Karlstar's Reading 2023 The Finale

November Reading
The War of 1812: A History From Beginning to End by Henry Freeman (not the Hourly History one)
The RAF at War (Time-Life books) by Ralph Barker
The Forgotten Beasts of Eld by McKillip
The Paradox Men by Charles L. Harness
The Long Gray Line: The American Journey of West Point's Class of 1966 by Rick Atkinson (finished in December)
Witch World by Andre Norton
Queen of the Demonweb Pits by Paul Kidd
Web of the Witch World by Andre Norton

December Reading
America in the Air War by Edward Jablonski
Use of Weapons by Iain Banks
Keyhole by George Morrison - left over from Oct.
Vanguard: The Genesis Fleet by Jack Campbell
To Reign in Hell by Steven Brust
My Effin' Life by Geddy Lee
The Olympian Affair by Jim Butcher
Miniatures: The Very Short Fiction of John Scalzi
The Gatewatch by Joshua Gillingham
Shadows in Flight by Orson Scott Card
Ascendant by Jack Campbell

The usual explanation of my rating system.

I use a 1 to 10 rating system because I started rating books on the internet using a 10 point system and because I like the additional granularity. 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. Here's my rating scale explained.

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, unless it is part of a series you really need to finish.
4 - Finished it, but really didn't like it. Not recommended unless you really need something to read.
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.

Since I have a lot of time to read now, I was able to finish Use of Weapons. This was tough to get through in the middle, it just felt like there was no point, but then it gradually became clear and the ending made a lot of sense.

There's a bit longer writeup of my thoughts in the Science Fiction Fans group, but I'll do a longer review here, as my previous review of the book was just one sentence, which was why it was on my TBR pile.

I think I'm going to circle back to Keyhole, the ER book I got halfway through and quit on last month. Its on a short leash though.

Happy new thread!

>4 pgmcc: Happy new thread! I hope you're feeling better.
(I anticipate the need for much piffle in a few weeks!)

>4 pgmcc: >5 clamairy: Thank you! Still feels like I have a cold, too much deja-vu from a month ago. I'm still isolating upstairs in the house, no fun.

Happy new thread! And get better soon!

>3 Karlstar: Have you read Banks' Culture novels before or is this your first time through?

Happy new thread! I hope you shake off the Covid soon, and in the meantime have some good books to keep you company.

My own recent experience with covid was that I was truly miserable for the first eight or nine days, but after that I was mostly tired and coughing a lot. During the remainder of my imprisonment I actually got quite a lot of (light) reading done. I hope your experience is similar without the first part.

>7 haydninvienna: >9 Sakerfalcon: >10 Jim53: Thank you! Feeling much better today, but now my wife has a mild-ish case.

>8 BookstoogeLT: I have read most of the Culture novels previously, but it had been a while.

I finished Keyhole, but it really didn't have any redeeming qualities other than being mildly amusing. Turns out the 'kzinten'/kittens with chocolate venom claws were actually some of the smartest denizens of the galaxy, but can only be heard to say 'Hic!'. They are the long lost combat companions of the Jabbers from planet Woonash, nearly indestructible dragon-ish creatures. The kzinten are supposed to ride them wearing crystalline battle armor and ion cannon.

My daughter thought she was funny and sent a care package with 4 cans of chicken soup, some pecan/caramel turtles (my Mom's favorite) and Vanguard: The Genesis Fleet, so I started reading that.

I would have read more but I binged most of Wheel of Time Season two instead.

>11 Karlstar: Sorry for your wife, may you both have light cases and mend completely and fast. I like your daughter, she has the right idea.

Happy new thread! As >5 clamairy: said, we'll all need mad piffling over the next two or three weeks.

>11 Karlstar: I do hope you and your wife recuperate quickly. I rather like the care package of chicken soup and caramel turtles.

>11 Karlstar: Oh no. Well, hopefully it will be as 'mild' a case as you seem to have had. Fingers crossed.

So was season 2 better the second time around?

>12 MrsLee: >13 jillmwo: Thank you! I'm just stuffy now, feeling better. Trish started paxlovid today, she's on about the same recovery schedule, but had more aches/fever so the dr. thought it appropriate, plus she has a history of lung issues.

>14 clamairy: I'm enjoying season two, again, except the drawn out 'woe is me' parts with Lan. I didn't need that much of it.

