thebitterguy | Reading

Murderbot and allies struggle to establish friendly relations with a rediscovered lost colony in time to protect them from a predatory company.

System Collapse (Murderbot, volume 7) by Martha Wells

james_davis_nicoll

My Outgunned game is a spy thriller of sorts. I thought it would be fun to skip the usual "characters start together, get briefed, plot their mission together" and so on, I'd start with three of the five breaking into an apartment. They are 14-year-old Diane Dean (the driver), 18-year-old Concordia Butterstein (unsanctioned intrusion and asset acquisition expert) and 70-year-old Jethro Winthrop (the smooth talking fellow who hired the other two because they offered the best value for price)

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james_davis_nicoll

A vast megadungeon from Expeditious Retreat Press for D&D, AD&D, and other tabletop fantasy roleplaying games.

Bundle of Holding: Halls of Arden Vul (from 2022)

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...Wait, we're supposed to believe that it's the rebels who are wrong?

Side-Eyeing Science Fiction’s Love of Empire

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A teen subject to intermittent time-loops sets out to prevent the murder of his unlikable grandfather. This will be much harder than he expects.

The Man Who Died Seven Times by Yasuhiko Nishizawa

james_davis_nicoll

Sisters process family tensions as the world slowly grinds to an end.

Private Rites by Julia Armfield

james_davis_nicoll

One character in my Outgunned game gets a laptop as part of his starting gear. Game is set in 1977 so I told the university age player he could have a programmable calculator or a slide rule.

"What's a slide rule?"

james_davis_nicoll

Diseased grimdark English-language sourcebooks by Christian Eichhorn for the artpunk tabletop fantasy roleplaying game Mörk Borg!

Bundle of Holding: Eichhorn Mork Borg

james_davis_nicoll

This is late because my site was down when I had the time to post on Saturday. Seven books new to me. Two fantasy, one non-fiction, one mainstream, one collection of poetry, and two thrillers.

Books Received, January 3 to January 9

Poll #34072 Books Received, January 3 to January 9

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 39

View Respondents

Which of these look interesting?

View Answers

Of Venom and Vengeance by Mikayla Bridge (July 2026)
6 (15.4%)

Bad Advice by Susan Carpenter (April 2026)
3 (7.7%)

The Innocent Canadian by John Delacourt (April 2026)
6 (15.4%)

Woodbine Grove by Ryan O’Dowd (December 2025)
3 (7.7%)

Rum Maniacs: Alcoholic Insanity in the Early American Republic by Matthew Warner Osborn (March 2020)
22 (56.4%)

Inside Passages by Heather Paul (April 2026)
4 (10.3%)

Existence in All Its Uncoverable Beauty by Calvin White (April 2026)
2 (5.1%)

Some other option (see comments)
0 (0.0%)

Cats!
32 (82.1%)

james_davis_nicoll

Had a person wander into the 2nd floor corridor looking for the women's washroom. Alas, our 2nd floor women's washroom stopped being functional this week end so all I had to offer was three gender neutral washrooms... one of which is usually the men's.

Then it occurred to me the corridor she came from is from the "new" part of Hagey, the accounting section. While she was hesitating, looking unhappy at the choices offered, I asked if that was where she was from. She said yes, so I told her that section has a very nice (zero barrier) women's on the main floor. Off she went.

Once she was gone, it struck me as odd that she would wander as far as old Hum looking for a washroom.t.

I mentioned this to my supervisor and yeah, apparently because it's an expansion of Hagey, it didn't have to have all the amenities an independent building of the same size would have to have. Thus the comparative lack of washrooms, and a total lack of elevators.

james_davis_nicoll

Tales of America's thrilling genocide on and colonization of Mars!

The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury

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I am aware jamesdavisnicoll.com is down.

james_davis_nicoll

In which Hisako Ichiki meets her stalker and the shadowy cult Children of the Atom discovers the Peter Principle.

Children of the Atom (Ultimate X‑Men, volume 2) by Peach Momoko

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Not on Earth.

Where to Look for Evidence of Alien Visitors to Our Solar System

james_davis_nicoll

Another foray into the lost worlds of Unknown.

Unknown Worlds: Tales from Beyond edited by Stanley Schmidt

james_davis_nicoll

Remember Sigma?

Was there ever a membership list made public?

james_davis_nicoll

This all-new Painted Wastelands Bundle tours The Painted Wastelands, a prismatic pastel realm from Agamemnon Press for use with Old-School Essentials and other tabletop fantasy roleplaying games.

Bundle of Holding: The Painted Wastelands

james_davis_nicoll

My other group is moving to CoC 3rd edition. That's the one the GM owns. It turns out between the group we own a vast assortment of CoC editions, generally speaking one edition per player, including an original from 1981.

My character, Daniel Soren, has some good stats (Strength, Constitution, Intelligence) and some terrible stats (Dex, Power, and Edu). Unfortunately, in 3E you get Intx5 and Edux15 skill points, so being smart doesn't make up for being a grade school dropout. He does have some decent skills, but very narrowly focused: he's a competent cabbie and a moderately successful pulp writer with ambitions to appear in Weird Tales.

Power governs sanity in CoC so I don't know how long he will last.

james_davis_nicoll

astrafoxen on blusky created some visual aids showing Saturnian moon orbits.

They're all great but a detail in this one is worth mentioning.

The odd green squiggle to the right is a visual of Neptune's outer irregular moons, whose orbits around Neptune are large enough to be visible across the solar system. https://www.dreamwidth.org/comments/recent