From: tnusenet17@gmail.com   
      
   On 1/2/26 4:04 PM, Ted Nolan  wrote:   
   > In article <10j8plo$f9e5$1@dont-email.me>,   
   > Tony Nance   wrote:   
   >> 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.   
   >   
   > Whatever you do, I'm sure I will enjoy it, as I always have the current   
   > format.   
      
   Thank you - I have always enjoyed your RI posts, and I have several   
   things to read thanks to them.   
      
   > FWIW, I find sometimes that reviewing a book clarifies my feelings   
   > on it some, though it also takes mental energy that's not always on tap.   
   >   
      
   Definitely - both phrases.   
      
      
   >>    
   >>   
   >> 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.   
   >>   
   >   
   > I think you will find as you go on that other characters get arcs as well,   
   > especially two of the sisters.   
   >   
      
   Good to know, thanks. I am looking forward to see how they go after the   
   5 Heartstrikers books.   
      
   >>    
   >>   
   >> 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.   
   >   
   > I find that Cassie has really grown over the series.  There were some   
   > twists & turns that ran on too long, like the Pritkin-quest, but on the   
   > whole I have really enjoyed these and the other in-universe books.   
   > When she's cooking, Chance has a way of doing farce sequences about   
   > characters you still care about, and without lowering the stakes, which   
   > is fairly unusual.   
      
   Good to hear - as I mentioned, there was enough here that I will try the   
   second one, but it's good to know there's reason to expect growth.   
      
      
   >> ( +++ ) 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.   
   >>   
   >   
   > I bought this years ago, and really need to move it up.   
      
   It's good - not Liaden good, but interesting and well done. I just   
   finished the second one. I ordered the third one with the second one,   
   but when it arrived it was not the third one - it was an autographed   
   copy of the first one. Weird.   
      
   Tony   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
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