Recent content by jian

For me for Tchaikovsky it was Dogs of War. Amazing book, perfect sci-fi, like a much better thought out version of Grant Morrison’s We3.

Yup, coupled with starting a new game you wanted to try and realising it isn’t working for the table. I’m usually the GM and aim to run campaigns that only go to 10 sessions or so, because it’s enough time to tell the story and try out a new system or setting. Many of our campaigns are set in...

“Ladies… gentlemen… you have eaten well. You have eaten of Bridgerton’s youth, its beauty. Your feast is nearly over. From tonight… none of you are safe.” (Pause) “You know Bridgerton isn’t a place, don’t you?”

I read the first two High Republic books - it’s a really good setting and high concept (I’ve run a game in that era and would do so again) but the story itself I was a bit overblown, like a long comics crossover I didn’t really care about.

It’s a difficult one. Rosenbaum is excellent as young conflicted Luthor, the one who is still Clark’s friend but gradually makes more and more choices that make him a ruthless villain, but IMO he’s not very good as the finished product, and his having been a major part of Clark’s life makes...

Not that it’s much of a contest, but I think this film has the best live-action Luthor to date. Superman: You’re driven by envy, Luthor, it couldn’t be more obvious! Luthor: No sh*t, I’m not dim! I know envy consumes my every waking moment. When they mention Galileo in the same breath as me, I...

Give it a go if you like the look of the trailer. I think it’s worth the effort. There is some obvious anachronistic stuff - the tech level feels more 18th or early 19th than 17th century (glasses, a watch; the firearms are distinctly Napoleonic) but since it’s not at all a big part of the...

Watched the most recent Three Musketeers films (D’Artagnan and Milady, from 2023) on the plane and I’m glad I did, they’re not easy to get to watch otherwise. I’m very glad that there are French adaptations of the book, and they’re both very well done (very much a two-parter like the 1973-4...

We could get the equivalent of the X-Men/Star Trek comics where Gladiator punches the Enterprise. “Did that man… just punch my ship?” “Yes, Jim. Shields at 37%.”

For me the outstanding Star Wars novel of this or any other era is Claudia Gray’s Lost Stars, which is basically a standalone space opera novel about two kids who end up on opposite sides in the Rebellion Era, ending with one of them crashing her Star Destroyer into Jakku. I particularly liked...

Read The Inugami Curse by Seishi Yokomizo, which was both somewhat better than the previous book of his I read (The Honjin Murders) and easier to solve. Koto playing is prominent in this one too. It is very genre aware - pointing out obvious guesses almost as soon as you make them - and I must...

Love the whole Romans Go Home scene. Very accurate about Latin lessons. CENTURION: 'Go home'? This is motion towards. Isn't it, boy? BRIAN: Ah. Ah, dative, sir! (Centurion wordlessly puts his sword to Brian’s throat.) Ahh! No, not dative! Not the dative, sir! No! Ah! Oh, the... accusative...

I think there have been a few, such as The Ship of Night from issue 20: https://tenfootpole.org/ironspike/?p=2320

I I did like the adventures based on Shakespeare plays, such as Lear, but also Macbeth and The Tempest. The settings were often cool and original, like moving Macbeth to a drow kingdom.

Overall it’s Night Watch because it’s just the best culmination of the Watch books. But there’s an honourable mention for Maurice.