Dyson's Delves

So +Lulu.com Self-Publishing is doing another sale. Something like 30% off till April 12th with the code APRIL30.

I just received some goods from the last sale they had. Thought I'd ping a review of Dyson's Delves I and II so people who were interested or sitting on the fence have an idea of what the product is.

I ordered the hardcovers from Lulu. They are very professional looking with a nice shine to them. Each book is 152 pages long. They are written under the OGL and include the license.

Dyson's books are roughly broken in two parts. The first part is a map with appropriate level information and monsters located in that map. The delves often includes entrances and exits, wandering monsters, and game mechanics. 

The mechanics are minimal. For example, looking at Dyson's Delve Level 9, an open room is home to four giant scorpions stated out in the following manner: AC: 2, HD: 4*, hp: 20, 18, 20, 19, ATT: 1d10/1d10/1d4+poison, Mv: 150 (50), Sv: F2, M: 11). That is old school for sure!

I enjoy +Dyson Logos work. I enjoy it on his G+ page. When the opportunity came to get a good sale, I took it. For me, this is map porn. That might not be for everyone.

For those who aren't interested in the adventures but are in maps, good news. the second part of Dyson's Delves has maps with lined blank pages opposite them so that you can customize them. For an example, check out his work with a preview page over here: https://rpgcharacters.wordpress.com/zerobarrier/dysons-delves/

One of the things I love about his maps, are the names. Hard to beat Oubliette of the Laughting Knight or The Ruins of Corvel on the Mount. They tickle my brain and make me ponder where I could put them in my own setting. In an era choking on mega dungeons and adventure paths, these are a true return to form. 

My only problem, is that because I love maps, the small size of the books, which come in at 6 by 9, is not appealing. I personally would love it if he took a cue from Marvel or DC comics and did something like an Omnibus or Absolute edition with larger books, perhaps oversized, and added some art and other bits like larger random tables of weird things (but then again, there's the Fourthcore Alphabet for that). That's not a strike against it, just my own personal wish list.

The maps are available from here: http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/dysonlogos

If you can afford it, the hardcovers looks slick and I recommend them.

Ladies of Power! Super Hero Woman on Sale

Amazon and Google Play are doing some sales on comics featuring strong women. For those who want some visual inspiration, some of these quite new, the following should appeal:

Captain Marvel Vol. 1: Higher, Further, Faster, More : $2.99 :

Captain Marvel Vol. 2: Down: $2.99: 

Captain Marvel Vol. 1: Pursuit of Flight: $2.99: 

X-23: Vol 1: The Killing Dream: $2.99

X-23: Target X: $2.99

Ms Marvel Vol 1: No Normal: $2.99

Storm Vol 1: Make it Rain: $2.99


Elektra Vol 1: Bloodlines: $2.99


Black Widow: The Name of the Rose: $2.99


Black Widow: Kiss or Kill: $2.99

Fantasy and Historical Kindle Sales aka Cheap Reads!

I'm going to start off with some questions asking for any reader's opinions of these books that are on sale and then break out some recommendations. If you'd like to see a different format in future posts, please let me know!



The Alloy of Law by Brandon Sanderson. I read the original trilogy and thought the end was a nice twist on the whole hero of prophecy. Has anyone read the new series by Brandon? For $2.99 is it a good delve?



Ben Bova has several books in his Grand Tour series. Anyone read them and have any comments, concerns or recommendations on which are good and which to skip? I've read Ben Bova's Orion series and loved it. That was some great stuff but while Orion was a little more Science Fantasy these look to be more on the science fiction side of the genre.




Last one asking questions is The Knight by Gene Wolf. I've read some of his stuff decades ago and I've heard positives and negatives about this series. So for anyone whose read it, how does it stack up? Is it manageable?

Now for recommendations:

Both of these are by Steven Burst. Both in the same setting. I found them a little dry to be honest but thought that they were entertaining and the time lapse between the two books is nothing as these aren't short lived people. The Phoenix Guards is the first in this series and on sale while Five Hundred Years After takes up the mantle well, Five Hundred Years later! I've seen them described as fantasy based versions of the Three Musketeers.

Note only the first book in the series is on sale!



Lord of the Isles by David Drake. I've only read the first three books in between numerous things that were happening in the personal live at the time but it's on the scale and scope of other series like Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time and A Game of Thrones. There were some great characters that I'm looking forward to getting back into when time and attention span allow.



Anyone know Glen Cook? Did the Black Company series. It was a fantasy series that focused on a group of mercenaries. That series was grim and gritty and had characters dying left and right including the leadership of the company itself!

