2026 Book Reviews, Part 1
At the end of last year, a few bookish folk I follow on social media were getting accused of exaggerating the number of books they’d read in 2025. This made me both defensive and competitive.
So, I started writing down all the books I read. This year has been an extremely book-oriented time as I’ve mostly been in that sickness space where I spend lots of time in bed but can still read. Plus I’ve definitely read more than usual, because competitive.
Today is just over one-quarter of the way through the year, and I’ve read seventy-three books so far (including some novellas). I tend to like young adult fantasy novels—nothing with too complex a plot or too many characters, and I enjoy the themes of growing up and finding one’s place in the world. I don’t mind a mild romance but I get annoyed when it takes up too much space in the book or is too obsessive. Sure, I like a romance between rival cultures that makes a bridge between them. But not when falling in love is some amazing fated thing that’s too powerful to resist and that fully defines a person. I also get annoyed when the romantic couple has no other friends or interests, or when everyone around them goes on and on about their romance like it’s something super amazing and world-shattering. It’s just falling in love! It DOES happen every day! Get over it! And I want relationships to be healthy, with a power balance (as much as possible) and I want the relationship to make the pair better people. And the attraction must be more than physical or it’s very boring indeed.
Anyway, here are the books I’ve read this year (plus comments on the author’s other books), arranged alphabetically by author.
Allain, Suzanne: Mr Malcolm’s List. If you wish Austen had written more books, this should suit you. It’s certainly not Austen, but the comedy of manners is there. And a romance, of course. Unusually for me, there’s no magic.
Cho, Zen: Order of the Pure Moon Reflected in Water. Zen Cho is an incredible author. I adore her Sorcerer to the Crown series (which has the most delightfully ambitious and hard-hearted heroine). She’s a Malaysian American, and it shows in her books. No one else could have written such wonderfully unique tales. (Black Water Sister is intense and I’m not sure I dare to reread it.) She’s also very funny. Order of the Pure Moon Reflected in Water is about a nun whose tokong (nunnery equivalent) was burned down, and she announces early on that she is going to join a group of bandits. She is determined, naive, and fierce. I particularly enjoy Zen Cho as there’s usually some Malay sprinkled into the story, and I often recognise some of it because I speak Indonesian. I believe she has other books that may not contain magic, and she’s such a brilliant writer I will eventually read them too (because I read so much, I need to re-read a lot or it’s a very expensive habit).
Kingfisher, T: She also writes as Ursula Vernon, when she writes for kids. (I tried a Vernon book once and hated it, which is hilarious since I’m obsessed with Kingfisher ever since reading A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking). Kingfisher is an extremely interesting author. She writes cozy horror. It’s really really cozy (she usually has several genuinely lovely, kind, brave, intelligent characters in each book) and it’s really really horror (just… believe me on this. The lady is SICK). This year she had two brand new books for me to devour: the first was Snake-Eater, about a woman with severe social anxiety who leaves her awful husband with $27 and a vague plan of staying with her aunt who she hasn’t seen in years… and then falls afoul of some local spirits. I gobbled it down like therapeutic chocolate. The heroine was clearly Autistic coded (so much so that I wonder if Kingfisher is an undiagnosed Autistic person) and it was wonderful to see her grow braver and make real friends (super weird ones aka the best kind). The second book was Wolf Worm and I plan to never, ever read it again. Look, there’s a lot of seriously gross and invasive body horror in these books. But this one involved parasitic bugs—those ones that burrow into living hosts and lay eggs in them that then hatch and eat their way out—and that is too much for me. Good job, Kingfisher. your characters are so lovely that it takes a lot to pry me away from them, but you did it. And I absolutely know you’d be proud of yourself for that, too. Kingfisher is probably an author I’d love to meet, if I was confident and debonair and she wasn’t quite so popular.
Kwan, Kevin: Crazy Rich Asians. Have you seen the movie? It’s great. It’s definitely linked to the books… the plot is barely changed, in some ways. But the tone is completely different. The books are satire. There’s loads of them, and some really funny plotlines. But on this particular re-read I just didn’t want to hang out with all those awful rich people, even to laugh at them. (The central couple is lovely, as are some others.) But I’d still recommend these books. Again, there’s no magic.
