Lathany

Will Save The Galaxy For Food is Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw's third book. If you think you recognise the name, you're correct that's the Zero Punctuation guy. (For those of you who don't, he's a video game reviewer and he produces his reviews in the form of about five minutes of video - fast talking, non-work safe and usually somewhat acidic and accurate.)

I read the previous two books before getting this and they were entertaining - with good ideas and good bits - but I didn't think quite worked overall. (Jam, in particular, seemed to be all about the punchline of where it came from - which is fine for a short story, but not a book.) I think this is better - still a way from perfect - but it feels more like a book.

The theme is space opera / sci fi and the mood is dark comedy. The central character is a starship pilot and he's in trouble. Yahtzee's protagonists are always in trouble. However, in this case, the protagonist has some fields of competence and I found it rather easier to empathise with him than his predecessors (I really struggled with the central character in Jam who came across as a complete idiot). The plot, without giving too much away, is that he is piloting some passengers around the galaxy, whilst revealing the history of piloting and wars (changed since teleportation arrived), dealing with his passengers, and generally trying to stay alive.

I would - very cautiously - recommend it to anyone who has played space video games such as Elite.

Another of my Xmas books was The Sudden Appearance of Hope by Claire North. I'd not read any of the author's books before (she's Catherine Webb, also writing as Kate Griffin as well as Claire North) and I knew it had won the World Fantasy Award.

The book is set in the modern world and has two main elements, both of which pop up very quickly. The first is that Hope, the protagonist, is forgotten by everyone. If she leaves a room, by 30 seconds later everyone will have forgotten her. This started when she was sixteen and her parents forgot her. The other element is a social media phenomenon - Perfection. It's a way of life where those following it (on their phones) can win points and achieve perfection. The story that unfolds is a mixture of human observation, mystery and getting to the bottom of the two elements. Whilst it is not the happiest of reads, it isn't nearly as sad as I feared it might be given that Hope, through her ability of being forgotten, is very isolated from others. I enjoyed following Hope through the book and, whilst I would have liked more concrete answers to some parts of the mysteries, it mostly tied up the loose ends. Overall - cautiously recommended.

One of the books I got for Xmas was The Ivy Tree by Mary Stewart. I've read other books by her - specifically the first two of the Merlin trilogy (for some reason, I've either not read the third or not recorded that I did). I enjoyed those, so was interested to read this.

It's part of what Wikipedia refers to as "romantic suspense" and it turns out I liked it a lot (I'd describe it as a bit like a murder mystery, but without the actual murder). I guessed the central twist after a while, but found the way it unfolded equally interesting. I thought it was well-paced and that the plot was coherent. I enjoyed all the characters as well - Connor, Julie and Donald in particular.

I'll look out for more of her books (particularly if I don't have that Merlin book - actually, I think I borrowed the first two from venta, so I might get the trilogy for myself).

Last week I finished Too Like the Lightning: Book One of Terra Ignota by Ada Palmer. It was the author's debut novel so, needless to say I hadn't come across her before. It had received a Hugo nomination and various good reviews so I was expecting to enjoy it. Instead I was disappointed as I felt it had a number of flaws. Firstly - it introduced too many characters too quickly. I was barely keeping track of who was who, let alone finding the time to care about them. Which brings me to point two - I didn't really care about any of them by the end. Granted, the protagonist is supposed to be a git (as they tell you, themselves, repeatedly) but I felt I should have cared about someone, somewhere in it. Third up - the book turns out to be about the twenty - or maybe fifty - most important people in the world. However, it explains that they are important by constantly telling you this rather than showing them as important. And onto the fourth (mild spoilers, but I'll try not to be too specific) - the whole brothel scene. This felt very much something the author was desperate to include, but left me feeling that it ruined the careful construction of politics up to that point (although, perhaps that was intended). Finally(!) the book doesn't conclude, it stops. Yes, I know it's the first of a series, but I feel it should have been somewhat self-contained and answered at least one of the threads it began in its first couple of chapters.

Having piled on the criticism, it did have some good points. There are some nice ideas in there and one or two characters that might have promise if they weren't struggling for stage space against forty-eight or so others. I remember someone once telling me that the rule of thumb with authors is that once they've written a million words, they'll be ready to write their best work. I feel this author is still making her way through her million words and maybe I should come back in a few books' time.

