lurkerwithout: (Mal's pretty hat  Angie creator)
We didn't quite get to the end of the starting mini-campaign.  But its very close.  But first the players attempted to lose any tailing hunters by planting rumors they were heading up past the coast of not-Ireland, when instead they hugged the Southern coast of not-England.  Which led to pirates.  Specifically a trio of pirates in comparable ships.  At first they tried to outrun them, but eventually were boxed in which led to cannon exchanges and a boarding action.  By the players, taking advantage of Karl and Yule's ability to quickly dismantle even large Mobs.  Of course while boarding one ship they kept taking fire from the second, with the third closing fast.  And then were saved by the arrival of a giant sharktopus, which destroyed and devoured the second pirate.  With all signs being that the monster was summoned somehow by the "cargo", the girl Angelina.

After that, aside from a stop-over in not-London for repairs and to sell their captured ship, it was on to Wietz.  While Violetta made contact with local Daughters' head to arrange for delivery, the others had to deal with an angry mob at the ship demanding they turn over the witch-girl.  Amidst the mob was the not-Dutch minor noble behind one of their pursuers.  And when Karl and Yule attempt to cow they mob with their potential deadliness, it instead led to several local champions being called for.  Of course the whole thing was a distraction so that the not-French sorceror could magically steal away the girl.  Not before he got harpooned and lost some fingers to closing a portal too quickly.

After that the players followed the kidnappers to the nobles' town house, where they fought a couple more Brute Squads, exchanged some gunfire and eventually confronted the not-French priest in the midst of some mysterious ritual involving the girl.  They managed to subdue the Villain and halt the ritual, which is where we ended for the night.
lurkerwithout: (Book on bed)
And another year of just getting these under the wire of my own self-imposed time limit.  First finished book of the year was Kate Elliott's Cold Steel, which finished up her alt history/fantasy "Cold Magic" trilogy.  With gods and ghouls and dragons and rebellions...

Did a reread of Snuff after picking up a cheap e-copy.  Still fun but definitely the weakest of the "Vimes/Watch" books of Pratchett's Discworld...

Another new Grantville Gazette e-book, with volume 51 still edited by Paula Goodlett.  And the current cycle of stories continues to really catch hold of me.  I mean I like the polygamous German noble and his family and friends, but not where I want the stories collected or to have full length books like I did with the Sewing Circle/Barbie Consortium, Musicians or Russians...

Then got into a new supers writer, Kevin Hardman.  Sensation introduces his teen hero (from another highly regulated supers setting) Kid Sensation who is trying to have a second attempt at joining the high school hero community.  After a disaster of a first go.  Mutation has Kid Sensation at the supers high school in its own pocket dimension.  And Infiltration has him going undercover with a new super-villain mob.  Enjoyable, but the writer is constantly having to handicap his lead after loading him down with half the super-powers out there...

Six-Gun Snow White is a Western revamp of the classic fairy tale by Catherynne M. Valente.  Full of Valente's rich, evocative descriptions and vibrant setting and heart-breaking characters...

The John Joseph Adams & Douglas Cohen edited Reimagined Oz is a strong collection of new takes on the Oz setting.  I'm glad I'd read more of the original Oz series before though.  Also a lot of dystopian Oz stories in the collection...

Finally got around to On Stranger Tides the Tim Powers novel they loosely adapted into both the first and fourth Pirates of the Caribbean movies.  Great stuff for those wanting pirates and magic and revenge and Blackbeard and sword fights and such...

Francessco Marciuliano's two collections of poetry written by pets, I Could Pee on This and I Could Chew on This are quick, little fun books.  Like poem versions of those voiced-over cat or dog YouTube videos...

A new "Ex" supers vs. zombies book from Peter Clines, Ex-Communication with the heroes of the previous volumes living in a world with neither supers or zombies...

