RogerBW's Blog

The Scandalous Letters of V and J, Felicia Davin 31 December 2024

2023 epistolary fantastic romance. Victor Beauchêne is disinherited and cast out; Julien Moreau has come to Paris to paint. They will meet, but everything will get terribly complicated…

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Friday's Child, Georgette Heyer 30 December 2024

1944 Regency romance. Needing to marry to gain his inheritance, and refused by the Incomparable Isabella, the young buck Viscount Sheringham plans to marry the first woman he sees. Fortunately this is his childhood friend Hero Wantage, who's always worshipped him from afar.

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The Weekly Challenge 301: Hamming it Large 29 December 2024

I’ve been doing the Weekly Challenges. The latest involved strings, numbers and bit counting. (Note that this ends today.)

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Boxing Day Boardgames 2024 28 December 2024

As has become a tradition, a bunch of us without family commitments got together for boardgames.

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Apprentice to the Villain, Hannah Nicole Maehrer 27 December 2024

2024 fantasy romance, second of its series. The Villain was captured by the king at the end of the previous book, so the first thing for his assistant Evie to do is to rescue him.

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Advent of Code 2024 26 December 2024

I did Advent of Code again, and had a really good time again. Spoilers.

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Astray, Jenny Schwartz 25 December 2024

2021 SF, first in a five-book series. The big war is over, but tensions are still high, and the possibility of a gold rush doesn't make life any safer.

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Princess Charlotte General Knowledge Paper 2024 24 December 2024

In the spirit of the King William's College General Knowledge Paper, released each December for completion over the Christmas break, I offer my own set of questions for the holidays.

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The Muse of Maiden Lane, Mimi Matthews 23 December 2024

2024 Victorian romance, fourth and last in the loose Belles of London series. Stella Hobhouse knows that marriage, any marriage, is her only escape from life as a drudge to her hateful brother. But she did not entirely think through her scandalous plan to colour her prematurely silver hair…

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The Weekly Challenge 300: What a Beautiful Nest 22 December 2024

I’ve been doing the Weekly Challenges. The latest involved permutations and array recursion. (Note that this ends today.)

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Only Cold Depths, Jennifer Estep 21 December 2024

2024 romantic SF, fourth of what was originally a planned trilogy but will now get at least one more book. Vesper Quill and Kyrion Caldaren, with an unbreakable psychic bond that's led the psi-hungry emperor to put a bounty on their heads, flee to a planet that should offer sanctuary…

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Neighbourly Games 16 December 20 December 2024

More gaming with nearby friends.

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Everybody Codes 2024 19 December 2024

I did Everybody Codes, a new set of programming challenges in the style of Advent of Code.

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The Pearl King, Sarah Painter 18 December 2024

2020 urban fantasy, fourth of its series. Lydia Crow is still dealing with the fallout of her last case, but new problems keep coming.

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Flowers For His Funeral, Ann Granger 17 December 2024

1994 mystery, seventh of Granger's novels of Chief Inspector Alan Markby and non-detective Meredith Mitchell. At the Chelsea Flower Show, the pair run into Meredith's old school friend Rachel (who turns out to be Markby's ex-wife) with her new husband Alex. But it won't be a long acquaintanceship.

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Notes on Mongoose's Bayern 2: Message Drone 16 December 2024

This is part of an ongoing series about the preparations I've made to run Mongoose's revised edition of the Bayern campaign for 2300AD. Spoilers for Plot Point 1.

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The Weekly Challenge 299: Words, Words, What Are Words? 15 December 2024

I’ve been doing the Weekly Challenges. The latest involved manipulations of word lists. (Note that this ends today.)

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The House That Fought, Jenny Schwartz 14 December 2024

2020 fantasy, final volume of its trilogy. There's a huge, world-shaking event going on… but is intervening even the right thing to do?

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The Librarian of Crooked Lane, C. J. Archer 13 December 2024

1920 mystery with very mild fantasy elements. Sylvia Ashe lost her job as a journalist when all the men came back from the War, but stumbles into a job with a magical library.

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Thinner Than Water, Elizabeth Ferrars 12 December 2024

1981 mystery. Virginia Freer runs into an old friend who's planning to get married; she knew him during the breakup of his previous marriage. Several people are going to die…

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Beyond the Fringe, Miles Cameron 11 December 2024

2023 SF, short fiction in the Arcana Imperii series. Various people work for the DHC (the relatively "good" human government) to find out what's happening in the breakaway mini-empire of New Texas.

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Notes on Mongoose's Bayern 1: The Wanderer 10 December 2024

This is part of an ongoing series about the preparations I've made to run Mongoose's revised edition of the Bayern campaign for 2300AD. Spoilers for Interlude 1.

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Lady Killer, Ed McBain 09 December 2024 - 2 comments

1958 police procedural, seventh in the 87th Precinct series. The 87th gets a note: "I will kill the lady tonight at 8. What can you do about it?"

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The Weekly Challenge 298: Whatever You Do, Be Maximally Right 08 December 2024

I’ve been doing the Weekly Challenges. The latest involved various sorts of array hunting. (Note that this ends today.)

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Notes on Mongoose's Bayern 0: Setup and Character Generation 07 December 2024 - 4 comments

I've recently started to run Mongoose's revised version of the 2300AD campaign Bayern, after having obtained it in a Bundle of Holding. Here are some notes I've made to add to the published materials. There are no spoilers here, though there may be in future instalments which deal with specific scenarios.

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Why is Nothing Ever Simple?, Jodi Taylor 06 December 2024

2019 science fiction novella, in the Chronicles of St Mary's series (time travel). Ian Guthrie is retiring as Head of Security at St Mary's, but first goes on one last jump…

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Neighbourly Games 2 December 05 December 2024

More gaming with nearby friends.

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The Vampire and the Case of Her Dastardly Death, Heather G. Harris and Jilleen Dolbeare 04 December 2024

2023 paranormal fantasy novella, first of a series. Bunny Barrington was trying to make a life having run away from her rich parents. She didn't expect to become a vampire.

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These Burning Stars, Bethany Jacobs 03 December 2024

2023 SF, first of a planned trilogy. The generation ships arrived in the Treble over a thousand years ago. Now rule is a complicated tension between the overall government, the Kindom, and the First Families. Several people are planning to do something about that.

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The Path of Cunning Issue 5 02 December 2024

The fifth issue of the GURPS fanzine The Path of Cunning is out.

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The Weekly Challenge 297: Semi-Ordered Contiguity 01 December 2024

I’ve been doing the Weekly Challenges. The latest involved array hunting and re-permuting. (Note that this ends today.)

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