I wasn’t sure what to expect from this book. It’s based on a TTRPG. Would it be like the novelization of a movie or some of the books from the Star Trek or Star Wars universes? Would it be cheesy or great? Well, it turned out to be way better than I expected. There were a few things that came through a little bit game-y, but they were few and far between. The two examples that stood out to me were a character who created a psychic bond with her companions allowing them to speak to each other a “battle mind”

There isn’t much to say about an old, outdated technical manual. There’s at least one newer edition of this book released. However, whether you’re using vim or neovim, the basics remain the same. If you only have access to this edition of the book, I would focus on the chapters that teach you how to use vi and vim. In that respect, this book is very well written. Ignore the chapter on plugins and scripts as those have evolved quite a bit (especially in neovim with their use of lua).

As I normally do for anthologies, here is a series of mini reviews for each of the short stories:

Lean In: The Lord of Hell is Coming (Ericka Kahler): I don’t want to give anything away about this delightful story. I will say that it does an amazing job of flipping many tropes on their head and, in a funny way, actually made me rethink the premises behind many of those tropes.

I was a kickstarter backer for this book.

Back when Goldeneye first came out, the only first person shooter I’d played was a few short sessions of Wolfenstein 3D that my dad had introduced me to a few years before. I found it hard and boring and didn’t try to play all that much. When we rented Goldeneye, it was the first time I found myself enjoying the genre. A great deal of that came from the great mix of humor and seriousness in the game. We had a ton of fun playing “slappers only”.

I believe this was the first book released for Starfinder Second Edition. As such it had to serve as an introduction to the system as well as what had changed in the solar system since the first edition. Unlike many TTRPG companies, Paizo likes to advance the story of the world and change things up as time goes on.

However, the best part of the way this book is organized is that the first few chapters are based on the types of campaigns you might run - horror, science fiction, fantasy, weird, and so on. For each type of campaign, the writer suggests planets the GM might go to and some campaign starters whether it’s for a one-shot or a long campaign. Just this section alone is worth getting this book.

I was a kickstarter backer on this book

Based on the introduction, it looks like this series was meant to be a trilogy. As such, this book is mostly about wrapping up all the loose ends from the prior two anthologies. I think the book mostly succeeds in that endeavor. The ending somewhat fell flat for me in the same way as the ending to 2001: A Space Odessey; things got a bit too trippy.

As usual for a collection or anthology, I have reviews per each short story.

Ruth: Our main character is not just a mother, but a grandmother. That doesn’t stop her from getting the justice she deserves. A compelling tale of wits and experience being a mighty weapon.

Raising the Dead (Hindy Silverman): Funnily enough, I think I added a book with a VERY similar premise to my TBR list recently. Imagine that kids show, Monster High, but instead of a kids’ perspective, it’s told from the parents’ perspective. It was a fun story and I would definitely read more in this world.

note: I was a kickstarter backer for this book

With the Phenomenons books, Crazy Eight has created a super hero anthology that takes place in our world like George R R Martin’s Wild Cards series. The main difference is that Wild Cards reads to me as incredibly grimdark; maybe because it was started in the 1980s? The other big difference is that there’s definitely more of a liberal bent to Phenomenons. That might make you more likely to read it, more likely to avoid it, or you might feel indifferent about that. Interestingly, both anthology series mostly take place in New York City.

The Kobold Guide to Worldbuilding by Jeff Grubb, Janna Silverstein, Chris Pramas, Steven Winter, Wolfgang Baur, Jonathan Roberts, and others.

This book is a well-written collection of essays about world-building. While the main focus is around fantasy TTRPGs, the advice is also applicable to novel-writing or game design of any type. In fact, many of the essays call out that their advice is useful in those other domains. Everyone invited to write an essay is an industry veteran and there are a few of them written by Wolfgang Baur (CEO of Kobold Press) that reveal the philosophy of his design, especially as it pertains to his Midgard setting.

This review contains spoilers. To read it with spoilers blanked out see my review on The StoryGraph or Goodreads

Through Gates of Garnet and Gold by Seanan McGuire

The more entries I read in the Wayward Children series, the more intrigued I get. This book takes us back to Nancy - our original protagonist and our introduction to the world of the Wayward Children. Back when I read the first book, I thought each book would be a standalone book about a kid or kids who experienced a portal fantasy and ended up back in the real world. Instead McGuire gave us an intricate web of books. They go forward, backwards, and sideways in time. Sometimes they are prequels to the original book and other times they move the overall story along. Death is not a constant and, apparently with this book, neither is getting to stay in your door if/one you are re-admitted. The plots are getting very entwined and it’s getting more and more essential to have read (and remembered) the old ones to get the full understanding of what’s going on. This isn’t a bad thing, it’s just different from where the series seemed to start out.