This really is a tradition now – for the fourth year in a row, a bunch of us without family commitments got together for boardgames.
2017 Hugo- and Nebula-award-winning science-fantasy, third in its trilogy. It seems as though there may after all be a chance to save the world; but is it worth saving, and what will it look like afterwards?
On a slightly crisp December day, I went to the National Army Museum in Chelsea.
Fantasy Flight Games has recently released Keyforge, a Unique Deck Game in which every deck one buys is different from every other. It's been getting mostly positive reviews. Why am I so comprehensively uninterested?
2016 American Regency romance novella, side story in a linked series. In her youth, Cecilia Goodhue ran off with a wild young man in the direction of Gretna Green; but they were caught, and she learned he was a fortune-hunter; to escape some of the scandal, she lived by the grace of her married sister and became a teacher in a village school. Now, ten years later, her own younger sister has run off with a soldier, and in an attempt to find her she'll meet that man again.
Pyramid, edited by Steven Marsh, was the monthly GURPS supplement containing short articles with a loose linking theme – though for this final issue that's mostly "look at all the different genres we've covered".
2000 science fiction, third of The Company series. In 1862, Mendoza is collecting plant samples from what will one day be Los Angeles, working out of a stagecoach stop in the Cahuenga Pass run by fellow immortal cyborg agents of the Company; she's still trying to cope with her post-traumatic stress. That won't go well for her.
This Meetup-based boardgames group continues to meet at the Marlow Donkey.
2018 short science fiction novella in the Vorkosigan universe (set between Captain Vorpatril's Alliance and Cryoburn). Ekaterin, Lady Vorkosigan, is supervising an experiment in cleaning up radioactive contamination round the former city of Vorkosigan Vashnoi; but something's going awry, and old secrets will come to light.
This supplementary volume in the Monster Hunters series models real-world religions to give their monster-hunting adherents appropriate game effects.
1991 mystery, fourth in the Robert Amiss series. Once more, Amiss' friend Pooley sends him into an institution where murder may have taken place, for a bit of unofficial undercover work. This time it's as a waiter at ffeatherstonehaugh's, originally a club for roués that's since become gentrified, then fallen on distressingly moralistic times.
A boardgaming evening at home; too long since I did one of these.
2012 military science fiction, tenth novel in the Legion of the Damned series (but first in the prequel sub-series, which is why I'm reading it first). Catherine Carletto is the spoiled daughter of industrialist nobles. But when the Emperor's sister assassinates the Emperor and takes over, she purges all his supporters. Cat will have to grow up fast just to stay alive, never mind getting her revenge.
This fourth Dungeon Fantasy Monsters book deals with the traditional Ultimate Fantasy Foe.
2015 American Regency romance, second of a linked series. During the deception of the first book, John Turner took on the persona of the Earl of Ashby, and was pursued by Leticia Herzog, fortune-hunting widow of an Austrian Count. When the game was discovered, she fled in public shame. But they each felt a spark for the other, and now they're going to meet again.
1999 science fiction comedy, dir. Dean Parisot, Tim Allen, Sigourney Weaver; IMDb / allmovie. Galaxy Quest was a big SF show in the early 1980s, but by the present day the cast are reduced to convention appearances and store openings. Then some particularly odd fans turn out to be rather more into the show than anyone expected… Spoilers.
1764 gothic horror, and the prototype for the gothic novel. Conrad, the sickly son of the Lord of Otranto, is killed on his wedding day by a giant helmet falling from the sky, so his father Manfred plans to marry the intended bride himself; things get more foreboding from there.
2018 audio drama, adapted in ten parts by Julian Simpson from the story by H. P. Lovecraft. On 6 March 2017, Charles Ward vanished from a secure psychiatric hospital in Providence. Two podcasters, looking for mysterious stories, dig into what happened.
1968 thriller, short novella. The children's novelist Cora Gresham has decided to set her latest pirate story in Lanzarote, so she'll have to visit, and her secretary Perdita West has to make the arrangements. But the house that would be the ideal writing retreat is already occupied.
The season ends not with a bang but with a "to be continued". And that's not a bad thing.
Back to the boardgame café. With images; cc-by-sa on everything.
Clarkesworld is a monthly on-line magazine edited by Neil Clarke.
This second Dungeon Fantasy Adventure book deals with an expedition to the long-abandoned (yeah, right) ruins of a draconic monarch's palace.
Apex is a monthly on-line magazine edited by Jason Sizemore among others.
1999 science fiction noir. Vincent Rubio is a private investigator in Los Angeles: down on his luck, partner dead in an "accident", car repossessed, and a growing substance habit. But down these mean streets a man must walk who is not himself a man… Vincent is a velociraptor.
Doctor Who presents: Nightmare in Norway.
1915 comic novel, compilation from magazine publication in 1909-1910. Bored in New York, Psmith gets involved with a local newspaper, turning it from a provider of pap into a crusader.
Back to Dragonmeet, since it was happening (and I was being paid). All images are cc-by-sa.
1999 science fiction, second of The Company series. The immortal cyborg Facilitator Joseph finds himself with the task of talking a Chumash village into coming to work for the Company rather than hanging around to be wiped out when the Spanish arrive in California.
Some trailers I've seen recently, and my thoughts on them. (Links are to youtube. Opinions are thoroughly personal. Calibration: I hate everything.)