I've still found some of those books my most enjoyed fantasy bits and yanked whole campaign elements into my game from them. His Instrumentalities of the Night wasn't as good to me, but still worth reading and for $2.99 you can check out the first book in the series.



If I've missed any on the list that are great, give a shout out and a link! If I've missed any that are on sale but aren't on the list, throw those in too! It's a great time to be a fantasy reader!

Family and Black Friday

Outside of my mother, my family lives outside of Chicago. Every now and again, sometimes for no reason, my mom and I visit her brother and wife in semi-nearby Teagarden. It's under a two hour drive and we usually stop at one of the various rest stops and pick up some coffee and baked goods or something of that nature.

Yesterday's trip was no different. We made it out there in great time. The traffic was minimal on the way out. We did have a slight problem in that there are new roads that make the trip a little different. At one point as we pulled off of I think it was 31, we saw a mound of ravens. As the car drew closer, that ravens scattered to the skies and under them lay a dead deer. It had seen better days.

While that might have been a grim reminder of mortality and the dangers of animal crossings and interaction with humans, it was very visually impressive. Sorry if that sounds morbid but I'd never seen something of that nature so up close before with the crows and it was striking.

The traffic was even better on the return trip although there were no macabre sights.. While there was a slight amount of snow on the way out, it was clear sailing on the way in.

It was good to visit with my uncle.

I jokingly call him the Great Bear Hunter.

Like many people his age, in this case 78, he's done a lot. He is still at this moment doing things. This includes doing charity work as well as farming.  This includes pruning trees, making his own maple syrup from trees, growing potatoes, sweet potatoes, onions, and pepper in addition to a variety of fruit.

I don't know where he gets the energy. He is a boundless machine always on the move and always onto something. For example, he has bird feeders and I managed to snag a picture of a woodpecker. We have them in Chicago but it's rare that one is essentially an outstretched arm away.

His wife Barbara, doesn't tell as many good stories but she is a great cook. The food we enjoyed was simple well prepared and in huge portions. It included all of the 'standard' fare such as turkey, ham, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, rolls, green bean casserole, stuffing, gravy, cranberry sauce (home made)

 and other goods that I've probably not given a proper nod to like the deviled eggs, which I don't eat.

All in all, it was a very pleasant time. My mom enjoyed herself greatly and that makes my own life much easier.

My own contributions were even more simple. I brought over a variety pack of Red Hook. My uncle was very pleased with it. Apparently he is a fan of ales which despite knowing him my whole life, I've never realized. Here he is "This is a hell of a beer." If only everyone was so easy to please.

My mom joked that she had spent all morning on baking this cake. It's a Sam's Club Cake. While Wal-Mart and the Waltons may be terrible people in what they do to the economy and people's lives, they make a damn fine cake.

I could feel my blood crystallizing to sugar as I ate it. It also reminded me to bring my own coffee for Barb's coffee machine. I don't know what brand or type they use but it is some of the worst coffee I've ever had. I keep pouring milk into it to give it some saving grace and by the time I was done, was drinking milk instead of coffee.

When I got home last night, I saw that Microsoft was doing a fantastic giveaway of music on their X-Box Music app. To get the deals though, you had to download the Music Deal App. Which when you clicked on the music, took you back to the Music App. Every time.

You suck Microsoft. Seriously ,that's just terrible design.

But thanks for the free music. You're okay in that venue at least. Some great stuff there and some stuff that I already owned, but remastered and expanded and deluxe versions. Good stuff and the price was awesome. Some stuff I also would never buy, like numerous country albums, but my mom is a huge fan and so burned onto CD for her!

I did burn through my blank's though/ Between my mom and me, while I appreciate the cloud and keeping everything there, I like to have physical media as a backup. So I ordered some blanks from Amazon. Officemax had them cheaper but then you had to pay tax and a good chunk for shipping and handling.

I then saw Amazon had a coupon for 30% off any book (code HOLIDAY30).  Since I'm a prime member, I had to decide if I was going to get anything. I narrowed it down between two books. One for 'fun' the other for gaming. The one for gaming is Inner Sea Gods for Pathfinder. I'm more interested in the background stuff. Some of the gods are fun and have analogs in traditional fantasy roles like Gorum for Tempus from Forgotten Realms. 

The other one I'm looking at is The Italian Wars 1494-1559: War, State and Society in Early Modern Europe. The KINDLE book is over $25 so with the 30% off, the physical book is probably a better deal. I freely admit that this is due to watching the two different Borgia series.

