Categories
Game Group My Game Ideas Roleplaying

Immaryln The Great

Last night [in 2005, mind you], I was working through a game I’d like to run– several times, in different systems. I’m not sure where I’ll wind up, but I’m interested in finding out.

Core Concept: Historical feeling, low magic fantasy fiction. (Deryni, Time of the Dark, and Tigana are all models.) The players will be important members of society– princes, dukes, and their heirs. A few game styles are also possible.

  • Leading Lives— the PCs are the elite of the Kingdom, and have a bond to each other. Meanwhile, others undermine the Kingdom– for greed or other reasons. The PCs cooperate at keeping the Kingdom together, preventing secession, assassination, and conquest.
    • Lord Burtley’s Retinue— a noble and his retinue solve the kingdom’s problems, as spies and secret agents
      • Power Politics— the PCs all play powerful influences at the Kingdom level, competing to influence the King. Several parallel mini-games; low priority.

Similarly, a few game systems suggested themselves– none quite right, but several very close– or just requiring a little pruning.

Your Role in the Kingdom

If you want a random rank, roll 1d6. Otherwise, pick whatever you feel will be most interesting to play.

1: Princ(ess)

2: Duke

3: Earl

4: Baron or King’s Bastard

5: Knight or Noble’s Bastard

6: Non-noble (aide de camp, Sergent of the King’s Guard, etc.)

For Random birth order, roll 1d4 as child number. Then roll 1d6 for total number of children– if the roll is less than the number you rolled as birth place, you’re the last born.

You could also choose a position in the church:

1: Primate

2: Archbishop/Seated Bishop

3: Iterant/Traveling Bishop

4-5: Priest

6: Abbot or other specialty group’s leader

Magic: Magic is limited– feared by many. Any known wizard is exiled from the church. (Alt: psionics/mind powers exist, but magic doesn’t. If so, people with psionics are members of the Zaird, subject to specific drugs, and excommunicated when discovered.)

The church still burns wizards in the back country, though the King has put an end to that in more cosmopolitan areas. There are rumors that the church works with rogue wizards, using their services and forgiving their sins. Church wizards are the lowest of the low– doomed to hell unless they forswear their powers altogether.

Immaryln DnD

The initial thought about how to implement it. I’m constraining a lot by default, though stuff could be added back in, just at the cost of focus.

Characters start at Level 3. Max HP for all 3 classes. Any of the 3 can be used for the x4 skill points.

The skill list is compressed– mostly combining skills, but a few promotions of Knowledge (x) to primary skills, since they’ll have greater focus in this style game.

Character Races:

Human only.

If using psionics, elf-analogue w/ special restrictions.

Character Classes: Quick Look

By the book: Fighter, Rogue, Scout, Knight, Barbarian, Marshal, Swashbuckler

Non-casting variants from Complete Warrior: Ranger, Paladin

Improved to PC: Expert, Aristocrat, Adept(?)

Casters, limited to 1/2 levels: Wizard, Sorcerer, Warlock

Alt Casters: Psions, Ardents

Not allowed: Everyone else. (Sure, you can be a commoner or a warrior, but you have better options.)

Detailed:

Fighters, Scouts, Knights, Barbarians, Marshals, Rangers, and Paladins are different fighting styles found in the armies of the Kingdom. Swashbuckler is a common combat style practiced by nobles.

