Props to Tony for keeping up the reviews when I got behind
and overwhelmed. I will try to do better this year, and
hopefully cover some books in each tranche, as in this one,
from my 2023 backlog as well as the previous month.

Disclosure: As always, the urls are Amazon affiliate links which
in theory could earn me a few pennies if buy something after entering
Amazon through one.
===

Warriorborn: A Cinder Spires Novella (The Cinder Spires)
by Jim Butcher
https://amzn.to/42pw2dw

The Olympian Affair (The Cinder Spires Book 2)
by Jim Butcher
https://amzn.to/3SH9cek

Just as Butcher eased back into the "Dresden Files" with a novella,
"Warriorborn" leads off his return to the world of the "Cinder
Spires".

Benedict Sorellin-Lancaster is a "Warriorborn" lieutenant in the
service of Spire Albion. It's been so long since the first Cinder
Spires book that I can't recall if the Warriorborn were introduced
there or not, but basically they are semi-weres: stronger & faster
than normal humans, and also more subject to impulsive and instinctual
behavior. War is brewing in the setting, and the Spirearch is
concerned that he hasn't received vital intelligence from the new
Albion colony at Spire Dependence, so he sends Benedict and a "dirty
dozen" team of Warriorborn criminals to asses the situation and do
whatever it takes to retrieve a dispatch case.

Arriving by airship and dropping in stealth Benedict's team finds
that it's not a case of the Spirearch's agent being held or killed:
The whole spire has been massacred by unknown and apparently
impossible means. Perhaps the war has started, but as far as anyone
knows, Spire Aurora has no weapon that could have done this. As
it develops, there are witnesses who it is vital to bring back to
the Spirearch along with the dispatches, wherever they are, but
that won't be easy in the hellscape of a ruined Spire, the hostile
native life of the Spires setting, and enemy action. At least
Benedict understands *that* part of it..

This was a very satisfying return to a setting I really enjoy. I
would say the only nit was a speech given by Benedict's (convict)
second-in-command, an excellent character, which did not have the
payoff I expected later.

_The Olympian Affair_ takes up directly after "Warriorborn", and
Benedict continues to feature, but the three main characters here
are Auroran Colonel Renaldo Espira, a Warriorborn in a society less
friendly to such than Spire Albion, Albion Captain Francis Madison
Grimm Captain of the AMS Predator, the Spirearch's personal ship,
and Albion Lady Abigail Hinton, scion of an important Ablion merchant
House, and the Spirearch's personal representative to the diplomatic
goings-on at Spire Olympia.

What are the goings-on? Well, war with Aurora is coming, may already
have arrived, and Albion is going to need all and any allies it can
get. The conference is full of backstabbing, sometimes in a literal
sense, and Lady Hinton is having a difficult time of it. Not helping
matters is that her lover, Albion's most famous duelist has also
been sent to Olympia, with strict instructions not to duel *anyone*
while his Auroran counterpart is also there and is determined to
provoke same. Helping matters even less is the fact that Abagail
finds herself involved in a duel of her own, and the menace from
Spire Dependence is bearing down on everyone despite all Espira can
do to stop it.

I really like the Cinder Spires setting. Its quasi-Elizabethan
characters all live turned-up-to-eleven lives, fighting harder,
loving larger and friending stronger than in our own workaday world.
We get a few new pieces of information on the setting in this book,
which tend to make me think I was wrong in my initial assumption
that it takes place in the same multi-verse as the "Codex Alera"
books. We also get an interesting twist at the end of the book
which puts in in the mind of a similar turn in the first of McClellan's
"Glass Immortals" books. I also like Butcher's portrayal of having
cats as allies: It doesn't help as much as you might think.

Aftermath (Expeditionary Force Book 16)
by Craig Alanson
https://amzn.to/3St9fJ8

After Joe & Skippy defeated the series big-bad in book 15 (or what
had gradually developed into such), I wasn't sure there would be a
book 16, but life goes on, and just because the Elders are gone,
the Senior Species don't stop scheming, and Earth's whole entree
into that category is still really largely a bluff.

