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NetGalley Review: Empire of Exiles by Erin M Evans

Hey all, Sam here.

It’s the final day of Gen Con, and I think today is going to be a little more chill. I decided not to go to my Sunday panel, because it was technically one I went to last year, and all I had planned to do was to see if new advice came out this time around. Instead David and I are just going to walk around the exhibit hall and try out some games, and just try to see if there’s anything we missed over the past few days.

Which, okay, yes, we know there’s lots that we do miss every year. Gen Con is huge, and there’s just so much going on, and so everyone needs to pick and choose how to spend their time, knowing that they won’t be able to do everything. Heck, lots of people have spent the weekend waiting in like 14-16 hour lines to get an early release of the upcoming Lorcana game…which, I honestly can’t imagine waiting that long for a game that will be out to the general public in just a few weeks, especially after spending the money that it takes to come to Gen Con.

But, who am I to judge. If it makes their geeky hearts happy to wait in those lines for the chance at getting a product early, then I’m glad they’re enjoying themselves.

Anyway, let’s go ahead and jump into today’s book review…

Magic, mystery, and revolution collide in this fantasy epic where an unlikely team of mages, scribes, and archivists must band together to unearth a conspiracy that might topple their empire.

“What makes this book special, even by Erin’s lofty goalposts, is the world she weaves around the characters. Detailed and mysterious, a place to explore and relish. Empire of Exiles is highly recommended!” – R.A. Salvatore, author or “The Legend of Drizzt” and the DemonWars novels

“The beginning of a truly epic tale. Deft worldbuilding and wonderful verbal fencing that is a delight to read. In these pages, you are in the hands of a master.” – Ed Greenwood, creator of the Forgotten Realms and internationally bestselling author

Twenty-seven years ago, a Duke with a grudge led a ruthless coup against the empire of Semilla, killing thousands. He failed. The Duke was executed, a terrifyingly powerful sorcerer was imprisoned, and an unwilling princess disappeared. 

The empire moved on. 

Now, when Quill, an apprentice scribe, arrives in the capital city, he believes he’s on a simple errand for another pompous noble: fetch ancient artifacts from the magical Imperial Archives. He’s always found his apprenticeship to a lawman to be dull work. But these aren’t just any artifacts — these are the instruments of revolution, the banners under which the Duke lead his coup. 

Just as the artifacts are unearthed, the city is shaken by a brutal murder that seems to have been caused by a weapon not seen since the days of rebellion. With Quill being the main witness to the murder, and no one in power believing his story, he must join the Archivists — a young mage, a seasoned archivist, and a disillusioned detective — to solve the truth of the attack. And what they uncover will be the key to saving the empire – or destroying it again.

“Empire of Exiles has it all: characters I love, intertwined compelling mysteries in the past and present, plot twists that keep coming, and a unique and fascinating world and magic system!” – Melissa Caruso, author of The Obsidian Tower

“Beautifully wrought and equally ensnaring, this book lived up to and then surpassed all my expectations.” – Cat Rambo, author of You Sexy Thing

My Thoughts

Rating: 4 stars

To begin this review, I’ve been excited about this book since I heard about it at the Gen Con Writer’s Symposium 2022, and when I got an e-ARC from the publisher through NetGalley, I was excited and wanted to read it soon…but then life got busy and my reading slump kept me from reading a lot of what I wanted to. So, when I finally got around to picking this book up, the finished copy had been out in the world for months, and I had already purchased it. Now my finished copy is also signed, since I had the privilege of meeting author Erin M. Evans at Gen Con 2023.

I liked this book, but I wanted to love it. It took me longer than I would have liked to really get drawn into things. We begin the book with a before scene, from just after an attempted coup, and I found that section to be rather interesting and compelling…and then we jumped forward almost a few decades, and with new characters to follow, I had to readjust and while it was good, I didn’t feel that same drive and interest.

But I stuck with it, because I wanted to know what would happen, and I wanted to get more information about the uprising and attempted coup. And I’m really glad I stuck around, because the story really starts to build.

There’s a lot of time spent getting to know the characters and the world, and slowly weaving these threads of characters and intrigue together. If you keep going then the tapestry that is woven from all of these elements really becomes something quite fascinating. As more gets revealed, the pieces start to come together, and it makes you really want to keep going to learn more.

I’m also just a sucker for a seemingly motley crew of individuals with different skills and abilities coming together to solve a larger problem or a greater mystery. And I did really start to enjoy Quill and Amadea and Yinni and Richa.

I should also point out that I really found the magic system to be interesting, especially considering that it seemed to cause many of the characters to have to deal with panic spirals and panic attacks. Even more than that, a number of characters have to face PTSD and are dealing with grief, on top of these panic spirals, and I appreciated that none of these characters were portrayed as weak because of this. In fact, they were seen as strong because they had these struggles and faced them.

Anyway, I’m glad I read this book, and I definitely plan to pick up book two, which is set to be released in April 2024.

Here’s my signed copy of Empire of Exiles, plus a bookmark, a sticker, three character cards (Amadea, Yinni, and Quill), and then a bonus book I picked up by another author at that signing…the book is a graphic novel called Santa Claus: Private Eye and apparently the other 364 days a year Santa is actually a detective. It sounded interesting, so I’m hoping to read and review it soon.

