RogerBW's Blog

Neighbourly Games 27 January 31 January 2025 - 4 comments

More gaming with nearby friends.

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Bridal Jitters, Jayne Castle 30 January 2025

2095 romance/SF/mystery novella; in the Ghost Hunters series. Virginia Burch rented the office upstairs from Sam Gage, and now they're merging their businesses in order to hold on to the house in an area ripe for redevelopment. But that's not all…

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Notes on Mongoose's Bayern 4: The First Crossing 29 January 2025

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 2.

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Ten Thousand Stitches, Olivia Atwater 28 January 2025

2020 fantasy romance, second of its series. Effie is a housemaid who's fallen for the youngest son of the Family. She knows perfectly well it's impossible. Until she meets a fae who is determined to help her.

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Modern Internal Nameservice 27 January 2025

Not many people run their own internal DNS any more. For people who do, here's now I do it.

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The Weekly Challenge 305: Binary Aliens 26 January 2025

I’ve been doing the Weekly Challenges. The latest involved an array mapping and a custom sort. (Note that this ends today.)

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Notes on Mongoose's Bayern 3: Death Throes 25 January 2025

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 2.

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Answers for the Princess Charlotte General Knowledge Paper 2024 24 January 2025

Here are the answers to last year's quiz.

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Grey Mask, Patricia Wentworth 23 January 2025

1928 mystery/thriller. Charles Moray was jilted by Margaret Langton on the eve of their wedding; he threw himself into exploration, and has just returned to London. Meanwhile, a silly young woman is called back from her finishing school after the death of her father…

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Twist January 2025 22 January 2025 - 2 comments

While visiting friends on Plymouth, we went to Twist, the local boardgame café.

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Seven Obscure Languages in Seven Weeks, Dmitry Zinoviev 21 January 2025

2024 non-fiction. Zinoviev introduces the core functions of seven programming languages that are now, for various reasons, little-known.

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Tombstoning, Doug Johnstone 20 January 2025 - 6 comments

2006 mystery/thriller, tartan noir. Years ago in Arbroath, David's best friend Colin died in an accident just as he was about to become a professional footballer. David ran away from the memories and made a new life for himself in Edinburgh. But now there's going to be a school reunion.

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The Weekly Challenge 304: Binary to the Maxmim 19 January 2025

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

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Careful What You Witch For, Emma Jackson 18 January 2025

2024 fantasy-romance, second of what may be an ongoing series. The world is much like our own, only it has witches in it. Becca is one of the ancient Ashworth family, and the ghost she summoned for advice on a complicated magical problem has got loose; Connor is a strong-arm man for the Witches' Council, who don't get on with the Ashworths… and they will end up working together.

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Mr Campion's Farthing, Philip Youngman Carter 17 January 2025

1969 English detective fiction; twentieth of the novels of Albert Campion, from an idea by Margery Allingham but written after her death by her husband. "Turrets" is kept up in High Victorian style as a sort of hotel for period weekend breaks, but a notable Soviet scientist vanished while staying there, and several parties are taking an interest.

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Neighbourly Games 14 January 16 January 2025

More gaming with nearby friends.

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Long Live Evil, Sarah Rees Brennan 15 January 2025

2024 fantasy, first of its series. Rae is dying of cancer when she is given a choice: be dropped into her sister's favourite fantasy series Time of Iron, complete a task, and be healed and back in her own body (or stuck there if she fails). Of course she takes it. Pity she never actually read the first book…

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Delilah Green Doesn't Care, Ashley Herring Blake 14 January 2025

2022 romance, first of a trilogy. Delilah got out of the tiny Oregon town of Bright Falls the instant she could, building an art-photography career in New York and leaving her perfect stepsister Astrid with the rest of the Mean Girls. But now Astrid is getting married and wants to employ her as photographer, and Delilah could really use the money…

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A Handful of Stars, Dana Stabenow 13 January 2025 - 2 comments

1991 SF, second of its series. "Star" Svensdotter, having finished supervising the construction of the first L5 habitat, is now taking a small fleet to the Belt to try to secure a more reliable supply of materials for the second.

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The Weekly Challenge 303: Can Even Digits Earn? 12 January 2025

I’ve been doing the Weekly Challenges. The latest involved permuting integers and searching lists. (Note that this ends today.)

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Thirsty Meeples January 2025 11 January 2025

Back to the boardgame café.

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Rumpole of the Bailey, John Mortimer 10 January 2025 - 3 comments

1978 comedy anthology, consisting of Mortimer's adaptations of his own scripts from the first season of the television series. Rumpole is an ageing barrister who somehow prevails over everything life can throw at him.

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Stabcon 2025 09 January 2025 - 2 comments

Back to the Masonic Hall for a chilly weekend. (Well, in the outside world anyway.)

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Three Nights at the Opera, Heather Rose Jones 08 January 2025

2014 Ruritanian fantasy short story. Before the events of Daughter of Mystery, Barbara attends the opera while her master the Baron is away.

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Neighbourly Games 30 December 07 January 2025 - 2 comments

More gaming with nearby friends.

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Emilie and the Hollow World, Martha Wells 06 January 2025

2013 YA gaslamp fantasy, first of a pair though it stands alone. Emilie is fleeing from her guardians when she stows away on the wrong ship, and finds herself part of an expedition to the world within the world…

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The Weekly Challenge 302: Step By Step One Becomes Zero 05 January 2025

I’ve been doing the Weekly Challenges. The latest involved string searching and sequence analysis. (Note that this ends today.)

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A Thief in the Nude, Olivia Waite 04 January 2025

2013 Regency romance novella. Hecuba Jones is stealing back paintings that were to be her inheritance, sold by her uncle. But the younger brother of the Earl catches her… vt Color Me Bad.

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2024 in boardgames 03 January 2025

In 2024 I went to fewer conventions but got to play a bit more at home.

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2024 in Books 02 January 2025 - 3 comments

In 2024 I read 186 books (most novel-length, a few separate novellas and short stories); after a strong start to the year I slowed down a lot later, for no obvious reason.

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Roger's 2024 in 50 Words 01 January 2025

A friend likes to sum up his year in a set number of words, and I copy this fine idea. "Think of it as a short and un-boastful summary of the year, which nobody is expected to understand all of."

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