After the disappointing sort of Twin Peaks/Prisoner book from Blake Crouch I was much happier with Sunset Key.  A very noir-ish about a ex-junkie thief who gets hired to seduce and rob a wealthy investment banker type on his private island before he goes to federal prison...

I honestly don't know what prompted me to get the e-book of Tales From the Cobra Wars, a G.I. Joe anthology edited by Max Brooks.  Some of the stories were dumb, some were interesting  and all leave you frustrated with how in a military/espionage series the main terrorist bad guys are uncatchable or kill-able.  Still the bonus story at the end with the Joe's PTSD therapist almost makes it worth the 4 or 5 bucks I probably paid for the book...

You know what is disappointing about Karin Lowachee's Gaslight Dogs?  Not the alt earth/fantasy setting.  Or the characters.  Or the magic.  Or the mysterious church gunslingers hinted at.  No, its that apparently the book wasn't popular enough that the writer thinks she'll ever go back to the series to put out a second book...

Cauldron of Ghosts is the soon to be latest of the Eric Flint/David Weber "Honorverse" books from the super-spy section of that setting.  Good if you're a fan of the series, definitely not the book to introduce or win back someone who isn't though...

Countdown City is Ben H. Winter's sequel to his Last Policeman.  In this one Hank Palace agrees to try and find a missing husband even though he's no longer a cop and the world is set for an apocalyptic asteroid collision in 74 days...

Seanan McGuire into the modern fairy tale style of urban fantasy with Indexing, about a government agency of people afflicted with storybook lives who try to keep the rest of the world safe from same.  Secretly.  My favorite throwaway line was probably how the agency made sure to never make a payday error for the young woman who was Indexed as a Pied Piper...

Chuck Wendig's Under the Empyrean Sky is a dystopian future, where America is a blighted wasteland covered in mutated corn.  With various villages eking out an existence while being overlorded by flying city people...

Mike Shevdon's latest "Feyre" novel the Eighth Court ends up being a Break the Board and Restart the Game kind of book...

And ended the month with Jasper Fforde's the Song of the Quarkbeast, a sequel to his Last Dragonslayer YA book.  Offbeat and very Jasper Ffordery...

Also in January the usual collection of of uncollected short fiction.  Extraction is Kid Sensation story from Hardman, with his lead and friends rescuing some kids from a super-secret government facility.  And Jessica Brody's the Intelligence Director is a similar story, but feels more like the opening chapter to full-length book.  Which always annoys me with a short story.  The Pain of Others by Blake Crouch is a prequel to previously mentioned Sunset Key, with a murder-for-hire story where the actual bad guy changes up during the story.  Ken Liu's Reborn is post-alien invasion story of the benevolent conqueror style.  And the Cartography of Sudden Death by Charlie Jane Anders is future setting time travel adventure...

Total: 21
lurkerwithout: (eastman)
Blitz: Jason Statham is South London's maverickest of maverick cops. The opening scene where he beats the hell out of three would be car thieves with a hurley stick is pretty cool. Sadly the rest of the movie doesn't really rise above the average. Though it does have Mayor Carcetti/Littlefinger as a serial cop killer...

Safe: Jason Statham is a government special forces assassin anti-organized crime cop garbage man cage fighter bum total bad-ass who must protect an 11-year old math genius from a Tong, a Russian mob family and a crew of corrupt cops...

the Pirates: Band of Misfits: Jason Statham is the dodo..nah just kidding. Still, almost had a theme thing going there. Anyway, the latest feature from Aardman Animation Studios has lots of amusing scenes and a clever concept in a competition to determine Pirate of the Year. But the whole thing just never seems to come together and really work...
lurkerwithout: (eastman)
I really need to get around to picking up the Tim Powers book this one was inspired by at some point. Oh well. The latest in the PotC franchise is a welcome step-up in quality. Not a high bar from the third movie, but still a marked improvement. Mostly this is from a script, that even with four separate factions (and some with sub-factions) the story is still easy enough to follow. Various groups racing to get to the Fountain of Youth, acquiring the necessary McGuffins along the way. Depp is great here, fully recapturing the charm of Jack Sparrow. Especially as he is pretty much alone in carrying the "good" guy role for the film. But Geoffery Rush actually tops himself from the first movie I think. And who doesn't want to see Ian McShane as Blackbeard? Commie Hippies thats who...