Well, that is all from me for today. Now we just have the drive home from Gen Con, and even though we’ve had a lot of fun, it’ll be nice to be back home in our own bed and with our cats. Thank you so much for stopping by, and I’ll be back soon with more geeky content.

Let’s Talk About Books Some More

Hey all, Sam here.

All right. I’m at Gen Con and it’s been a lot of fun, and the panels at the Writer’s Symposium have been excellent this year, and it’s definitely gotten me very focused on books. And yes, that does include thinking about my own books too…so hopefully I’ll have a lot to talk about in next week’s WIP Wednesday post about that.

But, it’s also very tiring. We’ve gotten to our hotel each evening just feeling very drained, and in need of a long hot soak in the whirlpool tub followed by a nice long sleep. I didn’t quite get my originally planned post finished for today, so I had to whip up something else, so here we are.

Anyway, towards the end of May I did a post chatting about books. In particular it was about books I was eagerly anticipating reading. And I realize that I’ve actually read like 75% or so of those books….so why not do this again and talk about a few more books I’m really excited to read, and hope to get through in the next couple of months.

The Book That Wouldn’t Burn by Mark Lawrence, Ink Blood Sister Scribe by Emma Törzs, Godkiller by Hannah Kaner, Babel by R.F. Kuang, Star Bringer by Tracy Wolff and Nina Croft, My Friend Anne Frank by Hannah Pick-Goslar, The Seven Year Slip by Ashley Poston, and The Art of Prophecy by Wesley Chu.

Okay, now some of these I have on my TBR and some I’ve just put off for longer than I would have liked. Godkiller will be out in September in the US, but has been out for months in the UK, which is why I have it on this portion of the post. My request is pending on NetGalley, so it’s possible I’ll still get to read it before release day, but if not, I do plan on picking it up as soon as I can.

I want to read The Art of Prophecy pretty soon because I was approved for the sequel, The Art of Destiny on NetGalley and I’d love to be able to read and review both books around the release date for the sequel. And of course, I still need to read Ashley Poston’s newest adult romance. It definitely gives me “The Lake House” vibes, and I’m excited to check it out.

But I’m sad that I haven’t read The Book That Wouldn’t Burn, Ink Blood Sister Scribe, or Babel yet. Hmm…maybe I should do a whole library theme in September, leading up to Banned Books Week (which is October 1-7 this year). I’ll definitely talk more about Banned Books Week in the upcoming weeks, because I’ve always felt that it’s important, and that’s even more true considering the state of the world these days.

And then there’s this relatively new release by Hannah Pick-Goslar, and I’m already sure that this book is going to make me cry. Hannah was a childhood friend of Anne Frank, and obviously they lost touch because the Franks went into hiding…but now we’re getting this story about Hannah’s experience through the Holocaust, including encountering Anne in the concentration camps that is said to give more insight into the conclusion of Anne’s story. I’m thinking I might re-read Diary of a Young Girl again first and then dive into this, but I don’t want to put it off too long.

And of course I’m going to include some of the upcoming releases I’ve been approved for by the publishers through NetGalley.

A Fragile Enchantment by Allison Saft (Jan 30, 2024), Emily Wilde’s Map of the Otherlands by Heather Fawcett (Jan 16, 2024), Under the Smokestrewn Sky by A. Deborah Baker (Oct 17, 2023), Our Divine Mischief by Hanna C. Howard (Oct 17, 2023), A Curse of Krakens by Kevin Hearne (Nov 7, 2023), Gwen & Art Are Not in Love by Lex Croucher (Nov 28, 2023), Shield Maiden by Sharon Emmerichs (Oct 3, 2023), and The Hurricane Wars by Thea Guanzon (Oct 3, 2023).

Yes, I realize most of these aren’t out for a little while, but I still just really want to read them, so if my reading schedule allows it and I can find the time to squeeze them in early, then I definitely will. Otherwise I’ll be trying to get my read-through done and a review posted around the publication date.

There are just a lot of really good books coming out this year and I’m hoping to find a lot of time to read as many of them as I can…even though I know I need to pull back on my reading time just a smidge so I can give a little more focus to my creative writing.

Anyway, that’s all there is from me for today. Tomorrow I have a book review coming for you, and it’ll probably be up around the time that we’re starting our long drive back home. I say long, but it’s basically five hours.

What books are you hoping to read soon? Anything I might want to add to my TBR?

Thank you all so much for stopping by, and I’ll be back soon with more geeky content.

Weekend Writer: August Prompts

Hey all, Sam here.

It is Gen Con Day Two! We have quite a bit on our schedules, between panels and game playtests and of course wandering the exhibit hall, and there’s a few game drops that we’re really hoping we’re lucky enough to snag, so we’ll see what happens. Obviously, since I’m writing this up ahead of time (it’s actually Thursday night as I finish up this post), I don’t know how successful our game collecting will go.

Anyway, welcome back to Weekend Writer, a weekly series I host here on Free State of Geek that is fully dedicated to creative writing. On the first Friday of the month (like today), I use several story generator tools to create various creativity prompts for both you and I to use to help kickstart your creative projects (your choice if you want to write something or draw something). Then, on the last Friday of the month, I share snippets of what I’ve been working on over the month…it could be from the prompt generation, or it could be from some other project I’ve been working on…or it could be from both. I’ve had a couple months where I’ve shared a couple passages from different writing projects.

