Books to February 2024

 

Books read year to date - 18
Pages read - 5229

I'm writing this three days into March so the numbers are slightly inflated as I finished two books at the very start of the month. Both fiction and non-fiction reading was influenced by the game of Berlin 87, as I really wanted to get a feel of Berlin's geography, culture and locations in my head before Revelation.

Fiction

I opened the year with two books by Silvia Moreno-Garcia; Silver Nitrate and The Lover. Both were great fun, and I need to read more by her as I previously enjoyed Mexican Gothic.

Sara DiVello's Broadway Butterfly was an interesting and gripping exploration of a murder case in New York in the 1920s.

I then returned to some books I've probably not read in four decades - Len Deighton's murky and delightful Game, Set and Match trilogy (Berlin Game, Mexico Set, London Match). I loved these when they first came out (and enjoyed the banished TV version). I was reading them for the 80s ambience for the Berlin 87 hack of Cartel that I was running, but I'm going to have a short break away from them and read the next trilogy as well.

If I had to pick a favourite, it would be Silver Nitrate, but only by a whisker.

Non-Fiction

David McCormack's Berlin Cold War 1945-1989 Companion was interesting but felt like it lacked Berlin as a character. Lots about the DDR but the city had a cameo.

Andrew Long's Secrets of the the Cold War was excellent, and gave me lots of ideas to draw on for my game at Revelation.

The Divided Berlin, 1945-1990 - Historical Guidebook by Oliver Boyn was the most useful reference I consulted for my game of Berlin'87. It really gave a feel for the city and the way things were.

Helen Czerski's The Blue Machine - how the ocean works was delightful, and probably my overall favourite book of the last two months. A clear exploration of how the ocean works and how we are impacting it, to our own peril. Fantastic and recommended.

Roleplaying Books

Comrades: A revolutionary RPG - this is a Powered by the Apocalypse game built to explore revolutions. I'm very tempted to give it a roll-out as it looks excellent.

Dragonbane Core Rules and Dragonbane Bestiary have been covered elsewhere, as has Shadowdark and Orbital 2100. I finally read Cartel, which was excellent. I've chased the shadows of the delayed kickstarter away.

I also read Across a Thousand Dead Worlds - very pretty and a slick game that has echoes of Pohl's Gateway. I'll be running this at North Star. Along with that, I read Under Ashen Skies, which is a horror based single player RPG from the same publisher. I do like it but I'm not certain it will get to the table.

I continue to grind through Old Gods of Appalachia - it's good but something isn't quite landing for me at the moment.

Of the roleplaying games, Cartel was my favourite.

3 March 2024