When Elder AI Skippy's attempt to harness a new Sentinel to impress
the Rindalu and buff Earth's "being our friend brings bennies" cred
goes awry, it emerges that perhaps "Skippy The Magnificent" isn't
actually quite so these days, which is a huge problem, and when it
develops that *another* Elder AI is at large and in opposition it
is (yet another) extinction-level problem.

I felt this was a subpar outing in the series. While it's nice
that Joe no longer feels so much imposter-syndrome dealing with
these cosmic level problems, his solution here was not well conveyed.
Which is to say it was conveyed in excruciating detail after-the-fact,
rather than being hinted at during the action. Certainly we knew
that something fishy was going on with the Beetle Admiral, but the
whole thing could have been handled better. Also, we got extraneous
side-jaunts to the "Mavericks" characters which didn't amount to
anything (other than keeping that storyline mentioned), and there
were some dire words from Bilby that didn't lead to anything.

I will say the new menace is logical, but not something I had
expected.

Dread Knight: A Post-Apocalyptic Fantasy Harem
by Sarah Hawke
https://amzn.to/4bjHxqZ

After Mike Truk, Sarah Hawke is the best writer of hot adventure /
harem adventure that I know of. Setting aside the sex, her characters
are smart and likeable, and her settings are interesting

_Dread Knight_ takes in a new setting for Hawke. It's a post-fall
fantasy somewhat D&D world existing in the aftermath of huge magic
wars and a world-changing spell gone wrong which called down the
Zombie Apocalypse on top of everything else.

Still, people struggle on, and gradually the zombies (called "The
Riven" here) have gradually been driven back on many fronts, and
much land has been cleansed of the corruption which spawns more.
Duncan Keene is a Dread Knight. His order makes bargains with
demons to gain the strength to fight The Riven. It's a thankless
life as demons always take more and more, and each Dread Knight
knows his (or her) life will end in insanity, more likely than not
to be put down by comrades as the evil becomes to strong. Duncan
has no illusions about his path, and no regrets. It's a hard life,
but the Knights, together with the Paladins of Aodor have been an
effective team.

Or *were* an effective team. Several years before our story starts,
with the main battles won, the Paladins betrayed the Dread Knights,
and Duncan ended up a condemned & bitter prisoner. Forced on an
expedition into the Grey Moors under the authority of a Lady Confessor
of Aodor, an unexpected (disturbingly so) Riven attack kills Duncan's
party and he himself is left for dead, yet somehow he wakes to a
beautiful woman's face and a second chance for himself, and perhaps
his world.

As usual for Hawke, this was an enjoyable, solid book. At this
point I can see some of her tropes, for instance, Duncan's awakening
angel, Kithani has strong traces of the Amazon Kaseya, and the Elf
sorceress Vess gives off intense Valuri vibes, but it works well
enough, and I want to see the story play out.

Incursion: A Space Opera Harem Adventure (The Lost Fleet Book 1)
by Sarah Hawke
https://amzn.to/49kZWC1

Insurrection: A Space Opera Harem Adventure (The Lost Fleet Book 2)
by Sarah Hawke
https://amzn.to/42wPTYw

Invasion: A Space Opera Harem Adventure (The Lost Fleet Book 3)
by Sarah Hawke
https://amzn.to/3SnNXNd

Renegade: A Space Opera Harem Adventure (The Lost Fleet Book 4)
by Sarah Hawke
https://amzn.to/42nKWks

Here's another Hawke series, in the same setting as her "Wings of
the Seraph" which I reviewed some time back. While that series of
novellas was very much a "Star Wars" gloss, "The Lost Fleet" (not
to be confused with Jack Campbell's series of the same name!) is
more a milsf outing.

