Karlstar's (Jim's) Reading for 2020 Part 1

Day 5 of 2020 and I finally made a new thread! Thanks for following along with me on my reading journey in 2019 and I hope you continue to find enjoyment here in my reading in 2020. Please feel free to comment!

Here's what I'm reading in 2020.
No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt: The Home Front in World War II by Doris Kearns Goodwin
The Core by Peter V. Brett
Indomitable by Terry Brooks
Misspent Youth by Peter F. Hamilton
Empire Games by Charles Stross
The Waking Fire by Anthony Ryan
The Fall of Shannara: The Black Elfstone by Terry Brooks
The Pioneers by David McCullough
Jimmy the Hand, by Raymond E. Feist and S.M. Stirling

March Reading plans
I think it is time to re-read the Galactic Milieu trilogy while I am waiting for To Kill a Mockingbird to arrive from ABE.
Jack the Bodiless by Julian May
Armageddon Rag by George R. R. Martin (Valentine's Day gift)
Darkwalker on Moonshae by Doug Niles
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Diamond Mask, by Julian May
Magnificat by Julian May
Black Tide Rising by John Ringo and Gary Poole (short story collection)

April Reading plans
Armageddon Rag (started but not finished in March)
Port of Shadows by Glen Cook
The Traders War by Charles Stross (started, set down)
Sundiver by David Brin (re-read)
King of Ashes by Raymond E. Feist

May Reading plans
Legend by David Gemmell (re-re-read)
Furies of Calderon by Jim Butcher
The Bards of Bone Plain by Patricia McKillip

I use a 1 to 10 rating system because I started rating books long before LT and because I like the additional granularity. Here's my rating scale explained. Checking my LT books, the 8 ratings stop right around book 500, so I'm consistent there, but I only have about 70 books rated 9 stars or higher, so either I'm being too tough or there just aren't that many 9 or 10 star books. I would guess my most common rating is 6, I like most of what I read.

1 - So bad, I couldn't finish it. DO NOT READ!!!
2 - Could have finished, but didn't. Do not read. This one means I made a conscious choice not to finish, usually about halfway through the book. Something is seriously wrong here.
3 - Finished it, but had to force myself. Not recommended, if you're a complete-ist you'll regret it.
4 - Finished it, but really didn't like it. Not recommended unless you have to read everything.
5 - Decent book, recommended if you have spare time and need something to read.
6 - Good book, I enjoyed it, and would recommend it.
7 - Good book, recommended for everyone. I may have read it more than once, and would consider buying the hardcover edition.
8 - Great book, I would put it in the Top 500 of all time. Read more than once, I probably have the hardcover.
9 - Great book, top 100 all time. Read more than once, if I don't have the hardcover edition, I want one!
10 - All-time great book, top 50 material. Read more than twice, I probably have more than one copy/edition.

My ratings also include the Slogging Through the Mud (STTM) rating/index. This goes back to one of Elizabeth Moon's Paksenarrion books where she spends WAY too much time actually describing how the army spent days slogging through the mud. If there is a lot of travel in the book and too much time describing the traveling, the STTM rating will be high.

Sorry to hear your contacts were bothering your eyes. Does that happen often?

Looking forward to more Tolkien Talk (even if I don't participate as much as some other people)

The Return of the King review

Spoiler Alert! I'll be reviewing the contents of this book, so if you don't want to read it, please don't read this post!

Book Six Chapter 1: The Tower of Cirith Ungol
Back to Sam and Frodo. Tolkien helpfully tells us that at this point, battle has begun at Minas Tirith, the Rohirrim are just about to arrive and Aragorn isn't far behind. Sam leaves the tunnels and looks at the tower of Cirith Ungol, a great fortress built by Gondor to keep enemies in Mordor, but long since taken over by Sauron. Now that he can also see Orodruin, the Mountain of Fire, Sam realizes he can't wear the Ring again unless he can master it. Sam is wise enough to know that the visions the Ring gives him of grandeur are too big for him. Sam passes the Watchers at the tower gate with the help of the phial again. He follows a running orc to the top of the tower, where he hears two orcs confirm that the orcs from Minas Morgul have fought the orcs of Cirith Ungol to a near draw - all of them are dead but these last two. Sam finds Frodo and kills one of the last two orcs, the other ran off. There is a little hobbit weeping here, but not blubbering as Frodo accuses Sam of stealing the Ring. They leave the tower and as they do, the Watchers are broken but give off one last alarm and they are spotted by a Ringwraith.

Chapter 2: The Land of Shadow
Frodo and Sam head down the mountain slopes. The fifteenth of March arrives and the darkness of Sauron starts to break up. They manage to find water to replenish their stores, which are very low. They stumble out of the mountains, hide from some orcs who talk about the search for them and that Gollum is about. Sam almost catches Gollum at one point and then Frodo and Sam get mixed in with a group of orcs headed the way they want to go, because they are wearing orc armor and clothes they aren't caught. They manage to sneak away later. Mount Doom is 20 or 30 miles away still.

Chapter 3: Mount Doom
They travel for a day, seeing nothing, even on the road as all the troops have been drawn off by the Army of the West, just as Gandalf hoped. Sam realizes, for sure this time, they don't have enough food for a return trip, lembas is all that is sustaining them. They discard all their gear they don't need, including Sam's cooking pans. Sam carries Frodo for a while up the mountain, then they crawl to a road that leads into the mountain. Gollum attacks on the road and this rouses Frodo, who commands Gollum to leave then starts walking the rest of the way alone. Sam follows the path to the Sammath Naur. Frodo claims the Ring. Gollum bites Frodo's finger off, you know the rest.

Chapter 4 The Field of Cormallen
As the Eagles arrive, Gwaihir and Landroval and Meneldor and the others, Sauron's attention is taken away to Frodo putting on the Ring and the attack falters. Orodruin erupts, the Towers of the Teeth and the Black Gate fall (even though the towers were built by Gondor?). A shadowy figure looms over Mordor, then dissipates. Sam and Frodo actually descend most of the way down the Mountain, but they are stuck on a small hill surrounded by lava. Sam and Frodo awaken in Ithilien. It is a little unclear what day it is, some time after the 25th of March. They meet the King and a ministrel makes a song about Frodo Nine Fingers and the Ring of Doom. They are reunited with Merry and Pippin, but for some reason Gimli and Frodo don't join them until much later in the evening. After staying for some time, they sail for Minas Tirith.

Chapter 5 The Steward and the King
Eowyn and Faramir meet in the Houses of Healing. Eowyn still wishes to die in battle, but Faramir persuades her to rest for the battle that he thinks is coming. As they wait days for the armies to return, Faramir proposes, sort of, and Eowyn agrees. Aragorn arrives and is crowned by Frodo and Gandalf. Aragorn and Gandalf find a seedling of the White Tree, from a line of trees originating from Telperion. Elrond, Arwen, Galadriel and Celeborn arrive with the scepter and Aragorn and Arwen are married.

I thought the movie version did justice to the Sam and Frodo sections while they were in Mordor. Then after battle parts were short, which I can't blame them for, audiences wouldn't have sat through a prolonged ending.

Yay, new thread!

>1 Karlstar: I look forward to following your thread for another year! I hope your reads this year have minimal mud. :)

Happy new year! I look forward to more of your reviews this year, particularly to your STTM ratings!

>5 Narilka: >6 YouKneeK: >7 Sakerfalcon: Thank you! Mr. Tolkien is almost mud-free, but I'm sure other authors will pick up the dirt.

Happy New Year.

Nearly finished with LotR! It's been a long re-read and fun to keep up with you comments. I'm very glad that JRRT didn't just end the book with the celebration after the triumphant battle but neatly tied all the ends together and gave all the characters proper closure.

>9 reading_fox: Thanks for reading along! I'll be updating with the final review soon, then there's just the appendices after that.

Edited: I meant to reply to reading_fox, but replied to myself instead! Argh.

Happy New Year. Hope your year is wonderful.

>9 reading_fox: I agree. Although the JRRT ending, with the need for the Scouring of the Shire, is rather more downbeat, and a reminder that the ills created by a war do not end with the victory. Setting right the wrongs is an essential part of the process.

@Karlstar May your reading in the coming year be as enjoyable as the last. Happy New Year!

>11 majkia: >12 -pilgrim-: Thank you both and same to you!

Happy new thread! And thanks for nudging me in the direction of my own LotR reread. I won't be talking about as much as you have, because you did it all for me. So thanks for that, too. :o)

>14 clamairy: Sorry about that! Looking forward to your views though.

The Return of the King re-read

Spoiler Alert! So many spoilers here!

Chapter 6 Many Partings
A week passes after the wedding and Frodo wants to return to the Shire. Arwen gives him a gift - she will grow old and die as a human, "for mine is the choice of Luthien", but instead of her, Frodo can go into the West. After a 15 day journey to Edoras, Theoden is laid to rest (again). Faramir and Eowyn are engaged/plighted, Elrond and Arwen part for the last time. They go to Orthanc to say hello to Treebeard and discover that Saruman has talked his way out of Orthanc. Legolas and Gimli leave the others to go visit Mirkwood and other places. Aragorn and his company return to Minas Tirith, leaving the Hobbits, Lorien elves and Gandalf. They meet Saruman a week later on the road. Gandalf, Celeborn and Galadriel take the three Rings to Lorien. The Hobbits arrive at Rivendell and stay for a while, including Bilbo's 129th birthday.

Chapter 7 Homeward Bound
The hobbits and Gandalf leave Rivendell for the Shire. Up to this point, they have had absolutely no trouble on the road, but they were in the company of great heroes. They travel to Bree and catch up on events. Gandalf leaves them as they get to the border of the Shire, for no apparent reason, except to make the hobbits manage the rest on their own and to return the company full circle to the original 4 companions.

Chapter 8 The Scouring of the Shire
There's a little slogging through the mud here, but not much, really. The hobbits arrive at the Shire at the Brandywine bridge and find a new gate and new buildings. They kick out the Chief's Big Man, Bill Ferny. There are now lots of rules and food is being confiscated. They encounter some Shirrifs on the road and refuse to be arrested, insisting the Shirrifs go with them, though the Shirrifs can't walk as fast as their ponies and are left behind. They rout some human ruffians and rouse the hobbits of the Shire. There are several battles with groups of ruffians, including a fairly large one at Bywater where 70 ruffians are killed. They confront 'Sharkey', who is Saruman, somewhat recovered. Frodo banishes him, refusing to let Sam kill him even after Saruman tries to kill Frodo, who once again is saved by the mail shirt of invincibility. Wormtongue finally has enough abuse and kills Saruman, hobbit arrows kill Wormtongue. A visible spirit rises from Saruman's body and is blown from a wind OUT of the West, not towards the west. Saruman does get to make a comment that as usual, Gandalf deserted them when he was done with them, but it is just spite.

Chapter 9 The Grey Havens
The Shire is repaired. Frodo falls ill in March, October 6th and again in March 1421. They leave to go see Bilbo for Bilbo's birthday, but meet Bilbo, Elrond, Galadriel and many other elves on the road. They travel to the Grey Havens. There they meet Gandalf and the elves, Frodo and Bilbo sail away into the West.

I still need to re-watch The Return of the King movie version, it has been so long I really don't remember it.

I will make some comments on the appendices soon!