Lancaster, A J: Stariel series (five books), starting with The Lord of Stariel. This is a solid fantasy series with a practical-minded heroine and a central romance that is sweet and healthy. A lot of it is concerned with family problems (with magical and/or very dangerous elements) and with trying to negotiate between the human world and the fairy world. I adore books in which people try to bridge cultural divides. In fact I can’t reread most of the “Temeraire” series by Naomi Novik because the British are so terrible at dealing with other cultures. In the books, I mean, not just in the historical period it’s based on. (Ooh, I haven’t read any Naomi Novik this year! I shall have to rectify that, stat!)
Lawson, Jenny: Broken. This is the only non-fiction book on this list. You may know Jenny Lawson as “The Bloggess” and/or the author of Let’s Pretend this Never Happened, which is an extremely funny book; her first. She is extremely funny in this book too, but I mostly noticed how heartrending it was (in bits and pieces and small places). I can see why mentally ill people fall over themselves to see her, as she is so brilliant and so warm and kind. She is very mentally ill herself, and I guess this year it was too much for me due to my own mental state. I remember racing to finish it and then to read something else to get it out of my head. Her first book is even funnier and easier to read as it’s more about her childhood which, although upsetting, is also extra funny (in part because I do NOT possess the unique trauma of having an enthusiastic taxidermist father, so those stories don’t cut as deep). I generally avoid mental illness in books as it triggers my own, although there are some exceptions (like Kingfisher, and the Arcadia Project trilogy by Mishell Baker).
Macguire, Seanan: This author can’t write happy. She just can’t. Bittersweet? Melancholy? Beautiful? Oh yes. I’ve read several of her books but my favourite is the Wayward Children series (starting with Every Heart a Doorway) which is all about children (usually now teens) who found a door into another world… a world where they FIT… and then for one reason or another they stumbled back into our world. Some of these other worlds are made of lollies. Some are horror movies made real. Some are kind, or cruel, or both. The wayward teens tend to accidentally-on-purpose get involved in quests. They are, mostly, heroes. There are now eleven books in the series, all of which I reread this year, and I’ve already read the most recent one twice.
Nix, Garth: The Old Kingdom series, which sort of begins with Sabriel but I now read them in in-world chronological order and thus started with Clariel (I think it’s better to start with Sabriel on your first reading; it was originally a trilogy). There are six books in all, plus a short story The Creature in the Case which falls between Abhorsen and Goldenhand and is well worth reading every time. Goldenhand is now the final book and I genuinely think it might be the best. Which, believe me, is saying a LOT. This series is incredible. Sabriel starts off in an all-girls’ school set in a world similar to our own world in the 1920s or so. But across the Wall is the Old Kingdom and her birthright—a land of limited technology and way too much necromancy. Sabriel’s father is the Abhorsen, who keeps the dead down. Sabriel is his heir. When something mysterious (possibly death) happens to her father, Sabriel sets out into the kingdom she barely knows to find out what happened to him… knowing it might be her duty to kill him, if he has somehow been turned into a monster.
Riordan, Rick: My daughter is seriously obsessed with these, so it’s high time I read them. I’ve read the original five (starting with Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief); the Ashes of Olympus five; the Trials of Apollo five; the Chalice of the Gods and Wrath of the Triple Goddess; and the Nico di Angelo adventures Sun and Star and Court of the Dead. My favourites were The Trials of Apollo because of the character growth (which is even better in Court of the Dead); Wrath of the Triple Goddess because of the animals; and Court of the Dead for attempts at cross-cultural communication again. Riordan’s books are super formulaic power fantasies…. but they’re also very funny and deliberately absurd. They’re ideal reading for about age 10 but are perfectly safe for younger kids. Even the god of wine doesn’t drink any actual wine and although there’s a lot of monster-killing the monsters will eventually recover, so the stakes appear high but nothing truly bad will ever happen (although sometimes a character is killed, even quite important ones). Perhaps Riordan’s real genius is in making various ancient gods G-rated. They’re also queer friendly (increasingly so).
