2025: A Year's Reading

Here is the list of books that I read for pleasure in 2025 (my sixth such list since 2020). The books are listed in the order I read them, with new favorites being indicated by asterisks (rereads are favorites by default):

Books

1. Iain M. Banks, Against a Dark Background (reread)
2. Heather Fawcett, Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries
3. Iain Banks, The Steep Approach to Garbadale
4. Hope Mirrlees, Lud-in-the-Mist*
5. Miles Cameron, Deep Black
6. Christopher Ruocchio, Empire of Silence
7. T. Kingfisher, Minor Mage
8. Michael J. Sullivan, Age of Myth
9. Nicola Griffith, Spear*
10. Susan Cooper, The Grey King (reread)
11. J. R. R. Tolkien, The Lord Of the Rings (reread)
12. Tad Williams, The Witchwood Crown
13. Robert Jackson Bennett, A Drop of Corruption*
14. Richard Powers, Bewilderment
15. Cecilia Dart-Thornton, The Ill-Made Mute
16. Barbara Hambly, Dragonsbane (reread)
17. Alexander Freed, Reign of Empire: The Mask of Fear
18. Chris Kempshall, Star Wars: The Rise and Fall of the Galactic Empire
19. Sage Walker, The Man in the Tree
20. James Luceno, Catalyst: A Rogue One Story
21. Robert Jackson Bennett, Foundryside
22. Raymond E. Feist, Magician: Apprentice (reread)
23. A. Lee Martinez, Too Many Curses
24. Martha Wells, All Systems Red (reread)
25. Mick Herron, Slow Horses*
26. Adrian Tchaikovsky, Shroud
27. Mick Herron, Real Tigers
28. Mick Herron, Spook Street
29. Joe Abercrombie, The Devils
30. Seth Dickinson, Exordia
31. Zen Cho, Sorcerer to the Crown
32. Stephen Baxter, Raft
33. Elizabeth Bear, The Folded Sky*
34. Caspar Geon, The Immeasurable Heaven
35. Lawrence Watt-Evans, The Misenchanted Sword
36. Richard Swan, Grave Empire
37. Fran Wilde, Updraft
38. Kameron Hurley, The Stars Are Legion
39. Robert Holdstock, Mythago Wood (reread)
40. Max Gladstone, Wicked Problems*
41. Adrian Tchaikovsky, Lives of Bitter Rain*
42. Max Gladstone, Dead Hand Rule*
43. Antonia Hodgson, The Raven Scholar*
44. Arkady Martine, Rose/House
45. Paul McAuley, The Quiet War (reread)
46. Paul McAuley, Gardens of the Sun
47. Paul McAuley, In the Mouth of the Whale
48. Paul McAuley, Evening’s Empires
49. Andy Weir, Project Hail Mary (reread)
50. James Islington, The Will of the Many
51. T. J. Klune, The House on the Cerulean Sea
52. Hiron Ennes, The Works of Vermin
53. Bethany Jacobs, This Brutal Moon*
54. Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol (reread)
55. Michael Drout, The Tower and the Ruin
56. J. R. R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings (reread—yes, I read the trilogy twice in 2025)

American Comics

1. Absolute Batman (DC)
2. Absolute Martian Manhunter (DC)*
3. Absolute Superman (DC)
4. Absolute Wonder Woman (DC)*
5. Birds of Prey (DC)*
6. Bowling with Corpses and Other Strange Tales from Lands Unknown (Dark Horse)*
7. Daredevil (Marvel)
8. The Ephemerata (Fantagraphics)*
9. Exceptional X-Men (Marvel)
10. Fantastic Four (Marvel)
11. The Immortal Thor (Marvel)
12. JSA (DC)
13. The Mortal Thor (Marvel)
14. Love and Rockets (Fantagraphics)
15. A Wizard of Earthsea: A Graphic Narrative (Clarion)

Japanese Manga

1. Akane-banashi*
2. Asadora!*
3. Blue Period
4. Call of Night
5. Hiryasumi*
6. Kageki Shojo!!*
7. Komi Can't Communicate
8. Mob Pyscho 100
9. One-Punch Man
10. Welcome to Demon School! Iruma-kun*
11. Witch Hat Atelier

[Dragonbane] Mirth & Mayhem in Vegas

Every January, my 1990s Philadelphia gaming group holds a reunion in Las Vegas. We hang out, give ourselves meat-sweats at Fogo de Chao, and run RPG one-shots. This year I decided to a session of Free League Publishing's Dragonbane core set that I bought back in August from Milwaukee's wonderful Old Guard Games. I loved the look of Dragonbane (the stunning art of Johan Egerkrans), and the rules promised precisely the sort of experience I like in a fantasy RPG: characters who aren't zero-to-hero pushovers at the start but who nonetheless have to struggle to survive as they make their picaresque way across settings like the core set's Misty Vale sandbox.