>16 Karlstar: I know I have said this before, but your posts have me really psyched for re-watching the movies. I'm going to be reading Return of hte King in a month or less myself but my own re-(x how ever many times)read hasn't kindled the same excitement as your posts. Isn't that an interesting phenomenon?

I always wished there had been a bit more to the scouring of the shire. then I read McKiernan's Iron Tower trilogy and got my wish. And learned that getting what you want isn't always a good thing :-D

>17 BookstoogeLT: It made me interested in watching the movies again too, plus it was good to remember what's different. Very different experience. I'm glad you enjoyed the posts, I know you are looking forward to the writeup for the appendices!

I didn't mind McKiernan's stuff, but then i've never felt the need to re-read it, either. I liked some of his later books more.

>15 Karlstar: Do not apologize. My thanks were sincere. :o)

>19 clamairy: Good to know, thanks again.

I started watching the extended DVD version of The Return of the King this evening and stopped at 1 hour. Wow, did I forget how much Jackson changed here! The conversation with Saruman at Orthanc was massively abbreviated and he missed the tone entirely, plus he put Saruman on the top, not on a low balcony. Then he deviated completely from the novel plot - do folks want to go into that here or not?

Then there's the drinking scene at Edoras, more Aragorn and Eowyn, the palantir scene at Edoras, all stuff that didn't happen in the books.

>20 Karlstar: I, for one, would be very interested in a reminder as to what Jackson did with this section, by comparison. My memory of the film is much hazier than that of the books.

>21 -pilgrim-: Just wanted to make sure the movie vs. books discussion wasn't done to death already, though these movies are now over 15 years old!

>22 Karlstar: I'm interested! 15 years isn't as old as it used to be :-D

I get a bit tired of the discussion of movie vs. books when it is trying to tear down one creation to build up the other. Both, IMO, serve their purpose. Jackson was never trying to replicate the books, but make stellar movies to visualize them. He has always said that people should read the books, because they are amazing and just what a book should be, but that movies can't play out like that. *shrug* I love them both, and reread/rewatch now and then just to get lost in Middle Earth.

I love the visuals and props. The clothing details, the settings, the scenery. To my mind, the movies are another way into Middle Earth. I may hold the story Tolkien told as my true history, but the movies are a lovely visualization of the place.

Don't let me stop anyone from the comparison though! I always find the thoughts and opinions of those in this pub interesting, whether I agree or not. :)

>16 Karlstar: - I always feel most for Sam, after basically not caring about him for three books he gets a very hard ride, even if he does have a loving family to return to.

>24 MrsLee: Quite right, Mrs. Lee. The movies are excellent and separate things from the books. They look great, they are exciting and they bring the vision to life. Do always agree with his choices on the changes? No, but he made great movies so maybe I'm just wrong!

As I mentioned earlier, I haven't seen the Return of the King movie in ages, so some things I was surprised to see, again:

The conversation at Orthanc between the company (plus Eomer and Theoden) and Saruman is abbreviated. Jackson does get in some good quotes, like the one about Theoden ruling over a barn. However, Saruman and Wormtongue die here, which for movie reasons I can see.

The Pippin scene with the Palantir happens in a different spot and Aragorn intervenes, but that lets him bring the Aragorn vs. Sauron via Palantir conflict in now. The whole Edoras party/drinking contest/Aragorn and Eowyn scenes are just in the movie, but in this case he's fleshing out the lives of the characters.

As I mentioned before, the whole scene with Gollum manipulating Frodo into sending Sam away doesn't happen, but it isn't implausible, either. it is a short cut way to show how much the Ring is starting to manipulate Frodo.

The various scenes with Elrond and Arwen and later Elrond and Aragorn don't happen in the books, but it does remind movie viewers what's at stake for Aragorn and the world in general, though I still don't agree with the whole idea that Arwen was going to leave and that she'll die if they lose, out of some general malaise. She's not that fragile.

The Paths of the Dead scenes are really cool. They may not be strictly accurate, but they got the point across.

That's where disk 1 ended last night. I forgot how long this movie is in the extended edition! So much left to go.

>25 reading_fox: I think Sam was just stuck in the loyal servant role and when he finally did get to shine at the end, the book was over. Somehow, in my mind I remembered that Sam was eligible to go to the West too, as a Ring bearer, even briefly, but my mind was making stuff up. Although, if Arwen gave up her 'place' so Frodo could go - who gave up their place so Bilbo could go?

Time for some reviews of books I did not get to review in 2019.

The Volunteer: One Man, an Underground Army, and the Secret Mission to Destroy Auschwitz by Jack Fairweather
STTM: 0
Rating: 6 out of 10

This book was really difficult to read. It was well written and I had not read anything like it before, but as you can expect, the subject matter was brutal.

This is the true story of Witold Pilecki. A former Polish army officer, after Poland was conquered by the Nazis, he worked for a while in the Underground. Hearing about the camp at Auschwitz, which at the time was a work camp, he volunteered to go to the camp with the intent of reporting on conditions there. Basically, he allowed himself to be captured in a roundup. He only intended to stay long enough to make a report, assuming a false identity to protect his family, but he spent 2 years in the camp. He worked with others to smuggle out multiple reports about what was going on in the camp and in nearby Birkenau.

Eventually he escaped, rejoined the Underground, fought in the Warsaw rebellion and survived that too.

The author did a good job, though his research was almost entirely limited to Witold and his direct associates. It is an incredibly awful story about the absolute worst humans can do to each other. I got it via Early Reviewers and I don't regret it, but it was a tough readl

The Wind Whales of Ishmael by Philip Jose Farmer
STTM: 4 lots of sailing around
Rating: 4 out of 10

I think this one falls into the category of 'Bizarre Classic SciFi'. According to the intro, Farmer wrote multiple novels based on the events or characters from someone else's novel. In this case, the character is Ishmael, from Melville's Moby Dick.

After being rescued, Ishmael and the entire ship which rescued him find themselves surrounded by shrieking eels and then poof! they are falling through the air! Somehow Ishmael survives a fall of 1000's of feet. Finding himself the only survivor on a very strange, gelatin-like ocean, along with a coffin, he eventually paddles to an island.

Along with weird blood-sucking vegetation and strange apes, he finds a girl on the island. Of course he does! They somehow learn how to talk to each other and he discovers that he is now in a far, far future Earth, where the seas have mostly dried up and the remaining people use dirigibles to hunt wind whales for food. When the Princess' city is destroyed by a rival city (Burroughs?), he leads the survivors in their recovery, which includes a strange dungeon-delve adventure complete with monsters. Of course he does!

Luckily, this was short. Other than the sheer imagination of what he came up with for the far future Earth, there's not much to recommend it. I picked up a very nice hardcover edition super cheap at the library sale. At least I can say I read it and it wasn't expensive.

My reading list this month is short, mostly because No Ordinary Time was super wordy and super dense, like a really good textbook where you can't skip any of the text, but there's no end of chapter tests or examples or anything.

I still have reviews from December to get to though.

Warrior of the Altai by Robert Jordan
STTM: 4 - riding on horses, but still
Rating: 4 out of 10

Maybe I'm just in a bit of a harsher mood than normal, but this wasn't great. Warrior of the Altaii is Robert Jordan's (James Oliver Rigney) first full length novel, rejected multiple times by the publisher that his wife Harriet McDougal (not yet his wife) worked for at the time.

Thought to be lost, Harriet found the manuscript after his death. In the intro, she says that this book has 'echoes' of some of the Wheel of Time in it. It does, in a few ways. The warrior tribes reminded me of the Aiel and magic is handled by Wise Women types.

The conflict revolves around some city dwelling Queens who believe a prophecy that they must destroy the Altaii to survive, vs. the Altaii wise women who say that the hero, Wulfgar must survive for the Altaii to survive.

There's some strange elements to this book too. The Altaii spend part of the year on The Plain, an area so nasty only the super hardy and super skilled Altaii can survive it. There is unnatural weather, strange creatures from other worlds and sometimes people from our Earth who just randomly drop in!

The fact that a young woman just pops in with some 'Connecticut Yankee' type ideas is a big deal, but then the young lady basically disappears completely from the plot. It's too convenient and poorly done. The final battle comes down to a really bad trick too.

Over all, not great.

So I just found out that Christopher Tolkien passed away on the 16th! Makes me wonder if what will happen to the Tolkien Estate...

>30 BookstoogeLT: Darn good question, I hadn't really processed that. We may see an explosion of bad Tolkien content.

Kingdom of Copper by S. A. Chakraborty
STTM: 1 - its a desert, so no mud, but very little travel anyway
Rating: 5 out of 10

When I first picked this one up, I wanted to return it to the bookstore immediately. It was a gift though and folks here had given it great reviews. so I kept going. I did not like how it started at all!

It did get better though and was at times interesting to read. I did often find myself frustrated by what felt like confusion over who's a Daeva, who's a djinn, are Nahids Daevas or not, if all Davea's are beings of fire, why are some fire worshippers and some not and why is that a disparaging thing? The Gezirii's vs. Nahids is fairly straightforward, but I found the other political, religious and factional differences confusing, especially the ifrits.

The plot is fairly predictable, considering it is driven by characters that are pretty much frozen the way they are and a political situation setup for a breakdown. That's no different than almost all other fantasy novels though, but sometimes I like a little bit more mystery in the plot.

I am somewhat looking forward to the 3rd book. Not sure yet, sometimes I felt like there would be no point in reading it, but I am willing to be persuaded otherwise!

The Core
STTM: 5 a long journey to the center of the earth
Rating: 4 out of 10

Here's my review from LT.

The concluding book, maybe, of the Demon Cycle. Arlen, Renna, Ahmann and Shanvah must descend to the Core to defeat the demon Queen, a sort of ant queen type, before she can hatch a huge new brood.
On the surface, Leesha and her allies have to fight off one last demon surge. After the events of the previous 4 books, they are as prepared as they can be.
There are some strange and convenient elements in this book. There's an obvious attempt to avoid a prophecy when Ahman and Leesha's child is born. Conveniently, after years of warfare and distrust, when Ahmann tells his wife that the Krasians must cooperate with the northerners, everyone goes along. People show up at just the right time in several instances.
All in all, this was a decent wrap-up of the series. We can't say the end, because the author left himself several plot holes to continue stories about this world if he wants.

Not bad, not great, a bit too dark in spots, in a bit too convenient in others. I got really tired of the Krasian politics back in book 3 and mercifully, there's not too much of that in this book. I also still struggle with the entire premise behind these books.

Why do demons rise up in exactly the same place every night? Why does the sun kill them? At one point, the author makes a really weak attempt to claim that the Core, which is magic, is the source of life, not the sun, but if that is the case, why do the humans still rely on plants and animals for food - and the demons rely on humans for food. Why here in book five is the author still introducing new types of demons he's never mentioned before and is there really a significant distinction between 'stone' demons and 'rock' demons? Maybe he's just covering editing errors from previous books?

Just re-reading and writing this made me drop this one from a 6 star to a 4 star. Feel free to tell me I'm wrong!

Thanks folks, fixed the Touchstone!

>33 Karlstar: Yeah, I felt similarly. That series had such promise and just went downhill after the first book.

>33 Karlstar: & >34 Narilka: I was wicked excited about the series when I read the first book. I quit the series after book 3 I think? I also haven't heard about the author since the series ended. Makes me wonder if this is all he'll do?

