Highlights and Lowlights - April 2024
( +++ ) 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.)
( + - - ) 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.
On 5/2/2024 4:03 PM, Tony Nance wrote:
[snip-snip]
I have "The Pirates of Ersatz" under its other title "The Pirates of Zan", >> but I haven't read it yet.
It's ... mildly amusing but rather lightweight.
I have "The Pirates of Ersatz" under its other title "The Pirates of Zan", but I haven't read it yet.
In article <v1b49e$2mfe3$1@dont-email.me>,
Ahasuerus <ahasuerus@email.com> wrote:
On 5/2/2024 4:03 PM, Tony Nance wrote:
[snip-snip]
I have "The Pirates of Ersatz" under its other title "The Pirates of Zan", >>> but I haven't read it yet.
It's ... mildly amusing but rather lightweight.
To back up a little bit, I mentioned that title upthread after doing
a grep for "landing grid" in tall the Leinster stories in my Calibre
library. Does ISFDB have a policy for what tags to add to a story
when it's entered? Things like "landing grid" or "tormal" might
be useful.
Unlike most data submissions within ISFDB, there is no moderator
approval needed in order to add a tag -- new tags take effect
immediately. Once added to the Title, a tag will be displayed on
that Title's Bibliography page. Please do NOT add tags that spoil
the plot.
Most tags are descriptive, e.g. "space opera", "time travel",
"alien invasion", etc. You can also assign tags to create personal
lists like "read list", "verification list", etc, but moderators
may change the status of such tags to "private". Private tags can
only be seen by the tagger.
the Med stories are definitely in a loose setting I call the
"Landing Grid Universe". This includes at least "The
Duplicators", "Sand Doom", & "The Pirates of Ersatz". I'm sure
there are others I can't grep for.
The similarities in background from one late novel to another
were sufficiently numerous for these books to make up one loose
series – but through sameness, not through any articulated
central conceit.
On 5/6/2024 1:49 PM, Ted Nolan <tednolan> wrote:
In article <v1b49e$2mfe3$1@dont-email.me>,
Ahasuerus <ahasuerus@email.com> wrote:
On 5/2/2024 4:03 PM, Tony Nance wrote:
[snip-snip]
I have "The Pirates of Ersatz" under its other title "The Pirates of Zan", >>>> but I haven't read it yet.
It's ... mildly amusing but rather lightweight.
To back up a little bit, I mentioned that title upthread after doing
a grep for "landing grid" in tall the Leinster stories in my Calibre
library. Does ISFDB have a policy for what tags to add to a story
when it's entered? Things like "landing grid" or "tormal" might
be useful.
https://isfdb.org/wiki/index.php/Help:Screen:TagEditor describes our
tagging policy:
Unlike most data submissions within ISFDB, there is no moderator
approval needed in order to add a tag -- new tags take effect
immediately. Once added to the Title, a tag will be displayed on
that Title's Bibliography page. Please do NOT add tags that spoil
the plot.
Most tags are descriptive, e.g. "space opera", "time travel",
"alien invasion", etc. You can also assign tags to create personal
lists like "read list", "verification list", etc, but moderators
may change the status of such tags to "private". Private tags can
only be seen by the tagger.
Moderators have the ability to delete tags that do not comply with
this policy.
That said, what you described in your earlier comment:
the Med stories are definitely in a loose setting I call the
"Landing Grid Universe". This includes at least "The
Duplicators", "Sand Doom", & "The Pirates of Ersatz". I'm sure
there are others I can't grep for.
is different. If "Landing Grid Universe" is truly a shared universe,
then the best thing to do would be to put individual titles and
sub-series into it. However, SFE >(https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/leinster_murray) argues that:
The similarities in background from one late novel to another
were sufficiently numerous for these books to make up one loose
series – but through sameness, not through any articulated
central conceit.
It may be best to sort this out with the author of the SFE article
(John Clute) before reorganizing Leinster's ISFDB bibliography.
We have seen authors insert throwaway references to other series
as "Easter eggs", but it doesn't necessarily mean that they comprise
a super-series.
I am going to add a quote from the SFE article to Leinster's ISFDB >bibliography for now. Thanks!
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
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