Path: ...!news.mixmin.net!eternal-september.org!feeder3.eternal-september.org!news.eternal-september.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail
From: Tony Nance <tnusenet17@gmail.com>
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
Subject: Highlights and Lowlights - May 2024
Date: Sat, 1 Jun 2024 08:43:45 -0400
Organization: A noiseless patient Spider
Lines: 160
Message-ID: <v3f522$2pdes$1@dont-email.me>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
Injection-Date: Sat, 01 Jun 2024 14:43:47 +0200 (CEST)
Injection-Info: dont-email.me; posting-host="367776cba3b23a7798fc16ce3d52f446";
	logging-data="2930140"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@eternal-september.org";	posting-account="U2FsdGVkX1/1rTPBqs9dgvOplSlImChEnpK29g/R3KY="
User-Agent: Mozilla Thunderbird
Cancel-Lock: sha1:ABXf08ImrtzgUZZXecSyw0o10aQ=
Content-Language: en-US
Bytes: 9295


Highlights and Lowlights - May 2024

Books are listed in reverse chronological order from how I read them,
using a very primitive rating system:
“+” are good, and more “+” are better
“-“ are not good, and more “-“ are worse

I’m happy to answer questions about anything on the list.

Highlights - Cast in Flight - Sagara  AND  Accepting the Lance - Lee & 
Miller

Lowlights - A Gift From Earth - Niven

Here’s a quick summary of what’s more in-depth below:
( +++ ) Sweep in Peace - Andrews [Innkeeper Chronicles #2]
( ++++ ) Cast in Flight - Sagara [Elantra #12]
( ++ ) The Best of L Sprague de Camp - de Camp [Ballantine/Del Rey “Best 
of” series]
( +++ - ) Daughters of Earth - Merril [3 novellas: Project Nursemaid, 
title story, Homecalling]
( +++ - - ) Blue Remembered Earth - Reynolds [Poseidon’s Children #1]
( ++ ) The Element of Fire - Wells [Ile-Rien #1]
( + - - ) A Gift From Earth - Niven [Known Space]
( + 1/2 - ) The Emperor’s Edge - Buroker [Emperor’s Edge #1]
( ++ ) Charming Sharra - Watt-Evans [Ethshar #15]
( ++++ ) Accepting the Lance - Lee & Miller [Liaden #22]

Now Reading:
Long work - Fleet Elements - Walter Jon Williams [Praxis #5]
Collection - The Vorkosigan Companion - ed. by Lillian Stewart Carl & 
John Helfers

===========================================
May 2024

( +++ ) Sweep in Peace - Andrews [Innkeeper Chronicles #2]
This was fun and entertaining, in much the same way their Kate Daniels 
books are fun and entertaining. Because all the other Inns on Earth said 
“no”, The Office of Arbitration asks Innkeeper Dina to host peace 
negotiations for three species involved in a never-ending, brutal war on 
a strategic faraway planet. With Dina and her Inn both struggling, Dina 
is desperate enough to say “yes”. We see and learn a lot more about the 
Inns and some of the races populating this universe. Looking forward to 
reading #3.

( ++++ ) Cast in Flight - Sagara [Elantra #12]
Excellent. This is mostly focused on Aerians, especially on Moran and 
what her wings signify. The Emperor’s “discussion” aimed at Kaylin 
during dinner is one of the highlights of the series, and Kaylin gets 
more than a glimpse of what it means to be responsible, to be mature, 
and to truly be one of the Emperor’s Hawks. Shadow rears its head again, 
but in a surprising way. Very well done.

( ++ ) The Best of L Sprague de Camp - de Camp [Ballantine/Del Rey “Best 
of” series]
Good/solid … nothing spectacular, nothing awful. 15 stories and 3 short 
poems. The Gnarly Man and A Gun for Dinosaur are pretty famous in their 
own right. Judgment Day is also deservedly well-known, and is a rather 
dark/dismal read. De Camp was knowledgable about a great many topics, 
and this depth & authenticity come through in many of his stories.

( +++ - ) Daughters of Earth - Merril [3 novellas: one poor (Project 
Nursemaid, 1955), one great (title story, 1952), one good (Homecalling, 
1956)]

Project Nursemaid was probably well-received at the time she wrote it, 
but it is hopelessly locked into gender stereotypes of the time, bolted 
on to a really shaky premise (the military wants to raise babies 
“natively” on the moon to become their space soldiers of the future). Pass.

