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

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

Our 3rd Aussie author. Joining:

Daniel O'Malley author of The Rook and
Claire G. Coleman author of Terra Nullius

After seeing it featured here quite often and in March Madness, I finally decided to try Dungeon Crawler Carl.

This is a fun book. 😎

Clyde wrote: "OK, time for an update."

I think you may be in the wrong thread 😉

None of mine are published before 2000. I think you got most of the main ones.

Rainbows End by Vernor Vinge
Twilight's Last Gleaming by John Michael Greer
The Peshawar Lancers by S.M. Stirling
The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell One of the 6 sections is in 2025.

That's all in the video I linked to. The frame line and then the plate as punchline.


The Planet of the Apes one is sarcasm for social media click bait.

It has become a trend on Facebook (and other social media) to post deliberate mistakes in posts to get comments and clicks. Facebook commenters love to correct mistakes and most miss the sarcasm or don't understand it. 😉

He missed the most famous tall building in all of fantasy fiction.

It would come in at No. 12 in this list.

The Tower of Babel at 2,484 metres high.

A movie that is very re-watchable.

"Because iocane comes from Australia, as everyone knows, and Australia is entirely peopled with criminals , and criminals are used to having people not trust them, as you are not trusted by me, so I can clearly not choose the wine in front of you."

Funny because it's true 😜

John (Nevets) wrote: "Is the Morons license plate a reference to Hudson Hawk? Or is that line used elsewhere that I'm not aware."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUg2c...

I enjoyed "Vengeance Most Fowl". Until it started I didn't realise it was a sequel to "The Wrong Trousers"

Hearing Philomena Cunk (AKA Diane Morgan) as Onya Doorstep was a hoot.

Some of the gags were repeats from previous W&G shows, but overall it was a solid addition to the franchise.

John (Taloni) wrote: "Yeah...I don't get the Star Wars / Burger one."

Chopper on a Whopper

We read 1Q84 at the same time we read Elantris.

This was pre-Geek & Sundry, when there was no 1 month time limit. Books were wrapped up when Veronica and Tom were finished.

We started both books on Nov. 17th 2011 & wrapped them up on Jan. 2 2012. 46 days total.

So we had an extra 2 weeks to read both.

I don't see the stats etc I do for S&L as work. It is a labour of love 😎

The Aussies here will get it. 😜

Filled in.

Note: I don't read the Monthly Newsletter.
Because I'm involved daily, both here and Discord, and listen to the Podcast when it is released, there is nothing new on it for me.

I still think it is a worthwhile service you provide.

I doubt ChatGTP could do that sort of in depth statistical analysis without having all the data supplied to it.

I was lucky in that I started collating the data when there were very few books to check and can now add each book's data as it is selected.

One day (maybe Book 200) I will really nerd out and throw up a few pretty graphs and charts and show how meta I can get with the data.

Not all of it is on the Wiki. 😉

Example of Data analysis that ChatGTP can't do without my spreadsheets.

Decades that Women Authors dominate over men in books we've read for S&L:
1810s: 1 to 0
2010s: 37 to 34 ( 1 Non-Binary)
2020s: 17 to 5 (1 Non-Binary)

1940s: Tie (1 to 1)

Phil wrote: "Just finished Arcane.
Grumpy old man here and let's start by saying it wasn't for me.
I don't know the story of League of Legends at all so I don't know if that affected my enjoyment . I found the ..."

I love Arcane. I'm about half way through S2.

Most of the characters are purposely neither Bad or Good. They are products of their environment and their upbringing.

Obviously you have characters that are "Good" (Vi, Caitlyn, Jayce) and Characters that are "Bad" (Jinx, Silco)

But even they show traits that are both Bad & Good.

There is a constant power struggle. The Haves v the Have Nots. The rich v the poor. Enhanced v the non-enhanced.

Many of our heroes are from the surface. Many are from below. The same with the villains.

At its heart it is also about family. Can't live with 'em, can't live without 'em.

Veronica and Tom,

You didn't realise that ChatGTP pinched all its statistics and information from our very own Wiki ? 😜

https://swordandlaser.fandom.com/wiki...

I made all those Stats (with some help from Mark) It is a little bit out as I haven't updated since "A Night in the Lonesome October"

I will update it very soon (like now) 😉

You ask about "Combined Host Choice" for book selection. In the early days a lot of the choices were often made on the fly, on the podcast via mutual agreement, after a discussion on what to choose.

I also use it as a catch-all, if whoever chose the book isn't made clear. As it wasn't always early on.

It was correct in that Anathem was started on day of release, but missed that we also started "A Dance with Dragons" on its day of release.

The 2 Asian authors stat is correct. It only includes official books and citizens of Asian countries. IQ84 was an alt and most of the Asian authors were citizens of non-Asian countries (US, Canada etc)

We have read 16 authors of Asian ancestry (7 Male, 8 Female and 1 Non-Binary).

1 Chinese, 1 Korean, 10 American, 3 Canadian & I British.

Scott wrote: "I feel like Vaginal Fantasy started before Geek and Sundry was founded."

Vaginal Fantasy started January, 2012.

Geek and Sundry was founded and pitched to Youtube in 2011.
Sword and Laser became part of it in March, 2012
and Geek and Sundry was officially launched April 2, 2012.

Sword and Laser had their first video on the network in April, 2012

Steve wrote: "Yes, it appears that, on kindle in the UK at least, it is only available in french!

Edit: Apparently it is published under a different name in the UK: What Sunny Saw in the Flames"

Neither version is available in ebook in Australia.

But, weirdly, it is available in Spanish. Oz hasn't got a huge Spanish speaking population. ( 0.7%)

I loved Binti and the 2 sequels.

This book doesn't seem to be available as an eBook or Audiobook outside of North America. But the 3rd book in the series is. Weird.

We have Supreme Sword and Supreme Laser, Who would be Supreme Carronade?

My pick would be former interviewee Brian McClellan. You need a powder Mage for those cannons. 😎