The first non-fiction book was Middleland by Rory Stewart. As a semi-regular The Rest is Politics listener, I'd heard about this book on the podcast and decided not to get it. Then my kids bought it for me as a present. It's sat there looking at me since Christmas, so I ended up selecting it as one of my Audible listens. The book is a collection of Stewart's columns written when he was an MP in Penrith, cleaned up with narratives connecting them. You can see how his thinking develops. I enjoyed this; it wasn't quite what I expected, but that's a good thing, isn't it? It certainly gives a flavour of living in a rural constituency, and seeing how decisions from afar in Westminster change can change your lives and livelihoods without much thought on their consequences, especially the connection to the land and community that farming brings.
The second non-fiction book was an impulse purchase called Running the Risk: Understanding life's biggest risks and how we build a safer future by David Barrett Reid. I picked it up as risk management is what I do every day as a safety professional. The book collects and discusses various disasters, risks and consequences, exploring how likely they are and what can be done about them. This was interesting, but overall I didn't really think it covered the future part of the subtitle well and I was underwhelmed. At least it's 11 hours of CPD.
On to roleplaying. I reread The Hooded Man before running it at Furnace (reviewed previously here). I followed this up with Graham Walmsley's Play Unsafe, which I'd picked up the 20th Anniversary Edition of at Furnace; this was really interesting and I wish that I'd read it earlier. Bizarrely, one of the topics effectively came into play at work the week after I read this and helped me to frame a discussion about how we addressed the behaviour. I will return to this. Finally, I read the Twilight Sword Core Book and Lands of Radia, which I gave some first impressions of here on the blog. I enjoyed these and hope to run them at some point.
Time to dive into the fiction. I started with The Drain by Caitlin T. Vale, part of the 1993 collection from The Eden Book Society, a fake historical fiction group used as a reason to publish a selection of short stories and novellas by Dead Ink Books. I actually bought this by mistake; I thought I'd ordered the eBook but it turns out I ordered both versions! It's a really nice modern take on a vampire story, completely unglamorous and somewhat nasty. The physical version comes in a lovely small format (if you recall the small classics that Penguin used to publish then that's exactly the format). Enjoyed this.
Next up was William Boyd's Cold Sunset, the third in his Gabriel Dax trilogy. In this one Dax ends up in Russia, and other complications arise. Definitely very readable, and I'm not certain if this actually a series or a trilogy. I'd recommend reading the first two books before this though as it does reference back to them.
After that, I read Fledgling by Octavia E. Butler, her last novel. Again, it’s a modern day vampire novel, and really well done. There are uncomfortable aspects to it, which I think is exactly right given the nature of theme. There is an energy to this and the society that comes to light in it is fascinating. Unfortunately, the author passed away, so there are no further books. I read this as part of Elle Cordova's book club; it's the first one in a few months that I haven't previously read, and I enjoyed discovering this. I have some of Butler's earlier books, which I will visit at some point.
I then dove into two Emily St. John Mandel books, back to back. I started with The Singer's Gun and then read The Lola Quartet. The former tells the story of a former criminal trying to go straight, but ending up doing one last job for his cousin. The second tells the tale of a quartet of musicians and how their life develops after they leave school and go their separate ways. The protagonist's girlfriend, disappears at their final performance, possibly with another member of the quartet. I loved the writing on both of these, but preferred the first book. I love the author's style of writing, it draws me on and is very enjoyable.
Finally, I read The 22 Murders of Madison May by Max Barry. This is a science-fiction story, with characters hoping across the multiverse trying to prevent the murder of Madison May, a sometimes actress who is being killed repeatedly by the same man, another multiversal traveller. Part detective, part thriller, the story is quite compelling and comes together well.
Looking back, I'd be torn between Cold Sunset and The Singer's Gun for my favourite novels this month.
1 November 2026
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