Tassie Dave’s Comments (group member since Mar 27, 2011)

Tassie Dave’s comments from the The Sword and Laser group.

The native inhabitants of Damiem are called Dameii (plural) or Damei (singular)

Nyil is the young female Damei.

Yes viewing the Dameii seemed very exploitive. Which may have been Tiptoe's point. Pointing the lens back on us and the way native people's culture here has been exploited for commercial gain.

Shunning of the disabled or being different from what is considered "normal" has been a part of many cultures throughout human history. Sadly it still happens in some parts of the world. Being born albino in parts of Africa can be a death sentence.

I don't think we should skip books that contains sensitive topics.

It, usually, comes up pretty early if there are triggering contents. People will mention it in the book announcements or a topic will be started. By people who have either read it before or read it early before the month starts.

I don't expect Tom and Veronica to investigate every book that is up for consideration.

Sometimes Tom asks for suggestions a day or two before he makes his pick and he goes off the Discord or Goodreads discussion to make his pick

This months pick was mostly picked, because of the Tiptree books suggested, it was the easiest to get hold of.

The child porn content, which while confronting to think about as it is presented as a normal part of their society, wasn't explicit or presented as titillation.

Jan wrote: "I also see there's an Oregon Trail series that has really good ratings here on Goodsreads: "

It is probably popular because of the nostalgia factor.

The game was popular a few decades ago. It would be the sort of game that would convert easily. It was an adventure game where you made choices about what to do next.

We have done 2 books in the same storyline for Sword and Laser.

We read "A Game of Thrones" in 2009. Then we read "A Dance with Dragons" in 2011.

As for going off books for a Sword and Laser pick. We could do it as an "extra credit" suggestion on a semi-regular basis. Not an official pick, but more like the alternates as semi-official, but with it's own section on this forum to discuss.

Maybe a movie, TV show pilot, Graphic Novel. Video game etc.

Not everyone is going to join in, but it could make for fun discussions.

"The Last of Us" TV show that started this week could be a worthy suggestion.

For a tie-novel we could read a book by the very first Sword and Laser author interviewed. (Timothy Zahn)

Either:
Heir to the Empire

or Thrawn

John (Taloni) wrote: "Sentient sourdough starter? Does it send little intelligent pieces of itself to be baked into Murderloaf?"

It does try to bite people. It has the disposition and capabilities of an angry pitbull. 😉

It is a fun read.

Seth wrote: "People, including me, have recently been liking Legends & Lattes, so it seems appropriate to post this Book Riot list of other cozy fantasy: https://bookriot.com/cozy-fantasy-books/"

I'm surprised that A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking isn't on that list.

A girl who uses baking as magic. She has a sentient sourdough starter as her familiar and little gingerbread soldiers.

There is the occasional murder and innocents in peril, but it is mostly teenage friendly.

John (Nevets) wrote: "And you are also correct that they don’t seem to be promoting this that heavily. I got a heads up from Apple TV app on my iPad (not 100% sure why), otherwise I may not have realized it either until Calvey or someone else spoke up here. "

I use a TV tracking app (There are dozens available on Apple & Android. I use "iTV Shows" on my iPad

I get a notification when each episode of every show I follow is released. It also shows the release date of future episodes in the current season.

Handy for knowing when series re-start (Like Bad Batch)

The app will give you a list of unwatched shows that you can check off as you watch them. No more forgotten shows.

To be honest I couldn't tell you if we were close to achieving the group challenges or failed miserably in any year since this started.

I'll give it a miss this year. Meeting my own personal challenge that I have set in previous years has become meaningless to me. I don't even care if I reach my target. So having a target defeats any purpose (for me)

My own personal challenge from now on is to just continue reading what I enjoy (however many that is) and read all the S&L book picks

But I hope you all enjoy setting and meeting your own challenges

But why oh why is the trailer dubbed? 😕 Especially since it is subtitled as well.

Have I mentioned how much I hate dubs? 😉

I had no problems with the data dumps. Most of the people in the story are essentially space tourists on the planet for a finite period of time.

Kip and Cory are their tour guides. Data dumping is one of their duties as hosts.

Though apparently we are spared the worst of the torture scenes and have them left to our imagination (How they use the children for example)

Ruth wrote: "I was significantly more blindsided by the casual reference to child porn 😳."

and the way the others treat it as fairly normal.

I'd be put off if a bunch of adult porn stars were filming a scene behind flimsy screens, while I'm trying to enjoy the natural wonders of a location. Let alone a bunch of (what we assume are under-age) teenagers 😕

The cameraman/director is treated quite respectfully by the others. We'd all think of him as a sleaze ball who's exploiting vulnerable children.

They are being released as DRM-free M4B or MP3 audio files.

M4B can be played with any Apple device through the iBooks app and MP3 can be played by pretty much any audio device. (Android, Apple, Mp3 player, PC, etc)

Many TVs and modern cars can play them directly from a thumb drive.

You'd be hard pressed to not have a device that can play the files.

RJ - Slayer of Trolls wrote: "The Winds of Winter

come on! it's got to come out someday, right?"

The Winds of Winter is coming.

Ruth (tilltab) Ashworth wrote: "Tassie Dave (the doodler, apparently - you should be ashamed Tassie)."


I'm not old enough to have gone to school with Trike.

He's really old.

James Cameron says it needs to make $2 Billion to break even.

He may be exaggerating. 😉

I would be surprised if it didn't get above $1 Billion and I think it will be closer to $2 Billion once Box Office, Film Rentals & Movie Sales are added up.

This will have a longer tail that most blockbusters. People who love it will want to see it multiple times on the big screen.

John (Taloni) wrote: "We use subtitles for almost everything. It's especially helpful for stuff in foreign languages, like Dr. Who or other programs from the BBC. *ducks*"

There are American shows that require subtitles. Some people, from some of those southern states have very thick, unintelligible accents.

We are countries divided by a common language.

Iain wrote: "Most festive reads don’t feel right to me. Probably because they almost always feature the cold, snow and darkness. Give me the sun , fearing around the BBQ, oysters, prawns, salads and a pav.

Fo..."

I'm not betting against snow on Xmas day. I was driving to work in snow only 2 weeks ago and snow is forecast for this week.

Summer in Tasmania is a suggestion, not a promise 😉

If you don't like the weather here, wait a few minutes. 😉

Seth wrote: "But then the book really isn't imbued with any sense of history despite this time scale because apparently almost nothing has changed in all those years."

Technological, social, medical etc change over Egypt's 3,000 year rule wasn't swift. It did occur, but not at the pace we have seen in the last few centuries.

Stability isn't always a great motivator for change.

Tina wrote: "Hulu will stream “Kindred,” based on Octavia E. Butler’s
Book, starting Dec. 13
https://www.popsugar.com/entertainmen..."

It will be on Disney+ in most other markets outside the US.

Too bad we've already read NOS4R2 That would cover both Halloween and Xmas.

A Christmas Carol isn't "just about" Fantasy. It's solid Fantasy. Ghosts aren't real. 😉