Unknown Worlds: Tales from Beyond edited by Stanley Schmidt
Jan. 8th, 2026 08:49 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
james_davis_nicoll
Another foray into the lost worlds of Unknown.
Unknown Worlds: Tales from Beyond edited by Stanley Schmidt
james_davis_nicollAnother foray into the lost worlds of Unknown.
Unknown Worlds: Tales from Beyond edited by Stanley Schmidt
Aurendor D&D
Jan. 8th, 2026 12:34 amsettiaiTo add to a previous posts on the subject, my cleric, Siân, has had a really, really, really bad couple of weeks in-game. Over the course of the last three weeks or so, she has:
( A list of bad things under the cut. )
Poor Siân really is well on her way towards a complete and total mental breakdown at the rate she's going.
( A list of bad things under the cut. )
Poor Siân really is well on her way towards a complete and total mental breakdown at the rate she's going.
Let's Get Literate! 2025 Reading Recap
Jan. 7th, 2026 04:31 pmrenay posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
ladybusiness2025 was the first year my reading started to feel less like a miracle and more like, "oh yeah, reading! I do that without struggling." I read 78 books, although a lot of them were rereads. I'm happy to reread The Murderbot Diaries and a bunch of my favorite romance novels a few times a year. The brain craves familiarity.
I have elevenish favorites this year (I combined books in series, because I make the rules). My top book, which is no big secret as I've been shouting about it for months, is the only one ranked; the rest are here in alphabetical order.
( Favorite Books )
( The numbers and musings )
That's a wrap on 2025! If you read any of my favorites and have readalikes, I'm always hyped for recs. If you wrote a favorites post for your SFF reading, I'd love to see it (and then link it in Intergalactic Mixtape, haha).
I have elevenish favorites this year (I combined books in series, because I make the rules). My top book, which is no big secret as I've been shouting about it for months, is the only one ranked; the rest are here in alphabetical order.
( Favorite Books )
( The numbers and musings )
That's a wrap on 2025! If you read any of my favorites and have readalikes, I'm always hyped for recs. If you wrote a favorites post for your SFF reading, I'd love to see it (and then link it in Intergalactic Mixtape, haha).
Bundle of Holding: The Painted Wastelands
Jan. 7th, 2026 05:26 pmjames_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
On the matter of new characters
Jan. 7th, 2026 09:34 amjames_davis_nicollMy 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.
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.
Cool
Jan. 7th, 2026 08:59 amjames_davis_nicollastrafoxen 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
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
Secrets Of The Silent Witch, volume 1 by Matsuri Isora (Translated by Alice Prowse)
Jan. 7th, 2026 08:50 amjames_davis_nicoll
A powerful but timid sorcerer is sent to guard a prince as he attends school.
Secrets Of The Silent Witch, volume 1 by Matsuri Isora (Translated by Alice Prowse)
On the D&D front...
Jan. 7th, 2026 12:50 amsettiaiIt's been several weeks since I played any D&D at all, and I've missed it a lot.
My Wednesday game has been on break the last two weeks because of people having plans for Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve, which wasn't particularly unexpected once we realized both of those holidays fell on Wednesdays this year. We're supposed to be back this week, though, so hopefully nothing happens to push it back. 🤞🏻
... although that reminds me that I still haven't recorded the summary video of the last game. Oops. I should get that done during my lunch break so that I can get it uploaded.
My Friday game has been on hiatus since mid-October because A. the DM desperately needed a mental health break and B. a number of people were going to be unavailable in November and/or December. Right now, the plan is that we're going to start back next week. One player may still be unavailable for a while because of work reasons, but we've got a plan for where her character will be for a bit.
And then there's my Sunday game, which went on hiatus at the end of November. It's a bit more up in the air at the moment when it will start back. One of the players is in the middle of planning his wedding and another is currently in Ireland until the end of February, as they're visiting their boyfriend (and presumably soon-to-be-fiancé if things work out well) to see if living together more long-term works out. She also plans on moving to Ireland if things do work out, so making sure it's somewhere they could see themself living long-term is important too.
