tangaroa | Reading

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Charts hold back chaos, and we should sing their praises!

Why Do I Love Charts? Let Me Count the Ways.

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This new Hearts of Wulin Bundle presents Hearts of Wulin, the tabletop roleplaying game of Chinese wuxia action melodrama from Age of Ravens Games.

Bundle of Holding: Hearts of Wulin

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2005: The Ulster Volunteer Force struggles to grasp the meaning of the term “ceasefire”, Britain is astonished by the unlikely coincidence that every known WWI veteran is over 100 years of age, and in what some experts hope is a sign Britain has begun to emerge from chaos after the retreat of the Roman Empire, Dr Who is revived.

Poll #33355 Clarke Award Finalists 2005

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 31

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Which 2005 Clarke Award Finalists Have You Read?

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Iron Council by China Miéville
10 (32.3%)

Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
10 (32.3%)

Market Forces by Richard Morgan
5 (16.1%)

River of Gods by Ian McDonald
9 (29.0%)

The System of the World by Neal Stephenson
13 (41.9%)

The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
10 (32.3%)

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

Which 2005 Clarke Award Finalists Have You Read?
Iron Council by China Miéville
Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
Market Forces by Richard Morgan
River of Gods by Ian McDonald
The System of the World by Neal Stephenson
The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

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The first in a series of anthologies that assemble stories by Campbell Award (now the Astounding) finalists.

New Voices: The Campbell Award Nominees (New Voices, volume 1) edited by George R R Martin

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This is probably in no way significant, but it just occurred to me to check to see where WorldCon was the years I was nominated:

2010: Melbourne, Australia
2011: Reno, USA
2019: Dublin, Ireland
2020: Wellington, New Zealand
2024: Glasgow, Scotland

(I was nowhere near the ballot in 2009, Montreal)

At a guess, those are years where vote totals were a bit lower?

( Read more... )

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Four books new to me.Two are SF, one is fantasy, one is a mix of both. I don't see anything unambiguously labelled as series works.

Books Received, July 5 — July 11

Poll #33350 Books Received, July 5 — July 11

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 39

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Which of these look interesting?

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Secrets, Spells, and Chocolate by Marisa Churchill (December 2025)
14 (35.9%)

Spread Me by Sarah Gailey (September 2025)
14 (35.9%)

The Forest on the Edge of Time by Jasmin Kirkbride (February 2026)
14 (35.9%)

The Universe Box by Michael Swanwick (February 2026)
18 (46.2%)

Some other option (see comments)
1 (2.6%)

Cats!
31 (79.5%)

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Specifically Fabula Ultima

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New Dawn requires only that people conform without exception or face memory erasure and worse. Yet, a minority insists on being individuals.

The Memory Librarian by Janelle Monáe

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Last feline from Parliament Hill cat colony dies

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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

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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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Yelling "Get off my lawn!" on an interplanetary scale...

Five Books About Aliens Who Are Fed Up With Humans

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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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Tepid remake of the Fenian Raids fails to launch.

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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

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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: 42

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Which 2004 Clarke Award Finalists Have You Read?

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Quicksilver by Neal Stephenson
21 (50.0%)

Coalescent by Stephen Baxter
5 (11.9%)

Darwin's Children by Greg Bear
16 (38.1%)

Maul by Tricia Sullivan
5 (11.9%)

Midnight Lamp by Gwyneth Jones
3 (7.1%)

Pattern Recognition by William Gibson
20 (47.6%)

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

siliconshaman

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has advised should be viewed with discretion. )

Current Mood: relaxed

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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

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This is much easier for Martin's New Voices series....

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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: 37

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Which of these look interesting?

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FIYAH No. 35: Black Isekai published by FIYAH Literary Magazine (July 2025)
19 (51.4%)

Aces Full edited by George R. R. Martin (November 2025)
3 (8.1%)

Only Spell Deep by Ava Morgyn (March 2026)
6 (16.2%)

The Damned by Harper L. Woods (October 2025)
3 (8.1%)

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

Cats!
29 (78.4%)

siliconshaman

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has advised should be viewed with discretion. )

Current Mood: awake

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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

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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

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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.
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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)

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Youko and Airi meet a new friend and encounter Chekov's Volcano.

Touring After the Apocalypse, volume 5 by Sakae Saito

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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!

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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