Rob’s
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(group member since Jul 06, 2012)
Rob’s
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from the The Sword and Laser group.
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cannot. it says cannot
Jessica wrote: "Rob wrote: "Jessica wrote: "I would like to nominate Luna: New Moon by Ian McDonaldFor now I will also second (fourth?) This Is How You Lose the Time War
But som..."
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.
Buzz wrote: "I don’t even know what that means... How do I find the discord channel and what is it? I mean I know that discord is a gaming chat platform but I don’t know how to use one for our LA Meetup group l..."You can access discord from anywhere, including your phone. The details are: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
Jessica wrote: "I would like to nominate Luna: New Moon by Ian McDonaldFor now I will also second (fourth?) This Is How You Lose the Time War
But someone should nominate [book:T..."
please read the FAQ on how nominations work.
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. This year we have a new rule that prevents 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 - 3 (Jan, Anne, Rebecca)
This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar, Max Gladstone - 3 (Catarina, Ruth, Julia)
Callahan's Crosstime Saloon by Spider Robinson - 2 (John (Taloni), Phil)
The Light Brigade by Kameron Hurley - 2 (Mark, Colin)
The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow - 2 (David H, Jen)
All Systems Red by Martha Wells - 2 (Trike, David)
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 Lives of Tao by Wesley Chu - 1 (Roberator)
Red Rising by Pierce Brown - 1 (Christos)
The Future of Another Timeline by Annalee Newitz - 1 (Tina)
The Eyes of the Dragon by Stephen King - 1 (Melanie)
A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine - 1 (Julie (3x5Books))
The Carpet Makers by Andreas Eschbach - 1 (Nicolas)
The Rage of Dragons by Evan Winter - 1 (Eva)
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)
A Boy and His Dog at the End of the World by C.A. Fletcher - 1 (Stephen)
Pandora's Star by Peter F. Hamilton - 1 (Tamahome)
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)
The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden - 1 (Seth)
House of Suns by Alastair Reynolds - 1 (William)
John (Taloni) wrote: "*squints* I count two for Children of Time. Tina seconded."She also nominated a diffent book first, so both you and Tina failed the FAQ test :)
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. This year we have a new rule that prevents 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 - 3 (Jan, Anne, Rebecca)
This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar, Max Gladstone - 3 (Catarina, Ruth, Julia)
Callahan's Crosstime Saloon by Spider Robinson - 2 (John (Taloni), Phil)
The Light Brigade by Kameron Hurley - 2 (Mark, Colin)
The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow - 2 (David H, Jen)
All Systems Red by Martha Wells - 2 (Trike, David)
The Lives of Tao by Wesley Chu - 1 (Roberator)
Red Rising by Pierce Brown - 1 (Christos)
Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky - 1 (Shiela Jean)
The Future of Another Timeline by Annalee Newitz - 1 (Tina)
The Eyes of the Dragon by Stephen King - 1 (Melanie)
A Little Hatred by Joe Abercrombie - 1 (Tassie Dave)
A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine - 1 (Julie (3x5Books))
The Carpet Makers by Andreas Eschbach - 1 (Nicolas)
The Rage of Dragons by Evan Winter - 1 (Eva)
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)
A Boy and His Dog at the End of the World by C.A. Fletcher - 1 (Stephen)
Pandora's Star by Peter F. Hamilton - 1 (Tamahome)
The City of Brass by S.A. Chakraborty - 1 (Genesee)
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)
The audio was more than 1.99 if you just bought them directly. I was debating getting the audio versions too. Thankfully you can still get the whispersync for voice after the fact on ebooks you own.
I'm much more likely to listen to the books than read them, so I'll probably do that when I'm ready to do all 3 in a row.
Richard wrote: "Where can I find the list of books previously read so I don't choose one already read?."The bookshelf: https://www.goodreads.com/group/books...
The wiki: https://swordandlaser.fandom.com/wiki...
Hmm. I have the hardcover from the library, but it's a bit slow going. And people have been talking about how good the narration is.Very tempting.
Are you talking about creating a new discord account or integrating your discord account with the patreon rewards?
Sheila Jean wrote: "All three books in the Impossible Times trilogy are $1.99 on kindle for the month!Bargain.https://t.co/ZLuBe1BISd pic.twitter.com/gT0ev7EjqX— Mark Lawrence (@Mark__Lawrence) February 1, 2020 "Ooh. Thanks. I haven't read the first 2, but happy to pick up the 3rd one on sale anyways. lol.
