The Game of Traps

I was pondering a possible rule set for a chess variant inspired by Doctor Who, when I had one of those revelations that make you wonder if you've overlooked something obvious that everybody else spotted immediately.

It's this: In "The Curse of Fenric", the winning move in the chess puzzle is the same as the winning move in the Doctor's real conflict with Fenric.

In my defence, the story presents a much more conspicuous explanation for the symbolic significance of the chess puzzle, which makes it harder to consider that the chess puzzle might represent more than one thing.

( spoilers under the cut )

Fiction log - January 2026

Fiction books
Terry Pratchett, Stephen Briggs. Monstrous Regiment (stage adaptation)
Lewis Carroll, Martin Gardner. The Annotated Alice: The Definitive Edition (re-read) (ish)
Andrew Cartmel, Ben Aaronovitch, Lee Sullivan. Cry Fox (e)
Andrew Cartmel, Ben Aaronovitch, Lee Sullivan. Water Weed (e)
Brian Daley. Han Solo at Stars' End
Mark Dunn. Ella Minnow Pea (e)
Dashiell Hammett. Red Harvest (e)
CS Lewis. Till We Have Faces
Jean Webster. Daddy-Long-Legs (e) (re-read)
Jean Webster. Dear Enemy (e)

In progress
EW Hornung. The Amateur Cracksman (e)

Abandoned
Arthur W Ryder. Twenty-Two Goblins (e)

Non-fiction books
James Randi. James Randi: Psychic Investigator

In progress
Jason Morningstar. Fiasco (re-read)
Keri Smith. Wreck This Journal Everywhere

In hiatus
James W Loewen. Lies My Teacher Told Me (e)

( short, screen, and stage )

( books bought and borrowed )

Top of the to-read pile
Hazel Gaynor. Before Dorothy (e)

Book Chain 2026: Weeks 4 & 5

#6: A book whose title has the same first letter as the name of the previous book's author

James Randi: Psychic Investigator, the companion volume to the 1991 TV series of the same name.

An introductory overview of a topic and a person I was already interested in, so there wasn't much in it that was new to me except in the details, but it was an entertaining overview and an enjoyable refresher, and now there's one less unread-for-over-a-decade book on my shelves.


#7: A book with the same number of words in the title as the previous book

It took me over a week to pick a book for this prompt, because I kept trying to match the previous book to the extent of having four proper words with no articles or prepositions, which leaves a lot of candidates out (anything titled "The X of Y", for a start). In the end, I settled on:

Till We Have Faces by C.S. Lewis, a retelling of the myth of Cupid and Psyche in which Psyche's sister decides it's time to tell her side of the story.

Another unread-for-over-a-decade book; as an adult, I've developed a tendency to distrust Lewis. In this case, I'm glad I finally read it.

Orual makes an interesting protagonist and narrator: she's not a nice person, proud and selfish, but it's always clear why the things she does made sense to her at the time. And, balancing the fact that she's ready with a justification for her bad actions, she's also capable of doing signficant good and doesn't always recognise how good she's been. (I was reminded of the saying about how life is like working backstage at a theatre or doing an embroidery from the wrong side, where you're always aware of the messy scaffolding that nobody else can see and only have an indistinct idea of what it looks like to everyone else.)


#8: A book with a cover in the same colour as the previous book

The cover of Till We Have Faces has a full-cover illustration with a very similar colour scheme to the previous book I had for this prompt last year, which would have been a useful thing to notice then but now means that, unless there's another such book lurking unnoticed on my shelves, I'm facing a similar struggle to find something to match it.

Week in review: Week to 31 January

. The group from the board game club that sometimes meets on Sunday afternoons to play longer games met on Sunday afternoon to have another shot at Tainted Grail, a long-form game (the kind where there's a mechanism to save your progress because you're definitely not finishing in one session) that involves exploring and learning the stories of a land being overwhelmed by chaotic magic. ( Read more... )

. We had another long session on the regular board game day, because it was a public holiday so we started in the early afternoon instead of being restricted to the evening.

We took advantage of the extra time to play Nemesis: Retaliation, ( Read more... )

Afterward, to finish off on a lighter note, we played a game of Jamaica, a game in which each player is a pirate competing to sail back to port with the most gold and best treasures. ( Read more... )

. I spent much of the week reading Sansûkh, and ended up being happy I'd put in the time. The ending is pretty satisfying, as long as you're able to take it on its own terms and not worry about how much or little it has to do with Tolkien's Middle-Earth.


. I had another go at Zombies Run; I took a water bottle with me, which contributed to having a significantly better experience than last time I tried it.


. I'm currently running a few episodes behind on Natural Six, but the advantage is that when I hit a big cliffhanger like the one at the end of episode 43 I don't have to wait a fortnight to find out what happens next. I might be able to catch up again soon; part of why I've been lagging is that the last few episodes had been making me uncomfortable waiting for a plot shoe to drop, and Episode 44 dropped it good and proper.


. Speaking of an absence of shoes, my week came to an unhappy conclusion when I was getting ready for bed and banged a toe against a piece of furniture I was too sleepy to successfully navigate past. I think it's just bruised, but it complained loudly and at length. It seems to have mostly settled down now.