>15 Karlstar: Best of luck to Trish. The Paxlovid works wonders, but has she gotten that awful taste in her mouth from it? I kept sucking on hard candies (peppermint Lifesavers) to try to mitigate that bitter taste. I'm glad you're better. Yes, Lan is so stoic in the books, that bit was hard to take in the show.

>16 clamairy: She had the problem where she had no sense of taste at all and she just started paxlovid last night, so not sure yet.

I finished Vanguard: The Genesis Fleet by Campbell, the first of his prequels of The Lost Fleet series. Very familiar, as fuzzi and others have described it, they are comfort reads. There does appear to be 2 more in this series, so I'll be looking for them. My library system doesn't have them.

Tor had some cool news today. Apparently there's a little movement on a Wheel of Time prequel movie, but it sounds very preliminary.

Also, Otherland may be coming to the screen!

https://www.tor.com/2023/12/14/tad-williams-otherland-series-may-be-the-next-big...

>18 Karlstar: that's so cool! I only read the first two Otherland books but at the time the concept seemed groundbreaking to me. Maybe I should go back to this series.

>18 Karlstar: That is quite interesting. As long as the director doesn't decide to butcher it like the guy directing the WoT decided to do.

My problem would be that most of the ideas have already seen screen time. Matrix did the virtual reality. Tron and Tron:Legacy did the rise of machine life and that pablum amazon show Upload is/has explored the digital scanning.

Do you think Otherland could survive all that?

>18 Karlstar: Oh wow wow wow, an Otherland TV series could be amazing! Or a disaster. But let's hope for amazing. I've been thinking of rereading the series for a while now and this news is the spur I needed to go into my loft and find the books.

>18 Karlstar: very nice!

I love Tad Williams other fantasy works, but never could get into Otherland. I tried a couple times.

Which reminds me, The Last King of Osten Ard is still waiting for me...

On a related note ... I'm not sure how I feel about this: Apple TV+ to Adapt Martha Wells’ Murderbot; Alexander Skarsgård Set to Star

I think I'd rather they adapted Sanctuary Moon!

>24 Sakerfalcon: Agreed. I actually love Alexander Skarsgård, but I have a bad feeling about this.

>23 Sakerfalcon: I'm a little apprehensive about how they will portray Murderbot's internal dialogue, which is a big part of what we know about the character. Even a background voice over might still not really work. I'm going to be really bummed if they try to do this and it comes out a mess.

>20 BookstoogeLT: Ready Player One came to mind too, for the 'evil company takes over VR' aspect, but I think Otherland can survive it. It's much deeper than RPO and those other movies are a bit in the past now. It will be hard to do, no doubt.

>23 Sakerfalcon: >25 clamairy: >26 Darth-Heather: Since this is from the same company that has done such a poor job with Foundation and Rings of Power, our expectations should be really low. I too am wondering why they are calling a guy the 'star'. I always got the impression Murderbot was female-ish.

>27 Karlstar: Well, that's just it. Murderbot was genderless. And the reader was allowed to pick which gender they thought it was trying to appear as when it decided to try to pass as human.

>28 clamairy: Good point. It just feels wrong, but I haven't finished reading the books yet.

>27 Karlstar: Wells intentionally wrote Murderbot as gender unspecified. I too felt a certain feminine quality to the character but initially attributed that to the 'voice' of the author coming through. On the other hand, I have read/heard comments from female readers where they tend to picture Murderbot as male so perhaps perceptions are impacted by gender of the reader?

Other authors have done similar. Lock In is an example where Scalzi has stated that it was a conscious decision, an experiment even, to not specify the gender of the protagonist. He made sure to use a gender-neutral name for the character. Interestingly enough, I personally perceived Chris as male in that book - again leading me to believe that gender of the author may subliminally affect how their characters are perceived. Again, I can't be sure that my own perception is not affected by knowing the gender of the author and subconsciously assigning the same to the character they have created.

Either way, it's an interesting experiment.

>30 ScoLgo: I think you may be on to something. I thought of Murderbot leaning towards a more masculine identity. As for Lock In. I listened to the audio book read by Wil Wheaton so I just automatically assigned a male gender to Chris.

>31 clamairy: There is also another version of Lock In read by a female narrator! They made both versions, on purpose.

>32 reconditereader: Yes, I only know this because I accidentally bought the female version for the second book and returned it after listening to about 20 minutes worth of it. I really was not enjoying her style.

