What books are you currently reading?

[Bjørn Røyrvik]

"Searoad" was good. It's a series of vignettes about people in the fictional Oregon town of Klatsand, based on an area le Guin knew well. There are three primary characters and a few supporting ones, with each 'story' a snap shot of a time. Nothing supernatural here, nothing magical other than le Guin's prose (this is some of her most evocative work).

Themes of motherhood, feminism, art and more are explored, and it can occasionally get a bit rough emotionally. One reason I prefer fantasy and science fiction over realistic fiction is that violence and abuse seems that much more unreal with the layer of magic in there. While le Guin never dwells on the rape and abuse, it is there and it is unpleasant.

On to William James' The Varieties of Religious Experience, a classic in the field. It's been gathering dust on my shelf for twenty years or more, after gathering dust on my mother's shelf for at least as long.

[Tim Emrick]

I have finished Nightblade, and was not disappointed. The sheer unlikeliness of the expedition's composition is fascinating, and drives much of the story.

[As with Nightglass, I would offer a content warning for torture, forced experimentation, and body horror (and probably a few other triggers I'm forgetting). Stories set in Nidal usually push at the limits of many players'/readers' sensibilities, because it really is that an awful of a place.]

I have also gone back to read the appendix of The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage, which describes how the (never completed) difference engine was designed to work. It's very technical, so while I could follow most of it fine, I was feeling a bit too lazy to take the time to digest every fiddly detail. It's still a fascinating book, though, and would be a solid reference for a steampunk game.

Next up will probably be the next Pathfinder Tales novel, Pirate's Promise, by Chris A. Jackson.