>35 BookstoogeLT: I haven't heard much of him since either.

>35 BookstoogeLT: He has a new book, The Desert Prince, due out in March 2020. I'm not sure if that date is confirmed by any official sources; I saw it on a couple retailer web sites and Goodreads. It's supposed to be set 15 years after The Core and feature new characters. (I think the touchstone in >33 Karlstar: is wrong.)

I haven’t read any of his books, I only know this because I research these things for my obsessive don’t-start-the-series-if-it’s-probably-not-over tendencies. ;)

>33 Karlstar: You should fix that touchstone. It goes to the movie.

This is the series that starts with The Warded Man? That was coming up to the top of my To Read list. Thanks for the warning.

>34 Narilka: >35 BookstoogeLT: >36 Narilka: I should have stopped after book 3! Unfortunately I left book 5 on my wishlist too long and my brother bought it for me for Xmas.

>37 YouKneeK: >38 jjwilson61: Thank you, it is fixed now. Yes, this series starts with The Warded Man. At least he finished it? I'd say read the first two, then see what you think, but beware of endless politics after that. I'm not surprised there is another book, he left enough open hooks.

Indomitable by Terry Brooks
STTM: 3 - less than usual, for Brooks
Rating: 6 out of 10

This is really a short story, published in a very nice small hardcover book with illustrations. Rothfuss did it, why not Terry Brooks? However, this story was originally published in the Legends II anthology, this is a reprint by itself with the illustrations.

My brother was nice enough to buy me this very nice signed copy (not signed to me though!) for Christmas.

The book is set between Wishsong and Dark Wraith of Shannara, 2 years after Wishsong ends. Jair Ohmsford has gone back home to live a quiet life, but has to go back on the road to save the Four Lands again when Kimber Bo rides back into his life. Her granfather Cogline, the ex-Druid, has been having dreams and says he needs Jair.

This is really intended for fans of the characters from Wishsong. It is quite short but was a fun read. It contains the usual Brooks elements, abbreviated - a trip through the mountains and woods and a confrontation with a great evil. Nothing really new hear, just fun to read.

>40 Karlstar: I have to admit, I'm surprised that a short story would get its own book. Do you own a lot of Brooks' books?

>41 BookstoogeLT: After Rothfuss got away with it by basically publishing 1 chapter from A Wise Man's Fear as a hardcover, the publishers must have figured they could do the same with any popular author. LT says I have 32 books by Brooks.

>42 Karlstar: 32. That has got to be most of what he's written, right?

>43 BookstoogeLT: Not quite. I know there's a couple movie adaptation books I don't have, even though I do have Hook and Phantom Menace. There is also one Shannara trilogy I skipped, I borrowed the first book and found it so derivative I skipped the rest of the trilogy completely. I also have 2 more that my wife just bought for me, as supposedly Brooks is finishing off Shannara with one last trilogy.

In cat news, my older cat finally turned something on. She accidentally turned on the jacuzzi tub the other day.

>44 Karlstar: I thought Shannara was finished years ago? Or is it that you're just getting those now?

>44 Karlstar: In cat news, my older cat finally turned something on. She accidentally turned on the jacuzzi tub the other day.

Yikes! I bet that gave her a shock!

>44 Karlstar: LOL about the cat turning on the jacuzzi, that’s awesome! Here’s hoping she doesn’t make it a habit. :)

>45 BookstoogeLT: The previous trilogy may have felt like the end, but it wasn't. He says this one is really, really the end. LT says there are already 4 books though, so maybe the first of this group, The Black Elfstone is really a bridge?

>46 Sakerfalcon: >47 YouKneeK: We were downstairs and we heard this very strange noise. It took me a minute to figure out the noise was coming from the upstairs bathroom. At the top of the stairs was Luna, sitting looking very innocent. I doubt she'd do it again, she's not one for mischief. We've been in this rental townhouse now 5 months and she's convinced there's a secret exit via the bathroom.

Empire Games by Charles Stross
STTM: 2 - unless you count world-hopping
Rating: 8 out of 10

From my LT review:
To quote from the back cover blurb: "The year is 2020. Two nuclear superpowers across time lines, one in the midst of a technological revolution and the other a hyperpolice state, are set on a collision course."

That's a good way to summarize the situation. Guess which one of those two is 'our' timeline! If you guessed 'hyperpolice state', you win and the NSA will be stopping by very soon to pick you up. Just kidding, but it is clear that Mr. Stross is warning us about the increasing level of surveillance and police powers in the USA today.

This book was written in 2016, so he wasn't predicting very far in the future.

He is using multiple timelines of very similar Earths with time hopping people to get his point across about the current state of the country. Mr. Stross is from the UK, so take his opinions with a bit of a grain of salt, but the warning is a good one to think about. I thought it was a teeny bit overdone, but not much. He's also underestimating the skill, knowledge and experience required to jump from early Industrial Revolution tech (steam) to today's tech, but that's a bit of a quibble, most writers do.

I found this interesting and the characters engaging, even jumping in here at book 7 without reading the previous books. It was pretty clear I'd jumped into the middle of a series, a few parts felt like summaries, but not overtly. Very good stuff, I'll be going back and reading the previous and following books.

>49 Karlstar: A book warning about the dangers of surveillance, coming from someone in the UK, wagging their finger at the US, is rich. I'll stop there so I don't cross into the political :-)

What made you jump into the series at this point and not the beginning?

>50 BookstoogeLT: Honestly, I don't remember. I've read some other Stross and liked it, I think I was poking around, saw this was new-ish and put it on my list, forgetting to check if it was a series or not. It was a good read though.

>49 Karlstar: Which Stross series is this? I wasn't aware that he had done one with an American setting.

>53 Karlstar: The Merchant Princes series. it is a little confusing, apparently the original 6 books have been combined into 3. The first book is now The Bloodline Feud which I will try to pick up soonish.

I realized while I gave a synopsis of the overall plot of all of the books, I didn't mention at all what happens in this one.

A young woman in our timeline, working at a tech conference gets stopped for a DNA test during a routine security check by DHS agents. Unknown to her, the test shows that she has latent capability for the talent to move between timelines, or world-walking. A top secret sub-organization of a sub-organization of DHS immediately recruits her as an agent, manipulating her into agreeing. They have desperately been looking for worldwalkers, after hostile worldwalkers committed a terrorist act.

The rest of the book switches between the two timelines mentioned in the blurb, while she trains and goes on her missions. Because this is book seven, I really can't say much more without giving away a lot.

There are some interesting ideas tossed out that aren't central to the plot, like the idea that drug smuggling by people who can move from timeline to timeline would be very lucrative and very safe, or that using other timelines to supply fossil fuels could thereby represent an infinite supply. Though I guess not truly infinite, since there should be a lot of timelines where some extinction events never happened, thus no oil. I guess that means that Harry Harrison's planet ruled by intelligent dinosaurs is really a thing after all.

>53 Karlstar: Ah. I joined that series around, I think, Book 3, where our heroine was thoroughly enmeshed in the politics of her current location, and the precise location of her Earth origins were not apparent. I remember the drug-smuggling bit though.

Misspent Youth by Peter F. Hamilton
STTM: 1 - basically no travel time
Rating: 4 out of 10

A tech genius 'gave away' the technical details to a mass storage device that made storage so cheap, it basically broke the music, movie and book (boo!) industries by making everything available for free. Towards the end of his life he's offered the chance to be test subject 1 for a revolutionary gene therapy that will reset his physical age to his early 20's. Also in the backdrop is Hamilton's apparent extreme dislike for the EU. While Empire Games was commentary on the US surveillance state, this one takes the EU to task for similar reasons.

The storage device is just a vehicle for Hamilton's theory on what's going to happen to the internet in the near future and background for the book, plus it makes his main character rich, but not Jeff Bezos rich, though the main character's name is Jeff. What happens when you take a rich and famous person with 78 years of experience and put them in a 20 something year old body? Bad things man.

This isn't Hamilton's usual SciFi, of which I'm a big fan. I guess this is more near future fiction? I should have been warned by the intro, where he thanked various friends and readers for helping him with the book, but at the same time mentioned that several of them did not like the characters.

I did not like the characters, they were not bad people, nor were they good people. Just... a bunch of super self-centered rich people or wanna be rich people.

>55 Karlstar: Ugh, I really don't like when characters are unlikeable. Never understood why authors think that is a good idea :-/

And just in case you didn't get my comments over on WP, most of the reviews you commented on were from 2011. I am currently working on the blog to turn my collection of monthly/yearly posts into separate posts for each book. I back date them to the appropriate time, so that is why you don't see any other comments, likes, etc on them. If it helps, if you get an email that is a book review and it doesn't have the "star rating" in the title, it is an old review getting its own post. I'm almost done 2011, but I still have all the way back to 2000 to go :-)

>56 BookstoogeLT: No wonder there's so many of them! That's ok, they were good reviews.

I actually posted a reading plan for March at the top of the thread! This is a bit of a departure for me. I'm currently waiting for To Kill a Mockingbird to arrive in the mail from an ABE seller, it was a lot cheaper to get a lightly used copy than to buy it on Kindle. What a ripoff.

>1 Karlstar: It has been decades since I read the Galactic Milieu trilogy! I can remember relatively little now. I look forward to learning what you make of The Armageddon Rag.

>58 Karlstar: Glad to see you posting again. I was afraid you'd disappeared or something!

The Waking Fire by Anthony Ryan
STTM: 8 - a classic river/jungle/wilderness expedition
Rating: 7 out of 10

After reading Anthony Ryan's Raven Shadow series, based on recommendations from people here, I figured I would grab his next book. This one is considerably different. I would say this is a steam punk-ish novel, with East India Company type corporations vs. a monarchy vs. nature. It is listed as the first in the Draconis Memoria series and the other 2 books are out, but since I haven't read them I can't actually say if the series is complete.

Unfortunately Ryan does not spend a lot of time setting up his world for us, he just throws us right into the action. so the background is a bit fuzzy. Apparently there's a prequel short story which might have helped. Reading the summary on the back is all we get, which does help! I think he also assumes we actually stare at the map.

The Ironship Trading Company is opposed by the Corvantine empire. It would be more accurate to say that the 'Protectorate', the government, is opposed by the Corvantines, but since the ITC is effectively the government and army, the difference is moot. The Ironship company appears to have a near, but not total monopoly on dragon blood, harvested from dragons/drakes on the continent of Arradisia. Blood-blessed humans can ingest dragon blood and produce various effects - greater strength, speed, telekinesis, telephathy, coercion, and elemental effects, limited to fire and cold. Dragon blood can also be used to power devices, the ITC makes great use of blood powered paddle steamers.

Unfortunately, not only is war with the Corvantines looming, but the lines of dragons are failing. They just don't breed well in captivity and we're given to believe that the supply of wild drakes is nearly gone. Turns out to actually be a total fallacy, so I'm not sure where he was going with this part.

Into this situation we have 2 primary characters, Lizanne Lethridge, graduate of the Ironship Syndicate Academy for Female Education. Lizanne is a Bond type company operative and blood-blessed. The other primary is Claydon Torcreek, thief and blood-blessed, who lives in Carvenport on the coast of Arradisia. Carvenport is the last bit of civilization on the edge of the wilds. There is also a 3rd storyline, following a non-blood blessed sailor, Lt. Hilemore, sailor on the fastest ship in the Protectorate fleet, driven by one of the red dragon blood powered steam engines and a drunken blood-blessed.

