Dwarf Star Tavern: Recent Episodes
DST Team
Summary Heroes Die is a testosterone-soaked action story following Hari Michaelson/Caine, on his final adventure. In Part 2, the DST crew explores the deep-dives into the plot unfolding in Stover's world -- a near-future science fiction world using a high fantasy world as a brutal plaything.
Book Rating: 3.5/5 Headless Lamoraks
DST Recommendations - Lex: 7th Continent board game
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Ted: Atypical on Netflix
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J. Wesley: The Handsome Devil cocktail
Novel for December: Senlin Ascends, by Josiah Bancroft
“Opposites attract, but similarities bind.”
― Matthew Woodring Stover, Heroes Die
Summary Heroes Die is a testosterone-soaked action story following Hari Michaelson/Caine, on his final adventure. In Part 1, the DST crew explores the characters, setting, technology and magic of the story, especially the fascinating binary nature of Stover's world -- a near-future science fiction world using a high fantasy world as a brutal plaything.
Book Rating: 3.5/5 Headless Lamoraks
DST Recommendations - Lex: Porchetta in three varieties
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Ted: Blade Runner 2049
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J. Wesley: Axis and Allies Anniversary Edition
Next Novel Senlin Ascends, by Josiah Bancroft
“Opposites attract, but similarities bind.” ― Matthew Woodring Stover, Heroes Die
Summary: In Part 2, the DST crew looks at the twisty plotline of the novel, and the knotty moral choice Harry makes at the end. They also examine the way Claire North played with history and the implications of repeating lives overlapping through time, and the sad paradox that history teaches us that people learn nothing from history.
Book Rating: 4.5/5 Non-Linear Lives
DST Recommendations: * Lex: A slow-smoked steak, followed by a reverse sear on the grill. * Ted: Relative Invasion, by Rosalind Minett, a coming of age novel set in Interwar Britain. * J. Wesley: Feedly.com, the successor to Google Reader, organizes all of your favorite websites and updates in real-time.
Next Novel: Senlin Ascends, by Josiah Bancroft
“What is the point of me? Either to change a world-many, many worlds, each touched by the choices I make in my life, for every deed a consequence, and in every love and every sorrow truth-or nothing at all.” ― Claire North, The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August
Summary: What would you do if you could live endless lives, but none of them mattered? In episode 1, the DST crew explores the ‘magic system’ of the story, the endless rebirths of the kalachacras, humans blessed (or cursed) with a bizarre sort of immortality, as well as the relationship between Harry August and his brilliant nemesis, Vincent Rankin.
Book Rating: 4.5/5 Non-Linear Lives
DST Recommendations: * Lex: Mechs vs. Minions, a cooperative tabletop campaign for 2-4 players, who must join forces and pilot newly-crafted mechs against an army of marauding minions. * Ted: A Perfect Circle, an intelligent Metal band. * J. Wesley: Lancaster, Pennsylvania, an idyllic place that time forgot — good food, friendly people, and lovely countryside. Oh, and Amish furniture.
Next Novel: Senlin Ascends, by Josiah Bancroft
“It is said that there are three stages of life for those of us who live our lives in circles. These are rejection, exploration and acceptance.” ― Claire North, The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August
Summary: In episode 2, the DST crew dives into the two plot streams of the novel — Locke’s long con against Don Lorenzo and his desperate struggle for survival against the Gray King.
Book Rating: 4.5/5 Alchemical Oranges
DST Recommendations: * Lex: Gloomhaven – a game of Euro-inspired tactical combat in a persistent world of shifting motives. * Ted: The West Wing – a political epic chronicling the triumphs and travails of White House senior staff. * J. Wesley: Veronica Mars – imagine a mature Nancy Drew in a Noir setting.
Next Novel: The First 15 Lives of Harry August
“You’re one third bad intentions, one third pure avarice, and one eighth sawdust. What’s left, I’ll credit, must be brains.” ― Scott Lynch, The Lies of Locke Lamora
Summary: Scott Lynch is one of the wittiest, most original voices to hit Fantasy fiction in years, and The Lies of Locke Lamora is a brilliant first novel. In episode 1, the DST crew looks at the fictionalized Venice that backdrops the novel, the diverse cast of characters that populate the world, and the web of alliances and gangs that span the canals.
Book Rating: 4.5/5 Alchemical Oranges
DST Recommendations: * Ted: The Thieves World novel series * J. Wesley: If you run out of peanut butter, substitute liqueurs in your PB&J sandwiches. Creme de cassis is good, but absinthe is awful. * Lex: Lucky Number Slevin
Next Novel: The First 15 Lives of Harry August
“I’ve got kids that enjoy stealing. I’ve got kids that don’t think about stealing one way or the other, and I’ve got kids that just tolerate stealing because they know they’ve got nothing else to do. But nobody–and I mean nobody–has ever been hungry for it like this boy. If he had a bloody gash across his throat and a physiker was trying to sew it up, Lamora would steal the needle and thread and die laughing. He…steals too much.” ― Scott Lynch, The Lies of Locke Lamora
Summary: Leviathan Wakes, by James S.A. Corey, is the sterling first novel in the Expanse series, now adapted for television on the SyFy network. In episode 2, the DST crew follows Detective Miller’s dogged pursuit of Julie Mao’s killers, and Jim Holden’s struggle to free his crew from a maze of interplanetary intrigue. Oh, and space zombies.
Book Rating: 5/5 Malevolent Space Parasites
Recommendations * Lex: Oat of This Swirled ice cream * Ted: He’s too busy playing chess these days to discover anything new. * J. Wesley: Raising my children as if they’re space aliens — they are new to our world, and it’s my job to teach them how to live in it. A lot of what looks like disobedience is actually just ignorance of our ways.
Indie Spotlight: Kick, by John L. Monk
Next Novel: The Lies of Locke Lamora
“Even in the Belt, youth brought invulnerability, immortality, the unshakable conviction that for you, things would be different. The laws of physics would cut you a break, the missiles would never hit, the air would never hiss out into nothing.” — James S.A. Corey, Leviathan Awakes
Summary: Leviathan Wakes, by James S.A. Corey, is the sterling first novel in the Expanse series, now adapted for television on the SyFy network. In episode 1, the DST crew talks about the politics of this near-future setting, its great cast of characters, plus Film Noir and pork pie hats, and the physics of atom bombs in space. Book Rating: 5/5 Malevolent Space Parasites Next Novel: The Lies of Locke Lamora “Even in the Belt, youth brought invulnerability, immortality, the unshakable conviction that for you, things would be different. The laws of physics would cut you a break, the missiles would never hit, the air would never hiss out into nothing.” -- James S.A. Corey, Leviathan Awakes