The biography of Lovecraft by S.T. Joshi is not a book for the meek or semi-committed. It is a hefty tome whose density of text is truly astounding; don’t be fooled by it’s length of 700+ pages, it feels much much longer.

It is not often that I find a book that is both incredibly interesting and a challenge to work through. There is just so much information compiled by Joshi on Lovecraft’s life, combined with astute analysis of his works, philosophy and even a brief examination of the field of analysis of his work and events in publication following his death; evens that led to his being misrepresented and misunderstood for more than thirty years.

It is not a happy read. Lovecraft’s philosophy is sobering and his lifestyle is, quite frankly, heart-breaking. From his disastrous marriage and residence in New York to his impoverished last years in Providence, where he subsisted on 30c for food a day – worrying even during the great depression.

Joshi provides a sympathetic view of this complex and misunderstood giant of 20th century literature whilst pulling no punches whatsoever. In particular his racism, which has been well documented in the past, is examined many times throughout the biography without apology, but also without the overblown hysteria common to much of the earlier commentary.

This biography supersedes and perhaps makes irrelevant the earlier work by L. Sprague de Camp, but it is difficult to conceive of any biography replacing this one, at least without some major new evidence being unearthed. Any fan of Lovecraft who wishes to understand the work and life of the man can do no better; the analysis of his work alone with change the way you forever read the stories of Lovecraft.

My full review on this book is available on Shock Totem, at Shock Totem – Those Who Fight Monsters

In a Sentence: Honor, sidelined from her own navy in disgrace for duelling and killing a peer of the realm, retreats to her adopted world of Grayson to find that there are just as many dangerous enemies waiting for her there.

Recommended: To anyone who has loved the series so far.

Review: Throughout this series Grayson has grown from what could easily have been a simple two-dimensional society of patriarchal sexists to a fully realised participant in the series universe. This book gives Weber a chance to delve deeply into the conspiracies rooted on that planet who wish to see the clock turned back and the progressiveness that Honor has become a symbol of rejected and destroyed.

This book includes some excellent political sequences, though action-lovers will not be disappointed. The finale leaves us with Honor once again facing her enemy down in person, this time with sword in hand.

Series Info: The Honor Harrington Series (as of Sept 2011)

1. On Basilisk Station

2. The Honor of the Queen

3. The Short Victorious War

4. Field of Dishonor

5. Flag in Exile

6. Honor Among Enemies

7. In Enemy Hands

8. Echoes of Honor

9. Ashes of Victory

10. War of Honor

11. At All Costs

12. Mission of Honor

Over the last three novels we’ve had the opportunity to see Honor Harrington grow into her commands and thrive under pressure. She is a hero to the common people, the first ever female Steadholder on Grayson and only living recipient of that planet’s highest decoration. She has been promoted to the house of lords and received her monarchs personal thanks on four separate occasions over as many years.

Honor has risen through the ranks meteorically on the back of her ability, determination and steadfast dedication to duty. In return, she has Manticore’s thanks, command of the most prestigious battlecruiser in the fleet, and someone to share her life with.

She has enemies too however, and they have not forgotten the damage she has done to them simply by being who she is. In Field of Dishonor, they will take everything that Honor holds dear from her, and leave her with no choice; away from the front-line at last but drawn into a conflict that, for her, has no silver lining. Even a victory will cost everything, failure will cost her life.

Prador Moon is the first Neal Asher novel i’ve yet read and although it was certainly a rollicking action fest that hit all the marks; man-eating crabs, check, insanely powerful weapons, check, kick-ass but dark military protagonist, check, hilariously awesome ending, check… It didn’t hit the right notes for me and i’m at a loss to explain why. It did seem somewhat rushed, somewhat distanced from the action, whereas most of my favorite space-opera (Reynolds, Moon, Banks…) tend to be very close in to the protagonists, so that may well be part of it.

Regardless, it was a well designed story in a well detailed universe and I enjoyed it enough to look forward to reading the next in the series.

Marque and Reprisal, the second book in the Vatta’s war series, is where the overarching conspiricy gets kicked into high-gear, once again with Kylara in the middle of it. A combined, interstellar attack on the ansible communications platforms and the entire Vatta family leaves ships exploding in dock and the family headquarters in ruins, with most of the executive dead. Kylara herself is once again forced to deal with pirate attacks, mercenaries, an disgraced cousin, the loss of her family and a strange package from an old friend at space-force.

Teaming up with her cousin Stella, Kylara once again has to show why she is more than a simple trading captain, and it will fall to her to carry on the family name.

