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From: ted@loft.tnolan.com (Ted Nolan <tednolan>)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
Subject: Re: Highlights and Lowlights - April 2025
Date: 6 May 2025 12:42:27 GMT
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In article <vvb2nv$rvl4$1@dont-email.me>,
Tony Nance  <tnusenet17@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>Highlights and Lowlights - April 2025

Thanks as usual!
>
>
>
>( ++ - ) The Reefs of Space - Pohl & Williamson [Starchild Trilogy #1]
>Holds up surprisingly well for being 60+ years old. But it is clearly 
>60+ years old. Solar-system-based, dystopian a la’ Orwell’s 1984, 
>complete with a surveillance state run by a Machine which orders 
>everyone to follow The Plan. (Fyi, these capitalized nouns are from the 
>authors, not me.) For the reader, the plot and settings carry the day, 
>as the book is populated by one-dimensional stock characters. The 
>protagonist is a mathematician who has become a Risk to the state, and 
>as such, he is fitted with an exploding collar. Like all collared 
>individuals, it will be detonated if he has too many Unplanned Thoughts. 
>Special for him, though, it will also be detonated if he doesn’t invent 
>the Jetless Drive, which only requires him to violate Newton’s Third 
>Law. Bummer dude.
>I already finished reading #2 a few days ago, and will read the 
>third/final book at some point.

It's interesting that I can recall finding these books in the public library's
junk basket as "stripped" copies with no cover, but can recall basicaly
nothing else about them.

However your description recalled a "what were they thinking!?"
moment from another series that frustrated me in several ways: M.K.
Wren's "The Phoenix Legacy". Part of the rebellion's master plan
requires their science guy to develop FTL technology, which may not
even be possible.  Find another plan guys!


>
>( ++ ) The Warden - Daniel M Ford
>This is a series-starter, and the 2nd & 3rd are also published. Aelis is 
>a city-born-and-bred noble who has just graduated near the top of her 
>class from the Lyceum (a prestigious college of magic). To her deep 
>dismay, she has been assigned as a Warden to Lone Pine and its 
>surrounding environs, which is pretty much the most rural place in the 
>empire, as well as the most distant from the city and college. This 
>place is r-e-m-o-t-e. As we see Aelis and the villagers adapt to each 
>other, she starts to uncover some true dangers to both Lone Pine and the 
>entire Empire.  She’s an interesting character, and becomes surrounded 
>by interesting characters as well. Although I did not appreciate the 
>huge cliffhanger ending, I will read #2.
>

This sounds like it should be exactly up my alley.  Pushed to wishlist..

>( + 1/2 ) Planets of Adventure - Leinster [ed. by Flint & Gordon]
>The final 1/3 of this volume is 5 stand-alone stories (the first two 
>thirds being the books The Forgotten Planet and The Planet Explorer), 
>and they’re fine. Not great, not awful - fine.
>
>( ++ 1/2) Sanctuary - Ilona Andrews [Roman Chronicles #1]
>Novella-length, set in the Kate Daniels universe, and completely focused 
>on Roman, who is a Black Volhv (empowered rep/priest) of Chernobog, God 
>of Destruction, Darkness, and Death. (This does not mean God of Evil, by 
>the way - more like being the God of the Difficult Necessities of Life.) 
>Isolated on his 15 acres way out in the sticks, Roman finds a boy near 
>death just outside his small home. When the boy specifically asks for 
>sanctuary, Roman must comply. Shortly thereafter, some mercenaries come 
>to retrieve the boy. When they fail miserably, they hire some mages to 
>help. Things get very interesting when that fails as well. Roman is dour 
>and pessimistic, but also funny, and I will read the next one.

I hope we don't have to wait too long.  As I recall the Andrews got
a big non-Kate-related project accepted & underway.

>
>( ++ 1/2 ) Chimera’s Fall - Stewart [Starship’s Mage #16]
>I believe this series narrowly avoided jumping the shark a couple books 
>ago, and this one is a pretty solid entry. This is completely a Roslyn 
>book, which is fine, but I miss Damien. Connor (the Ambassador to 
>Chimera) is a co-protagonist. Picking up immediately after the last 
>book, distant-system Chimera is awaiting the attack of the evil 
>devouring civilization that just rediscovered them, and Roslyn and Co 
>are coordinating with Mars and Chimera to evacuate the entire Chimera 
>system, because they know they can’t defeat the big-bads (at least not 
>yet). There are lots of political and military issues to navigate, and 
>of course the big-bads show up early. Looking forward to the next one.
>
>( +++ - ) On the Steel Breeze - Reynolds [Poseidon’s Children #2]
>Huge in scope - two intertwined plotlines, one on Earth, and one on a 
>massive colonizing voyage to a distant star. Protagonist Chiku Akinya 
>creates two clones with her memories, and all three have the ability to 
>periodically sync their experiences with each other. Chiku Yellow stays 
>on Earth, Chiku Green goes on the colonizing voyage, and Chiku Red goes 
>on a solo deep space mission to pursue great-grandmother Eunice in her 
>runaway starship. (No surprise, Reynolds does indeed address the problem 
>of staying in sync over relativistic distances.) Pretty fun read 
>overall, and I will read the third/final one. The minus is for two 
>combined issues: the prominence of a “homicidal AI” plot, and for the 
>utter stupidity of humans that shouldn’t take place in a Reynolds book.[1]
>
>Now Reading:
>Long work - Mickey 7 - Ashton
>Collection - A Liaden Constellation 1 - Lee & Miller
>
>Tony
>[1] Re: utter stupidity: The colonization fleet — all huge “holoships”, 
>said fleet carrying billions of people — agree that they should 
>over-consume their fuel so they can get there 7-8 years faster, 
>reasoning that they’ll surely figure out the new physics and technology 
>and plucky know-how they need to slow down. Bonus: Some years later, 
>there’s also an authoritarian takeover that forbids both research and 
>discussion of this problem of slowing down.
>


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