Booklist 2018 - January
It's been a while, hasn't it? I mean, since I last did one of these. Or wrote... anything on this poor old blog of mine, which hit 17 in december. So, I want to write more here this year, and I thought a good place to start would be these "classical" booklists where I tell you people what I've been reading and what I thought of it. Or at least, I'll be telling the empty echo chamber, because I probably don't have any friends left here... Anyhow, this year's goal is to hit 100 books. The Numbers mean Books read / Books completed / Total completed. Books marked "+" were aborted, books marked "*" are still being read as of this posting.
January (18 / 14 / 14)
Astral Realms (RPG): Mage: the Awakening has become on of my favorite urban fantasy RPGs, and this book is an interesting expansion of the game's cosmology, intorducing and expanding the inner worlds that lead to the collective unconciousnes of the game's setting
Designers & Dragons: the '70s (Shannon Applecline): Some of you might remember that my other main hobby beyond reading and listening to music is role-playing games. The four-part (so far) series Designers & Dragons is one of the few real attempts to write a comprehensive history of the hobby, at least as it exists in the english-speaking world. Highly recommended.
Designers & Dragons: the '80s (Shannon Applecline)
Designers & Dragons: the '90s (Shannon Applecline)
Designers & Dragons: the '00s (Shannon Applecline)
Designers & Dragons: the Platinum Appendix (Shannon Applecline): This addition to the series was a stretchgoal from the crowdfunding campaign that created these books, and contains a few additional essays, including one on the topic of female designers in the RPG hobby.
Duft des Blutes (Rike Speemann)+: Another vampire novel from my wife's bookshelf, and another book I bailed on after just 50 pages.
Fledermausland (Oliver Dierssen)+: Part of what I'm doing is going through our combined book shelf, and reading everything, my books and Caninus' books, which explains where this vampire novel comes from. She called it "odd", I called it a mess.
Gefährten des Zwielichts (Alexander Lohmann)+: Basically, a retelling of The Lord of the Rings, but with the "Bad Guys" as the protagonists / Nine Companions. I get that Tolkien has been a great influence on... everybody, but this book just bored me to death on the first 50 pages.
Geheime Welt der Katzen; Die (RPG): So there's this RPG system I've really gotten into in the last few years, Fate. There have been quite a few settings released for Fate over the years, and these days, I get most books released in german sent to me as review copy by the publisher, including this cute little setting that lets you play as cats who try to protect their humans from the things they can't see. You can find my review here.
Kreuzkönig (RPG): Another Fate book, this time a collection of two adventures for the german steampunk setting Eis & Dampf, which I've become quite a fan of, both as a game setting, as well as the novels and pulp magazines. Review is here.
Last Call (Tim Powers)*: A wonderful urban fantasy novel about a man who comes to Las Vegas 20 years after he gambled away his soul in a poker game played with Tarot cards, and is now trying to stop his father from becoming the Fisher King. Weird, in the best possible way.
Lies of Locke Lamora; The (Scott Lynch): A brutal, brutal urban fantasy set in a fantasy city, and dealing with the lives and deeds of a band of thieves who call themselves the Gentlemen Bastards. If you enjoy fantasy, especially fantasy that's not tolkienesque, you should pick up this book straight away.
Machine Crusade; The (Brian Herbert & Kevin J. Anderson): Sadly, part of going through the bookshelves also means rereading these atrocious prequels to my favorite SF novels.This is bad fan fiction, damnit! For Star Wars, even!
Monsterhearts 2 (RPG): A role-playing game about teenagers who happen to be monsters. Or maybe it's about monsters who happen to be teenagers. A game about the horror of adolesence and sexuality. A bit like Buffy, but as a study in what teenagers do to themselves and each other.
Naris - Die Legenden von Mond und Sonne (Lucy Hounsom): I won the german editions of the first two books of Lucy's fantasy trilogy off a giveaway she was running herself. I'm not quite sure if I liked this one as it felt as if the first half of the book took too long to get into gear. However, the second half was quite good. I'll have to see how I get on with the second book.
Naris - Das Schicksal der Sterne (Lucy Hounsom)*: So, here it is, the second volume. Not very far in yet, and still not quite convinced if I like it yet.
To the Strongest (RPG): Another book for Mage: the Awakening, this time a small historical setting, based on the Empire of Alexander the Great and the Diadochi who ruled the fragments of his realm.
