In article <1072gun$cvn$
1@dont-email.me>,
Tony Nance <
tnusenet17@gmail.com> wrote:
Highlights and Lowlights - July 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: Both the Liaden and the Culture
Lowlight: Poseidon’s Wake - Reynolds [Poseidon’s Children #3]
July 2025
Two overlaps for me this month.
( + - ) Vampire’s Kiss - Summers [Legion of Angels #1]
Series starter. Not much of interest here. Plot holes and character >inconsistencies really got in my way. The setting is our Earth in modern >times, but where the past had gods and demons fighting a war during
which they unleashed magic and monsters (vampires, witches, werewolves,
…) as weapons. In the aftermath of the war, the Earth has been rendered >almost desolate, leaving only a few cities, a lot of wastelands, and
monsters (who are only mostly confined to vast walled territories). Leda
is a bounty hunter who decides to join the Legion of Angels in the hopes
of gaining the magic and power needed to rescue her kidnapped brother. Meh.
I will say I never construed the background history exactly as you do,
but at any rate, you can't think about it too hard at all. I found
these fairly entertaining popcorn books, like the Weather Warden ones,
until about the time Leda achieved her main goal by leveling up enough
to free her captive brother. At that point they kind of went off the
rails, and the most recent one (review coming hopefully) was actively bad.
( ++ 1/2 ) One Good Dragon Deserves Another - Aaron [Heartstrikers #2;
DFZ #2]
Very enjoyable. As the most junior, and only “nice” dragon in the >Heartstriker clan, Julius is fortunate to still be alive (where “nice” >means he actually cares about some beings and issues that do not
directly contribute to his rise to power). His power-mad clan-leading
mother has shunted his magic and some of his dragon powers, and will
openly use him as a pawn to achieve her goals. At the end of #1, Julius
and his human-mage partner Marci had just started their spirit-removal >company in the Detroit Free Zone (DFZ). Here in #2, they get dragged
into plots-within-plots not only involving his clan, but also other
heavy hitters in the DFZ. We learn a ton more about dragons, magic,
spirits, and other aspects of this world. I’ll read #3.
Yes, I enjoyed this series a good bit as I think I mentioned. The only downside is that this early in her career Aaron tends to overexplain her
magic system.
Tony
Thanks for doing these! I am way backlogged on mine. I was going to
do some on vacation when I had plenty of time, but then, it was "hey, vacation!" Soon hopefully.
I meant to comment on your last batch that I seemed to fall out of
Anderson when he quit with the Technic timeline.
--
columbiaclosings.com
What's not in Columbia anymore..
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)