Last weekend, Alistair started the rerun of The Magnificent Sven which he originally ran last year in Derbyshire. The players this time are me, Dom, Martin and Leon. I haven't seen Leon for ages - possibly twenty years - and it was really good to meet him again. I've been asked not to say anything about the game until we're done (another two sessions, probably) - but it's going well so far (and it's Warhammer, although not 40K).

This week, I'm on leave. So this means glitter tattoos. I've done two: moon and stars.



And also a dreamcatcher.



Leave also means a fair amount of FFXIV, a bit of housework, a certain amount of washing, an outing planned with Bea tomorrow and some new cooking. Or, to put it another way, I made gnocchi for the first time yesterday. I can't say that they had any artistic merit (I really couldn't get them to look like anything other than blobs, let alone like their picture), but they did taste nice - so I may try again.

It's been quite a while since I wrote reviews of anything. So, I'd better fix that.

Also, a quick mention of my Easter week off. I went to Kew with Ryan (plus cake) and to Staines for shopping with Bea (plus waffle and pizza). Both days went very well and we chose the two days with decent weather. I don't have any shopping pictures, but here's a Kew one.



Over Easter Dom, Bea and I went to see Black Panther. I enjoyed it, but wasn't quite as blown away by it as pretty much everyone I've seen reviews from. In part, because my expectations were high and in part because I didn't know the source material. Dom did know the backstory and was much more impressed with how they had dealt with a cliched and racist background without throwing it all away.

I'm reading my way through my birthday books, two down and two to go.

• Want You Gone by Chris Brookmyre: It's a rather nice Jack story that also deals with Buzzkill and internet hacking. Worth a read, although possibly after the other Buzzkill/Jack stories (Dead Girl Walking and Black Widow).
• Sixth Watch by Sergei Lukyanenko: The sixth, and possibly last, of the Night Watch series. I thought this was a rather sad ending to a series that started well. Also, I do wish that the author would stop bringing people back from the dead and put more effort into creating new characters. Overall, not very impressed.

There have also been a couple of games.

• Wasteworld: This was a new roleplaying game that Martin wanted to try. It's a post-apocalyptic game in a future controlled by AIs with touches of Paranoia. I think it was an interesting background, but would like to see more before saying much about the system.
• Earthforce: Dom ran the first session of his superheroes one-off series. This featured John, Jon, David and Georgia. I really enjoyed it, but won't say much more as others will be playing.

So, overall, April's not been a bad month, although it definitely picked up when the weather improved.

Among my Xmas presents were a trilogy of Rosemary Sutcliff books from venta and a Garth Nix book from my parents. I've now read the first of the trilogy and the Garth Nix book.

Eagle of the Ninth is a children's book set in Roman Britain (apparently Hollywood made a film of it in 2011 called The Eagle). It's about a Roman officer (Marcus), his friendships and his keenness to discover the fate of his father's Legion. I really liked it, wished I'd met it when I was a child and thought that the chase in the last part of the book was probably the basis for pursuits a number of other stories (Eagle of the Ninth was published in the 1950s). I'm looking forward to reading the other two parts of the trilogy.

I then read another children's story - Goldenhand which is the fifth book set in the Old Kingdom fantasy series. I'm very fond of the Old Kingdom stories and this was a solid enough addition. However, it seemed a little too concerned with romantically attaching all the unattached protagonists of previous books to the extent that the main plot felt rather secondary. I have always liked Sabriel and thought it the best of the Old Kingdom simply because it does a very original back-ground/set-up so nicely, but this was a nice, comfortable read and I hope for more.

A fortnight ago, 100 Secrets ran. We had just finished playing with the time travel so were effectively back at the start of the previous session. We travelled back to the capital to collect Rat and then had another go at figuring out the temples and what to do with them.

This time around we found a new temple, complete with guard mole with a rune tablet in its head. We gained Faradine Coldass as a companion, the first of the previous party. We also located and conversed with the nomads, finally speaking with the Master of Guides on the mountain. This encounter was interrupted by a Ryne assassin who we killed. We discovered that the temples were stores to fight a powerful being from another world which was some distance away trapped in a mind maze. If it ever escaped again, the temples would be needed.

