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

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

So it's been a few years and too many Riyria books for me to recall too much about what I liked about The Crown Conspiracy to continue reading. I plan to start it this afternoon after work, so maybe that will jog my memory more. We'll see how it holds up on a reread.

It's fair to say the first book doesn't tread much new ground. I do recall LOVING the opening chapter/scene a lot.

I think I gave The Crown Conspiracy only 3 stars. I'm pretty sure I took a break to listen to something else before listening to Avempartha.

I recall liking Avempartha more than The Crown Conspiracy and deciding to pick up Rise of Empire eventually, although not right away.

Each book in the series got better and I absolutely loved Heir of Novron. That isn't to say, you have to read 2 more books to get to the good parts. If you're not feeling it, then you're not.

It could be that you're coming to this series too late. I've read a lot of books that have similar vibes since then, but I don't recall there being anything quite like it being published back then.

You already mentioned Kings of the Wyld. I like this series much better. You may not however. I found this series first. I will say that Kings of the Wyld is better than The Crown Conspiracy.

The biggest thing for me was that I found this series after gorging myself on dark, "gritty" fantasy: Song of Ice and Fire, First Law, Malazan Book of the Fallen, etc, etc.

So it was nice to have just a normal light adventure tale. Also at the time I hadn't read much in the way of thieves as protagonists.

The first few books don't lend themselves to a lot of complexity. There is a bigger story for those who enjoy the simpler tales enough to get to the end, and for me that's why these went from decent books to books I love and recommend.

That's true about several other series, that becomes harder for me to recommend to people because there is just so much out there and people's time is limited. I hope you like it more, but if not...there is always another book to read instead.

John (Taloni) wrote: "Jenny (Reading Envy) wrote: "Not surprisingly, Mary Robinette Kodak also weighed in.."

Link didn't work so I went looking. I think you mean this one. It's behind a paywall if you have read too man..."

I subscribe to the Washington Post, but somehow missed that. Thanks John.

Jenny (Reading Envy) wrote: "Hmm no it was the WaPo article, no idea why it isn't working."

Your html probably has a syntax error. A missing double quote around the url, perhaps

John (john) wrote: "And it’s $2.99 on Amazon US today"

https://smile.amazon.com/Theft-Swords...

They aren't out yet. I backed the Kickstarter and as far as I know they've been delayed.

Am I the only one who thought it was funny when Veronica said "I'm so glad we finally get to read Theft of Swords"?

I mean, she could have just picked it during one of her months over the last few years.

She probably didn't want to rob me of the joy of seeing it finally win March Madness. 🤣

Another great podcast as usual!

I continue to love this show so hard. Especially Margo.

Last night's episode had more singing and it was once again fantastic..

Silvana wrote: "Yep that's what I meant.."


(view spoiler)[
Oh I wasn't upset by it, I was elated. I might have even danced a little. I definitely went "Amos!" out loud. Thankfully no one was around to give ms strange looks..

Our heroes do seem kind of worn down, not sure if that is what is giving you the feeling of melancholy. I think Alex's comments to Bobby about an unwinnable struggle and the general oldness and Naomi's doubts/regrets about essentially imprisoning herself is a pretty big bummer for me so far..

But you're about twice as far into the book as I am..
(hide spoiler)]

So my take on the going dutchmen was simply because the ships disappeared and as a nod to the flying dutchmen Mark mentioned. I'm not sure there is more to it than that, but i haven't read the whole book yet, so maybe later context changes that. So far it's only been used to describe ships when I recall it being used.

Spoilers up to about 29% or so

(view spoiler)[I'm guess Silvana's "I knew it" was about Amos. I had expected her spoiler to be about that, not Elvi.

I was expecting him to show up at some point, but when Durate's daughter (Tessa?) said she was going to see Timothy I didn't put it together. Since I'm listening to audio though, I knew it as soon as he spoke because the narrator used his Amos voice.

Although it would have been pretty obvious in text to me too later in the chapter too, especially when he called Holden "The Captain".

I'll be curious if I liker her more when I reread Cibola Burn next year. That's still my least favorite books and I recall her being part of that. I agree, I'll be curious to see how she plays on the show.

There are many characters in the book that I've liked way more in the show.

So far in the book though I've found her chapters pretty interesting, even if I still don't care much about the character herself. This whole idea of sending automated ships full of explosives through the gate when they think they'll disappear seems idiotic to me, so I can sympathize with her a bit.
(hide spoiler)]

Overall I'm enjoying the book a lot more than the last one. I hate to stop every time I get somewhere or finish my workout, etc.

I don't have the time to reread (or really listen) to too many books. In retrospect, I should have reread the first few books again before book 5 or 6.

At this point I'll just make due with a full reread before the final book. I've never gone back to relisten to Cibola Burn after Jefferson Mays rerecorded it, so that should be good.

