Highlights and Lowlights - April 2024

Highlights and Lowlights - April 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.
Highlight -  Lyorn - Brust [Vlad Taltos #17]
Lowlight -  Balanced on the Blade’s Edge - Buroker [Dragon Blood #1]
Here’s a quick summary of what’s more in-depth below:
( ++ - ) Polar City Blues - Kerr
( +++ ) Med Ship - Leinster [collection]
( ++ - ) Chimera’s Star - Stewart [Starship’s Mage #14]
( + - - ) Balanced on the Blade’s Edge - Buroker [Dragon Blood #1]
( +++ 1/2 ) Lyorn - Brust [Dragaera/Vlad Taltos #17]
( +++ - ) Earth Abides - George R Stewart
( ++ 1/2 ) Cast in Honor - Sagara [Elantra #11]
( ++ ) The Blue Sword - McKinley (re-read)
( ++ 1/2 ) The Hero and the Crown - McKinley
Now Reading:
Long work - Accepting the Lance - Lee & Miller [Liaden #22]
Collection - The Best of L Sprague De Camp
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April 2024
( ++ - ) Polar City Blues - Kerr
I think I liked this more than I should have, but it was still just okay. Hagar is one of two human colony planets, and it is too hot for human habitation except at the poles. Bobbie Lacey is an ex-space military officer who was forced out for administrative reasons, even though she did the right/best thing in a tough situation. She’s now making her way in Polar City as an information broker, and she gets pulled into helping a murder investigation.  There are three major races/species where humans rate a poor third; and Polar City is an … extremely ethically challenged city (crime, bribes, crime, drugs, crime, espionage, crime…) The investigation blows up into something much bigger, and not just because the murderer has decided to kill everybody who was a witness, or who talked to a witness, or who knows that witness starts with a “w”, or ….  Kerr squeezes a ton of ideas into this book: there are psychics/empaths/telepaths, AI, baseball, etc.  Some of these ideas work, and some of them don’t. James has reviewed this book, with far more depth and info and details, if you want to know more.
( +++ ) Med Ship - Leinster [collection]
This is the first of three Leinster collections put out by Baen, the other two being Planets of Adventure, and A Logic Named Joe. I will be reading the others, as this one was excellent, and I enjoy Leinster in general. Calhoun and his animal(?) companion Murgatroyd take Med Service missions in 8 different long-ish stories here (600+ pages). Very well done. A few of the earliest stories are slightly weaker, but it’s a very enjoyable collection. As these are episodic and independent stories, I am not at all sure how the editors (Flint and Gordon) chose the order of the stories. (It’s not chronological by publication.)
( ++ - ) Chimera’s Star - Stewart [Starship’s Mage #14]
This was fine, and in line with its predecessors, but I’m concerned the series is about to jump the shark. This one featured the crazy-ass over-the-top nemesis as the p.o.v. character way too much (well over half the book); Roslyn is starting to show signs of becoming Wesley Crusher; and we’re getting farther and farther away from Damien, and Mars, and what I enjoyed about this series initially. I’ll read the next one, but I’m concerned.
( + - - ) Balanced on the Blade’s Edge - Buroker [Dragon Blood #1]
Oh dear. This was so So SO not my thing. I strongly suspect it was competently done, played fair with the conventions of the genre, etc, but…oh my, not my thing. To me, this basically read like a bodice-ripper romance with steampunk and fantasy trappings. I don’t think I could be more ignorant of the modern state of the romance genre, because I avoid it like it has pernicious cooties. (Yes, cooties I tell you - and pernicious ones, at that.) This one features The Last Sorceress Alive and a rogue-ish pilot, who of course experience insta-love/insta-lust for each other while fighting a war at a mining prison. Sure. The sorceress is the only character not made of flimsy cardboard, but again, I suspect this is fair within a genre I’m supremely ignorant of. For a long time, I had been pondering what to try by Buroker, and I picked up two series starters. I will read the other one soon, but … now I’m nervous.
( +++ 1/2 )Lyorn - Brust [Dragaera/Vlad Taltos #17]
This was super enjoyable. It picks up directly after Hawk, and while Vlad has indeed gotten the Right Hand of the Jhereg off his back, the Left Hand is pursuing his demise with great vigor - or at least a specific faction within the Left Hand is. Since the Left Hand is particularly lethal with magic, Vlad hides out in a theater, because theaters tend to have very strong magical protections. (Who knew? Not Vlad - one of his friends clues him in.) As he hides, he also gets caught up in the musical being produced there, including the people and the culture, and the problems they hope he can solve while he’s solving his own. While Vlad survives (of course), there are clearly bigger things ahead. Many places say there are exactly two books left in this series, currently named Chreotha (I believe this is the
last/only House that is not a book title yet) and The Final Contract.
( +++ - ) Earth Abides - George R Stewart
An interesting, thoughtful, and occasionally over-ponderous examination of a pandemic wiping out well over 99% of the 1949 U.S. population. Stewart clearly thought about the short- and long-term consequences of a vast, abrupt depopulation event. Ish is the protagonist, and we pretty much linearly follow his life through many generations and old age. Kind of drags in a few places, but overall it is pretty darn good.
( ++ 1/2 ) Cast in Honor - Sagara [Elantra #11]
Whodathunkit? Kaylin and Co deal with another existential threat to Elantra. This one tangles up the mirror network, elemental water, time displacement, and a 10 yr old orphan. Sagara does this well, and if you liked the first 10, you’ll like this one. I am mildly concerned that these will get a bit same-y, but so far they haven’t. You know that scene in the Avengers where Hulk & Thor are standing next to each other after beating up some bad guys, and Hulk punches Thor out of nowhere, just because? I want that to happen to Mandoran. Every time he appears in a scene. And — not that this has been hidden or anything — we’re getting glimpses that Nightshade is probably a bigger jerk than we already think he is.
( ++ ) The Blue Sword - McKinley (re-read)
As I was reading The Hero and the Crown (next entry below), I realized I remembered very little of The Blue Sword; so I figured it was safe for a re-read. And the more I read The Blue Sword, the more I realized I had forgotten every single thing about it. At no point did any of this feel familiar, but my notes say I read it just under ten years ago. Anyhow, this one focuses on recently orphaned Outlander “Harry” Crewe (we learn later that her given name is Angharad) who is sent to the remote desert land of Damar to be with her brother. Shortly after arriving, she gets kidnapped by the Hillfolk of Damar, only to find she takes to the hills like a true native, and she may be one of the very few to be strong in Hill magic. Harry is a fine character, and the Hillfolk are a very interesting people.
( ++ 1/2 ) The Hero and the Crown - McKinley
Good! This is a prequel to The Blue Sword, and it tells the tale of how Aerin received the Blue Sword (Gonturan) and saved her beloved country Damar from certain doom. I’m typically a “read in publication order” person, but I do recommend reading this one before you read  The Blue Sword.  Aerin is an interesting character (in good ways), and my only disappointment here was because I am occasionally a petty reader who wanted to see two characters get their comeuppance - and McKinley had more class than to do that here.
Now Reading:
Long work - Accepting the Lance - Lee & Miller [Liaden #22]
Collection - The Best of L Sprague De Camp
Tony