Good flick even if not quite at the same level as the original...
lurkerwithout: (Reading cat)
Photobucket
One Piece: East Blue story and art by Eiichiro Oda, English adaptation by Lance Caselman, translation by Andy Nakatani

Man, this series. Each volume packed full of mad cap super-pirate adventures. Captain Monkey D. Luffy the Rubber Lad determined to become King of the Pirates. Roronoa Zolo willing to face any challenge to be the World's Greatest Swordsman. And Nami who would steal the world blind. Facing deadlier and crazier and ever more dangerous foes. But damn. SOOOOOOOoooo many volumes. Like over fifty. Where's a giant-size omnibus when you need one?
lurkerwithout: (Book on bed)
This was a bit of a light month for me. Starting with rereading much of my McCaffery Pern books. The Harper Hall of Pern and The Renegades of Pern on the 2nd. All the Weyrs of Pern and The Dolphins of Pern on the 3rd. And The Skies of Pern on the 5th. All of which makes me wish she and her new writing partner would stop with the prequel stuff and revisit the "current" time again. I just don't care about the previous plagues but do want to know what Lord Torric's next scheme is...

On the 6th another reread, First Lord's Fury, the giant climatic finale to Jim Butcher's Aleran Codex series...

Finished the latest Ring of Fire book on the 8th, 1635: the Eastern Front a solo book by series creator Eric Flint. Following the United States of Europe's campaign against Saxony, Bohemia (I think) and then Poland...

Then more rereading on the 12th and 15th. Scott Lynch's The Lies of Locke Lamora and Red Seas Under Red Skies respectively, the first and so far only two books in his Gentlemen Bastards series. Though I see Fantastic Fiction is projecting a February '11 launch for the third book. Fingers crossed on that...

On the 19th I finished the recently reprinted anthology Pump Six and Other Stories by Paolo Bacigalupi. Definitely worth a read for any fans of cyberpunk, near-future noir genre. "The People of Sand & Slag", "Pump Six" and "Pop Squad" especially stuck with me...

Started rereading Jane Lindskold's Through Wolf's Eyes series on the 21st. I do so enjoy reading about raised-by-wolves Firekeeper and her friends...

Though I paused from that series when I got the latest steampunk WWI book from Paul Westerfeld, Behemoth, finishing it on the 23rd. With girl-disguised-as-a-boy airship crewman Deryn and the incognito missing Hapsburg prince Alek getting drawn into the politics of the Ottoman Empire in the hopes of keeping them out of the war...

Got back to Lindskold and reading Wolf's Head, Wolf's Heart on the 26th. Which has Firekeeper and the other's chasing magical artifacts in the magic-crazed land of New Kelvin...

Then more Jim Butcher when I got his short story collection Side Jobs which I was done with on the 27th. I'd read all but a couple of them already of course. But I only owned a few. And one of those is "Backup" which was previously available as an almost criminally over-priced hard cover. Even with the Mike Mignola illustrations. And the last, which is first published here, "Aftermath" takes place almost immediately following Changes. And like "Backup" its one of the few not from Harry's perspective. In this case, being a Karin Murphy eye's view tale...

And on the 30th I finished the first Hunger Games book by Suzanne Collins. Which is a post-society collapse where the current Big Government engages in some truly nasty bread & circus entertainment involving drafted teens and a to the death gladiator contest...

Through the last week of the month I was also beta reading The Triad Society from friend Joe Selby. And as always heres to hoping he finds an agent and publisher so I can add his books to my shelf. The Triad Society is a steampunk setting story, though set right at the beginning of the equivilant to an Industrial Revolution. Which is giving rise to numerous commoner and noble secret societys that could bring about a different kind of revolution. I especially enjoyed the lead character who is more than a bit of a pompous jerk. But who at least does what can be seen as the "right" thing even if its more out of a sense of nobelesse oblige...