Springer, Nancy: I read the tenth Enola Holmes book this year. They’re all fun, and the movies are great too. Enola is Sherlock Holmes’s much younger sister. She was raised by their very eccentric mother, who disappeared on Enola’s fourteenth birthday. That caused the older brothers to check in on her for the first time in many years, and decide she needed to be sent to finishing school at once. She promptly escapes (in disguise, no less) but her natural curiosity leads her to start solving mysteries… all while evading her brothers. Like Riordan, Springer manages to make Victorian London remarkably G-rated despite the peril.
Thomas, Aiden: Lost in the Never Woods. This book I hated, which was surprising as I loved Cemetary Boys (an LGBTQIA+-friendly, women-friendly story about a magical version of Latinx culture in the USA). Lost in the Never Woods is a continuation of the Peter Pan story. Wendy is grown up and thoroughly traumatised by the disappearance of her two younger brothers, long ago. She only half remembers Peter Pan… and then he shows up. I disliked it because it was just trauma after trauma and even the relatively successful ending was miserable. It also felt (to me) pointless because I didn’t really feel like Wendy was better off, even though she got some answers and a kind of closure.
Wells, Martha: Murderbot Diaries. The main character is an android who manages to tinker with his programming and thus gain free will. He is a security robot who is understandably NOT a fan of humans, and he names himself Murderbot. But he happens to fall in with a group of surprisingly clever and determined hippies and he begins to change and grow as a… well, a person. The books and the show are funny and charming and even a little bit heartwarming in between bouts of savage violence. What’s not to like?
If you want more reviews, click here for 300+ books that I regularly reread.
A Neuro-Diverse Percy Jackson Party
My daughter Lizzie has fallen HARD for Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson books.
Like me, my daughter has Level 2 Autism + ADHD (inattentive type). She has a seriously wonderful friendship group in which almost everyone is neurodiverse (and almost no-one is straight, lol). I have a pretty good sense of some of her friends, and the rest I can’t really remember properly but I can rely on them to be kind. Which is important later.
The Percy Jackson books are about teenage demigods, all of whom have ADHD (which sharpens their battle reflexes) and dyslexia (because their brains are hard-wired to read Ancient Greek). They go on quests and are attacked by monsters a LOT. The books are very famous (plus the movies and the current TV series) so several of Lizzie’s friends already know the general vibe, and some have read the books (either before or after hearing Lizzie talk about them for many happy hours).
Percy Jackson loves blue food, and is a son of Poseidon (so he’s very connected to the sea). Therefore, the first thing I did was order a bunch of blue lollies online, from Lolly Warehouse who (unfortunately?) provides lollies in bulk. I also ordered about six books from Lizzie’s wish list, and when people asked what to get her I had books ready to give them, which was what Lizzie wanted most. She is also getting a Camp Half-Blood T-Shirt (which I was very anxious to acquire as she was given a “Wise Girl” T-shirt for Christmas and she literally hasn’t worn a different shirt since then! I really want to wash it!)
There’s an official Percy Jackson cookbook and it’s incredibly good. We’ve literally made twenty-seven of the recipes, and there are several that we make over and over. The “Blue Velvet Cake” is really nice, so I cooked that (yes I screwed up the icing slightly). As you can tell, that’s a mermaid/pirate set of cake toppers. There are pirates and sirens in the books, so that works great!
I also made Tzatziki using the book’s recipe. It has lots of Greek recipes, for obvious reasons! Plus it can be made the day before.
On the invitation I asked people to dress as Greeks, characters from the book, or monsters—and to wear swimmers underneath. Some of them forgot, which is fine as the characters are all American teenagers so… done! But some of them looked AMAZING. My greatest regret is that I didn’t take photos of them in costume.
Everyone was assigned a character, and was given a piece of paper with some details including their allies etc. I’ve read the first five books (and I’m onto the second series), plus I used the Percy Jackson wiki… and Lizzie’s encyclopaedic knowledge to check details. I definitely fudged things a bit, because we ended up with a total of TWELVE kids coming to the party, which is a lot!
There are some characters that would have been great, but it was slightly spoilery to use them. Most of the characters I used appear in the first book.
Some of the characters have skills and heritages that are not immediately known, so there are very minor character-based SPOILERS from now on.
The main trilogy of friends are:
Lizzie’s favourite character is Annabeth, so that was a no-brainer. This is what we used for her hat that lets her turn invisible (the hat style is NOT book accurate, lol):
One of her friends is especially good with animals, so I decided she was Grover.
