Rob’s Comments (group member since Jul 06, 2012)

Rob’s comments from the The Sword and Laser group.

Trike wrote: "Can it be read without knowing anything about that world?"

From the author:

"It can be read independently of the main Powder Mage books, but I recommend doing so after becoming familiar with the world"

Welcome Chris. Good luck with your challenge.

Tom wrote: "I’m going to get in trouble with supreme sword when she finally catches up on her sleep aren’t I?"

Well FWIW, as someone who likes fantasy more than Sci-Fi, I'm finding it a bit disappointing. Hoping fantasy can win the March Madness or something..

Our February 2021 pick will be The Fold by Peter Clines

Tamahome wrote: "Oh well, my attempt at an emoji in the title is gone. I thought someone had made a new thread."

Yeah. I changed it. I found it confusing.

Total Books: 50
Total Backlog Books: 12 (24.00%)
Rereads: 0 (0.00%)

********************
* Format Breakdown *
********************
Total AUDIO_BOOK Count: 35 (70.00%)
Total BOOK Count: 4 (8.00%)
Total EBOOK Count: 5 (10.00%)
Total GRAPHIC_NOVEL Count: 6 (12.00%)

*******************
* Genre Breakdown *
*******************
Total FANTASY Count: 23 (46.00%)
Total MYSTERY Count: 4 (8.00%)
Total NONFICTION Count: 2 (4.00%)
Total SCIFI Count: 21 (42.00%)

***************************
* Author Gender Breakdown *
***************************
Total MALE Count: 38 (76.00%)
Total FEMALE Count: 11 (22.00%)

*********
* Ratings *
*********
Average Rating: 3.74
Total 3 Count: 15 (30.00%)
Total 4 Count: 33 (66.00%)
Total 5 Count: 2 (4.00%)

Years Published:
Total 1990 Count: 1 (2.00%)
Total 1995 Count: 1 (2.00%)
Total 2004 Count: 1 (2.00%)
Total 2005 Count: 1 (2.00%)
Total 2006 Count: 1 (2.00%)
Total 2007 Count: 1 (2.00%)
Total 2011 Count: 1 (2.00%)
Total 2012 Count: 1 (2.00%)
Total 2013 Count: 2 (4.00%)
Total 2015 Count: 3 (6.00%)
Total 2016 Count: 1 (2.00%)
Total 2017 Count: 2 (4.00%)
Total 2018 Count: 1 (2.00%)
Total 2019 Count: 13 (26.00%)
Total 2020 Count: 20 (40.00%)

Decade Published:
Total 1990 Count: 2 (4.00%)
Total 2000 Count: 4 (8.00%)
Total 2010 Count: 24 (48.00%)
Total 2020 Count: 20 (40.00%)


Additional Stats:
Number of Books: 15
Total Pages: 4805
Total From Backlog: 0
Longest Book: Rhythm of War by Brandon Sanderson - 1232 pages
Shortest Book: The Butcher of Anderson Station by James S.A. Corey - 40 pages
Average Pages: 320.33

Number of Books (Excluding Graphic Novels): 9
Total Pages (Excluding Graphic Novels): 3886
Average Pages (Excluding Graphic Novels): 431.78

Number of Audiobooks: 35
Total Audio Hours: 531
Total From Backlog: 12
Longest Book: Super Powereds: Year 4 by Drew Hayes - 61 hours
Shortest Book: Auberon by James S.A. Corey - 3 hours
Average Hours: 15.17

Yeah. It seemed to start very heavy 1 then went very heavy 2. Not that I watched 1 as much as 2.

All of those shows were a bit before my time and something I watched in reruns.

I'm no expert, it seems like in this week's Wandavision we got references to:

(view spoiler)[
1. The Partridge Family
2. Brady Bunch
3. Laverne & Shirley
4. The Monkees
(hide spoiler)]

I'm sure I likely missed some, but those were the ones that stood out to me

I tried on the website..same issue. It's basically buried where no one will ever find it.

In somewhat related news, the "Ty and that Guy" post show on youtube has Daniel Abrahams on and it was fantastic I thought:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wHFy...

For episode 8 I started watching the little like 4-5 minute "behind the episode" or whatever it's called. I sort of stumbled on it by accident.

They had Dominique Tipper on it. She had some interesting discussion about the challenges of her scenes.

I really liked it and started going back to watch the ones from episodes 1-7. However, it's annoying because I can't find how to play them on my TV, and I have to start playing an episode first in order to get access to a sub menu with the video clip.

And if I'm streaming the episode on my chromecast, that video clip isn't there at all, just pictures.

Terrible interface if you ask me. I haven't tried from a desktop browser though. Maybe that will work better.

I just finished Perry Mason as well. I liked it, but the ending was a bit rushed. Tatiana Maslany was great as always.

Now I'm watching season 3 of infinity train.

Maybe it has been. I generally try not to read up too much on movies or tv shows though.

Can you put your edit in spoiler tags? I assume this was announced somewhere, or leaked, but I didn't know that and now I do..

Finished with Lovecraft Country. I liked it right up until the final episode, which was just OK. I liked some of the changes they made, but not all of them. i wish I had read the book more recently to compare.

I'm taking a break from darker stuff atm and going back to Great British Bake Off for now.

I may do Outsider next. My free month of HBO Max is ending next week, and I don't plan to renew. So I maybe only have time for 1 more series.

....must be burned quickly after reading or...

Welcome Gaia.

This was a tough year for me. I skipped a lot of picks. I've read 8/12, but 2 of those I read prior to them being club picks, so that only 50% of the reads.

My top read was Gideon the Ninth followed by The Ten Thousand Doors of January and A Memory Called Empire. After that it mostly falls off for me.

Minsta wrote: "Will you be doing a favorite to least favorite S&L 2020 book picks survey as well?"

I think in 2019 we did a goodreads poll for favorite read of year. I don't recall doing anything for least favorite though. I could set up a poll for that if people are interested. I think Dave was maybe the one who did it last year.

Haha. No worries. I just find that part interesting, it's the answers to the other questions that matter more.

Nigel wrote: "After joining the challenge do we still need to create a separate "sl-2021-challenge" shelf"

personally I use the same 2 shelves every year 20xx-sword and 20xx-laser. The challenges will only count books read this year.