Total books: 16
lurkerwithout: (Lil' dream)
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I could probably also call these I Have Nothing To Post About Today comics...
lurkerwithout: (Reading cat)
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Crogan's Vengeance by Chris Schweizer

The concept behind Schweizer's The Crogan Adventures is simple enough. Each volume contains a story of a member of the Crogan family. The tale of adventure is used by a present-day Crogan as a means to entertain and teach his kids. This first volume covers "Catfoot" Crogan, a pirate in the Caribbean at the start of the 18th century...

Catfoot is a seaman aboard a merchanter, with a cruel and petty captain who holds a grudge from Cromwell's day against the Crogans. In fact the pirates that attack come just as Catfoot is being hung on false charges of mutiny. So young Crogan is more than willing to sign on with the pirates alongside the rest of his crew. After that its clever plans to sieze a treasure ship, sword fights and desperate battles. Good stuff...
lurkerwithout: (iGreebo)
lurkerwithout: (Reading cat)

Polly and the Pirates by Ted Naifeh

Polly is a young girl, who is mostly happy in the boarding school her father has left her in. At least until she's kidnapped in the middle of the night by pirates. It seems that the crew of the missing Queen of the Pirates feel that Polly is the daughter of their lost Queen. As does the son of the Queen's rival, the King of the Pirates. Both think Polly can lead them to the Queen's secret treasure hoard. But all Polly wants is to go back to her respectable life. Or does she?

Why this book is worth buying. 1. Emperor Norton. Everyone loves the Emperor of the United States of America. And if you don't you're dead inside. DEAD! 2. Polly is awesome. Swashbuckling young women = Awesome. 3. Naifeh writes a fun and energetic story with a cartoonish drawing style that perfectly matches it...
lurkerwithout: (iGreebo)
This is going to be stuck in my head, ALL DAMN DAY. So I'm inflicting it on the rest of you.

lurkerwithout: (Interesting)
If I were to stealsalvagelegitimately come into possession of a spaceship with intergalatic FTL capabilities who would be interested in giving up their pedestrian, ho hum life to become a space pirate?
lurkerwithout: (Default)
Arr. Arr, me mateys. Keelhaul the blighters. Arr. Arr. Arr...
lurkerwithout: (Default)
LiveJournal Username
Fifteen men on a dead man's chest!
Cutlass or pistol?
What is the name of your pirate ship?
Where is your secret pirate base?
What kind of loot do you prefer?
What do you and your crew prefer to be called?
Parrot or monkey?
Argh!
Your capable first matecygnia
Your bumbling cabin boy with a heart of goldkobold
The aloof, yet honorable, pirate with a mysterious pastczarina69
Is always the first one into the frayarachjournalism
Is the naval officer who ruthlessly pursues your shipnihilistic_kid
Is the comical pirate who is always drunk on grogdurinde
Is currently in Davy Jones's lockerthundercum
The amount of money you make as a pirate$79,666
This Fun Quiz created by Lynn at BlogQuiz.Net
Gemini Horoscope at DailyHoroscopes.Biz

lurkerwithout: (Default)
If you were a Pirate! by TheHalveric
Username
Yer Pirate Name!
Name yer ship!
Why be ye a Pirate?
Yer First Mate!cygnia
Yer Cabin-boy! (or girl)sclerotic_rings
Ye're chief rival be the Dread Piratebluemoonfly
Ye'll be pursued by Admiralzerographic
Cut to ribbon in a freak cannon accident...muskrat_john
Yer pirate captive to use fer yer wicked pleasurescatharsiscomic
Number o'ships ye'll sink and women ye'll plunder!458
Chance ye'll be hanged... or worse.: 62%
Quiz created with MemeGen!

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