Bryce Landon, an avionics technician in Wichita, Kansas, reviews hard SF and speculative fiction books and board games, plus the odd personal essay.https://brycesdomain.com/en-UShttps://brycesdomain.com/articles/deacons-rule-about-new-games-on-a-work-night/https://brycesdomain.com/articles/deacons-rule-about-new-games-on-a-work-night/Six years into the Thursday table and I still lose the argument about when it's okay to teach something heavy.Fri, 21 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMTpersonal_essayBryce Landonhttps://brycesdomain.com/articles/seeing-like-a-state/https://brycesdomain.com/articles/seeing-like-a-state/Why planned cities, monoculture farms, and standardized last names all fail the same way, and why that matters more than it sounds like it should.Sat, 08 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMTSeeing Like a StateBryce Landonhttps://brycesdomain.com/articles/the-torque-spec-i-double-check-now/https://brycesdomain.com/articles/the-torque-spec-i-double-check-now/A near-miss on a panel fastener taught me more about reading manuals than four years of technical school did.Thu, 06 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMTpersonal_essayBryce Landonhttps://brycesdomain.com/articles/the-manual-that-taught-me-to-read-manuals-for-fun/https://brycesdomain.com/articles/the-manual-that-taught-me-to-read-manuals-for-fun/Kemet's rulebook is the worst thing I've read all year, and somehow it's the reason I finally understand why I like the good ones.Sat, 01 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMTpersonal_essayBryce Landonhttps://brycesdomain.com/articles/the-master-and-margarita/https://brycesdomain.com/articles/the-master-and-margarita/The devil shows up in Stalin-era Moscow with a talking cat and a retinue of tricksters, and somehow it's also about Pontius Pilate, and somehow it all works.Fri, 24 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMTThe Master and MargaritaBryce Landonhttps://brycesdomain.com/articles/the-score-i-reversed-after-sleeping-on-it/https://brycesdomain.com/articles/the-score-i-reversed-after-sleeping-on-it/I gave Kemet a four the night I finished the rulebook fight, out of pure frustration, and I still think about how close I came to leaving it there.Mon, 06 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMTpersonal_essayBryce Landonhttps://brycesdomain.com/articles/terraforming-mars/https://brycesdomain.com/articles/terraforming-mars/A phenomenal engine-building idea trapped in some of the flimsiest player boards I own.Mon, 29 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMTTerraforming MarsBryce Landonhttps://brycesdomain.com/articles/kemet-blood-and-sand/https://brycesdomain.com/articles/kemet-blood-and-sand/The best dudes-on-a-map game I own, once you survive the rulebook long enough to find out.Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMTKemet: Blood and SandBryce Landonhttps://brycesdomain.com/articles/the-second-play-rule/https://brycesdomain.com/articles/the-second-play-rule/I won't post a rating until I've actually finished the thing, and Moon Colony Bloodbath is the reason I can explain why.Sun, 14 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMTpersonal_essayBryce Landonhttps://brycesdomain.com/articles/the-core-of-the-sun/https://brycesdomain.com/articles/the-core-of-the-sun/Finnish Weird feminist dystopia with a genuine chili-pepper addiction subplot, and somehow every piece of that sentence is doing real work.Tue, 09 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMTThe Core of the SunBryce Landonhttps://brycesdomain.com/articles/wichita-doesnt-really-have-a-spring/https://brycesdomain.com/articles/wichita-doesnt-really-have-a-spring/The window between when the hangar stops being brutally cold and when the sirens start is short, and my reading pace lives entirely inside it.Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMTpersonal_essayBryce Landonhttps://brycesdomain.com/articles/too-many-bones/https://brycesdomain.com/articles/too-many-bones/The dice pool as a character sheet, and one of the smartest single-serving RPGs I've put on a table.Wed, 13 May 2026 00:00:00 GMTToo Many BonesBryce Landonhttps://brycesdomain.com/articles/why-i-read-on-the-ramp-instead-of-the-break-room/https://brycesdomain.com/articles/why-i-read-on-the-ramp-instead-of-the-break-room/The break room has better chairs and a working coffee maker, and I still take my book outside every single lunch I can.Fri, 08 May 2026 00:00:00 GMTpersonal_essayBryce Landonhttps://brycesdomain.com/articles/moon-colony-bloodbath/https://brycesdomain.com/articles/moon-colony-bloodbath/A campy death spiral of a card game where the goal isn't to win so much as to lose the least badly.Mon, 04 May 2026 00:00:00 GMTMoon Colony BloodbathBryce Landonhttps://brycesdomain.com/articles/anathem/https://brycesdomain.com/articles/anathem/A thousand pages of monk-scientists arguing philosophy