  • Fighters are the core of the army; probably 80%+ of the army is fighters. The class is great for captains, guards, and many more.
  • Scouts are the typical army scouts, who move ahead of the line of march, gather information, etc. Second most common in the army.
    • Rangers are a rare subset of Scouts; their isolation probably keeps them out of the army. Their animal companions make them notable.
  • Knights are dedicated knights, or nobles who have had knight training.
  • Marshals are the army’s leaders in battle. (? if used)
  • Paladins are knights of holy orders
  • Barbarians are rare, hailing from the clan areas of the kingdom
  • Swashbuckler is a common combat style practiced by nobles.
  • Experts. Experts can spend their 10 skill points on any skills they choose, up to the level +3 cap. “Expert” phases usually have different names: scholar, diplomat, professional, and priest are all possible roles taken with the expert class.
  • Aristocrats get a bonus “noble feat” for each level of Aristocrat taken.
    • Example Noble Feats:
      • Favored by the King: +10 on diplomacy checks with the King
      • Trusted Seneshal: While you are away, your seneshal keeps things running smoothly. Use your full Administration skill, even when in the field or otherwise unable to administer your domain.
      • Elite Troops: Taken once, you have a squad of highly dedicated troops, who you can trust to take on important tasks. (Ftr2, with a Sergent Ftr3.) Taken twice, it’s a company of 3 squads (each as above), led by a Ftr4 Captain. Taken three times, you have almost 200 highly trained troops– as 3 companies above, plus a Marshal 5. (The King’s Guard is 200 strong.)
      • Aide de Camp: You have a highly skilled assistant who often travels with you. He begins at 2nd level (any class, you create and control him), and advances at each odd level you hit. (So 3rd at your 5th, 4th at your 7th, and so on.) He can accomplish many tasks independent of your direct involvement.
      • Fostered Out: You fostered with another noble family, and retain strong ties. You have +10 on diplomacy checks with your foster family.
      • Rich Domain: Your domain is particularly prosperous, allowing you to extract more wealth at a lower tax rate
  • Wizard: A wizard can have only 1/2 of his character levels in the wizard class. The other class can be anything else– aristocrat and expert are common.

Immaryln in Primetime Adventures

Exactly like normal PTA, just concentrating on dueling in tight spaces, power politics, armies on the march, etc. The “mind powers” as a human looking race (Deyrni style) opens up lots of options for conflict, intrigue, and war. Plus the debates over the soul, keeping the people while trying to change a hostile religion, and more.

Categories
Game Group Roleplaying

A Blast from the Past – Old Campaigns

A wiki for gaming notes and campaign logs

Our Games

Diaspora Cluster — A cluster we generated at the October RPG meetup. Quite a place!

Empire Of Iron — Our current D&D game (December 2007 – July 2010)

Serenity– It’s a big verse, with an interesting crew. (May-July 2009)

ShadowRunning — for our Shadowrun game (played March through December 2007)

Cormyr Game — D&D3.5; (played January 2005 through February 2007)

New Republic Agents, logs — our Star Wars game (played March through August 2006)

Immaryln The Great— quick thoughts on a game of courtly intrigue and warfare 

All of the above links were to an old public wiki; I’m going to copy out what I can. I’d largely forgotten their existence and would rather have them somewhere they’ll be backed up.

Categories
DnD My Game Ideas Roleplaying

Reclaiming Ludmerea

Images flicker: Moldering gems in skeletal hands; stone ruins ransacked, rebuilt, storm broken and resurgent.

Storm drowned lands, Mikpos wagering in Tavern Debina, goblin lairs in Kuopio’s sandstone ruins, Giants striding from a howling Maelstrom, adventurers sharing reconnaissance over wine, Kithkari stretching 8’ tall, stern Dvaerg dodging Rakshasha claws, a mail gauntlet grabbing a verdigris helmet, magenta rain rebounding from golden light, elegant silver Mikpos nails clutching a copper stylus, shadows spilling from a cracked Iron door, a pair of savage hobgoblins circle with bronze headed axes, a Kithkari calf boiling blood into ironjaw wolf trap, lifting an ancient skull clad in gold runic mask remnants, Tyhlos the White breathing icy frost at a leaping Vikari warrior, a mail clad giant strides through swirling and eerie mists of limbo, firelight glimmers through a storm cracked tower, barbarous Lizardmen feasting on long pig, iridescent plants floating in a candy yellow river that flows uphill, grand Mount Rättvik melted by a Chaos storm, iron and copper exposed and gleaming; heroes returning to Redewall laden with antiquities.

A scene: A cunning Vikari warrior pauses in the deep shadow of Mount Nijmegen’s iron topped peak, living bow taut in his left hand, darkwood arrow nocked. The breeze shifts, blowing from the purple bruise of cloud ahead, carrying the scuffing sound of claws on worn basalt, ascending the narrow trail. From behind, Gwendolyn Goodge calls out in a voice tinged with nerves and laughter, “Orm, are you posing or…” but her voice quiets at his gesture. Janssen marches forward, joining the pair in the rattle of chain, loud in the sudden still. 