This book is full of all the action and intrigue you would expect from the first book, but amplified and shot up with combat drugs. It is a great continuation of the series.

I started listening to this book simply because I wanted something light and space-opera’y to listen to while I worked, that wasn’t going to be too distracting. That’s not what I got, but I wasn’t at all disappointed!

This, the first book in the Vatta’s War series, tells the story of Kylara Vatta, a young scion of the famous Vatta Trading House and disgraced space-force military cadet. Robbed of her dreams of the military life, Kylara accepts a position as captain aboard a small family trade vessel scheduled for the scrap yard and takes off on her first voyage, and this ship’s last.

She has a well-trained and experienced crew to keep her out of trouble and safe and a milk-run for her first voyage, however an opportunity for more profit leads her to stray off course and straight into the middle of a war. The fast paced action takes us from decision to decision as Kylara tangles with mercenaries, pirates and ICS – the interstellar communications monopoly who responds to any challenge with an iron fist. In the meantime, behind the scenes, events are set in motion that will change Kylara, Vatta Trading, and the known universe forever.

A highly entertaining a recommended story.

Rigor Amortis

Carnage Amongst the Stars is a fascinating read, primarily because it takes roleplaying and pares it back to its absolute essentials within the context of its own particular focus.

Its primary focus is the epic Humans vs Aliens kill-a-thon stories portrayed in fiction and movies, with particular emphasis on the movie-version of Starship Troopers. If you think of armoured humans dropping down on to an alien planet to destroy everything in site you’re not too far wrong.

The rules make it very easy to generate missions (each mission is the destruction of another alien world), and make the game very simple to play. There are only two statistics; Fighting Ability (FA) for when you’re shooting aliens and Non-Fighting Ability (NFA) for when you’re doing anything else. The kill count rises rapidly with the potential for each soldier to be killing dozens, or even hundreds of aliens in each mission, earning themselves promotions and access to bigger, badder weapons and equipment as they go.

Simplistic and gung-ho as this sounds, the game actually grows surprisingly deep the longer you play. We’ve run two sessions now and the game quickly becomes quite confronting. The ‘flashback’ system that the game uses to define “Strengths” (which allow a one-shot chance for your soldier to end an encounter as an overwhelming victory) and “Weaknesses” (which save your soldier from dying, but only by losing the encounter and being taken out in some manner) require the players to narrate a snapshot of the soldier’s past and explain how it affects their current situation. This simple mechanic alone allows a great deal of characterisation to be built around a formerly two-dimensional character.

As well as this, as the game progresses the characters (and players) have to gradually face up to the fact that this is not a game where the death-toll and violence can be attributed to the heroic defense of a country/planet/race or the needs of a moment. The characters are not heroes, as gradually becomes plain, but flawed human cogs in a monstrous machine dedicated to exterminating all non-human life in the universe.

It’s an excellent and simple game and I highly recommend it to anyone even remotely interesting in science fiction roleplaying, excellent storytelling, and hack-and-slash gaming pared back to its absolute essentials.

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I’ve always been a fan of the forgotten realms as a setting. To my mind it is one of the most detailed, well-thought out fictional worlds specifically designed for gaming.

The 3rd edition D&D version of the campaign setting updates the overarching meta-plot and is absolutely packed full of flavour and added rules material for 3.0e, and so it has a little bit for everyone. For players there are new prestige classes, special rules for creating characters with additional forgotten realms specific details such as region of birth, new spells and clerical domains and an awful lot of details about the deities and the planar layout; which differs significantly from the Greyhawk standard laid out in the core rulebooks.

For DM’s there are enough plot hooks and ideas for dozens of full length campaigns spanning the length and breadth of Faerun and beyond, from the independent dale-realms to the frozen north, the mysterious and dangerous eastern kingdoms to the steamy Chultan jungles, the pirate-infested islands to the new world across the sea.

For everyone there is a wealth of setting materials detailing every major area of the Forgotten Realms (though there is little on Maztica or Kara-tur), including major adventuring sites and political issues, and, of course, detailed statistics on everyone’s famous heroes and villains from the long list of Forgotten-Realms tie-in novels. (Yes, there are stats for Drizzt.)

All-in-all it provides a well-detailed overview and everything required to run a 3.0e forgotten realms game. For those playing 3.5e, you’ll need the ‘Player’s Guide to the Forgotten Realms’ which updates the setting to the new rules, but for setting material this book remains unmatched amongst any I’ve yet come across, and a worthy addition to the bookshelf of any fan.