Flash of Steel Playing at the World Dyson’s Dodecahedron Quest for Fun! Bruce Heard and New Stories CRRPG Addict Fantasy Cafe Sitrep Hex and Violence Banzai!! Dungeon Fantastic Gaming Ballistic Ravens N’ Pennies Let’s GURPS The Collaborative Gamer Don’t Forget Your BootsThe third of Nick Holmes’ books on the end of the Roman Empire covers from the sacking of Rome in 410 through the death of Attila in 453, and then the end of Western Roman administration in 476. The good[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Tamora Pierce finishes off her second YA female knight series in great fashion here. There’s been a lot built up during the previous three books, and there’s a lot here. You can read this independently, but I recommend against it.[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Holmes’ second book covers from the recovery of the Roman Empire from the Crisis of the Third Century to the sacking of Rome in 410. Well, mostly. While the second book in a series, it is meant to be a[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
The final book of the Queen’s Thief series features another change in viewpoint. This time, we get Pheris, who is new for this book, instead of a returning secondary character. Pheris is physically deformed, and is the grandson of Baron[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Nick Holmes is doing a very good job writing a clear beginning-level series on Roman history. This also has the advantage of being recent (2022), and so has access recent findings. There is one short chapter two-thirds of the way[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
The Golem and the Jinni was a very good historical fantasy with a very character-driven focus. It also had a very intricate plot with a lot of moving parts that don’t come into alignment until the end. That is still[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
I haven’t read Tom Holland’s Rubicon, but I also know the civil wars period better than the Julio-Claudians (I have to admit that the BBC production of I, Claudius is still the bedrock of my knowledge of the period). This[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
One of the lesser gaming hubs of early RPGs was Rockville, Maryland. Little Soldier Games started in a game store there, and Phoenix Games in a book store around the corner. Details are obscure, because there are contradictory statements, but[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Despite having its origin in the same writing project as the first part, this is a fairly separate section and the break helps emphasize that. In-fiction, the bulk of the stories here all intertwine even more than the first part.[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
The subtitle “James K. Polk, the Mexican War and the Conquest of the American Continent” is on point. This primarily about Polk, and takes the view from the White House for the bulk of the book. After that in importance[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…