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

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

Ian wrote: "Beth wrote: "One thing that disappointed me was that someone said there were better female characters in the second book..."

I think they must've been referring to the 2nd omnibus Rise of Empire"

Yeah, that's what I was referring too. Nyphron Rising takes a bit, but Arista finally has some agency. Thrace, takes longer..I want to say either late in The Emerald Storm

Beth, I'll be curious to hear what you think of the next two stories if you do continue on.

John (Nevets) wrote: "That may have been it Rob, but [spoilers removed]"

I read somewhere (view spoiler)[she used that move earlier in the series, (hide spoiler)] so maybe that's why you think it's becoming a bit of a trope?

John (Nevets) wrote: "I got lucky and it was a bit of a dreary day here, so not a whole lot of light coming in the windows. But otherwise it was about what I expected. And that wasn't a bad thing.

I don't remember if ..."

(view spoiler)[I predicted she'd stab/kill the Winter King, but I thought she'd do it with her new weapon, not the Valaryian steel dagger Bran gave her (hide spoiler)]

I was kind of annoyed at the level of "realism" they went for. Much of the episode looked awful (at least on my TV) because it was so dark and snowy.

I must say that (view spoiler)[the way Arya fought with that staff was badass, but not nearly as cool as the knife drop move she used to kill the Night King. (hide spoiler)]

@Richardya

Spoiler tags please, or I delete your post

May meetup (June 1st): https://www.goodreads.com/event/show/...

Is the store staying open, but the cafe closing? That's a shame either way since it was a cool place to meet (the one whole time I came)

Ruth (tilltab) Ashworth wrote: "Rob, I wonder if your personal connection to the book made the number of people not loving it seem higher, because you were afraid it would be disliked.."

That's certainly possible. In general I don't care if people dislike a book I do, but this month I feel like I was letting down the people who didn't..

Mark Lawrence has done that with his Book of the Ancestors series and it's fantastic. I wish all writers did it.

Trike wrote: "Rob wrote: "Well it seems most people didn't like this pick (or at at least most of the vocal ones), "

It didn’t feel like “most” to me. Looked along the lines of the usual breakdown of like/dislike."

It could be. The tendency (on the internet as a whole, not just this group) is that the people who don't like a thing are more vocal about it than people who like a thing. So it could be that.

Since I was pushing for this pick for so long, I felt bad because it seemed like hardly anyone liked it (to me at least).

Sheila Jean wrote: "Example with potential spoiler for Hackers: (view spoiler)."

lol! (view spoiler)[Pool on the roof must have a leak! (hide spoiler)]

I thought Coulson looked off, but Fury looked great. Someone said they didn't deage him, they just gave him a wig. He didn't have nearly the amount of screen time Fury did, so I could buy that.

Prior to Fury every instance of de-aging I've seen has looked bad. Or at least off enough to distract me while watching. I thought Young Tony Stark was especially bad in whichever one of the 30 marvel movies they did that in. Iron Man 3? I thought both Princess Leia and Moff Tarkin both were jarring. The stuff in Ant Man 2 was better, but still bothered me.

In Captain Marvel, Fury threw me at the start but then I settled in and didnt think about it for the rest of the movie.

From the trailers for this, its almost as though they took shots of him from the Fresh Prince of Bel Air. It seems pretty well done, but I'm still not a fan of it yet.

I agree though the tech is getting closer where it will be less of a think. I know Michael Douglas has been pushing for an Antman prequel where the entire thing is a younger version of himself.

Well it seems most people didn't like this pick (or at at least most of the vocal ones), but since we had a thread for The Crown Conspiracy I thought I'd make one to discuss the second story.

This one starts out rough. We meet Thrace, a farmer's daughter in a dubious position looking for Royce and Hadrian.

But I thought the story really picks when they get back to her hometown and finished really strong. Overall I thought it was the better of the two stories in the book.


(view spoiler)[
We discover she was sent looking for them by none other than Ezra Harden, learn there is a nearby impenetrable Elven tower and magical creature has been attacking and killing the villagers.

Oh and that the Church is using the creature to set up a fake heir of Novron to rebuild the empire under their control.

