RogerBW's Blog

Gods, Monsters, and the Lucky Peach, Kelly Robson 30 June 2019

2018 SF novella. In a world where environmental collapse has forced everyone underground (how they ate while there is not explored), Minh is of the generation that came up and started to reclaim the surface. But time travel has apparently taken all the funding away.

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Julie Enfield Investigates: Terminus 29 June 2019

1994 police procedural audio in five parts, by Nick Fisher. A mutilated corpse is found on the railway tracks; Detective Superintendent Julie Enfield tries to work out what happened.

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The Black God's Drums, P. Djèlí Clark 28 June 2019

2018 steampunk SF/fantasy novella. The American Civil War ended in a peace treaty, and New Orleans is a neutral city. But in among the airships and steam-powered walkers, someone's planning to deploy the ultimate terror weapon.

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Ashes: Rise of the Phoenixborn 27 June 2019

Ashes: Rise of the Phoenixborn, designed by Isaac Vega and published in 2015, is a competitive game of wizard battles for 2-4 players.

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Binti: The Night Masquerade, Nnedi Okorafor 26 June 2019

2018 Hugo-nominated science fiction novella in the Binti series. Binti is back on Earth with Strange Things in (and on) her head.

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Thirsty Meeples June 2019 25 June 2019 - 2 comments

Back to the boardgame café. With images; cc-by-sa on everything.

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Beneath the Sugar Sky, Seanan McGuire 24 June 2019

2018 Hugo-nominated modern fantasy novella in the Wayward Children series. The Home for Wayward Children has another person to be got back to their right place.

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Boardgaming in Cambridge, June 2019 23 June 2019

Another of the occasional Cambridge boardgaming evenings.

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Space Opera, Catherynne M. Valente 22 June 2019

2018 science fiction. When the aliens arrive on Earth, it turns out that they have a standard process for determining whether a race is truly sentient. So now, to save humanity, Decibel Jones, has-been glam-rock star, has to avoid coming last in Space Eurovision.

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Marlow Tabletop and Board Games 17 June 2019 21 June 2019

This Meetup-based boardgames group continues to meet at the Marlow Donkey.

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Spinning Silver, Naomi Novik 20 June 2019

2018 fantasy. Miryem is the daughter and granddaughter of moneylenders, but her father does a lousy job and so she takes over. Irina is the duke's daughter, given in marriage to the demon-ridden Tsar. Wanda is a peasant girl, beaten by her drunkard father, and looking for anything that might help her survive.

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Walk Planning with Viking 19 June 2019

Viking is a powerful, but not always intuitive, program for handling geodata (position log recordings, maps, etc.). This post deals with how to plan a walking route using it.

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Apex 120, May 2019 18 June 2019

Apex was a monthly on-line magazine edited by Jason Sizemore among others.

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Clarkesworld 153, June 2019 17 June 2019

Clarkesworld is a monthly on-line magazine edited by Neil Clarke.

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White Nights, Ann Cleeves 16 June 2019

2008 mystery; second in Cleeves' Shetland Island series. A stranger turns up at the opening of an art show, and claims to have lost his memory; later, he's found hanged in a boathouse. DI Jimmy Perez investigates.

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Marlow Tabletop and Board Games 3 June 2019 15 June 2019

This Meetup-based boardgames group continues to meet at the Marlow Donkey.

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Magic Gifts, Ilona Andrews 14 June 2019

2011 modern fantasy novella in the Kate Daniels series. Kate's out for a meal with Curran when a fellow diner is handed a necklace… and is promptly strangled by it.

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The Last Ship, season 4 13 June 2019

2017 post-apocalyptic science fiction, ten episodes. The virus that nearly wiped out humanity has mutated into a crop-destroying plague.

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Night Terrace 12 June 2019

2019 Australian science fiction comedy audio drama in eight parts, by John Richards. Dr Anastasia Black used to save the universe every week, but now she's enjoying a comfortable retirement. Until Eddie Jones comes to her door to sell her a new electricity contract…

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UK Games Expo 2019: Sunday 11 June 2019 - 3 comments

Things were a lot quieter today… to the point that some demo people were leaping out at passers-by to try to get in one more game and potential sale.

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Magic Tests, Ilona Andrews 10 June 2019

2012 modern fantasy novelette in the Kate Daniels series. Julie, Kate's ward, is living with her in Atlanta after having been thrown out of her last school. Kate takes her to look at a new one… but it turns out that this is also a request for help, because one of the students has gone missing.

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UK Games Expo 2019: Saturday 09 June 2019

This was the most hectic day, with the halls heaving at times; even Friday had felt like previous years' Saturdays.

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Magic Slays, Ilona Andrews 08 June 2019

2011 modern fantasy, fifth in the Kate Daniels series. Kate's set up as a freelance magical investigator, though she has no clients yet; when she gets a warning about a loose vampire, she'd have taken the job even without the public-safety angle. But that's just the first sign of a new threat.

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Dogless 07 June 2019

The Hound has left us to go back to her family.

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UK Games Expo 2019: Friday 06 June 2019

Friday was the first "proper" day of UK Games Expo.

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The Calculating Stars, Mary Robinette Kowal 05 June 2019

2018 science fiction, distant prequel to the Hugo-winning novelette The Lady Astronaut of Mars. In 1952, a huge meteorite hits the east coast of the USA; the resultant climatic shift is enough to push for quicker development of a space programme, because it looks as if Earth will soon be uninhabitable. Elma York, mathematician, tries to become one of the astronauts, but it's still the 1950s and everyone knows women can't do that.

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UK Games Expo 2019: Thursday 04 June 2019

I've been to UK Games Expo again. And as before, I took Thursday off to help put up the show.

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The Hollow of Fear, Sherry Thomas 03 June 2019

2018 mystery story, third of the Lady Sherlock series. Charlotte Holmes continues to act as a consulting detective, but this time she must solve the murder of Lady Ingram, found on her estranged husband's estate. And Charlotte, known to be a Fallen Woman, has been seen in Lord Ingram's company…

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Trail of Lightning, Rebecca Roanhorse 02 June 2019

2018 modern fantasy. After the Big Water, with two-thirds of North America flooded, magic has returned to the world. Maggie Hoskie is a hunter of monsters among the Diné (Navajo); she's also a very broken person.

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May 2019 Trailers 01 June 2019 - 1 comment

Some trailers I've seen recently, and my thoughts on them. (Links are to youtube. Opinions are thoroughly personal. Calibration: Stabbing people is fun.)

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