Ted Nolan wrote:

As usual, any amazon links below are affiliate ones, which in theory,
though never so far in practice, could earn me some money should
you enter the storefront through one.

February was a fairly light month.

==

Emerald Blaze: A Hidden Legacy Novel
by Ilona Andrews
https://amzn.to/3SZKfto

Unsurprisingly as it's an Andrews, this was the standout of the
month. Like the "Edge" books, the "Hidden Legacy" books are a bit
more romance-y than the "Kate" books, but not a lot much more so --
there's always plenty of plot and action and very little sex by
current standards.

The Hidden Legacy books take place in a world very much like ours
(realistically, too much like ours, in the same way the Marvel
Universe is too much like ours, but that's not the focus here),
except that a couple hundred years ago a serum, since ruthlessly
suppressed, was discovered which gave people (those whom it did not
kill..) something extra. Call it "magic", or call it "super-powers",
but the gifts largely breed true leading to a semi-overt system of
great houses, Byzantine house politics and marriage alliances all
co-existing, mostly, with a mundane government of nation states and
ordinary humans.

The series follows the doings of Clan Baylor, a new house, who make
their living as private investigators, and the books are first-person
narrated by different sisters who are leading the house at the time.
After eldest sister Nevada stepped down (for reasons that weren't
quite what they seemed), the last couple books have been told by
Catalina Baylor, whose Siren powers have kept her from relationships,
as she can never be sure she's not influencing her suitor. Well,
there was that one time..

Currently she has quite a bit on her plate. Apart from ordinary
investigations like finding stolen therapy monkeys, someone is
suddenly trying to kill Clan Baylor, the Warden of Texas, whose
covert deputy she is, has dumped a potentially world ending murder
investigation on her, the first non-human intelligence has arisen,
and it's not friendly, her evil grandmother is trying to make
Catalina her creature, and you know, that one time? He'ssss Baaack!

As always with the Andrews, there's humor, action, relateable,
grounded, characters, and high stakes. You don't have to have read
the previous books to enjoy this one, but why wouldn't you?


Pursued by Peril (Tracking Trouble Book 4)
by Lindsay Buroker
https://amzn.to/3IhSXhG

Seattle area Half Dark-Elf baker Arwen's life continues to be
complicated by her relationships, both blood and romantic. Her
mother's Dark-Elf people want Arwen to return to the fold (which
fold she & her human father perhaps escaped more easily than they
had known at the time) have kidnapped several of her friends to
bait her in, and her half-dragon love interest (to whom she has yet
to lose her virginity as the author seems to love to throw Events
at them every time they get close..) has decided that his destiny
is to overthrow the Dragon rule of the Cosmic Realms. Which has
resulted in a formal contract for his assassination, as well as the
general emnity of dragons in general (slightly less so for his
relations, but only just). And of course, *his* enemies now target
Arwen to bait *him*..

I continue to think this is mid-level Buroker. Arwen is a decent character, >> but she doesn't really seem to have grown to hero status, and her progress >> seems very low level -- Hey, finally got rid of that evil, cursed, tattoo, >> finally have a few friends, finally am not terrified to mix with people..

I'm a bit ambivalent about her would-be lover's quest as well. We
see that the Dragons order things to their liking, and don't let
themselves be crossed, but on the other hand, they don't seem to
collect taxes, strip resources or delight in controlling the "lesser"
races -- they just want them to be stable and not a bother. Definitely
not an ideal situation for the Dwarves, Elfs, Trolls etc, but worth
a bloody war? Of course, we get the first inklings in this book
that Earth may be coming onto the Dragon's radar as our problems
have leaked over into the Cosmic Realms several times now...

It looks like there will be one more book in Arwen's sequence (though
that doesn't seem like a lot to settle the whole war issue, so I'm
guessing there will be a way around that found). As the uber series
of Seattle supernatural doings moves from lead character to lead
character, I would suspect that a sequence with Arwen's sometime
driver, sometime researcher, & full-time fashionista Amber will be


To the Bloody End (DFZ Changeling Book 3)
by Rachel Aaron
https://amzn.to/48DUklw

This series about fairly changeling Lola, is the third set in Aaron's
"Heartstriker" universe. The time is the future, magic has returned,
and in addition to humans casting spells or otherwise channeling
magic, various godlike "spirits" have arisen, some of concepts,
some of aspects of nature, and some of places. The Detroit Free Zone,
now detached from the US, is the creature of one such spirit, the DFZ
herself, whose city is a Hong Kong on steroids, capitalistic paradise and
hell-hole. Or it was.

Now with the rise of Victor, a blood-mage who anticipates every
contingency, has convinced the public he is a god (thus making it
pretty well true) the DFZ finds herself on the end of his leash.
If a god (albeit a local one) can't stop him, can anyone?

Well maybe. Lola was Victor's creature, a fairy changeling who was
never supposed to survive, she learned, under his sway, to shape her
gossamer to craft bodies and make herself real, or real enough,
and to become an actual person, one with hopes, feelings and morals.
Living under Victor is not a good place to have morals, and
Lola has finally managed to escape, find love, and even great
power after eating the head of the leader of the Wild Hunt made
her The Underground King. And yet, she and her friends have *still*
been unable to bring down Victor as he grinds the DFZ into
uniformity, and sets his sights on ruling the world.

