Proven Guilty (Jim Butcher) book review

The eighth book of The Dresden Files moves back to a smaller scale after the apocalyptic trimmings of Dead Beat. The book focuses on the relationships Harry has with Murphy and with the Carpenter family, whilst Harry investigates the odd murders occurring at a horror convention. I mention in my review of Dead Beat that the Dresden books aren’t horrors; this is especially true of … Continue reading Proven Guilty (Jim Butcher) book review

Dead Beat (Jim Butcher) review

Returning to my read-through of The Dresden Files before the next book gets published… The Dresden Files aren’t horror stories, despite the trappings of vampires, zombies and the odd occasional evil spirit. They’re very firmly rooted in the Urban Fantasy tradition, drawing a lot from the hard-boiled detective stories, although with a level of world-building that most writers can only envy. However, Dead Beat, the … Continue reading Dead Beat (Jim Butcher) review

Blood Rites (Jim Butcher) book review

Love and family are important themes in the sixth book of The Dresden Files and are brought into sharp juxtaposition with the setting for much of the story: the set of a pornographic movie. Much of the action revolves around Harry tracking down the source of a curse that is killing several of the actresses in the production, while the White Court vampires show an … Continue reading Blood Rites (Jim Butcher) book review

Death Masks (Jim Butcher) book review

The fifth book of The Dresden Files is a damn good book. Two major plots wind their way through the book: a hunt for the Shroud of Turin, and a duel with one of the major vampires of the Red Court, but it is the character interactions that make me like this one so much. Butcher is primarily dealing with the themes of temptation and … Continue reading Death Masks (Jim Butcher) book review

Summer Knight (Jim Butcher) book review

The fourth book in The Dresden Files does not quite reach the heights that the third and fifth books do, but it is still a worthy book. Harry is not in a good place as the book begins, still reeling from the events of Grave Peril (and this almost a year later), and things get steadily worse for our hero as the book commences. From … Continue reading Summer Knight (Jim Butcher) book review

Grave Peril (Jim Butcher) book review

And this is where it gets good. Grave Peril, the third book in Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files series, starts about a year after the events of Fool Moon. It’s rather worth emphasising that point: this book takes place a year after the last one. Many series like packing as much events into a short space of time as possible. This is not the case in … Continue reading Grave Peril (Jim Butcher) book review

AD&D Review – I2: Tomb of the Lizard King

Looking at I2: Tomb of the Lizard King after having spent quite a bit of time looking at the pre-1982 adventures, I can see a change coming over the AD&D adventure landscape. We’d got a hint of it with U1: The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh, but Tomb of the Lizard King is particularly noteworthy. It starts with three event-based encounters where the players meet the … Continue reading AD&D Review – I2: Tomb of the Lizard King

Fool Moon (Jim Butcher) book review

The second book in The Dresden Files, Fool Moon, sees Harry Dresden come up against werewolves, about six months after the events in the first book. And, in the sense of not letting anyone get left out, Jim Butcher includes four different types of werewolves, thus covering all the bases. It’s an impressive bit of world-building, but the writing isn’t quite good enough to sustain … Continue reading Fool Moon (Jim Butcher) book review

Storm Front (Jim Butcher) review

With the fifteenth volume of Jim Butcher’s The Dresden Files series about to be released (just over a fortnight away as I write these words), I thought it was an appropriate time to reread the series. And to write a few words about it. I haven’t followed the series since its inception; I was finally persuaded to read the series a few years ago, and … Continue reading Storm Front (Jim Butcher) review

AD&D Review: Steading of the Hill Giant Chief

This is a reprint of a review I first posted on RPG Geek. Dungeon Module G1: Steading of the Hill Giant Chief was the first adventure module released by TSR for the Dungeons & Dragons game. The scenario debuted at Origins ’78 as part of the D&D tournament there, and was shortly available for purchase by D&D fans. A previous scenario, Temple of the Frog … Continue reading AD&D Review: Steading of the Hill Giant Chief