Daughters of Earth features a space pioneer grandmother writing a 
letter/message to her space pioneer granddaughter as the latter is about 
to embark on an historic mission. In the letter, we get glimpses and 
tales of 6 women in the family, each of a different generation, 
every-other-generation a space pioneer. Excellent.

Homecalling begins with a space-faring family of four crash-landing on a 
planet, killing the parents and leaving a 9-year-old girl and her infant 
brother to fend for themselves. There’s a sentient telepathic insectoid 
species on the planet, and we see how first contact becomes even more 
challenging when one of the species is represented by a 9-year-old.

( +++ - - ) Blue Remembered Earth - Reynolds [Poseidon’s Children #1]
This was both great and maddening. The great: Solar system SF set about 
150 years from now, human settlements on the moon, Mars, and some 
stations and operations throughout the rest of the outer system 
(including the Kuiper Belt & maybe even the Oort Cloud). Huge projects, 
neat technologies, etc. The maddening: With one exception, populated by 
major characters that each have 3 or more of the following 5 wonderful 
traits: self-absorbed, self-righteous, impulsive, unsympathetic, True 
Believer jerks. The one major character who is an exception has only 2 
of the 5 traits, but compensates by accepting that everything in the 
universe is his fault. Giant plus: The sequel seems to share no 
characters with this one, so I plan to try it.

( ++ ) The Element of Fire - Wells [Ile-Rien #1]
Good! This is Wells’ first novel, but it’s the version that she 
updated/revised in 2022. Good characters, unpredictable plot, lots of 
palace intrigue/politics, a weak young king and a strong dowager queen, 
a lot of conniving calculating opportunists; technology is at the swords 
& muskets level (with magic, too). I’ll read #2, even though it seems to 
share no characters with #1.

( + - - ) A Gift From Earth - Niven [Known Space]
Bleah. Very early Known Space - possibly the second novel. Great 
physical setting (which almost surely falls apart if I squint, but I 
didn’t want to), forgettable characters, questionable plotting, and 
silly reasoning. The crew of a colony sleeper ship sets themselves up as 
the ruling class when they arrive at Mt Lookatthat (the only habitable 
area of the planet Plateau). There are organ banks to extend the crew’s 
lives, death penalty for all colonist crimes (which feed the organ 
banks), and the great many words of “logic” to explain this were flat 
out silly. Also silly was Matt Keller’s emerging, um, mind-based power 
and why/how it works. Throw in the True Believers in the Resistance who 
want to use Keller like the tool that he is, and you have a pretty 
tedious set of characters and plotlines inside a pretty cool setting.

( + 1/2 - ) The Emperor’s Edge - Buroker [Emperor’s Edge #1]
This was just okay. My WSOD took a severe beating over the 1st 100 
pages, and still got the occasional whack after that. Amaranthe is a 
low-level member of Empire law enforcement when she catches the young 
single Emperor’s attention at the scene of a fire. Of course, the Regent 
wants to stay Regent forever, and — to help keep his heel on the Emperor 
— he sends Amaranthe on a mission to find & kill the greatest assassin 
in the Empire. While she is predictably unsuccessful in this mission, 
she realizes the Emperor is in danger from the Regent, and she puts 
together an unlikely team of misfits and schemes to thwart the Regent’s 
plans. Meh.

( ++ ) Charming Sharra - Watt-Evans [Ethshar #15]
Good! A reliable, typical, enjoyable Ethshar tale. Sharra is a beautiful 
but self-centered nag of a wife, and when her husband of 20 years leaves 
her — and gives her quite a lump sum of money to live on — she refuses 
to hear or believe his reasons for leaving. Instead, she pays a wizard 
all of that money for a spell that makes her 20 years younger. The sum 
she spent is not quite enough for such an expensive spell, and when she 
misses the deadline to pay the rest, the wizard turns her into a statue 
- all the while being able to hear everything around her. And things 
progress from there.

( ++++ ) Accepting the Lance - Lee & Miller [Liaden #22]
This was excellent. So many threads and plotlines came together here, 
with so much satisfactory progress and a decent amount of resolution - 
among the featured are The Dept of the Interior, the new Yxtrang 
warriors, the proposed Surebleak Port upgrade, the Old Tech AIs, the 
Clutch, Daav & Aelliana, Theo & Co, Rys & Droi & the Bedel in general, 
Val Con & Miri, and I’m probably missing some too. Very well done, very 
satisfying, and very much looking forward to the next one.

Now Reading:
Long work - Fleet Elements - Walter Jon Williams [Praxis #5]
Collection - The Vorkosigan Companion - ed. by Lillian Stewart Carl & 
John Helfers

Tony