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

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

I finished my reread (listen) of the original Riyria series with Heir of Novron. The first time around I not only gave it 5 stars (something I rarely do), but I added it to my favorites shelf.

I was happy to see it held up on my reread. I was finding reasons to keep listening each day, and stretching my memory to recall details I had long forgotten. It made for a few surprises and aha moments with regards to his current First Empire series Age of Myth.

Here's my original - ★★★★★ - (Review)

Welcome Anthony, or is it Shayne?

Let's not start attacking each other again. I let my frustration get the better of me, but I let it drop after that. You should too. Please.

Caitlin wrote: "I remember disliking her for being mean to Arya...but she's still a child at that point. "

Yeah, that too.

It's been so long for me since I've read the books or even watched the early seasons that I'm sure what the turning point was. Maybe it was after Ned's death though.

And yeah, a lot of it may simply be she's no longer a child. Which is why found what she said to the Hound a few episodes back so cringe-worthy.

Caitlin wrote: "I have loved Sansa for a long time. It makes me a little sad how many people dislike her, or only started liking her after she was brutalized and emerged a badass"

For me the change was once she stopped acting like a spoiled brat. At least that's the reason why I didn't like her early on in the series.

By the time the show decided to do the Ramsey subplot, I was angry. Especially since that was a major change from the books.

I thought it was alright, but not great. My biggest complaint about the episode is (view spoiler)[ it all feels rushed.

Do I believe Dany was capable of burning down a whole city? Yes. But it feels like a huge leap in only a few episodes. I agree that she's always been cruel and I could see her sliding down this path.

Same with Arya. I can see her deciding her revenge was not worth it, but like. One short conversation when she's that close to Cersei is enough to dissuade her all of a sudden? They could have implied the Hound had been trying to talk her out of it the whole ride, but they didn't.

I think as someone linked earlier they hurt themselves by setting an ending and working backwards from there.

They should have done 20 episodes instead of of 13. They should have also ended season 7 with the battle of Winterfell.

Then they could have spent another 10 episodes on the post white-walker stuff to set up Dany's arc better.

I also found Cersei's death anti-climactic. Maybe that's the ending she deserved, but they focused more on Celgane bowl (which was excellent fan-service) than they did on her ending.

That said, watching the dragon destroying King's Landing was a joy. Watching Euron die was cathartic. Same with when the mountain killed Cersei's hand (blanking on his name right now).

I agree about Arya possibly taking out Dany. I want to see Sansa come out on top somehow. I think the show has done a terrible job with her sexual assaults, especially that whole cringy speech about how her assailants made her stronger. In the book it's her friend that falls under Ramsey.

Despite how she got there, she's become my favorite behind Arya. I want the Stark woman to rule.

Tyrion can be Sansa's hand I suppose. But I think he's a goner next week. (hide spoiler)]

Tassie Dave wrote: "Reading Red Sister.

Found it on my iPad and remembered it getting good reviews here

It's pretty good for a book I got for free off the iBook store and forgot I had :-)"

One of my all time favorite opening lines.

Catching up on reviews for the last few weeks. Luckily two of the books I did were rereads and I already had the reviews done!

It also helps (I guess?) that I'm in a reading slump, so my "reading" output is mostly limited to audio books right now. I just don't seem motivated to ever pick back up The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August

First off I finished off Marc Lawrence's excellent Book of the Ancestor with Holy Sister. I enjoyed it, but not quite as much as Red Sister. - ★★★★☆ - (My Review)


I then finished up my reread of Theft of Swords. I was happy to see it held up for me. I was worried after pushing so hard for it to win the S&L March Madness I wouldn't like it as much as I remember. The later books are better, but I still enjoyed this one. - ★★★★☆ - (My Review)

I then took a quick fantasy break to continue the Bosch series after catching a deal on the second book: The Black Ice. I didn't think this one was nearly as good as the first, but liked it enough that I'll probably continue if I can get a cheap copy or (ideally) borrow the audio from the library. - ★★★☆☆ - (My Review)

Then because I enjoyed my read of Theft of Swords I went right on to do a reread of Rise of Empire. It was interesting to pick up on some foreshadowing I missed the first time reading it. - ★★★★☆ - (My Review)

I liked the movie overall, but I thought it started slow. The ending was fantastic.

(view spoiler)[
I had mixed feelings on the fat Thor bit.

I got some dirty looks (I think) because I was laughing hysterically as Black Widow and Hawkeye fought over who got to be the sacrifice for the soul stone. Then when window died, I got really sad.

I just thought it was a fantastic send off, but I wish they had killed Hawkeye instead. I don't feel like Black Widow's death got the same kind of punch as Tony's did.

I loved the ending for Cap logic/timeline concerns be damned. I was kind of expecting that to happen as soon as I saw him looking at Peggy back in the 70s.

Overall I thought it was great, but they need to do more with the female characters beyond this small scenes where all the woman group up.

