March was a very focussed reading month, with a lot of science-fiction and a lot of the Traveller roleplaying game. I read 2,900 pages and twelve books, bringing me to 34 books in the year, and a total of 8,424 pages. The reading streak is at 814 days.
I'll start with the roleplaying books. I worked my way through the epic Traveller Deepnight Revelation campaign, which comprised four shorter books. This is very much a taster for the campaign; there's enough here to run it and give you a good understanding of what is going to happen, but there's a fair bit of work for the referee. The start and finish of a truly epic campaign are covered in detail, and the mechanics are given for developing the road trip between. I suspect that most referees will be tempted to pick up the extra books that Mongoose have written that flesh out the journey between; I know I will.
I also worked my way through three books which will support my next campaign; Mongoose's Bounty Hunter, and Moon Toad's The Bounty Hunter Handbook and The Jägermeister Adventure. The latter two complement each other well. The Mongoose book is shinier & glossier, feeling more like The Mandalorian with lightweight mercenary tickets. The Moon Toad book is gritty, detailed & realistic, feeling like a procedural TV series, and edges it in my preference. I've detailed The Jägermeister Adventure elsewhere.
I also finished Conflict by David Petraeus and Andrew Roberts. This was a good overview of how conflicts have developed since 1945. I enjoyed the book, but found the difference between the chapters written by Petraeus and Roberts jarring. Petraeus' sections were much more detailed but lost the big picture and key themes that are throughout the rest of the book.
Adrian Tchaikovsky's Shroud was an interesting read. I found it more like a thought experiment in a first contact situation. It also cleverly threaded three different perspectives together. I did find it hard going in parts, but it came to decent conclusion.
Caimh McDonnell's A Man with One of Those Faces was an enjoyable crime romp, with a sharp wit and use of language set in Dublin. A case of mistaken identity spirals out of control. Recommended and I'll be reading the next book.
I read Max Barry's Providence which follows the crew of an AI-controlled space warship in a ware with an alien species. The quirk is that the ship is so automated that the crew are almost there for PR purposes. We get to find out their quirks, and how things play out when everything goes sideways. I enjoyed this.
Finally, after a gap of perhaps 40 years, I returned to Michael Scott Rohan's Winter of the World series, with The Anvil of Ice. This is slow-paced but well written fantasy novel about a young thrall who becomes a Smith capable of wending magic into that which he creates. We follow the start of his journey, as he is apprenticed to a dark and mysterious Master Smith, and then his story when he leaves. I really enjoyed revisiting this, and look forward to reading the next!
3 April 2025