2016 fantasy, light novel adaptation in 12½ episodes: AniDB. Six people find themselves in a monster-bashing fantasy world, without memories or resources. vt Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash.
2012 military science fiction, first of a planned five-book series. Private Andy Moralee has passed Dropship Infantry training, but it didn't prepare him for a unit posting and battle itself.
2016 cyberpunk drama, 10 episodes. Ben Larson, corporate climber, is secretly a climate-change refugee under a false identity, trying to find and save the woman he grew up with and lost.
1952 classic English detective fiction; fourteenth of Allingham's novels of Albert Campion. Meg Elginbrodde thought she was widowed in the war, and now plans to marry again; but someone is sending her recent photographs of a man who might be her late husband. Can it really be as simple as blackmail?
Those of you who came to the early summer barbecue will have noticed that the gazebo had taken on a bit of a slant.
1997 mystery; second of Granger's novels of Fran Varady, would-be actress and amateur sleuth. Fran's waiting at a station and feels sorry for a homeless man, so gives him a cup of coffee. Soon she's hearing his life story… and all about the young woman he saw being kidnapped a few days ago.
Some trailers I've seen recently, and my thoughts on them. (Links are to youtube. Opinions are thoroughly personal.)
Pyramid, edited by Steven Marsh, is the monthly GURPS supplement containing short articles with a loose linking theme. This time it's things that go wrong for player characters.
Back to the boardgame café. With images; cc-by-sa on everything.
2016 Hugo-nominated science fiction. In a world defined by belief, Kel Cheris won a battle against heretics… by using a heretical technique. That makes her the perfect leader for a really important mission.
2016 modern fantasy, shounen manga adaptation in 12 episodes: AniDB. Makoto the trainee witch moves to a rural town in Aomori prefecture to live with her (non-magical) relatives.
2016 popular science/history, 10 episodes. The team does practical investigation of various historical events and other claims.
This Meetup-based boardgames group continues to meet at the Marlow Donkey – this time in the absence of our Glorious Leader.
1951 classic English detective fiction; sixteenth of Marsh's novels of Inspector Roderick Alleyn. Towards the end of the opening night of a new play, one of the cast kills himself. Or does he? US vt Night at the Vulcan.
Some towns just have pigeons and gulls and things. Some towns don't even weigh their mayor each year to see if he's getting fat on the public purse. This is High Wycombe; we do things differently here.
1973 Hugo- and Nebula-award-winning science fiction. In 2131, an object falls into the inner Solar System at high speed: it turns out to be an alien artefact, and only one ship is in a position to take a look before it falls out again.
Back to this small quarterly boardgames convention in Watford. With images; cc-by-sa on everything.
1987 partly-historical mystery. In 1910, Edwin Strafford was Home Secretary under Asquith, and engaged to be married; then, suddenly, his intended refused to speak to him, his political career collapsed, and he ended up as a consular official in Madeira. In 1977, unemployed history teacher Martin Radford is employed by an eccentric South African to find out why, but the past is not as dead as he might have hoped.
2016 mecha science fiction, 26 episodes: AniDB, vt Black Relic. In the near future, a UN research station at the Kurobe Dam is looking into some ancient artefacts… and enigmatic aliens start to invade Earth.
2016-2017 detection, 13 episodes. Frank Sullivan the homicide detective was shot and killed in 1996; in 2016, his daughter Raimy, also a homicide detective, finds that she can talk to Frank of twenty years ago via an old ham radio.
A second evening Firefly session, again with a time limit though we didn't need it.
2014 military SF, first of a series. Ian Dunlop thinks he might be going mad, but he's the product of an illegal experiment. That secret has been well kept for years, but now it's getting out.
2016 noir thriller, 10 episodes. A forensic neuropsychiatrist finds himself getting in way, way over his head.
Pyramid, edited by Steven Marsh, is the monthly GURPS supplement containing short articles with a loose linking theme. This time it's things to make the players say "that's amazing".
1976 comedic detective fiction; first of Thomas's novels of "Dangerous" Davies, barely-competent and perenially unlucky detective constable in Willesden. Set to look for a local criminal who might have returned to the area, Davies turns this into an investigation of a twenty-five-year-old disappearance.
2016 cooking story, shounen manga adaptation in 13 episodes: AniDB, vt "Food Wars: The Second Plate". Yukihira Sōma continues to fight cooking duels on his way up the élite Totsuki cooking school.
1945 war story (written in 1942 but held back by the censor). Four mismatched officers come together on a project to build up French morale by deploying a flamethrower against German coastal forces.
2016 horror, 10 episodes. Suburban family's daughter is demonically possessed; two priests try to do something about it.
1949 classic English detective fiction; fifteenth of Marsh's novels of Inspector Roderick Alleyn. Lord Pastern and Bagott, sitting in on the drums in a jazz band, has set up a bit of business where he "shoots" the piano-accordionist, Carlos Rivera, who falls down and is carried off stage. But Rivera's made himself offensive to everyone, and he's not going to be getting up again. US vt A Wreath for Rivera.