Re: Highlights and Lowlights - April 2025

On 5/6/25 8:42 AM, Ted Nolan <tednolan> wrote:

In article <vvb2nv$rvl4$1@dont-email.me>,
Tony Nance  <tnusenet17@gmail.com> wrote:

>
Highlights and Lowlights - April 2025

 Thanks as usual!

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( ++ - ) 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!
 

Exactly!

( ++ ) 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..
 

If you ever end up reading it, I'm curious to see what you think.

<snip some stuff> >
( ++ 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.
 

Yeah, I'm wondering about that too. Of course, I'm looking forward to their new project, too; but I enjoyed reading about Roman, and I hope they write more about him in the future.
Tony