And the last set, hot on its heels. I guess this means I played seven games in two days, so really, if you want to play some before the comp ends on the 15th, there's plenty of time. Anyway, the games: Violet, April in Paris, Escape from the Underworld, Everybody Dies, Opening Night, Berrost's Challenge, and Grief. Now go play for yourself!

Well, this is hardly punctual, but life gets in the way sometimes. Anyway, some more comp reviews: LAIR of the CyberCow, Snack Time!, The Lucubrator, Magic, Ananachronist, Trein, Piracy 2.0, Riverside, and Dracula's Underground Crypt.

I guess this year everyone is blogging their IF Comp reviews as they play the games, not all at the end, so far be it for me to do anything different. This is actually better on the whole, since getting a whole wodge of reviews right at the end is kind of like trying to eat an entire cake at one sitting. Anyway, so far I've played these: Afflicted, Channel Surfing, Cry Wolf, A Date With Death, A Martian Odyssey, The Missing Piece, The Ngah Angah School of Forbidden Wisdom, Nightfall, Recess At Last, Red Moon, Search for the Ultimate Weapon, When Machines Attack, The Absolute Worst IF Game in History, Buried In Shoes, Freedom, The Hall of the Fount of Artois, The Lighthouse, Nerd Quest, Project Delta. Yeah, I know 19 is pretty wodge-y in itself, but at least you're not getting them on the same day as a dozen other people. Anyway, more next weekend, maybe.

I'm not really reviewing books this year (or posting at all, if it comes to that), but here's one anyway:
( The First Law series )

So I'm not exactly sure what is up with the bookclub this year, but here's what I've been reading.

( Various books )

In addition to reading books, I recently got a review copy of Le Réprobateur which is an interesting interactive digital media thing. My review of that is here.

Ok, this is my last review post of the year, so I guess I'm obliged to list my top books reviewed this year. But first one more review squeaks across the line:

( The Dresden Files (books 1-5) )

Now then, the best-of for the year. It looks like I did 107 book reviews, so I should probably pick a top couple. Here are nine, not taken from non-books or re-reads:

• Blankets: This graphic novel is the best argument I have seen for the existence of graphic novels as a genre.
• The Company series (finishing with The Sons of Heaven): An sf series about time travel, immortal cyborgs, and all that good stuff. Long but worth it.
• The Porcelain Dove: A fairy-tale version of the French Revolution, with magic, but if this makes you think it is all spun-sugar and nice you are reading the wrong fairy tales.
• Prince of Foxes: This is a romance in the Prisoner-of-Zenda sense of the term, set in Renaissance Italy and with all the machinations, heroics, and art that implies.
• Scott Pilgrim series (and book 4): A charming set of graphic novels that blends a variety of genres together into a romance/comedy/slacker/videogame thing, drawn in a Western style but heavy manga influence.
• Second Person: A collection of theories, how-tos, and surveys of the field in some of my favorite areas — interactive fiction, RPGs, and videogames — by both critics and authors.
• Stumbling on Happiness: A discussion of the nature of happiness, what it means to be happy and how to get there (or why we don't get there). It has philosophy for the philosophers, psychology for the psychologists, and stories about people in psychological experiments for everyone else.
• The Time Traveler's Wife: An sf novel written by someone who's not an sf author, but working out way better than that makes you think. Similarly better than what you think of if I describe it as a predestined romance. Just read it, seriously.
• The Visual Display of Quantitative Information: Graph porn is its own reward.

In addition, I wrote some reviews that I thought were funny or insightful or charmingly meandering or something, even if the book didn't make my best-of list. My top five of those:

• Classic adventure week: Several famous adventure novels, compared.
• Imaro and Kull: Exile of Atlantis: Two Conan-type novels and how they compare to the main thing.
• Midshipwizard Halcyon Blithe: How you can deduce everything about this book from its title.
• New Amsterdam: I gripe about vampire novels for a while.
• Replay: A time-loop story, and how it compares to Groundhog Day.
• The Sundering and Conventions of War: Some random bits about to write a space-battles novel.

And that was 2007!

Couple of books. Also, I saw Charlie Wilson's War, which is recommended and is kind of like a Heinlein novel as written by Aaron Sorkin.

( Watchtower )
( Singularity Sky )
( Should You Leave? )

Next up: The Dresden Files, I think.