One of the friends didn’t know anyone else, so I chose them to be Percy so they had lots of links to people via their character. Percy has incredible sword skills (and one of Lizzie’s friends gave her a blue hairbrush recently in honour of a certain moment in the books, so we had two decorative weapons).
The next natural category is more demigods, plus Tyson since he’s Percy’s half-brother. My son Tim was Tyson, because he’s quite over-powered (fun), and Tim knows the kid playing Percy so I thought Percy’d enjoy having Tim as their brother.
____________
Clarisse is a bully with zero social skills, so I was a little nervous about her. But the person who I’d decided could play Clarisse was absolutely thrilled. It turns out Clarisse is literally their favourite character…. and she (the kid) does boxing! So that was really cool.
The dryads at Camp Half-Blood grow strawberries, so of course we had those!
There are two more demigods who don’t actually join the group at Camp Half-Blood, but Nico in particular is a fan favourite character. Plus, children of Hades is cool!
___________________
I decided to let the two main teachers of Camp Half-Blood be characters too, even though it’s a major thing in the books that gods (like these two) aren’t allowed to go on quests. So there was a certain amount of fudging book rules. Why not?
___________
AND I chose to also write up Kronos, the big bad of the first five-book series. I knew one of the kids was super confident and would enjoy being a villain (including being targeted and “hated” by every other kid at the party).
Even though the characters have wildly different power levels, they all have skills and faults and so I was able to make sure everyone got a ‘hero’ moment in the quest.
They really enjoyed reading their character sheets and working out who was friends with who and what their powers were. One of the kids has only one hand, so they suggested it had been lost in a monster battle. (See THIS is the quality of friends my daughter has!)
We ate while waiting for the stragglers to arrive (but, as often happens in the neuro-diverse community, two of them simply didn’t show up at all… which was fine. Arguably, the only essential character was Grover).
I gave them a little safety talk, which had three purposes:
- Making sure everyone was okay with having water balloons thrown at them.
- Making sure the newbie had a quiet room to retreat to (which he did, several times). Quiet rooms are so good for Autistic kids!
- Making sure everyone knew the ground rules for when cats were around.
Here’s a painting one of the kids has been working on for Lizzie. How cool is it!?!
The quest had three main stages.
STAGE ONE: GAUNTLET
Camp Half-Blood is a sanctuary for demigods… but it can be VERY dangerous to get there. So we changed into swimmers and went out to our driveway. In small groups, the kids had to run the entire length of the driveway while getting pelted by water balloons (by other kids).
We’re on a battleax block so the driveway is long, but we also have an old mattress so in order to slow down the kids as much as possible, I laid down the mattress and hung shadecloth over it (using bins and outdoor pegs) and told them they had to crawl across the mattress under the shadecloth. It worked great! They were very easy to hit while crawling.
The teachers (Chiron and Dionysus) ‘defended’ the camp (ie they joined my husband and I in throwing balloons at the kids), and Percy and Tyson did too (just because they have water powers). The logic doesn’t quite hold up, but who cares?
Thalia was armed with water guns, and allowed to fight back (except not at Percy as the actual human kid didn’t want to be targeted at all).
Annabeth could wear her invisibility hat, which meant no one could throw anything at her (but she still got wet due to being nearby).
Kronos can manipulative time, so he could choose a moment to shout “STOP” and then I counted five full seconds during which no one could throw anything at him.
Conner is sneaky due to being the son of the god of thieves, so he was in the group with Kronos, which gave him a slight advantage.
As people reached safety, they joined the defenders.
As I suspected, the kids who were hesitant about getting targeted soon wanted to be hit, so our groups went as follows:
- Thalia, Annabeth, Grover (a historical combination if you’ve read enough of the books).
- Clarisse, Nico, Bianca.
- Kronos, Connor.
- Percy and Tyson.
- Chiron and Dionysius.
(I made the kids pick up ten broken balloons each before going inside. We filled most of the balloons the day before the party.)
I’m personally going through a prawn-canapé phase, and of course they’re seafood so that was sufficient excuse for me to make some. Also, my mum has a devilled-egg plate and I wanted to see how canapés go in it (great, except they tend to want to slide around—they’d work better on cucumber slices or basil leaves).