We took all of December off just because everyone's schedules were super busy, but as far as I'm aware the plan is that we might have some mini sessions here and there in January and February. We're doing a time skip in the game, so there's lots of opportunities for one or two characters to have some side adventures. Plus we can shift times and even days around a bit for those, depending on people's availability.
The plan is that we'll be back to playing regularly in March once the currently-in-Ireland player is back in the United States, but we'll see if that changes at all.
My Wednesday game has been on break the last two weeks because of people having plans for Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve, which wasn't particularly unexpected once we realized both of those holidays fell on Wednesdays this year. We're supposed to be back this week, though, so hopefully nothing happens to push it back. 🤞🏻
... although that reminds me that I still haven't recorded the summary video of the last game. Oops. I should get that done during my lunch break so that I can get it uploaded.
My Friday game has been on hiatus since mid-October because A. the DM desperately needed a mental health break and B. a number of people were going to be unavailable in November and/or December. Right now, the plan is that we're going to start back next week. One player may still be unavailable for a while because of work reasons, but we've got a plan for where her character will be for a bit.
And then there's my Sunday game, which went on hiatus at the end of November. It's a bit more up in the air at the moment when it will start back. One of the players is in the middle of planning his wedding and another is currently in Ireland until the end of February, as they're visiting their boyfriend (and presumably soon-to-be-fiancé if things work out well) to see if living together more long-term works out. She also plans on moving to Ireland if things do work out, so making sure it's somewhere they could see themself living long-term is important too.
We took all of December off just because everyone's schedules were super busy, but as far as I'm aware the plan is that we might have some mini sessions here and there in January and February. We're doing a time skip in the game, so there's lots of opportunities for one or two characters to have some side adventures. Plus we can shift times and even days around a bit for those, depending on people's availability.
The plan is that we'll be back to playing regularly in March once the currently-in-Ireland player is back in the United States, but we'll see if that changes at all.
Book review: In the Night Garden
Jan. 6th, 2026 07:17 pmrocky41_7 posting in booknookTitle: The Orphan's Tales: In the Night Garden
Author: Catherynne M. Valente
Illustrator: Michael Kaluta
Genre: Fantasy, fairy tale
First book of 2026! This was The Orphan's Tales: In the Night Garden by Catherynne M. Valente with illustrations by Michael Kaluta. I have no recollection of how this ended up on my TBR and I was a little skeptical checking it out in the library, but I'm glad I stuck with it because it ended up being a lot of fun and I will definitely check out the second volume.
You might be a little confused in the beginning, as In the Night Garden is a series of nested stories within stories and the style takes a minute to get used to, but it's worth it. Valente unfolds a veritable matryoshka of tales into neat blooms whose petals all fit together. Retroactive reveals and recontextualiations are delightful here.
Valente's vivid prose brings together her fantastical tales with such clarity; she attends frequently to all five senses, so that the reader knows what the characters are not only seeing, but hearing, smelling, tasting, and feeling as well. There's obviously a lot of fairy tale inspiration here, but Valente definitely brings her own flavor. Women are almost always the hero of Valente's tales (though they play the villains too!) and there are such a great variety of them. Monsters abound too, but they get their chance to tell a tale too. (There's also some gentle ribbing at the Arthurian legends, with one witch lamenting about "all that questing" princes get up to.)
I was so engrossed in the work I didn't realize until quite late in the book how little romance factors into it. In a fairy tale inspired book like this, I would have expected a great many characters motivated by romance, but I can only think of two here who are primarily motivated by a love interest, and this delights me too. I'm arospec myself and while I enjoy a good tale of romance, I also weary of how frequently and totally it is centered in stories, so I was really enthused by how little that's the case here.
Friendship and family relationships do make frequent appearances though, and the friendship between the orphan teller of tales and the young boy hanging onto her words is the framing story. Love between mother and daughter, between brother and sister, even between strangers is a common thread.
