2015 mystery collection, second in its series though first published. Lady Hardcastle and her faithful maid Armitage deal with various matters of murder and theft. Previously published as The Spirit Is Willing.
2023 SF, first of its series. Cherry Pendit has told nobody about her oracular gift, but it's been yelling into her mind that she needs to find the man hiding on this particular abandoned space station and help keep him hidden…
Board games are typically classed as "competitive" or "cooperative", but I think there's more gradation possible.
1959 science fiction, dir. Stanley Kramer, Gregory Peck, Ava Gardner: IMDb. The bombs have dropped; airborne fallout is poisoning the world, gradually drifting south. What do we do now?
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 4.
2019 police procedural mystery, tartan noir, second in the Jack Logan series. DCI Logan has transferred to Inverness because Glasgow has too many bad memories for him, and is thrown straight into the investigation of a tortured and mutilated body washed up on the shores of Loch Ness.
I’ve been doing the Weekly Challenges. The latest involved Fibonacci numbers and set filtering. (Note that this ends today.)
More gaming with nearby friends.
1962 science fiction, dir. and starring Ray Milland, Jean Hagen, Frankie Avalon: IMDb. The family is heading out for a camping trip, when the sky behind them starts to look very strange…
2021 mystery, second in its series. Pentecost and Parker return to the circus where Parker grew up, and the Tattooed Woman has just been fatally stabbed. Something to do with the hometown she hadn't returned to until now? Or a circus feud that boiled over? The local police chief has fixed on Parker's mentor…
Back to the boardgame café.
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 3.
1956 science fiction, dir. Edward Bernds, Hugh Marlowe, Nancy Gates: IMDb. The first mission to Mars hits a cosmic storm, or something like it, and crash-lands on a strange new world…
I’ve been doing the Weekly Challenges. The latest involved string padding and word rearrangement. (Note that this ends today.)
It's been a long time coming, but the second expansion to the Definitive Edition of Sentinels of the Multiverse has finally reached me.
2020 space opera, second in its loose series. Dr Brookllyn Jens is a rescue medic: she jumps out of perfectly good spaceships into broken ones, and gets the patients out. She's about to enter an ancient generation ship that is nowhere near where it should be, and that's the least of the weirdnesses.
The Oxford Meeples had another quarterly games day, and I had a great time again.
1955 historical fiction for young people. Beric was found by the Brigantes as a baby, the sole survivor of a Roman shipwreck. He grows up as one of them. But when times are hard, the one who looks different gets the blame…
I've written a lot of rulebooks lately. Why do I think I'm any good at it, and what are the guiding principles?
When I went to Shrewkfest last year it was the first camping I'd done as an adult. So what did I buy, take and use?
I’ve been doing the Weekly Challenges. The latest involved extracting digital roots. (Note that this ends today.)
I complain about the use of language in many of the books I review here. I don't think I'm just being pedantic.
1959 science fiction, dir. Ranald MacDougall, Harry Belafonte, Inger Stevens: IMDb. After the bombs fall, only three people are left alive… and they can't get on.
2024 paranormal fantasy, seventh of a nine-book series. Things are getting worse, but there's still time for one last selfless quest.
I have an old-fashioned approach to running RPGs, and I feel like writing about it.
1951 science fiction, dir. Arch Oboler, William Phipps, Susan Douglas Rubeš: IMDb. After the bombs fall, only five people are left alive… and they can't get on.
I’ve been doing the Weekly Challenges. The latest involved string evaluation with fallback and alphabetic rotation. (Note that this ends today.)