Things don't work out as they planned and now Thrace is Empress.

This book really does a lot to setup the rest of the series.

I feel like once again Arista is badly written. He makes her a diplomat for Meligard but it just seems like a plot device to have her be near the action.

That said, I still found it a lot of fun. I especially enjoyed the interactions between Royce and Magnus.

I want to learn more about the Elves, and who it was Ezra saw wearing his amulets at the end of the book.

Of course we have a good idea about one of them, so what will that mean going forward? (hide spoiler)]

I saw at least one of two folks in the What Else are you Reading thread continued on to Rise of Empire. I'm maybe halfway through Nyphron Rising myself.

Did anyone else continue on, or plan to at some point?

Stephen wrote: "If you thought Theft of Swords was okay but... Age of Myth is a much stronger series from the start."

Agreed. I gave Age of Myth 5 stars. It's a much better book, but I'm still not sure how I feel about suggesting people read it before finishing the original Riyria series. And Suri and Meena are awesome.

Joseph wrote: "Rob wrote: "The Dragon's Path - $3: https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B0047Y16LC/

If you haven't checked this series out, you should. Written by 1/2 of James S.A. Corey, ..."

I know that was true at one point, not sure if it still is. I got both in audio though so I can't really say for sure.

I have 2 copies of The Once and Future King (MMPB and audio) and I've read neither but it's still on my "one day" list


The other two I plan to skip as well. I have a decent list of books I plan to skip. It'd probably be faster to list the book I haven't read but would like to at some point. I've already read all the ones from the list I was eager to read by now though.

Stephen wrote: "I am very sure GRRM will finish A Song of Ice & Fire. If you take all the recent deaths we have had in recent month involving writers, GRRM has 15 to 20 years left, just like me. That is enough tim..."

I wish I had your optimism..but I'm not getting my hopes up. I'm already thinking of who is the equivalent of Brandon Sanderson and Wheel of Time. Joe Abercrombie maybe?

Maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised though. Let's see 1) how soon The Winds of Winter takes to come out and 2) if he can actually finish the series in 7 books.

Robert Jordan said he had "1 book left" and Sanderson took his notes and released 3 rather beefy books. Now he's not exactly short with his writing, but neither was Jordan..

Ruth (tilltab) Ashworth wrote: "As a Naruto fan who has watched EVERY terrible filler episode of that show, I am now entertained at the thought of Game of Thrones episodes based around some of the more ridiculous Naruto filler eps. Post Ninjas of Westeros is currently amusing me."

I look forward to the story where Jon Snow must help Samwell run a race in order to save his family's lands..

I've had this problem with anime. They are often based on Manga and often being adapted at the same the manga is being written.

Inevitably the show catches up to the manga and they have 1 of 2 options: they make up what happens next, or they do filler. One of my favorites, Full Metal Alchemist made up an ending. I thought it was fine. Then they redid the series after the manga finished and I liked that version way better.

That said, I'm glad Game of Thrones isn't doing filler. Considering how much they dragged out the final season (splitting it in half and then delaying it a year).

I think the first 3 SoIaF books were excellent. I thought books 4/5 were just OK. I'm curious how GRRM is going to write himself out of the horrible idea of splitting 4/5 into 2 parts and adding a ton of new POVs to each half.

I'm fairly certain we'll get The Winds of Winter, but given how long the last few book have taken, and how it's gone from a trilogy to 7 books, I'm not optimistic it will end in 7 books or that we'll ever get book 7.

So the show is what I'm getting. It's already revealed some pretty big secrets we haven't gotten from the books. I was never in a rush to watch the show when they were adapting the books..but once it passed the books I felt obligated to watch because spoilers for the show are EVERYWHERE.

But I still don't get the hate watching. I'm enjoying the show, even if I know it's not exactly what GRRM has in his head.

At this point I'm not holding my breath. But I also don't care. Would the end of the show be better if the books had been written first? Probably.

It sounds like I"m not the only one doing Rise of Empire.

I'm glad at least a few of you liked Theft of Swords to continue on.

I'll probably keep on going right to Heir of Novron when I finish up, which is still my favorite of all the Riyria stuff.