The Air War by Adrian Tchaikovsky
This is Book 8 in the Shadows of the Apt series. I've recommended a few of the early entries in the series, and the middle entries have all been more-or-less pretty good, but I didn't feel like they merited specific call outs.
This one does.
A bombing campaign from the Wasps besets the Beetles’ home city. And a steampunk Battle of Britain ensues above the city while the lands of the peninsula leading to their urban center endures a blitzkrieg of multi-legged sentinels (tank analogues).
Tchaikovsky does a good job of humanizing some of the POV characters on the Wasps side, though like their insect counterparts, they are largely @$$holes.
The need for good counter intelligence finally dawns on Stenwold, one of the main POV characters. It only took him about 30 years and 8 novels to figure it out.
Joking aside, it's a fraught read with lots of high stakes aerial combat and ground combat scenes that are fraught and compelling.
Good stuff.
Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves
This was a thoroughly fun flick. It accurately shows just how useful a bard actually is in a fight (which is not at all), but Chris Pine plays him with buckets of charisma. Michelle Rodriguez's barbarian character was a great partner for him. Her subtle fetish for halflings was also most amusing.
Hugh Grant's conman was also a stand out perfomance, especially with a hilarious exchange with his long-suffering and sinister ally involving overly hot tea.
I loved that it also took place in the Forgotten Realms setting, so the Harpers and the Red Wizards played large rolls in the plot. As did a trip into the Underdark, though regrettably no Drow Elves showed up. But a pudgy dragon did, so that was something.
Plus it had Displacer Beasts.
And Gelatinous Blobs.
And some background characters dressed up like the kids from the old 80's Dungeons and Dragons cartoon.
It is awesome. Give it a watch.
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