Janssen’s bushy eyes raise in silent question. Orm’s answer to the implied question is low, “Two threats.” A gesture at his feet, showing scuffed trail dust and a patched boot mark, “Goblins, a day old, maybe. Heavy mark; not furtive, they’re probably lairing nearby — Umeå’s ruins, at a guess. But… hear that?” Birdsong cut off sharp as Orm pivots smoothly, his arrow pointed at the claustrophobically close treeline. The acorn arrowhead caught the wolf in the shoulder as it burst from the brush; with a howl of chilling fury it raced forward, the wound shrinking in an eyeblink as it lunged towards the ranger.

At Gwendolyn’s incanted gesture, the beast was thrown sideways; reeling from the spell’s force its claws scrabbled across the bare rock, then cartwheeled into the underbrush and vanished. The trio scanned the trees, ready for the renewed assault… but answering howls downtrail underscored their poor position. Janssen’s stubby finger stabbed out at the streaked sky. “Chaos storm hits in under an hour; we get clear of the beasts and the storm’ll scour our trail.” The patter of stinging rain, burning like lye, pursued them as they reascended the stony trail. Behind them the undergrowth melted like cotton candy in the acrid rain…

Setting Overview

Redewall is balanced at the western edge of Civilized World of today – but seven empires, most long fallen, bestrode the chaos wracked lands to the west.

Storms of Chaos sweep from World’s End in the extreme west, changing the very stone and soil where their transformative rains fall and mists drape. When the mist clears, wonders and beasts from elsewhere are often stranded in the storm’s wake.

Redewall serves as a base camp for explorers of wild Ludmerea. A few hundred townsfolk support a local garrison that defends the civilized kingdoms of the east from Chaos Peoples, their warbands… and stranger things stranded by Chaos Storms.

The small town also supports a mix of peoples unlike any other in the world – dreamers of great fortune rub shoulders with practical “exploration companies” that methodically probe the plains, sifting the wreckage of fallen empires for powerful artifacts and odd commonplaces of previous days. Idle soldiers swill beer alongside loremasters, antiquarians, and factors for the great merchant Bank of Aglaia and the many political houses of Civilization. The small powers of eastern Ludmerea fence with agents of the Winter Kingdoms and distant Zakynthos, all keeping an eye on the adventuring bands that journey into the wildlands and return with wonders of ancient days and beguiling baubles of Chaos – tiny ripples at the edge of the civilized world that can shake even the Kingdom of Rogaland, or the bustling metropolis of Cratais.

Scholarly researchers seek famed artifacts and chaos imbued reagents to enhance their research – or ancient spell formulae they can rediscover or “invent” for prestige. Grifters, conmen, and petty thieves seek to redistribute fortunes from those who brave the wastelands.

While many civilized people sneer at the wildlands, many kingdoms- even empires- have arisen from those monstrous peoples. Wave after wave of Chaos sweeping the land has deposited countless humanoids- some appearing a dozen years ago after a Chaos Storm stranded them, while others have bred in the swamps and pristine mountains for millennia – ever since Ludmerea was anchored into existence by the Worldloom that the ancient Vikari used to pattern Chaos into today’s known but ever changing lands.

Races of Ludmerea

The five civilized races who call Ludmerea home are the Vikari, Kithkari, Mikpos, Dvaerg, and Muhner. From a great distance, they can be described so:

Vikari are Elves with a viking flair. Play a Vikari if you want to be a character from a long lived and patient people with a cruel past.

Kithkari are renowned as cunning pranksters, savage shapeshifters when their back is to a wall. Play a Kithkari if you want to play an heir to wild magic, with inherent size shifting as only the most notable trait of a very unusual people.

Miklos are urbane halflings, the first to write and early masters of trade. Today they’re best known as bankers, confidence artists, and wizards — but always trendsetters.

Daverg are dwarves, with a history of respected rulers and breakthroughs in metallurgy and storm breaking. Play a Daverg to come from a dependable, respected people known for their strength and wisdom.

Muhner are humans, able to commit to specialization early in life with an intensity that no other race can match. Thanedoms founded by Muhner lie shattered in Ludmerea’s west; today most Muhner in Ludmerea rove in kin groups.