What can a new person, even if a new King, do against a new God?
So far nothing. But maybe Lola has something Victor doesn't: A
team.

This was an entertaining book, and a satisfying resolution to Lola's
story, with some unanticipated developments that worked well.
Aaron's magic system still eludes me at times, but she has mostly
stopped over-explaining it (which didn't really help, and slowed
things down) so it's at the point where I just go with it. The
only thing I found a bit unsatisfying was that Victor's comeuppance
came at a bit of a distance from Lola & co, though they surely
initiated it. I was also a bit surprised that Opal, the part-time
DFZ priestess from the second DFZ series didn't play any part, or
at least have a cameo, as it seemed her services would have been
very helpful.


Hell's Belle: Demon Queen Series, Book 1: Demon Whychoose Romance
by Eve Newton
https://amzn.to/3Tea4r8

After the somewhat thinly motivated disappearance of her father,
princess Anabelle finds herself the ruler of Hell. The theology
behind her realm is unclear, but it's a generally unpleasant place
and requires a strong hand to ride herd on all the willful demons.
There's some question if Anabelle *is* that strong hand, and to
keep things in check will take all her power, plus the support of
the men of her harem, which she starts gathering in this initial
book. Not helping is that her sort-of-twin brother has his own
problems and may not be around to help, she is being plagued by
strange episodes of power-loss & out-of-body experiences, her temper
may bring the realm down, a night-mare is haunting her dreams, and
somewhere, her grand-father, the original Lucifer is looking for a
way to return.

I was not particularly impressed by this one, and will not be
following it up. I guess I'm not the intended audience, but
Anabelle's "I can have sex with whoever I want, but you can only
have sex with me" policy with her harem comes across (to a guy) as
unfair and not particularly endearing, and some of her choices are
very poor. For instance, when she learns what a night-mare is, and
that there is only one left, supposedly in Hell's prison, rather
than go check that out, she lets the situation fester, and rather
than deal decisively with a budding revolution, she lets elements
of it persist for no particularly good reason.


1920: America's Great War
by Robert Conroy
https://amzn.to/3uU3mx1

This was not a February read, but one of the many books from last year
I let events and laziness keep me from reviewing. The late Robert Conroy
wrote alternate histories, usually titled with a year and event.
I believe his first book was _1901_ and was about a German invasion of
the US, so perhaps it's fitting that his last book was also on that
subject.

In this setting, the Miracle On The Marne did not happen during the
Great War (apparently it almost didn't happen in our timeline), and
the war ended with France & Britain defeated (humbled though not
by any means extinguished). President Wilson, like TR before him,
won the Nobel Prize for brokering the Princeton Peace Treaty which
brought hostilities to a close, and then dedicated himself to peace
and disarmament (while Germany notably did not) up until his stroke
left the US (covertly) without any leadership past Edith. Sensing
an opportunity, the Kaiser made good the ambitions of the Zimmerman
Telegram and allied with Mexico to attack the US West coast (after
cutting East-West rail lines by infiltrating saboteurs).

With Wilson found dead, and the Vice President persuaded to resign,
new President Robert Lansing sets to the task of trying to repel
an invasion with almost no standing army, very few munitions and
no connection the the invaded area. In the meantime, California
and the Southwest and completely on their own.

The actual action of the book focuses on several fictional characters,
most notably Lieutenant Luke Martel. A maverick who came up from
the enlisted ranks in Pershing's punitive force due to a battlefield
promotion, Martel knows that with no academy connections, he will
never rise above Captain and can look forward only to a not
particularly well-paid retirement. Fate apparently has other plans,
putting Martel with Lansing when Wilson's body is found, and
back on the West Coast when things go pear-shaped. Now he will
strive, crossing paths with a number of familiar figures, to help
the very thin forces of the West Coast hold out long enough for
the, mostly non-existent, and all untransportable, help from the
East to arrive. In the meantime, there is panic in the cities,
quislings in the occupied areas, honor & atrocities, and perhaps
desperate love.

Conroy tries to avoid the Harry Turtledove syndrome of half a dozen
thick books to play out an alternate history scenario and his are
all done-in-one. That sometimes makes the denouements a bit iffy,
and we see that here where things could have dragged on for years
except for one key event (which to be fair was foreshadowed). It
was a bit of a cheat, but I'll allow it, and it was an enjoyable
book. One curious thing though, is we never hear from TR, who
figured so largely in _1901_. I guess he died in this timeline as
in ours, though I thought the stress of losing a son in WWI played
a big part in our timeline. Still someone should have mentioned him.

In regards to Anabelle, it's best for me to avoid a female who wants to
groom me into a slot on her roster. YMMV.

In regards to Turtledove, _The Guns of the South_ and "Joe Steele" (the >short) are the only two Turtledoves read by me. Both stories appeared
within a single book and apparently avoided the syndrome.