What Are You Reading?

[Pixilated]

If ever there was an apropos title for one of his books, these days....

I know, right??

[Pixilated]

*snip*

I'm also halfway through "Timetrap" by David Dvorkin, which is just *meh* as far as I'm concerned.

Well, my original opinion of this book was definitely *meh* and I'm not sure I'd change that ... but I'm close to the end and THAT was a twist I didn't see coming!

[Jay 2K Winger]

I am now reading a collection of short stories: Trigger Warning by Neil Gaiman.

If ever there was an apropos title for one of his books, these days....

[Nunavut Pants]

Still slogging through "Spitfire: The History". Getting very near to the final variants, I think. I'm ignoring the lists of every serial number of Spitfire produced, most with notes of where they served and their final fate.

Read "Breed To Come" by C.J. Cherryh while I was traveling. Older book by an SF master, about a post-Human Earth and several of the various forms of life that inhabit it. I won't spoil the reveal, but the cover kind of does some of that.

I also read Mercedes Lackey's "Arrows of the Queen", about the Heralds of Valdemar. She is another master-level author of mass-market fantasy. This is a decent coming-of-age-with-a-special-magic-talent story, not quite a "the chosen one" story, set in the familiar world of Valdemar. Familiar, at least, to Lackey's fans. The heroine is a horse-girl, and the Heralds are Extra Special Horse People whose Companions (like horses, but much smarter and magical to boot) choose them. It feels a bit of a Mary Sue in places, but is still an enjoyable read. Some elements are pretty progressive for the mid-80s when it was written, as well.

Hopefully I'll finish the Spitfire book soon...

[Pixilated]

Going through a manic Star Trek (TOS) phase, courtesy of a local used bookstore. I'm currently re-reading "The Wounded Sky" by Diane Duane, which is good (as is all of her writing) but complex. I'm having to re-read it because I really didn't quite "get" it the first two times I read it.

I'm also halfway through "Timetrap" by David Dvorkin, which is just *meh* as far as I'm concerned.

[Ironclad Alibi]

I am now reading a collection of short stories: Trigger Warning by Neil Gaiman.

[Ironclad Alibi]

I am starting "The Books of Earthsea" by Ursela K. Le Guin.

This volume includes a six Earthsea novels:

• A Wizard of Earthsea
• The Tombs of Atuan
• The Farthest Shore
• Tehanu
• Tales from Earthsea
• The Other Wind

and the early short stories.

At over a 1000 pages, this one will take a while to read.

[Ironclad Alibi]

Now I am reading "Hotel Lucky Seven" by Koataro Isaka

All Ladybug has to do is deliver a birthday present to a guest in a luxury Tokyo hotel. It seems the simplest assignment, but by the time he leaves the guest's room one man is dead and more will soon follow. As events spiral out of control, it becomes clear that several different killers, with various missions, disguises, and signature techniques, are all staying in the hotel at the same time. And they're all particularly interested in a young woman with a photographic memory.

Can Ladybug find out the truth of what's going on? And can he make it out alive?

[Ironclad Alibi]

I am now reading "Three Assassins" by Kotaro Isaka.

From Kotaro Isaka, the award-winning, internationally bestselling author of Bullet Train, the high-octane thriller Three Assassins, set in Tokyo’s criminal underworld, pits an ordinary man against a group of talented and very unusual assassins.

Suzuki is an ordinary man . . . until his wife is murdered. To get answers and his revenge, he abandons his law-abiding lifestyle and takes a low-level job with a front company operated by the crime gang Maiden, who are responsible for his wife’s death. Before long, Suzuki finds himself caught up in a network of quirky and highly effective assassins:

The Cicada is a knife expert.

The Pusher nudges people into oncoming traffic.

The Whale whispers bleak aphorisms to his victims until they take their own lives.

Intense and electrifying, Three Assassins delivers a wild ride through the criminal underworld of Tokyo, populated by contract killers who are almost superhumanly good at their jobs.