Categories
Conventions

Big Bad Con 2022 – Context

I have a lot of thoughts about Big Bad Con, as an event, etc.

To start, they were strong and consistent in their messaging about masks, and followed up with emails the week before the convention reiterating expectations – including wearing an N95 or equivalent mask in all convention spaces. Right inside the main entry doors was vaccine check in, a separate station that checked your vaccination card, checked that you’d self-tested in the last day or two and were Covid negative, then issued you a wristband that the actual con check in staff looked for before handing over your badge.

On that topic, the hotel staff was all masked – and many local businesses unaffiliated with the convention (including customers and employees at the nearby Lucky’s supermarket, and the staff of both restaurants) were masked – so it was more a local norm than just the con attendees alone standing out as the sole people still wearing masks.

I arrived early – on Thursday this year, which made check in particularly a breeze, walk-up without lines for both stations. I checked in to the hotel and unloaded the car, then popped out for some grocery shopping [bagels and yogurt for breakfast, trail mix for snacks], hit the bank, and filled up the car for the journey home.

I returned in time for most of the Thursday night events, and I can see why my friends went out of their way to show up early in past years. There were 4 events on Thursday night, and I attended the last three – a fun “Hollywood squares” game featuring the various guests of honor and special guests, then a “D&D poetry reading” that was a cover for illicit Bingo (but not really) – well handled humor, with poetry and a live rickroll at the end, then Dinosaur Karaoke. The karaoke night was fun (though I departed about halfway through the two hour event) – a very strong early contender was a singer who’d written their own “as a Dinosaur” lyrics for Hallelujah, which replaced the “Hallelujah” with “chew right through ya” and the remainder of the song was similar feasting on prey substitutions… very well done.

The Thursday night events felt intimate – like the con organizers were entertaining their special guests, each other, and the rare people who showed up early. I can see why locals like Pat have talked up taking the extra day off work so strongly…even though there aren’t “real games” scheduled, what Thursday gives is an “insider” feeling to the con. (That was particularly useful to me this year, since I didn’t have the lunch connection with Fresnans scheduled.)

Friday, I headed across the street to the nearby Taqueria — they were overwhelmed and took 40 minutes to get to my burrito. (A few minutes after placing my order, they stopped taking orders altogether, and had the order taker hop to the back to help with the backlog.)

Saturday, I had a gap afternoon, since I hadn’t gotten into a prepared game, and didn’t want to hustle to try to get lunch and into a game on demand. So I walked to Broadway in downtown Burlingame, which had a great swathe of tempting restaurants. I decided on late lunch at https://www.fuumikitchen.com/. Their grilled eggplant was delicious – straight off the grill, no dipping sauces required. I had a pair of rolls – the Broadway was a good roll, but their Ice & Fire was delicious and subtle.

I didn’t need a scoop of ice cream at Preston’s Candy and Ice Cream, but it was good walk from the hotel… and delicious.

Categories
Apocalypse World Conventions Roleplaying

Big Bad Con 2022 – Games

Enjoyed two games at big bad con today. The morning game was Sleeper on Glass Mountain, a Dungeon World scenario. It was a very interesting experience, significantly different if feel from my previous play in Fresno. The scenario was very exploration focused for the first 2 hours (few rolls and no fights), a frustrating middle where we couldn’t figure out how to continue our progress, then some interesting fights and conflicts that we rushed to get in before the session’s end.

Breakdown: The Breaking Point was the afternoon game. We made a tight squadron of paramedics, each with important challenges that threatened to derail our characters. The game started with a bang, with three of us coming off our third day of work, but staying after as a nearby school called in a three alarm fire – the chemistry lab exploded and the nearby wing had partially collapsed. So, exhausted, we rushed out to the school and split into two groups – to save children from the collapsed rubble of the school wing, and rescue another class from the burning chem lab. The rescue was a success, though we paid physically and emotionally. We then dealt with all of the messy drama that went along with trying to juggle lives alongside our work — for example, my character had to cancel taking his mom to her doctor’s appointment when the call came in… and woke up in the hospital, where Aunt and Mom were picking Kareem up… instead of the reverse. Great characters emerged quickly from play, and the tension only built as we put aside obligations to fill the short staffed positions…
(Breakdown is hoping to get a short print run to IPR for fulfillment this holiday season.)