I went with Inner Sea Gods. Bad gamer! Then again, I'm running some Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition using the Pathfinder setting. I wanted a different set from Forgotten Realms. If you love what Wizards of the Coast has done with the setting, great. I hate it. If I ever ran Forgotten Realms again, it'd probably be with the setting pre-4th edition.

I also saw an author note that a compendium of five books, The Nameless Dwarf, was on sale for 99 cents in kindle format. How can you beat 99 cents for five books? They would have to be almost comedically bad to not get value out of that.

I'm probably going to check out Half Priced Books later on today and hit up the Microsoft Music store again. Usually Amazon with their various deals on Black Friday, has some great sales but this year both Google and Microsoft soundly beat them in pricing. 

Anyone else pick up anything great? Anyone take advantage of any of the various sales going on for the specialty items and things gamers love that usually don't hit the mainstream? 

Regardless of what else happens, have a great day!

Kindle Monthly Deals for Feb 2014 that Caught My Interest

So every month, in addition to their Kindle Daily Deals and their Gold Box Deals and their 'Big Deals', Amazon also does some odd 100 books for under $3.99

I review the list every month to see if there's anything on there that I'm going to wind up reading later on. Makes it easier to look them up since there isn't a physical book involved that requires me to store it somewhere in the meanwhile.

So for February 2014, here are some I'm looking over. Since these prices are good till the end of the month, I'm not too worried about picking them up RIGHT NOW but have it bookmarked and reminder to myself to review later.

The Norman Conquest: The Battle of Hastings and the Fall of Anglo-Saxon England: An upstart French duke who sets out to conquer the most powerful and unified kingdom in Christendom. An invasion force on a scale not seen since the days of the Romans. One of the bloodiest and most decisive battles ever fought. This new history explains why the Norman Conquest was the most significant cultural and military episode in English history. Assessing the original evidence at every turn, Marc Morris goes beyond the familiar outline to explain why England was at once so powerful and yet so vulnerable to William the Conqueror’s attack; why the Normans, in some respects less sophisticated, possessed the military cutting edge; how William’s hopes of a united Anglo-Norman realm unraveled, dashed by English rebellions, Viking invasions, and the insatiable demands of his fellow conquerors. This is a tale of powerful drama, repression, and seismic social change: the Battle of Hastings itself; the sudden introduction of castles and the massive rebuilding of every major church; the total destruction of an ancient ruling class. Language, law, architecture, and even attitudes toward life itself were altered forever by the coming of the Normans.

Uh... wow. That's it.

Now quite true. There are a few I actually already own and a few in the genre I'm just not interested in. Some non Herbert books in the Dune saga for example.

Looking over it further, these don't reach out to me like The Norman Conquest does but may bear further investigation.

The Last Secret of the Temple: In the year 70 AD, as the Romans sacked and destroyed the Holy Temple in Jerusalem, a young Jewish boy was hidden away and chosen as the guardian of a great secret. For seventy generations this secret remained safeguarded. But in present day Israel, a Jewish radical threatens to reveal this hidden truth and use it to rend apart the fragile Middle East—and only an unlikely duo of hardened detectives of very different origins and a young, enterprising Palestinian journalist can unite to ward off disaster.

A relentless and fast-paced thriller that moves from Egypt to Jerusalem to the Sinai Desert, that spans the millennia and involves Cathar heretics, Nazi prisoners, and modern-day suicide bombers, Paul Sussman’s The Last Secret of the Temple is a thrilling, roller-coaster adventure that brilliantly examines the participants on both sides of the Arab-Israeli conflict. Timely, important, and completely absorbing, it marks Paul Sussman as one of today’s great thriller writers. 

The whole shift to Modern day kinda makes it blah for me and I have enough books that anything that doesn't jump out at me is put on the backlist. I guess we'll see as the month wears on.

Katharine of Aragon: For the first time in paperback—all three of Jean Plaidy’s Katharine of Aragon novels in one volume.

Legendary historical novelist Jean Plaidy begins her tales of Henry VIII’s queens with the story of his first wife, the Spanish princess Katharine of Aragon.

As a teenager, Katharine leaves her beloved Spain, land of olive groves and soaring cathedrals, for the drab, rainy island of England. There she is married to the king’s eldest son, Arthur, a sickly boy who dies six months after the wedding. Katharine is left a widow who was never truly a wife, lonely in a strange land, with a very bleak future. Her only hope of escape is to marry the king’s second son, Prince Henry, now heir to the throne. Tall, athletic, handsome, a lover of poetry and music, Henry is all that Katharine could want in a husband. But their first son dies and, after many more pregnancies, only one child survives, a daughter. Disappointed by his lack of an heir, Henry’s eye wanders, and he becomes enamored of another woman—a country nobleman’s daughter named Anne Boleyn. When Henry begins searching for ways to put aside his loyal first wife, Katharine must fight to remain Queen of England and to keep the husband she once loved so dearly.

