Beggar’s Sky is Wil McCarthy’s third novel in his Rich Man’s Sky series, which asks the question: What if future space exploitation is driven by the mega-ultra-super rich – and that’s not intrinsically a bad thing? As you might have guessed, only Baen is the only mainstream SF publisher with enough hair on its ass to actually print the blessed thing…
#commissionearned
DANGEROUS ASSOCIATIONS is a little tabletop RPG supplement I put together that looks at groups of my own design, and all suitable for campaigns. …I mention this again because you never know who might be reading it for the first time. These are fun little projects, and goodness knows I have enough generic TT RPG material to work with…
Or, you know, any other Terry Pratchett novel. But The Fifth Elephant will do as something on which to hang your head. Unless, of course, you’ve never actually read the man. In that case I recommend that you start at… huh. That’s a tough one. I got started with Wyrd Sisters, and that’s as good a place as any?
I haven’t thought of Mary Monica Pulver’s Murder at the War in a good, long while. This straight-up murder mystery is set in Pennsic before it was Pennsic, sort of: Cooper’s Lake wasn’t the first place we held that event. Certainly this book is set before the event became PENNSIC, a sprawling two-week behemoth that helps define the SCA.
I do remember being shocked at Pennsic 21 (my first) that, wow, there are authors here! That this was allowed! It left an impression.
One Extra Corpse is the sequel to Barbara Hambly’s straight-up mystery novel Scandal in Babylon, and I’m not gonna lie: I went right from the first book to the second one. I’d have the next one pre-ordered except the current sales price on that is so blatantly a place holder. At least, I hope so. If not, somebody’s about to learn a valuable life lesson on price points.
Anyway, these are good books.
#commissionearned
I haven’t read much straight-up mystery novels lately, but I was always a fan of Christie and Sayers. I’ve just started Barbara Hambly’s Scandal in Babylon, which takes the characters from Bride of the Rat God, changes all their names*, presumably shakes all the supernatural pulp off of them, and have them deal with conventional murders and mysteries.
…I think I’m okay with this. At least it’s been a good book so far.
*Except for the dogs. The dogs’ names are inviolate. I’m also okay with this.
#commissionearned
I have a pile of books in my Kindle that I need to get around to reading, and it’s been a hectic week, sorry. So go ahead: you tell me what we should be reading. Because I honestly don’t have a clue.
Moe Lane
PS: Feel free to hype your own book.
I saw David Rose’s Lovecraft’s Iraq and I thought I’d give it a whirl. I’m about halfway through it now, and it’s not half bad. The author is a war veteran from the time period that the book’s set in, and he’s obviously intimately familiar with what military life in Iraq was at that point. This gives the book a certain built-in authenticity when it suggests how the military would react to the Mythos.
Warning: it’s kind of bleak. Even by modern “Thomas Ligotti is my dark guru” cosmic horror standards.
#commissionearned
There’s gonna be a new Monster Hunter Files story collection coming soon (MONSTER HUNTER FANTOM, written by Czech authors) , so if you haven’t read MONSTER HUNTER FILES yet, now’s the time to get your MHI short story fix. I gotta go see if it’s still on my own Kindle. If not, looks like I’ll have to download it from Baen again…
#commissionearned
Empire from the Ashes is a compilation of David Weber’s Mutineers’ Moon, The Armageddon Inheritance and Heirs of Empire. Obviously science fiction, with a very heavy dose of space opera tacked on. Fun early Weber, particularly if you enjoy space battles… which is pretty much something you’re going to get from late David Weber, too. And everything science fictional in between.
#commissionearned
