Books in May 2023

 

May 2023 - 5 books, 1,870 pages

I read five books in May 2023, three novels and two gaming supplements

The novels were 'Ready Player Two' (Ernest Cline); 'Before they are Hanged' (Joe Abercrombie) and 'Children of Memory' (Adrian Tchaikovsky). The Tchaikovsky was by far the best novel; intriguing, clever SF that brings together elements from the previous two novels in the Children of Time series. 

'Ready Player Two' nearly didn't get completed, which is rare for me in a novel. The main character repelled me with his behaviour for the first quarter of the novel, but then the plot started to pick up. However, this book is a shadow of its predecessor, sometimes feeling like an excuse just to throw in a huge pile of 80s.90s references to the point of tedium. I guess I loved the first book, and that set a high bar to judge this against.

The Abercrombie is the second of the series that we're doing as a read along at the Tavern. I found it dragged a bit, and I didn't feel it was going anywhere especially fast or original. There have been some interesting twists along the way that kept me engaged though. I'll read the final book, but I'm not certain if I'll explore this universe anymore. However, that may change after I see how I feel at the end.

My gaming reading was all for the CY_BORG #ttrpg, as two Kickstarters arrived; gutter_PVNKs, a collection of useful characters and snippets to flesh out CY, and then Timescape. The latter allows you to play a campaign heavily influenced by Terminator, and then for fun adds in the information to mix it up with Predators and Xenomorphs. Both well written, well presented and useful.

30 June 2023