I like historical bits but this seems a little more romance to me. Some of the reviews give it thumbs up for it being a good time piece though so again, I'll wait and think about it.

1492: The Year the World Began : 1492: The Year the World Began is a look at one of the most fascinating years in world history, the year when many believe the modern world was born. Historian Felipe Fernandez-Armesto, author of Millennium, covers such iconic figures as Christopher Columbus and Alexander Borgia and explores cultures as diverse as that of Spain, China, and Africa to tell the story of 1492, a momentous year whose lessons are still relevant today

And yeah, that's about it. 1492 sounds more promising than the rest except my first choice of Conquest.

What's everyone else looking at in terms of sales? I know Barnes and Noble has a good science fiction fantasy sale going on over here that was still active last time I looked. Anything else from the February kindle sale that is outstanding?

The Kindle Strikes Again

Not that long ago, Amazon.com had a nice sale on their kindle books. It includes some books on history and computer programming that I was quite to buy. If funds were permissible, I would have bought more.

Turns out Amazon.com must have enjoyed the sale as well because they're doing it again. I was disappointed thought that the pickings didn't seem quite so good this time, although I did find a few books that weren't in the sale that were also inexpensive so I'm throwing some links to them as well.

The Last Kingdom Bernard Cornwell : I enjoy a lot of Bernard Cornwell's historical materials. This is one of his 'Saxon' tales and it's running for $2.99 on the kindle format.

The Burning Land Bernard Cornwell: Another book in the Saxon tales, and this one for only $1.99. That's a good deal.

The Winter King Bernard Cornwell: This is Bernard covering King Arthur in a historical style and context. I blogged about it and enjoyed the trilogy.  $2.99 in kindle format.

The Books of Blood - Volume 1 Clive Barker wrote some great short stories here and I've owned a few versions in paperback. I skipped out on this one though because I have a Kindle and you can borrow it. Otherwise, in kindle format it's $2.99.

The Greek Myths Robin Waterfield looks to be another solid book on Greek mythology. I haven't read this one yet. Listed at $1.99.

After Tamerlane John Darwin a book focusing on empire building after 1405. I keep meaning to get back to it as I've had it 'forever' it seems. Currently going for $1.99

There are several other books that look interesting, but I'm afraid I haven't gotten halfway through the books from Amazon.com last sale.

Did anyone pick up anything from either sale particularly worth reading? Good stuff? Overpriced even at $2.99?

Black Friday Gaming Sales

In America, Black Friday is when retailers pop up massive discounts to get bodies into the stores. It was added by Cyber Monday when online shops decided to get into the action. Now? Now it's pretty much all week, if not all month.

But that's also good new for gamers as there tend to be a lot of sales around this holiday season now anyway.

Miniature Market has a ton of stuff on sale. I placed an order there for some various Warmachine stuff and if funds were no problem, would have ordered a lot more. They have numerous board games for great prices too. The service is usually very good, and if you order more than $99 worth of stuff, the shipping is free.

Fantization does numerous sales throughout the year. In this instance, they're 15% off everything, and 20% off if you spend more than $250. I've used them many times before and they have a wide selection of materials. It's one of the few places for example, you can get Scale75 paint.

Michigan Toy Soldier is a true hobby store with paints from companies I just don't see at other vendors including Life Color. Their doing 20% off if you're a preferred vendor. Shipping is relatively fast and the selection can't be beat, especially if you're trying to get hold of say, Andrea paints or figures.

CoolMinorNot is having a 15% off. Perhaps not the highest discount but they have a wide range of miniatures that you're not going to find in a lot of places.

The War Store, another place I've done business with on several occasions that delivers fairly fast and doesn't have crazy shipping prices, is also doing their sale. Some heavy discounts on a lot of different things.

There are numerous others out there. Goodman Games is doing a sale for example, where you can get the PDF at a discount or even some physical copies of the variant covers. Catalyst games is having some. Litko if you're ooking for dice towers. Military books more your think, Osprey has a ton of stuff in their online shop for 25% off.

I hit my $$$ limit pretty eary between Miniature Market and the War Store picking up a bunch of Convergance stuff for Warmachine that I don't even play, but at those prices figures I could start too.

Anyone have any particular deals they found too good to pass up?

