RogerBW's Blog

Channel Tunnel 31 October 2019

Just how much time does the Channel Tunnel save, compared with a ferry?

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Dead Reckoning, Mercedes Lackey and Rosemary Edghill 30 October 2019

2012 steampunk western fantasy. In 1867, Jett Gallatin is a gunslinger searching for his brother who went missing after the War; White Horse is a civilian scout attached to the Union Army; and Gibbons is a scientist and inventor. All of them arrive in the town of Alsop, Texas, just as the zombies attack. But who made that happen, and why?

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Essen 2019 haul 29 October 2019

This post is about what I brought back from Essen – as well as some things I'd been thinking about but ended up not buying.

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Hexarchate Stories, Yoon Ha Lee 28 October 2019

2019 collection of short science fiction stories set in the universe of the Heptarchate/Hexarchate.

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Kitty and the Silver Bullet, Carrie Vaughn 27 October 2019

2008 urban fantasy, fourth in the series. Kitty Norville, the late-night DJ who has become the world's most famous werewolf, returns to Denver to be with her sick mother; which means that all the problems she's been running away from come back to haunt her, with new ones to join them.

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Demonstrating Games at Essen 26 October 2019 - 2 comments

I'm now a regular game demonstrator at Essen SPIEL shows. Here's my advice in case you're contemplating it.

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Red Bones, Ann Cleeves 25 October 2019

2009 mystery; third in Cleeves' Shetland Island series. At an archaeological site on Whalsay, the old woman who lives nearby is shot one foggy night – accidentally, everyone assumes. Then one of the archaeologists is found with her wrists slit. DI Jimmy Perez investigates.

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Marlow Tabletop and Board Games 21 October 2019 24 October 2019

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

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GURPS High Tech: Electricity and Electronics, William H. Stoddard 23 October 2019

This GURPS supplement is primarily an equipment catalogue, listing electrical and related equipment from Galvani and Volta to the present day.

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Marching in London again 22 October 2019 - 3 comments

I went along to the march on Saturday, again not because I think it will help, but because I'd have felt bad if I hadn't.

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Publish and be Murdered, Ruth Dudley Edwards 21 October 2019

1999 mystery, eighth in the Robert Amiss series. Amiss is brought in to help an old, money-losing, right-wing weekly newspaper lose slightly less money. Which puts him in a prime position when one of the senior staff is murdered.

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Clarkesworld 157, October 2019 20 October 2019

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

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Games in Reading, 17 October 2019 19 October 2019

I went over to a friend's place for boardgames.

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Becoming a Writer, Dorothea Brande 18 October 2019 - 1 comment

1934 non-fiction, a short look at the writing mindset and how to set oneself to work.

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In Extremis: The Life of War Correspondent Marie Colvin, Lindsey Hilsum 17 October 2019

2012 non-fiction, following the life and death of Marie Colvin.

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Night Terrace season 2 16 October 2019

2019 Australian science fiction comedy audio drama in eight parts, by John Richards. Dr Anastasia Black, Eddie Jones and Sue Denholm continue to travel through time and space in a suburban house, fixing problems and getting into trouble.

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Perl Weekly Challenge 30 15 October 2019

I've been doing the Perl Weekly Challenges. This one dealt with date calculations and exhaustive number searches.

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Strange Horizons, September 2019 14 October 2019

Strange Horizons is a weekly on-line magazine edited by Vanessa Rose Phin.

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Uncanny 30, September/October 2019 13 October 2019

Uncanny is a bimonthly on-line magazine edited by Lynne M. Thomas and Michael Damian Thomas.

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The Wrong Rite, Charlotte MacLeod 12 October 2019

1992 cosy American detective fiction; fifth and last of MacLeod's novels (as "Alisa Craig") of Madoc and Janet Rhys. They've gone to Wales to help celebrate Madoc's great-uncle's 90th birthday, but soon enough there's a dead body to be dealt with.

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Perl Weekly Challenge 29 11 October 2019

I've been doing the Perl Weekly Challenges. This one dealt with expanding braces and calling C functions.

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Erebus: The Story of a Ship, Michael Palin 10 October 2019 - 2 comments

2018 non-fiction. HMS Erebus had already travelled to the Ross Ice Shelf; in 1845, she was sent to search for the Northwest Passage, and never came back.

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Marlow Tabletop and Board Games 7 October 2019 09 October 2019

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

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The Far West, Patricia C. Wrede 08 October 2019

2012 fantasy, third in the trilogy. In a parallel 19th century America, Eff Rothmer travels on an expedition past frontier territory, to where the magical beasts dwell.

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A Wild and Lonely Place, Marcia Muller 07 October 2019

1995 mystery, fifteenth in Muller's series about Sharon McCone, private investigator in San Francisco. McCone's trying to get the reward for tracking down the "Diplo-Bomber" who's been sending explosive packages to various embassies and consulates… but it quickly becomes personal.

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I Am Now Old 06 October 2019 - 7 comments

Today is my birthday. And I now feel that I can be regarded as officially Old.

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Ambiguity Machines, Vandana Singh 05 October 2019

2018 SF anthology, 14 short stories; all except the last have been published previously.

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Perl Weekly Challenge 28 04 October 2019

I've been doing the Perl Weekly Challenges. This one dealt with testing file contents and producing the current time.

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YSDC Games Day 8 03 October 2019 - 2 comments

Eighth in this series of one-day conventions in bustling metropolitan Baildon (suburban Bradford).

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Murder and Mendelssohn, Kerry Greenwood 02 October 2019

2013 historical detection, twentieth in Greenwood's Phryne Fisher series (1920s flapper detective in Australia). The hated conductor of an amateur choral ensemble is murdered… twice. And an old friend of Phryne's is in love with someone who doesn't know he exists, and who seems to be the target of murderous attacks.

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September 2019 Trailers 01 October 2019 - 2 comments

Some trailers I've seen recently, and my thoughts on them. (Links are to youtube. Opinions are thoroughly personal. Calibration: Hatred is a vice of narrow souls; they feed it with all their meanness, and make it a pretext for sordid tyranny.)

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