For the rest of the Fridays of the month, I do a deep dive breakdown that focuses on some aspect of creative writing. That has mostly been deep dives into sections of books about the craft of writing, but sometimes might be a deep dive into a lecture or an episode of a podcast or a YouTube video or just a general discussion about some sort of creativity/writing topic.

August Prompt Time

All right…I currently have five (well, maybe six if I’ve already picked up the Deck of Many Worlds from The Story Engine Deck booth at Gen Con) different creativity generator tools in my collection/arsenal. Some of them are technically aimed at TTRPGs, BUT I’ve found that for the most part they work for creative writing just fine as well, which is why I include them all. With each prompt, I take a photo of the prompt randomization (whether that is dice rolls, card draws, or whatever), type up the prompt below the photo, and then I include a paragraph where I give you information about the generator tool I used.

If you know of any other useful tools like these, please let me know. I’d love to keep expanding my collection. It’s cool to see what sorts of ideas can be generated when you use a randomization method for creation.

Story Engine Deck

Prompt: A Hired Knife Wants to Find the Path Home and Their Only Lead is an Evil-Repelling Shield But it Will Mean Paying Someone Else’s Debts

This prompt comes from this storytelling deck from The Story Engine, which is a prompt and idea generating tool that I adore for both creative writing and for TTRPG plotting.

I do have the Deck of Worlds and all of the expansions now…but I’m not going to try and toss that into this month’s post too. I’d like to play around with the deck for a little bit on my own before I start generating micro settings for these Weekend Writer prompt generation posts.

And I will point out that the wonderful folks at The Story Engine, as well as many other creative folks out there are so so skilled at putting together incredible prompts using these decks. I just go with the most basic options for these prompts, but these cards are set up so that you can make some wonderfully complex options for characters and plots and worlds.

I truly love these decks. I was happy to buy The Story Engine Deck, I backed at the digital level for the Deck of Worlds, but have now finally gotten my hands on a physical edition, and I also eagerly backed the upcoming Lore Master’s Deck, which I am SO LOOKING FORWARD TO. If you thought I was excited about their first two decks, the third one is just going to be outstanding. I can’t wait to have it join my collection.

Tarot/Oracle Deck

Prompt: Insight, Bond, Warning

Once again, I used my Urban Crow Oracle Deck by MJ Cullinane for this prompt. I really like using this oracle deck, because the card names are different from a tarot deck. I do have a few different tarot decks as well, and I might use those at some point for future draws, but for now I’m really enjoying my crow deck. What can I say? I just like crows.

Roll & Play

Prompt: 1) You own a small shop, and customers love what you sell OR 2) You sit in a field, and feel a deity smiling down on you

This month I decided to roll the dice on the Sweet Dreams page in the Roll & Play book, and there are two different dreamy options to choose from. You can use the dice I rolled, or if you have your own d20, you can roll on the chart yourself. Or heck, if you want to then you can just choose whichever option sparks your interest. 

Sidequest Decks

Prompt 1: Treasure With Teeth – Survivors on a shattered ship are found, describing a giant shark’s attack. The shark is actually the deity of the robbed island’s people.

Prompt 2: The Regatta – A harbor town or island sponsors an annual regatta (a boat race).

The Sidequest Decks from Inkwell Ideas are another wonderful accessory designed for TTRPGs, but can easily be used for writers as well. This time around I went back to the Political and Urban Fantasy deck, and again, I went with two options as prompt inspiration. You can use either option, and you can either use the basic concept at the top of the card, or you can use the various encounters at the bottom of the card to expand upon the adventure/story further.

I definitely need to find the Inkwell Ideas booth and see if there are any more Sidequest Decks I need to add to our collection. If so, then perhaps I’ll be rotating into these prompt generators.

The Oracle Story Generator

Prompt: An Explorer Will Discover a Religious Relic to Summon a Being But the Item Requires a Worthy User.

Finally, we have a new addition to the prompt generation: The Oracle Story Generator by Nord Games. They have a Character Generator as well, but that one won’t be shipped out for another couple months. I’ve enjoyed playing around with these cards the past couple months, and look forward to doing even more with them in future. With this prompt, you can make it even more specific by either rolling a four-sided die for each card, or by simply choosing which option you like best.

I have no idea which of these prompts I’m going to use for my writing this month. Honestly, who knows, perhaps I’ll swing by The Story Engine booth again, and see if they’ll generate either a Story Engine Deck or Deck of Worlds prompt for me to add to this month’s offerings. If they agree then I will totally add it to the Tabletop Tuesday: Gen Con Wrap-Up post in a few days.

As always, when we reach the final Friday of the month, I’ll be sharing some snippets from what I’ve been writing over the past weeks. If you choose to create anything based on these prompts (or even if you don’t), feel free to share your creative projects with me for the last Friday of the month too. I’d love to celebrate whatever creative progress you’re making too!

All right, that is all from me for today. Thank you so much for stopping by, and I’ll be back soon with more geeky content!

NetGalley Review: The First Binding by R.R. Virdi

Hey all, Sam here.

Welcome to me talking about the best book I’ve read so far in 2023. Yes, that is how I am starting this post. And what’s even more exciting, I’m meeting the author today (actually, I’ll have already met the author by the time this post goes live, but whatever–time is a weird soup).