Tripods - die dreibeinigen Herrscher (John Christopher): When I was a wee lad, I loved the TV show, and when I later discovered the books it was based on, I loved those even more. But for some reason I never got round to buying them, so I was quite happy when this anthology edition was released, containing not only the original trilogy but also the little-known later prelude.
January (18 / 14 / 14)
Astral Realms (RPG): Mage: the Awakening has become on of my favorite urban fantasy RPGs, and this book is an interesting expansion of the game's cosmology, intorducing and expanding the inner worlds that lead to the collective unconciousnes of the game's setting
Designers & Dragons: the '70s (Shannon Applecline): Some of you might remember that my other main hobby beyond reading and listening to music is role-playing games. The four-part (so far) series Designers & Dragons is one of the few real attempts to write a comprehensive history of the hobby, at least as it exists in the english-speaking world. Highly recommended.
Designers & Dragons: the '80s (Shannon Applecline)
Designers & Dragons: the '90s (Shannon Applecline)
Designers & Dragons: the '00s (Shannon Applecline)
Designers & Dragons: the Platinum Appendix (Shannon Applecline): This addition to the series was a stretchgoal from the crowdfunding campaign that created these books, and contains a few additional essays, including one on the topic of female designers in the RPG hobby.
Duft des Blutes (Rike Speemann)+: Another vampire novel from my wife's bookshelf, and another book I bailed on after just 50 pages.
Fledermausland (Oliver Dierssen)+: Part of what I'm doing is going through our combined book shelf, and reading everything, my books and Caninus' books, which explains where this vampire novel comes from. She called it "odd", I called it a mess.
Gefährten des Zwielichts (Alexander Lohmann)+: Basically, a retelling of The Lord of the Rings, but with the "Bad Guys" as the protagonists / Nine Companions. I get that Tolkien has been a great influence on... everybody, but this book just bored me to death on the first 50 pages.
Geheime Welt der Katzen; Die (RPG): So there's this RPG system I've really gotten into in the last few years, Fate. There have been quite a few settings released for Fate over the years, and these days, I get most books released in german sent to me as review copy by the publisher, including this cute little setting that lets you play as cats who try to protect their humans from the things they can't see. You can find my review here.
Kreuzkönig (RPG): Another Fate book, this time a collection of two adventures for the german steampunk setting Eis & Dampf, which I've become quite a fan of, both as a game setting, as well as the novels and pulp magazines. Review is here.
Last Call (Tim Powers)*: A wonderful urban fantasy novel about a man who comes to Las Vegas 20 years after he gambled away his soul in a poker game played with Tarot cards, and is now trying to stop his father from becoming the Fisher King. Weird, in the best possible way.
Lies of Locke Lamora; The (Scott Lynch): A brutal, brutal urban fantasy set in a fantasy city, and dealing with the lives and deeds of a band of thieves who call themselves the Gentlemen Bastards. If you enjoy fantasy, especially fantasy that's not tolkienesque, you should pick up this book straight away.
Machine Crusade; The (Brian Herbert & Kevin J. Anderson): Sadly, part of going through the bookshelves also means rereading these atrocious prequels to my favorite SF novels.This is bad fan fiction, damnit! For Star Wars, even!
Monsterhearts 2 (RPG): A role-playing game about teenagers who happen to be monsters. Or maybe it's about monsters who happen to be teenagers. A game about the horror of adolesence and sexuality. A bit like Buffy, but as a study in what teenagers do to themselves and each other.
Naris - Die Legenden von Mond und Sonne (Lucy Hounsom): I won the german editions of the first two books of Lucy's fantasy trilogy off a giveaway she was running herself. I'm not quite sure if I liked this one as it felt as if the first half of the book took too long to get into gear. However, the second half was quite good. I'll have to see how I get on with the second book.
Naris - Das Schicksal der Sterne (Lucy Hounsom)*: So, here it is, the second volume. Not very far in yet, and still not quite convinced if I like it yet.
To the Strongest (RPG): Another book for Mage: the Awakening, this time a small historical setting, based on the Empire of Alexander the Great and the Diadochi who ruled the fragments of his realm.
Tripods - die dreibeinigen Herrscher (John Christopher): When I was a wee lad, I loved the TV show, and when I later discovered the books it was based on, I loved those even more. But for some reason I never got round to buying them, so I was quite happy when this anthology edition was released, containing not only the original trilogy but also the little-known later prelude.