She also avoids a pitfall I see in various modern fantasy stories which are so keen to explain the magic of their world they strip it of all mystery. Valente's world remains largely unexplained and asks the reader to simply take it as it is, which I found fun and appropriately mysterious.
The style of the book allows Valente to pull in a great many diverse characters and voices, which she does it well. Most impressive though is her ability to pull a cohesive tapestry out of all the various threads she's juggling.
A really fun and unusual story which I enjoyed a lot--a great start to a new year of reading!
Author: Catherynne M. Valente
Illustrator: Michael Kaluta
Genre: Fantasy, fairy tale
First book of 2026! This was The Orphan's Tales: In the Night Garden by Catherynne M. Valente with illustrations by Michael Kaluta. I have no recollection of how this ended up on my TBR and I was a little skeptical checking it out in the library, but I'm glad I stuck with it because it ended up being a lot of fun and I will definitely check out the second volume.
You might be a little confused in the beginning, as In the Night Garden is a series of nested stories within stories and the style takes a minute to get used to, but it's worth it. Valente unfolds a veritable matryoshka of tales into neat blooms whose petals all fit together. Retroactive reveals and recontextualiations are delightful here.
Valente's vivid prose brings together her fantastical tales with such clarity; she attends frequently to all five senses, so that the reader knows what the characters are not only seeing, but hearing, smelling, tasting, and feeling as well. There's obviously a lot of fairy tale inspiration here, but Valente definitely brings her own flavor. Women are almost always the hero of Valente's tales (though they play the villains too!) and there are such a great variety of them. Monsters abound too, but they get their chance to tell a tale too. (There's also some gentle ribbing at the Arthurian legends, with one witch lamenting about "all that questing" princes get up to.)
I was so engrossed in the work I didn't realize until quite late in the book how little romance factors into it. In a fairy tale inspired book like this, I would have expected a great many characters motivated by romance, but I can only think of two here who are primarily motivated by a love interest, and this delights me too. I'm arospec myself and while I enjoy a good tale of romance, I also weary of how frequently and totally it is centered in stories, so I was really enthused by how little that's the case here.
Friendship and family relationships do make frequent appearances though, and the friendship between the orphan teller of tales and the young boy hanging onto her words is the framing story. Love between mother and daughter, between brother and sister, even between strangers is a common thread.
She also avoids a pitfall I see in various modern fantasy stories which are so keen to explain the magic of their world they strip it of all mystery. Valente's world remains largely unexplained and asks the reader to simply take it as it is, which I found fun and appropriately mysterious.
The style of the book allows Valente to pull in a great many diverse characters and voices, which she does it well. Most impressive though is her ability to pull a cohesive tapestry out of all the various threads she's juggling.
A really fun and unusual story which I enjoyed a lot--a great start to a new year of reading!
Tuesday, 6th January 2026
Jan. 6th, 2026 03:12 pmbeck_liz posting in doctor_who_sonicEditor's Note: If your item was not linked, it's because the header lacked the information that we like to give our readers. Please at least give the title, rating, and pairing or characters, and please include the header in the storypost itself, not just in the linking post. For an example of what a "good" fanfic header is, see the user info. Spoiler warnings are also greatly appreciated. Thank you!
Off-Dreamwidth Links
Blogtor Who: Video of the Day – Doctor Who Classic: Revenge of the Cybermen, 1975
Blogtor Who: Video of the Day – Doctor Who: Planet of Evil, 1975
Blogtor Who: Video of the Day – The Whoniverse Show, 2025
Blogtor Who: The War Between the Land and the Sea +7 Viewing Figures
(News from![[syndicated profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/feed.png)
doctorwhonews_feed and blogtorwho_feed, among others.)
Fanfiction
Complete
1073: Shelter bydesecrets (G | Third Doctor, Delgado Master)
Knowledge bybadly_knitted (G | The Doctor)
Communities & Challenges
dw100 announces Challenge #1073: shelter
If you were not linked, and would like to be, contact us in the comments with further information and your link.