Several centuries ago, a conquest fleet set out from the Dominion
(the polity being re-established in Wings Of The Seraph) to carve
out new territory and subdue the alien species of The Drift.
Unfortunately the spacial anomalies of that area of the Galaxy
caused the Fleet to be cut off and unable to return home. Well,
unfortunately and fortunately. While the local aliens were happy
enough for the Dominion Fleet to put down the Dowd, who were on
everyone's bad-side, they weren't all that enthusiastic about the
whole being conquered thing and were glad enough that the Fleet
couldn't reinforce or retreat, leaving it to establish local colonies
and interact on a more equal level than planned.

On 2/3/24 12:30 AM, Ted Nolan <tednolan> wrote:
> Props to Tony for keeping up the reviews when I got behind
> and overwhelmed.

Oh, thanks - to me James & Lynn are the kings of this (and it is much
appreciated, as are yours)...I'm more like the 9-of-diamonds, or the
2-of-clubs.

I will try to do better this year, and
> hopefully cover some books in each tranche, as in this one,
> from my 2023 backlog as well as the previous month.
>
> Disclosure: As always, the urls are Amazon affiliate links which
> in theory could earn me a few pennies if buy something after entering
> Amazon through one.
> ===
>
> Warriorborn: A Cinder Spires Novella (The Cinder Spires)
> by Jim Butcher
> https://amzn.to/42pw2dw
>
> The Olympian Affair (The Cinder Spires Book 2)
> by Jim Butcher
> https://amzn.to/3SH9cek
>

Thanks for reviewing these, including that I didn't even know about the
novella. To my surprise, I was only luke-warm on the first Cinder Spires
book, and I've been trying to decide whether to read the second one.
Given your thoughts here, I think I'll skim/re-read the first one, and
then check out the novella.

[snip a lot]

>
> Aftermath (Expeditionary Force Book 16)
> by Craig Alanson
> https://amzn.to/3St9fJ8

I should definitely give these a try some day.

[snip a lot]

>
> Marked by Magic: An Urban Fantasy Adventure (Tracking Trouble Book 1)
> by Lindsay Buroker
> https://amzn.to/3HLPU14
>
> Bound by Blood: An Urban Fantasy Adventure (Tracking Trouble Book 2)
> by Lindsay Buroker
> https://amzn.to/490MUd1
>
> Driven by Destiny (Tracking Trouble Book 3)
> by Lindsay Buroker
> https://amzn.to/3HJE1sp
>
> Buroker has been writing a number of series, one leading into
> another, in a Seattle setting. We were introduced to half-dark-elf
> Arwen Forester in Buroker's "Legacy Of Magic" sub-series where her
> tracking abilities came in handy for that series's lead character
> half-dwarf Matti Puletasi.
>
> Now Arwen is front and center, dealing with her own problems. She
> has been getting by over the years in kind of a marginal way. Her
> social anxiety and the fact that her Dark Elven heritage always
> gets her marked as "evil" have kept her pretty much on the family
> farm, where she bakes for local farmers' markets except for her
> tracking work which is generally done solo or with one other woman.
>
> Now, however, events are pulling her out of her shell. Her mother's
> people are active in the Seattle area again and want her back in
> the fold she feels very lucky to have escaped from, the magical
> tattoo which ties her to Dark Elven demons is active again, and
> can't be removed by any normal (or supernormal, so far) means, and
> considering she has never had a relationship before, she is becoming
> *very* aware of the exiled half-dragon Starblade and getting pulled
> into his own deadly problems...
>
> This is decent Buroker, but not, I think, top-tier.

That's good to know. I need to pull the trigger on one or two of her
series - but not this one as a first go. I think you and others have
recommended the Dragon Blood series and the Emperor’s Edge series.