So, no, that didn’t happen. Come to find out, the author cancelled. I don’t know if it’s for the whole con or just during his scheduled signing session. Instead, it is the end of the day. We’re getting ready for bed, and I’m remembering that I didn’t completely finish this post. Whoops.

Basically what ended up happening is that I didn’t get any sleep whatsoever last night. I went in to work at 6pm on August 2nd and got off work at 3:15 am on August 3rd. Then we drove from our home in Iowa to Gen Con in Indianapolis, arriving and finding parking and walking to the convention center basically right around the time that the doors opened. So we didn’t miss a whole lot, but we were a tiny bit late and by the time afternoon/early evening came around, we were really feeling exhausted…

I think it’s time to just get this review up and then go to bed, so let’s do that.

All legends are born of truths. And just as much lies. These are mine. Judge me for what you will. But you will hear my story first.

I buried the village of Ampur under a mountain of ice and snow. Then I killed their god. I’ve stolen old magics and been cursed for it. I started a war with those that walked before mankind and lost the princess I loved, and wanted to save. I’ve called lightning and bound fire. I am legend. And I am a monster.

My name is Ari. And this is the story of how I let loose the first evil.

My Thoughts

Rating: 5 stars

I already said it in my introduction, but I’ll say it again now…this is the best book that I have read this year so far, and it’s going be be pretty difficult for something else to dethrone it.

I love when books have the story within a story (or story within a story within a story) setup. It’s just really neat, and if our storytelling character is interesting, then I’m going to be as enraptured and captivated as the other characters listening in on the stories. Because in this book not only do we have Ari telling stories about world history and lore and such, but Ari is also telling his personal story to another character.

It takes a certain amount of skill and certainly there is a lot to keep track of when it comes to a story like this. There are so many plot threads and time lines that dance around each other, and occasionally meet briefly to highlight similar situations happening…and while I enjoy this sort of story, I honestly don’t think writing this sort of story would be one I would be likely to attempt writing any time soon. I’m having enough complicated fun keeping the in-game and out-of-game stories straight in my TTRPG contemporary romance book.

Oh, this is where I should definitely point out that this is a HUGE book. I am not at all kidding when I say that my hardcover is 822 pages long. There is a lot to introduce and set up and describe, and there’s always so much banter and dialogue going on, that it just makes it feel like you’ve just stumbled into a bar yourself and are starting to hear all about this complex adventure.

I was utterly fascinated. I wanted to know more about the characters, and the companions that they meet. I really wanted to know more about the different regions of the world, as well as knowing more about the history and lore and magic system. There was action and there was hints of romance and there was friendship and there was intrigue and there were a bunch of plot lines that slowly wove together into an elaborate tapestry…and even though it was a chonky boi book, I read it pretty darn quickly. It seriously only took a couple days while at work.

I do believe that the paperback just came out…okay, no, the paperback is coming out September 5th. But you can currently get the book in hardcover, e-book, and audiobook. And I wish I was alert enough to make this review a bit more coherent, but honestly, there’s only so many ways that I can declare that I love a book and that I’m hooked and want more.

When are we getting book two, because I’m so ready to find out what happens next!

Well that’s all from me for today. Thank you so much for stopping by, and I’ll be back soon with more geeky content.

WIP Wednesday – Aug 2

Hey all, Sam and David back again today.

It’s our last day of work before driving to Gen Con…which starts tomorrow. Yes, that’s right. As soon as we get off work tonight (since Sam technically gets off around 2:30-3 AM), we’ll be making the 5-ish hour drive to Gen Con. Our first day at the convention will be a little bit sleep deprived, but that’s okay.

Sam

Reading: Guardians of Dawn: Zhara by S. Jae-Jones, Empire of Exiles by Erin M Evans, The City of Dusk by Tara Sim, The Heretic’s Guide to Devotion & Divinity by Eventyr Games

I don’t know why I didn’t include The Heretic’s Guide to Devotion & Divinity in my July Wrap-Up because I did read most of it in just a couple hours the other day so I’d be in a good position to talk about the book for Tabletop Tuesday.

Anyway, it’s been a pretty decent start to my August reads, and I’m hoping to read plenty more this month, which I’m excited about. It feels really great to have my reading drive back again.

Thornhedge by T. Kingfisher, Face the Night by Lani Forbes, Strength Check by Katherine McIntyre, Forged by Magic by Jenna Wolfhart

Why yes…I am already deviating from my August TBR, but you know what, I’m going to Gen Con, and I’m in a fun fantasy and geeky romance type of mood. I’ve really been pushing myself to try and keep up with all of my NetGalley releases the past couple of months, and it hasn’t left a whole lot of time for other reading, and there’s so many other books I want to read and talk about too…so hopefully Strength Check and Forged by Magic read quickly.

Watching: Sorry…I’m not reporting anything here. As long as the strike continues, I’m not talking about or promoting anything TV/Movie related. Yes, I realize that I could talk about anime, since that’s under a different organization and rights deal, and I could talk about some of the TTRPG APs that I watch…but I’m just going to not talk about anything in the watches until the WGA/SAG-AFTRA strike reaches a conclusion.