Couple of reviews. I also read Making Money, but it turns out I'm too distressed by the Alzheimer's thing to write a review, and anyway it's exactly like you expect, which is fine.

( Scott Pilgrim Gets It Together )
( Inspector Montalbano series )
( The Jewel in the Crown )

Up next: Watchtower, Singularity Sky, Her Smoke Rose Up Forever.

Books, thus:

( A Walk in the Woods )
( The Sword-Edged Blonde )
( Halting State )

Up next: finally getting my hands on a couple Inspector Montalbano books. Also, Scott Pilgrim #4, hooray.

Another couple.

( Chinatown Beat )
( Feersum Endjinn )

Next up: A Walk in the Woods, The Shape of Water, The Sword-edged Blonde

Just two this time, but they're on the long side. I have otherwise been busy reading unidentified research materials and writing IF comp reviews (it's conceivable some of them will be amusing even without familiarity with the games/IF community, but I dunno).

( Souls and Bodies )
( The Sons of Heaven )

Next up: I don't actually have anything scheduled to read next, but for those few of you not from ifmud, I should point out Rob has a web comic.

Another couple books here, usual drill.

( Was )
( White Teeth )
( A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius )

Up next: as you no doubt know, October is the Annual IF Competition, the happiest time of year, so I am a bit preoccupied with playing and reviewing games for that. I expect more books will turn up at some point, though.

I have some other things coming up but I figure I'd get these out there now.

( New Amsterdam )
( Imaro / Imaro 2 )
( Consider the Lobster )

Currently: Was; next up: White Teeth and A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius. (This is my contribution to the 106 books meme.)

As you recall, this has been Classic Adventure Novel week. Or more like Classic Adventure Novel Twenty Days Or So, but close enough. Since there are a bunch of these, I have provided some helpful summary notes at the beginning of each review.

I think if I had to summarize the main difference between these books and the movie versions of them I've seen, it would be way less swordfighting. I don't know why this is -- it could be because the authors didn't know enough about swordfighting to write an accurate scene, or because there's a modern fashion for it in period movies, or because on the page it's just as easy to convey a tense conflict between two guys, but on-screen you can't do the same emotional stuff as easily with just talking.

( The Mark of Zorro )
( The Scarlet Pimpernel )
( The Sea Hawk )
( Prince of Foxes )
( Ashenden )
( The Count of Monte Cristo )

Next up: I collapse after finishing Count of Monte Cristo. Then I read New Amsterdam.

Four short books this time, clearing the queue for more.

( Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim )
( How to be an Antiques Detective )
( The Damned Season )
( Cutting Up Touches )

Up next: as you know, it is Classic Adventure Novel week. I am starting with The Mark of Zorro and going from there.

Trivia note: two of the three books I took on my trip involved archons. (The third was the first Dresden files book, which I think I am going to wait to review until I've read a few more.)

( Majestrum )
( Red Seas Under Red Skies )
( etc. )

Next up: man, who knows.

I have a fair chunk of these, so I guess I'm going to split them into pre-trip and ones I read on the trip.

( White Noise )
( Fantasy: The Best of the Year, 2006 Edition )
( Carte Blanche )

More soon.

Steadily working my way through the pile. Here's what's up now:

( Dhalgren )
( 1066 and All That )
( Precious Dragon )
( Blighted Isle )

Up next: the Lies of Locke Lamora sequel, which I am assured is thoroughly gripping.

More books. Also, I saw The Bourne Ultimatum tonight. I've gone back and forth on whether I like the tropes in this series (there's always a corrupt superior officer, Bourne never loses conflicts, the action sequences are almost entirely dialogueless and paced too fast to fully comprehend them), but with this one I think I'm a convert and willing to accept this as a viable style on its own. Also, man, the security camera setup in London is such a gift to this kind of movie.

( The Ghost Brigades )
( Winnetou )
( Island of the Sequined Love Nun )

Next up: Dhalgren, 1066 And All That, the Lies of Locke Lamora sequel. Possibly even in that order.

Well, uh, here are some books.

( Oh Pure and Radiant Heart )
( Samuel R. Delany talk )
( Soon I Will Be Invincible )

Up next: The Ghost Brigades and then Winnetou. At the Delany reading, I also saw that the last Company book is out, and there's something by Ted Chiang so, yeah, expect those in the near future.