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Playing in the Dark
Neil Gaiman at the Barbican was quite magical. The concert opened with the BBC Symphony Orchestra playing The Sourcerer’s Apprentice and I can think of no better way to set the tone for an evening. Neil then appeared and read short stories and poems and sections from his novels. Amanda Palmer read a poem of his called the Mushroom hunters which was one of the highlights of the evening as far as I am concerned we were also treated to the Lord Chancellor’s Nightmare Song from Iolanthe which is a real treat if you have never heard it before. The second half opened with one of my favourite pieces of…
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End of a Decade…
There’s this meme going around and it asks what you have done in the last decade. I have mixed feelings about this as I tend to do when things go viral and whilst its lovely to see those people who have achieved things, I worry that it becomes a competition and I struggle to think of things that I would consider major achievements. Initially, I thought oh my word; I have just failed at everything. But no this isn’t true. I have had a tough year and I like to think I’m finally starting to accept myself but there’s a long way to go but I have made a start.…
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Shadowrun Session 1
Belarmina Alvarez is my Latinx Dwarf based in this Chronicle. She has a long and varied back story which I will write up at somepoint, but here is her experience of the first session with the group. Basically I got home and was so pumped with keen that I had to write up what she got up to. It has given me the inspiration to write some fiction based on what happened and here it is. Content notes she is short tempered and whilst this isn’t explicit there are adult themes.
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Roleplay Groups I think I found one that fits me
I want to talk about table top role play (TTRPG) and the amount of fun you can have with the right group and the way things can go. I fell into role play. At Sixth form there were a group of goths who were obsessed with Vampire the Masquerade and I thought it sounded interesting but they were not my friends and I was too busy doing things on stage to push it. But at university I fell in with the Games Society and that was where I got bit by the bug. I mainly played DnD 2nd ed at uni which was what the majority of the group played…
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Review: The Mortal Word by Genevieve Cogman
The Mortal Word was marvellous. Genevieve Cogman does it again and if I thought I couldn’t love Irene, Kai and Vale anymore then I was seriously mistaken. The Mortal Word is the fifth title in this series and once again the world is shaken up this time with a peace treaty between the Dragons and the Fae with the Library acting as Arbiters in the middle. The world-building has become richer as the series has progressed, I love the concept of the Language and maintaining the balance between order and chaos. Beyond this point, there may be spoilers for previous books in the series. I really feel for Irene she…
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Review: Cult of Chaos by Shweta Taneja
I feel very privileged to have read this book as it currently is not available in the UK it is published by Harper Collins India but I think there is a place for this voice in the Urban Fantasy market in the UK and beyond. Anantya is a Tantrist she is a good one too, a bit maverick and an outcast she helps the Dehli Police with their investigations whenever something a bit supernatural happens. The books feel a lot like the Urban fantasy I was reading a little bit Anita Blake and a little bit Patricia Briggs however, what stops it being the Urban Fantasy cliche is the fact…
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London Film Festival 2019 pt 1
This was my first real go at London Film festival. Last year I was not organised and only got to see Susperia, this year I’d sorted out a spreadsheet with options and a budget. Without further ado here are the films that I would heartily recommend. Our Ladies, which is a film adaptation of a novel called the Sopranos. It was about young women who were part of a catholic girls school choir and their trip to Edinburgh to take part in a competition. Really it was about the relationships between the girls and how at 16 you are on the cusp of everything or we are all lead to…
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Review: I Still Dream by James Smythe
This novel is incredible. No, I mean it this novel blew me away. I am a sucker for books that hit me where I live and James Smythe grabbed me within that first chapter and just refused to let me go. Laura Bow is the protagonist, we meet her at age 16 in 1997. The internet is in its infancy and Laura has to sneak on the dial-up. This was felt so real it could have been me twenty-odd years ago. The novel is about AI Laura is a teenager who yearns to have someone to open up to, her absent father was a programmer and Laura cobbles together a programme…
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Review: The Fairy’s Tale by F D Lee
This a novel with a lot of heart, a good dollop of humour, a sprinkling of politics and an anti-establishment message and it really did me good to read something that didn’t take itself too seriously. Bea is a cabbage fairy, but a cabbage fairy with ambition. She wants to be a Fairy Godmother but this is not the land of fairy tales that we grew up with. There’s a sinister organisation that controls the stories and the denizens of Fairyland are being repressed. The threat of redaction hangs heavy over everyone. This is a wonderfully subversive look at Fairy Tales and it questions the notions of free will, true…
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Review: Witchsign by Den Patrick
This is a powerhouse of an opening to a trilogy. It has everything that I look for in a novel. An Empire that is corrupt and that seeks to illuminate those who are different. It feels so very relevant at the moment with a lot of countries becoming more inward-looking and exclusionary not least the UK and it’s a picture of what life could be like and indeed has been like for those who are do stand out. Steiner is a good lad, he works in the Smithy with his father and he fancies the innkeeper’s daughter. He’s probably dyslexic and he feels like he’s being judged most of the…