And yes, I am still watching stuff, and still keeping a list so I don’t forget. And I have seen some pretty cool things lately, so I hope an agreement can be reached so I can talk about everything again, but I moreso hope an agreement can be reached because the writers and actors deserve to get the recognition and pay they deserve for all the work they put into giving us so many shows and movies.

Writing: I’ve done blog writing, and I’ve done a little bit of Weekend Writer related creative writing…but not much else. However, I am attending the Gen Con Writer’s Symposium for the next four days…so hopefully that will give me some stuff to talk about for this category next week…and hopefully it will also help me really get back into the groove on writing more again.

Other: Literally all we’ve managed to do the past few days is sleep, get up and make food, go to work, then come home and repeat all over again…so there’s nothing I can really contribute to this particular section of the post this week. I haven’t done any gaming, I haven’t done any crafting or anything…yeah, I’ve basically just been reading and blogging.

David

Reading: So while waiting for Sam to get off of work I have managed to get a bit of reading done. Mostly manga is what I have been reading. ‘You Like Me, Not My Daughter? Volume 1-3’, Big Tittied Goth Girlfriends in Space Volumes 1&2, Uzaki-chan Wants to Hang Out Volumes 5&6, and I managed to finish the rest of Min-Maxing My TRPG Build in Another World Volume 3 Light Novel.

Out of my reads this week I think You Like Me Not My Daughter has been my favorite, but I enjoyed all of them. I definitely need more Big Tittied Goth Girlfriends in Space though.

Watching: One Piece episode 680 or so is where I am now. I’m super close to the final bout with Don Flamingo, at least I hope I am. I’ve managed to get to episode 22 of DBZ, which is just a watch while I do other stuff sort of thing lol. I am thinking about watching some Gurren Laggan again because I loved that series as well.

Printing: I have finished printing all of the goodies I plan to hand out at GenCon. I still need to clean up the brims that are left are quite a few of them but we should have plenty to hand out to people.

I have not made any progress on the Goblin Slayer or Green Goblin this week. I do however have finishing touches to add to a full scale dark saber from the Mandalorian. Oh and printed a bunch of tiny sugar cubes for our buddy Jeff, which was fun because I made sure he had a lot of different colors to choose from.

I’m hoping to have plenty of pictures and maybe some short videos to post up on the Instagram as we go have fun at GenCon. See you there fellow geeks!!!

Well, that’s all from us for today. Let us know what you’ve been up to in the comments, because we’d love to know. Thank you so much for stopping by, and we’ll be back soon with more geeky content.

Tabletop Tuesday: Heretic’s Guide to Devotion & Divinity by Eventyr Games

Hey all, Sam and David here.

And today, as we take some time to pack up the necessities for our excursion to Gen Con, we’re going to talk about a new TTRPG 3rd party supplement that Sam was SUPER excited about. Why was she excited about this one? Well, if you didn’t already know, Sam tends to be a cleric main, so having a supplement that is all about devotion and divinity and has a bunch of player options related to that is really interesting.

We backed the Kickstarter, and got our copy in a couple weeks ago, so plenty of time to give a casual read-through of the whole book and then pass along our thoughts.

So, welcome back to another Tabletop Tuesday, our weekly series where we sit down and discuss something related to a tabletop game. We could discuss a board game, a card game, a dice game, a TTRPG, a game convention, or a tabletop accessory….there are just so many options available.

Actually, next week we’ll be doing a Gen Con Wrap-Up, because even though we did our Gen Con Plans post already, who knows what stuff we’ll see or do that didn’t make it into that post…because sometimes we end up just wandering the exhibit hall and find glorious things we weren’t really looking for, but end up being really excited about.

All right, let’s get started.

Most of the time, the divine feels like little more than an afterthought in 5E Dungeons & Dragons. Too easily forgotten or ignored – something only clerics and paladins have a reason to care about.

Heretic’s Guide to Devotion & Divinity sets that right with 200 pages of divinely inspired content aimed at bringing the divine to life in 5E!

From zealous cults and relic hunts to divine player options and celestial horrors, Heretic’s Guide to Devotion & Divinity has everything you need to make the divine matter.

Don’t believe us? Oh, ye of little faith – check out this 40-page sample that has a selection of the book’s content and see for yourself!

Heretic’s Guide to Devotion & Divinity contains: 

6 ready-to-play relic hunts & 10 exalted encounters5 religious cults & 5 plug-and-play divine NPCs8 sacred subclasses & 25 new divine feats50 celestial creatures & other monsters60 mystical magic items, sacred vows, and divine boonsRules and guidelines for everything divine, including building pantheons, designing deities, running rituals, and much more!

Digital assets include VTT-ready maps, tokens, and handouts. 

Item Card Deck includes a total of 60 magic items, divine boon, and sacred vow handout cards. Grab the bundle to also get 3 bookmarks with notes and information to use at the table!

Our Thoughts

First off, you can snag this copy yourself by going to Eventyr’s site. Because of the Kickstarter, we did get the bundle with the digital assets, the item card deck, and the three bookmarks. Which honestly, we will definitely be making use of the cards and the bookmarks because those are so useful. It’s always nice to have an actual item card to hand players when they find and identify something cool.