>30 ScoLgo: >31 clamairy: Huh, i also thought of Chris as male.

>30 ScoLgo: >31 clamairy: and >34 Karlstar: I always had assumed Murderbot was male.

I haven't done a review since before Thanksgiving, I'm way behind, so time to do some catching up. This is roughly in the order the books were read, more or less.

The Long Grey Line: An American Journey of the West Point class of 1966 by Rick Atkinson
Rating: 9

I picked this one up at a library sale and I'm very glad I did. I expected this to be a book solely about the Vietnam War, but it wasn't. The book tells the story, in more or less detail, of about 6 of the cadets. He tells a little bit of the family history of each cadet and their experience at West Point. This takes up about 1/3 of the book and goes about as you would expect for a story of college students in the 60s. They get in trouble, they struggle with studies and they meet their future wives. For a contrast, he also tells the story of the chaplain at the time.

The next section of the book is what I expected, the stories of the men who went to Vietnam. However, not all of them went and not all of them served in the front lines. For those that did, the stories are terrible war stories. All of them were injured, some were killed.

The remaining third of the book is what happened to them after the war, particularly focusing on the fundraising, planning and building of the Vietnam War Veterans memorial in Washington DC.

As I've come to expect from Atkinson, this was a great book. The writing is excellent, his research and interviews are thorough and he approaches the stories from all sides. He focuses on the men and women he interviewed, he did not go a lot into the counter-culture aspects of society at the time, except where it affected the lives of those in and out of the military.

Was it immersive? Yes, I did not want to put it down, even when the topic was difficult.
Was it memorable? Yes, it was.
Would I re-read it? Most likely.
Would I recommend it? Yes, for anyone interested in history.

Web of the Witch World by Andre Norton
STTM: 2 - very little slogging
Rating: 7

I picked this one up after recently reading Witch World, when I discovered I did not own a copy. I last read this many years ago and only remembered the rough outline.

The story resumes immediately after Witch World. Simon and his Escarp allies are still fighting the Kolder, with their mind controlled zombies and advanced technology machines.

When the nearby country of Karsten declares open war on Escarp, likely at the behest of Kolder, Escarp is threatened again. The story proceeds in a fairly predictable fashion, as Simon, Koris and his other allies face threat after threat and must find the Kolder main island and the source of their power. I'd mention more of the characters but that kind of gives away some plot elements.

I always enjoy these because Norton paints such an alien image of the world of Escarp and the people living there. It really isn't that much different than any other fantasy world, but it feels like it.

Was it immersive? For me, yes.
Was it memorable? Somewhat, the plot of this one and the first one are blending together.
Would I re-read it? Possibly.
Would I recommend it? Yes, if you like Andre Norton or old fantasy.

Short reviews for these two.

Queen of the Demonweb Pits by Paul Kidd. This is the last of the novelizations of classic Dungeons and Dragons adventures that were written by Paul Kidd. This one picks up right where the previous book left off, with Justicar, Escalla the pixie wizard and their companions now facing Lolth, Demon Queen of Spiders, in her home. Just a fun adventure for fans of the old AD&D content, particularly if you are familiar with the adventure of the same name. I was surprised that I was the only person to review this book here on LT.

America in the Air War. Another of the Time-Life Epic of Flight series. Good, but really high-level in detail, though it did cover one of the less written about aspects of the war, the battles along the coast of New Guinea. Great pictures and illustrations and solid writing, but too short on detail for me. Definitely intended as a 'coffee table' book or school library reference.

Use of Weapons by Iain M. Banks
STTM: 3 - almost none
Rating: 7

This was my second reading of this book, it was on my TBR list because I couldn't really remember what it was about. There was a reason for that, as it turns out.

This is a series of short stories about the same character, Cheradenine Zakalwe. He's an agent for Special Circumstances, part of the Culture. He is sent, over and over, to resolve some war on some small planet, with the long term mission of bringing peace to that area of the galaxy. Sometimes, he's on the 'wrong' side, sometimes he wins when he's supposed to lose. Sometimes, he gets killed in nasty ways, only to be saved/healed by the Culture and sent out again. Generally, but not always, he's on the side of the 'good guys', though it is hard to tell in a war, which is Banks' point, I think.