Friday night, I went to games on demand and got to play Wildsea. It’s an interesting Forged in the Dark game with a few minor rules changes… But really, it’s all about the setting. It’s a deeply weird post apocalypse, but this apocalypse was the greening – trees a mile high have grown around the globe, blanketing everything.

It’s a fascinating world to explore, reminding me positively in many ways of Scum and Villainy. The setting is deeply silly but played straight; like the ships draw themselves through the tree tops with immense chainsaws, some of the PC races are a collective of spiders in a people suit, humans from our era who were trapped in amber and awake to this strange world, cactus people and more. The art is beautiful and evocative.

Saturday morning I played the Alien RPG, Hope’s Last Day. A great table, including an awesome android, Holroyd, who staved off a grizzly end for us many times, boldly throwing themselves in harm’s way to save the doomed colonists. The ending was bittersweet, in part because of a sleazy betrayal (by my character) at the end… But it felt very true to the universe.

Last Fleet: Cold War was probably my favorite game of the whole convention. It was very Battlestar Galactica in setup – full of juicy drama (and drama atop that!) , but it was really my fellow players who made it sing. We had dueling Admirals, an overwhelmed CAG who woke up in the bed of the Chief Engineer to kick off the game… plus family drama and hard decisions. The Corax were implacable, ambushing us at exactly the wrong moment… but trusting our corrupted Corax clone was the right decision when our foe ambushed us out of hyperspace while we were squabbling…
Really, I was a pure pleasure to be at the table. Our characters were mostly generated, with a few picks required to finish them off, and with some links to other characters already generated. We introduced our characters to each other in character… whew! And made up extra NPCs to share, who really had vibrancy from the word go – and totally messed up out lives. I played the President, and I still feel guilty about blowing my top and alienating my awesome Chief of Staff Julia…

Sunday morning I played The Dawn Of A New Era / X-men, a Tokyo Brain Pop system. We joked an hour in that we were playing a Spring Beak Issue, since we broke the power grid at the fence and got a trip to Savage Island resorts while the repairs were made. The system was a little too simple for my tastes, but the characters we made were fun, and the asides about the various “Professors” from the Xavier School who were chaperoning reflected a lot of love and lore from my fellow players.


Categories
Game Group Roleplaying

Alejandro Leon

Grew up on the… highly flammable Bersallis III. His family was star fleet, which he rebelled against… but when the colony had to be evacuated, he came to understand why people serve.

He grew up a troublemaker and hot shot, making off with any craft her could lay hands on. While he spent half his weekends cooling off in the town jail, the other half were filled with spicy parties and filched pastries.

Alejandro was on an away mission when The USS Nautilus (NCC-31910) was driven off by a Cardassian ambush and crippled during its retreat. His away team was trapped on the Janus VI colony during an outbreak of a Dar-Kosis. Short on supplies, Alejando took on the grueling task of triage to spare the doctors the impossible choices, imposing isolation and quarantine to slow the spread and preserve enough healthy people to keep the struggling mining colony functioning.

A recent academy graduate, ready to take on a battered galaxy
Categories
Game Group Roleplaying

Vervi Sh’ravaq

Vervi Shravaq image

Vervi grew up on Thonolan IV, daughter of Isyhr Th’etiarriq, Bevoth Ch’thyrhahr, Throllaa Zh’evaorhan, and Zati Sh’ravaq. Father Isyhr sculpts methylated ices and embeds aluminum ingots into statues that sublimate over days or week; he is famed throughout Andorian worlds. Vervi learned patience and an appreciation of detail from her famous father, which she carried into her holo programming and holo sculpting.

As a child, she bent her will to beating the nanny programs that kept her from the answers she sought, and downloading weeks of texts from the library. A childhood illness kept her confined indoors more than her peers; her warlike peers’ ushaan-tor skills led to humiliating defeats, driving her indoors and toward cunning ambushes where she could dictate the confrontation.