Although the game comes with a nice slate of pre-gen characters, I had my friends create characters so that we could see how character creation played out. The party consisted of a halfling thief, a human wizard, a wolfkin hunter, and a mallard knight named Sir Waddleton of Pondsborough. I ran this motley bunch through the core set's introductory scenario (which let us test-drive the combat rules), and then I skipped ahead to "Trollspire," the dungeon that many in the Dragonbane community recommend as a starting point. I don't want to spoil the details of the adventure, but I can say that the party succeeded in making away with the treasure.

The highlight of the session was watching Sir Waddleton valiantly try to maintain his dignity as he was insulted by a variety of humiliating traps. Mallards have a kin ability that gives them advantage on key rolls (in Dragonbane terms, they get a boon) at the cost of going berserk à la Donald Duck (they gain the Angry condition, which gives them disadvantage or a bane on Intelligence-related rolls). With each new metaphorical slap in the beak, Sir Waddleton grew redder and redder in the face ... until he finally snapped:

It was truly glorious to behold.

The lowlight of the evening was the extreme failure of the wolfkin hunter's twenty-sider. This die, which I was told routinely rolled low in the player's 5E Dungeons & Dragons game, turned out to suck just as badly at Dragonbane: faced with a roll-under rules environment, the die proceeded to generate results of 17+. It wasn't much fun for my friend to roll so poorly so often, but there was a certain sadistic glee in the die's cursed consistency.

The tagline for Dragonbane is "mirth & mayhem roleplaying," and this one-shot lived up to that bill-ing. (It's hard to resist the duck puns.) I'll definitely be finding an opportunity to run Dragonbane here at home, hopefully for my son and his friends. He has promised me that their party will be all-fowl, and I can't wait.

2024: A Year's Reading

Since 2020, I've been keeping track of my reading for pleasure (as opposed to the substantial amount of reading I do in my job as a university professor). What follows are the books I read for fun in 2024. They are listed in the order I read them, with new favorites being indicated by asterisks (rereads are favorites by default):

Books

1. Serhii Plokhy, Chernobyl: The History of a Nuclear Catastrophe
2. Elizabeth Bear, Range of Ghosts
3. Drew Williams, The Stars Now Unclaimed
4. Greg Egan, Scale
5. Lloyd Alexander, The Black Cauldron (reread)
6. Lloyd Alexander, The Castle of Llyr (reread)
7. Elizabeth Bear, Undertow
8. J. S. Dewes, The Exiled Fleet
9. Emily Tesh, Some Desperate Glory*
10. M. R. Carey, Infinity Gate*
11. Tana French, The Hunter
12. Terry Pratchett, Moving Pictures
13. Frances Hardinge, Unraveller
14. W. P. Wiles, The Last Blade Priest
15. Alastair Reynolds, Machine Vendetta
16. Lois McMaster Bujold, Penric’s Labors
17. Garth Nix, The Left-Handed Booksellers of London
18. Neal Asher, The Technician (reread)
19. Jack McDevitt, Infinity Beach*
20. Barbara Hambly, The Iron Princess
21. Steven Erikson, Gardens of the Moon (reread)
22. Ian C. Esslemont, Night of Knives
23. Steven Erikson, Deadhouse Gates (reread)
24. Steven Erikson, Memories of Ice (reread)
25. Steven Erikson, House of Chains (reread)
26. Steven Erikson, Midnight Tides (reread)
27. Steven Erikson, The Bonehunters (reread)
28. Steven Erikson, Reaper’s Gale (reread)
29. Steven Erikson, Toll the Hounds (reread)
30. Ian C. Esslemont, Return of the Crimson Guard
31. M. R. Carey, Echo of Worlds*
32. Ian C. Esslemont, Stonewielder
33. Bethany Jacobs, These Burning Stars
34. M. R. Carey, The Book of Koli
35. Peter S. Beagle, I’m Afraid You’ve Got Dragons
36. Ian C. Esslemont, Orb Sceptre Throne
37. Marko Kloos, Descent
38. James S. A. Corey, The Mercy of Gods
39. Ian C. Esslemont, Blood and Bone
40. J. R. R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings (reread)
41. Ben Aaronovitch, Rivers of London*
42. Richard Powers, Playground
43. Michael Mammay, Planetside
44. Naomi Mitchison, Travel Light
45. Miles Cameron, Artifact Space
46. Bethany Jacobs, On Vicious Worlds
47. Judith Tarr, Ars Magica
48. Seth Dickinson, The Traitor Baru Cormorant*
49. Adrian Tchaikovsky, Alien Clay
50. Ken MacLeod, The Corporation Wars: Dissidence
51. Diana Wynne Jones, Howl’s Moving Castle (reread)
52. Ken MacLeod, The Corporation Wars: Insurgence
53. Iain M. Banks, The Algebraist (reread)
54. Iain M. Banks, Look to Windward (reread)
55. Diana Wynn’s Jones, Archer’s Goon*
56. Iain M. Banks, Matter (reread)
57. Iain M. Banks, Excession (reread)
58. C. J. Cherryh, Cuckoo’s Egg
59. Seanan McGuire, Every Heart a Doorway
60. Adrian Tchaikovsky, Days of Shattered Faith
61. Barbara Hambly, The Ladies of Mandrigyn*
62. Robert Jackson Bennett, The Tainted Cup*
63. K. J. Parker, Saevus Corax Deals with the Dead
64. Garth Nix, Sir Hereward and Mister Fitz*
65. Alix E. Harrow, The Ten Thousand Doors of January
66. Moniquill Blackgoose, To Shape a Dragon's Breath
67. Patricia A. McKillip, The Bards of Bone Plain

