Libromancer's Apprentice

The above pretty much describes what little free time I have these days, be it active involvement, planning, or ideas bouncing around in my head. I've been running a Dungeons & Dragons game for a few months now, with a bit of an unintended break thanks to crazy schedules.  Also, I'm still new enough at running games that I'm not at all confident in my ability to create a solid world and plot.  But folks seem to be having fun, so I must be doing something right. Also on the table top/RPG front, I joined Chaosium's Cult of Chaos, which is a fancy way of saying I now run organized play Call of C'thulhu games.  Also, it means I get to GM without having to write the scenarios.  Yay.  First up for that is their A Time for Harvest campaign, which I'll be running at Modern Myths.  Game one takes place this Saturday from 3-7 (part of International TableTop Day activities), and then will continue through on the last Sunday of the month until we've finished a...

Elrond's middle name is 'Deliberation.' Not that it's a bad thing in this case or anything. At the start of the chapter nothing is decided beyond that Frodo must take the ring to Mount Doom, and that Samwise will accompany him.  Merry and Pippin are a bit put out that Sam is "rewarded" for snooping on a private meeting, though they wisely hold no envy for Frodo.  The best news out of this all is that Gandalf says he will likely go along.  As if he wouldn't .  I mean, even without my familiarity with the rest of the story, does anyone seriously think this meddler wouldn't do everything in his power to see the story to the end? And then come two months of waiting while scouts go far and wide to, well, scout.  The good news is none find any sign of the Riders or of Gollum.  Also, Elrond gets lots of time to think about who should go along with Frodo. As for the final party we get a company of nine, a balance against the nine Riders, with represent...

Paper Girls (Volume 1)  / Brian K. Vaughan Pre-dawn, November 1, 1988.  The hour of the paper boys.  Or in the case of this small town, the paper girls who have stood up and grabbed a place for themselves.  November 1st carries its risks, the tricksters and vandals still running amok from their Halloween revels, bringing the four paper carries together for strength in numbers. Then things start getting strange as the girls are caught up in a time-traveling, inter-generational conflict from a surrealist future. A brilliant and inventive, with gorgeous color, fast pacing, and a dash of Sci-Fi. Advance Reader Copy courtesy of Image Comics in exchange for an honest review; changes may exist between galley and the final edition.

Manties in a Twist (The Subs Club #3) / J. A. Rock Disclaimer: This is a review of an erotic novella about people who get off on what some readers may consider rather horrible things being done to them in consensual situations. The books in this series portrays kink in a manner that you are not likely to have encountered in popular erotic romance (Fifty Shades of Grey, Bared to You, etc).  Depending on your general stance, you'll end up either shocked or thrilled at the kink play within. The Subs Club series follows a group of four men still mourning the loss of their friend due to carelessness during an edge-play scene at a BDSM club over a year ago.  These are the stories of them reconciling their loss, developing relationships, growth, and hot and heavy sexy times. Previously reviewed: The Subs Club and Pain Slut Kamen is the joker, the one who says awkward things and never seems to take anything seriously.  Hal was his friend, but the Sub's Cl...

30 Nights / Christine d'Abo ( Powell's Books ) All work leaves little time for play, and with a demanding, opportunistic boss, Glenna O'Donald always has less time than the various abortive relationships want.  The high points?  Sharing an office with her best friend, her boss' current sabbatical, and drooling over Professor Morris. Reeling from the death of her beloved great-grandmother, and wondering how to best fulfill Great Glenna's good bye encouragement to step out of her comfort zone, Glenna finds a deck of index cards in the cemetery.  Index cards lovingly written out for a woman, and encouraging her to explore her own sexual horizons.  Cards that Eric Morris seems quite interested in exploring with Glenna. Glenna and Eric embark on a sexual exploration together, filled with explosive sex and a growing affection that they try to ignore.  Will they find what they need beyond their 30 nights? 30 Nights cleverly continues the story started in 30 ...

A Study in Sable (Elemental Masters ) / Mercedes Lackey ( Powell's Books ) A Study in Sable  takes us to cusp-of-the-century London and into the world of Sherlock Holmes.  Our protagonists are the increasingly favored Nan and Sarah, not magicians/elemental masters, but with powers in their own right that prove invaluable.  As one would expect, Sherlock is not inclined to believe in magic, but would be a fool to turn his nose up at clear results.  Watson, on the other hand, is written as a Water Master, with his wife Mary as an Air Master.  The pivotal case for all parties revolves around a hugely successful opera singer, and her oddly missing sister. I have a sneaking suspicion that devout fans of Sherlock Holmes will not appreciate this interpretation of the famous detective.  I've never actually read any of the stories, not being one with a significant interest in mysteries as a genre. My personal preference with the Elemental Masters series are the...

Herein lies possibly one of the most remembered, at least in part, chapters of The Fellowship of the Ring .  The council of Elrond and deciding the fate of the ring. I'm going to hazard a guess and say that casual reads likely skim over the histories revealed as they go, or at least retain a little less of it.  There's a lot of fill-in here that is totally relevant but easy to skip over.  I totally did when I first read this at 10.  On the other hand, that might also be why the whole story got super confusing to me later on... The council itself is full of familiar faces from this book and from The Hobbit .  I do have to thank Steve Jackson for one thing here though, this is the first time I've actually noticed Thranduil .  In my defense, I'm really bad at names.  Like I have to make a concerted effort to keep Les Paul and Les Claypool straight (as for Ice Cube and Ice T, I feel like if I ever get to meet one of them I should apologize).  As f...