Thanks again,
Tony

On 2/3/2024 12:30 AM, Ted Nolan <tednolan> wrote:
[snip-snip]
> Call Me, Beep Me: A Spy Harem Thriller Adventure
> by Simon Archer
> https://amzn.to/42pwf0i
>
> When I called out Hawke & Truk as the best Harem fantasy authors,
> I was not at all tempted to add Archer to the list. [snip]
Back when "harem" SFF began appearing on various Amazon-generated
bestseller lists -- which would be a few years back now -- I became
curious about the new subgenre. Eventually I wandered over to
https://www.reddit.com/r/haremfantasynovels/ and used their "Suggested
Harem books for Newbies" list to see what the fuss was all about.

The first few excursions into HaremLand found young protagonists with
limited education and limited employment options getting isekai'd to
fantasy worlds where multiple extremely attractive women immediately
wanted to have sex with them for exceedingly contrived reasons. I wasn't
impressed.

A few years later I tried Misty Vixen's "Raw" books, which turned out to
be "Stone Age with magic" adventures along the lines of "erotic romance
for men". The protagonist of the series was extremely capable as well as
the best survival option for the people around him. The harem part still
didn't make much sense, but at least there was a coherent story with
"found family", "kindness to strangers", "healing" and related themes. I
lasted 3 volumes before the harem tropes and the anachronistic language
got to be too much.

There was also Olan Thorensen's _Destiny’s Crucible_, but the
relationship was really just bigamous as opposed to a harem in the sense
that the "harem" subgenre uses.

I expect that I'll try your recommendations next.

In article <upmro2$306p8$5@dont-email.me>,
Ahasuerus <ahasuerus@email.com> wrote:
>On 2/3/2024 12:30 AM, Ted Nolan <tednolan> wrote:
>[snip-snip]
>> Call Me, Beep Me: A Spy Harem Thriller Adventure
>> by Simon Archer
>> https://amzn.to/42pwf0i
>>
>> When I called out Hawke & Truk as the best Harem fantasy authors,
>> I was not at all tempted to add Archer to the list. [snip]
>Back when "harem" SFF began appearing on various Amazon-generated
>bestseller lists -- which would be a few years back now -- I became
>curious about the new subgenre. Eventually I wandered over to
>https://www.reddit.com/r/haremfantasynovels/ and used their "Suggested
>Harem books for Newbies" list to see what the fuss was all about.
>
>The first few excursions into HaremLand found young protagonists with
>limited education and limited employment options getting isekai'd to
>fantasy worlds where multiple extremely attractive women immediately
>wanted to have sex with them for exceedingly contrived reasons. I wasn't
>impressed.
>
>A few years later I tried Misty Vixen's "Raw" books, which turned out to
>be "Stone Age with magic" adventures along the lines of "erotic romance
>for men". The protagonist of the series was extremely capable as well as
>the best survival option for the people around him. The harem part still
>didn't make much sense, but at least there was a coherent story with
>"found family", "kindness to strangers", "healing" and related themes. I
>lasted 3 volumes before the harem tropes and the anachronistic language
>got to be too much.
>
>There was also Olan Thorensen's _Destiny’s Crucible_, but the
>relationship was really just bigamous as opposed to a harem in the sense
>that the "harem" subgenre uses.
>
>I expect that I'll try your recommendations next.

I would still say that Mike Truk's "Tsun-Tsun TzimTzum" sequence
is excellent adventure fantasy as well as harem adventure. I am,
however, getting a bit worried about the non-forthcoming final book.
--
columbiaclosings.com
What's not in Columbia anymore..

On 2/3/2024 10:35 PM, Ted Nolan <tednolan> wrote:
> In article <upmro2$306p8$5@dont-email.me>,
> Ahasuerus <ahasuerus@email.com> wrote:
[snip-snip SFF harem discussions]
>> I expect that I'll try your recommendations next.
>
> I would still say that Mike Truk's "Tsun-Tsun TzimTzum" sequence
> is excellent adventure fantasy as well as harem adventure. I am,
> however, getting a bit worried about the non-forthcoming final book.

Thanks, I'll keep it in mind.