2021 fantasy for children. The Studio Mandolini is one of several that paints Illuminations: magical paintings that ward off mice from the cheese or prevent fires. But their fortunes have been waning, and young Rosa wants to help her family. So when a box found in the basement makes her forget all about it and walk away, it must contain something valuable…
1997 mystery, tenth of Granger's novels of Chief Inspector Alan Markby and non-detective Meredith Mitchell. The couple are having some time away in a tiny village. But their neighbour is a retired reporter, and she's got hold of a loose thread regarding the recent death of the reclusive grande dame…
2024 urban fantasy, first of a trilogy. Sierra was taken to High Earth as a child and taught magic… and was then dumped back in our own non-magical world. She is very angry.
How does a bottle differ from a jar?
2020 historical mystery anthology, a crossover between four authors. The pocket watch known as La Sirène has always been said to be cursed. But is it really?
2022 fantasy-romance, second of its loose series. Poppy got drunk after a bad breakup, and thinks she put some real cursing magic into one of the crystal trinkets at the shop where she works. Which would be fine if her workmate hadn't just sold it to a hot guy…
I’ve been doing the Weekly Challenges. The latest involved a converging sequence and a fraction generator. (Note that this ends today.)
Here are the answers to last year's quiz.
Inspired by a conversation with Russ Allbery, I found myself thinking that while I know a lot of the standard science fiction terms (FTL, big dumb object, teleporter clone, etc.) I am less informed as to criticism in other genres I favour, specifically romance and mystery.
More gaming with nearby friends.
2008 romance/SF/mystery; fifth of its series but effectively stand-alone. Sierra McIntyre may be working for a trashy tabloid, but she's still going after the big corruption story. But when she goes to interview the new Guild boss about his recently-dead predecessor, sparks fly…
1984 SF comedy, dir. Stewart Raffill, Robert Urich, Mary Crosby: IMDb. When water is the most precious substance in the universe, of course there will be those who steal it.
And for that matter returning to wargaming, which I rather drifted away from before the pandemic began.
I’ve been doing the Weekly Challenges. The latest involved sequence generation and sports score analysis. (Note that this ends today.) Only a few languages this time, since I was doing other things over Christmas.
2021 historical thriller, sixth of its series. Veronica and Stoker are specifically not asked to look into the suspicious death of an English female climber in a Ruritanian principality. Not that that's going to stop them.
2023 SF, second of a loose series. Elif Moora hosts the interview vlog The Human Eye, introducing the rest of Universal Society to the human viewpoint. Then her latest subject proves intriguing, not to mention involved in other things…
1953 Napoleonic naval fiction, eighth written and fifth by internal chronology. Hornblower takes command of a sloop of war, the smallest ship in the fleet that rates a full captain, and proceeds about the Mediterranean.
1949 Regency romance. Arabella Tallant is to go to London to make a brilliant match, and thereby provide for the rest of her family (her mother effectively left Society to marry a poor vicar). When the chaise breaks down en route, she has to take shelter at a hunting-box; and overhearing her host disparaging yet another young lady throwing herself at his wealth, she reinvents herself as a great heiress who has no interest in Mr Beaumaris at all.
Back to the boardgame café.
2012 contemporary police mystery, fifth in Cleeves' Vera Stanhope series. One of Vera's neighbours has vanished from her house, so Vera tracks her down… to a writing retreat, just in time for the discovery of the body.
I’ve been doing the Weekly Challenges. The latest involved adding thousands separators and testing arrays. (Note that this ends today.)
2018 comedy, a guide your travels in the worlds of bad speculative fiction.
Back to the Masonic Hall for a weekend cold enough that the ice on the ground when I arrived was still there two days later.
2022 fantasy anthology. What happens to the other girl whom the glass slipper fits? How do you cope when your baby manifests his dreams?
1981 comedy, dir. Charles Jarrott, Michael Crawford, Barbara Carrera: IMDb. A bumbling comics writer is drawn into the shadowy world of espionage.
My role-playing in 2025 has had few revelations but has been going generally well.
I’ve been doing the Weekly Challenges. The latest involved array selection and grid shifting. (Note that this ends today.)
In 2025 I played a bit less but more deeply.
In 2025 I read 168 books (most novel-length, a few separate novellas and short stories).
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."