2020 space-operatic SF, first of a planned trilogy. Sun is the daughter and heir-presumptive of Queen-Marshal Eirene, who turned the Chaonian Republic from a defeated mess into a strong if fragile interstellar power. She's just won her own first naval victory. But there are enemies both internal and external…
Since my last post on this subject, more of the hidden collaborations of Howard Philips Lovecraft (1890-1937) have been uncovered. Our team of imaginary researchers has worked tirelessly to recover these first drafts, rendered into more commonplace form by Lovecraft's so-called "co-authors".
2006 urban fantasy, second in the series set in Singapore Three. With Detective Inspector Chen on vacation, Seneschal Zhu Irzh, his demonic partner, must look into the matter of a murdered socialite…
I’ve been doing the Perl Weekly Challenges. The latest involved reversing integers and a two-dimensional search. (Note that this is open until 1 November 2020.)
2015 collection of Lovecraftian horror stories mostly set in South London. vt Shadows from Norwood.
2013 collection of new SF stories set on pre-space-probe ideas of the planet Mars.
2015 SF, first of a trilogy. Torrin is an interstellar smuggler, planning to ship her high-tech weapons to anyone on the Fringe World of Haefen with a budget to buy them. Jak is a sniper, disguised as a man in a military that doesn't allow women, waiting for a chance at revenge on the man who killed her brother, but for now on a solo mission to kill the smuggler the other side is dealing with.
The local council has issued a press release. Excuse me while I run round and round in small circles.
I’ve been doing the Perl Weekly Challenges. The latest involved string manipulation and a numerical search. (Note that this is open until 25 October 2020.)
The final major section of the book is the GM's toolkit.
This Meetup-based boardgames group remains on-line for the moment; as usual we got together on Jitsi and then played some games on BoardGameArena.
2009 crime/SF. In future Glasgow, serious criminals are "halfheaded", lobotomised and their lower jaws removed, to work as simple labour and serve as an example to others. But, to nobody's surprise, that isn't much of a deterrent to some.
I have ended up maintaining a plugin for Discourse. As I got it, it had no tests. Fixing that was fun.
2018 contemporary thriller, first in a new series. DC Constance Fairchild goes to a meeting with an undercover officer, only to find he's been tortured and shot. And her superiors are determined to prove that she's the corrupt cop who did it.
That's more or less the players' part of the book. The rest of it is advice to the GM.
2008 science fiction, second of the two books of Lords of Creation. The first Mars and Venus landers found breathable air and human life. Forty years later, Jeremy Wainman is on an archaeological expedition looking for a lost Martian city.
You now have a character. Now let's break it.
I’ve been doing the Perl Weekly Challenges. The latest involved common factors and string searches. (Note that this is open until 12 October 2020.)
1915 comedy. For reasons too silly to go into, several of the guests at Blandings are out to steal a rare scarab… US vt Something New (with slight alterations).
I've now done a Flightgear-simulated tour at "every" airport in the United Kingdom.
So given that universal resolution mechanic, what's the rest of the game about?
This universal RPG system suffers from conflicting goals, but ends up producing a pleasantly fast-moving game.
1988 historical fantasy. In 1595, Elizabeth has decided that James of Scotland shall be her heir. But he is beset by witches, and she sends her champion, Sir Philip Sidney, to aid him.
I’ve been doing the Perl Weekly Challenges. The latest involved substrings and word frequencies. (Note that this is open until 11 October 2020.)
1936 detective fiction; second of Tey's novels of Inspector Alan Grant. A film star's body washes up on a beach in Kent; it might have been an accidental drowning, but for a small piece of evidence.
2013 non-fiction; Houston looks into the history and evolution of a variety of punctuation marks.
More boardgames played from home.
2019 non-fiction, Stephanie Land's description of raising a child without a partner while working as a cleaner.
Ninth in this series of one-day conventions, which this year of course happened on-line.
Some trailers I've seen recently, and my thoughts on them. (Links are to youtube. Opinions are thoroughly personal. Calibration: if you don't know by now…)