1989 mystery/suspense, second in the John Sanders/Harriet Jeffries series. DI Sanders is in Ottawa for training, and annoyed at the world; but he was also the last person to see an undercover cop, apart from the murderer.
This Meetup-based boardgames group continues to meet at the Marlow Donkey.
2019 science fiction romance novella. Red and Blue are soldiers on opposite sides in a war that ranges across worlds and up and down the timelines. But then Red finds a letter in the ashes of a battlefield, that reads: Burn Before Reading.
1997 mystery, seventh in the Robert Amiss series. "Jack" Troutbeck enlists Amiss to help the new but unworldly Bishop of Westonbury as his chapter suffers a rift between the high church gay traditionalists and the intolerant evangelical new dean. Murder is also involved.
I've been doing the Perl Weekly Challenges. This one dealt with finding the intersection of two lines and doing worrying things to innocent variables.
2018 clockpunkish science fiction, third and probably last in the series. With Napoleon defeated, the Prince Regent decides that it's time to conquer (and profit from) all of Mars. Arabella, who grew up there and feels herself Martian at heart, sets out to prevent him.
This GURPS supplement deals with contacts: how to use them, how to customise them, and a wide variety of examples.
2009 short collection of science fiction stories. In steampunk Victorian England a young woman learns to fly; in the distant future the heir to the Phoenix Empress learns to control her powers.
V-Commandos: Résistance is the supplement to V-Commandos that I wasn't able to buy at Essen last year.
Clarkesworld is a monthly on-line magazine edited by Neil Clarke.
I've been doing the Perl Weekly Challenges. This one dealt with finding letters in words and the mean of circular quantities.
1992 cozy American detective fiction; tenth of MacLeod's novels of Boston Brahmin Sarah Kelling and art investigator Max Bittersohn. An old friend turns up working in an atelier styled after a Renaissance guild, restoring damaged art; but quite a lot of it seems to get stolen shortly after it's been returned to the client…
This supplementary volume in the Monster Hunters series offers improved abilities for some of the standard hunter templates.
1991 mystery; first of Granger's novels of Chief Inspector Markby and non-detective Meredith Mitchell. Mitchell is British Consul in Bratislava, home on leave to support her actor cousin Eve as Eve's daughter Sara gets married. Markby was a friend of Eve's deceased husband, and is giving away the bride. But it's Mitchell who will discover the body of the local potter who may have had something going with Sara…
The 1 Player Guild is a group of solo game players, communicating through BoardGameGeek. This was the fourth get-together for the UK contingent; not enough people made it to justify renting the library again, so we met at my place. With images; cc-by-sa on everything.
Strange Horizons is a weekly on-line magazine edited by Vanessa Rose Phin.
Last year I said "I suspect this project will be quietly forgotten and the Navy will shrink again", but apparently I was wrong.
Back to the boardgame café. With images; cc-by-sa on everything.
2014 mystery, first in the series about Helen Binney, ex-wife of the Governor of Massachussetts and now living in a small town and suffering from lupus erythematosus. Helen's fussy nieces insist on getting her daily visits from an overbearing nurse, who later turns up beaten to death outside Helen's house.
I've been doing the Perl Weekly Challenges. This one dealt with building long strings and the Chaocypher.
2018 modern fantasy, tenth and last in the Kate Daniels series. Things haven't got simpler for Kate, with a precocious infant son as well as her other responsibilities. Her father is mustering forces for the final battle. And that may not even be the worst of her problems…
This GURPS Powers supplement provides mechanical support for characters aided by totem spirits: something less than gods, but still more than human.
1959 mystery, first in the series about Chief Inspector Henry Tibbett. Tibbett and his wife go on a skiing holiday to a remote village on the Italian-Austrian border, but his superiors and Interpol ask him also to keep an eye on drug smuggling in the area. But what has that to do with the unpleasant German who turns up dead at the bottom of the chair-lift?
Uncanny is a bimonthly on-line magazine edited by Lynne M. Thomas and Michael Damian Thomas.
I have committed myself to a fanzine. Not just that, an RPG fanzine; not just that, a GURPS fanzine.
1985 police procedural, first in the John Sanders/Harriet Jeffries series. In Toronto, someone is raping and murdering joggers; but Detective Inspector John Sanders thinks the latest victim doesn't completely fit the pattern.
I've been doing the Perl Weekly Challenges. This one dealt with minimal programs and inverted-index text search.
2018 modern fantasy, first in a planned series spun off from the main Kate Daniels series. Hugh d'Ambray was the warlord of the demigod Roland, but was cast out for failure; he'd be crawling into a bottle, but his men need him. Elara Harper leads an outcast community that needs soldiers, and could offer shelter and employment. But both of them are known for betraying their allies. How can they make this alliance look credible to their enemies?
Some trailers I've seen recently, and my thoughts on them. (Links are to youtube. Opinions are thoroughly personal. Calibration: If you hate your enemies, you will contract such a vicious habit of mind, as by degrees will break out upon those who are your friends, or those who are indifferent to you.)