The Paper Magician Series – Charlie N. Holmberg (Review)

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Ceony Twill wants to be a smelter – a magician bonded to metal. She wants to enchant bullets and send railway lines across the country. She doesn’t want to be a paper magician, sending letters and making decorations for children’s parties.

But she doesn’t get the chance to pick her material. Faced with the option of no magic or paper magic, Ceony reluctantly begins her studies with the eccentric Emery Thane. Soon, she starts to find that both her instructor and paper magic are far more interesting than she first assumed. Continue reading “The Paper Magician Series – Charlie N. Holmberg (Review)”

Vanity Fair – William Makepeace Thackeray (Review)

Vanity_Fair_01_coverI always forget, when not reading the classics, that the reason they are classics is because they are very, very good. Yes, they take a little more energy to engage with, but it’s absolutely worth it.

I read Vanity Fair because I’d been meaning to for years, and finally mustered the enthusiasm. Then I read it voraciously and rapidly, because once I was past the initial reluctance, I was hooked. This happens every time I pick up something highly regarded but ostensibly dull, and I really should learn from this.  Continue reading “Vanity Fair – William Makepeace Thackeray (Review)”

The Madcap Fiction Machine

Chapter headings nowadays are utilitarian things. Just a flat number or – in the increasingly common multiple-perspective works – the name of the point-of-view character.

It wasn’t always this way.  Continue reading “The Madcap Fiction Machine”

Sunless Sea (Review)

I should love Sunless Sea. 

It’s a game with so many great ideas, so many wonderful concepts working together. Almost everything that Sunless Sea is trying to do is something that I want games to do well.

I should love Sunless Sea, but somehow I find myself underwhelmed.

Continue reading “Sunless Sea (Review)”