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Right now (7:30am) it is 14 degrees outside.

It is 24 degrees in our bedroom, despite the windows being open all night. Humidity is 92%.

This afternoon it will rise to 26 degrees. I'm glad the office has air conditioning. I'm not looking forward to tonight.

Starling House by Alix E. Harrow

Jul. 10th, 2025 08:53 am
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Desperate to pay her brother Jasper's way out of Muhlenberg County, Opal accepts a job at an infamously cursed mansion.

Starling House by Alix E. Harrow

Bundle of Holding: Pyramid 2

Jul. 9th, 2025 03:46 pm
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The latter half of Pyramid's ten-year run, the issues published from November 2013 to December 2018, sixty-two issues in all.

Bundle of Holding: Pyramid 2
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[personal profile] james_davis_nicoll


In a city with over a million people per square kilometre, real estate firms will never lack for clients. Good news for the employees of the Wong Loi Realty Company!


Kowloon Generic Romance, volume 1 by Jun Mayuzuki (Translated by Amanda Haley)
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Arrogant traffic analyst Boyd Hakluyt is just a pawn in the struggle for Ciudad de Vados' future.

The Squares of the City by John Brunner
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Everything you need for your own GURPS 4E tabletop roleplaying campaign.

Bundle of Holding: GURPS 4E Essentials (from 2022)




Volume 3 (Nov 2008 - Dec 2018) of Pyramid, the Steve Jackson Games magazine for tabletop roleplaying gamers. Sixty issues and more!

Bundle of Holding: Pyramid 1
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Why wait around for the throne or the cash when murder can deliver it immediately?

Five Dangerously Impatient Heirs and Successors

Clarke Award Finalists 2004

Jul. 7th, 2025 10:12 am
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[personal profile] james_davis_nicoll
2004: Labour spares no effort to liberate Britons from human rights, UKIP's electoral successes surely do not reflect fundamental flaws in the British psyche, and London voters are heartbroken to discover the Livingstone who was just elected mayor isn’t the Livingstone who co-wrote the Fighting Fantasy books.

Poll #33332 Clarke Award Finalists 2004
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 41


Which 2004 Clarke Award Finalists Have You Read?

View Answers

Quicksilver by Neal Stephenson
20 (48.8%)

Coalescent by Stephen Baxter
5 (12.2%)

Darwin's Children by Greg Bear
15 (36.6%)

Maul by Tricia Sullivan
5 (12.2%)

Midnight Lamp by Gwyneth Jones
2 (4.9%)

Pattern Recognition by William Gibson
19 (46.3%)



Bold for have read, italic for intend to read,, underline for never heard of it.


Which 2004 Clarke Award Finalists Have You Read?
Quicksilver by Neal Stephenson
Coalescent by Stephen Baxter
Darwin's Children by Greg Bear
Maul by Tricia Sullivan

Midnight Lamp by Gwyneth Jones
Pattern Recognition by William Gibson
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Can the American King's uncanny military genius best an enemy so cunning the enemy loses every battle?

The Steel, the Mist, and the Blazing Sun by Christopher Anvil

Wild Cards checklist

Jul. 5th, 2025 09:35 am
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[personal profile] james_davis_nicoll
This is much easier for Martin's New Voices series....

Read more... )
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Four works new to me. One is SF, two fantasy, and the magazine (which I have not yet looked inside) likely both. Two of the novels are series novels, one does not seem to me.

Books Received, June 28 — July 4



Poll #33326 Books Received, June 28 — July 4
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 36


Which of these look interesting?

View Answers

FIYAH No. 35: Black Isekai published by FIYAH Literary Magazine (July 2025)
18 (50.0%)

Aces Full edited by George R. R. Martin (November 2025)
3 (8.3%)

Only Spell Deep by Ava Morgyn (March 2026)
6 (16.7%)

The Damned by Harper L. Woods (October 2025)
3 (8.3%)

Some other option (see comments)
0 (0.0%)

Cats!
29 (80.6%)

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Ninety years after her grandmother's family was stalked by a witch, international student Minerva Contrera's studies land her in a similar position.


The Bewitching by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Photo cross-post

Jul. 4th, 2025 02:49 am
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[personal profile] andrewducker


Got halfway to the bus stop to go to the pool and realised I didn't have my shoulder bag. Sprinted home, got it, and made it to the bus.

Got off the bus at the other end, realised Sophia's bag didn't have her swimming costume in it. Got a bus home, grabbed it, now in a taxi.

Fingers crossed that nothing else comes between me and drop-off and work!
Original is here on Pixelfed.scot.