There's spying, Bond-ish type action, naval battles and an expedition to the wild interior looking for the Great White Elephant, er, Dragon. Dragons and steam punk, what can go wrong?

>60 BookstoogeLT: Thanks for watching, I was shocked to see it has been 2 weeks. It is crazy busy at work, I posted today in between status calls (8, noon and 5 every day). I was going to comment on your author interview but people beat me to all the good questions! When is that happening and who is it, or is that a surprise?

>61 Karlstar: I gave up on Ryan after the first book in his previous trilogy, so I had no expectations for his next series. I hope it works out for you.

>62 Karlstar: I understand about work. I hope it gets better. Soon :-) Yeah, I got so many comments on that post that it was a bit overwhelming, in a good way. I'm hoping to have the interview up next week. I can't say who it is, but I can say it isn't Lex Luthor, not after the stunt I pulled during the World Book Czar initiative ;-)
I will say this, just remember this is me we're talking about, not your ordinary run of the mill book blogger, hahhahaa.

>63 BookstoogeLT: Work is slowly letting up, the migration was a success, now we're just dealing with the inevitable small problems that come with a change of platform. I am not caught up on your blog, I'll try to get caught up tomorrow!

>64 Karlstar: Glad to hear the migration was a success, relatively speaking of course :-)
No worries. Sometimes if I've been wicked busy, I just let things slide and don't bother trying to catch up on other peoples' blogs. Just jump in at the current place and start paddling again. Happy Almost-Weekend...

>65 BookstoogeLT: Same to you! It has almost started! To Kill a Mockingbird has arrived, so that will be up after I read another re-read before I loan it out.

>67 Karlstar: I hope you enjoy Mockingbird. I know when I read it a couple of years ago that I enjoyed the daylights out of it. Well, I say a couple, but it was only in December of '18. 5 Stars all the way though!

>68 BookstoogeLT: That's good, I most likely will, though I do not yet have a good read on what kind of books you like!

The Pioneers by David McCullough
STTM: 8, but that's the point
Rating: 6 out of 10

If you are trying to find this book, it might be a bit difficult here on LT, so here's the ISBN: 978-1-5011-6868-0. When I tried to find the touchstone for 'The Pioneers', it came up with many, but not this one!

In summary, this is the story of the town of Marietta, Ohio during its early years from 1788 to the early 1800's. When I first got this book, I thought it was going to be about how Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin were formed out of what was then the 'Northwest Territory'. It turned out to be much, much more limited in scope and really confined to Marietta and the area around it. Apparently there is a tremendous amount of written material preserved from the first settlers. McCullough was invited to speak at a graduation at the University there and decided he'd write a book about it.

This was interesting, it fit in with my recent readings on the period from 1760 - 1815, but I thought it was too limited in scope.

>70 Karlstar: Since I have a tendency to talk about obscure books with common titles, I learnt this way of handling touchstones: if it doesn't give you the option of the book you want, precede the tittle with the LT work number (not book number) and 2 colons, within the square brackets. That will force the touchstone to link to the LT work page (actually regardless of what follows the double colons).

>71 -pilgrim-: Where do I find a book's work number?

>72 BookstoogeLT: Go to your book, making sure that you are looking at the "main page" for it (as described by the left menu).
The web address for that page takes the form
www.librarything.com/work/work number

>73 -pilgrim-: Thanks! I had no idea...

>71 -pilgrim-: "(bracket)179747224:: The Pioneers(bracket)" produces the following. The Pioneers

>75 Karlstar: I have not tried leaving a space after the colons, but I doubt that is the problem.
According to LT, there is no work with that reference number.

Have you used the book number instead of the work number?

Or, alternatively, have you entered this book as new to LT (not your personal) catalogue, and omitted to "Recalculate title/author" to add it to LT's catalogue?

ETA: Your link goes nowhere because, according to LT, no such work page exists.

>76 -pilgrim-: That was it! I had picked the book number instead of the work number. http://www.librarything.com/work/22560981/book/179747224

Let me try the other number. The Pioneeers

>77 Karlstar: That works. And also demonstrates my theory that what comes after the colons is irrelevant - it ignored your extra 'e'!

>78 -pilgrim-: This is what I get for trying to post with my glasses and not contacts. I made and fixed so many typos in that post and still missed one.

>79 Karlstar: You may have noticed that I am not one to talk:
numerous of my posts are marked "edited", with the exception of the progress lists in my home thread, and occasional additions clearly labelled"ETA", these edits consist entirely of my correcting the following day mistypings - and unwanted auto-correct substitutions - that seemed perfectly OK to me when I posted them!

>80 -pilgrim-:
On my first reading I was wondering what misty pings were. It is once again time for me to go to SpecSavers.

>81 pgmcc: It is not time to worry till you shear your sheepdog.

>81 pgmcc:

Pings should be kept dry, especially after midnight.

>82 -pilgrim-: :-)

>83 suitable1: They should not be fed either.

>81 pgmcc: Thanks for reading and your support! My vision with glasses on is a bit challenged, but I can do better than that. I left the extra 'e' in, after all those edits, I figured I deserved it. I'm glad I'm not the only one that edits posts, sometimes I just have to fix the glaring spelling or grammar errors.

>68 BookstoogeLT: I found the 50 hated/50 best link on your blog. Not that easy to find, I am not really a fan of Wordpress blogs, despite having 3 myself!

Replying over here because I didn't want to hijack Youkneek's thread. To summarize, you like epic, multi-volume fantasy and shorter scifi/fantasy that doesn't take itself too seriously. Wasting time/words on just about any subject, like slogging through the mud or politics is a no-go.

>87 Karlstar: Glad you found it. From your perspective, what would make it easier to find? Or be of use? It certainly doesn't help that wp has about a bajillion various themes so every blog is laid out differently :-D

That sounds rather accurate to be honest!

>88 BookstoogeLT: Looking at your blog page more critically, I like the colors and design. I originally missed those links at the top because the tag cloud is so long, I'm usually at the bottom of a post commenting, not the top. I'd say increasing the font of the top 4 items, starting with 'About', but I suspect that will increase the font of everything, including the tag cloud!

>89 Karlstar: Yeah, my tag cloud is ridiculous, especially once I started adding authors and series to it. But it makes the blog much more likely to come up in a search engine search :-)

I'll have a look around to see if I can muck about with the type size. I rather doubt it, as I know that the free wordpress sites aren't allowed much customization. Thanks for the input, appreciate it!

Day 5 of the Coronavirus stay-in. Neither one of us has been infected, but my wife's work has been closed and mine is strictly work from home since late last week. Hopefully this ends soon.

>91 Karlstar: Official predictions here are that it will peak in May.

>91 Karlstar: I’m glad you and your wife are both able to stay home. I hope the closing of your wife's work won't prove to be a hardship. I guess this will probably be going on for months.

I’ve been working from home since last Friday myself, but I haven't been completely locked in my house until yesterday afternoon. I loaded up on groceries Saturday (using the pick-up option so I didn’t have to go into the store) and picked up a prescription yesterday (through the drive-through), following both interactions up with the use of hand sanitizer in the car and then lots of hand-washing at home and then disinfecting the things like door handles that I touched between my car and the sink. ;) Now I think I have pretty much everything I need to stay locked up for at least a few weeks.

I'm not in the high risk group, but I don't particularly want to get sick, and I most especially don't want to spread it to other people because I got myself sick with carelessness. But I’m mostly worried about my family out of town. Some of them are in the high-risk group and two of them must make weekly trips to the hospital where I worry they’ll be exposed.

>91 Karlstar: Man, this is really starting to affect everyone I know, in real life and online. I have a feeling church is going to be cancelled for several weeks for us. We'll have to see what happens for work. Not looking forward to it, no matter what.

>92 -pilgrim-: Let's hope for a lot earlier than that! I also hope they figure out a better care procedure for those who get it and need it.

>93 YouKneeK: Sounds exactly like my routine. I can't take a chance on getting it and spreading it to my wife or parents. Mostly, we cook at home anyway so this is no hardship at all for us.

>94 BookstoogeLT: Church has already been cancelled here in NY. I didn't go last week anyway, people were still shaking hands 2 weeks ago, which was just foolish and selfish on their parts.

The Black Elfstone (The Fall of Shannara series) by Terry Brooks
STTM: 3 - same amount as almost every Brooks book
Rating: 4 out of 10

Brooks has announced this is the end of his writing about The Four Lands. This is the first book of a new trilogy that will bring it to a close. Unfortunately, it follows a pretty predictable pattern. There are assassins in the Federation, a fed up Allanon type Druid, a Leah, an Ohmsford and a new mystery threat to the Four Lands. If you aren't familiar with the last 12 Shannara books or so, that might not sound familiar, but those plot elements have been coming up over and over.

There's a couple of new young people; a boy and a girl, both born with the magic of the wishsong. They both take different approaches to mastering it. The druid, the magic talents of the wishsong, politics in the druid order and the new threat of the Skaar make up the plot of this one. These books are darker than Brooks' novels used to be, but on the scale of 'dark' novels, they are just a little grey, but even so, the change is jarring.

After years of reading these novels, maybe because I'm being more critical with this one, I noticed something really strange. Over the last few novels, technology and science has gradually been replacing magic. There are airships that fly using some strange Burroughs type technology, primitive blasters, (flash rips) that sort of thing. Yet, people still live in cottages and for dinner, without fail, they have meat, cheese, bread - and ale in aleskins or pitchers. If they are feeling fancy they make a stew. People actually pull pitchers of ale out of something that isn't a refrigerator. Really? Warm flat beer? They essentially have anti-gravity and inertia-less flight, yet people still have exactly the same menu, prepared exactly the same way, preserved exactly the same way, as the early days of the Four Lands. I know this is a problem in many fantasy worlds, where history stretches out a lot longer than ours while there is zero technology advancement, but in this case, there is technology advancement. They even know what used to be possible back in 'our' world.

I really used to be a Brooks fan and I am still, of his early stuff and the Knight of the Word books, but it is time Shannara came to a close.

>96 Karlstar: but it is time Shannara came to a close.

Now that is a statement I can get behind! I think Brooks is even worse than Koontz in re-telling the same story over and over...

Darkwalker on Moonshae by Douglas Niles
STTM: 5 - standard fantasy quest travel
Rating: 7 out of 10

I actually give this 4 stars here on LT. Mostly, I just really enjoy this book. It is a classic old-fashioned good vs. evil battle, set in the Dungeons and Dragons world of Faerun (aka The Forgotten Realms) and roughly based on the old 1st edition AD&D rules. The rules don't get in the way though, the author does a good job writing around them. As I mention in my review, it does feature good heroes, mighty magic items an invasion and evil monsters. I really like the take on the religion of the isles and the druids and their opposition to invasion. There's a quest or two, prisoners to rescue (male and female) and a really fun pseudo-dragon.

I re-read this every few years just because it is fun and I really enjoy it, plus this time I wanted to loan it to someone in my gaming group. Unfortunately meetings with anyone are now off the table, so maybe he'll get it in a month or two.

