RogerBW's Blog

The Weekly Challenge 275: Broken Digits 30 June 2024

I’ve been doing the Weekly Challenges. The latest involved various flavours of string processing. (Note that this ends today.)

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Half Share, Nathan Lowell 29 June 2024

2007 YA SF, second in its series. Ishmael Horatio Wang transfers from the galley to environmental maintenance on the intersteller merchant ship, and grows up a bit more.

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Undercover, Tamsin Muir 28 June 2024

2022 horror novelette. Starr comes to work for the crime boss as handler for her pet ghoul—who may be more than the flesh-eating monstrosity she appears.

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Neighbourly Games 24 June 27 June 2024

More gaming with some nearby friends.

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The Cloud Roads, Martha Wells 26 June 2024

2011 fantasy, first of a series. Moon is a shapeshifter, able to turn into a flying predator. When he's driven out from the latest human community he's been hiding among, he is found by another shifter and brought to meet more of his people, while becoming a pawn in several power games…

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The Commodore, C. S. Forester 25 June 2024 - 3 comments

1945 Napoleonic naval fiction, fourth written but ninth by internal chronology. Hornblower is settling uncomfortably into rural life when he's given a squadron and sent on a diplomatic and military mission to the Baltic.

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A Matter of Taste, Fred Saberhagen 24 June 2024 - 2 comments

1990 fantasy, sixth in Saberhagen's loose Dracula series. Dracula, now known as Matthew Maule and living in Chicago, loses consciousness after an evening with family, and the guests in his high-rise flat find themselves under siege.

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The Weekly Challenge 274: Goat on the Bus 23 June 2024

I’ve been doing the Weekly Challenges. The latest involved string tweaking and bus route analysis. (Note that this ends today.)

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Minor Mage, T Kingfisher 22 June 2024 - 2 comments

2019 fantasy. Oliver is a very minor mage; he has some talent, but he's twelve, and he only knows three spells. But when the village is desperate for rain, and when a mob gets started, he finds himself (and his familiar) forced out with only the vaguest of instructions…

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Starconvoy EH-76, M. H. Questus 21 June 2024 - 2 comments

2018 SF. A reporter and camera operator are embedded aboard a convoy taking troops and supplies to the front lines. In space.

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The Vanishing Box, Elly Griffiths 20 June 2024

2017 mystery, fourth in its series. A "good" girl is found murdered in her lodgings, and more deaths follow. DI Edgar Stephens, and his old wartime colleague the magician Max Mephisto, investigate.

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Last Call, Tim Powers 19 June 2024

1992 contemporary fantasy. Former poker player Scott Crane is drinking himself to death after having lost his wife, and those aren't even the worst of his troubles.

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Thirsty Meeples June 2024 18 June 2024

Back to the boardgame café.

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Scales and Sensibility, Stephanie Burgis 17 June 2024 - 5 comments

2021 fantasy romance. In Regency society, the essential accessory for every young lady is a dragon to sit on her shoulder. But Elinor Tregarth is still a poor relation…

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The Weekly Challenge 273: Building Character 16 June 2024

I’ve been doing the Weekly Challenges. The latest involved poking through strings. (Note that this ends today.)

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A Choice of Destinies, Melissa Scott 15 June 2024

1986 alternate history. While camped at Bactra and on the verge of the Indian campaign, Alexander the Great hears of a revolt among the Greek cities he left behind him. So he turns back…

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A Pressing Engagement, Anna Lee Huber 14 June 2024

2016 historical mystery novella in Huber's Lady Darby series (post-Regency amateur detection). Lady Darby, suffering from pre-wedding jitters, is determined to resolve the mystery of a necklace.

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Neighbourly Games 10 June 13 June 2024

More gaming with some nearby friends.

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The Something Girl, Jodi Taylor 12 June 2024

2017 thriller and light mystery. Jenny Checkland is married to Russell and has a small daughter. But some people seem determined that she should not be happy.

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Dominion, Fred Saberhagen 11 June 2024 - 5 comments

1982 fantasy, fifth in Saberhagen's loose Dracula series. A stage magician is asked to perform at a rebuilt castle in Illinois, and everyone's plans are interlocking.

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Dark Class, Michelle Diener 10 June 2024

2019 SF/romance, last in the Class 5 series. Ellie Masters wakes up in an abandoned installation. But someone out there is talking to her…

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The Weekly Challenge 272: Score the Defranged Strings 09 June 2024

I’ve been doing the Weekly Challenges. The latest involved string replacement and character searching. (Note that this ends today.)

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The Riddle of the Sands, Erskine Childers 08 June 2024

1903 thriller. On a sailing trip in the Baltic and points nearby, two young men discover a German plot.

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UK Games Expo 2024 07 June 2024

My second in-pandemic trip to UK Games Expo. With images; cc-by-sa-nc on everything.

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Beyond the Eyes of Mars, Glynn Stewart 06 June 2024

2022 SF, twelfth of its series. Naval forces and stealth ships are mustered in a joint operation to track down a breakaway force from the defeated enemy. But they will get unexpected help.

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The RogerBW Manifesto (2024 edition) 05 June 2024 - 2 comments

It's time again for my occasional political rant. As usual, these are the things I'd try to do if anyone were daft enough to put me in charge; they're also promises that would encourage me to vote for people who made them.

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Entanglement, Martha Wells 04 June 2024

2007 TV tie-in science fiction. The Stargate team from Atlantis finds an enigmatic artefact…

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Swordheart, T Kingfisher 03 June 2024

2018 fantasy. Halla was taken in by her husband's family after he died, and has been working as a housekeeper for her great-uncle. Now he's died, and left everything to her, which of course the rest of the family won't let stand.

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The Weekly Challenge 271: Sort the Maximum One 02 June 2024

I’ve been doing the Weekly Challenges. The latest involved matrix analysis, bit-counting and sorting. (Note that this ends today.)

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Dark Ambitions, Michelle Diener 01 June 2024

2019 SF/romance novella in the Class 5 series. Having been aboard ships for far too long, Rose McKenzie goes along with a planetary survey party. Then the rest of the party vanishes.

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