I also read the following comics and manga series:

American Comics

1. Absolute Superman
2. Absolute Wonder Woman
3. Birds of Prey
4. Daredevil
5. Exceptional X-Men
6. Fantastic Four
7. Immortal Thor
8. JSA
9. Love & Rockets
10. Titans

Japanese Manga

1. Akane-Banashi
2. Asadora
3. Blue Period
4. Call of the Night
5. Hiryasumi
6. Kageki Shojo!!
7. Komi Can't Communicate
8. Mob Psycho 100
9. One Punch Man
10. Welcome to Demon School! Iruma-kun
11. Witch Hat Atelier

Merry (Lemurian) Christmas!

A slayer-iffic Santa by Conor Burke

A lot has happened since my last post (29 June 2021), much of it involving eldercare and heavy-duty adulting, but the impending release of Ludospherik's Barbarians of Lemuria Mythic+ Edition has got me thinking about sword and sorcery blogging again. So here I am with holidays wishes—and BoL stats for the Lemurian version of a certain jolly old elf!

KRINGAL OF VALGARD

Attributes
Strength 2
Agility 1
Mind 0
Appeal 1

Combat
Initiative 1
Melee 2
Ranged 0
Defense 1

Careers

Barbarian 1

Beastmaster 1

Mercenary 1

Thief 1

Resources
Lifeblood 10
Hero Points 5

Gear
Valgardian axe (d6, can be thrown 10')

Red gambeson (light armor, d6-3/1)

Large sack

Boons
Detect Deception

Stealthy

Trademark Weapon (Valgardian axe)

Flaws

Distinctive Appearance

Feels the Heat

Kringal grew up in frozen Valgard, helping his family herd the giant deer of the north. Lured south by mercenary company recruiters promising easy riches, Kringal soon grew tired of military life. He now dwells in Satarla, where he has acquired a reputation as a skilled second-story man, able to get in and out of houses without waking any of his targets ("he sees you when you're sleeping, he knows when you're awake"). He has an uncanny ability to distinguish truth from falsehood ("he knows if you've been bad or good") and can be readily recognized by his obsession with wearing red garments. He plans to return home once he has acquired a sizable hoard—enough to challenge for leadership of his clan.

Digital Vision Cards 1: Vladimir Kush

Ever since the Everway RPG was published back in 1995, its fans have been supplementing the official Vision Card pictures with images found online. In that spirit (and because the recent Kickstarter has returned Everway to attention), I'm starting a series here on the blog to highlight artists whose work is both inspirational and suited to the assumptions about fantasy that Everway makes.

The first artist I'm featuring is self-described "Metaphorical Realist" Vladimir Kush. His work stems from the Surrealist tradition, but the line between the fantastic and the surreal has always been a thin one. Images like the one at the head of this post ("In Full Sails," my favorite of his oil paintings) make for perfect digital Vision Cards, and I recommend them to Everway players and GMs.

A similar painting ("Departure of the Winged Ship") suggests a realm in which all oceangoing vessels are powered by the wings of giant insects.

"Heavenly Fruits," on the other hand, conjures up the idea of a realm where trees are essentially floating arboreal "clouds," capable of being harvested by hand when the wind is quiet.

Finally, Kush's notes for a painting like "Dragon Defence" can be straight-up borrowed for an Everway game: what if a realm-spanning defensive wall is actually a slowly moving earth dragon?