In the middle of this book, I was about to give up on it. I just wasn't enjoying the seemingly not connected stories and didn't particularly care for the character. It didn't help that Banks couldn't seem to make up his mind what to call him - on one page his friend Sma calls him both Cheradenine and later Zakalwe. Even in the far future, wouldn't people have decided on some short name? The most fun part of it was the drone, Skaffen-Amtiskaw, who provided some comic relief, when it wasn't slicing people apart.

However, it all comes together in the end in a very satisfying fashion. Despite the title, the general theme is why not to use weapons. If you can get through the middle, the trip is worth it.

Was it immersive? No, I almost quit in the middle.
Was it memorable? Yes, in concept. I will not remember many details.
Would I re-read it? Possibly.
Would I recommend it? Yes, for any fans of science fiction.

Has anyone else seen the 'Year in review' page? How does it look for you? Mine is not even close to being correct.

https://www.librarything.com/stats/Karlstar/year (substitute your member name)

>40 Karlstar:
I have just seen mine and I found it very interesting, especially the measurements section. Apparently the weight of the books I added in 2023 is the weight of 4.3 adult badgers. Invaluable information.

>40 Karlstar: I was waiting until I had a chunk of time to spend. I didn't want to look on my phone.

>41 pgmcc: Those must be some hefty badgers! Oh, I just looked it up. They are a lot larger than I thought.

>42 clamairy:
Big bada badger!

>41 pgmcc: I'm at 3.23 badgers, but the number of books read, 17, is off by a factor of about 5. I'm wondering if they are using the 'reading dates' to get this data, so I entered the reading dates for about 16 books last night, I'm waiting to see if the measurements page updates, it has not yet.

>42 clamairy: I'll be interested to hear about the accuracy of your page.

LT confirmed that it is based on the reading dates fields, so if you did not fill those out (or put in a different year?) it won't be counted. The blog post also points out that WAY at the bottom of the year in review page, on the right hand side, is a tiny 'Regenerate' button, which will update the page.

>45 Karlstar:
I was just about to point out the regenerate button when I read your post.

>41 pgmcc: With regard to the weight of the books you added being equivalent to 4.3 adult badgers, one has to wonder whether the fact that this was your retirement year and you were out there binge-buying with your gift tokens, etc. had any effect. Will you have a lower badger weight in 2024?

I may have to start adding specific reading dates to my record keeping here. I am now curious about my own badger weight equivalencies. Thank you for the update on how to regenerate the page, @Karlstar !!!

>47 jillmwo:
I certainly bought books with my retirement gift vouchers. I suspect my book buying numbers may have increase in 2023 for that reason, or possibly I bought the same number of books as other years but in 2023, because I was using book tokens, my purchasing was much more guilt-free.

According to my round up I acquired 100 books this year. I think it more appropriate to say I catalogued 100 books as some of the books listed were books I had but had not catalogued for one reason or another. I will report with an update of the number of books that were late cataloguing and those that were part of The Great Retirement Book Binge.

I suspect there will be a significant reduction in the annual number of books bought from here on in. If there is a book I particularly like I will have to learn how to hint to my children that it might be a good idea if they bought me a book. The danger comes with how do I hint at a particular book unambiguously so that they do not get me something I already have or do not want.

In terms of keeping track of when I finished reading a book I insert a tag in the format, year followed by the first three letters of the month. I find this quicker than going into the "Edit your book" option and updating the finished reading date.

>48 pgmcc: I keep the books I would like to have on my Amazon list: books. It is public, so if they know your user name I think they can find it. You can list the priority level and even leave comments on whether you want new, used, hardcover, ebook, or who recommended it to you or why you want it.

>46 pgmcc: Thank you!

Update on the 'Regenerate' button - you have to wait 30 minutes before you can regenerate again, for me at least, the button disappeared completely after I hit it the first time, then reappeared - on the LEFT side of the page at the bottom. I did point out to them that it is maybe too subtle on the page.

I thought this part was kind of shocking:

"You wrote 1,257 Talk posts in 2023 (consisting of 50,698 words) and contributed to 157 Talk topics in 12 Groups. You even started 14 topics!"

I expect that you folks will have significantly higher stats in this category!

>49 MrsLee: I do the same and my family is kind enough to buy off of it often. The rest I use to remind myself to pick the book up.