>98 Karlstar: A good Forgotten Realms book? Color me interested!

>99 BookstoogeLT: Seems like your kind of book, not too long, not pretentious. It is part of a trilogy that leads to another trilogy. The other two books of the first trilogy, Black Wizards and Darkwell are both good, not quite as good though. See what you think, there are plenty of cheap copies on ABE.

>100 Karlstar: I'll go check it out, thanks. I had a soft spot for FR for years until I simply couldn't handle the pure drivel it had leveled out to.

But a standalone I can handle, even if they did turn it into a trilogy :-)

>101 BookstoogeLT: It's an old tradition in A&D modules. The G series and D series were both trilogies, so was the original I series and the A series should have been. These books just mimic the one-adventure-in-three-parts.

I finally finished the Galactic Milieu trilogy, review will be coming soon. We needed to make a cross-NY trip the last two days, it was very strange.

>103 Karlstar: lots of open road?

>103 Karlstar: Which parts?

>104 BookstoogeLT: Lots of semi-open road. The NYS Thruway is always busy, I'd say normal truck traffic and 25% of normal car traffic, so it felt light.
Nice drive, totally empty rest areas.

>105 clamairy: Catskill (via Rip Van Winkle bridge) to Depew/Buffalo. The 290/90 stretch around Buffalo was pretty much busy as usual.

Time for a review!

The Galactic Milieu trilogy, consisting of Jack the Bodiless, Diamond Mask and Magnificat.
STTM - 0 - FTL, personal flying craft and even limited teleporting eliminates long trips
Overall rating: 5 - read this if you really enjoyed The Pliocene Exile and want to know more

First of all, this trilogy from back in the early 90's, is a prequel to the Pliocene Exile series and follows the Intervention duology. It suffers from the usual problems of prequels written after the original series - if you've read them in publication order, you pretty much know how it is going to turn out, even if you don't know how it got there. It also suffers a bit from May's choice of dates and now dated technology, a little.

This is going to be tough to do without spoilers, but here goes!

At this point in the story, the alien races from the entirely benevolent Galactic Milieu have made first contact and have essentially taken over Earth's government. The Simbiari Proctors now run the planet, with human governments at the continental/regional level (not national) still in place, but rules are very different. It isn't mentioned, but it is obvious that the immensely powerful metapsychic operants of the alien races have stopped all violence on Earth. I found this to be extremely unlikely, but that's the premise. In addition, in the late 19th and early 2000's, there is a sudden massive increase in humans with metapsychic powers - creativity, psychokinesis, coercion, redaction (healing) and farsight (which includes telepathy). All of the old human 'magics' from Celtic to Polynesian are suddenly understood to be mental powers after all.

In Jack the Bodiless, the story is narrated by Uncle Rogi Remillard, the grand old uncle of the Remillard family, the 'first family' of metapsychic operants of Earth. The Remillards are of French-Canadian descent living in New Hampshire. Teresa and her husband Paul have other children of varying metapsychic talents, including the hugely powerful Marc, along with Marie, Madeline, and Luc, who suffers from significant genetic issues. Having tragically lost several other children, Teresa decides to rekindle her marriage to Paul by having one more, despite being under penalty of death for having a child while knowing the genetic risks. Then follows what could have been an episode from the History channel tv show Alone, Arctic season and about 10 years worth of the story. Lurking in the background and appearing from time to time to cause problems is the malevolent entity Fury and its minions, The Hydra. Really can't say much more without giving the whole story away.

In Diamond Mask, the story picks up a parallel life thread. Young Dorothea McDonald, from another family of very powerful operants, this time Scottish, is a young girl. Dorothea has tremendous potential but for whatever reason she is terrified of mental powers and keeps them locked in colored boxes in her head, vowing to never let them out, no matter how much the psychologists try to help. This book follows about 18 years of her life, mostly on the planet Caledonia, the 'Scots' planet that has been granted to humans by the Milieu specifically for those of Scottish ancestry. She also gets tangled up with Fury and Hydra, the recurring villains.

I can't say much about Magnificat without giving anything away, but it picks up immediately where Diamond Mask leaves off and takes the story to a point where it mostly explains the backstory of The Pliocene Exile.

What I like about these books:
1. They are a prequel to The Pliocene Exile, which I really enjoy.
2. Despite some problems I'll get to in my don't like list, I enjoy her vision of the future.
3. May does a great job with characters and locations. She really does make up interesting worlds, but she excels at people.

What I don't like about these books:
1. She goes overboard with languages I don't know. The Remillards are often talking or even thinking in French, and once she gets into other families, there's also lots of Scotish Gaelic and Irish Gaelic.
2. This might be sci-fi romance. A billion times better than the Catherine Asaro stuff, but still, I think that is a really odd mix.
3. They are prequels, so by their very nature, I know too much about how it is going to end. Getting there is interesting, but sometimes if feels like she had to add words to what should have been 1 or 2 books.
4. I'm not sure I buy that humans would just turn over government to aliens without a fight, or that we'd live by their reproduction rules or eliminate our national governments. Even if they are mind-reading aliens capable of coercing (literally) us into doing what they want and even if they uber-benevolent aliens that have completely banished violence. I just don't think humans give up their hatreds that easily.
4. Clothes. If you think Robert Jordan is bad about clothes, May is worse. Yes, worse. Every time there's a significant character appearance, meeting, party, spaceship trip or just about anything, we get to hear about what everyone is wearing, in fashion terms I couldn't possibly understand.

Still, I enjoyed reading them again. I'd actually forgotten the exact way everything was resolved, but it felt like sometimes I was skipping other language parts and clothing parts to get to the end.

>107 Karlstar: That #2 on the cons is a complete show stopper for me. After an experience with a Lindsay Buroker book, I've been scarred ever since!

And great job on reviewing a whole trilogy with no spoilers! While I personally write spoilers like there is no tomorrow, I respect those who choose not to. It is hard work!

>107 Karlstar: I read the Pliocene Exile books in the early eighties and have never revisited them. As a result, I remember the basics but none of the specifics. Would you say that was a good position from which to start the prequels? I bought Jack the Bodiless a while back, then worried that I remembered too little of the original series and would need to reread them all.

>100 Karlstar: Well, I managed to score an old copy of Darkwalker on Moonshae. I don't know when I'll get around to it, but at least it is in my queue now :-D

Can you believe they wanted $8 for a kindle edition?!? Talk about highway robbery. Especially when a perfectly readable mmpb version is running for $3.

>108 BookstoogeLT: I don't mind some romantic interaction occuring in my SF, as long as it doesn't mutate into a romance with an SF setting!

And I agree recent Lindsey Buroker offerings have tended towards the latter, unfortunately. You were lucky that you didn't meet her alter ego, Ruby Lionsdrake - porn in space!! (Now that was seriously mind-scarring.)

>111 -pilgrim-: Sounds like I dodged a bullet by tripping and hitting my face against a wall. Painful but way better outcome! :-D

And to be honest, if the romance is like Jane Austen, I actually do like it. The Liaden books are an example of romance that really worked for me. Sadly, those authors crossed some lines so I don't read their books any more. I can't think of any other authors who have done that though, ie, written romance that I like.

>109 -pilgrim-: I would say that's a perfect way to start the series, as long as you don't mind skipping the other 2 prequels, The Surveillance and Intervention. She does a quick review of what happened in those two, so it should be fine, I myself did not read Intervention this time around. You'll get an introduction to the alien races fairly quickly too, but you'll need to at least glance at the Remillard family tree, since the first two books covered Rogi and Denis' youth, which goes all the way back to the mid 19th century.

>108 BookstoogeLT: I might be a bit unfair here. Clearly May's theme is that love drives the universe, but it is probably unfair to call this a romance, it just tends in that direction a little. Congrats on getting Darkwalker, I hope you found one of the good $3 or $4 copies with free shipping on ABE!

I just started The Bloodline Feud by Charles Stross, the first omnibus edition in the Merchant Princes series (I read book 7 recently) and put it down, I won't be reading it. I'll go find something to re-read then come back to the series with The Traders War, which I also picked up. Hopefully that one will be better.

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
STTM: 0 - takes place entirely in one small town
Rating: 9 out of 10

This one might actually be that rare book, a 10. According to my rating scheme, since I haven't read it more than once and definitely don't own more than 1 copy, it will stay a 9 for now.

I'd never read this before, not sure why it wasn't on our reading list in high school. I've seen the commercial for the Broadway version about 50 times, so it got me curious to read the book.

If you aren't familiar with the novel, it is the story of a few years of a family in a small town in southern Alabama, USA. The family consists of a father, son and daughter and a housekeeper, though there are Aunts, Uncles and neighbors involved. It takes place in the mid-1930's. The primary character is Jean Louise (Scout) Finch, the story is told from her perspective. She is 6 at the start of the book, just entering first grade. She and her brother spend a lot of time keeping themselves busy in the very old fashioned way - making up games, playing outdoors all day and generally wandering the neighborhood. They also have some minor and interesting 'adventures' with the neighbors, particularly the reclusive neighbor across the street.

A lot of the book is taken up this way, until about midway through, when their father is selected to be the defense attorney for a black man accused of rape, a capital offense at that time.

I really enjoyed this book. The characters are fantastic and the story is excellent. The very serious topic of the trial is weaved into their daily life in a very natural way, it doesn't take over the story but it is the story as it impacts the whole family. The institutional and commonplace racism of the 1930's American South also shows up over and over, getting the point across very well.

>115 Karlstar: Isn't this a fantastic book? I really hope you give it a 10 the next time you read it.
I thought Lee did a great job of laying a foundation for her characters to interact in later on in the more serious side of the story.

I grew up on the movie and was always "ahhh, its ok" about it so I was never tempted to read the book. I'm glad I changed that a year or so ago :)

>115 Karlstar: This is the only perfect book I've ever read. I've read it three times now and each time I wonder how she managed it. I've also listened to the audio book narrated by Sissy Spacek and that was equally wonderful.

(I also did not have to read this in HS, oddly.)

>116 BookstoogeLT: >117 clamairy: It really was very good. I can't say why, exactly, but it was. It even made me want to see the Broadway version, though I shudder to think what they'll cut out of it and the commercials are annoying. I'll have to find a good hardcover edition, since I bought a used 1982 paperback edition.

>118 Karlstar: Best of luck finding a nice hardcover copy. I think there is a 50th anniversary edition floating around? Well, if you do get a nice copy, would you link a pix?

>115 Karlstar:, >116 BookstoogeLT:, >117 clamairy: You all have influenced me to add this to the list of classics I should read. :) I won’t fit it in this year, but maybe next year.

>120 YouKneeK: You won't regret it!

>115 Karlstar: I'm another adult that did not have To Kill a Mockingbird assigned in high school, (clearly an indicator of the decline of the US school system!). Got around to reading it as an adult 2 or 3 years ago. Agree with @BookstoogeLT and @clamairy that it's a fantastic book. Amazon dot com has hardcovers for under $20.00 and here are a couple of links to lower pricing in the used marketplace:

• https://www.biblio.com/search.php?stage=1&author=lee&title=to+kill+a+moc...


• https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?an=lee&bi=h&sortby=17&amp...

I notice The Harper Lee Collection, (TKaM and Go Set a Watchman together), is a whopping $60.00 on Amazon but are half that or less on both Biblio and Abe Books.

