equivalents. As usual, it was curious to see what dimly recognized things they’d shine light on.

Roleplay DNA, Episode 16 — Post-Apocalyptic gaming.
Handled unusually, with a particularly nostalgic bent; certainly no mention of Apocalypse World, and no real depth about Savage World’s Hell on Earth. Their theory, that apocalypse roleplaying’s often silly nature unleashes better roleplaying didn’t seem earned–or justified by their examples–but it wasn’t a bad podcast episode.

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Books Misc

Recent Media

Just a quick list of things I’ve listened to of late.

Thomas Jefferson Hour shows 1002-1004:
Show 1002 was about a letter Jefferson wrote touching on his view of historical political rights, mentioned the Whig view of history, etc. A very interesting topic that the letter touched on were “Ward Republics”–a level of government within the county of about 100 families. The idea of extending democracy to such a local level is both inspiring and intimidating.

Show 1003 was a response to the Newtown massacre; emphasis was placed on pausing, empathizing, and not reaching for the stock talking points. Purely OOC.

Show 1004 It Came to Pass was a rebroadcast of the 2010 Christmas Special. This was the first time I heard it; interesting elements include a history of Christmas in early America, including its banning in puritan New England for 80 years, and differences in celebrating then and now.

This American Life
482: Lights, Camera, Christmas! 12.21.2012
Interesting stories about building extravagant Christmases, with a particularly interesting interview with a family that built personal myths about Santa, the north pole, elves, and so forth.

481: This Week 12.07.2012
A fascinating series of “day in the life” stories, covering the previous 7 days.

Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff Episodes 16-20
All four episodes were strong; each episode is basically four 15 minute mini-shows, often with one self-indulgent topic (that is still presented interestingly), while the other three are experts talking about their fields. Weird research for roleplaying, system design and play, history, and many other intriguing topics filled the hours.

Roleplay DNA
Episode 15: Contract Negotiations inspired tomorrow’s Gnome Stew post. I really enjoyed the show, will be sorry to see Ron and Vern depart, and enjoyed the stories and examples that surrounded the theme. I hope it keeps going strong when the crew drops to 3.

The Paulcast Episodes 6-8
Episode 6 was an interesting interview of Meghann Robern. I enjoyed it so much I shared it with Jennifer.

Episode 7 was a talk about not-gaming and the path he’s been taking.

Episode 8 was a fun episode about buying experiences and trying out new things, hung on a trip to a brewery on 12-12-12. It was a great example of why I enjoy The Paulcast.

Exemplary DM Season 3, Episode 1
Good, not great. I’ll keep an eye out for their efforts going forward (which will be erratic, given their relocation to separate cities), but am not at all compelled to go through their backlog.

The Dice Tower Episodes 284 and 285
284 was a solid episode; it’s been long enough that I don’t remember many specifics. I only listened to part of episode 285. (I was listening, then we skipped to something else, and there’s no “fast forward” for podcasts in the car stereo system to skip the stuff I’ve already heard when it resumes.)

I’m not yet willing to listen to the stuff I heard once to get to the new stuff. In fact, I’ll delete it, since I’m a few episodes behind, and this is a show whose use to me is very anchored in time.

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Books

Shadowmarch

Shadowmarch was a 4 book series (Shadowmarch, Shadowplay, Shadowrise, and Shadowheart); a modern very long fantasy novel take on heroic adventure. It was quite successful. After the disappointments of Memory, Sorrow and Thorn I initially checked out only the first book, but it proved strong enough that I checked out and read the remaining books in the series.

They did not disappoint. Characters were stronger, varied, and interesting. It didn’t fall into the trap of introducing a multitude of less interesting viewpoints in later books; the major viewpoint characters were constant throughout the series.

Together, the characters explored the world–though not exhaustively, and never with a “just to show the next shiny city” motivation. The troubles that beset the characters are huge and transformative. Some of the storylines fade for a while, but that’s actually a good thing–the main through lines continue and you’re interested when the action finally gets back to the second string characters.

