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

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

Veronica the series you were thinking of is called Codex Alera (starts with Furies of Calderon)

Apparently Arnord and Jackie only have very small roles. Speculation is they used most of their parts just for the trailer in the hope of getting people to see it in the UK.

I meant I could delete whoever beat me to the posts at the top of the page..

if I was really mad for power, I'd just delete posts..

So don't tempt me. :-D

Current Nominations

Just like last year I'll be periodically rolling up the nominations as we go.

FAQ:

How Many books can I nominate? One. You cannot nominate one book and second another. You cannot nominate both a Fantasy book and a Sci-Fi book. Just ONE book total. If you mention more than one, I'm going to pick one. Likely the first one you mention. Please be CLEAR about your nomination.

Can we nominate any book we want? The only criteria is that it's a Fantasy or Sci-Fi book we haven't read. That said, it's preferable that you also nominate a book by an author we haven't read as well. Those nominations will likely have a better chance of making the final bracket.

We also have a rule to prevent author's from nominating their own books. In addition we'd like to prevent people from nominating their friend's book etc. If I see you doing this, I will first warn you to pick another book, and later simply ignore your nomination all together.

Can I change My Nomination? Yes, but if you do so, please specify which book you are changing it from, as I'm doing this by hand.

How many books will be selected? 16 (8 Fantasy, 8 Sci-Fi)

When do nominations close? Saturday, February 22nd 8:00 PM EST. This will give Tom & Veronica some time to make the final bracket.

Which books will be selected? Whichever books Tom & Veronica want. They will simply use the nominations in this thread for suggestions.

How will the books be seeded? This is entirely up to Tom & Veronica. They may take into account how many people have nominated a book, but there is no guarantee.

The book I want was already nominated. You can second a nomination made by someone else, and I'll count how many people have nominated that book and sort accordingly.

No one else is nominating my book, should I change my vote to something more popular?In my opinion, you're better off just nominating a book you're interested in us reading than hoping to game the nomination system by changing your vote. Most years some of the books in the final bracket had only a single nomination, while several books with multiple nominations didn't make it. Multiple nominations may help it get noticed or in the seeding, but really all of that is up to Tom & Veronica.

How are the Nominations Sorted? The numbering is based on number of nominations, followed by when they moved up the list (i.e. based on post order). This number will likely not reflect the actual seeding as that will be entirely up to Tom & Veronica.

My nomination is missing/wrong! Sorry about that. I'm doing this by hand. Please post again and yell at me for missing, or not grouping it with another nomination for the same book, or marking you down for the wrong book, etc. If you're not clear about your nomination (or you nominate 2) I may add the "wrong" book. Please be sure you're clear, and I can fix it.

-----------Nominations----------------
The Neverending Story by Michael Ende - 5 (Jan, Anne, Rebecca, Daniel, Misti)
This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar, Max Gladstone - 4 (Catarina, Ruth, Julia, Albert)
The Light Brigade by Kameron Hurley - 4 (Mark, Colin, Deborah, Joe Sherry)
All Systems Red by Martha Wells - 4 (Trike, David, Maclurker, Dara)
Callahan's Crosstime Saloon by Spider Robinson - 2 (John (Taloni), Phil)
The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow - 2 (David H, Jen)
A Little Hatred by Joe Abercrombie - 2 (Tassie Dave, Vanessa)
The City of Brass by S.A. Chakraborty - 2 (Genesee, elizabeth • paper ghosts)
Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky - 2 (Shiela Jean, Paulo)
The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden - 2 (Seth, Viola)
The Rage of Dragons by Evan Winter - 2 (Eva, Lee)
A Boy and His Dog at the End of the World by C.A. Fletcher - 2 (Stephen, Dave)
An Absolutely Remarkable Thing by Hank Green - 2 (Caitlin, Minsta)
A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine - 2 (Julie (3x5Books), Mel (booksandsundry))
Pandora's Star by Peter F. Hamilton - 2 (Tamahome, Troy)
The Lives of Tao by Wesley Chu - 1 (Roberator)
The Future of Another Timeline by Annalee Newitz - 1 (Tina)
The Eyes of the Dragon by Stephen King - 1 (Melanie)
The Carpet Makers by Andreas Eschbach - 1 (Nicolas)
Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo - 1 (Adelaide)
The Last Astronaut by David Wellington - 1 (Silvana)
Rivers of London/Midnight Riot by Ben Aaronovitch - 1 (Iain)
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: The Original Radio Scripts by Douglas Adams - 1 (TRP)
The Quantum Magician by Derek Künsken - 1 (David)
The Unlikely Escape of Uriah Heep by H.G. Parry - 1 (Jen)
Santiago: A Myth of the Far Future by Mike Resnick - 1 (Richard)
Lightning by Dean Koontz - 1 (Ian)
House of Suns by Alastair Reynolds - 1 (William)
The Player of Games by Iain M. Banks - 1 (AndrewP)
Luna: New Moon by Ian McDonald - 1 (Jessica)
The Land: Founding by Aleron Kong - 1 (Themcbays)
Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood - 1 (Meghan)
The Outside by Ada Hoffmann - 1 (corkhead)
The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North - 1 (Christos)
Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny - 1 (Clyde)
Idlewild by Nick Sagan - 1 (Louie)
The Female Man by Joanna Russ - 1 (Qukatheg)
The Black Company by Glen Cook - 1 (Andrew)
House of Blades by Will Wight - 1 (Devin)
14 by Peter Clines - 1 (Robyn)
Revenger by Alastair Reynolds - 1 (Joseph)

