I hope soon to be running this:
7 Likes
I remember playing the original version of this that had planets at negative kelvin, now that’s cold!
2 Likes
I’ve already found the bit where 1 is a prime number. 
2 Likes
I’m hoping they changed the very unfortunate name of the main aliens.
2 Likes
You know I didn’t see or hear that unfortunate name until some one pronounced it… great aliens, very poor choice of name.
Anyway I am reading the Quiet War books by Paul McAuley and much enjoying them.
1 Like
I’d play that… even if you do GURPS it.
1 Like
I can see why they chose it: the first people to encounter the aliens were German, they met these violent chitinous creatures, and they called them bugs or beetles (Käfer), which originates in Proto-West Germanic.
The South African and Rhodesian slang for black people comes from the earlier Arabic term for non-Muslims, with a root meaning “people who [should] hide themselves”, probably via Spain. But they really are completely different derivations.
I suspect your typical American hasn’t even heard of the second term.
8 Likes
That’s interesting
1 Like
I can confirm that. It came up more than once with various groups when I was living in New England.
4 Likes
Well, if we’re counting RPGs as reading, then I’m reading this, with a view to running it. No huge tome to read, just a 48 page “adventure book”. One of the things that made me buy it was that each “scene” (there are ten scenes) takes only 1-2 hours. It will be my first time GMing, and I don’t think my group has done much role playing. It should be interesting.
7 Likes
Oh very interesting… a new Lovecraft RPG!
Love the mug…
2 Likes
Good luck!
1 Like
Yeah. I legit had no idea it was a slang for anything.
Just finished Throne of Glass Volume 7… I must say I had not expected this kind of epic finale from my first read of Vol 1 to 4 in 2016. And such a carefully crafted story with nicely prepared resolutions and connections across the whole of the series. I do get why it is so succesfull that a number of clone series seem to have sprung up.
One aspect that grated a little on me–having just read Malazan–that the series is often very explicitly stating what is going on. Not leaving things to the reader to put together. Things seem a little “easy” at times. But this is written as young adult and so in the end that’s fine. Considering the genre and age group it was written for, this is really very good–except for a few seeming continuity and editing blunders in the first book.
And it also seems like it is necessary to be explicit. I talked to our friends almost 16 yo daughter about it, as it is a favorite of hers and she noted how surprised she was when a certain faction changed sides late into book 7. It had been quite clearly telegraphed for multiple books that the alliance was coming or so it seemed to me.
Talking to her also makes me remember how I felt about books at that age and that’s a lovely memory
I guess next I have to reread Bridgerton because that’s what the other one of the bookclub girls is reading now
4 Likes
I’ve read the first of the Throne of Glass and thought it was only ok - this makes me think it might be worth reading the rest. It is a favourite of my wife’s.
2 Likes
the first is “only okay” indeed. very much classic young adult style fantasy including love triangle, school/tournament experience and other shenanigans. the real turning point where the series becomes epic is somewhere in book 4 I think. i wouldn’t compare it to Malazan or Stormlight. it is smaller in scope than those and still YA. if you can deal with the “everyone has to be a couple” trope, it’s good easy entertainment. definitely better than Shadow & Bone. on par with Arc of Scythe (but that one is just 3 books). to stick with other YA series for comparison.
fantasy equivalent of Red Rising maybe? though i also never finished that series. i quit that one because it became too gritty and backstabby.
I enjoyed the Red Rising books though I liked it in the beginning more than towards the end because there was ALWAYS a twist in the twist, a backstab to the backstabber. It tired me out a bit.
2 Likes
that is absolutely on point and probably a reason i never bothered to finish reading the series. i struggled to put into words why i didn’t when i enjoyed so many of the elements … characters, world building…
1 Like