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From: Lynn McGuire <lynnmcguire5@gmail.com>
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
Subject: Re: Highlights and Lowlights - April 2025
Date: Mon, 5 May 2025 14:34:56 -0500
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On 5/5/2025 2:15 PM, Tony Nance wrote:
> 
> Highlights and Lowlights - April 2025
> 
> Books are rated 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 here.
> 
> Highlight & Lowlight:
> Kind of middle-of-the-road quality all month long. Nothing sticks out in 
> either direction.
> 
> April 2025
> ( ++ 1/2 ) Bookshops & Bonedust - Baldree [Legends & Lattes #2 (but it’s 
> a prequel)]
> ( ++ - ) The Reefs of Space - Pohl & Williamson [Starchild Trilogy #1]
> ( ++ - ) Shards of Glass - Sagara [Academia Chronicles #1]
> ( ++ ) The Warden - Daniel M Ford
> ( + 1/2 ) Planets of Adventure - Leinster [ed. by Flint & Gordon]
> ( ++ 1/2 ) Sanctuary - Ilona Andrews [Roman Chronicles #1]
> ( ++ 1/2 ) Chimera’s Fall - Stewart [Starship’s Mage #16]
> ( +++ - ) On the Steel Breeze - Reynolds [Poseidon’s Children #2]
> 
> Now Reading:
> Long work - Mickey 7 - Ashton
> Collection - A Liaden Constellation 1 - Lee & Miller
> 
> ===========================================
> April 2025
> ( ++ 1/2 ) Bookshops & Bonedust - Baldree [Legends & Lattes #2 (but it’s 
> a prequel)]
> I’m not generally fond of prequels, but this one worked pretty well. 
> This is very much in the same vein and tone as the first one (Legends & 
> Lattes). We join orc mercenary Viv toward the end of her very first 
> mission with Rackam’s outfit, where her inexperience and bravado get her 
> severely injured. Rackam & co continue pursuit of the evil necromancer, 
> but have to leave Viv behind in sleepy seaside town of Murk while she 
> heals. They promise to return for her after the mission is completed. 
> While Viv heals and recovers, she makes acquaintances and has positive 
> impact on the community. Viv is an interesting character, and I’ll read 
> #3 at some point.
> 
> ( ++ - ) 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.
> 
> ( ++ - ) Shards of Glass - Sagara [Academia Chronicles #1]
> This is set in the Elantra Universe, with many shared characters and 
> settings, and runs parallel to — even slightly intertwined with — 
> Kaylin’s saga. The focus is on prized student Robin in the Academia, 
> which is now run by the dragon Lannagaros, the former Arkon. This was 
> fine, but not nearly as good as all the other Elantra stuff I’ve read. I 
> don’t know why this one didn’t click for me, though I will say that I’m 
> not very interested in Robin’s human family and caste court issues. I 
> don’t know if I’ll read #2 or not. Probably. Maybe.
> 
> ( ++ ) 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.
> 
> ( + 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.
> 
> ( ++ 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.

"Sanctuary" was much better than I hoped.  Turns out that the life a 
Volhv Priest is fairly adventuresome.

Lynn