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.

When 2025 started, I had 2 goals - to get caught up with the October Daye series and to read my Science Fiction and Fantasy magazines more regularly. I was able to finish October Daye, but things fell off a give on the magazine front. I read many, many more October Daye short stories than are listed here. Many of them were not on Goodreads, so I couldn’t track them. As I got to the second half of the year, my reading fell off as I spent a lot of my free time planning for various TTRPG campaigns that I was running. I did just about finish my re-read of my Discworld books. I just have Snuff and Unseen Academicals left, but I wasn’t a huge fan of them so I don’t think I’ll read those.

Silver and Lead by Seanan McGuire

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

After 2 books (and a bunch of short stories) about our main characters’ lives in the “fey Matrix” we get what is essentially a book-length epilogue. Most of plot deals in fall-out from things that happened during the time period of those books (4 months, I think). In that sense, the book turned out both both interesting and disappointing. What was interesting was indeed seeing the fallout - both mental/psychological and also what some characters did which drives the plot forward. What was disappointing is that we don’t get to see much character growth or advancement of the main plot - whatever it is Amandine’s line is supposed to do to “save fairy” or whatever the Roane foresaw that made Titania and/or Eira kill them all. Also disappointing ( and especially to my wife) was the appearance ONCE AGAIN of a certain villainous character; they just keep coming back and it’s getting a bit ridiculous.