So what are you reading this year 2021?

[Ryujin]

I finished reading "The Sisterhood of the Blade". It is an anthology of stories set in 3-musketeeof the era, but all the main characters are women, who serve as the Queen's guards. It is written by a number of different authors (Ed Greenwood being the most famous).

The first of the character is a samurai who had married a Frenchman, and moved to France. He was a spy for the king, but got murdered on a mission. The second is the daughter of a general. She is very good at swordfighting, and likes to drink, fight, and have lots of sexual relations. The third is a dark skinned female pirate, fluent in a number of languages. She too likes to drink, and fight and have sex (with both men and women). All sex is off-screen, and only referred to in off-hand comments.

It is an interesting idea, but the stories are a bit uneven, and would have benefitted from more editing given that some of them have contradictionary descriptions of the characters, and the language/style varies a lot. The three women have frequent fights with the Cardinal's guards. If you like swashbuckling, it is an interesting read.


Currently reading:
A book that is for instructors in archery. Since it is for the international market it's focus is on recurve (olympic) archery.

The expansion book for Good Society - A Jane Austen rpg. I do intend to run a one-shot for it with my gaming group)

Also doing proofreading on stuff for a number of Swedish RPG's.

• A campaign for Kopparhavets Hjältar
• Adventures for Chock åter från graven (Inspired by Chill 1e which was called "Chock" in Swedish. The title translates as "Chock back from the Grave", which is fitting since it has been out of print since the late 80's. Uses a different rule-system)
• Going though the main rulebook for Chock åter från Graven, as they are thinking about doing a 2nd printing, and they felt that the proofreading on the first edition was lacking in quality.
• Adventures for Kutulu. A Swedish Cthulhuesque game with allegedly simpler rules. Have one adventure left out of 4 written by Gabrielle de Bourg, who is one of the more frequent scenario-writers in Sweden, and have written for games like Vaesen, Tales from the Loop, Call of Cthulhu Sverige, and also a scenario for The Troubleshooters which was one of the stretchgoals for that kickstarter campaign.

The second sounds to have been inspired, at least a little, by Julie d’Aubigny, aka La Maupin. She was, by parts, an opera singer, a countess, a duellist.... There is a story of her taking a fancy to a woman she saw at a party and kissing her, passionately, in front of the woman's three male suitors. Those men, all three, challenged her to a duel in somewhat the fashion of The Three Musketeers and d'Artagnan. She defeated all three.

Julie d'Aubigny - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Ulfgeir]

The second sounds to have been inspired, at least a little, by Julie d’Aubigny, aka La Maupin. She was, by parts, an opera singer, a countess, a duellist.... There is a story of her taking a fancy to a woman she saw at a party and kissing her, passionately, in front of the woman's three male suitors. Those men, all three, challenged her to a duel in somewhat the fashion of The Three Musketeers and d'Artagnan. She defeated all three.

Julie d'Aubigny - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

I think they are more intended to be the equivalents of the 3 musketeers. The Samurai = Aramis, The Generals daughter = Athos, and the former pirate = Porthos.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

Finished Burroughs' At Earth's Core. It really didn't do much for me. Exceedingly racist, even for the time, with a dash of misogyny for good measure.

Also finished Rothfuss' The Lightning Tree. It was good, though not great like The Slow Regard of Silent Things. It was nice to revisit that world, but the short glimpse brought the long and fruitless wait for Doors of Stone into acute focus.

Next up is You Died: The Dark Souls Companion by Keza MacDonald and Jason Killingsworth. It's a collection of essays on Dark Souls, one of my favorite videogame series.

 

[Ryujin]

About to dive into "The Dragon Stone Conspiracy" by Amanda Cherry; a novel set in the Strowlers universe.

 

[Zaukrie]

Just finished Here of Ages. I DID NOT see that coming. The ending seemed almost too quick, but I get it......I may need to go back and re-read the last half.....did he shorten chapters? Did he change the style? It seemed like we were hurled forward, through the writing.

I really enjoyed Mistborn....quite a great trilogy.

 

[KahlessNestor]

Just finished Here of Ages. I DID NOT see that coming. The ending seemed almost too quick, but I get it......I may need to go back and re-read the last half.....did he shorten chapters? Did he change the style? It seemed like we were hurled forward, through the writing.

I really enjoyed Mistborn....quite a great trilogy.

I know, right! Total blindside! I swear I yelled at the book. NO!

The last half... That's what fans tend to call the Sanderlanche. His books often are slow and steady world and plot building, and then in the last hundred or so pages, the pace just picks up as the plot all comes together, pulling you along, you can't put it down, and it's 3 AM, and you have that presentation in the morning, but you'll be fine, you're so close to the end! BAM!

The Sanderlanche

 

[Older Beholder]

I just picked up the new Jeff Vandermeer book, 'Hummingbird Salamander' which came out last week,
only 30 pgs in but I'm already hooked. A bit more grounded than his last novel 'Dead Astronauts'.

 

[Marc_C]

Just finished the first book of Deathworld by Harry Harrison. It's a great 60s sci-fi concept that could be turned into a campaign using a sci-fi rpg. The first book is a short, action pack read. It's a series of 3 books and a short story. Started book two last night. Each book takes place on a different planet.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

I've really been grooving on Harry Harrison's short stories of late. They're sharp and punchy, Deathworld being no exception.

Just finished the first book of Deathworld by Harry Harrison. It's a great 60s sci-fi concept that could be turned into a campaign using a sci-fi rpg. The first book is a short, action pack read. It's a series of 3 books and a short story. Started book two last night. Each book takes place on a different planet.

 

[TheAlkaizer]

After years of dancing around it, I'm finally taking the dive into Dostoievski with The Brothers Karamazov. I'm very excited.