Previously I have read and reviewed Playing at the World, the book about how Dungeons & Dragons came to be. Game Wizards: The Epic Battle for Dungeons & Dragons, is one of two follow up-books by Jon Peterson essentially about how Roleplaying Games went out of the hands of Gary Gygax & Dave Arneson. In the case of Game Wizards, it’s about how Gary & Dave lost their control over the game, through hubris and arrogance.
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Time to move on to a Star Wars book that isn’t actually terrible, as I take a look at the next Young Jedi Knights anthology.
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This weekend is Worldcon, and several weeks before the convention (basically the week before I got COVID), I finished reading the last of the novels that were up for Hugo Awards that weren’t part of a series that I hadn’t already started reading – She Who Became the Sun by Shelly Parker-Chan – a novel inspired by wuxia fiction, inspired by the rise of the Hongwu Emperor. It’s an… interesting book, but one which had some points that I stumbled over.
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I’m putting the next installment of the Nintendo Power Retrospectives back a week to review another of this year’s Hugo Nominees before this year’s Worldcon (though after the voting deadline).
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So, full disclosure, I never read The Martian. Haven’t read Andy Weir’s second book, Artemis, either. Both books were on my to-read list, and when the 2022 Hugo Award Nominees came around, and I saw that Project Hail Mary – Weir’s latest book – was on the list, I decided that it was time for me to get around to reading some Weir.
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It’s time to take a look at the next of the 2022 Hugo Award Nominees for Best Novel.
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There is some discussion as to whether there needs to be a clear dividing line between the genres of Science Fiction & Fantasy, that a work needs to be one or the other. As someone who encountered Shadowrun during my formative years of Middle School (shortly after Dungeons & Dragons), I’ve ultimately become someone who has come to realize that fantasy and science fiction are like chocolate and peanut butter. So, when Light from Uncommon Stars came up as a book pick for the Swords & Laser book club, as I’ve attempted to get caught up on my book reading I decided to put it on my list – even more so when I saw that it was nominated for the 2022 Hugo Award for Best Novel.
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I’m taking a look at this 2022’s Nebula Award winner for best novel and one of the nominees of Best Novel at the Hugo Awards – A Master of Djinn by P. Djeli Clark.
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Probably in the first time in a while, I have finished a Sword & Laser Book Pick not only in the month it came out, but I also have a review before the end of the month – such is the case for Machinehood by S.B. Divya – another first novel, and this time in a cyberpunk or cyberpunk adjacent subgenre, and it is an absolutely fantastic book.
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After a bit of a break, I’m getting back to the current book pick for the Sword & Laser Book Club – this time getting into the alternate history urban fantasy novel A Master of Djinn by P. Djèlí Clark.
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When I gave my thoughts on James Beard’s Theory and Practice of Good Cooking, the focus of my thoughts on that book were – this is a solid template on how to write about cooking, and some of the guidance is good, but the passage of time has hindered the utility of some of these recipes. In 2012, The Essential James Beard Cookbook was published – collecting approximately 450 recipes from Beard’s writing and collecting it together into one book, with additional notes and sidebars addressing the passage of time – so I decided to check the book out.
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This time I’m following up on the direct sequel to Demon City Shinjuku, and the second half of the relevant omnibus.
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It’s been a bit since I talked about cookbooks – and I have a couple of quick passing thoughts on a couple of James Beard’s cookbooks that I want to post now… since I fell behind and didn’t get anything scheduled for today (wrapping up my current position at work has been very crazy).
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It’s time to rip the adhesive bandage off of this terrible novel trilogy.
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I’ve finally read the novel version of Demon City Shinjuku, after having previously reviewed the anime, and have some thoughts comparing the book to the movie.
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I’m taking a look at my first book from Bitmap Books, as I look at their rundown of various CRPGs.
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Bitmap Books is a company that’s been on my radar for a while, but whose books I’d never gotten around to picking up. They had built up a very solid reputation for generally very well-written books about video games, both on the computer and the PC with really solid production values, both in terms of the layout of the books, and the quality of the materials used. The book I’m reviewing today – The CRPG Book – is no such exception.
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After a long hiatus, it’s time to return to the Legends timeline.
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Let’s start off 2022 with a book review, this time of my first book by Alastair Reynolds that I’ve read, Aurora Rising (also published as The Prefect)
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It is time for another review of a book that I’ve read for the Sword & Laser Book Club Podcast – in this case, Aurora Rising, by Alastair Reynolds (previously released as The Prefect) – currently my first step into his Chasm City/Revelation Space setting.
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Today I’m reviewing the actual first installment in The Culture Series, by chronological order of publication, which I read in this past year for the Sword & Laser Book Club.
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Today I’m reviewing the first installment in The Culture Series that I’ve read – not the first one in the series (that’s next week), but my introduction to the series.
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I’ve read few Stephen King books – Bag of Bones, the Dark Tower, Skeleton Crew, It – before, but never anything from Joe Hill, King’s son. I was aware of Locke & Key as it was coming out, but I had never really gotten around to reading any of it. So, when the Sword & Laser Podcast chose NOS4A2 as its October pick, I figured this was as good a time as any to get started with Hill’s work.
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