Ohhhh, don't read Go Set a Watchman, not if you value your feelings for Mockingbird...

>123 BookstoogeLT: Yeah, I'll second that as well. Luckily Mockingbird was already solidified in my psyche for decades before I read Watchman. I enjoyed it somewhat, but I don't recommend it.

>122 ScoLgo: It was read to us in Grammar school, or at least most of it was. It was a Catholic school so the nun skipped over certain bits. There were many copies of it in the English room at my HS, but none of the teachers I had assigned it. Though I saw other kids carrying copies around, so it was part of the curriculum. We read happy stuff like The Pearl, The Red Pony, Nectar in a Seive and Flowers for Algernon.

>120 YouKneeK: I suspect you'll enjoy it.

>124 clamairy: How does a high school differ from s grammar school?

For me, they cover the same 11-18 age range, but a grammar school is academically selective whilst a high school may not been.

>115 Karlstar: and others It amazes me how many Americans did not ever have it as a set school text. We read it in my third or fourth year of grammar school and it made quite an impression.

>124 clamairy: The Red Pony? Flowers for Algernon? Happy?!? Here, I think you may have dropped this... '/s'

;-)

>125 -pilgrim-: For me grammar school was 1-8, and HS 9-12, but it varies in some areas. Some areas have what they call primary schools, which are anywhere from K-3 or K-6, and then Middle Schools, which are sometimes 6-8, and sometimes just 7-8.

>126 ScoLgo: I have no memory of reading anything that wasn't grim, except for perhaps Travels with Charley.

In the US, grammar schools are for the younger kids through about 10 and high school is the last four years of pre-college education. In between is middle school.

>125 -pilgrim-: To complicate things, we have more than one name for some of those “schools”. I guess the naming differences are regional? Here’s the typical school structure in the U.S.:

• Children usually start “kindergarten” at the age of 5. They may (or may not?) attend “preschool” before that.
  
• After kindergarten, there’s grades 1-6. This is called either “grammar school” or “elementary school”.
  
• After that, you have grades 7-8. This is called either “middle school” or “junior high”. (Some school systems count this as part of grammar school like in @clamairy’s case, but I think it’s not that common? Or maybe that's also a regional thing?)
  
• Then you have grades 9-12, which is called “high school”. The average student is around 18 years old when they graduate from high school.
  
• Then comes college/university/higher education/party time/whatever you want to call it, or they may choose to stop their schooling after high school.
  

>118 Karlstar: I believe that Barnes & Noble reprinted it as part of their lovely classic editions. I have one, it was not ridiculously priced IIRC.

Love this book.

>124 clamairy: You crack me up! Your forgot The Glass Menagerie, I think that was the name? It was a short story, so not sure my touchstone is correct. I've never bothered to remember who the author was.

>130 MrsLee: That's a play! Another really happy memory. :o)

Sorry we hijacked your thread, Jim.

>127 clamairy:, >128 jjwilson61:, >129 YouKneeK: Thank you all.

I was aware of the very different meanings of "public school" in our respective educational systems, but it appears that "kindergarten" and "grammar school" are also faux amis, with "middle school" having only some overlap in meaning.

>126 ScoLgo: >130 MrsLee: Thanks very much for the links and the tip. Those B&N editions are very nice and I have B&N gift cards sitting right here on my desk. My family is very good about indulging my book obsession.

>131 clamairy: Hijack away! I enjoy the chatter, but I was busy with my weekly online D&D game last night and didn't get a chance to check in. Flowers for Algernon is fantastic and one I did read in school, probably high school. I re-read it a couple of years ago, it is still great, even if sad, but it is a good book to teach children empathy.

I don't know why my school didn't require To Kill a Mockingbird, but there are many classics to get to.

>133 Karlstar: I re-read Flowers for Algernon recently also, and that is when I discovered that the version we read in grade school was a shortened version that had certain controversial scenes cut out. I read the full version and found it even more heartbreaking, but it is so well written and clever that I hope it continues to be recommended.

>134 Darth-Heather: How long is the full version? I can see cutting it back a little for grade school.

>134 Darth-Heather:, >135 Karlstar:, Actually, the short story came first (published in 1959) and the longer novel version came second (published in 1966). The novel is about 300 pages.

I read the short story for school when I was in 7th or 8th grade, I think. I read the novel a few years ago.

>136 YouKneeK: LT says the paperback I have is 224 pages, the Library of Congress catalog says 274 pages. I wonder if mine is a short version or the page count varies by printing?

>137 Karlstar: I’m guessing you have the novel and it just has more words per page than other editions? There’s no way the short story I read in school was anywhere near even 100 pages.

>138 YouKneeK: Or, gasp, LT has the wrong page count! Either one seems a likely answer. I checked and Everyman's Library has neither TKaM or Flowers for Algernon. I wonder what they consider classics. Looking at their site again, it seems their emphasis is on non-American authors, though not exclusively. Oh well, I'll have to find a good hardcover version of both.

>139 Karlstar: Everyman is a Brit thing. It doesn't surprise me at all that neither of the books mentioned made it.

And flowers for Algernon got the best book of the year tag from me in 2015. I know I cried several times...

>140 BookstoogeLT: That's too bad, I really love their hardcover editions. I'll have to find a similar American hardcover series. I know there's Easton press, but those are pricey.

>141 Karlstar: Pricey indeed! Part of why I'm converting my books to ebooks. Plus, you know, the whole eyes thing :-D

Armageddon Rag by George R. R. Martin
STTM: 5 - cross-country travel that isn't the focus and doesn't drag on
Rating: 6

Pilgrim did a great job of describing and reviewing this one in http://www.librarything.com/topic/312253#6976582. Edited: Thanks to Youkneek for showing me how to make that link!

My short summary. Sandy Blair, a novelist who mentally never left the 60's counter culture movement, learns that a famous music promoter from those days has been brutally and ritualistically murdered. Hired by the music magazine editor who once fired him, he goes off to investigate. The promoter had a complete lock on the career of the band of the movement, The Nazgul. These things lead him on a cross country trip, from Maine to LA, to find the old band members and his old friends and girlfriends from the 'good old days'. He hates the 80's and everything about it.

Sandy constantly debates the merits of the movement, what they did during college and what the 80's have brought. This was written in 1983 and Martin was not trying to write about the future, so it is set in mid-80's also. That makes it a little strange, because the mid-80's are only 15 years after 1969, but sometimes the characters make it seem like it was a 30 years ago.

Not sure how to categorize this, as it starts out as a murder mystery, has a lot of elements of a rock biography and is all about 60's counter-culture and music. I thought it was very interesting. It is a little more R rated than I would prefer, but not terribly so. It was fun to read. I suspect Martin was writing an alternate history of himself or how he wished his life could have been, he's about the right age. He also got to write song lyrics, which hopefully he enjoyed.

>143 Karlstar: ”No idea how to link to the exact post if you want to look it up.”

Just for future reference, even though the black post # in each message’s header doesn’t look like a link, it actually is. So if you hover your mouse over the post # you want to link to, you can right-click and copy that link. Typing the post # is definitely clear enough, though!

>144 YouKneeK: Aha! I knew you clever people would know how to do that. Thank you.

http://www.librarything.com/topic/312253#6976582

Port of Shadows by Glen Cook
STTM - almost none; some flying carpet travel
Rating - 3 out of 10

This is a very low rating for me. I know, it seems like I rate everything low, but I don't get below 5 often. I was happy to see a new Black Company novel, but unfortunately this has a couple of unnecessary and unfortunate themes.

This book occurs, timeline-wise, near the beginning of the Black Company series. That's a good thing, because it features a lot of the great characters from the Company back then, including the trio of wizards - Goblin, Silent and One-Eye. Croaker is still the Company physician and Annalist and as usual, the narrator. That's about all of the good stuff.

Unfortunately, there are some blatant anti-feminist themes here that will ruin it for most people. He also never actually gets around to the title subject and there's some really strange genetics. Since it doesn't advance the story, or doesn't really tell us anything new, this becomes and exercise in hoping that the good old Company guys will do something interesting, which they never get around to doing. That's not a spoiler, just hoping to save folks from bothering to read this.

I think maybe he meant this to be darker than the usual Black Company novel, but failed completely? Hard to say.

Don't miss the Spring Treasure Hunt!!

>146 Karlstar: Every review I saw from fans were filled with nothing but disappointment about this book. Made it easier for me to ignore it and not bother.

>148 BookstoogeLT: Hopefully I save someone from reading it.

>149 Karlstar: And the Duty of a Book Guardian never ends! ;-)

Almost done with Sundiver, I might have to read something on my Kindle next, nearly everything is packed!

>151 Karlstar: I've read the Uplift War and its sequel (can't remember the name of it for the life of me) but they never really hooked me. Actually, the only book of Brin's that I really enjoyed was The Postman.

congrats on getting things all squared away? What kind of time table are you looking at?

>152 BookstoogeLT: I actually may enjoy Sundiver the most of the Uplift books, I'd have to read the 2nd trilogy again to make sure. I'm a big fan of The Postman, the one by David Brin that only has that title and nothing else.

Edit: Fixed the touchstone. The movie wasn't great, except Tom Petty was in it.

I also really, really enjoyed his non-fiction story collection, Otherness and his book on privacy, The Transparent Society. We're almost where he predicted we'd be in The Transparent Society, not quite.

>153 Karlstar: I went to imdb after this and looked up the Postman. Doesn't sound like it's a movie I'd want to watch.

>153 Karlstar: I think your Touchstone is wrong there (for The Postman).

>154 BookstoogeLT: Wait, you haven't seen the movie version? It wasn't that bad! Not a Costner fan?

>156 Karlstar: From the imdb description it sounds like the SF gene alter part of the story is completely taken out. I enjoyed that part the most :-)

>157 BookstoogeLT: You are correct, they left that out.

>155 -pilgrim-: Fixed!

My April reading was disappointingly low. I need to spend less time watching TV and less time packing. Oh, wait, have to have everything packed by tomorrow, so that's not going to happen! I did start reading King of Ashes, a new series set on a new world by Raymond E. Feist, the Kindle version. So far, not bad, about what you'd expect from Feist, maybe a little more character focused and a little less setting focused.

>160 Karlstar: Man, that "life" stuff really gets in the way of what you want to do, doesn't it? ;-)
So tomorrow is the deadline? Good luck!

>161 BookstoogeLT: Thanks! Tomorrow is when we load up the van (and the cats) to drive up the last load, then back here, then the movers arrive on Tuesday.

>160 Karlstar: I look forward to reading more about what you think of the Feist book once you finish it. I definitely won’t be reading more Feist anytime soon, but I might consider it sometime in the future. I was aware he had written some other stuff, but hadn’t looked into it yet.

Good luck with the move!

>160 Karlstar: Don't feel too badly about not getting much read. I suspect many of us are in the same situation. I have stopped watching as much news, but my ability to concentrate has been impacted by 'real life' anyway.

Best of luck with the move! Hope you manage to squeeze in some reading time even with your life in flux.

>162 Karlstar: Great time to be moving—not. Best of luck with it.

>163 YouKneeK: >164 clamairy: >165 haydninvienna: Thanks everyone! The new Feist book has dragged me in. It isn't all that unique in characters or structure, but I'm enjoying the story.

