Smudge Marks & Engel Werks Flash of Steel Wargame [space] Playing at the World Dyson’s Dodecahedron Quest for Fun! Bruce Heard and New Stories CRRPG Addict Fantasy Cafe Lynn’s Book Blog Sitrep Hex and Violence Grumble Jones Desperation Morale Banzai!! Dungeon Fantastic Gaming Ballistic Ravens N’ Pennies Let’s GURPS The Collaborative Gamer Don’t Forget Your BootsThe start of epic fantasy stories often have a pacing problem. The desire to provide lots of background, and root you in an unfamiliar world mean that the plot moves like a freight train. It has a lot of momentum,[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
It took six years for the final volume of this trilogy to come out, and given the page count takes another two-hundred page jump upwards, I imagine it was in the category of ‘the book that ate his life’. The[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
The second volume of the Fire Bearers trilogy expands the world, and the scope of the plot, with the book jumping up a hundred pages in length to compensate. The first volume left off in a bit of a quiet[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
I suppose a handy useful fact to get out of the way is that “Clay” is the name of the main character. So, this isn’t a god made of clay, but rather Clay’s god. Past that, this is the first[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
The first thing I found out reading this is that I should read Robin McKinley’s Rose Daughter. I think I remember a friend enthusing about it at the time, but that recommendation has been lost to mists of time. Ursula[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
I know what you’re thinking. And no, the book isn’t about that. This isn’t a conspiracy of Arthurian legend. In this case, “Merlin” is an office title in an alternate-universe Britain (The Isles of Blest), and the conspiracy centers around[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
It is impossible to overstate how important this series was to me during the ’80s. If you want to understand teenage me, Star Trek, Robotech, Elfquest, and role playing games are essential knowledge. I recently picked up the Dark Horse[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
The real problem with any truly special story is that doing it again is difficult. Especially if you take the same characters and find a new story for them to fit into as well as they did the first. This[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
The third “Quarters” novel is a direct sequel to Fifth Quarter, picking up all the unfinished business left behind last time. I certainly wouldn’t recommending starting here as we’re in the middle of a mess of unlikely proportions. The good[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Once again, Guy Gavriel Kay does not disappoint. That said, the very beginning didn’t really grab me (especially the caper on Rian’s Island). But partway through chapter 3, Blaise, our main character, gets ambushed, and I was hooked for the[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…