#HFY

See tagged statuses in the local BookWyrm community

### and for .
~500 words | Tag to mute:

Nine novels:¹
●●●◐○ Hidden Things - P.Z. Walker {Emma Nelson 3}
●●●◐○ 1638: The Sovereign States - Flint, Huff, Goodlett {USSR 4}
●●●◐○ Ashes, Ashes - Ralts Bloodthorne {Behold: Humanity! 11}
●●●◐○ A Diogenes Club for the Czar - Huff, Goodlett {Miroslava Holmes 4}
●●●○○ The Council on Jerusalem - Pierre E Pettinger Jr {Sodality Universe 5}
●●●●○ Usurpation {Semiosis 3} - Sue Burke
●●◐○○ Murder in the Tool Library - A.E. Marling
●●●●○ Zero Sum Game - S.L. Huang {Cas Russell 1}
●●●○○ Paradigms Lost - Ryk E. Spoor {Digital Knight}

Zero novellas. Again.²

Five novelettes:
●●●◐○ Doctor Satan - Paul Ernst {Doctor Satan 1}
●●●◐○ The Man Who Chained the Lightning - Paul Ernst …

and for

Five novels:
●●●●● The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle - Stuart Turton
●●●●○ The Vampire Affair - David McDaniel {Man from UNCLE 6}
●●●◐○ Victory or Death - Ralts Bloodthorne {Behold: Humanity! 10}
●●◐○○ The Good That Men Do - Andy Mangels & Michael A Martin {Enterprise 11}
●●◐○○ Within the Range of Reanimation - William H Nelson {Awakening Wars 1}

One novella:
●●●◐○ Kalvan Kingmaker ⧨ John F Carr

Five novelettes:
●●●◐○ Are You Now or Have You Ever Been? ⬗ Jack Sharkey
●●●◐○ Hos-Hostigos ⧨ H Beam Piper
●●●○○ Sea of Grass ⧨ John F Carr
●●●○○ Wanderers of Time - John Wyndham
●●◐○○ The Troons of Space - John Wyndham

Thirty-nine short stories:
●●●●○ The Yellow Pill - Rog Phillips
●●●●○ The Third …

Calendar produced by koReader software running on my Kobo Sage ereader showing what stories and novels I've read in November. Each title appears on a horizontal stripe that spans from one to seven days. Each day features three titles, with a histogram beneath showing what fraction of each hour of that day I was reading on this device. The calendar is in black-and-white, and the stripes are in black, white, or shades of gray, with the titles in black or white to contrast. The titles are all listed in the main post.
Covers of four novels I read this month. Clockwise from top left: "Victory or Death" by Ralts Bloodthorne shows a human woman in power armor but for helmet, lying on pavement. The crack pattern shows she fell from a height and hit hard. A rifle and a sword lie beside her. Three smaller bipeds, also in armor, look down at her. One has a tail. "The Vampire Affair" is a Man from UNCLE novel by David McDaniel. Blond-haired, blue-eyed spy Illya Kuryakin (David McCallum) gives the reader a calculating look. Behind him brown-eyed, brown-haired Napoleon Solo (Robert Vaughn) looks puzzled. A forest in winter is the background. "The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle" by Stuart Turton merely has the title on the cover, in yellow type on a black background. An art deco border surrounds the words. Red diamonds in the corners show a chess bishop, a revolver, a camping compass, and a bottle of poison, all significant to the murder mystery. "The Good Men Do" by Andy Mangels and Michael A Martin is a Star Trek: Enterprise novel. It shows Trip Tucker (Connor Trinneer) in a red and gold spacesuit making his way through a damaged corridor.

reviewed Messenger Corps by J. N. Chaney (Messenger Corps, #1)

J. N. Chaney, Terry Maggert, Glen Seguin: Messenger Corps (AudiobookFormat, 2024, Podium Audio)

After four centuries of peace, the Cygnus Realm is rotting from within. Decadent and obsessed …

Not bad #HFY style tale. Roughly that level of quality as well.

Messenger Corps is the first novel of a series by the same name. Seems to be a sequal series to called Messenger which take place roughly 400 years before this book. It's a #HFY type formula story featuring AI, mecha and a bit of political intrigue. If you like to rip books apart for every little plot hole and inconsistency, this is probably not for you, but it's a fun tale in spite of that.

and completed in October:

2024-10: 26 ss | 03 nvt | 00 nva | 06 nov⁰

was down this month. The __Behold: Humanity__ series continues to be solid. Its episodic nature means you get a dozen different story threads in episodic chapters, so even if one or two aren't the best, the rest can still carry the narrative.

1983's _King of the Wood_ has an interesting setting: Refusing to convert to Christianity, some pagan Vikings settle the East Coast of North America in 995 CE. Christian Saxons flee Britain after William the Conqueror and take their own piece of the coast. Muslim Spanish settlers take Florida later. Amerind tribes remain significant polities, as do the Aztecs. Despite the promising setting, the story isn't fascinating, and was weakened by fantasy elements, IMO.

***

The Wheel - John Wyndham (ss) ●●●◐○

Baby …

Calendar produced by koReader software running on my Kobo Sage ereader showing what stories and novels I've read in October. Each title appears on a horizontal stripe that spans from one to seven days. Each day features three titles, with a histogram beneath showing what fraction of each hour of that day I was reading on this device. The calendar is in black-and-white, and the stripes are in black, white, or shades of gray, with the titles in black or white to contrast. The titles are all listed in the main post.
Top left: "The Fire Rises" by Ralts Bloodthrone. A large human mech-warrior in black armor with red accents does the superhero landing crouch in front of three soldiers in chrome armor: a humanoid with pointed ears, a mantis alien, and a four-armed centaur. Top center: "King of the Wood" by John Maddox Roberts. A Viking warrior in horned helmet runs at the viewer. He holds a sword aloft and carries a silver shield with a large wolf emblem. Top right: "Paratime Police Chronicles, Volume One" by John F. Carr, et al. In the background, a Neanderthal in a saber-tooth headdress stands before an altar. In the foreground, a man in a green uniform with a red emblem watches a male figure slowly vanish, revealing a skull as it fades away. Bottom left: "The Carthaginian Crisis" by Gorg Huff and Paula Goodlett. A large ocean liner floats in the background. On the beach is a huge crate labeled 'Cruise Missile'. A blonde woman in a flight suit sits atop it, and a black man with a rifle stands before it. Bottom center: "Alternate Channels" by Steven Capsuto. A pink cover with a television set in the center showing rainbow lines. Bottom right: "Tonight We Steal the Stars" by John Jakes. A man's head floats before a planet. The head is bald and the face has metallic implants. Below it a silhouetted female figure wearing a cloak sneaks up on The Seven Stars, an antigravity kinetic sculpture featuring large synthetic gemstones.