From: tnusenet17@gmail.com   
      
   Highlights and Lowlights - October-December 2025   
      
   So this post marks five years of doing these Highlights and Lowlights   
   posts, and I’m going to change things up moving forward. I’m not totally   
   sure how yet, and I’ll probably play it by ear for several months, but   
   I’m leaning hard toward posting single-book summaries - and only a few   
   of those, rather than all the SF I read.   
      
   I’m working my way out of a 5-month reading slump, and I think a   
   small-but-significant part of the slump is that I’m reading with these   
   summaries in mind, and it’s made my reading more   
   evaluative/clinical/critical, and less enjoyable.   
      
   Moving on…   
      
   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: The Inheritance - Andrews [Breach Wars #1]   
      
   Lowlight: no lowlights this time, though I will say Cassie Palmer #1 was   
   close   
      
   December 2025   
   ( ++ 1/2) A Dragon of a Different Color - Aaron [Heartstrikers #4; DFZ #4]   
   ( +++ 1/2 ) The Inheritance - Andrews [Breach Wars #1]   
   ( +++++ - - ) The Wreck of the River of Stars - Flynn   
   ( +++ 1/2) Aristoi - Walter Jon Williams [Re-read Project #4]   
      
   November 2025   
   ( ++ 1/2 ) No Good Dragon Goes Unpunished - Aaron [Heartstrikers #3; DFZ #3]   
      
   October 2025   
   ( ++ - - )Touch the Dark - Chance [Cassie Palmer #1]   
   ( +++ ) Carousel Tides - Sharon Lee [Archers Beach #1]   
      
   Now Reading:   
   Long work - Carousel Sun - Sharon Lee [Archers Beach #2]   
   Collection - I don’t know yet   
      
   ===========================================   
   December and November 2025   
   ( ++ 1/2) A Dragon of a Different Color - Aaron [Heartstrikers #4; DFZ #4]   
   ( ++ 1/2 ) No Good Dragon Goes Unpunished - Aaron [Heartstrikers #3; DFZ #3]   
   Someone here (Ted?) coined the phrase “popcorn book”, and these are   
   those. Entertaining, light/slight, fun, and not substantial works in any   
   way. The Heartstrikers are a dragon clan based in North America. DFZ   
   means Detroit Free Zone. These are #3 and #4 in a 5-book arc that   
   follows dragon Justin Heartstriker and his human mage friend/associate   
   Marci Novalli through the trials and tribulations of dragon clan   
   politics and saving the world from magic evil-doers. Don’t expect a lot   
   of character development - Justin is the only character who has   
   matured/changed in any way, and not very much at that - BUT…these books   
   are fun, and I’ll surely read #5.   
      
   ( +++ 1/2 ) The Inheritance - Andrews [Breach Wars #1]   
   Excellent start to a planned duology, and I, for one, hope it goes   
   beyond two volumes. Ada Moore became an Assessor (Talent) shortly after   
   the Breach Gates opened on modern day Earth. The Breach Gates are   
   pockets of other (interstellar) civilizations that are inserted in order   
   to overrun the world. They are de facto battle zones with valuable   
   resources to be recovered. Shortly after entering a Breach Gate, a   
   battle starts to go poorly, and Ada’s team leaders abandon her and many   
   companions. All but Ada and a battle-trained German Shepherd (“Bear”)   
   perish, and Ada & Bear to find their way out. Ada sees and learns many   
   things, and adds some skills along the way, all while trying to find an   
   exit back to the gate on Earth. Towards the end, this explicitly   
   connects to their Innkeeper series, but there’s almost no overlap in   
   this book. I’m very much looking forward to #2.   
      
   ( +++++ - - ) The Wreck of the River of Stars - Flynn   
   This was stunningly well-written, with wonderful insights, turns of   
   phrase, and literary references a-plenty (which are easy to ignore if   
   one wishes to), BUT…friends, this is a tragedy, in the essential sense   
   of Greek Tragedy. And I spoil nothing by telling you so, since it’s in   
   the title, it’s on the back cover, and from about page 20 onward (if not   
   before!) it is clear to every reader that things will neither go well   
   nor end well. All of the characters are broken in some way, they make   
   both heroic and stupid choices, the miscommunications are numerous, and   
   the consequences are dire…and the readers sees almost all of it.   
   Absolutely magnificent, and painful to observe.   
      
   ( +++ 1/2) Aristoi - Walter Jon Williams [Re-read Project #4]   
   This was excellent (again). I remembered almost none of it from the   
   first reading roughly 30 years ago. So many ideas, in such a neat   
   setting. Far future advanced humans have nano-level control of their   
   environment, as well as FTL travel. The leaders (and privileged few) are   
   the Aristoi, but even the lower levels are rather advanced. Of course,   
   utopias seem to always have some people looking to upset the status quo,   
   or gain advantage, etc etc. This was brilliantly done by WJW. It’s very   
   well-resolved, but open to a sequel as well.   
      
   October 2025   
   ( ++ - - )Touch the Dark - Chance [Cassie Palmer #1]   
   Cassie Palmer is a clairvoyant/seer who has no control over what visions   
   she receives, or when she receives them. Modern world setting, but with   
   ghosts, vampires, mages, witches, fae, etc. Cassie was raised by a   
   powerful vampire who killed her parents in order to gain control of   
   Cassie and her powers. After many years, she escapes. As she is nearly   
   re-captured, to her surprise she is rescued by the powerful North   
   American Vampire Senate. Due to her powers, she finds herself in the   
   middle of several competing agendas, and the book goes from there.   
      
   This is very much a first novel…interesting world, interesting   
   characters, spotty plotting, and a couple of book-hit-wall moments, one   
   of which will have major consequences moving forward. There’s enough   
   here that I will try #2 some time.   
      
   ( +++ ) Carousel Tides - Sharon Lee [Archers Beach #1]   
   Series starter by half of the Liaden Universe author team. Set in modern   
   Maine, Kate Archer returns to her Maine roots when a cryptic note from   
   the grandmother who raised her makes her suspect there’s big trouble   
   afoot back home. Her suspicions are correct. Gran has gone missing, and   
   Kate finds herself in charge of the family carousel, which is part of a   
   dying amusement park in a dying resort/tourist town. We soon learn there   
   is land/sea/fae magic, Kate is of mixed heritage (human and something   
   magical), and there’s a drug lord bullying the town. Adventures follow.   
      
   Now Reading:   
   Long work - Carousel Sun - Sharon Lee [Archers Beach #2]   
   Collection - I don’t know yet   
      
   Happy New Year!   
   Tony   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)