STAGE TWO: GODDESSES GIVE A QUEST AND A CLUE
I appeared to the party in the guise of Artemis, goddess of the hunt (who is a fan of Bianca) and said, “Please help me!
Four of my fiercest hunting cats have been trapped by a terrible enemy!
As a goddess I am not permitted to actively rescue them, but Chiron and Dionysus may act even though they’re gods, because they’re men so they don’t count [Artemis is extremely sexist in the books].
I recommend you seek Athena’s favour. She also loves the hunt, and the crunch of fangs rending flesh and bone. And she’s wise.
Please rescue my sweet deadly kitties! Oh… and when you free them, be careful or they’ll definitely eat you. But I’m sure you’ll figure something out!”
Then the kids decorated cupcakes as an offering to Athena. Dionysus got three cupcakes instead of just one, since he’s the god of food (and wine of course). In practice that meant that when someone felt they’d screwed up their cupcake, Dionysus could save the day by giving them one of their spares.
Athena (ie me, with a white sheet hung over my Artemis dress) accepted their offerings, and said:
I accept your offerings,
And wish to aid the kitties.
I’m not allowed to intervene…
The drakon holds the key!
STAGE THREE: BATTLING THE DRAKON
I ordered a dragon piñata online (from ebay for $30), filled it with individually-wrapped lollies and put in a key I cut out of a piece of cardboard.
In order to simulate difficult terrain, the kids had to stand on a mini trampoline while hitting the piñata. I placed it near a swing which I swung at the kids to represent a ghost army. If the swing touched them, they were wounded.
There were four distinct groups. The first group were armed with pool noodles (NOT an effective weapon, even against cardboard): Kronos (because he doesn’t have a physical form), Grover (not a demigod so no super strength), and Dionysus (a god… but I said he was probably drunk because… well, god of wine).
The second group also used only a pool noodle, but the ghost army didn’t attack them: Nico and Bianca (who as kids of Hades can command ghosts to go away), Annabeth (who can sneak past ghosts in her invisibility hat), and Connor (who is sneaky due to being the son of Hermes, god of thieves).
The third group is super strong, so they didn’t have to use a pool noodle—they could use their fists. That group was Tyson, Clarisse, Chiron, and Thalia.
And finally, Percy. Percy has amazing sword skills, so he was allowed to use an actual (replica) sword. Yes, one made of metal.
In the second round, groups one and two could use their fists and group three could use a baseball bat.
The drakon soon died horribly, and its delicious sugary guts were pulled out along with the cardboard key.
We returned inside and I gave them ambrosia aka cake (which heals demigods), starting with the wounded.
I brought out Artemis’s terrifying hunting cats, in a zipped carrier.
I asked the kids if they remembered anything that might be important at this stage… and they DID remember that the cats will eat them.
Luckily, we happened to have a satyr with the ability to speak to animals, so Grover released the cats, making sure they promised not to eat anyone first. (And I made sure all the kids were sitting down and several had dangling toys to draw the kittens to them safely—two of the guests have adopted cats off me in the past; like I said, this group is fundamentally kind and that’s important even with the extremely chill attitude of Ragdoll kittens.)
As a bonus, Poseidon (aka my husband in a Hawaiian shirt) appeared to deliver this conclusion:
Congrats for now your quest is done!
Enjoy the spoils and have your fun.
To praise the heroes you’ve become
Welcome all to my kingdom.
So at that stage, anyone who wanted to could go in our spa.
We all just relaxed after that: admiring the kittens, or eating more food, or going in the spa.
What worked well:
*The characters were fun, and helped with any social awkwardness because they gave people a role to play. Also, it didn’t matter that two people didn’t show up because a lot of their powers were similar. Some kids would definitely want to choose their own characters, which would take time and be quite complex. But I got lucky.
*The water balloon fight worked well despite unusually cool weather and a lot of Autistic sensitivity. The water balloons themselves were surprisingly unpredictable, literally bouncing off people sometimes and other times exploding for no reason. So someone truly sensitive would probably get wet unless they were very far away. They hit pretty hard too, and in the chaos instructions to avoid head shots can’t be followed accurately. One of the kids said, “This is the best party I’ve ever been to!” and I get it. Waterfights can be fun, but waterfights while playing a heroic character? AMAZING. It’s like baby’s first role-playing game.