Okay, from both a TTRPG standpoint and a creative writing standpoint, I (Sam) really like the potential of the information presented for creating what the divine looks like and what it represents and what the benefits and detriments to religious organizations, cult factions, and even just divine beings and abilities and worship are in general. I like the options it gives to think about how to conduct rituals and ceremonies and sacrifices, because it adds a whole extra layer and element to game play that could be really cool.

Obviously I really love accessories that can be used for both creative writing and for TTRPGs, and the rules and ideas in the first few chapters go past any specific mechanics for a specific edition of D&D–though it should be noted that this book is technically aimed at D&D 5e. A lot of the information can be easily adapted to other editions and game systems since it just gets you thinking about the broader concepts of divinity and acts of devotion in your world. Obviously more work would need to go into adapting any of the mechanics for game play, but for an experienced or willing game master, it shouldn’t be too difficult to handle.

I know that this is definitely something I will be using and bringing up in my gameplay in the future, whether I am playing the holy character or if I am running a game with a holy character. It definitely helps both player and GM have a framework for discussion when it comes to handling a deeper level of worldbuilding and roleplaying for divine characters.

Obviously we’ll want to play around with the subclasses and the feats and the magic items a little more to be able to give full thoughts on them, and to make sure they work with our game worlds without throwing things off-balance, but at first look, we can definitely say that we’re intrigued by the features and abilities given for the player character archetypes. It could add even more possibilities for fun and shenanigans in a campaign

Overall, this is a cool supplement, and we’re excited to bring it into our own gameplay. We just need our work schedules to readjust and allow us the time off together, especially the same time off as the friends that we game with, so we can play more.

Well that’s all from us for today. Thank you so much for stopping by and we’ll be back soon with even more geeky content.

July Wrap Up

Hey all, Sam here.

It’s my birthday!! I’ll be working today, but tomorrow after work, David and I will be heading to Gen Con, so that’s like my birthday present to myself: four days of tabletop games and geeking out with other awesome people. I look forward to this every single year. But first, let’s talk about today’s post topic, which is books read in the month of July.

Okay, so July was actually a pretty darn good month for reading, and I’m really happy about that. How good, you ask….Well, I did complete 24 books this month, which honestly feels amazing. As with all other monthly wrap-up posts, if I already have the review posted then I will include the link, and if the review is just scheduled for a specific upcoming date, then I’ll include that after my rating. Anything else and I’ll either have to wait for an opening in the possibly distant future, or I’ll have to just write up and schedule bonus posts.

Anyway, we have a lot to talk about, so we might as well get started now.

Wolfsong by T.J. Klune — 4 stars

A Crown of Ivy and Glass by Claire Legrand — 4.5 stars

Poisoned Empire by Elyse Thomson — 4.5 stars

That Time I Got Drunk and Saved a Demon by Kimberly Lemming — 4.5 stars

The Valkyrie’s Daughter by Tiana Warner — 4 stars

The Bookshop and the Barbarian by Morgan Stang — 3 stars

The Jasad Heir by Sara Hashem — 4.5 stars

One Piece Vol 4 by Eiichiro Oda — 4 stars (Review Coming Aug 21)

One Piece Vol 5 by Eiichiro Oda — 5 stars (Review Coming Aug 28)

One Piece Vol 6 by Eiichiro Oda — 4 stars (Review Coming Sept 4)

One Piece Vol 7 by Eiichiro Oda — 4 stars (Review Coming Sept 11)

One Piece Vol 8 by Eiichiro Oda — 4 stars (Review Coming Sept 18)

One Piece Vol 9 by Eiichiro Oda — 4 stars (Review Coming Sept 25)

Dragonfall by L.R. Lam — 4 stars

Ghosted by Amanda Quain — 4 stars

Role Playing by Cathy Yardley — 5 stars

The Sun and the Void by Gabriela Romero-Lacruz — 3.5 stars

Bonesmith by Nicki Pau Preto — 5 stars

The First Binding by R.R. Virdi — 5 stars (review coming Aug 3)

The Valkyrie’s Shadow by Tiana Warner — 4 stars

Guardians of Dawn: Zhara by S Jae-Jones — 4 stars

Lore Olympus Volume 4 by Rachel Smythe — 5 stars

Goblin Mode: How to Get Cozy, Embrace Imperfection, and Thrive in the Muck by McKayla Coyle — 4 stars

The Emotional Craft of Fiction: How to Write the Story Beneath the Surface by Donald Maass — 3.5 stars

There you have it…all the books I finished reading in the month of July. I’m already in the middle of some other books, and should be finishing them very soon, so hopefully August will also be a productive reading month.

Goodreads is telling me that I only need to read like 1.5 books per month for the rest of the year to complete my reading challenge goal…which probably means that I need to increase my goal, since I’ll definitely be passing the original goal number in August.

What books did you read last month? Anything I should be picking up?

Well, that’s all from me for now. David and I will be back later with our regularly scheduled Tabletop Tuesday post. Thank you so much for stopping by, and I’ll be back soon with more geeky content.

Manga Review: One Piece Vol 1 by Eiichiro Oda

Hey all, Sam here.

I finally took the plunge into One Piece. David talks about it all the time (much like he does with Dragon Ball Z and Naruto), and I had originally decided that reading the manga would be the faster and easier way for me to catch up with the series…but with the announcement of the live action adaptation coming, I also got talked into watching the anime….so now I’m both reading and watching it.

