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• Fantasy Strategy Board Games Beyond Elves and Dwarves

  Sep 8, 2026

  Fantasy strategy board games have a defaults problem. Elves are graceful archers, dwarves mine and drink, orcs are the aggressive faction. It is a shared language that makes games easy to learn, and it is also why so many of them blur together.

• The Next Great Science Fiction Franchises Hollywood Should Be Watching

  Aug 28, 2026

  Hollywood has no shortage of recognizable intellectual property. What it lacks more often is a world that can keep generating stories after the first adaptation has used the obvious plot.

• Why I Won't Play a Game Solo

  Aug 21, 2026

  I own two games with dedicated solo modes, and outside of one finished Earthborne Rangers campaign I've never actually played either of them by myself, and I finally sat down to work out why.

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  Candide

  Aug 20, 2026

  A short, brutal, genuinely funny demolition of the idea that everything happens for a reason, and I read it in one sitting out of pure spite for the philosophy it's mocking.

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  The Core of the Sun

  Aug 19, 2026

  A Finnish dystopia about selective breeding for femininity, told partly through fake government documents, and it's about chili peppers in a way I did not expect going in.

• The Library Branch on Coldwater Road

  Jul 21, 2026

  Most of what my book club reads comes from one specific branch, and the two women who run the request desk know my hold list better than I do.

• The Rating I Went Back and Changed

  Jul 16, 2026

  I gave Heat: Pedal to the Metal four stars the week I finished writing about it, then quietly agreed with myself a month later that it should have been a three.

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  Steps to an Ecology of Mind

  Jul 4, 2026

  A collection of essays by an anthropologist, psychiatrist, and biologist all at once, tied together by metalogues I now reread on purpose.

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  Scythe

  Jun 24, 2026

  An engine building game wearing area control's clothes, gorgeous on the table, and the faction abilities are noticeably uneven at different player counts.

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  Forbidden Stars

  Jun 18, 2026

  Warhammer 40k dudes-on-a-map with an order-stacking system that punishes you slowly instead of all at once, which I like more than I expected to.

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  Mechs vs. Minions

  Jun 16, 2026

  A programming co-op with a legacy streak, box production that's basically a marketing event unto itself, and mission difficulty that swings around more than I expected.

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  Spirit Island

  May 30, 2026

  A cooperative game where the win condition is watching invaders slowly run out of places to stand, and the brain burn is completely earned.

Ongoing Projects

10 board game reviews · 10 book reviews · 12 personal essays — still adding to all three, roughly whenever I finish something worth writing up.