*Cupcakes were a nice break from the violence although it was crowded around the table.
*Piñatas are very risky if you have kids with hyperactive type ADHD, but this group was careful and trustworthy even though they were hyped up.
*Once the quest was done, I got to chat to some of the kids, which is always incredibly rewarding. I accidentally made one of them cry, but she said it was with happiness. She is one of my favourites so I hope that is true.
*Percy (aka the newbie) told two of the others, “I can tell you’re really cool” which was such a classic Autistic thing to say, and the recipients absolutely loved it.
*The kittens were extremely popular! Not every group of kids could be trusted, especially in a party setting. But these guys were great (and the kittens were able to leave the room if they wanted—but this is an especially social litter, which was why I wrote them into the party in the first place). It helped that these guys are teens rather than young kids, and none of them have hyperactive-type ADHD.
What surprised me or didn’t work so well:
Kronos came outside, spotted the water balloons, and immediately threw several balloons at me! THAT I did not expect! But it was funny… and my phone survived despite getting soaked. So, yay!
Blue food colouring (and especially the blue icing) got everywhere.
I had the party in the morning so it wasn’t too hot, but that made everything a scramble and I really wasn’t ready in time. I should have made the party at least three hours long. In the end it was cool and even a little rainy. But everyone handled it well. Weather is always tricky, and neuro-diverse or disabled kids are more likely to be thrown by it.
Because people had to change clothes multiple times, I had no hope of keeping track of the kids I didn’t already know well. Like many Autistic people I’m terrible with faces!
One of the parents was fascinated by the devilled-egg plate. She’d bought one for a friend without realising that’s what it was. Knowledge acquired!
Autistic parties are awesome because:
Autistic people tend to accept their fellow weirdos.
Autistic people tend to ignore silly rules like “Only be friends with people the same age as you” or “Stick to small talk”. So you get a genuinely interesting mix of people and of conversational topics.
Autistic people tend to have at least one special interest and they go deep on that topic, so you can find out some amazing things if you just let them talk.
Autistic people absolutely glow when an Autistic adult lets them know they’re in a safe place (eg by asking everyone’s pronouns and/or indicating a safe room).
One of the adults (also neurodiverse) was absolutely thrilled when she asked if she could help and I gave her a job. When Autistic people offer to help, they mean it.
Don’t forget to:
Have at least one quiet space and make sure people feel able to use it.
Check in with potential sensory issues. Ask questions like: Are you okay with having water balloons thrown at you? Are you sensitive to noise, and if so what can we do about yelling? Should I turn off the ambient music? Should I turn down the lights? Are there any smells (coffee, bananas, air fresheners) that bother you? Will you be okay with X number of other kids in one space? Would it help to be outside or would it be better to be inside? What are your safe snack and/or treat foods?
A lot of Autistic people are extra uncoordinated and/or have hyper-mobility (joints can be dislocated easily) so things like water on the floor are more hazardous than for neurotypical kids.
Just knowing someone is trying their best to be accommodating can mean the world, and make people feel much safer (which also makes them more flexible).
If someone doesn’t know many people or is shy, figure out a way to put them in a pair (eg “John and Bob, can you two please cut up these strawberries for me?” or “Peta and Jane, you both love dogs. Why don’t you show photos to each other?”) It’s much easier to interact with one person than a group, and it gives a shy person an anchor. Giving a job to a shy and/or Autistic kid can help them a lot because a job is a nice clear role for them to play.
Make sure someone with inattentive-type ADHD hears and understands safety instructions.
Make sure someone with hyperactive-style ADHD is able to fidget and/or move around.
IF Comp 2024: Quest for the Teacup of Minor Sentimental Value
I forgot to explain last entry that the IF Comp is a big contest for Interactive Fiction stories that runs each year. I enter it often (ever since 2015), and love it. Partly because I usually do reasonably well, and mostly because the community is just SO GOOD. There are loads of people who gladly test games in the lead-up to the contest due date, and even more who help to judge games (and often write great, thorough reviews as well) during the six-week judging period. There’s even a secret section on the forum (which is here) where only authors who have entered that year can post and see posts.
Yes, I have entered this year. You can see and play all the games here.