Over the next couple of months worth of Manga Mondays, this delightful blog series where I review volumes of manga I’ve read on Mondays, the plan is to review the volumes that will be covered with the live-action season. After that, I’ll probably switch off to some other manga for a little while, but I’ll throw some One Piece reviews into the rotation as I work my way through the whole series.

Anyway, I read this first volume back in October 2022, when I was finally starting to break out of my reading slump a bit. I think when I read this volume (and a couple others), I read something like 12 books in a week’s span of time, and it was the best I had felt in a very long time.

So, yes, again, it has been a bit since I’ve read this, but I just watched the first episodes of the anime a couple weeks ago, so that refreshed the events in my mind a little.

Let’s get started.

Join Monkey D. Luffy and his swashbuckling crew in their search for the ultimate treasure, One Piece!

As a child, Monkey D. Luffy dreamed of becoming King of the Pirates. But his life changed when he accidentally gained the power to stretch like rubber…at the cost of never being able to swim again! Years, later, Luffy sets off in search of the “One Piece,” said to be the greatest treasure in the world…

As a child, Monkey D. Luffy was inspired to become a pirate by listening to the tales of the buccaneer “Red-Haired” Shanks. But his life changed when Luffy accidentally ate the Gum-Gum Devil Fruit and gained the power to stretch like rubber…at the cost of never being able to swim again! Years later, still vowing to become the king of the pirates, Luffy sets out on his adventure…one guy alone in a rowboat, in search of the legendary “One Piece,” said to be the greatest treasure in the world…

My Thoughts

Rating: 4 stars

What an interesting start to a series. Yes, some of the Devil Fruit powers seem a bit ridiculous…but you know what, at least it seems like there was some world-building/lore/thought put into the abilities and side-effects and such.

And okay, fine, I guess I’m kind of a sucker for a series that features a main character who believes that they are going to do something seemingly impossible…Luffy becoming the King of the Pirates by finding the One Piece, Asta in Black Clover becoming the Wizard King…especially when the main group of characters come together and become the sort of found family that doesn’t give up on each other.

Honestly, there are signs of that in this first volume, the determination to follow your dreams and protect what’s important to you, and that becomes even more clear in the next handful of volumes. Whether they are part of his crew or not, Luffy understands the importance of having a goal, a dream, a treasure, and he tries to help where he can.

This volume is also where I declared Roronoa Zoro to be my favorite…which my husband (AKA David) expected to be the case (although he says later that Nico Robin will become my favorite; we’ll see). I don’t know. I guess I just like a badass sword fighter. (And okay, it doesn’t hurt that I also really like the English voice actor for Zoro–he also voices Yami in the English dub of Black Clover, so, you know, another badass swordsman.

But yeah, solid first volume. It has a decent introduction to a few characters, as well as giving a bit of detail about the world and the magic and the history. It certainly had enough in character development and action and everything to make me want to keep reading, which is what I’m looking for. In a first volume there has to be the hint of something with the characters that makes me want to get to know them better. I don’t need a world deep-dive to get started, and it’s totally fine to spread the world-building out—actually it’s definitely better to spread all of that out.

So yeah, Luffy is pretty cool. I love Zoro already. Nami’s okay so far, I guess. I’m excited to get deeper into the series.

All right, well that is all from me for today. Thank you so much for stopping by, and I’ll be back soon with more geeky content.

NetGalley Review: Guardians of Dawn: Zhara by S Jae-Jones

Hey all, Sam here.

We are just a few days away from Gen Con…and David and I are trying to adjust to our work schedules…for this week and next week they are a little wonky because of our vacation as well as some co-worker vacations, but it’ll be okay. We’ll get through the next few days at work and then we’ll get four days straight of geeking out, which is always a fun time.

I will admit that it has made me feel a little bit of pressure to keep my blog posts and my blogging schedule consistent though. We’re on like a 180 day blog streak, and I like seeing that achievement notification pop up each day. And I’ve been able to mostly keep up with my NetGalley reads and reviews as well, even though there are some books I still haven’t been able to get to quite yet, and I have a pretty big backlog thanks to my nearly two year reading slump. Honestly, I already have my regular posts for August planned out and written up on a calendar. The only major changes will be adding in bonus posts if I sneak in some extra reads. And yet…it still doesn’t feel like I’m doing enough.

That’s the problem I’ve always seemed to have when it comes to my blogging journey. I know that I’m doing a lot and putting out a decent amount of content, but I still feel like I’m slacking, like I’m not reading enough or blogging enough or interacting enough…which is silly because I’m back to reading 20 books or so a month, and I’m blogging every day, and I interact with every comment I get (which is very few) and try to reach out to others content creators too. It all takes time, and there’s only so much time in a day. So I know that logically I do enough, but I can’t help the way I feel, and sadly I feel like I’m not achieving my potential.

Anyway, today I have another slightly early book review for all of you. I feel so grateful that I get early access to these books on NetGalley thanks to the publishers, and at least for now I’m mostly getting the reviews up around the release day, although I hope in future to be able to review books a couple weeks early. I just need to work myself up to that point (hopefully).

Don’t worry, there’s not long to wait for this book…it will be released on August 1st (in the US).

Let’s jump into the review.

Sailor Moon meets Cinder in Guardians of Dawn: Zhara, the start of a new, richly imagined fantasy series from S. Jae-Jones, the New York Times bestselling author of Wintersong.

