Highlights and Lowlights - August 2026

Books are rated using a very primitive rating system:
?+? are good, and more ?+? are better
?-? are not good, and more ?-? are worse

Just a few brief descriptions this time - very busy times, but I?m happy
to answer questions about anything here.


Highlight: The Curse of Chalion - Bujold [World of the Five Gods #1,
Re-read Project #11]

Lowlight: Land of Unreason is lowest rated for this month, but it
wasn?t awful.


August 2026
( +++ 1/2 ) Captain?s Fury - Butcher [Codex Alera #4, Re-read Project #12]
( ++ ) Hardwired - Walter Jon Williams
( +++ 1/2 ) Diviner?s Bow - Lee & Miller [Liaden Universe #27]
( ++ ) Tomorrow Sucks - ed. by Cox & Weisskopf
( ++++ ) The Curse of Chalion - Bujold [World of the Five Gods #1,
Re-read Project #11]
( + 1/2 ) Land of Unreason - de Camp and Pratt
( ++ 1/2 ) Primary Inversion - Asaro [Skolian Empire #1]

===========================================
August 2026 - with just a few brief descriptions

( +++ 1/2 ) Captain?s Fury - Butcher [Codex Alera #4, Re-read Project #12]

( ++ ) Hardwired - Walter Jon Williams
So. I?ve had this for years - probably decades - and this is my first
reading. Why? Well, while I very much enjoy WJW?s writing, he often
writes in sub-genres I do not like. For example, cyberpunk (with very
few exceptions, one of which does not turn out to be Hardwired). So what happened here was not totally unexpected: great writing, and I uttered
the Eight Deadly Words about 3/5 of the way through the book. A power
skim of the rest, with help from the internet, filled in the rest.
Somehow I read and enjoyed Voice of the Whirlwind years ago. I can only
blame my brain cells.

( +++ 1/2 ) Diviner?s Bow - Lee & Miller [Liaden Universe #27]

( ++ ) Tomorrow Sucks - ed. by Cox & Weisskopf

( ++++ ) The Curse of Chalion - Bujold [World of the Five Gods #1,
Re-read Project #11]
Oh this was superb. Again. I had forgotten about 90% of it. This is set
in a medieval-level secondary world where five gods are worshipped, and
there is some magic. Chalion is a feudal state, one of many, and there
are many disputes and intrigues between them. We meet Caz (Cazaril) as a disheveled starving vagabond walking to a far away city in the hopes
that a former employer might find some sort of employment for him. It
turns out his former employer is the widow of a former leader of Chalion
- Caz was a page in the household. He gets treated well upon his return,
and we slowly learn more and more about Caz and the world. He?s a very interesting man, with a very interesting background, and he?s a much
better human being than he believes. Bujold does a remarkable job
telling the tale.

( + 1/2 ) Land of Unreason - de Camp and Pratt
This gets a bit thin after a while, but it?s fine. Diplomat Fred Barber
is abducted to Fairyland as a way-too-old changeling, and must go on a
quest in order to secure his way back to his home on current-day Earth.
This is similar to Carroll?s Alice in Wonderland - logic, illogic,
fantastic, metamorphosis, etc. I?m glad I read it, but it would have
worked better for me if it was shorter (and perhaps less derivative).

( ++ 1/2 ) Primary Inversion - Asaro [Skolian Empire #1]

Now Reading:
Long work - Machine Vendetta - Reynolds [Prefect Dreyfus Emergencies #3] Collection - A Liaden Universe Constellation Volume 5 - Lee & Miller

Tony

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