[Comments] December Remember 2022

[Fillyjonk]

I just finished a book called Maddalena and the Dark set in medieval Venice. I don't know when I liked a book so well. On my shelf, I will put it between THE PASSION and MEXICAN GOTHIC. I loved it -- it is about the price of ambition and what we will do for art and love. It is about doom and beauty.

Meanwhile, if you haven't read The Passion, Oh it remains in my top ten. It is narrated (mostly) by Napoleon's cook. Here is the opening:

It was Napoleon who had such a passion for chicken that he
kept his chefs working around the clock. What a kitchen that
was, with birds in every state of undress; some still cold and
slung over hooks, some turning slowly on the spit, but most in
wasted piles because the Emperor was busy.

Odd to be so governed by an appetite.

It was my first commission. I started as a neck wringer and
before long I was the one who carried the platter through inches
of mud to his tent. He liked me because I am short. I flatter
myself, He did not dislike me. He liked no one except Josephine
and he liked her the way he liked chicken.

[lostcheerio]

Wow, what a weird book to give as a gift!

[Fillyjonk]

Depends on who you give it to! Hint: not your mother

[Fillyjonk]

I mean, your mother might be really cool and enjoy it but you know maybe not from you

[lostcheerio]

Hehe -- I meant Firefly

[AnotherDragoon]

Piers Anthony is a strange thing to subject someone to. I did read his stuff when I was a wee Goonie who didn't know what was what. I was once gifted a random YA vampire ninja story along with a dirty joke book while I was laid up in the hospital with a fractured vertebrae. I didn't read either, the thought was there though and appreciated. Just weird.

This year I discovered that I can get into the LittRPG genre. It's not high art or anything but can be fun sometimes. Like a superhero movie, I suppose. Also dug into the Preacher graphic novels and Starstruck (Wrtten by Brennan Lee Mulligan's mother and originally published in Heavy Metal magazine). I'm sure there's been more that I actually finished but that's what sticks out currently.

[HashtagBryn]

Originally Posted by AnotherDragoon

Piers Anthony is a strange thing to subject someone to. I did read his stuff when I was a wee Goonie who didn't know what was what. I was once gifted a random YA vampire ninja story along with a dirty joke book while I was laid up in the hospital with a fractured vertebrae. I didn't read either, the thought was there though and appreciated. Just weird.

This year I discovered that I can get into the LittRPG genre. It's not high art or anything but can be fun sometimes. Like a superhero movie, I suppose. Also dug into the Preacher graphic novels and Starstruck (Wrtten by Brennan Lee Mulligan's mother and originally published in Heavy Metal magazine). I'm sure there's been more that I actually finished but that's what sticks out currently.

To be fair, I had enjoyed (most of) his Incarnations of Immortality series at the time. I suppose I wound up with another Anthony book as a gift because he believed I'd appreciate more works by an author I owned? Although... he had read it previously, so you'd think there should have been some red flags there. Indeed, the same sort of problems, albeit to a lesser degree, also plague And Eternity (perhaps not coincidentally published the same year as Firefly), so I pretty quickly soured on the series and the author in general.

Preacher, on the other hand, I've always had mixed feelings about. I think there's some fantastically great ideas there, but parts of the whole endeavor are a little too gonzo for me, I suppose. The TV adaptation started off interesting but quickly tapered off. I never saw the last season.

[AnotherDragoon]

No judgment here, I enjoyed the Incarnations of Immortality in my early teens too.

Preacher was definitely a product of its time and meant to be shockingly gonzo. Great ideas like you said but maybe trying a bit hard to be edgy. But, then again, that's Garth Ennis for you. Lots of jokes that don't land today but still some good moments and story pieces. Never watched the show but you have to admire the ambition to even attempt to make it.

[bananabadger]

Originally Posted by Ildrahil

Cheerio,

So here is something strange. I'm old enough to remember a time before there was a game called D&D and in all that time no one has ever gifted me a book.

Fortune cookie says: Post address, books will arrive.

[lostcheerio]

Hi! I'm here to suggest an idea for RPGX book club in January! A few of us are playing around with a fun project for this inter-holiday slow period, an RPG New Year's Eve party at a fictional hunting lodge from a D&D module. I've pasted the invite/announcement below, but specifically for us book-clubbers, I'm wondering this: What about for January we each review a book *in character*? Could be any character from any game, just their take on any book, either fictional or real, that they read. I'm going to be opening a thread for "The Library" at Falcon's Hunting Lodge to invite people to do this, but I thought I'd pitch it as our January activity. We could cross-post here and there, or just here if you like, or just there. What do you think?

The Invite You are invited to Falcon's Festive New Year's Eve! The idea is that Falcon (from Dragon of Icespire Peak) is hosting a party at his hunting lodge and all characters across all games and planes are welcome. This is an in-character but non-canonical cross-game festive holiday party with game threads, roleplay threads, silliness, and low-stakes fun. We are approaching MIDNIGHT but the party will carry on until dawn with new threads opening up, so even if you arrive midstream, you are never late. Stop in at the Great Room to introduce your character and start collecting Bubbles, our ridiculous in-game currency, to spend at the gift shop on goofy items or privileges like feeding the jukebox or even starting your own thread. I know this time of year is super busy and we may not have lots of time to create detailed, thoughtful in-game posts, so I'm hoping this is a way to have fun and connect across games and systems, without taxing our brains too much. Falcon%27s Festive New Year's Eve

[ptwiddle]

Oooh. I have been not joining the new year's festivity thing mostly to conserve time and energy, but I like this on character book review idea...

[lostcheerio]

Right? I wonder what book Fela would recommend? Or which one would provoke her to deliver a spicy take down?

[bananabadger]

Chung Bora's Cursed Bunny
reviewed by Arquiztex

Arquiztex' Literary Lizard Reviews ”Arquiztex Thurkar” by @ThePsysquatch Best book of 2021 -- Cursed Bunny by some human. Ten short stories. Short stories are good for reading on campaign just before long rest. Can finish one and not need bookmark or remember who begat who and who want egg with who. All new each time you read. But everylizard writer short story. Why these short stories best? Poop. Yeah, human writer have poop child torment protagonist in first story. Very good. Writer say "Oh, Mr. Franzen, you make poop talk in mind. I make poop walk and talk. And then kill!" All short stories better with a kill. Book would be best book just for poop child; but all other 9 short stories tooclever and toogood. Title story, for example, prove that cute mammals not to be trusted. Good moral. Good literature has good mammal-alert morals. 10 out of 10 lizard eggs recommend. About the reviewer: Arquiztex has been voted Waterdeep's sexiest lizard three years and running. She is currently campaigning to kill Sucky. She loves MAGIC!, her dragonfly familiar, and perhaps even a certain hunky lizard who excels at carving driftwood and making her frills flush.

Thread GMs: Please feel free to move to January thread when it opens!

[BlackDragon0]

Never given a book as a gift sad to say I'm really the only one I know that takes the time to read.

I read halo, starwars, startrek, dnd, Warhammer, hardyboys, Robotech, legend of the 5 rings and a few ra Salvatore novles

[lostcheerio]

The January thread is open here! And feel free to go directly over to Falcon's library and join in the New Year's Celebration.