Everway Silver Anniversary Edition Funded in 4 Hours

The Everway RPG has finally managed to draw the Spring card (upright meaning: "new growth") from the Fortune Deck: the Kickstarter for the Silver Anniversary Edition reached its funding goal in just under four hours. (I went in at the $120 level, picking up hardcopies and PDFs of both the players' and gamemasters' books.) Stretch goals have not yet been announced, but they have been strongly hinted at. If you're thinking about backing the Kickstarter but haven't decided yet, check out the free Gateway Book preview: it's an epitome of the two books and, at 62 pages, is rather thorough for a sample.

Everway Silver Anniversary Edition Kickstarter Live

I'm excited to report that the Kickstarter for the Silver Anniversary Edition of the Everway roleplaying game has just gone live. (Incidentally, so has this blog: surviving 2020 took a lot out of me, and blogging about RPGs wasn't part of the survival plan.) The new edition looks like a great improvement to an already lovely game, providing much more scaffolding for players and GMs to interact with the Thousand Worlds: for example, there are now guidelines for how to create the Boons that Everway Heroes receive as rewards, and the city of Everway has been given a setting overhaul, placing it into a regional context on its home Sphere (and thus making it more than just a waystop). The game's publishers (The Everway Company) have put together a more detailed guide to the revision, complete with some very enticing images of pages and rules material. Once I get a chance to look over the new books myself, I hope to publish more Everway-related material here.

Killing Magic Items

Last night, I was prepping for an upcoming class on Eirik the Red's Saga, and I suddenly realized I had material for a blog post that was more than just a link to gaming-related media. I was taking notes on the scene in the fourth chapter of the saga where Christian girl Gudrid Thorbjornsdottir gets roped into singing the "Weird-songs" (Varðlokur) for Thorbjorg, a pagan völva or "prophetess." The narrator is careful to describe Thorbjorg's gear, both her bag of "talismans" and her "staff ... with a knob thereon ... ornamented with brass, and inlaid with gems."

While looking for images of a völva's staff to show students, I came across the image reproduced above. It's a Norwegian grave good originally identified by British Museum curators as a spit or measuring rod—and since reclassified as a divination-staff. (Once you see some other examples of völva staves, this artifact obviously belongs to the same group of objects.)

The cool thing about the staff (and here's the payoff for GMs) is the curve in its one end: the curators believe that it was done in a smithy for the purpose of "ritually killing" the staff before burying it with its owner. With the staff bent, the dead völva could not use it against the living if she returned as a draugr. I'm not great with mechanics, so I can't come up with a "magic-item slaying ritual" off the top of my head—but I can immediately see the in-character possibilities for such slain items. At the very least, it's a nice bit of dungeon dressing: there's a wand in this sarcophagus, but it has been deliberately broken by whoever stuck the lich in there. It could be something more, though: how would the player characters go about "resurrecting" a dead magic artifact? Could that even be the focus of an entire campaign?

D&D & D&D Rules Lawyers

It's been a crazy busy September in the world of academic administration and university teaching, so this "advertisement" is a welcome laugh.

Eye of the Beholder Documentary

I just finished watching Eye of the Beholder, a new documentary about the history of D&D art. (It apparently premiered at GenCon 2018, but I completely blanked on its existence before now.) The film is wonderful to watch, not only for all the amazing art on display but also to see and hear the actual artists talking about their experiences working for TSR. The film is very ecumenical, celebrating art from all editions and eras of the game—a generosity of spirit I greatly appreciated. Definitely recommended.

P. S. Larry Elmore's Patronus has to—HAS TO—be Tommy Lee Jones.

P. P. S. I'm really thrilled to see one of my favorite pieces by Tramp make an appearance in the documentary:

Secrets of Blackmoor Documentary

I ended the month of August by streaming Secrets of Blackmoor, the 2019 documentary by Chris Graves and Griffin Mon Morgan III about Dave Arneson, the Twin Cities gaming scene, and the prehistory of roleplaying games. It was a pleasure to see and hear the people behind so many of the stories I've read—and I would love to have Dave Wesely as my game master. At the same time (and this may be a result of my turning 50 back on August 20th), I found watching the documentary a very bittersweet experience: two members of the Blackmoor group—Duane Jenkins and Pete Gaylord, respectively the first vampire and the first magic-user in RPGs—have passed away since being interviewed for the film. It's a mitzvah that Graves and Morgan got these men and women on film to talk about how they created the hobby we all love, and I definitely recommend watching Secrets when you get a chance.

P. S. Gary Gygax certainly gets a bit of stick toward the start of the documentary, but that quickly gives way to a celebration of Arneson and his friends.