Whenever I enter, I try to review five games. This one is the second one I’m trying out. Obviously I adore the title! The blurb is great too:
I’m surprised but pleased by the basic visuals and animation. They’re sweet. I don’t think they’re a custom thing; I think Inform or something can do things like that. But I could be wrong. And they’re not something I’ve played before, so they have novelty value for me. If every game had them, they’d be annoying.
I quickly reached the bad ending, which was just fine by me. The game is very merciful and simple, so it’s easy to explore here and there without feeling any pressure.
I laughed out loud at the line, “I keep forgetting there are only two other people in this village.” A perfect joke for the IF Comp, where a significant number of judges are also authors, who scrambled furiously to meet the deadline and probably had to massively cut down their original grand idea along the way.
And laughing even more at, “Sorry I didn’t hear you knock. I was busy alphabetising my potatoes.”
I’ll stop reporting every single line that makes me laugh, because I suspect now there may be a lot of them. (EDIT: There were.)
Pretty sure the maths question is wrong. But maybe I’m missing something.
I reached a REALLY COOL bad ending (and several that were just funny), and eventually reached the good ending.
This is an adorable, funny game that is simple, well executed, and highly enjoyable. Colour me impressed.
“Worst one I’ve ever played”: Reviewing the Reviewers
This is an article I wrote a while ago, 2015 or 2016 I think, when my FIRST interactive novel was freshly published. I’ve written a LOT of stories set in my magical steampunk universe, and the full list including reading order is here.
It finally happened: my first interactive (that is, Choose Your Own Adventure-ish) Australian steampunk novel is wandering unsupervised in the great big world, gathering reviews near and far (and scaring its mother half to death).
My very first review was the comment “Worst one I’ve ever played”, accompanied by one star. I was genuinely amused by such a start to proceedings.
Then the very clever and well-respected Emily Short published a review on her blog, and said, “All in all, then, this is both the biggest and the best of the Felicity Banks games I’ve tried so far; the worldbuilding is more extensive and the plot better structured.”
She also said the beginning was nicely paced while the end was rushed… which is funny since another reviewer said the beginning was boring but don’t worry because it gets better once you get into it.
People say, “Don’t read your reviews” but with material like this, how could I resist?
The reviewers above well and truly set the tone for what was to come. Another reviewer described the book as “Offal” and wrote, “The weird world it is set in succeeds at making no sense and remain unappealing at the same time.” That person was so passionate they reviewed it in two different places. Another said, “The setting wasn’t well explained and I couldn’t make sense of it, and the story was incredibly short, and when I mean short, I mean god awful. I was done in 15 minutes, and I didn’t even figure out what was going on, and no skill was required.” They concluded with the advice: “Skip this one at all costs.”
Other people said, “Cool universe and concept”, “Original and well written”, “I love a good well-thought-out setting, and I could tell that the world was thoroughly planned”, “I was hungry for more steampunk/clockwork creatures, and I wasn’t disappointed. (Actually, thinking about it now, this game has the same kind of story that I was hoping for…).”
I’ve been a little wary of promoting the game in certain places, since it has some violence, and some (*gasp*) sexual diversity. I knew the setting of a steampunk Australia was special, but I would never have guessed it could be considered controversial. All I need now is to be banned, and I’ll know I’ve got it made.
I’ve been working non-stop to get the rumbling engine of promotion moving, and I now have a weird feeling that I’ve managed to start something I can’t stop. That’s the entire point of the exercise, but that doesn’t mean it’s not scary to see the train suddenly belch fire and clatter off beyond my control.
Good luck, little e-baby. I know your friends are out there.
My interactive steampunk novel, Attack of the Clockwork Army is set in Australia. You can choose to be male or female, gay or straight, an innocent or a liar. You can even choose to fight for the British, or not to fight at all.
The book is available as a Choose Your Own Adventure-style app for your device on Amazon, Apple, Android, and Chrome. You can also buy it directly from the publisher (an easy way to buy and read it on your computer).
The app stores list it as “free, with in-app purchases”. What this actually means is that the beginning is free, and then you pay $5 (once!) to read the rest.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/attack-of-the-clockwork-army/id1042824941?mt=8
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/attack-of-the-clockwork-a/oojmcpcnhdedgiegdocaedonlgfhlpgj
Felicity Banks 