[Ironclad Alibi]

I am now reading "Joe Golem and the Drowning City" by Mike Mignola and Christopher Golden.

In 1925, earthquakes and a rising sea level left Lower Manhattan submerged under more than thirty feet of water, so that its residents began to call it the Drowning City. Those unwilling to abandon their homes created a new life on streets turned to canals and in buildings whose first three stories were underwater. Fifty years have passed since then, and the Drowning City is full of scavengers and water rats, poor people trying to eke out an existence, and those too proud or stubborn to be defeated by circumstance.

Among them are fourteen-year-old Molly McHugh and her friend and employer, Felix Orlov. Once upon a time Orlov the Conjuror was a celebrated stage magician, but now he is an old man, a psychic medium, contacting the spirits of the departed for the grieving loved ones left behind. When a seance goes horribly wrong, Felix Orlov is abducted by strange men wearing gas masks and rubber suits, and Molly soon finds herself on the run.

Her flight will lead her into the company of a mysterious man, and his stalwart sidekick, Joe Golem, whose own past is a mystery to him, but who walks his own dreams as a man of stone and clay, brought to life for the sole purpose of hunting witches.

[Ironclad Alibi]

I am reading "Everyone This Christmas Has A Secret" by Benjamin Stevenson.
It is a murder mystery, third in a series. It is arranged in 24 chapters, like an advent calendar.

[Nunavut Pants]

Wow. I only have 1e and 2e books. I also have some of the early half-size books (the three book boxed set and the four supplements), but I can't find them.

I've been reading "Spitfire: The History". Oh boy, is it a detailed account! So far, early in the book, it has been talking about the first Supermarine aircraft named "Spitfire". It was very little like the legendary fighter, and was not selected for production by the British Air Ministry. It was very much an "inter war" design, with fixed landing gear and an open cockpit. It even had gull wings, much like the later F4U Corsair did!

The Me. 109 (or Bf. 109) would have chewed it up and spit it out, though. Good thing it wasn't selected.

I'm just starting the section where Supermarine and Rolls Royce are talking about designing a more advanced plane as a private venture... I'm pretty sure that one turns into the plane most WWII buffs know and love.

[Jay 2K Winger]

Yup. I own so many RPG sourcebooks for things I've never played, just for the reading. Old editions of Legend of the 5 Rings, 7th Sea, Pendragon, the LOTR one that came out around the movies...

At present, I have:
D&D Related
5e core three books (PHB, DMG, MM)
5.5e core books (PHB, DMG)
Curse of Strahd
Waterdeep: Dragon Heist
Waterdeep: Dungeon of the Mad Mage
Tales from the Yawning Portal
Spelljammer 5e books (Setting guide, monster manual, Light of Xaryxis)
Eberron: Rising from the Last War
Explorer's Guide to Wildemount
Tal'Dorei Campaign Guide Reborn
(plus a bunch of other digital versions)

Scion 1e - Hero, Demigod, God, Companion, Ragnarok
Scion 2e - Origin, Hero, Demigod
Exalted 3e
Inevitable
Triangle Agency
Knight: An Avalon Tale
The Magnus Archives RPG
Cowboy Bebop RPG
Gods of Metal: Ragnarock

At one point, I had a number of (new) World of Darkness books (what is now called Chronicles of Darkness) as well.

[Ironclad Alibi]

I just finished "Butter" by Asako Yuzuki. An excellent story.

[Ceir]

Blades in the Dark is among the collection of TTRPG sourcebooks that I have accumulated and have never actually gotten around to playing. I do like the concept and worldbuilding in it. (Which is one of the main reasons I get a lot of said TTRPG books in my collection.)

Yup. I own so many RPG sourcebooks for things I've never played, just for the reading. Old editions of Legend of the 5 Rings, 7th Sea, Pendragon, the LOTR one that came out around the movies...