Matthew Hunter

A Wastrel’s Tale is (probably) the first book in a swords and sorcery zombie apocalypse series. The story revolves around a member of an order dedicated to fighting necromancy with the use of arms and specialized magic, yet for decades now there have been but few necromancers. Indeed, only one of any notable talent or skill, and that one in captivity. An ideal condition for a third son who would dearly love to spend his life training, drinking, and wenching, no?

An Airless Storm follows up on the adventures of Andrew Cochrane and his security service of interstellar mercenaries. Following their initial success in funding their operations, the company has ordered more ships and larger ships. But their enemies are doing the same. The book has the same vaguely Heinlein-juvenile feel, and the plot armor is less perfect. Mostly it represents an improvement, but the ratio of people talking about their plans and engaging in covert operation shenanigans versus space battles is still pretty high.

Peter Grant’s new novel, The Stones of Silence, is set in his science-fiction universe, sharing it with his two other series starting with Take the Star Road and War to the knife. It’s unclear to me if the setting is intended to be the same, or just happens to be similar in a generic science fiction way. The setup for his new series is interesting, but shares the flaws of the earlier works.

L1: The Secret of Bone Hill Matt (Barron), Mariel (Leah), Coby (Warin), Chris (Malag), Jeff (Amathar the Grey), and Norsk (Brian) are returning cast members. As we left the party, they were recovering from the ambush that had nearly killed several of the party members. After resting there overnight, with the delay allowing for Leah to catch up with the group, Norsk to refine his methods of assassination, and Barron to learn new spells (this time, to Amathar’s amazement, casting them correctly), the party chose to follow the ogre trail to a cave on the nearby hillside.

Brief Cases by Jim Butcher is a collection of short stories in the very popular Dresden Files series, named for the central character Harry Dresden, Chicago’s only professional wizard – or at least the only one with an ad in the phone book. I don’t normally go in for short story collections, but occasionally with an established universe my completionist instincts will kick in. In this case I had already read Side Jobs, a similar collection by the same author in the same universe.

A sequel to Sufficiently Advanced Magic, On the Shoulders of Titans manages to significantly complicate the plot. The number of characters who may not be trustworthy or whose interests may lie in a direction other than that of their allies grows to very nearly equal the number of characters in the book. Thankfully, the “magic school” elements of the plot are reduced almost to insignificance; the main character barely attends class and spends only a limited amount of time on screen taking tests.

What do you get when you combine an interesting magic system, a lot of influence from video games, a competent but emotionally distant author, a dash of gender ambiguity, a token pinch of political preaching, and yet another book about a child who goes to magic school? Apparently, you get a pretty good stew of a book that’s enjoyable to read, intellectually interesting, and only rarely makes me want to throw it against the wall for brief periods.

L1: The Secret of Bone Hill Matt (Barron), Coby (Warin), Chris (Malag), Jeff (Amathar the Grey), Dean (Thic Duc) and Norsk (Brian) are returning cast members. As we left the party, they decided to explore the guest quarters in the keep at Darkshelf. Some of the party had been there before, posing as buyers, but they figured it was best to clear the area fully before considering it safe. There they met Daelyn, who had been locked into one of the guest rooms when the keep went on lockdown.

A0: Danger at Darkshelf Quarry Matt (Barron), Mariel (Leah), Coby (Warin), Chris (Malag), Jeff (Amathar the Grey), Dean (Thic Duc) and Norsk (Brian) are returning cast members. As we left the party, they had spent the night in Glyrthiel’s room on top of the quarry keep. Bazili was still with them (still charmed). Glyrthiel was either still unconscious from her injuries or faking it well. The day begin with the group receiving a message by courier from their favorite guildmistress, with a wedding invitation attached.

A0: Danger at Darkshelf Quarry Matt (Barron), Mariel (Leah), Coby (Warin), Chris (Malag), Jeff (Amathar the Grey), and Norsk (Brian) are returning cast members. As we left the party, they had returned to town after determining that, yes, the quarry was linked to an underground cavern, the cavern had slaves held captive, and there was at least some involvement between the quarry leadership and the slave trading operation. They had determined to rest, train, and prepare to return to the quarry to arrest those involved, including the leadership.