Gerard Hynes
@gerardhynes
Daidí. Irish. Big old nerd. Expect programming, Fantasy, TTRPGs, and flailing attempts at parenting. Labhair Gaeilge liom he/him sé/é
Someone flew a flag in Eyre Square that was Palestinian on one side and the Progress Pride flag on the other and I love it because it will make the very worst people have absolute aneurysms.
An encouraging article about the effect of language standards on public services in Welsh. But using AI for translation is kinda gross @thejournal.ie www.thejournal.ie/language-sta...
Well holy God. A full year after signing up to every "notify me when in stock" list I could find, Magic Madhouse got an alt-cover 2024 Dungeon Master's Guide. 🥳🎉🎉 If anyone has an alt-cover 2024 Monster Manual for sale, please let me know.
Thank you Reddit for doing more to curb my Reddit use than any other influence.
3. Horrors of the Fairelands The only official Candela Obscura expansion. Like most anthologies, the quality is mixed. I quite liked Express Train to Hell for its confined spaces. The Locked Library is a fun locked room murder mystery with plenty of factional intrigue.
Like @moleskine.bsky.social presumably have the rights to use the maps that appeared in the films. Why use AI slop for this?
David Starkey: "tHe APPLiCaTiOn OF sPECIfiC LAWS dEsIGNed not tO PeRSeCutE peopLE FOr bEING caTholIC"
Just got an email that #SmythsToys is doing a recall on some sand-based play kits because of potential amounts of asbestos. Please check if your or your loved ones have bought any of these. I am understandably not best pleased that my toddler might have been exposed. #speirghorm #speirgorm
2. Star Borg - Kyle Latino & JP Coovert My first Borg. Fun and pulpy. The art definitely leans family friendly but you could run an Andor-style story with the mechanics. The 1-2 page adventures are very good. Great maps, clear objectives, decent complications. (I'm counting 5 zines as one book)
Shadowdark Cursed Scroll 5 just released. Did someone say subterranean hexcrawl? #ttrpg #rpg #Shadowdark
2026 books 1. Legends and Lattes - Travis Baldree Very much slice of life cosy fantasy. Minimal action, a romance to root for. I thought it was lovely.
15. Liriel - Garth Nix 16. Abhorsen - Garth Nix These felt like a 900 page novel that was cut in half. Some uneven pacing but very exciting when the action ramped up, and they had a satisfying ending. I enjoyed them enough to want to read more of the series next year.
14. Sabriel - Garth Nix Re-reading for the first time since I was a teenager and it holds up surprisingly well. The pacing is excellent and I really like the worldbuilding.
13. I Contain Multitudes - Ed Yong Gorgeously written with something fascinating and unexpected on almost every page. One the best non-fiction books I've read in years.
12. The Ghost Brigades - John Scalzi Good, fun, slightly pulpy military science fiction. With a bit more emotional heft than that description might imply.
11. Fight Like Hell - Kim Kelly Really interesting stories from folks who have been mostly left out of US labour history. Well researched but I would have liked a bit of an overview of what happened between the periods being focused on.
10. Hata Zú Mhamó - Áine Ní Ghlinn Beagán caol, le fírinne. Galánta, cinnte, ach bheadh sé níos fearr mar ghearrscéal.
9. Mausritter - Isaac Williams Super accessible and inviting. I love the vibes of being little mice in a big dangerous world. Would love to run this for my kid in the future.
8. The Hundred Years War on Palestine - Rashid Khalili Erudite and fascinating. Willing to examine the internal weaknesses in the movements for Palestine's liberation.
7. Shadowdark RPG - Kelsey Dionne Maybe the gold standard for layout and rules clarity in an rpg rulebook. Also some of the best random tables I've ever seen. Does an excellent job of evoking old school DnD.
6. Witch King - Martha Wells Gorgeous writing, great worldbuilding, great characters. One of the best fantasy novels I've read in a long time.
5. A Secret Vice - J.R.R. Tolkien. Edited by Dimitra Fimi and Andrew Higgins Finally got around to reading this. It does a great job of contextualizing Tolkien's linguistic inventiveness in late 19th and early 20th century movements. Also, the editors are just the loveliest people in real life.
4. Montessori Baby - Simone Davies and Junnife Uzodike Some really good advice, mostly about mindset (You're not their boss. You're not their servant. You're their guide). The tone is relentless positive, with I think only one moment admitting that parenting is exhausting.
3. Socialism Seriously - Danny Katch Props for trying to visualize a post-capitalist society in an introductory book this short. Very US-focused though and I found the humour pretty grating after a while.
2. System Collapse - Martha Wells Excellent. Both exciting and funny. Murderbot and ART continue to be great. As you'd expect from a Murderbot novel.