Ember Costumes and Crafts

I have a lot to say about this series, and considering that the books total over 4 million words, it makes sense! I've already discussed the individual books in many of my previous monthly "reading watching playing" posts, but I wanted to do an in depth review where I could discuss my thoughts on the series as a whole.  First, a spoiler free review: I really liked this series! I'd give it, on a whole, an 8/10 overall as a fantasy series. It is one of the best I've read for two reasons: The characters and the world. Every character (and there are a lot!)  is complex, flawed, and unique, but most impressively, grows, changes, and develops substantially over the course of the series.  The second reason is the world: it is so vivid and rich that if you tell me a character is from Ebou Dar I can tell you what they are wearing and the meaning behind it, if she is from Tarabon I know she wears her hair tiny beaded braids and has a thick accent. Even the cities have ...

We went to the beach last week!  There were sunsets and boogie boards... Waves and wipeouts... There was lots of laying in the shade... We walked barefoot on the beach and caught ghost crabs...  I took a million great pictures, but this motion capture video sums up what I spent most of the trip doing:

What I'm Playing  Edge of Darkness This kickstarter game combines elements of deck building and card-crafting with worker placement and monster fighting. It's complicated, has a ton of pieces, and a strong city-factions theme. The box is massive, the rulebook long, and gameplay is medium complex. I'll say it's not exactly my cup of tea, but if I took the time to learn it and get really good at it, it could be really fun. John and Diana really liked it, Gunnar liked it okay, and I was just meh about it. But then, I really hate learning new games and the factions theme isn't my think and I pretty much hate deck building haha. What I'm Reading Ancillary Mercy by Ann Leckie This one wasn't as exciting as the first book in this series, which I reviewed last month for a lot of reasons. First, there was a lot of explanation of things that happened in the first book which while interesting didn't move things along very much There also wasn...