I was kind of disappointed at just how little Captain Marvel was in the movie. I did LOVE her scene with Spider-Man though.

I'm hoping the next phase of Marvel movies focuses more on the women now that RDJ and the two Chrises are leaving.

Or least Cap is leaving. It kind of looks like Thor could be in GotG3? Man I hope so.

Thor: Ragnorok was fantastic. I'd love to see more of that Thor in a GotG movie.

Also the part with Thor and his mom broke me. I lost my mom at 17 and that kind of stuff always hits me hard.
(hide spoiler)]

I did this on audio awhile back and I struggle with most old SFF for this very reason. Either sexism, colonialism, racism, etc.

That said, I still found the book (or collection of stories) compelling and interesting. As Dara mentioned in another thread, the writing is quite good.

It's always hard to judge these kind of books by modern sensibilities. I'm sure many of the works I read and enjoy today will be considered dated 50-70 years from now too.

I like your comparison to Lady Astronauts. I'd agree these are probably a lot of the same people who'd try to keep them grounded.

Iain wrote: "If you love Urban fantasy and police procedurals Rivers of London is for you. It is also a rare occurrence of non-white main characters in fantasy... Well worth a monthly pick."

Yeah, that's been nominated a few times for March Madness and I know it made the tournament at least once.

The audiobook is fantastic!

I kind of got tired Urban Fantasy and everything I've tried in the last few years were pretty meh to me, until Rivers of London.

My only gripe is the US publisher changed the name of the first book to Midnight Riot for some dumb reason..

I've only read this and Something Wicked This Way Comes. I liked this far better.

Fahrenheit 451 is on my TBR list though.

I probably own a copy too..

*checks virtual owned-and-unread-shelf*

Hmm. If I do own it, I don't have it shelved as such..that's kind of a surprise..

If you guys do get something going, please let me know so I can include it in the monthly email blast..

Let me know if you guys settle on a meeting and I can include it May email blast..

I've found that now that Goodreads is sending the content of the first post with email notifications, I've seen the start of spoilers in my email even when you have spoiler tags.

I assume it's still helpful for the digest, but I assume the issue in the notification emails is that gmail doesn't recognize/honor the spoiler tags.

I've been trying to keep the GoT spoilers to tags as well.

That said, I'd say we should just stick to one thread per movie/show/etc and mark spoilers accordingly. So I'm going to lock this one.

Skyward is the audible daily deal today $6: https://www.audible.com/pd/Skyward-Au...

I did it in audio and thought it was good

For my own personal challenges, I'm finished with:

Sword: 12/40 (30% complete, 3% behind)
Laser: 6/20 (30% complete, on track)
Comics: 5/10 (50% complete, 17% ahead)

This month I've added +2 Sword, 1 Laser, 1 Graphic novel. I did a mystery book too, but overall not a great reading month for me as all but the graphic novel was in audio.

I've been struggling to read The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August all month and have barely made an progress. I may have to put it on hold and pick up something else just to try to break the reading rut I'm in. I'm slightly behind on my Fantasy challenge, but I may make that up a bit in May.

For May I'll add at least 2 Sword by finishing up my Riyria reread. I may end up adding another when I'm done. I'm not sure if I'll add any Laser or Graphic novels.

I've already read The Martian Chronicles and I don't plan to reread it. Maybe I'll do the next Vorkosigan book instead.

I have a hold on Ms. Marvel, Vol. 10: Time and Again, but that's still on order so who knows when it will come in..

April Results:

Sword Challenge
Total Participants: 382 (+23)
Total Read: 2,160 (+600)
Average Books Read: 6 (+2)
Total Committed: 6,447 (+332)
Average Books pledged: 17 (0)
Total Challenges Completed : 2 (+1) 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: 383 (+23)
Total Read: 1,792 (+455)
Average Books Read: 5 (+1)
Total Committed: 6,011 (+338)
Average Books pledged: 16 (0)
Total Challenges Completed (Goodreads): 2 (+2) 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.


Graphic Novel Challenge
Total Participants: 103 (+7)
Total Read: 594 (+219)
Average Books Read: 6 (+2)
Total Committed: 2,434 (+288)
Average Books pledged: 24 (+2)
Total Challenges Completed : 1 (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.

Short Story Challenge
Total Participants: 33 (0)
Total Read: 131 (+38)
Average Books Read: 4 (+1)
Total Committed: 472 (+7)
Average Books pledged: 14 (0)
Total Challenges Completed : 1 (+1) 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.

With April in the books we see the Laser challenge maintained its 1 participant advantage, but continues to fall behind in everything else.

Projections continue trending up this month slightly compared to March. Right now Sword is looking at 6,480 and Laser with 5,376. We'll see if that upward trend continues and if we can actually come close to meeting the numbers come December.

Sins of Empire is $2: https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B01KT7YTV4/

What's grabbing your interest this month?