Ruth (tilltab) Ashworth wrote: "Rob wrote: "What I meant was if I'm torn between books A and B, and I decided to vote for B, but A wins I now keep voting for A because B lost.

Compare that to C and D where I don't like C at all ..."

Yeah. I was voting for The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August until the final round.

It was probably the book I wanted to 3rd most behind Red Sister, which I've already read, but really loved..

What I meant was if I'm torn between books A and B, and I decided to vote for B, but A wins I now keep voting for A because B lost.

Compare that to C and D where I don't like C at all and it wins and I so I vote against C in the next round.

My preference might have been B then A then D, but the seeding forced me to choose between my two favorite books and one was eliminated.

That's the kind of thing ranked voting would help but at the cost of eliminating the whole point of the bracket..

Yeah. All ones I own already. Boo! I meant to post those and then got busy with work/march madness stuff.

I was excited to see Discworld stuff on sale and hoped it was the whole series, but I guess it's just those few. Or at least none of the books I don't already own (I think I have about 1/2-2/3 of them now)

I'm not sure if this is the second year of the function on Goodreads or if it's been around long. I've only been aware of it since last year.

I think they repurposed the personal challenge code and didn't fully debug it. I've never bothered to submit a bug report to them. I probably should, although I'd assume they are aware of the issues by now with how many users/gropus they have.

John (Nevets) wrote: "Even this years winner, only winning by 10 votes, may not have won if Rob wasn't such a charismatic presence around here. "

Haha. I'm not sure I deserve that much credit (it was 19 votes in the final round, and 10 votes throughout all 4 rounds) Although I will admit a few people did say they were voting for Theft out of pity/support for me, so maybe that was indeed the difference this year..

But I agree that the point of March Madness is less about picking the book that deserves to win so much as the process of whole thing: nominating the books, creation of the brackets/seeding, and four rounds of voting.

Seeding makes a huge difference. People may be torn between certain books in 1 round and then vote the winning book from there on out.

I wasn't able to view that link (work internet can be problematic) but I'm sure other systems may be "better" in that regard, but as you said it's meant to be fun. I always enjoy it, this year maybe a bit more than the past because the book I wanted finally won, but all 4 years have been a blast and I'm already looking forward to next year.

lol. That's good because: no takebacks!

That's a wrap! The winner of the 2019 March Madness is Theft of Swords by Michael J. Sullivan!

The kickoff thread is here: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

And here's is the final breakdown of the results

Final results

We saw a drop in participation for the finals (down about 73 votes). This is roughly the same as round 2 and the overall participation was down this year, but we still had a lot of votes cast! (4,503)

This continues the trends from previous years: average voting/poll in round 2 is down from round 1, but round 3 averages higher than round 1. Then another dip in the finales. Apparently people really like the odd rounds!

View the full bracket here

Tournament Statistics
Total Votes Cast: 4,503
Average Votes Cast: 300
Book With Most Votes: The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August (220 Votes) (Round 3)
Match-up With Most Votes: The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August vs. The Martian Chronicles (361 Votes) (Round 3)
Largest Win: Theft of Swords (117 Votes) (Round 1)
Smallest Win: Nexus (3 Votes) (Round 1)
Average Win: 34 votes

Theft of Swords 693 total votes
The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August 683 total votes

Finals Statistics
(1) Theft of Swords by Michael J. Sullivan (152 Votes - 53.3%)
vs.
(2) The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North (133 Votes - 46.7%)

Winner: Theft of Swords
Total Votes: 285
Margin of Victory: 19

Round 3 Statistics
Total Votes Cast: 717
Average Votes Cast: 358.5
Book With Most Votes: The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August (220 Votes)
Match-up With Most Votes: The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August vs. The Martian Chronicles (361 Votes)
Largest Win: The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August (79 Votes)
Smallest Win: Theft of Swords (6 Votes)
Average Win: 42.5 votes

Round 2 Statistics
Total Votes Cast: 1,132
Average Votes Cast: 283
Book With Most Votes: The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury (163 Votes)
Match-up With Most Votes: The Martian Chronicles vs. After Atlas (293 Votes)
Largest Win: The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August (57 Votes)
Smallest Win: Theft of Swords (13 Votes)
Average Win: 32.5

Round 1 Statistics
Total Votes Cast: 2,369
Average Votes Cast: 296
Book With Most Votes: Theft of Swords (208 Votes)
Match-up With Most Votes: TIE! (305 Votes)
The Poppy War vs. Black Leopard, Red Wolf
AND
The Martian Chronicles vs. Infomocracy
Largest Win: Theft of Swords (117 Votes)
Smallest Win: Nexus (3 Votes)
Average Win: 42 votes

Ruth (tilltab) Ashworth wrote: "I have a voodoo doll and a set of pins ready for if I don't enjoy it, Rob."

:(

OK. Thanks Ronbo.