on an alien Earth, and I wish I lived in a math.Thu, 30 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMTAnathemBryce Landonhttps://brycesdomain.com/articles/renatas-one-note-on-every-draft/https://brycesdomain.com/articles/renatas-one-note-on-every-draft/She's not a gamer and she barely reads sci-fi, but she catches the one thing in every review that I can't see myself.Tue, 21 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMTpersonal_essayBryce Landonhttps://brycesdomain.com/articles/the-headset-marks-i-still-have-after-a-long-shift/https://brycesdomain.com/articles/the-headset-marks-i-still-have-after-a-long-shift/A small physical habit that follows me from the hangar to the game table, and what it means that I never quite noticed I had it.Sun, 19 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMTpersonal_essayBryce Landonhttps://brycesdomain.com/articles/thinking-fast-and-slow/https://brycesdomain.com/articles/thinking-fast-and-slow/The book that will turn you into the person at dinner accusing everyone of anchoring bias, and it's worth becoming that person.Mon, 30 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMTThinking, Fast and SlowBryce Landonhttps://brycesdomain.com/articles/war-and-peace-and-war/https://brycesdomain.com/articles/war-and-peace-and-war/Peter Turchin's attempt at a physics of empire, asabiya and all, is a genuinely interesting theory that needed a stronger editor.Sun, 22 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMTWar and Peace and WarBryce Landonhttps://brycesdomain.com/articles/cloud-atlas/https://brycesdomain.com/articles/cloud-atlas/Six nested stories, six genres, one structure that builds up like a pyramid and walks you back down the other side.Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMTCloud AtlasBryce Landonhttps://brycesdomain.com/articles/how-a-noise-complaint-turned-into-deacons-thursday-table/https://brycesdomain.com/articles/how-a-noise-complaint-turned-into-deacons-thursday-table/Six years ago a coworker's neighbor called the police on a card game, and somehow that's the origin story of the best standing commitment I have.Wed, 04 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMTpersonal_essayBryce Landonhttps://brycesdomain.com/articles/faraway/https://brycesdomain.com/articles/faraway/Eight cards, scored backwards from how you played them, and somehow that's enough to make your brain hurt in the good way.Sun, 01 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMTFarawayBryce Landonhttps://brycesdomain.com/articles/ninefox-gambit/https://brycesdomain.com/articles/ninefox-gambit/Military SF where the weapons run on collective belief and calendar math, and you're never fully told how any of it works.Thu, 26 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMTNinefox GambitBryce Landonhttps://brycesdomain.com/articles/unmatched-tales-to-amaze/https://brycesdomain.com/articles/unmatched-tales-to-amaze/Taking a tight 1v1 skirmish system and bolting a co-op mode onto it shouldn't work this well, and mostly it does.Wed, 11 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMTUnmatched: Tales to AmazeBryce Landonhttps://brycesdomain.com/articles/spirit-island/https://brycesdomain.com/articles/spirit-island/A co-op where you're not defending a kingdom, you're the vengeful, weird, half-understood thing the invaders should never have provoked.Fri, 06 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMTSpirit IslandBryce Landonhttps://brycesdomain.com/articles/the-glass-bead-game/https://brycesdomain.com/articles/the-glass-bead-game/A biography of a man who masters a game nobody in the book ever fully explains to you, and somehow that's the point.Sat, 31 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMTThe Glass Bead GameBryce Landonhttps://brycesdomain.com/articles/frosthaven/https://brycesdomain.com/articles/frosthaven/A better game than Gloomhaven in almost every way, and also a much bigger ask of your table.Sun, 04 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMTFrosthavenBryce Landonhttps://brycesdomain.com/articles/sea-salt-and-paper/https://brycesdomain.com/articles/sea-salt-and-paper/A cute little push-your-luck card game that lives or dies on who's sitting across from you.Mon, 08 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMTSea Salt and PaperBryce Landonhttps://brycesdomain.com/articles/schilds-ladder/https://brycesdomain.com/articles/schilds-ladder/Reportedly the hardest hard sci-fi novel ever written, and I believe it, and I'm not sure that's entirely a compliment.Wed, 03 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMTSchild's LadderBryce Landonhttps://brycesdomain.com/articles/scythe/https://brycesdomain.com/articles/scythe/Everyone's favorite economic powerhouse hiding behind steam-powered mechs, and the player board is doing most of the actual design work.Mon, 01 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMTScytheBryce Landon