Off-Dreamwidth Links
Blogtor Who: Video of the Day – Doctor Who Classic: Revenge of the Cybermen, 1975
Blogtor Who: Video of the Day – Doctor Who: Planet of Evil, 1975
Blogtor Who: Video of the Day – The Whoniverse Show, 2025
Blogtor Who: The War Between the Land and the Sea +7 Viewing Figures
(News from
doctorwhonews_feed and blogtorwho_feed, among others.)Fanfiction
Complete
1073: Shelter by
desecrets (G | Third Doctor, Delgado Master)Knowledge by
badly_knitted (G | The Doctor)Communities & Challenges
dw100 announces Challenge #1073: shelterIf you were not linked, and would like to be, contact us in the comments with further information and your link.
TV Tuesday: Hiding in Plain Sight?
Jan. 6th, 2026 10:55 amyourlibrarian posting in tv_talk
End of year is a time for 2025 lists. The Guardian came out with Top 50 TV Shows & Hidden Gems of 2025. Can a gem be that hidden if it’s on a list of top shows? What makes something a “hidden gem” to you?
Updating
Jan. 6th, 2026 09:14 ammarthawellsI updated my sticky post with: PSA: if you get an email out of the blue that is supposedly from me, offering to help you with marketing or other publisher services, or asking for money, it is not me, it is a scammer. Also, if you see me on Facebook or Threads or XTwitter, that's not me either.
This is a very common scam now, one of the many scams aimed at aspiring and new writers.
***
I'm still sick, ugh
***
Nice article on Queen Demon on the Daily KOS:
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/1/5/2361356/-The-Language-of-the-Night-Martha-Wells-takes-on-colonization
One of Wells’ most compelling gifts as a writer is the way she interrogates trauma, and trauma is very much in evidence in her recent works, especially in both Murderbot and The Rising World. Where the Murderbot stories form an enslavement narrative as personal journey and healing, the Rising World series applies a wider cultural lens to trauma and loss.
Kai has seen his world ripped apart twice: the way to the underneath, the world of his birth, is shut off; the world of his above existence, the world of the Saredi, is also gone, both of them murdered by the Hierarchs. (You could argue that the third traumatizing loss-of-world is losing Bashasa, but that lies in the gap between past and present narratives.) In the past narrative, a vanquished Kai himself is imprisoned in the Summer Halls until Bashasa frees him and he joins the ad hoc rebellion.
This is a very common scam now, one of the many scams aimed at aspiring and new writers.
***
I'm still sick, ugh
***
Nice article on Queen Demon on the Daily KOS:
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/1/5/2361356/-The-Language-of-the-Night-Martha-Wells-takes-on-colonization
One of Wells’ most compelling gifts as a writer is the way she interrogates trauma, and trauma is very much in evidence in her recent works, especially in both Murderbot and The Rising World. Where the Murderbot stories form an enslavement narrative as personal journey and healing, the Rising World series applies a wider cultural lens to trauma and loss.
Kai has seen his world ripped apart twice: the way to the underneath, the world of his birth, is shut off; the world of his above existence, the world of the Saredi, is also gone, both of them murdered by the Hierarchs. (You could argue that the third traumatizing loss-of-world is losing Bashasa, but that lies in the gap between past and present narratives.) In the past narrative, a vanquished Kai himself is imprisoned in the Summer Halls until Bashasa frees him and he joins the ad hoc rebellion.
Heated Rivalry comm
Jan. 6th, 2026 10:15 amtinny posting in tv_talkThere's a new comm for Heated Rivalry:
gamechangerhr
A community dedicated to the Game Changer Book series and the Heated Rivalry TV series
and they have a friending meme, too: https://gamechangerhr.dreamwidth.org/855.html
gamechangerhrA community dedicated to the Game Changer Book series and the Heated Rivalry TV series
and they have a friending meme, too: https://gamechangerhr.dreamwidth.org/855.html