nothing to see here

William wrote: "Rob wrote: "I'll be sending out the monthly newsletter before nominations close, so hopefully that will see a spike in nominations"

I may be wrong, but didn't Veronica send out an announcement mes..."

She did that one year. I want to say that was in 2018 though. Last year I sent it out in the monthly newsletter.

It probably has more impact from Veronica than from me though. Especially if people simply ignore the monthly newsletter.

Anne wrote: "Am I wrong or did this thread used to be a bit more crowded. I mean, less books for Veronica and Tom to look through, but still an interesting observation (if it is true, that is)."

You're not wrong. In past years I had to do roll-ups far more often.

I'll be sending out the monthly newsletter before nominations close, so hopefully that will see a spike in nominations.

Oh man, Nemesis Games is soo good. Enjoy!

I was chaotic good for a long time. But now I'm lawful good. At least for the few physical books I still read these days.

I've been listening to them very slowly over the last 3 years. I may pick up the pace if the next few books are more like this one was.

Last week I finished The Vor Game, which I really enjoyed. Probably my favorite of the series so far. I really enjoy Miles as a character far more than the others who have been the protagonist of some of the previous books.

★★★★☆ - (My Review)

Trike wrote: "Rob wrote: "Uncanny Collateral is free for the next few days: https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B07N52XNYR/"

I was like, “Cool! I wanted to read that!” so I followed the link... to disco..."

This is why I have an "owned and unread" shelf. It doesn't prevent me from buying more books I'll never read. But it does tend to prevent me from buying the same books I'll never read a second time!

Yeah. It happens every year. It's why it's the first thing in the FAQ. But that never seems to help. lol.

Uncanny Collateral is free for the next few days: https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B07N52XNYR/

Trike wrote: "It is pointless in audio. The only thing more pointless would be describing a map.."

When I listened to Breakfast of Champions, it was narrated by John Malkovich who described the pictures.

Again, should have been included as a pdf, but him describing a picture to me was surreal.

This is the kind of thing that should come as a pdf with the audio book.

I've had a few audiobooks that come with pdfs with things like character lists, maps, etc. Those are great, but few and far between.

I'm not sure how common that is. I almost NEVER listen to the samples. Which now that I think about it is a bit strange. I don't think I listened to this one either. Maybe though.

I was just struggling to read this one with my eyes and with it being on sale I just went for it.

I'm really loving the audio though. This is the first time I've listened to this narrator. Someone said she did The Rook too, but I'd already owned that in ebook so I didn't listen to that one.

So I started in the hardcover and that list Tassie Dave pointed out would be useful if I wasn't total shit with names anyways.

I couldn't tell you who any of the characters are in terms of names or even house numbers but I can at least distinguish slightly in who they are in my own head. None of that is the author's fault though. It's just how my brain is wired.

I've lost track of what chapter I'm on now, but things have really started to pick up. Somewhere in part 2. Maybe chapter 11 or 12.

I think the audio has made the snark far more enjoyable for me too. I've found myself laughing a lot more since switching to the audio book.

No worries. That's why it's bad to proofread your own writing too. Your brain will keep doing stuff like that when you read it over.