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Books

Music from Stacy

At this point, there’s no in depth analysis–most of these songs I’ve listened to only once or twice. This is the initial impression; some will grow on me, others will fade.

One thing I learned: I get locked into “the right way”. When someone covers a song that I know, I typically dislike it–or at least prefer “the original”. It doesn’t even have to be the real, historical, original–just the version I know best. (The same was true for original artists performing acapella or live versions of their song–I’d rather hear the full instrumentation, most of the time.)

Below are my initial impressions–

Continue reading “Music from Stacy”
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Books

Reading Last Week

Last week I read 4 different but interesting books while Jennifer slew dragons. (We’re a very progressive family that way.) The books were:
– The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine by Michael Lewis
– Pink by Lili Wilkinson (found via ktliterary.com)
– Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein
– and The Dragon Waiting: A Masque of History by John M. Ford

I read Pink first, because it was the most immediately appealing–and because I’d read its teaser most recently. It’s an interesting book, about identity and the chance to change–with the main character as a female Australian junior in high school. There weren’t any fantasy/sci-fi elements, which is a bit unusual for me in my YA reading; Uglies and Leviathan are more my norm. It was fantastic to me–because being a popular female was as different from my high school experience as possible. Still, I had less trouble with it then Jennifer has–probably because Ava (the main character) is close enough that she identifies with her, but the differences are enough to break identification. While, I was able to keep reading undisturbed–exactly as I do when it’s a Klingon or elf I’m identifying with.

I read Starship Troopers second, because it was the most appealing remaining in the stack. I’ve been meaning to read it forever, and remembered the oft repeated “the movie is nothing like the book”. I liked them both, and thought the parallels were strong for two things related only by the title. I didn’t get an overwhelming pro-fascist agenda from the book; another thing that I’d expected from hearing about it for so long. All in all, it was a clean, quick moving, book that did a great job of building identification with Juan.

The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine came third. It was a solid, workmanlike narrative that illustrated the height of the housing bubble/CDO/etc. problems, and introduced a few interesting characters to investigate and explore the system’s collapse. The focus on specific characters and the situation’s development over time made for an interesting twist that made the book more personal and less dry. Not many of the details were new, since I’ve heard many excerpts from this book and others tackling the same crisis. For the many people who still have no idea what a CDO is, or who understand that the system was rigged but not any of the details, this is a painless way to acquire more knowledge.

The Dragon Waiting waited for last; its early 80s cover and my lack of recollection as to why I’d requested it put it last on the list. It was an amazing Fantasy–because it’s from the era before fantasy began borrowing from itself. So it’s more an alternate history with solid grounding in historical Europe than Drizzt’s adventures. It was well written, with characters that I appreciated.

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Books

Star Crossed: Aries Rising by Bonnie Hearn Hill

A good book, fun and fast reading. The world is relentlessly narrow– there aren’t a lot of extraneous characters. This gives the book a slightly cramped feel– the only classes mentioned are English and writing for the school newspaper; the only teachers mentioned are English and writing, etc.

I liked it, and wouldn’t mind reading the other books in the series. They seem right up Jennifer’s alley as good YA fiction with a strong female lead.

One significant flaw: for some reason they moved the “in character” glossary to the beginning of the book, before the story starts. It made me wonder if I’d joined in mid-series, since it also details the astrological signs of everyone. It’s dry reading, spoilery, and gets in the way. If they reprint, I’d strongly suggest that it get moved to the rear or eliminated altogether. (Though I freely admit that I’m not their target audience.)

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Books

A Mighty Fortress by David Weber

This is the fourth book in the series. It’s a bad place to join the series– it really benefits from the development that took place over the three previous books. In many ways, this book is the lull between storms– it’s a bit of a calmer period, after the end of the war in the previous book.

The naval development is a… less energetic plot after the time and pressure of the previous books. At the end, it picks back up with a ferocious engagement– but it’s sharp, and there’s no reflection or recovery time at the end. I hope that makes for a sharp strong beginning to the next book.