Highlights and Lowlights - June 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: ( ++++ ) Sword and Shadow - Sagara [Wolves of Elantra #2]
Lowlight: ( + - ) The Devil’s Game - Anderson
June 2025
( ++++ ) Sword and Shadow - Sagara [Wolves of Elantra #2]
( ++ - ) Moving Pictures - Pratchett [Discworld #10]
( +++ ) The New Hugo Winners Vol 2 - presented by Asimov
( +++ 1/2 ) Eye of Cat - Zelazny [Re-read]
( + - ) The Devil’s Game - Anderson
( ++ - ) Rhythm of War - Sanderson [Stormlight Archive #4] (I used online chapter summaries to help power skim the last 650 pages, while reading certain scenes and most of the conversations.)
Now Reading:
Long work - Excession - Banks [Re-read Project #2]
Collection - The Collected Stories of Arthur C Clarke
(Tor 2001 edition,
https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?301215 )
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June 2025
( ++++ ) Sword and Shadow - Sagara [Wolves of Elantra #2]
If you enjoy the character Severn from the main Elantra series (and I do), this is simply an excellent novel. This is the second work (of two, so far) that chronicles Severn’s time as one of the Emperor’s Wolves. The timeline for this one roughly parallels the time when Kaylin was 12-13, first entered Elantra, and was first “adopted” by the Hawks. Aside from Severn, there’s almost no direct overlap with the main series here, and we learn an absolute ton about Severn, his special weapon, and some other stuff I shouldn’t spoil.
( ++ - ) Moving Pictures - Pratchett [Discworld #10]
This was just okay, largely because — unlike the first 9 volumes — Pratchett squeezed in at least a dozen references and riffs to our real-life Hollywood. I found each and every one to be uninteresting, and usually distracting. Since this was exceedingly rare in the first 9 volumes, I will of course keep reading Discworld. It did have 2-3 laugh-out-loud moments, by the way.
( +++ ) The New Hugo Winners Vol 2 - presented by Asimov
Table of contents is here:
https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?44590This is an excellent collection of the nine Hugo-winning novellas, novelettes, and short stories from the 1986-1988 World SF Conventions. This is merely “presented” by Asimov because — in his intro — he basically says “Yeah, I don’t know these folks very well - hope you enjoy their stories here.” The two stories by Zelazny and the one by Le Guin convinced me to re-read Zelazny’s Eye of Cat (immediately below).
( +++ 1/2 ) Eye of Cat - Zelazny [Re-read Project #1]
For many years, I’ve avoided re-reading almost everything, primarily because the more I liked a work (and hence, being more likely I would want to re-read it), the longer I remembered details about it (and hence, I enjoyed re-reading it less). But I’ve learned over the last several months here in rasfw that large swaths of my book-memory have slipped into the great abyss. In parallel, three stories in The New Hugo Winners Vol 2 (immediately above) convinced me to re-read Zelazny’s Eye of Cat. Yay me! It went really well, and I will try re-reading some other volumes moving forward, the next one being Excession by Iain M. Banks.
Anyhow - Eye of Cat is one of Zelazny’s lesser-known works, but I really enjoyed it first time around. This time, it was once again great. Shortly before he passed away (as it turns out), Zelazny himself listed it as one of his five favorites that he’d written. Legendary Navajo animal tracker William “Billy” Blackhorse Singer is asked to prevent an assassination attempt by an alien shapeshifter. He enlists the help of an alien creature he had captured many years ago to add to the Interstellar Zoo on Earth. As years went by, he began to suspect in retrospect that this creature may have been sentient, but unable to communicate, and for which he felt tremendous guilt. Upon revisiting the creature, he learns he was correct, and the creature only agrees to help Billy if it gets to turn the tables and hunt Billy if/after they successfully stop the assassination attempt. This one features the topography of New Mexico rather strongly, as well as Billy’s reconnection to his Navajo heritage.
( + - ) The Devil’s Game - Anderson
I’ve had this for a long time, but each time I picked it up, I put it back down without starting. Something James wrote here nudged me to give it a try. My first surprise was discovering that Poul had autographed the copy I have. (I bought it used.) My second surprise was discovering that Poul had anticipated a modern reality TV contest - think Survivor, without the TV part (at least, not publicly broadcast TV). My third surprise -- less of a surprise, to be honest -- was that this was not at all enjoyable. Seven unsympathetic people come to an island controlled by an 8th unsympathetic person, to compete in (up to) seven different contests to win/split a huge cash prize. The SFF aspect is very slight, and adds very little. This book could have easily been written to leave it out.
( ++ - ) Rhythm of War - Sanderson [Stormlight Archive #4 of a projected 10, though only 5 are published at the moment]
Second time trying to finish this one, as I had put it down after roughly 140 pages about a year ago. This time I made it through roughly 580 pages, at which point I used online chapter summaries to help power skim the last 650 pages. I did slow down to fully read certain scenes and most of the conversations. It’s pretty clear there are major changes coming that I’m simply not interested in - certainly not enough to read 6 more books that will likely clock in at 1000+ pages each.
Now Reading:
Long work - Excession - Banks [Re-read Project #2]
Collection - The Collected Stories of Arthur C Clarke
(Tor 2001 edition,
https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?301215 )
Tony
Highlights and Lowlights - June 2025