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

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

Re: The Silmarillion.

Peter Jackson's wife Fran Walsh co-wrote the screenplays to all the LOTR movies. She also recorded the scream that was used for the Nazgûl (Ringwraiths)

Jackson jokes that he told Fran he had bought the rights to The Silmarillion. Her reaction was what they used for the sound of the Nazgûl.

It's getting a lot of good buzz .

Even better, Sword AND Laser :-)

It would be more accurate to say that Assassin's Apprentice (and its sequels) uses the same legends and tropes that the bible writers used to construct the Jesus mythos, than to call it a Christmas story.

Christmas, as we now know it, has really been constructed from pagan rituals, European tradition (far removed from the bible) and US advertising campaigns. The Jesus and christian myth is just a small piece of the Xmas story and one that is becoming increasingly redundant. Xmas, especially here is Australia, is almost purely a secular holiday.

Wouldn't that make it an Easter book?

;-)

Rob wrote: "This is what happens when I go to sleep while a vote ends :-D"

You snooze, you lose ;-)

I assumed it was the middle of the night for you.

Robert wrote: "I read this earlier this year. The Martian Chronicles is now like the Susan Lucci of Sword and Laser polling. "

Susan eventually won.

It's more like the 'Peter O'Toole' of voting (8 times 'Best Actor' Oscar nominee. Never won)

I guess Tom will just have use his dictatorial powers to just pick it

Mark wrote: "Here's the author's hexarchate faction cheat sheet, with links to more faction data at Tor.com"

Thanks they look like they could be handy for this book.

It looks like he has kept it, relatively, spoiler free

Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee won the poll to be January's book pick.

https://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/1...

This will be the 3rd book we've read from a transgender author.

The Kindle ebook of Ninefox Gambit is currently on sale in most regions. So get it quick before it goes up.

The other books in the series are also on sale.

We're reading Ninefox Gambit

That's the one I voted for :-)

I read the 4th one as 'eww, you have cats' ;-)

Some books smell nice. Old books when you live in a cold damp environment, not so much :-?

Jason wrote: "My wish is that color e-ink sees more development. "

Agreed. I'd love a Kindle that could handle graphics and colour as well as a printed book. I'd also like to see an e-ink kindle that has a decent sized screen.

An iPad is great, but they don't work well when read outside in sunlight.

Like a lot of you, I prefer reading Kindle boos (on my iPad) because I can adjust the size of the font.

I have hundreds of books that I, either, can't read because the font size is too small, or it is very straining.

Also books are MUCH cheaper electronically for me. eBooks that cost $10 can cost me up to $30 to buy as a dead-tree version, if I can even buy it here locally.

We've had a few people crowing about Lemming it, and some raven about how good it was.

What did everyone think of Ka: Dar Oakley in the Ruin of Ymr?

Yay - Exceptional book. Enjoyed it immensely (5 Kas)
Great- Loved it (4 Kas)
Ok- Enjoyed parts. Overall good book (3 Kas)
Meh- Didn't love it. Didn't hate it. (2 Kas)
ZZZ- Struggled to get through it. (1 Ka)
Nay- Lemmed it, or finished it and wished you had Lemmed it (0 Kas)

I'd rate it as Ok. I liked most of it. It was a bit slow in places and hard to get into

Mark wrote: "Ninefox Gambit is on sale for 99 cents

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01..."

Thanks. That's a nice deal. I bought it just in case it wins :-)

I'll read it either way.

If Bradbury doesn't win this time, (I don't think it will. I think we will read NInefox Gambit), then I think Tom will pick it, or another Bradbury book, as a dictator pick.

We have to have a Bradbury book chosen at some stage. Of the "Golden Age of Sci-Fi" authors, he is the most obvious one missing from Sword and Laser picks.

I, personally, would choose Something Wicked This Way Comes as Ray Bradbury's best book. Yes it's fantasy, not Sci-Fi ;-)

Dara wrote: "How many times has The Martian Chronicles been up for vote and never won? It’s like the sci-fi Theft of Swords as far as voting goes."

This is the 4th time The Martian Chronicles has been up for a vote.

It finished 2nd (of 4 books) to Leviathan Wakes for the July 2012 book pick

4th (of 15 books) to Altered Carbon for the March 2014 book pick.

and 4th (of 4 books) to The Left Hand of Darkness for the July 2017 book pick.

Rob wrote: "Personally I use the form 20190102 so that it sorts in date order. But then I'm a software engineer..so..yeah."

I use that form as well for all my computer files, docs, photos, etc for automatic sorting.

My excuse is that I'm a nerd ;-)

Just a suggestion Rob. But in future messages it might be best to use country/continent neutral date formats.

Like January 2, 2019 or 2 January, 2019

Written as 1/2/2019 it could be viewed as 1st of February to us foreigners ;-)

Iain wrote: "A perfect encapsulation of why Doctor who was cancelled in the eighties."

It should have been cancelled 3 Doctors earlier. At the end of Tom Baker's run :-?

Re: Comic Suggestions for Veronica

I think you'd enjoy Saga. It is very much Sword AND Laser.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saga_(c...

Saga is an epic space opera/fantasy comic book series that depicts a husband and wife, Alana and Marko, from long-warring extraterrestrial races, fleeing authorities from both sides of a galactic war as they struggle to care for their daughter, Hazel, who is born in the beginning of the series and who occasionally narrates the series as an unseen adult.

This series is a favourite among many here on the forum. It is my number one of all time. The artwork is exquisite.

Warning: Some graphic sex and nudity and disturbing content.

I'd also recommend Paper Girls,

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paper_G...

Paper Girls follows the story of four 12-year-old newspaper delivery girls (Erin, MacKenzie, KJ, and Tiffany) set in Stony Stream, a fictional suburb of Cleveland, Ohio. While out delivering papers on the morning after Halloween, the town is struck by an invasion from a mysterious force from the future. The girls become unwillingly caught up in the conflict between two warring factions of time-travelers.

It will be a good book to have an end of reading period rating thread.

I'd guess there will be a wide range of reactions from Lemmed to 5 Star.

I enjoyed it, but didn't love it. It had a better last third than start or middle third.