Books and Stuff (NS, No 18) - Reading in Jul 2021

 

Patrick O'Brian, Clarissa Oakes

On leaving Botany Bay, it takes Aubrey a little while to realise that the odd atmosphere on board is due to an attractive stowaway.  He decides not to return her to the authorities, allows her to marry her lover and undertakes to put them ashore once they reach South America.

This does not solve the problem.

In order to save Polynesia from French Utopianism, Aubrey has to conduct some solid British Imperialism.

Patrick O'Brian, The Wine Dark Sea

The ship finally reaches Peru for Maturin's long-delayed mission in support of Independence.  Let's just say that he ends up fleeing over the Andes, is fed up with guinnea pig and looses some toes.

After a long circumnavigation (five books' worth), home is in sight.

Patrick O'Brian, The Commodore

Aubrey raises his broad pennant and heads out to West Africa on an anti-slavery mission (with some French action tacked on).

Maturin meets a potto.

Charles Stross, Halting State

A cop in newly-independent Scotland is called in to an IT company.  The crime?  A gang of orcs has broken into a bank it runs in a MMORPG.  Soon things become more complicated...

For those who - like me - enjoyed Stross' Laundry Files series, this will be a welcome read.

Jack Finney, Time and Again

I'd not come across Jack Finney before.  I read this book because it as in the Gollancz Fantasy Masterworks series and that (and its Science Fiction counterpart) is a good source of new authors.  Seeing that he wrote Invasion of the Body Snatchers seemed to hold promise.

Sadly this is a book I didn't get on with.  I just found it..  dull.  I read the first hundred pages, but then gave up on it.

For the record, it's the story of a man from c.1970 who's recruited into a secret government time travel experiment.  Said time travel is achieved by immersion in period detail and self-hypnosis.  What happens when he reaches 1880s New York, I can't say - I didn't get that far.  There's a plot summary on Wikipedia.

And according to the Wikipedia page Stephen King, Carl Sagan and Robert Redford think highly of it, so there.

Bridget Collins, The Binding

This starts with a good, strong premise - that in Collin's world books are created by Binders, who take people's memories and lock them away.  Unfortunately, when it moves on to second section of the book (reconstructing the memory) it turns out to be an rather obvious love story and delves into YA melodrama.

I don't regret reading it, but I'm not going to rush out and devour Collin's other books.

Gaming in June 2021

A belated update on my June gaming (the section on face-to-face was written in mid-June, the rest towards the end of July).  In the end, the Barrowmaze group still hasn't met, however, Wasters now alternates between Sundays and Fridays, so I'm getting some games in.

Face-to-face gaming is coming back!  Well, it's been back for a while, but I managed to get back into my FLGS for the fist time since it opened in April.  It was good to see it busy, with several tables in play even on a Friday afternoon (it certainly seems that the arrangement with the resurant upstairs and getting an alcohol licence are helping!).  While I was browsing Keiran, the proprietor, came over and had a chat with me about how things were going, which was nice.

With the relaxing of COVID restrictions, our face-to-face group (The Tamson Relief Expedition) is going to be meeting again to continue our long-term Barrowmaze delve.  Sadly, at the beginning of this month I started working on Sundays so will miss both these games and many of the sessions of the on-line Wasters game I've been involved with in the last year.

Nevertheless, my visit to The Games Table has inspired me, and I'm hoping to get some boardgame action in (even if that means going on a Thursday night and playing with strangers) or looking for a weeknight RPG group.

So, what have I been playing?

• 9 Jun - Evils of Illmire campaign (OSE) - on-line
• 11 Jun - Wasters (Cyberpunk OSE) - on-line
• 18 Jun - Wasters (Cyberpunk OSE) - on-line
• 25 Jun - Wasters (Cyberpunk OSE) - on-line

Evils of Illmire

• 9 Jun

After a long break due to players' work commitments (we last played on 28 Apr) we resumed the second version (with new, Lv 1 characters) Illmire campaign.  Unfortunately, this was the only game we managed that month.

Our party have undertaken to clear a lake of Fishmen.  To help, we've done a deal with the local Froglings to get stuff that will enable us to breath underwater.  The Froglings want us to murder a nest of Mantismen (who have a tendency to hunt and eat them) and bring us the head of their queen.  This rather clumsy set-up is a rare off-tune note in Illmire.

So, accompanined by three young Froglings, we made our way to the Mantis-mound.  Things started well, with some decent scouting and ambushes of a hunting-party and some guards.  When we entered the mound, things got a little complcated...  It was bigger and more complex than we'd given allowance for - our plan of poring oil in the top and setting it all on fire was a little too basic.  We managed to clear some of the top levels, but it seemed likely that we'd merely concentrated the opposition into the lower levels.

Wasters

• 11 Jun

A new player joined us from this session, which was a pleasure.  We carried on with our task of pacifying a block to extend the Safe Zone and establish our own base.  

Only one building was left to be cleared.  This turned out to be full of Raiders (think Reivers from 'Firefly').  It was a bloodbath...  

All our retainers and all but one of our PCs were killed.  Our bots (including the invaluable brute, Klunk) were disabled and left behind.

• 18 Jun

Surprisingly, the survivor from our last session was able to persuade some of the rest of the Crew (it being OSE, we all always have two PCs rolled up) to go back to the block (and even recruit some new PCs).  The main reason was to get Klunk back - he was far too useful.

The late Klunk

This time were went in loaded for bear, and spent more time in careful scouting and prep.  Despite all this, we couldn't even manage to get into the building and ended up having a major firefight on the roof.  Again, we lost PCs and Retainers, but in the end got the upper hand.

Klunk wasn't salvagable, but Henry - our hover-bot - was.  We also managed to loot the Raiders stash of cybertech.  

The block finally salvaged we reaped a reward.  Frankly, after four or five bloody and costly sessions, I wonder whether it was worth it.  But that's the bleak, distopian Wasters way.

• 25 Jun 

The Crew was now free to take on new jobs, but we didn't like any of those on offer at Club Lavender this week, so we thought we'd go a-wanderin'.

Phat Dog

We found an interesting building, tried to recruit some urchins as Irregulars and ended up adopting a dog and a cargo drone.

Fruits of the Kickstarter - Soviet Women of WW2

 

Today I got delivery of the first Kickstarter I've backed in ages (over two years?).  This one was Women of WW2: Soviet Russia from Bad Squiddo Games, which finished on 15 April and in true Bad Squiddo fashion is being fulfiled quickly and promptly.

The purple box of delights

WW2 isn't really my thing, so I did a very small pledge - a token of support really - chosing some items that would fit in with my Pulp theme.  As a result, I've got four figures, lovely sclupts by Alan Marsh, very crisply and cleanly cast.

Nightwitches

Sniper team

Hostages to Fortune

I'm going to post this now, to spur me to make a number of posts this month.

• I owe you the now regular posts "Gaming in [Month]" and "Reading in [Month]".  I still haven't posted Gaming in June as I wasn't writing it as I went through the month, so have to get my notes together.  I've already played my first game of the month and finished my first book in July.
• I want to post something about a sprue exchange I'm a party to.
• But mainly this post is to prompt me to post some reviews.  Every few months I 'earn' (because of reasons) Amazon vouchures.  On the last few occasions I've bought copies of Bayt al Azif, the Cthulhu Mythos RPG zine.  And each time, I've told myself that I have to write a review.  Well, I received Issue 3 today.

And, who knows, if I write those posts, it might get me back into the habit of writing more regularly here...