Magic flickers.
Love flames.
Chaos reigns.

Magic is forbidden throughout the Morning Realms. Magicians are called abomination, and blamed for the plague of monsters that razed the land twenty years before.

Jin Zhara already had enough to worry about—appease her stepmother’s cruel whims, looking after her blind younger sister, and keeping her own magical gifts under control—without having to deal with rumors of monsters re-emerging in the marsh. But when a chance encounter with an easily flustered young man named Han brings her into contact with a secret magical liberation organization called the Guardians of Dawn, Zhara realizes there may be more to these rumors than she thought. A mysterious plague is corrupting the magicians of Zanhei and transforming them into monsters, and the Guardians of Dawn believe a demon is responsible.

In order to restore harmony and bring peace to the world, Zhara must discover the elemental warrior within, lest the balance between order and chaos is lost forever.

My Thoughts

Rating: 4 stars

I have to say that declaring this book as Sailor Moon meets Cinder is a fairly accurate comparison. I definitely got the Sailor Scout vibe from the Guardians, especially since our protagonist Zhara has a cat companion. I don’t know exactly how accurate the Cinder comparison would be, aside from the elements that are Cinderella related. (Because yeah, I haven’t read the Lunar Chronicles).

Overall though, I fell into this story really quickly, and I found the writing and the descriptions to be really nice. What’s always interesting to me is the formality in the characters conversing with each other, and how they address each other. Just that one small element really shifts the tone and vibe of the story. It’s just a great cultural perspective.

There’s just something about being able to use the rules of propriety, the rules of formal addressing, to hide any wrong-doing done by some characters onto others. It makes the conversation have more layers and undertones that some readers would enjoy reading into. It adds more complexity to the characters, their relationships, and the plot/action of the story as well.

The magic system here was also interesting, although I would like to learn even more about it. What can I say? I like getting deep rich world-building in my fantasy reads.

Oh, and the characters…that was a fun time. I enjoyed that both Zhara and Han were adorably into reading light romance novels. It was so cute that Zhara would dissolve into “good looking giggles” at times when around someone she found to be attractive. I enjoyed that Han was a bit awkward and somewhat like a puppy…cute and fun, but maybe not the smartest of the litter (to continue the puppy metaphor). Then when you add Xu, Han’s friend and protector, and then Yuli, a tall warrior princess from another country…it becomes an interesting core group to follow.

This was my first book by S. Jae-Jones, and I read it fairly quickly. I might have to go back and snatch up some of the author’s previous books to check those out as well.

Well, that is all from me for today. Thank you so much for stopping by, and I’ll be back soon with more geeky content.

August TBR

Hey all, Sam here.

Wow, okay, so we’re at the end of July, and I think things went pretty well with the TBR for the month, so we’ll do it again for August. I mean, okay, I guess it helps that I’m really trying to keep up with my NetGalley release schedule the past few months. There are certain books that I need to read each month if I want to get their reviews up around their release dates.

But I also know there’s a bunch of other book releases, books that I wasn’t approved for on NetGalley that I also want to read, so we’ll see what happens. My TBRs might end up getting shaken up or even tossed out the window.

So, first up: my NetGalley reads, and I’ll put the book’s release date up with it so you have an idea of when I’d like to have it read and reviewed.

The Salt-Black Tree by Lilith Saintcrow (Aug 8), Thornhedge by T. Kingfisher (Aug 15), Face the Night by Lani Forbes (Aug 15), The Midnight Kingdom by Tara Sim (Aug 22)

Glancing through the rest of this post, I think it’s safe to say I’m definitely in a fantasy mood. Which makes a lot of sense because I really enjoy fantasy and also there are a whole bunch of awesome sounding fantasy books being released.

I have a few more NetGalley reads as well, taking me through the end of August and into September.

He Who Drowned the World by Shelley Parker-Chan (Aug 22), Her Radiant Curse by Elizabeth Lim (Aug 29), Daughter of Winter and Twilight by Helen Corcoran (Sept 4), City of Bones by Martha Wells (Sept 5)

Here’s my question for myself…for a couple of these it’s been a long while since I read their first books…should I try and squeeze in re-reads, should I just read some reviews and see if that’s enough to refresh my memory, or should I just dive in and hope for the best?

Then there’s some books that I’ve had on my shelves for a little while. These non-NetGalley books are a little more prone to changing depending on my mood and my reading speed and all of that.

For non-NetGalley reads I tentatively have Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros, The Serpent & the Wings of Night by Carissa Broadbent, Ink Blood Sister Scribe by Emma Torzs, and Putting the Fact in Fantasy edited by Dan Koboldt

Obviously, this is probably not all that I’ll read in the month of August, but this seems like a pretty good starting point. I know there’s more than a few books I’ve downloaded from Kindle Unlimited that I’m also interested in reading, and depending on how many of those I get into, I might start doing bonus review posts to cover them all. I know there’s a lot of books I need to start drafting reviews for, because currently most of my book reviews are focused on NetGalley reads.

Anyway…are there any books that you’re hoping to read in August? Let me know…you know, just in case there’s some book that I absolutely need to add to my TBR.

That’s all from me for today. Thank you so much for stopping by, and I’ll be back soon with more geeky content.