Steph and I met a lot of people at San Pedro Square Market for Brian’s 30th. We had dinner before going, so we only got an ice cream sandwich. It was very tasty. We talked with people when we could hear. A somewhat jazzy band was playing and had the speakers turned up way too loud. They weren’t particularly good, and I could hardly understand what the singer was saying. Her voice was good, but the diction was terrible. I ended up getting a headache from the music, but the 
rest of the evening was nice.
This was a great ending to a wonderful series. Alliances that were formed and the final fight were excellent. I especially enjoyed the wakening of the great furies to finish off the Vord queen. There were a few loose ends that came up, like what happened to the great furies after they finished the Vord queen, or where the original group of Vord were that caused the Marat to come to Alera. I would love for another series in this universe.
We played a seven person game of Seven Wonders. It was a game with Steph, Chris, Erik, Jeff, Cynthia, Iliya, and me. I really like how this game is highly parallelized, but you still have interactions with other players. The game went well for me, but not well enough. I was going science and was able to get a lot of points there, but many of the science cards were in the same hands, so I wasn’t able to fill out as much as I would have liked.
Steph, Iliya, and I then broke off to do a three person game of Lords of Waterdeep. We had a good time of it, and I was able to build 10 buildings. Since I was the builder this made me win on the bonus points. I did well even without that since I had so many buildings generating revenue for me via the other players using them. I was able to complete a good many quests.
While I liked this book, I was a little disappointed at points in it. I was hoping to have more happen in Canea, but they just showed up and then left. There was no major exploration and explanation of the larger continent. The Vord there were also never dealth with, and there remained only one queen left. The defenses of the cities against the Vord in Alera also weren’t described in as much detail as I would have liked. As they had a lot of them to get through.
Archer and Lana have enjoyed many of the new toys we’ve been getting for them, but they still go after the laser pointer the most. Here are some videos of them playing with the laser pointer and a feather clump on a wire.
Archer after the feather clump, Archer at Play, Lana at Play, Lana in Circles
This book had a lot of great plot points, but the overall plot didn’t change all that much. It was still excellent and full of action, intrigue, and fun anecdotes.
This book was a bit slower than the others at the start, but it made up for it with how the book came to a conclusion. Tavi was able to take command of a legion and fight off a Cane invasion with very amusing tactics. I was surprised when some of the tactics weren’t reused, but I suppose you can’t have a super-weapon appear like the light cannon he used.
Steph and I have been playing some board games in the evenings this week, outside of games night. We played a couple games of Race for the Galaxy, where we are about equally skilled. We also played one game of New Era, but I am much better at that game than her, and she gets upset when I continue to pull ahead. I got some of the best card draws I’ve gotten in that game, which also helped. I was able to get three cooperate from hand card draws each turn. We also played a game of Fish Cook with Candice, where Steph won by one dollar over me; Candice took a close third.
This was a very good book, and part of an excellent series. I like Kitai’s part in this book, as she is a very fun and interesting character. The Cane are also very interesting, and are introduced here. The way Jim Butcher shows the logic of the Cane is very astute to the differences in philosophy of ethics.
It's an Exciting World 