We're here and all of our stuff arrived, 1 day late and on 1 1/4 trucks. The moving industry really does need to get better at this stuff.

Not sure you can see this, but here's a picture of the book stack in the to-be library. I tried actually imbedding the image here, but it just wouldn't do it.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1YtW2P99gumhl6nNRyABd3HkTsG6W6KZz/view?usp=shari...

>167 Karlstar: I approve.

I could retaliate with photographs of plastic crates, but unfortunately most of my library is still in another part of the country. I couldn't collect it because of the lockdown, and am now doubtful when I by will be able to - unless I hire lorries again. I fear that won't be until the next move.

How did you manage to transport books in cardboard without the boxes giving way under the weight?

>167 Karlstar: Glad it all arrived. Now comes all the fun of unpacking!

>168 -pilgrim-: My guess would be paperbacks :)

>167 Karlstar: I’m glad it all made it there eventually! That is a lot of book boxes!

>168 -pilgrim-: >169 BookstoogeLT: >170 YouKneeK: Thanks! I guess I am good at packing books? I found the Uhaul extra-small boxes (seen in the picture) are perfect for a mix of paperbacks and hardcovers. They weren't too heavy for the box or to be carried. I usually finished off the top 1/8" to 1/4" with a magazine or two, so the box was 100% full. Essentially, the books were supporting themselves with a little help from the box. I have found one box a little bit collapsed, so far, but just one. No damaged books yet. Not bad for 9 months in boxes!

Because my computers were packed early, I got a bit of reading in the last week or so, around moving. I finished King of Ashes, Furies of Calderon and I'm halfway through Legend by David Gemmell. Reviews to come soon. 2 more boxes unpacked today.

>172 Karlstar: Have you read the Gemmel books before?

>173 BookstoogeLT: I think I have read everything he wrote, minus one.

>174 Karlstar: Ahhh, so you know what you're getting into. And that means you like him :-)

>175 BookstoogeLT: I do! Legend is probably my favorite, how about you?

>167 Karlstar: Oh dude, are you excited to unpack?
(I still have a pile of book boxes almost that big in my basement.)

>176 Karlstar: I gave up on Gemmell with Waylander. It wasn't bad, but it just wasn't good enough for my older self and since I hadn't read it when younger had no attachments to the series. I read 3 of his books and serviceable is the word that stuck in my head.

>172 Karlstar: That Gemmell series is yet another of the many things on my list that I have yet to get to. I even have the first book on my Kindle, so it's also on my shorter list of "things to consider sooner", but the list isn't short enough. :)

>177 clamairy: I am! However, my wife and I both need to recover a bit first. Too many boxes, too many injuries. I did unpack 3 boxes of books last night, but I'm running out of available bookshelf space already, since at least 1 arrived missing the support pegs for the shelves.

>178 BookstoogeLT: You continue to surprise me with your preferences, still don't have a clue. :)

>179 YouKneeK: The Drenai series? Where were you planning on starting?

I'm really starting to get annoyed with LT. My brain says I went over my Gemmell collection multiple times to make sure I have all of them, LT says I am missing quite a few. This is about the 4th time I suspected I added a book to LT and found it missing later.

>180 Karlstar: Yes, I was thinking Legend was the first book in the series. Is that not necessarily true? It looks like it’s the first in publication order anyway, which is what I usually go by unless there’s a compelling reason to do otherwise.

>181 YouKneeK: It is a good place to start, I don't think it is the first in chronological order, but if you don't like that one, there's no point in reading the others. There's also a prequel about the same character, Druss.

>180 Karlstar: sorry to hear things have gone missing, both at home and on LT!

Consider me a man of international mystery and it will make your life easier :-) One more good reason to keep following my reviews! ;-)

>181 YouKneeK: I started out reading Drenai in publication order and I'd recommend sticking to that order. And I'll echo >182 Karlstar:'s advice. What you feel about the first book is a good indicator for the rest.

>182 Karlstar:, >183 BookstoogeLT: Good to know, thanks!

>183 BookstoogeLT: I found the desk screws! Right where I put them, of course... partially hidden on a shelf. So now my desktop and its overly complicated speaker setup is back in action.

I just have this persistent problem with books that I "know" I put in LT disappearing from my collection. I believe someone here explained it as possible when they clean up a version that someone added that had problems or was wrong or something, so then mine disappears too. That is entirely possible with Gemmell, back when I was likely adding books by title+author rather than ISBN.

>185 Karlstar: Nice. Sometimes it is the little things that make all the difference :-D

And your problem is why I'll never (completely) trust an online site for storing my book data. Discovering that I could use Calibre to store book reviews was one of the best things that ever happened to my book-self...

185. No. There should be nothing anyone else can do that causes books to disappear from your library. If it happens then it is a very serious bug.

>187 jjwilson61: That's my opinion too, but I just can't explain how repeatedly, I'll find that some books from some authors aren't in my collection here, even if I'm positive I went over everything I have by that author.

It's Tim's opinion too as he's stated many times.

Snark, snark, snark.

Hahahahahaa.

I started The Line of Polity by Neil Asher. So far, so good, though I'm not very far along.

>191 Karlstar: Glad to hear it. If you didn't know, I'm a HUGE fan of the Polity so whenever someone else also likes it, it makes me feel good :-D

>192 BookstoogeLT: Well, um, I just read the part where he has maybe the worst action/encounter scene I've read in a while. Didn't ruin the book for me, but it was bad. On the good news front, my wife heard me mention I was having a hard time finding my TBR books and also has been listening to me babble about our McKillip conversations, so she picked up The Bards of Bone Plain so I'll likely switch over to that one.

>193 Karlstar: Hahahaa! What scene was that?

and you can't go wrong with Bards of Bone Plain. While I do prefer her more traditional fantasy era setting, Bard is a good transition point from that to the world of Kingfisher.

>194 BookstoogeLT: This is one giant spoiler, so for those who haven't read the book yet.

Right in the beginning, when Cormac, Scar and Gant are reading the Separatists base where Skellor is working. First, there's barely a mention of the Separatists and if they ever get a shot close, it isn't mentioned. I hate 'minions' who have zero impact. Its a design flaw in an encounter. Second, Skellor has created some kind of alien/Predator-ish monster that shakes off whatever Cormac's 'thin gun' is shooting. What it does shoot is never mentioned, nor is a limitation on ammo. Luckily for Cormac, he has the Shuriken killer thing of doom that chops up the monster before it even gets close or scares Cormac in the slightest. Actual tension in this scene? Zero. I don't think the super monster even got close enough to spit on Cormac.

If this was the 'finale' encounter in a role playing game or game session, I would have had to rate this as a flop. There wasn't any risk at all and never felt like it.

>195 Karlstar: I'm pretty sure the thin guns are apw weaponry (anti-proton weapon) and it's described in the first book of the series. However, I've read the series enough that's it too easy for me to mix up my knowledge.

As for the encounter, not much I can say about that. I LIKE that kind of thing, so for me it's a strength, not a weakness :-D

Thank you for the welcome to the group Jim. Enjoy your long weekend.

>197 PaulCranswick: Thanks Paul! Lots of house unpacking/cleaning and a very nice family visit today. I do not want to have my 7 AM meeting tomorrow!

Way past time for a review!

Sundiver (2020 revised edition) by David Brin
STTM: 0 - there's no mud on the sun!
Rating: 7 out of 10

Sundiver is one of my favorite Brin books and a scifi favorite for me. It is actually the first of Brin's 'Uplift' books, though not the first one I read. It is heavy on science and aliens, though at heart it is a mystery novel.

In Brin's Uplift universe, there are many alien races. All of them are either patron or client races, but all at some point were clients - 'uplifted' by a patron race, dating back to the fabled Progenitors, long gone now. Races are loosely ranked by how long they have been out of client status and how many other races they have Uplifted. 'Uplift' being the process of genetically modifying a species to be able to achieve independence and take their place in the galactic civilization. This is a process that takes millennia, normally. Along come the humans, who have no known patron and who, on their own, without benefit of galactic technology, are in the process of uplifting both chimpanzees and dolphins. This puts the humans in a precarious situation, as they have no patron to protect them and no natural allies. The great unifying force in the galaxy is the Galactic Library, the font of all knowledge - if you know how to ask it properly and if you have access to a full library.

In Sundiver, humans are blending their own quaint technology (by galactic standards) and some galactic technology to build a 'sundiver', a spaceship capable of actually entering the upper layers of the sun. Accompanied by 3 representatives of alien races, the human crew goes exploring and that's when the mystery comes in.

There is a lot of technical discussion of the sun in this book, which I enjoyed. The plot is generally good and moves along and I like Brin's vision of the universe. There's a few points where his main character seems a little odd and in parts the writing is a little rough, but not bad for a first novel.

In the intro, Brin states that he updated some old 80's language that felt too dated now for this 'new' version.

Looking back at my reading the last few months, it was definitely impacted by moving, in two ways. I read more when I was visiting our new home before the cable was hooked up - no surprise there. Unfortunately, I think I also read more during the time when my books were packed, while I was reading on my Kindle. Again, since that's when there was no cable, that might explain it, but it may also be that it is just easier to read on the Kindle now and I get more reading done before I get tired. Not sure, might have to experiment a bit more.

>199 Karlstar: I'm not sure how I feel about an author ret-conning their book. I can certainly understand the desire, especially where techno-babble is concerned, but this sounds like it was more slang. I feel that a book should be left alone, as it is a signpost of the times it was written in.

What did you think of it, was it noticeable?

>200 Karlstar: *cheers for ereaders* I am just such a huge fan of them. I'm not so much into the technical specs of any specific brand or type, but just being able to carry around all the books you need and having an adjustable font is priceless for me. Which kindle do you have?

>199 Karlstar: >201 BookstoogeLT:

I too am interested in how noticeable the changes are. I have the 1997 Bantam paperback printing of Sundiver and am now wondering if that version was also 'uplifted' from the original 1980 publication?

Startide Rising remains my favorite Uplift book but Sundiver runs a close 2nd.

>201 BookstoogeLT: The only thing I noticed that I'm fairly sure was changed was a drug reference, 'warfarin'. Since I see commercials for that on TV, I recognize what it was, which I imagine was his goal, as it had a role in the plot. The other changes, whatever they were, were not noticeable to me.

I have the Kindle Fire 8". I like it, the display is good, battery life is good and it isn't too large.

>202 ScoLgo: I'd be interested to know too if your copy was edited or not. Not because I truly and deeply care about the story but just as a point of reference for when he felt it was necessary to edit himself.

>203 Karlstar: So he changed the drug TO warfarin or FROM warfarin? I know it is what is in rat poison ;-)

Ahhh, so you use an lcd tablet, gotcha. I'm strictly an eink man myself. I have a kindle oasis. Best money I've spent since I started with a sony 505 back in '07 or '08...

>204 BookstoogeLT: A google search for 'sundiver warfarin' found a Google Books link for page 231, "After the denunciation downstairs, it became clear that she had never prescribed the Warfarin to Kepler at all."

Opening my 1995 Bantam paperback, (sorry, had the wrong year before), I find the exact same sentence. Unfortunately, further searching reveals that Google Books is excerpting from the exact same ISBN as my paperback - so of course it's the same. I can't find an excerpt from the 1980 original.