Barnes & Noble Criterion Collection Sale

Barnes & Noble is having a 50% off their Criterion Collection of movies. Sadly, this often doesn't amount to 'huge' savings, but there are a few exceptions to that.

For example, there's a certain Blind Swordsman for $112.49 on the B&N site which compared to the $199 .99 they want for it say at Amazon, is a FANTASTIC deal.

There are a few other bits here and there you can hunt down, like the Samurai trilogy but the savings aren't as great. When you start getting to the single disk, the savings are still there when comparing B&N with Amazon, but not in the same level.

I know what I'm preordering myself for X-mas.

Good shopping!

Amazon Kindle Bits and Buys

One of the things I like to do, is mention when something is a good price or on sale.

Having said that, I've been pretty lax about this when it comes to Amazon. Some other forms of communication, notably Twitter, are better at sending out the shout outs to such quick, one day or lightning strike deals.

But since I'm already here....

Today's daily deal in the science fiction fantasy realm is The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms. I've heard good thing about it but haven't picked it up yet. I'm actually trying to work through my backlog of physical books, as well as books I have in other mediums. Having said that though I've still been buying comics. Go figure right?

For the monthly deals... m'eh?

I did pick up the Ultimate Comics Wolverine versus the Hulk, but that's only because I was amused by the Hulk ripping Wolverine in half. And the other day the daily deal had some of the introduction titles to DC's 52. Wow, they were worse then I thought they would have been. It's got to be hard to rewrite introduction stories for characters over and over again like they did for the Justice League. "Batman's real?" Ugh.

Still, it's good to check on the various sites every now and again. I do with that the Google Market was easier to navigate. For example, they have a section where you can check out books. Then there's a section where you can check out what's on sale. Trying to sort that mess into something you can quickly flip through by say author or price or genre? Nope. At least not that I saw. I'm sure that someone has a better method of sorting through there or that I'm doing it wrong, because that's just plain bad design.

And I've never used the iBookstore so have no clue how that one works.

Where is everyone else picking up their e-books these days? Any good deals? Any sites worth watching daily?

Forgotten Realms Kindle Books $2.99 Sale?

Elaine Cunningham, author of several Forgotten Realms novels, twitted that while organizing links to her material, that Evermet was $2.99 in Kindle Format. For those who know me, $2.99 is my 'sweet spot' as a purchaser. I have a few used book stores around me and while I can't always select what they have, there are enough books on the dollar spinner racks to keep me busy, well, forever. These are all 'luxury' purchases if you will.

So I went to check it out. While I've read several of Elaine's books, that one I had never gotten to. Sure enough, $2.99. I also picked up some others.

Prince of Ravens: I like Richard Baker's work. Not too crazy about taking a character from one era of the Forgotten Realms to another, but I'll give it a try. Odd how that happens eh? Drizzt, Elminster and Jack too? Wonder if maybe they shouldn't have split their reader base? Ah, what do I know.

The Masked Witches: Alright, I liked the book description. I figure for the price I'll give it a shot.

Charon's Claw: I think the last R A Salvatore book I read was The Orc King and I read it at Borders while waiting for my girlfriend. I suppose I could go to the library for some of this material but again for the price...

Shadowbane: Eye of Justice: Magic swords and vigilante killers? Okay, I'll try it out.

Mind you, they had more than these but I figured that was enough for me. Good hunting!   

Amazon's Kindle 100 Sales for December

Every month Amazon selects or has one hundred books, in addition to the daily deal, that go on sale for the month. It's a nice way to try out a different author or catch up on the back stock if you're a fan of the medium but have a low price threshold like myself.

For December, I'm thinking about the following;

Star Wars: Fate of th Jedi: Outcast. It's by Aaron Alliston, the guy who wrote Hero's Strike Force, a book that essentially was incorporated into the BBB (Big Blue Book). It's also Star Wars. I'm a sucker for the setting and am greatly enjoying the Clone Wars animated series from the net with new episodes popping up once a week.

Temple of the Winds: Sword of Truth Vol 4 by Terry Goodkind. I know, I have no taste but this was the last one I read and since I already have book 1 in Kindle format and it is on sale...

Warrior (The Blade of the Rose) by Zoe Archer. No idea but it's inexpensive and as I mentioned updthread, a good opportunity to check out new authors.

The Romance of Tristant and Iseult by Vincent Nicolosi: I'm a sucker for the old tales and even though I'm sure there's a version free, the cost ones are usually better formatted.

I'm sure my mother will want a few of the thrillers and some of the non-fiction stuff looks interesting but let's see how much overtime they're going to dump on me as I'm recovering from a seven day straight week and fighting off the plague as I type.