It's been pretty quiet on the gaming front since wrapping up Baldur's Gate 3, back to my regulars for the most part with a dash of Warhammer 40,000: Darktide when I fancy a bit of monster-biffing.
I've taken the opportunity to do a bit more reading. Fancying something in the vein of Joe Abercrombie I found Alex Marshall's Crimson Empire trilogy, starting with A Crown of Cold Silver. With expectations set appropriately (that the moment there's a glimmer of hope for any character it's sure to be dashed in short order) they were most enjoyable. I preferred the more human elements of the series, I found the supernatural horror that creeps in a bit uncomfortable, probably the point, but recommended for anyone whose ideal book involves every chapter soundly disproving D:Ream's 1993 assertion that Things Can Only Get Better.
After those I thought I'd head back to the cosier territory of the Cold War. I'd assembled all 19 of Anthony Price's David Audley series in a haphazard manner from jumble sales and second hand shops, with the gaps filled in by the internet later. It must be a good ten years since I last read them, long enough for the finer details to be hazy, though the broad outlines usually come back to me. The series isn't strictly chronological so it wasn't a major issue not to have read them in order the first time around but it's nice for the cast to develop as the series progresses. I'm just over halfway through and very much looking forward to the rest.