Every time I run something

Jul. 3rd, 2025 10:34 pm
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[personal profile] james_davis_nicoll
I embrace new tools. In Fabula Ultima, for example, the order in which characters go in combat varies. I found it hard to keep track of who'd gone, so I went out and got poker chips and little round labels. Now, I can just toss the chips representing characters into a bowl once they've gone. Order!

OK, except it turns out I can't tell blue from green under the ceiling light in the room where I DM and the names on the labels need to be bigger.
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Director of the nation formerly known as Canada Quinn Atherton is determined to deliver much mass murder as it takes to achieve peace, order, good government. Why do so many ingrates object?

Blight(Sleep of Reason, volume 2) by Rachel A. Rosen

My alt-Mummy film

Jul. 2nd, 2025 11:51 pm
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[personal profile] james_davis_nicoll
The inspiration being the 1999 Mummy movie is not without problematic elements.

Imagine an Egyptian film company wanting to make a movie about idiots waking a horror in Canada that only the Egyptian lead can resolve.
Read more... )
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The June 2023 Dark Eye Megabundle featuring the English-language edition from Ulisses Spiele of the leading German tabletop roleplaying game of heroic fantasy, The Dark Eye.

Bundle of Holding: The Dark Eye MEGA (from 2023)

Time marches on

Jul. 2nd, 2025 10:20 am
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[personal profile] andrewducker
As of this morning (2nd of July), we are now closer to 2050 than 2000.

2025 CSFFA Hall of Fame Inductees

Jul. 1st, 2025 06:02 pm
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[personal profile] james_davis_nicoll
The quotation below is a quotation


CSFFA (The Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Association) is proud to announce the 2025 CSFFA Hall of Fame inductees.

Clint Budd, fan, convention organizer, modernized CSFFA and created the CSFFA Hall of Fame
Charles R. Saunders, author, journalist, and founder of the “sword and soul” literary genre
Diane L. Walton, editor, mentor, and a founding member of On Spec: The Canadian Magazine of the Fantastic

More information here.


Congratulations to the Inductees!

Photo cross-post

Jul. 1st, 2025 01:58 pm
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"Sophia, will you pose with your brother for a photo?"

"I will, but I'm very angry about it!"
Original is here on Pixelfed.scot.

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Only the brave, the arrogant, the naïve, or the desperate Men trespass in Arafel's Ealdwood. Into which category does the latest visitor fall?

The Dreamstone (Ealdwood, volume 1) by C J Cherryh

July 2025 Patreon Boost

Jul. 1st, 2025 08:58 am
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Jealous of all the people who support Aurora-finalist James Nicoll Reviews? Want to join them? Here are your options:

July 2025 Patreon Boost

Rebuilding journal search again

Jun. 30th, 2025 03:18 pm
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[personal profile] alierak posting in [site community profile] dw_maintenance
We're having to rebuild the search server again (previously, previously). It will take a few days to reindex all the content.

Meanwhile search services should be running, but probably returning no results or incomplete results for most queries.

Bundle of Holding: Broken Tales

Jun. 30th, 2025 03:44 pm
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The English-language rulebook and supplements for Broken Tales, the tabletop fantasy roleplaying game of upside-down fairy tales from Italian game publisher The World Anvil Publishing.

Bundle of Holding: Broken Tales

Clarke Award Finalists 2003

Jun. 30th, 2025 10:28 am
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2003: PM Blair embraces hilariously transparent lies to justify the invasion of Iraq, two million Britons reveal the power of public outrage when they protest the Iraq War to no effect, and the Coalition of the Billing (UK included) faces an occupation of Iraq that will no doubt be entirely without unforeseen challenges or consequences.

Poll #33305 Clarke Award Finalists 2003
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 60


Which 2003 Clarke Award Finalists Have You Read?

View Answers

The Separation by Christopher Priest
10 (16.7%)

Kiln People by David Brin
18 (30.0%)

Light by M. John Harrison
16 (26.7%)

The Scar by China Miéville
26 (43.3%)

The Speed of Dark by Elizabeth Moon
30 (50.0%)

The Years of Rice and Salt by Kim Stanley Robinson
32 (53.3%)



Bold for have read, italic for intend to read,, underline for never heard of it.

Which 2003 Clarke Award Finalists Have You Read?
The Separation by Christopher Priest
Kiln People by David Brin
Light by M. John Harrison
The Scar by China Miéville
The Speed of Dark by Elizabeth Moon
The Years of Rice and Salt by Kim Stanley Robinson

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