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

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

I'm not a fan of horror, but loved Mexican Gothic more than Gods of Jade and Shadow.

It's not Stephen King level horror. More Poe level.

It does have a few sections that some people may be uncomfortable with. (view spoiler)[Females being restrained and physically and sexually threatened. (hide spoiler)]

Best part was (view spoiler)[Cap getting a beat down and served a large portion of humble pie by the Wakandans. "They weren't even super soldiers" (hide spoiler)]

So this is not David Brent vs Lincoln Six Echo as the thread title made me think 😉

I enjoyed the total contrast between the Kafkaesque mind boringly repetitive life at the office and the tranquility and freedom of the Island. (view spoiler)[It makes the choice between the two lives glaringly obvious to everyone. If not to Linus initially (hide spoiler)]

Leesa wrote: "I love rats! I currently have four dumbo boys: Remy and Emil, and Dean and Sammy. I <3 them."

I love the names. Ratatouille and the Rat Pack 😎

I'm reading it and loving it. I finished the winner in a few days. It was a quick and enjoyable read.

I also liked Silvia Moreno-Garcia's Mexican Gothic and will most likely try out her other fantasy novels.

We rarely get to read about Latin American Indigenous gods.

I'd recommend A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking.

It does include a murder (or 2) and the hero (14 yo girl) is often in peril. But it is no darker or violent than Harry Potter. The violence isn't gratuitous or gory.

It is a coming of age story about a girl (Mona) who's magic power is baking. It features a sourdough starter as her familiar.

and you've got to love the little Gingerbread man that sits on her shoulder.

Now reading the March madness runner-up Gods of Jade and Shadow and enjoying it immensely.

I also enjoyed Silvia Moreno-Garcia previous book Mexican Gothic. Both books have great female protagonists facing challenging male antagonists in strange fantastical situations.

I agree. It is a fantastic audiobook. I paid for it and gave it 5 stars.

As a free podcast it's Even better value.

^ Re: Your spoilers. That's why I'm doing them in chronological order. It adds context to the main books and overarching storyline. Plus it also avoids major spoilers if read out of order.

I used this list to follow:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_G...

Colin wrote: "with the recent Abigail book, there are now 3 novellas. Check you haven't skipped anything!"

Rivers of London series:

8 Books
3 Novellas
13 Short Stories
8 Graphic Novels

I know because I'm currently doing a full (in chronological order) read through of the whole series. I started March 13th.

I have 3 Books, 1 Novella, 3 Short Stories and 1 Graphic Novel to go.

The Graphic Novels are great. They not only have a complete story, but they each also have a collection of mini stories at the end as light relief. These give an amusing insight into the major characters. Molly gets a lot of nice little moments in these, that make her "less creepy" and more relatable.

Ian (RebelGeek) wrote: "I have the 7"! It's pretty groovy!"

Richard wrote: "They are raising young kids (well, except the gnome)"

Talia is still a young kid. She's only 263 years old. She won't be an adult until she is 500.

I feel old for getting your Time Tunnel reference.

I'm more excited for Loki than I originally was after watching the trailer.

I thought that was Howard Stark for a second until I recognised Owen Wilson's distinctive broken nose. Apparently he's someone called Mobius M. Mobius.

It does feel British, but has some distinctly North American features. Like Bellhop for a doorman/porter.

I'd say Canada sounds reasonable as a mix of British and American.

Trike wrote: "I can just picture the excitement on your face when you heard Mssr. Verne had just published a new book!"

He has been a bit tardy since the last one. But that's the french for you. 😉

Leesa wrote: "Back in my day, the library was divided into two halves: Children's and Adults. At age *12*, I was allowed to check out any (ANY) book on the adult side, no questions asked, no judgments. As a voracious reader who had already read the books that interested me on the children's side 3-4 times minimum, this was epic."

My library was the same (Only children's and adult's). I was well into adulthood before YA was a thing.

I never asked permission. I just started picking from the adult section while I was still in Primary school. I was smart enough to know which ones I would be allowed to have. 😉 I was mainly after the SciFi (Verne, Wells, Asimov etc)

On to Book 5 of my "Rivers of London" marathon Foxglove Summer.

I should finish this by the end of the month. Great series.

Trike wrote: "Tradition. That’s the way it was done, so that’s the way we do it.

We have lots of things like that. Neckties, vinyl tops on cars, Diamond rings, etc."

All things, like Cap's mask, that should disappear 😉


Trike wrote: "Ruth wrote: "I’m struggling a bit with this show tbh. I think my problem is that the “bad guys” don’t seem very bad. Freedom fighters who want a unified world with no borders? Led by Enfys Nest? We..."

Trike makes great point. Everything depends on which side you are on. To the British in 1775, the American Revolutionary army were just terrorist guerrillas.

Having sympathetic antagonists and flawed protagonists makes for good story telling.

Bucky is a straight up murderous assassin. Of course, he was brain washed and manipulated, but he still carries the guilt.

All the new names went over my head. Thanks for the Marvel comic history of them.

Trike wrote: "Is it just me, or does Wyatt Russell (son of Kurt) as the new Captain America look like a little old man? Not everyone can pull off the mask thing, apparently."

Why does he even wear a mask? It's not to hide his identity.

Why not bring the character out of its 1940s roots for a new CA.

Trike wrote: "In Jaws Richard Dreyfus calls Brisbane, Australia, “brizz-BANE” instead of “brizzbin”."

The trick to pronouncing aussie words is to say it fast and as if no letters are stressed.

Brizzb'n.

Melbourne= Melb'n (never Mell-Born)
Australia= Oz-stray-ya (never Oars-Trail-Yah

and it's ALWAY Tazzie (not TaSS-Ee) 😉

I always find Mid-West american accents can pronounce words strange. I found it weird that a podcaster I used to listen to admitted that his favourite genre of film was Whore Movies.

Until I worked out from context that he was referring to "horror" movies and not some niche porn category 😉