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

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

The year is halfway done. What will you be reading for the second half?

Our July pick is Cursed Bunny by Bora Chung

Let us know what you think about the pick

It's already June. That means the start of Summer for those of us north of the Equator and winter for our friends in the southern hemisphere. Got any fun summer/cozy winter reads planned?

the month has begun. Go forth and discuss

Our June pick will be The Sword of Kaigen by M.L. Wang

Let us know what you think of the pick

I've been very slowly working my way through Will Wight's Elder Empirs dual trilogies. I'm on the final book of the sea trilogy Of Kings and Killers. Then I'll be jumping into Of Killers and Kings

In general I've liked the Sea books better. I find the protagonist more likeable.


I'm not sure if the intent is that you see things from the antagonists POV, but I don't find that helps me enough. I'd be curious if my opinion was different had I chosen to read the Shadow books first

(I've gone: Sea 1, Shadow 1, Sea 2, Shadow 2, Now Sea 3).

But I'm not sure it would. The main reason I went Sea first was Travis Baldree does the narration. However the narrator for the Sea trilogy is also good. I think I had listened to a few things read by her in the past.

What's on your reading agenda this month?

the month has begun. go forth and discuss!

yeah. I had a draft of the thread on my desktop. I just got distracted, then my dinner arrived.

Tuesdays are my busiest day in general

I was just about to make the announcement thread. glad I checked. it's been a busy day...

Thanks for the assist

The month has begun. go forth and discuss (or I guess continue discussing..but in new threads...)

I will refrain from a dumb April fools joke and instead simply ask what are you reading this month?

I added a comment to my original post about the 2 books vs omnibus thing. Hopefully that helps future posters. Sorry it was early and I didn't occur to me to include that sooner.

Trike wrote: "Wow, one vote. Aside from the year where there was a tiebreaker (was that in the final?), has it ever been this close?"

one vote? I think you misread. The margin of victory was 11 votes.

Last year was closer. Latte won by 9 votes.

And yeah the year we had a tie in the finals was our closest. I believe that was our first tournament in 2016.

I don't have the numbers from 2016-2019 in my spreadsheets to quickly see how close other years are, but the finals were not that close in 2020-2022:

2020: 33
2021: 21
2022:42

After 4,213 in 15 polls the winner of our 9th annual March Madness tournament is Cordelia's Honor by Lois McMaster Bujold.

Here is a breakdown of this year's tournament.

Thanks to everyone who participated!

Special shoutout to Randy who correctly got the winner in our bracket challonge: https://challonge.com/tournaments/141...

After 4,213 in 15 polls the winner of our 9th annual March Madness tournament is Cordelia's Honor by Lois McMaster Bujold.

Here is a breakdown of this year's tournament.

Thanks to everyone who participated!

NOTE: It is worth mentioning that this book is how the author intended it to be read, but it was released separately as Shards of Honor and Barrayar.

It sounds as though both books are available to audible subscribers, but will probably have better luck with your local library and/or a bookstore if you look for those titles instead.


From Tom:

This was originally written as one book. It was the first book written. But the publisher asked her to stop it early and published that early version as the first book. Later Bujold was able to publish the rest. But the author’s original intention was that these two books were meant to be one.

Barrayar is a direct sequel to Bujold's first novel, Shards of Honor.

The second book published, The Warrior's Apprentice, takes place 17 years after the events in Barrayar

Congrats to Randy on correctly predicting Cordelia's Honor as the winner

Here is Randy's (soon to be) winning bracket: https://challonge.com/tournaments/141...

Results from the finals:

View the full bracket: https://challonge.com/anqrgjo2

Tournament Statistics
Total Votes Cast: 4,213
Average Votes Cast: 291
Book With Most Votes: Dungeon Crawler Carl - (163 Votes) (Round 2)
Match-up With Most Votes: Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries vs. Dungeon Crawler Carl (317 Votes) (Round 3)
Largest Win: Cordelia's Honor - (45 Votes) (Round 1)
Smallest Win: Cordelia's Honor - (1 Vote) (Round 2)
Average Win: 16 votes


---------------------------------

Sword Finale:

(8) Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett - 141 Votes

vs.

(3) Cordelia's Honor by Lois McMaster Bujold - 152 Votes


Winner:Cordelia's Honor
Total Votes: 293
Margin of Victory: 11

John (Taloni) wrote: "There's a handful of us discussing here in thread, and some 600 or so voting."

I'm not sure where you're getting that number from. We've been averaging 290 votes cast per poll in first 3 rounds.

That number isn't much different from years past. In general though forum participation has never been as high as those who read along/listen to the podcast.

I personally won't be reading either. One I've already read the other (which I expect will win now) doesn't interest me. Romantasy is not my thing. I'm sure many folks will enjoy it.