Review of Books 2021

Inspired by Xeno's Ramblings and Throne of Salt's book reviews - I had a bumper year for reading in 2021. Combination of no travel and the need to sit still an be a cushion for a small person gave ample time to crush books.

I will briefly praise GoodReads for allowing me to easily track what the hell I actually read this year because it was a surprisingly long year. The following were all read with an eye for pacy tales that can distract and entertain given the dreadful year that was in it. Below will be a round up of the gamebooks read and reviewed over the year.

The great find this year was The Drawing of the Dark (1979) by Tim Powers - this was my sleeper hit. I was not expecting much and found something great - an historic fantasy novel where in 1529 mercenary Brian Duffy is hired in Venice to go to Vienna and work as a bouncer at an inn and brewery - but from his journey north it turns out that far greater mystic forces are in play and we get a hugely entertaining tale where the siege of Vienna is the stage for Eastern and Western magicians to struggle over the spiritual center of the West, which happens to be that inn and brewery. I like how historical characters and famous myth was worked in, I find it is not normally done well but here it was great.

The big set I read was the sci-fi swashbuckling of the Vorkosigan saga (1986-2016 for the main novels) - tipped off by a friends reviews I started and then ripped through the whole series starting with Falling Free, then Shards of Honour, Barrayar, the Warriors Apprentice, Vor Game, Cetaganda, Ethan of Athos, Brothers in Arms, Mirror Dance, Memory, Komarr, A Civil Campaign, Diplomatic Immunity, Captain Vorpatrils Alliance, and Cryoburn up to Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen. Except for the last, which feels tacked on, they are a great bunch of tales. Most I read in close to single sittings. Shards of Honour & Barrayar are fun tales of sci-fi and intrigue but from Warriors Apprentice onwards we switch to the hyperactive main character who takes the series onwards - following Miles Vorkosigan as he more or less over-runs his troubles with bluff and sheer kinetic energy is a very good time.

I also fished out all the short-stories within the sequence Mountains of Mourning, Weatherman, Labyrinth, Borders of Infinity, Winterfair Gifts, Flowers of Vashnoi of which Weatherman is very good and the rest are a nice time to spend with the characters if you enjoy their company.

Under the Pendulum Sun (2017) was a dreamy, creepy tale of dealing with the fey - unsettling because of the uncertainty around the rules of reality which is both skin-crawling and rivetting. Great inspiration for anyone thinking of going anywhere near the feywild or dealing with the sidhe.

Tower of Fear (1991) by Glen Cook was another unexpected pleasure - a great twisty tale of factions in a conquered city - the new occupiers, the resistance and the last remnants of the wicked old sorcerer kings minions - chasing each other around in circles. A large cast sustains this ~400 page tale, so it takes a little to get firing but then roars away.

Old but good - the Hornblower books (1937-1967) - for a great example of a stalwart leader, an energetic captain who is both effective and heroic but also flawed, Hornblower is a good one. It would be too simplistic to paint Hornblower as a boys-own hero, he does some questionable things out of action, but when faced with a challenge of seamanship or a question of duty he always comes through. There is a stark reflection of the tides of war - some characters, companions of many books, are dispatched on missions and depart in good cheer - never to return.

Very amusingly, I followed that with the first couple of books from the Honor Harrington series (1992-3) by Weber - and it is immediately recognisable as 'napoleonic navy... in space!' - impeller wedges that force broadside-on engagements? Seniority lists? These elements are familiar... Even so, good space tales, I am two into the series and will continue.

Finally A Closed and Common Orbit (2016) by Chambers was more good sci-fi - A Closed and Common Orbit zoomed right in to the household scale of a far future society and gets a great deal of mileage out of navigating the social mores of multiple aliens sharing a world and making a living.

I would cheerfully recommend any of these as worth your shilling, other years I might talk about more highbrow and complex books, 2021 was a year for pure escapism.

Those were read for the story alone, of gamebooks read and reviewed they year has been productive: Barrow Keep - Den of Spies a romantic-fantasy setting and intrigue tool-box for easily creating a web of relationships within a living setting.

Stygian Library so good I bought the pdf, then backed the kickstarter to get the gorgeous hard back version.

Through Ultans Door #1-2 and #3 + Beneath The Moss Courts another of the fabled zines of the OSR, describing the dream-city of Immortal Zyan.

The Infinite Staircase if you like the planes, buy this for page 15. You get 96 beautiful bonus pages to make a beast of a book that will turbo-charge planar campaigns.

Ulraunts Guide to Acheron a beefy planar tome focusing on just the Plane of War; tons of options, nice layout and artwork, just the ticket if you want to set a campaign there.

Slumbering Ursine Dunes a great Slavic acid fantasy setting and a master-class in creating a point-crawl and driving pace and tension.

Knock! #1 a gorgeous best-of selection of old school gaming wisdom and new inspirations in one handy codex.

Wagadu Chronicles - The Child and the Oath a great Afrofantasy setting and super-accessible starter adventure for 5e.

Izirion's Enchiridion of the West Marches a comprehensive guide on how to run the fabled West Marches campaign style, full of great art and practical examples.

Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar a packed box of all you need to run Lankhmar in the gritty DCC feeling - lots to like if you are doing anything with cities.

More Thousand Thousand Islands (Zines 5, 6, 8) and Thousand Thousand Islands #7 + Drawings #2 add fascinating locations and drawings to introduce your seaborne Thousand Thousand Islands campaign.

Flipping & Turning #4 official gaming magazine of the GrogTalk podcast.

D30 Sandbox Companion so good, I bought the fancy dice needed to use this handy DM's miscellany. I probably open it more often than the DMG when prepping sessions.

Midgard Campaign Setting a dark fantasy campaign setting with great coiled narrative springs and lots of adventure hooks.

Wyrd Science #2 - what's on, what's coming, what's good and who is up to interesting things in tabletop gaming.

Lorefinder a great guide to modding D&D with GUMSHOE investigation systems to beef up non-combat. Written for Pathfinder, easy to mod for other editions.

Worlds Without Number amazing world building tools packaged with a simplified D&D style system in a gorgeous chunky hardback.

The Dungeon Dozen 195 pages of d12 random tables to spice up any aspect of your fantasy RPG, stuffed with entertaining art and inspiration sparks.

The Kontext Spiel Collection three light-weight free kriegspiel systems, a setting and lots of useful content generation tools in this compilation of tabletop goodness.

A Practical Guide to Medieval Warfare: Exploring History through Wargaming a great source of detail for medieval warfare that can enrich your TTRPG games.

Calidar: In Stranger Skies an evocative setting for swashbuckling sky adventures.

All in all, a good year for reading.