Re: Highlights and Lowlights - April 2025

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