Finally, we were helped by the nomads to visit the inside of the mountain and speak with the gods. We eventually succeeded, although not until after we had explored, seen the staircase and the gods' puppet-workings. We made contact by prayer. The gods agreed to give us the power to shut down the temples so they could not be used for a power-grab.

The last Lockwood & Co book, Lockwood & Co: The Empty Grave has finally come out. It's the fifth of the series and marks the end. I liked it and felt it wrapped up several plot lines, but there are still unanswered questions. Also, I didn't like it quite as much as the previous books.

I also ran some Lockwood & Co. The players' agency - Dalton and Clay - took on two cases, the ghost of a recent murder victim and then a dark spectre (formerly a newsreader). The background works well on a case by case basis.

Last Saturday, in 100 Secrets we waged war on the Half Lords. We teamed up with the Count of Narthal and his consort Tabitha after discovering we had a common enemy. We divided into three teams - the Count and consort (Team A), the usual duo of Lady Rose (Andie) and Loy (Sarah) (Team B), plus the Tiger God (Krys) and the non-combatants - Neddra (myself) and Carlos (Jon) (Team C). We headed up the staircase and began. We managed to take out five Half Lords:

• Team A think they killed one. Probably. We think there was fire magic involved.
• One was assassinated by Team B through a combination of displacement and stabbiness.
• Team C took one out, despite its Shadow Knight entourage, through wind magic, rearranging the walls and general clawing.
• Team C took another one out despite the pitch darkness and the knight through more clawing.
• The last, the leader, was taken out mainly by Rose with a bit of consort and Tiger God assistance.

We celebrated. We also learned what we could from their library of portals about the Midnight Roads (and hopefully, in future, of runes).

Afterwards we went back to Sarenland and discovered that the Half Lord allies had fled other than Owlsroost. He was ill and, despite an attempt to save him, he died. Whether he might have become another Cloam, we do not know. Aeryn took a message to Ein in Aeros to inform her. Also, we discovered the portal to a lonely hut and captured the Half-Knight there. It seems to be the end of the Half Lords plot.

On the trains, I read Ghost Hawk by Susan Cooper. This is a tale of the European colonisation of Massachusetts from the Indians' point of view. Unfortunately, whilst well-written, there isn't really anything else going on. I feel I want to repeat my comments about Bujold's book of Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen - the author could have written a story using the colonisation as a background. She didn't and I'm disappointed.

Dom and I watched Phoenix on Friday night, our latest Lovefilms offering. It's a German film set at the end of World War II about a cabaret singer who has survived the concentration camps, but her face has been ruined and she requires reconstruction surgery. She stands to inherit the family's wealth as all the others were killed. It is fairly short (about an hour and a half), but tells the simple - but very watchable - story in that time. Gently recommended.

I recently finished The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin. It's an interesting book with quite a lot of maths/physics background (the three-body problem) and a decent sci-fi plot. I didn't like the ending very much - it felt a bit unfinished - but probably only to me.

Outside the front garden has some small yellow flowers in bloom. Out the back is this.



I think it's the first year that the garden has been clear enough for me to see these.

100 Secrets ran last weekend - the start of season 3 and a five-person party for the first time. We are all off to Sarenland to find out who is in charge and, in Neddra's case, to investigate portals. So far, we've found a population that has been lied to. And possibly a prince.

I finished Warhammer 40K season 2 yesterday. This involved a war beginning on Alanius Eyrie between the Tyranids and the forces of Tzeentch. Oh, and the humans. However, the parties managed to save the planet from destruction in time for the Saint to arrive to protect it.

I've started an Illuminati character in The Secret World. To date I've reached level 2, completed Into Darkness and seen the bad necklace competition (below).



We've finally got around to watching The Killing 3. Perhaps the best of the three in terms of plot, but also by far the most depressing. Also, I gather, deliberately the last.

Last week I finished The Bone Queen by Alison Croggon on the train. It's a prequel to her four book Pellinor series about an event that happened prior to then that had an impact on the story.

It was good to revisit Pellinor which I liked as a setting. I felt that The Bone Queen had decent characters and was well written. However, the plot was fairly standard and the ways in which events unfolded seemed to be about powers rather than anything particularly clever. However, well worth reading (along with the rest of the series) if you like fantasy.