Vervi was accepted to Starfleet Academy, and thrived as she dove deep into science and began learning the engineering required to improve sensors and test hypotheses. Vervi was eager to get out to space, but her career was detoured by Admiral Oshrerir Ch’vaohrarh, who took an interest in the science savvy graduate and recruited her to serve as his aide. The admiral served as liaison to Starfleet Research; the young Vervi was thrust into world of advanced starship research, translating the researchers’ progress to the Admiral – and relaying his course corrections for the direction of research, to prevent the researchers from pursuing dead ends, or systems too sophisticated to implement in non-specialist crewed starships.

After two years, Admiral Osherir acceded to Vervi’s request to transfer out to serve on starships; she was thrilled to transfer to the USS Clement, NCC-12537, an Apollo class light cruiser. Her precision and intuitive problem solving led the Clement to some creative discoveries, and her neutron star sampling technique proved significantly safer than previous approaches, promising a revolution in ultra dense matter production.

The Dominion War was a terrible challenge to her ideals; the Clement was ordered to stand in harm’s way to protect Betazed from the surprise Dominion thrust out of the Kalandra Sector. During the fight, the Clement took extensive battle damage, and suffered substantial casualties, including injuries to several friends and colleagues, and the death of Doctor Phrelix, head of the science division, who was something of a respected rival and bastion of the old ways.

Admiral Osherir visited Vervi while she recovered from broken ribs resulting from the Breen broadside that followed the energy dissipator barrage. Under cover of a “complicated recovery,” Osherir persuaded her to develop a worm infested holo program tailored for Cardassian tastes. The Trojan holoprogram was swiped by Starfleet Intelligence and further weaponized with dangerous biofeedback, before being released by assets into Cardassian military networks. The worm failed to gather much information, but ensured that the weaponized holo programs spread throughout their training simulators and resisted corrective memory and data purges. A dozen Cardassian officers suffered near fatal feedback, resulting in the elimination of holo training in Chin’toka System and several safeguard cycles throughout the Cardassian Union before resuming holo assisted training.

Vervi still sweats at night, awakening with stilled screams as her nightmares deliver vivid confrontations with Gul Trepar and the other officers facing a lifetime of paralysis and compromised motor function. Sometimes, in her nightmares, she’s the one subjected to the near lethal feedback…

Vervi’s Stats and History Summarized
Categories
Books

Summer Books

Witchmark by C.L. Polk (4/5). An interesting fantasy world, with witches and magic in hiding… but WWI technology and mores. A very different feel to the world, even from Victorian settings. Dr. Singer is a grounded doctor, disturbed, but harnessing it.

Stormsong by C.L. Polk (Kingston #2) (4/5). A much faster read, with the world already familiar. A new POV, and a fast moving duel of politics. Fortunately, our heroine is learning about the new power structure and allies, just as we are. Romance spins her head…

Soulstar by C.L. Polk (Kingston #3) (4/5). Robin is very differently situated, with much less sympathy for aristocratic heritage. Revolution, without being stamped out or falling into France-like terror is a hard line to walk, but fascinating to watch.

Fuzzy Nation by John Scalzi (4/5). I’d never heard of Piper’s books, but like the situation that develops and the characterization. I suspect that the modern take helps a lot with making it feel future instead of retro-futuristic.

Record of a Spaceborn Few by Becky Chambers (4/5) – Focused on Exodus Fleet, a great introduction to the deeply humane Galactic Commons universe. Several interesting POV characters — no stinkers, and some surprising choices. A lot of focus on escaping and feeling trapped, returning and reinventing.

Ancestral Night by Elizabeth Bear (4/5) – A bold future, featuring a lot of neurochemical tuning, and a recovery tug that gets in way too deep. Haimey is a great POV character – she has a lot of layers. She’s distracted, and struggles, but is not immeasurably removed from today — her troubles are comprehensible, and gravely worrying as layer after layer is revealed.

Machine by Elizabeth Bear (White Space #2, sequel to Ancestral Night). -Currently reading.

Categories
Books

C. J. Cherryh in June

Merchanter’s Luck by C. J. Cherryh (3/5). I remember picking this one because I thought it was the oldest in the timeline, but it still felt like hopping aboard a train in motion. A great main character and interesting small/big relations among the merchants.

Forty Thousand in Gehenna by C. J. Cherryh (3/5). Very different from the book it’s paired with; an interesting two century colonization and adaptation experience. Union abandoning the colony felt “on brand” for a universe (and power) that I know mostly by reputation.

