Brian Aldiss, Total Environment (1968) **
Grim, pervy dystopia from the era of Star Trek.
Frederik Pohl, The Merchants of Venus (1972) ****
Ancient alien archaeology makes a good tease for the series. I'd read it before, but only just got the Shakespearean pun.
Gene Wolfe, The Death of Doctor Island (1973) ****
I remembered this being a surreal classic, but it was less mind-blowing the second time.
Robert Silverberg, Sailing to Byzantium (1985) ***
Frittering away eternity doesn't sound so bleak to me, though the billennia could start to drag.
The Haunted Man and the Ghost's Bargain: A Fancy for Christmas-Time (1848) ***
More emotionally complex than A Christmas Carol, though not as good. None of them were, predictably, though I'd read The Chimes again. Now I'll have to come up with a new tradition.
Nurse's Stories (1860) ****
A celebration of literature's power to inspire and traumatise kids.
The Bagman's Uncle (1837) ***
Ghosts or time travel, either way fairly mundane.
2000 / PC action roleplaying game / 1-8 players
*****
I thought it would be fun to play a PC game cooperatively with my daughter, using her parents' laptops over a local network, and my knowledge of the medium was so limited that I resorted to this inappropriately scary and relentlessly violent classic. The terror was mitigated by her inexperienced Bowazon having a vigilant Paladin bodyguard who levelled up and hunted for useful items in his spare time when she was at school. You're welcome. If she starts having nightmares about Corpulents regurgitating our bones, it's back to Barbie makeover apps.
2014 / iPad sport/simulator game / 1 player
****
More dynamic and a bit naughtier than her unicorn flight simulator, I knew she'd have fun making messes, knocking people down and blowing shit up in the restricted free trial environment, even if she found some of it creepy.
2024 / DIY deduction card game / 2 players
**
The regular game's a bit wordy for a five year old (even for a thirty-nine year old), but she enjoyed this flawed improv variant of guessing the two Keepers/Creepers on the chosen Goal card, which could be roughly sorted by category and traits that are variably difficult to explain. She insists the 2001 monolith is a phone.
My Little Pony: Tails of Equestria – Melody of the Waves
*****
Maybe even better than the Halloween one, this (relatively) free-roaming adventure on the high (and musical) seas required less advance preparation while also encouraging improvisation as we sailed between various islands and dealt with other diversions according to a five-year-old's whims. We're both players and games masters at this point.
She was also fully on board with the musical aspect, an authentic touch that I hadn't realised had been lacking in previous adventures.
