Forrest > Recent Status Updates

I'm very seriously considering ditching my "smart" phone for a dumb phone (light phone 2) and e-reader (Boox Palma 2). Tell me how wrong I am.

The story of the "importation" (read: theft) of a statue of the Great Mother into Rome is downright Lovecraftian: a large black meteorite carried in by flagellates as an addition to the Roman pantheon. Cthulhu Invictus, anyone? Yeah, you can bet I'm using that in my TTRPGs.

"The Readers of the Sands" is a strange, yet subtle tale, the sort of story that balances in a razor, but never falls one way or another. It is a quiet tale of four individuals, each with an affinity for sand, each with their own insights and talents, all of them distantly cognizant of something Other in the shifting patterns, something sentient and, perhaps, inimical to them, individually and collectively. 5 stars.

I've read my share of Leiber's Fafhrd and Gray Mouser tales, but not "The Jewels in the Forest," until now. These are not mere Murder Hobos, but people with real emotion. I could have used these role models in my early TTRPG days (I started when I was 9): Adventurers, but not sociopaths. It's the humanity of the two that I love. And the pulp-action adventure and mystery don't hurt. Five stars.

It's been over ten years since I reviewed "We," and people are still getting butt-hurt over it. I've never been so insulted in my life as in the comments. Those who know me know I'm a pretty nice guy, in actuality, and I do have at least half a brain (which half is up for debate). But for those in whose head my review lives rent-free: I'm not sorry.

Oof (again). "Bookends" is a gut punch. Grief is at the heart of it all, grief and loss, both of which I've experienced in bucketloads. Do not read this if you are dealing with an open emotional wound, specifically the death of a closed loved one. This story will wreck you. Then again, it might just open some doors. Approach with caution. Five stars.

Ah, so that's what "Proles" originally meant: baby makers/breeders.

"A Thousand Hundred Years" presses the boundaries of Fisher's "Eerie" and "Weird", namely "that which should be there, but is missing" and "that which is there, but should not be," to great emotional effect. The story is a strange admixture of tears and fears, of melancholy and hope, a tale of being pulled in multiple directions, some good, some bad, all at once. It is life and loss in all its complexity. Five stars.

"Laughter Ever After" strikes a hopeful tone for a book collector's story. And it's set in Biggleswade, not far from where I lived in England. It's on the dull side, but that's kind of the whole point of the story. 3 stars

"Dancers," while weird, was just too soft-spoken for my tastes. It might even be an (gasp) "ineffective" story, trying too hard to be too many things at once. Three stars.

I'm not fond of the title "And Maybe the Parakeet Was Correct," but I am quite fond of the story. A side-passage into sports journalism leads to a side-passage into a sport that has no heroes, only villains. The stakes here might be much higher than your standard football match and there is no willing audience and no cheering. On the contrary, no one wants to be a part of this match, though some must. Five stars.

"The Inconsolable" presses deep on the depression button, then asks "what is faith?" and "what is comfort?" It's a poignant tale about breakups and new beginnings, along with the caveats inherent in leaving a piece of one's old life, and a piece of one's own soul, behind. Five stars.

Okay, now I see what Beard is doing: using Cicero and Catiline's confrontation to show some historiographical methods. This makes sense now. On with the show.

"The Tale of Hauk," by Poul Anderson: Viking undead undead undead undead. Three stars. The epic "poetic" language came across stilted to me. Even ten-year-old-OMG-I'm-new-to-D&D-and-everything-is-so-awesome Forrest would have balked at the choppy only halfway-historically-accurate prose. What can I say? I was a jaded snob at a very young age. I blame Lewis Carroll. So, not bad, not great.

Interesting place to start a historical narrative: in the middle, at an important crossroads, but far lessimportant crossroads than other events I can think of. I'm curious how this branches out.

"Deducted From Your Share in Paradise" defies expectations in every way. It's a story of maintaining innocense while in a maelstrom of selfish choices, about endings and new beginnings, and possibly about heaven and hell. But it's not so cut and dried as these pairings. One must worm their way between these things and question the very meaning of their outmost bounds. Or maybe, boundaries need to be ignored. 5 stars.

Asterix finally gets s mention!

"The Seventh Card," like its protagonist, ambles along at a slow pace, languidly moving, then melding with a soft sense of the strange, not sudden or harsh, but gently enveloping him (and us) into a softly spoken, but inevitably odd new reality. Four stars.