Gate of Ivrel (The Morgaine Cycle, #1) by C.J. Cherryh (3/5). A packed novel with a fascinating viewpoint character, Vanye, and interesting cultures. Adapting to Morgaine is interesting; her viewpoint feels closer to modern, making Vanye’s struggles fascinating.

Well of Shiuan (Morgaine 2) by C.J. Cherryh (3/5). A fascinating development, as Vanye struggles to adjust to life in a new world. It *really* doesn’t go well. This world and its drowning does make you wonder about gates failing. Cousin Roh is interesting.

Fires of Azeroth (Morgaine #3) (4/5). This one caught my attention and hope; interesting world building and tough interactions w/ the horde. Roh really pays off, with so much scheming and poised betrayal.

Exile’s Gate (Morgaine #4) (3/5). The struggle to respect and discuss strategies w/ someone so different — I hated that best intentions went so awry, but it made sense. The locals are so mired, but it works well.

Categories
Books

Spring Books

Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee. A fantastic, weird future — an excellent stand alone that’s also the beginning of a trilogy. Cheris is fascinating, with interesting flaws. (4/5)

Raven Stratagem by Yoon Ha Lee. A skewed sequel, with grave alterations to Cheris. Jedao makes a little more sense as he becomes the focus, though he’s still inscrutably 400 years old, etc. (3/5)

Revenant Gun by Yoon Ha Lee. An interesting conclusion to the trilogy, but it also answers the “If you like X so much, why not more?” question. The calendar leaves the universe in a new ready state. (3/5)

In the Dream House by Carmen Machado (5/5). Not my normal reading vein; it’s somber and real. It feels so much like something that you can’t talk about straight, so you approach it from dozens of directions, shying away when it gets grim.

Station Eleven by Emily Mandel (4/5). An intriguing set of intertwined storylines, both in a current day at the onset of apocalypse, and 20 years after. Long on the practical survival end, rather than gun fantasy — though force is certainly present and a concern.

Trail of Lightning by Rebecca Roanhorse (4/5). An interestingly different post-apocalypse world. Maggie is a monster hunter… a bit like a bounty hunter, but with interesting clan powers. The Navajo grounding makes it a unique world.

Dragon Pearl by Yoon Ha Lee (3/5). A fascinating space opera, grounded in Korean myths and archetypes. For YA it’s very strong (5/5) with a great lead; I’d highly recommend it. Min’s a great young hero.

Child of Fire by Harry Connolly (5/5). A favorite reread; dangerous to sleep because it’s so hard to put down. It’s set today, and magic, but not like anything else– dark and terrible, but not hopeless or grim. Ray Lily is amazing.

Game of Cages by Harry Connolly (4/5). Ray without Annalise is dedicated, ambitious, and seriously screwed up. The enemies of the 20 Palaces Society are as narcissistic as you’d fear… and interestingly unique in their motivations.

Circle of Enemies by Harry Connolly (5/5). Visiting LA and the perspective of 5 years separation really rings true. It kicks off strong and the relations are full of believable gaps and inferences. Wally King turns out to be a nightmare-but the links and byplay work.

Doughnut Economics By Kate Raworth. An interesting “gut check” and step back from the details of economics; an encouragement to identify the void at the center of current economics (GDP), and name replacements and more careful analysis.

Twenty Palaces (prequel) by Harry Connolly – My first time through; enjoyable, but it challenged some of what I’d assumed reading Child of Fire (many times), so there’s some collision of Ray-views to it. Well written and consistent, just a bit uncomfortable so far.

“The Home Made Mask” by Harry Connolly (4/5) – An interesting view of the predation from a new, uniformed viewpoint. Good characterization, slightly askew perceptions, sympathetic victims.

The Twisted Path by Harry Connolly (5/5) – Tautly written, fascinating novella. A fascinating trip abroad from someone who’d never imagined foreign travel, seeing life and differences. Ray’s insight and puzzle solving shine… and the peers are authentic dicks.

The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin (4/5) – A fascinating world with greek-style gods, passionate and enslaved, with a twisted deepening history revealed onion layer by layer.