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

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

Correct. The numbers do even out the further you go back.

The point I was making to Tamahome is that we are more likely to have a February Sword pick than another Dystopian book.

I do realise that Tamahome was joking 😉

Leesa wrote: "We've had 7 laser picks, 5 sword picks for 2020. Only 6 of the last 11 were laser."

I was including January's pick in the last 11 picks.

Sci-Fi (ish):
Mar- The Light Brigade
Apr- This is How You Lose the Time War
Jun- A Memory Called Empire
Aug- Elysium
Oct- Finder
Dec- Parable of the Sower
Jan- The Marrow Thieves

Fantasy:
May- Magician: Apprentice
Jul- Black Leopard, Red Wolf
Sep- Ten Thousand Doors of January
Nov- Howl’s Moving Castle

and I'm sure the numbers will even out. In 2019 we read 3 Swords in a row and 7 of the last 10 Books for the year were Sword.

We've rarely had long stretches of swapping between Sword and Laser every month.

Jan wrote: "Doesn't seem to be available as e-book or audiobook in Germany. I think I will pass but I will follow the discussion with great interest!"

If you have a Kindle you can switch your Amazon store and buy it from the US Amazon store. Switch back as soon as you download it

Go to "Your Account"
"Content and Devices"
Click on "Preferences" Menu
"Country/Region" setting
Change to "United States"
Buy book and download
Change back to your preferred country

It may work for other eBook sellers. I have been able to change country with iBooks and purchase ebooks from the US Apple store.

I'd think we're due a few Fantasy picks. 7 of the last 11 have been sci-fi

John wrote: "Yes. Good pick. Have read and did not give it many stars."

I'd say 4 stars is quite a few.

Not everyone is ready for a dystopian book, but I'm not against them being picked. I find them a distraction from the real life dystopia that's on the daily news cycle.

We can choose not to read them if we're not ready. It would be nice if a lighter alternate pick is chosen for those who want to read something else with the group.

I would hate it if our guests and regular hosts were compelled to not pick certain books.

The eBook wasn't available in the Australian Kindle store, but I got it by switching to the US Amazon store, buying it, then switching back.

I hope they never fix that loophole 😉

I waited the extra couple of hours 😉

Cherie Dimaline is our 2nd Native American author we have read. She prefers the term Métis

She is the 4th POC author we have read in the last 7 books. The 18th POC author overall.

She is the 6th female author we have read consecutively. 7 if you include the alternate book this month.

The January book pick chosen by Mallory O'Meara of the Reading Glasses Podcast is:

The Marrow Thieves by Cherie Dimaline

If you want an AR Grogu in your living room, office, yard etc


Using the Google App on your iOS or Android mobile device.
* Search for either: grogu, the child or baby yoda
*You will see 2 options in the search results “See the Child in your space” and “View in 3D.”
* Choose “See the Child in your space” and give Google access to your camera and Grogu will appear where you are pointing the camera.

It was a bit buggy when I tried it on my iPad and crashed a few times, but when it worked it looked great.

As to the Book 2 spoiler. Not any more spoilery, just clarifying a point you made.

(view spoiler)[PotT isn't any more sci-fi than PotS. The spaceships leaving happens in the last few pages, in an epilogue that goes forward many decades.

Book 2 is very much like Book 1. It is also set in the dystopian America of the near future.

Book 3 (the one never completed would have been the real sci-fi space adventure (hide spoiler)]

I still think Parable of the Talents is worth reading, if you liked PotS

Tamahome wrote: "I liked that episode S4 E3 "The Visitor" where Cisco is frozen in time and his son tries to rescue him."

Does Cisco's Kid have to save Pancho as well? 😉

John (Nevets) wrote: "I also wouldn't be surprised if Jon just wanted to work with ......"

(view spoiler)[Mark Hamill was only the voice. Another young actor (Max Lloyd-Jones) did the scenes with baby yoda and the fighting scenes. (hide spoiler)]

That was probably why they went in the direction they went.

(view spoiler)[If some rando Jedi stranger had taken Grogu away from Mando, the internet would have lost its shit.

Having a AAA Star Wars character take him lessens the impact.

I'm sure we are going to get the animated adventures of Jedi Master Luke Skywalker and Padawan Grogu (hide spoiler)]

John (Nevets) wrote: "Dave did you mean RotJ instead of ESB?"

Yeah, I had a senior moment there. 😕 I meant RotJ

Trike wrote: "If I could remember my Flickr password, I’d just post them there. :/"

imgur.com is a really good, easy to use (and free) image hosting site I use for all my forum pics.

photobucket used to be, but they have become a hot mess in the last few years.

Best part of the finale was the scene after the credits. If you turned off before the credits finished, go back and watch it now.

A nice call back to RotJ and a nice tease for a new show next year.
(view spoiler)["The Book of Boba Fett", coming in December 2021 (hide spoiler)]

I don't know how I feel about rest of the finale and the climax. Most was excellent. I'm still pondering the ending and how I feel about it.

(view spoiler)[Luke as the Jedi who takes Grogu for training wasn't a huge shock. There aren't that many Jedis still around at this time.

But it still surprised me that they went that way. Surely we can have a Star Wars series without a frickin' Skywalker 😉

Also, R2D2 didn't look right. It seemed bigger.

Mando with the DarkSabre got left hanging. I guess Season 3 will involve that. (hide spoiler)]

Tamahome wrote: ""Hot Wings" was the name of the club in True Blood. I guess Tom's wife made up the name "Bite Club" for her vampire podcast."

I assume it's a play on "Fight Club"

Congratulations. 😎

The force is strong in this one.

Jenny (Reading Envy) wrote: "I'm not sure I'd believe old me who called this an "uplifting" novel. I'm early on in my reread so I'll suspend my judgment against me from the beforetimes."

I don't think you were wrong. I've read both books in the Earthseed series this month and yes they are hard to read in places, brutally hard at times, but there were many uplifting parts throughout both books.

I'm sad that the proposed 3rd book "Parable of the Trickster" was never written, it would have been much different from the first 2 books

You can't really spoil a book that doesn't exist, but there are MAJOR Book 2 spoilers here as well
(view spoiler)[Book 2 ends with spaceships carrying Earthseed pioneers (some children and grandchildren of people from the books) blasting off to settle on distant planets in distant galaxies.

Book 3 "Parable of the Trickster" would have been about these settlers and their struggle to make a new society. (hide spoiler)]

Rick wrote: "Tassie Dave wrote: "You may not agree with Audible's over-generous return policy and people using it, but Jan is legally entitled to use it. ..."

First off, these comments aren't specifically directed to Jan - I already noted that."

I acknowledge that it wasn't directed at any single person, but it is guilt by association.

I would have worded it differently. Consumers aren't stealing if they are abiding by the sellers terms and conditions.

For me, Audible is the one doing the stealing from authors, by having an overly generous policy that can be abused.

There should be a returns policy for recently purchased books that has had a low read %. I think 20 to 25% is reasonable.

I also think it should be limited (2 to 3 books a year) and as you said, should be transparent to the authors and publishers as to the true figures bought and returned.

A compromise might be to have a more generous sample size. Say 20% of the book. Which should be more than enough to decide if you like it. Then if you purchase the book "Caveat Emptor" and no returns.