I have an first generation Paperwhite from 2013. I would like to get an Oasis but can't really justify the extra expense when there is nothing wrong with my current device. E-ink is truly amazing in daylight. The way it achieves better contrast as sunlight brightens is like magic. I know it has to be Clarke's Third Law in action but I feel like a primitive savage every time I witness it. Like... how it do that?

>205 ScoLgo: I guess we'll have to wait for Karlstar to chime in. I'm guessing he has an old paperback kicking around somewhere.

I bought my first gen oasis back when they came out (so paid a premium) but buttons were super important to me. I'd gone through the sony 505, t1, t3 and a nook simple touch and a kindle 4nt (non-touch). So I paid through the nose but it has been worth every penny. It is light (I regularly take it out of it's battery cover), I like the ergonomics and the buttons :-D I haven't even thought about upgrading to the oasis 2 or 3 to be honest. I'm not sure what I'll do once the battery starts to go. I'm hoping I have 3-5 more years.

>206 BookstoogeLT: I loved that original Oasis. The size and weight and form was the most perfect Kindle out of the 6 different Kindles I’ve used. I still have it, but mine became a bit funky over time about staying connected properly to the cover. I would sometimes be reading with the cover on, seemingly firmly attached, and get the alert that I was almost out of batteries. Then I’d have to remove and reattach it several times until it recognized the cover and showed it was charging from the cover, then sometimes it would randomly stop charging again. I eventually got frustrated and upgraded to the second generation Oasis without the funky backup-battery-in-the-cover scheme. I like it a lot, and I like the slightly larger screen size, but it’s just not quite as perfect to hold. Every now and then I miss my old Oasis and pull it out and start reading on it, but it doesn’t take long before the battery annoyances cause me to stuff it back in its drawer.

My first e-book reading attempts were on an old Palm Zire. Maybe 2006ish? I liked the concept of e-books, but I didn’t read them often because I didn’t care for the small screen and the way any sunlight anywhere in the vicinity made it completely unreadable. When Amazon released the first Kindle, I waited long enough for the first batch of customers to review it to make sure it wasn’t a complete flop, then put in my order. It made a world of difference and I abandoned print books altogether within a few years.

These days I read primarily on the aforementioned 2nd generation Oasis. I also have an 8” Kindle Fire. I like the Fire pretty well, but I rarely read on it. The main time I use the Fire for books is if I’m reading something annotated, like Shakespeare, so I can have the text open on one device and the annotations open on the other device and read them side-by-side instead of a lot of clicking around. It’s much faster for me and I like to be able to still see the full text instead of having part or all of it hidden by the annotation. I’ve also used it for the rare graphic novel I’ve read so I can see them in color.

I initially bought the Fire for my mom as an experiment, but she’s not good at figuring out unfamiliar devices and I knew there was no way she’d use it if I couldn’t teach her how to use it or if it was too complicated. Before I gave it to her, I therefore played around with it so I could learn how to use it myself and make sure it was something I thought she could use. By that time I had decided I rather liked it and could see myself using it, so I kept that one and bought a new one for her. :) I wasn’t sure if she’d use a tablet much. She’d never expressed any interest in a mobile device before when we’d talked about them, and I think she thought I’d wasted my money when I first gave it to her. It turned out to be a huge hit, though. I bought her Amazon Prime also, which I renew for her each year, so she can use the Fire to watch free TV and movies and she also watches YouTube videos and other things on it. She also does most of her computing tasks (e-mail, online shopping, web browsing, etc.) on it because it’s easier for her to carry around. When I’ve bought myself newer e-ink Kindles, I’ve usually passed my older ones on to her and she loves those too and prefers them for reading books. Before I gave her the first Kindle, she had been complaining she could only read for a few minutes and then she would get headaches, because her eyes are very bad. After using the Kindle (which she promptly increased to the largest font size!) she said it gave her back the ability to read again.

>207 YouKneeK: When the kindle first came out I lusted so hard after it, but at $500, it simply wasn't feasible. I couldn't have bought it even if I wanted to, I didn't have that kind of money, period.

Even when I got a hold of the sony, it was used and still cost me more than I was really comfortable with. But that kind of set the bar for me getting the oasis :-D and what you describe happening to yours is why I seldom take mine out of the cover. I don't want that happening :-D

Now that I've had an ereader for this long, I'll never go back to strictly paper books. Upping the font size is the biggest draw for me :-D

>208 BookstoogeLT: I had to go look up my original order of the original Kindle. It was $399 when I bought it in February 2008 (it came out in November 2007). That's still a lot of money for something without any kind of track record to judge by, even when you can afford it. That was the main reason I waited for reviews even though I had wanted to pull the trigger the moment I heard about it.

I usually read on the smallest font size, but once in a great while I’ll increase it if my eyes are really tired.

>205 ScoLgo: >206 BookstoogeLT: I will try to remember to look this up when I find my original paperback edition. 'warfarin' jumped out at me because I'm now familiar with it from TV, it is possible it was in the original but I haven't been able to compare, I don't believe my original copy is unpacked yet.

Here's what Brin said in the intro to the revised edition.

"We only had to tweak a couple of passages that, though well-intentioned for 1980, would now seem linguiestically - well - dated."

I'm now guessing that means 'warfarin' was in the original too.

>208 BookstoogeLT: >209 YouKneeK: Early when the Kindle came out, my sister got one. Probably in that same 2008 time frame. She loved reading on it. At the time I pointed out that like all tech, she should have waited for the price to come down and that the books would likely not be compatible for long. She used it for many years until it finally died.

I had a Kindle Fire 6" but I did not read on it, it was too small, I used it exclusively for portable music listening. I like the 8", the text is easy to read. It was also less than $100 on sale.

>210 Karlstar: I'm glad your sister also enjoyed her early Kindle! I first upgraded when the Kindle Keyboard came out (3rd version) because of that little book light in the cover, plus I was confident my mom would make good use of my old one. My next upgrade was to the 2nd generation Paperwhite because of the front-lighting. Reviews about quality were too mixed on the 1st generation Paperwhite so I decided not to buy even though I loved the idea of it. Lighting improvements were a strong motivating factor in my early upgrade choices.

Long-term file format compatibility was the one thing I didn’t worry about when I decided to buy my first Kindle, even though it was a frequently-voiced concern at the time. There are always people who will figure out a way to write programs that can convert defunct file formats into something modern. Even games for old computer systems can be run on modern PCs with emulators. Worst case, if the Kindle format didn’t last, I was pretty confident there’d be a way to convert any e-books I purchased.

>210 Karlstar: From the way that is phrased, I would expect the changes to be regarding terminology that, whilst not meant offensively at the time, would nowadays be only used pejoratively.

e.g. "crippled" to describe someone with a disability, or "Mongol" when "Down's Syndrome" (rather than the ethnicity) is meant. Both terms were used in respectable journalism in the eighties. Nowadays the former expression can give offence, and the latter certainly would.

Or Eskimo rather than Inuit.

Where it is not the attitudes that are being retrospectively altered, but simply the terminology being updated, then this is probably a sensible course of action. The intention is for the reader to get the same impression as they would have got if reading at the time that it was written.

I will be intrigued to hear, when you make the comparison, whether my guess is correct.

Jumping in to add I use an 8 inch Fire as a tablet and to read books with color illustrations or larger diagrams, but I don't use it for any other reading because of the glowy* screen and the weight. My biggest complaint about the Fire is that there are a bunch of games you can't add, like my guiltiest pleasures - Pokemon Go and Plants vs. Zombies 2. My Paperwhite is the device I use the most for reading.

I also have a couple Samsung tablets, an older 10 inch that has slowed to a crawl and barely holds a charge, and a newer 8 inch that is still like lightning. (These were both bought for low prices at Costco when newer models were being released.)

I had forgotten that earlier Kindles (with the exception of the Fires) were so expensive!

*Reading those at bedtime will keep me awake.

>212 -pilgrim-: Darn good guess, I'd say! Somewhere in the pile is the B paperbacks box, haven't unearthed it yet.

>211 YouKneeK: You and my sister were both right, except the price point.

>213 clamairy: I don't think I've had that problem? I'll have to try a couple more Kindle books to be sure though.

>214 Karlstar: If you're using it at the optimum reading setting (I think that includes a blue light filter) you're probably fine.

King of Ashes by Raymond E. Feist
STTM: 2 - some sailing and travel, but not much for travel's sake
Rating: 6 out of 10

I almost gave this a 7 out of 10, but I can't see myself (yet) as needing to buy the hardcover, or indeed, a paper version since I read this on my Kindle.

This is the first book in a new series by Feist, the Firemane Saga, one that is not about Midkemia or Krondor or set in his previous universe at all, as far as I can tell. He has created a new world, or at least 2 continents and some significant islands set on a new world.

The book jumps right into the story, at the very end of a major battle. 4 of the major kingdoms have ganged up and defeated the army of the 5th, then slaughtered the entire remaining royal family, except an infant. The POV here is a major baron, nominally unaligned with any kingdom, he arranges for the last surviving infant of the royal family to be fostered by the spy/assassins of an island kingdom, who will do just about anything for money.

The story then immediately shifts to 3 young people, mid-teens, who are being trained as spies/soldiers to serve the island kingdom. Two boys and one girl. Most of the rest of the story concerns them, though at times the viewpoint also shifts back to the baron, very briefly, and a young blacksmith. There are forces at work in the 4 remaining kingdoms, stirring up trouble, mostly behind the scenes and the characters are caught up in events. One of the young people is of course the surviving infant, though he does not know his past.

There is magic, but it is mostly hidden and most people don't believe in it. The infant represents a magical inheritance he doesn't know about and one that several groups want to get their hands on.

Nothing really surprising here in the plot or the setting, but I like how he has it set up and I like the characters. I will read the next book.

>216 Karlstar: Thanks for this review, this was helpful to me! It sounds fairly interesting. I'll have to keep it in mind for sometime down the road when I’m feeling nostalgic for some Feist writing. :)

>216 Karlstar: Glad you enjoyed it but it doesn't seem to have enough draw to capture my attention.

>216 Karlstar: Thanks for the review. This had caught my eye and I have been wondering how it was. Given the focus on younger people, does it read as YA?

>217 YouKneeK: I know I left out a lot of detail, but it was interesting. No wizards this time, but there is magic, it just isn't as much out front. Seems like maybe he wanted to write a book where wizards did not dominate.

>219 Narilka: I'd say borderline YA. Normally, Feist is right on that line, his stuff is usually PG to use a movie rating comparison, I think. This is a bit more mature, there is a phase where the young lady is sent for training as a consort/spy, but she's more of a fighter. There is virtually no detail. It is also made clear there is a physical attraction between 2 of the youngsters and several references to the fact that as a mixed group of teenagers in a large training group, stuff happens.

I am going to start a new thread, this one is getting a bit long.

>220 Karlstar: I thought the magic in his Riftwar series became overpowered, with the wizards dominating like you said. They usually provided the final solutions while the characters with the more interesting stories (to me) just kind of blundered along and did the best they could but were usually just pawns in some larger plot which kind of devalued their part of the story. It became kind of funny in the later books with how each subseries had to try to outdo the last. It would be nice if he could keep the magic more low-key this time around, or a much slower growth rate at least.

>220 Karlstar: Hmm. That's a define maybe. I'll wait and see how you like book two :)