That link gave me issues at work, so here are direct links to each:
One Word Kill: https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B07C24V3SD/
Limited Wish: https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B07H4FTJ7T/
Dispel Illusion: https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B07QRTQ2K3/
Well since you all finally took pity on me last year and voted Theft of Swords, I need a new book to nominate.This year I'll go with The Lives of Tao by Wesley Chu.
I don't read as much sci-fi, but I really enjoyed that series.
It's time once again for March Madness! Nominations are now open, and will run through Saturday, February 22nd at 8pm. We're once again doing a Sword bracket and Laser bracket with 8 books each.
As usual I will periodically roll-up everyone nominations (Roughly once/page or approximately 50 posts)
Please Read the rules for nominations below for more specifics
Please see the March Madness 2020 Information Thread for additional details about the tournament as a whole.
Nomination 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. This year we have a new rule that prevents 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.
Welcome to the 5th annual March Madness tournament!What is the Sword & Laser March Madness tournament you ask?
Each year we take nominations from our members for the Sci-Fi and Fantasy books they think the group should read and narrow it down to 16. We create two brackets, one for each genre. That means there are 8 Sword picks, and 8 Laser picks.
The 16 books are selected by our benevolent leaders based on your suggestions in the nomination thread and a super secret criteria of their own making for seeding etc.
Once the brackets are set we have 4 rounds of voting. Rounds 1-3 will take us from 8 Sword books and 8 Laser books down to 1 of each that will go head to head for our to be our pick for April.
This single elimination style tournament is inspired by some sporting event that takes place every year during the month of March. Does your nomination have what it takes to win 4 straight head-to-head matchups and become our April book pick? Let the madness begin!
This thread will serve as the main information center for the tournament and I'll be creating separate threads for each round.
Nominations thread
Bracket
Round 1 thread
Round 2 thread
Round 3 thread
Finals thread
Schedule & Details
Here is the schedule for this year's tournament:
Nominations: February 3rd-February 22nd 8pm EST
Round of 16: February 27th-March 3rd 11:59PM EST
Round of 8: March 4th-10th 11:59PM EST
Round of 4: March 11th-17th 11:59PM EST
Final Round: March 18-24th 11:59PM EST
Nomination FAQ
(view spoiler)
Damn that doesn't bode well for me. I picked up Salvation in audio awhile back when it was on sale..
yeah, that's probably a good point. I just keep copy/pasting those. I'll just drop them next month.
For my own personal challenges, I'm finished with:Sword: 1/15 (7% complete, on track)
Laser: 3/10 (30% complete, 21% ahead of schedule)
Comics: 2/5 (40% complete)
This month I've added 1 Sword, 3 Laser, 2 Graphic novels.
As I drastically reduced my goals this year I'm off to a really strong start. I may end up exceeding all of them, but I won't be increasing my pledge regardless.
I've been doing some non genre stuff already, and just taking a lot more days off where I don't read at all. It's been nice to not feel "pressure" to read, something I've been dealing with a lot the last year or so. It was starting to make reading feel more like a chore than recreation.
I was traveling for PAX in January, but I didn't read as much as I normally have in the past when traveling. Still I "cheated" a bit by binging four of the Expanse novellas. Although 1 (The Butcher of Anderson Station is more of a short story, so I didn't count that one. They were good, but not nearly as good as the books have been.
I also did the 2-parter comic on Kanan Jarrus from Rebels that someone here mentioned. I enjoyed that, but it felt a little incomplete to me.
January Results:Sword Challenge
Total Participants: 210
Total Read: 320
Average Books Read: 2
Total Committed: 3,929
Average Books pledged: 19
Total Challenges Completed : 0 NOTE: This number is terribly inaccurate. However there is no way for me to verify/get the correct numbers, so I have to take what Goodreads gives me.
Laser Challenge
Total Participants: 215
Total Read: 298
Average Books Read: 1
Total Committed: 3,590
Average Books pledged: 17
Total Challenges Completed : 0 NOTE: This number is terribly inaccurate. However there is no way for me to verify/get the correct numbers, so I have to take what Goodreads gives me.
So I'm not going to do stats for the group Graphic Novel or Short Stories challenges this year. It just proved too time consuming.
Participation in the main challenges this year is down from the same time in 2019, which was down from 2018. I'm not sure if says something about the group as a whole, or just the group challenges. Participation in last year's survey was also less. But I did run it later in the year and for shorter than 2018's survey so they may be part of it too.
We'll see how the year goes.
I'm not sure how interesting people find these stats in general. I personally find it interesting how there seem to be more participants in the the laser challenge, but the sword participants always read way more books.