>41 pgmcc: I have 3.72 badgers worth, which very much surprised me because I thought I had cut back this year. Oops. Granted, about 1/3 of those were given to me by a friend from her mom's collection.

>52 MrsLee:
No one has ever given me a badger.

I don't see a stat for how many I have read, but it says I rated 110 books.

>54 clamairy: At the very top, under the banner, for me it says 'You read 60 books in 2023!'. Using my journal here was very helpful, some books I hadn't even added to LT at all, the others didn't have reading dates. I think there still might be one or two with no reading dates, but not many.

I'm at 8 fireworks for this hunt, 3 of the ones I don't have yet refer to LT pages that I'm just not finding. I got 2 today, but it was a team effort with Mrs. L.

>56 Karlstar: LOL, well that was the easiest team effort I never knew I was participating in. :D

You are doing great! Not being able to find pages is my biggest frustration.

>57 MrsLee: Well, you did get me started on the treasure hunt, but I did mean the other Mrs. L. :)

>58 Karlstar: LOL

>56 Karlstar: You're probably aware that there is a talk page listed in the hunt description that provides clues if you get totally stuck and the missing ones start to bug you.

>60 AHS-Wolfy: Thanks for the reminder, the itch to complete hasn't quite reached that level yet.

Unfortunately, we had to cancel our Christmas Eve plans. As of yesterday morning, Trish was still testing positive for covid with her rebound case and I feel like she gave it back to me. Can't chance infecting my parents with it. Luckily, none of our kids were planning on coming here to visit anyway, so no plans had to be cancelled.

My niece, who hasn't had covid yet, has been hospitalized with pneumonia since Wednesday. Her oxygen levels are just a bit too low to send her home, hopefully tomorrow. Her husband has covid also (not from us) so she'll be heading to my brother's house for a while when she does get out of the hospital.

>62 Karlstar:
Sorry to hear the covid news. Get well soon. I hope your niece improves rapidly.

>62 Karlstar: I am so sorry that you're dealing with Covid-infected holidays. Let's just wish each other a swift period of recuperation for everyone in the family and hope as well that the New Year may bring a better and happier set of experiences!! To you and yours, @Karlstar!

>63 pgmcc: >64 jillmwo: Thank you both! Trish and I are both feeling a bit better today, so maybe we're finally nearing the end.

Merry Christmas to all, peace and strength to all.

Edited, I blame covid for the ongoing failure to get the right reference numbers in my posts.

>65 Karlstar: May you enjoy the unexpected quietness of the day, and find peace and joy together. Get well soon, all of you.

This was added to my collection today. The Hobbit version with Tolkien's illustrations and the separate map page.

Oh, lovely. I have been eye-balling that one. Is it as well-produced as the edition of The Silmarillion?

>62 Karlstar: So sorry to hear about the covid news. Hope you had a very Merry Christmas anyway!

I am very sorry to hear about the covid. Hopefully, you had a nice Christmas anyway... Have a good day!

>62 Karlstar:, >65 Karlstar: Sorry to hear that Covid has claimed another Christmas. I hope you and Trish have had a pleasant celebration together despite the change of plans.

>67 Karlstar: Beautiful!

>66 MrsLee: >69 Narilka: >70 Alexandra_book_life: >71 Sakerfalcon: Thank you and I hope you all had a good day!

>68 jillmwo: Yes, it appears to be the same style and quality, very nice.

I few weeks ago I posted a list of new Norse related fantasy novels. I received one of them The Gatewatch, by Joshua Gillingham, for Christmas and finished it this morning. I thought it was excellent, it hit all of the traditional Norse themes without being heavy handed about it. Fun adventure fantasy. It is book one of the Torin Ten Trees Saga, I'll be picking up book 2 soon.

The Burpee catalog arrived today! Lots of good stuff.

Had a fun book searching experience today. I saw in a FB group that someone posted a picture of the 'recommended reading' list from the AD&D Dungeon Master's Guide. I've looked at that list a bunch of times, it has the stuff you'd expect from the mid to late 1970's on it - Fritz Leiber, Poul Anderson, Tolkien, Andre Norton, Moorcock, Leigh Brackett, Jack Vance, etc, a lot of the fantasy authors you'd expect from back when it wasn't that common. That version of the DMG was published in 1979. However, today I noticed that it also included one book by Sterling Lanier - but my first edition of Heiro's Journey is from 1983!!

