Books

Book Review: Game Wizards: The Epic Battle for Dungeons & Dragons

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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News

Quick Update: Wildfire Season

So, the climate in Oregon is acting like it was 2 years ago when everything was on fire again – Portland General Electric is doing targeted power outages in some areas to prevent wildfires, and we are encountering wildfires on the edges of the Portland Metro area – as of this writing, there is a brush fire that recently started in Milo McIver State Park near Estacada, with Clackamas Community College serving as an evacuation site (CCC had previously been an evacuation site 2 years ago, before turning into a staging area and command post for fire fighters as the fire approached Oregon City).

So, this, combined with my recent bout of COVID-19, is really playing hell with my workflow, so expect some interruptions in terms of my post schedule. Also, if you’re in an area at risk for wildfires, please be safe, and if you can, besides any Ko-Fi donations, please consider donating money to the Red Cross.

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Books

She Who Became the Sun: Book Review

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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