No time travel required, turns out there was a hardcover edition from 1973 that I've never seen or heard of before today. Looks like it is a bit rare, based on the price I've found so far.

Well now that is pretty fun. Amazing how much stuff is out there that we have no idea about.

Happy new year to you both!

>62 Karlstar: I'm sorry to hear about your family's illnesses. I hope you'll all be feeling well asap!

Are you in need of piffling here? With all my heart, I wish for you in the coming year only the good things available here in the Pub -- books, friends, coffee, etc.!

>77 haydninvienna: >78 Jim53: >79 jillmwo: Thank you!

I think we're all finally over covid and my niece was able to go to my brother's house on Christmas, then to her own home two days later.

Thanks for the offer, no need for piffling. Edited - I will add some reviews to this thread.

>80 Karlstar: Happy New Year! May the year bring joy and prosperity to you and yours.

>81 MrsLee: Thank you!

I'm way behind on reviews, so I will try to catch up a bit.

Vanguard: The Genesis Fleet and Ascendant: The Genesis Fleet
STTM: 3 - a little character growth, no long space journeys
Rating (for both): 6.5

These are the first two books of Campbell's prequel series. These first two books are about the founding of some of the primary Alliance worlds, Kosatka and Glenlyon. On Glenlyon, Rob Geary (navy) and Mele Darcy (marines) have to fight off attacks almost as soon as the world is founded. Soon after colonists arrive and start building, small ships from the Scatha system arrive and demand that they be given control. Not willing to give up control, but also unwilling to create a whole military industrial complex, the government of Glenlyon asks Geary and Darcy to do what they can, with extremely limited resources. Vanguard is about the initial battles on the ground and in space. Captain Geary leads just like we'd expect a Geary to lead. On Kosatka, the attackers are more subtle, first funding a rebellion.

When the battle is over, the military forces are disbanded. In book two, the aggressors return and again Geary and Darcy are asked to take action, with only slightly better forces, outnumbered 4 to 1, or worse. On Kosatka, a full on invasion is launched and Carmen Ochoa, Dominic Desjani and Lochan Nakamura do their best to defend the planet and find allies. An alliance slowly starts to form.

These books are more of the same from Campbell. Military scifi with a little bit of politics. Good characters.

Was it immersive? For me, I really enjoy these.
Was it memorable? Probably not, a Geary saves the day is common to these books.
Would I re-read it? Possibly.
Would I recommend it? Yes, for any fans of Campbell or military scifi.

The Olympian Affair by Jim Butcher
STTM: 2 - not a lot of flying, even.
Rating: 7 out of 10

I actually enjoyed this one more than the first book in the series. There's plenty of action, but it is a bit less non-stop than the first one. The other advantage is that now that we know the characters, more time is spent on the plot.

Immediately following the first book, there's a new threat to Spire Albion and the inhabitants. Gwen Lancaster is now XO on Captain Grimm's airship, while Bridget is now a full member of Albion's armed forces. There are a couple of new-ish characters, Abigail and Alex who get quite a bit of time in this book.

While Spire Albion and Spire Aurora continue to move towards war, will it include Spire Olympia and a force newly introduced in this book, the Pikers? The Pikers don't have a spire, they live in a mountain and are poor on power crystals, so they rely on pirate tactics.

Capt. Grimm and Gwen are sent on a mission to find Aurora's mystery weapon, while Bridget and Benedict have to go down to the incredibly hostile surface of the planet, along with Rowl and a new young cat, to find and meet with a cat clan leader. Abigail and Alex Bayard are sent to Spire Olympia for important negotiations.

Stuff happens to all of them, as you'd expect. Lots of action, lots of cats. Not all of the plot elements are original, but it made a fun story.

>83 Karlstar: I really need to start that series.

We need some serious piffling in here, people...

>83 Karlstar: Glad to hear you enjoyed it so much. I'm really looking forward to diving into the series once another book or two have come out.

and I'm in fine piffling shape if you do need it. Just say the word and whammm, we'll piffle you to victory...

He needs around 70 piffle filled posts.

At least as far as I can tell.

Doesn't it take 150 posts before you can start a new thread?

So now we only need 60ish.

>90 clamairy: I'll start a new thread, no need to finish this one off, thank you! I do think 150 is when you get the message to make a new one. I do appreciate the effort.

The 2024 thread is here: https://www.librarything.com/topic/356780#n8342043